You need to get the 1.2 patch first, then the 1.21 hack, which are both found in the Patches part of the Download section.
Form here on, you have several options. The most popular ones are described in the posts below, though there may be recent mods available which could change your mind.

From Madcow23:
The basic is the Apolyton Pack. It contains a fixed version of Celestial Dawn's 4.2 mod (THE essential CTP mod - he called it "CTP as it is meant to be played" and believe me, that's a good description) together with a few other niceties such as Harlan's excellent graphics mod.

You'll need to read the README for the Apolyton pack to learn how to avoid the bugs that remain, but it's not too difficult. Also read the PowerSLICs readme in the same pack, as you'll need to tweak one text file to avoid strange messages.

But that's your basics. Play a few games with the Apolyton pack and you'll agree it's a hell of a TBS. (And don't even consider playing at anything below KING level).

If you decide you want more after that, there's plenty to choose from. WesW and Nordicus' Awesome AIPs pack is great if you find yourself wiping the floor with the opposition. It's worth it for the diplomacy improvements alone. And WesW is currently working on an ambitious series of mods, of which the Medieval Mod is currently available and the Modern Mod is arriving shortly. These look superb too and incorporate the Awesome AIP changes.

The world is your oyster! Have fun, and make sure to let us all know what you think.

From Don Blevens (Scorpion59):
All,
The order should be:
1) CTP
2) CTP 1.2 Patch
3) Civfan 1.21 Hack (found in the Patches part of the Download section along with the 1.2 Patch)
4) Apolyton Pack
which includes: CD's Mod & Graphics, TP's PowerSLIC 2, Harlan's Graphics Mod, Slax's Color00.txt and Zaz & Uppsala's Maps)
5) WesW's Medieval Mod
(which includes Awesome AIPs)

If you do not install the Medieval Mod, you need to install the AwesomeAIPs(Pack Version, not CD's or Original).

Hope this helps.
Don

Can you expand on that a little?

Do you want to use any pre-made map?
Specific pre-made maps? Or
Pre-made maps in a multi-player environment?

At this point, I don't have a way to use any pre-made map with a scenario without the maps being part of the scenario. I am looking into this though.

I am creating a map pack for Wes' Med Mod scenario right now. (Not sure Wes even knew that though.) It should be done by the time his next version is 'Officially released', provided he wants it included.

Multi-player support is another problem altogether. I plan on looking into this when I have more time.

Should ctp be installed in a specific path like: c:\program files\apolyton\.......... etc.?
or is it ok I install game in ex: d:zzz\xx\apolyton\..... ?

2. It is my understanding the tp's powerslics 2.0 provides various eyeicons. Well my game does provide these new "notice" windows (rankings, city growth etc), however, in the various messages the applicable text from a field doesn't show up, rather only the formal name of that data field. For example, the message will say something like "Sir, (city_name, or something like this) has increased in size to ............" So, you see it does not put in the city name such as New York etc. Same thing with ranking windows; all I get is the formal data field labels. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Here is the section from my new readme folder, which deals with this. It's taken from the ps readme.
Users need to make this change to a file, if they have not already done so:

Open the file ..\ctp_program\ctp\userprofile.txt and make sure that there is the following line in the file:

debugslic=yes

Oh and dont forget to install the "alternative targeting cursor mod" (made by, guess who)

And when my Napoleon mod is finished (I am still stucked on the AI files) get it as well!

quote: Originally posted by WesW on 05-01-2000 10:59 PM Sprites are the units in the game. You have to be more specific about exactly what you installed, and how.

Sorry - I'll try to be clearer - I've now got the 1.2 upgrade, the hack fix and the Apolyton Pack loaded. When I play normal CTP it seems to run OK, but when I try the Apolyton Pack I get to the first unit build and the game crashes with the message 'unable to find tpcga.tga'. However I've done a file search and that file is on the Apolyton directory under default\graphics\pictures. What do you think?

quote: Originally posted by WesW on 05-04-2000 11:50 AM Fidler, have you gone into the userprofile text, and changed debug slic to "yes"?

Yes - done that

CtP
Patch 1.2
Hack 1.21 (is this a zip file?)
Apolyton Pack v1
Medieval Mod 2.1?