You really are dedicated, staying up until past 3am just to give us these previews... whereas I only have to stay up 'til 1am to read them.

Mark, does adding additional civs seem to impact the new diplomacy aspects? If each AI civ has to maintain info on every other civ, does this go kaput when civs are added beyond the limit?

So are you now practially an Activision employee? I see that their CTP2 website gives you a lot of ink.

- Certainly you must find yourself formatting the same diplomatic options. I could see myself playing the stoic researcher who wants to be left alone. How many options would such a player have? Have you noticed actions from the AI's that are consistent with their long character descriptions (e.g. thoughtful warmonger blah blah blah?)

- Is it true that Activision lets its employees wear jeans on Fridays?

- Nice to hear that they've changed the actions of the settler unit. But what about movement? Some people said that CTP1 gave them a sore mouse-hand. The best part about CivII was the ability to use the keyboard without remapping everything. Is CTP2 build primarily for the mouse or the keyboard?

- Certainly you must have your favourite wonders picked out already. In Civ II I always went for the pyramids. There must also be some wonders that seem useless by now.

- So have you met the Actigrammer who put together the music yet? It would be great to know if such a creative soul also has a website full of other music tracks.

- How many music tracks do you have in total?

- Sounds like the gov't thing is a little different than CTP1. That's good!

- What is your favourite strategy so far? Does this have anything to do with the fact you haven't seen to many stealth units? Exactly what did you mean when you posted the graphic with a caption saying "finally, diplomatic efforts pay off!"?

quote: Originally posted by Slingshot on 11-13-2000 09:08 PM - Is it true that Activision lets its employees wear jeans on Fridays?

"Lets"? Hmm.... I'm not sure I've ever been to Activision NOT wearing jeans, and that includes the interview.

quote: - Say 'Hi' to Mr. Ogre for me next time you walk past his office. Tell him to say 'Hi' to his cat, the Goblin.

It's "cats", plural. He has two.

quote: Originally posted by Tiberius on 11-14-2000 07:50 AM ask you what should be the next project (the screen in the upper-right corner of the screenshot) is there any possibility to consult the Great Library?

if you click the goal button the GL opens up and you can find nationalism in there to see more info about it
there is not a direct link to the nationalism entry on the gl though

quote: I saw that there is a button, called "Change research". Does it mean that you can change the research objective even between discoveries (We have dicovered 50% of nationalism, but from now I want to focus on chemistry)? Is that right? Do you receive penalties for doing so?

I guess it makes sense, since cats don't really answer a person by their names anyways.

We could have two cats, named Herbert and Al. Shake the food dish and they both come. What's their real name? Probably "rattle rattle cat food."

So really, the name is irrelevant and Mr. Ogre's genious shines through. The name Goblin is easy and just as effective a title as Herbert or Al.

If I were to put both Goblins in a cardboard box and shake the cat food dish, the cat-pair is simultaneously a single, hungry mammal and two individual cats with a preference for eating. Until such a time as the cats are allowed out of the box - they are locked in the duality of states. Brilliant!

Now the allegory is obvious. MarkG is the cat dish. He's rattling away a savoury tune of Tender-Civ-Vittles to the pile of Apolytoners in a virtual box. Until such a time as CTP2 is released, Activision Marketers have locked the populace as a Civ-hungry mob that simultaneously exists as Civ-hungry individuals.

We are, as Mr. Ogre so heartily knew beforehand, an uneasy alliance of free-thinking states that must collobarate as a unified whole. We can no more readily think as individuals than as a group. We adopt the title of Goblin - an entity that freaks out when strings are shaken, shiny objects roll about, heat registers become warm and fish swim in fish bowls.

Civ2's maximum custome huge map was 80X125 for a total of 10,000 squares. 70X140 gives you 9,800 squares, so they are pretty close. Personally, I modified CTP to 90X180 for a total of 16,200 squares. This works very well for me, but it required a few other changes as well to get the map to look fine when randomly generated. I don't remember all the changes I made just now, but they weren't too hard and they were mostly all done in the map.txt file. I don't know if they are still using that file, but they will probably have a file that is analogous to it.

Regards,

quote: Originally posted by Slingshot on 11-14-2000 12:27 PM So Pyaray, you're telling me that Mr. Ogre has two cats that are named Goblin?

OK, you got me on that one. No, only one of his cats is named Goblin.

*sigh*

The map sizes are the same as CTP1's (actually the tiny one is slightly bigger. The rest are unchanged.)

During big experiments my technologists listen to epic works of music. I think it makes them feel more motivated. I love Mozart, but Bach is even better. The Winamp is set to shuffle in our lab, so classical gets mixed in with some Metallica, Latin-instrumental stuff, and a dash of the Cult.

Certainly the CTP2 soundtrack will be booming throughout the facility in the near future - if I have my way.

But what do you all listen to while working? Is your office a big, communal labyrinth or do you have separate offices?

Do Mr. Ogre's hobbit-like toes ever kick St. Swithin's computer terminal? If they're as caloused as hobit feet, I imagine it would cause quite a bit of damage!

If Mark G were to work for you guys, what kind of office would he get. Would he feed the cats, or do the cats stay home?

MrOgre may NOT come near my computer with exposed Hobbit toes.

Tool is my favorite band. When I'm not listening to Tool, I listen to the CTP2 soundtrack on an endless loop. It's just that good!!!

quote: Originally posted by Mr Ogre on 11-15-2000 07:51 PM To be specific, I have a Nerf Wildfire, most everyone else has a crappy one ;-). The Nerf Wildfire is the state of the art in rapid fire Nerf technology, don't leave your cube without one!

HEY! Dan and I both have Wildfire's too. Mine just hasn't wandered it's way to work yet. But Dan is armed, and I can grab his in a pinch.

(So much for being on topic.)