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[ChairmanPoo]

I'm getting quite hooked to this game. It's of the city building series, like Caesar 1/2/3. In fact it uses the same engine as Caesar 3, but improved in several ways.

Anyway, the system is complicated enough to give you a rewarding feeling when you get your city running. Farming is not just about building farms. You can build either farms in the Nile-brought soil (which produce a lot of food/harvest, but come only once a year, and need a muster field for workers), or build farms in the prairies, which keep their own workforce, but have significantly lower yield, which can be improved with irrigation. Industry is not less complicated, relying on a primary industry to obtain raw materials, and secondary crafters which turn out the consumable goods. You wont always have all the raw materials, though. So you might have to import them. Or import the finished good outright, but that's far, far more expensive.

[Neyvn]

Heh, your pretty 'young' to be new to Pharaoh, did you stumble across it in a Games shop mate???
Its a year or two old but that don't make it bad, been trying to get my friends to play it (and Dwarf Fortress) for a long time, so its good to hear that New folk are picking it up. Hope you got the Double Pack which contains Cleopatra, the Expansion. I bought it when it was new and missed the Expansion when it came out, you can't really get it by itself now days...

How big was your largest City on one of those Custom maps. I had something close to 15k of folk (can't remember the exact number) but only like 60% were working. Sigh...
The memories, damn it might have to go re install it now, thanks...

[ChairmanPoo]

I'm not new to it. I got it a while ago with a magazine (only Pharaoh, not Cleopatra), and played it, but not very much. For some reason I didn't like city building games back then. I think it was because of the tendency good dwellings had to devolve because of market walker's poor AI. (However, that's a challenge in its own: plan your city so that this risk is minimized). Which is the same reason I stopped playing Caesar 2 even longer ago.

However, I have rediscovered it about a month ago (I was digging out older games to install in my EEE computer), and have realized it's sheer awesomeness. Haven't gotten into custom maps yet (well, one, but I didnt play that one through), too busy with the campaign. I just built the Dsojer's scalonated pyramid. The monument part does, along with the more complex industry and trade, add a whole new layer to the game. The ammount of nursing they require to work well gives a sense of accomplishment that the abstract requirements of "X population and Y economy" never got to match in the other games in the series.

I had something close to 15k of folk (can't remember the exact number) but only like 60% were working.

yeah, that happens quite a bit. I try to offset it by building new houses only when unemployment is less than 4%, and by adding spare walker generating buildings (particularily marketplaces, which seem the most failprone of all walkers, and firemen, because of the sheer damage uncontrolled fires deal)

[Sowelu]

The walkers are still failprone?  Aw, man, I really liked the concept, but them failing so hard really annoyed me.  Why can't they be like SimCity, and make walkers purely aesthetic, while the actual zone of effect flows out smoothly along roads or whatever?

[ChairmanPoo]

well, the walkers are still failprone, but they added a "road control" thing that lets your keep walkers to certain areas. This, along with strategic placement of spare ones (which is not a bad idea as usually youŽll have more population than labor demand), hellps to alleviate the problem.

But, yeah, they still move pretty much as randomly as in Caesar 2 otherwise (back when I played Caesar 2 I didnt even know the walkers were the problem).

If you ask me,  the solution would be to be able to add patrol points (like in DF. Or Red Alert 2, for that matter) to walker-spawning buildings, and have them keep to those.

[DJ]

Too much control over walkers would make the game too easy.

[Muz]

I loved that game. The only problem I have with it is that it got too repetitive, and sort of too easy. But even though it was repetitive, it was fun seeing them build huge monuments for the tenth time.

There's a China-themed version of Pharaoh, it's basically the same engine, with a few improvements, but set in ancient China. It's cool.. a bit tougher, but somewhat more rewarding for those who love planning cities.

And IMHO, I love the walkers. That's one of the things that made me like the game more than some other city builders. The game's actually easy enough with the current control anyway.

[Aqizzar]

Uh, halp?  Specifically, I just got the game, got it running, but when I go to Start a New Game, it asks me to type a name in (or choose one), but no matter what I put, it says "No Dynasty Selected" and won't let me continue.  I can't find a help file anywhere in the package, so how do i egypt?

Also, I don't what this "year or two old" business is.  I remember reading the PC Gamer review of it in 1999.

[ChairmanPoo]

Uh, halp?  Specifically, I just got the game, got it running, but when I go to Start a New Game, it asks me to type a name in (or choose one), but no matter what I put, it says "No Dynasty Selected" and won't let me continue.  I can't find a help file anywhere in the package, so how do i egypt?

Also, I don't what this "year or two old" business is.  I remember reading the PC Gamer review of it in 1999.

Yeah, it's from '99 (I got it about 4 years later, though). I am digging out old games to play in my EEE netbook :p

As for starting the game, lets see: you run pharaoh, and in the start menu you should have an option saying "play pharaoh". When you click on it you should get to this screen. Click on the button which the red arrow is pointing out




Then you get to a screen that tells you to type a name. Write whatever you want and go ahead.

[Jackrabbit]

I loved that game. The only problem I have with it is that it got too repetitive, and sort of too easy. But even though it was repetitive, it was fun seeing them build huge monuments for the tenth time.

There's a China-themed version of Pharaoh, it's basically the same engine, with a few improvements, but set in ancient China. It's cool.. a bit tougher, but somewhat more rewarding for those who love planning cities.

And IMHO, I love the walkers. That's one of the things that made me like the game more than some other city builders. The game's actually easy enough with the current control anyway.

Good lord but I sank a lot of hours into the Chinese version. I'm going to go dig it out.

[Aqizzar]

As for starting the game, lets see: you run pharaoh, and in the start menu you should have an option saying "play pharaoh". When you click on it you should get to this screen. Click on the button which the red arrow is pointing out

(pic)

Then you get to a screen that tells you to type a name. Write whatever you want and go ahead.

I've got a serious problem then, because that's not happening.  I click on Play Pharaoh/Cleopatra and it goes straight to the name screen.  I can't find the family registry at all.  Maybe I need a patch or something?

[Jackrabbit]

If you do, then somehow they managed to release an unplayable game. I hate it when that happens.

[Aqizzar]

Well, while I'm figuring it out, what's the Chinese version called?  Because that sounds like awesomesauce.

[DJ]

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

If Greece is more your thing, there's also Zeus: Master of Olympus.

[Jackrabbit]

Uh... dynasty something. It was cool, it came out after Pharaoh and had so much to do and... hang on, found it whilst typing. It's called Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.

Oh you ninja you.