Spotlight

FIRST LOOK ON CTP2!

After Day 6, the final Day 7...

Editor Documentation
There is currently no readme for the map/editor. It seems that there wont be anything "in the box" as well. Activision is working on it though:

Dave White wrote on a mail replying to me about it
We're working on some extensive documentation for SLIC, the scenario editor and the save game files. Once they're all done we'll make them available on-line.

Two days since Day 5, so Day 6, posted on Day 7. Real life came knocking my door....
Just a small comment on deity and two lengthy replies to posts with lots of questions

The Impossible Medium Game
I've put aside my first game(although i want to end it to see well, how it ends ) and started a new one on impossible(deity) level so far I've survived...

That's what I was saying. The deity game turned out to be a prince(medium) one. Somehow I put the wrong setting... And I was wondering why I do so well
Anyway, on my second game on medium, the game seemed much easier. BUT the next game which was a really deity one, sees impossible after the first turns. More "research" is needed....

Day 5. Spent most of my time playing instead of keeping notes like yesterday.

Map/Scenario Editing
Ralf asked about creating maps and scenarios. I've tried the editor a bit today. Cut/copy/paste works nicely. The major difference is that maps and scenarios are distinct. Maps are saved in and loaded from another folder. Also, when you save a scenario, you also set the scenario folder and the scenario name. All the appropriate files are created under /scenarios(where the official scenarios are as well). This means that the scenario you just saved is ready to be tested right away(in ctp1 you had to find the file, create the folders and the text files, move the file, etc etc)

Ralf asks "The .txt tweak-files is much more userfriendly and powerfull then CTP/Civ-2/SMAC, they say. Is that true? In what ways?"
Well, my involvement in the modification of ctp1, was not exactly big. I mainly organized and added the pieces of the apolyton pack, so I didnt get into more imprortant stuff like unit attributes, slic, aip files, etc. Therefore I cant say much about it. Still, here is an interesting example of the personalities.txt which replaces the .fli files.

After day 1 and day 2, this is turning into "Ask MarkG with the 1000 answers", but what the hell....

Explanations, Replies

• Dida asks: "Are the AIs capable of launching a big scale invasion in your ctp2 game?"
  I didn't see something like that in the 10 hours I've played the game so far. Dont ask too much guys!
  "Do they do a good defense job?"
  It is not uncommon to find yourself against 8 or even more units when you attack a big city, if that tells you something.
  Btw, if you leave some units next to an enemy city to attack it on the next turn, dont be surprised if you hear the sound of catapult bombarding them...
  "Once you capture their important cities, do they concentrate their troops to try to take it back?"
  I haven't been in such a situation. Keep in mind that I'm currently playing at medium(prince) level
  
  
• John Amram asks: "How many units in an army?" Up to 12(from 9)
  
  
• Monkey posted: "What do the unit do when they retreat? Do they turn around and walk away with a sad musical tone in the background?" Nothing like that. The defending army just gets one more chance to hit and then the whole thing ends there. No turning around of your units to walk away or anything like that. I know, it would be cool if they run away or something...
  
  
• Monkey also asked: "do events trigger the mood in the music like in civ2?" It's been a long time since the last time i played civ2, and I dont remember that happening Anyway, the songs continue to play in the same(or random if you set it) order, no matter what happens. There are though sounds playing at some events: build of a new city, discovery of an advance, entrance into an enemy city, winning and loosing a battle and perhaps more.
  
  
• Atahualpa asks: "is there a way to append the Mill not to all cities but only to some (let say to those with size greater 6)?" Of course. You can select as many cities as you like, like you did in CTP1's city list. In the Empire Manager you can also sort the list of cities in various ways. See the screenshot on the right.
  
  
• Tiberius asks about the trade system: I haven't looked into it much. The economics of the whole game have changed(the gold you get now is much more than what you got in CTP1, but of course it's the same for everyone) so I cant make an easy comparison right now. What is certain is that it requires even less clicks that in CTP1.
  
  
• Big Crunch asked about the Citizen Loyalty attribute of each government: If I get it right, it affects the happiness of your citizens, not anything else(at least directly)
  
  
• Several people asked about the "view city feature": I don't know how this impression was created, but there is no city view ala civ2.
  
  
• Karol asks: "Can I name these rocks in the middle of my map as "Rocky Mountains" and then get the message "Barbarians appeared close to Rocky Mountains" ?" Nope, nothing like that.
  
  
• Atahualpa asks again "When in the game you select a Scenario, do the civs to choose from change according to those defined in the scenarios?" Yeap, see the screenshot from the Alexander scenario
  
  
• GP questions "What about the cow?" No cow in CTP2... :-D

• I got a 17" monitor. 1024x768 Works pretty much OK, but I think I'll end up using higher resolutions.
• As Lt John answered, the castle icons next a city shows you that a unit is fortified within the city. This means that you can see if enemy cities have units inside them.
• The recapturing-of-city FoW: only the first civ to do this get the FoW, and just for one time.
• Wonder movies: I've only seen 6 or 7, as I play the game. Two of them which where in CTP1(Hagia Sophia, East India Company) are identical. Also, the Pyramids one is identical with the first part of the intro movie.
• Also judging from the date of the exe file, my version is dated November 2.
• The declare war option: Yes, I know the importance, but for someone who doesn't know much about the game, it does sound ridiculous, doesn#t it?
• On the same subject, someone asked "With the declare war option, is there the possibility to demand a neighbor to stop a war with another civ?" Yes, you can offer/request the brake of any agreement, treaty, or pact. BUT it's disabled in the build I got. Whether or not it will be in the released game, I don't know. It CAN be enabled though by removing two lines from a text file(one for the offer and one for the request). I tried it and it SEEMS to work. As soon as we have some info on that from Activision we'll post it.
• AI files: there are lots of them. It seems that there are lists for building stuff, for the which advances to search, etc, depending of the character of the AI. Generally, lots of stuff to get into. My eye also caught a couple of help files
• Someone asked: "the Senate may once again actively block some of your decisions like declaring war. Can you let us know if you find anything to back this up?"
• I didn't find a single thing about this. It must be just part of the story....
• Another question: "Did the AI act any better/worse, or was it dong some idiotic things?" To early to tell. Not something idiotic so far.

OK, it's finally here! CTP2 is in our hands (well, ok, mine and Dan's hands) But first a disclaimer for the following and for the rest of what you will read in these in the next days:

The following is strictly the personal opinions of Markos Giannopoulos and Daniel Quick. We wont try to express the average fan of Civ2, CtP1, SMAC or Quake here. Just ourselves. There is no guarantee that what we think of the game will be anything like your own opinion if you choose to purchase this game. If you want to get an idea of our other previews, you can check the ctp1 preview.

And a final note: if the following doesn't look consistent, it's because it is simply impressions of a few hours, and not part of a normal preview (wait for "Part 2").