CtP1

By William Westwater
May 4, 1999

Note: This is the Developer's Corner, a part of the C:CTP section of Apolyton, where members of the C:CTP development team express their views on ctp-related topics.

As many players of Civilization: Call to Power have noted, a large number of low tech units can gang up and destroy a higher technology unit. Players have asked, how can guys with spears beat up guys in a tank? Is this a bug or are the designers crazy?

The short answer is: no, it is not a bug, and we hope we're not crazy (though after months spent hidden from sunlight we have questioned our sanity).

Here's the big reason we did what we did:

...

By Alexander Trofast

Now when I look back upon what I have done I can see my faults.
But it's too late now. I will write this book for those who care to read.

It all started around the year 1800. The people demanded a new governement and a gave them just that. I had been reading books about communistic ideas and I thought it sounded pretty good. The people became happy and production boosted to max. Since i had this much excess production i thought I would make a little army and conquer the island my capitol was located at. Since the Indians were far below me, I drove them away fairly fast. Now when industrialization was at max and every one of my cities were building facories and oil refineries. This was a large mistake. Since the Indians were defeated that easily I moved my armies to the next island and there the Portugese were living. They to were easily beaten. Now my empire strecthed long from my capital. But not even there my conquering stopped, I sent troops all over the world and when i got tank warfare I were unstoppable. In every city I captured I started building factories, oil refineries and robotic plants. ...

How did C:CTP go in the first days? What is the initial feedback from the stores?
Civilization: Call to Power is selling very well. It opened up at #3 on the U.S. PC Data sales chart in its first week. Word from our European offices is equally positive.

At least in the first days following CTP's release, it seems that there were be plenty of dissapointed people for all sorts of reasons. How do you explain it, and what is the response of the team on this negativism?
Civ2 is a favorite game to many players. CTP has a lot of radical changes to the Civ2 interface and gameplay style. Many players seemed to be uncomfortable with these new changes at first. Additionally, everyone had a different idea of what the game desig n should have been like, and what we delivered to them may not have been in line with what they were thinking. Finally, the game has some flaws, which upset many people.

...

CTP1 Programmers' Chat

On Saturday, October 3rd, 1998, we had a chat with three members of the ctp development team. Here is the transcript(in 4 pages!). Our thanks to Activision, and of course the participants: Mark Lamia, Producer, Steve Mariotti, Lead Programmer and Joe Rumsey, Networking and Game Engine Programmer.

CTP1 Designers' Chat

On Saturday, December 5th, 1998, we chatted with 5 members of the CTP development team. Here is the transcript(in 7 pages this time!). Our thanks to Activision, and of course the participants: William Westwater, James Farley, Jason Feffer, Brad Santos) and Winnie Lee. If this reminds you the paragraph below, you're right!

CTP1 Release Chat

On Tuesday, March 30th, 1999, nine members of the C:CTP development team and lots of Civers celebrated the release of C:CTP.

CTP1 2nd Designers Chat

On Thursday, April 8th, 1999, Joe Rumsey and John Heinecke chatted about CTP's design aspects, moderated by Kelvar and Akula.

...

Note on the nicknames: In orange are the nicks of the members of the CTP team present, Joe Rumsey (mrogre) and John Heinecke (LTJohn). In black are the operators, Daniel Quick (DanQ), Markos Giannopoulos (MarkG), and Derek Lande (akula), and the rest of the people who asked questions on the unmoderated part of the chat.

[kelvar] Hi everyone, we're ready to start. Before we started I will remind you that we're this chatroom has been brought about thanks to Apolyton
[lumpkin] is it moderated yet?
[lumpkin] who do we ask questions to?
[akula] hey all
[LTJohn] MrOgre and I are the Activision reps. You can ask us directly.
[kelvar] Seeing as we're a quite small group discussions will not be moderated but I would ask you all not to flood in with questions at the start
[Stevejuke] whats up
[Stevejuke] I bet you guys didn't like the review cnet gave you
[LTJohn] No, it wasn't what we were hoping for.
[Tuma] one simple question at the beginning... Is there hotseat gametype in the CTP? ...

By Joe Rumsey
About the author: CTP Programmer, a.k.a Mr Ogre on the forums

This is an alphabetical list of every function available in SLIC scripts for Civilization: Call to Power.

Functions marked with (1.1) were not present until version 1.1.
Functions marked with (1.2) were not present until version 1.2.
...

Elliott Chin of GameSpot recently published a preview of Call to Power, including an exclusive interview with Cecilia Barajas, CTP's Director. Here are some excerpts on the latest new information on the game.

The following excerpts are attributed to Elliot Chin and GameSpot, unless otherwise noted.

• Combat
• Diplomacy
• Interface Changes
• Managing Workers
• New Endgame Info
• Public Works and Improvements
• Trade
• Unconventional Units
• Wonders

...

Note on the nicknames: in orange are the nicks of the members of the CTP team: William Westwater (Pinkbelly), Richard Myers (Azmel), Jason Feffer (Necro), Joe Rumsey (mrogre), Karl Meissner (tweaker), Jeff Matsushita (Toki), Cecilia Barajas (CMB), Stephanie O'Malley (Marley) and John Heinecke (LTJohn). In black is the operator, Markos Giannopoulos (MarkG) and the rest of the people who asked questions on the unmoderated part of the chat.

*** MarkG sets mode: +m
[Necro] AfterGlow: You cannot "buy/bribe" a city to join you, however, you can spend gold to incite a revolution in a foriegn city.
[MarkG] The channel is now moderated
[Necro] It's very difficult and expensive, which avoids the Civ2 cheese
[tweaker] all the governments can do it
[MarkG] only operators(me) and people of the development team can talk
[MarkG] you can send me questions with private messages
[Necro] Jerms: Any government can complete the Alien Life Project, which is one of 3 ways to win the game.
[MarkG] lets start with the names
[tweaker] some gernments are better at build some at war ...