CTP REVIEW IN MACADDICT (2 April 2000, 9:43 EST/CtPMac) The May 2000 issue of MacAddict contains a review of CtP for Mac. They give it a "YEAH, WHATEVER" rating. The review has the same tone as the MacHome review. GOOD NEWS: Civilization was one of the all-time best games ever, and this is still Civilization. BAD NEWS: Vastly inferior new user interface. Some absurd units weaken the game. Subscribers have the issue now, the mag should be on the newsstands soon and the review posted on the website within the next week or so. -macuser
MACADDICT SMAC FOR MAC REVIEW (2 April 2000, 9:23 EST/SMAC) The May 2000 issue of MacAddict contains not only a review of SMAC for Mac, but also a demo on the monthly MacAddict CD! They give it a "FREAKIN' AWESOME" rating! The review has the same tone as the MacHome review. Subscribers have the issue and the all important CD now, the mag should be on the newsstands soon and the review posted on the website within the next week or so. -macuser
CIVCENTER MOVES TO Q9 (5 April 2000, 17:07 EST) This morning we received word from Martin Sellgren about CivCenter's move to Quantum9.
According to the note posted on CC's website about the move, they have "gotten ridden of it's chains... We here at CivCenter are very excited about this and hopes that this will give us the chance to become one of the top leading Civilization III web sites on the Web". -DanQ
Apolyton &Friends News
1-8/Apr 2000
MARIOTTI INTERVIEW DETAILS
OPEN API FOR AI DLL!?! (1 April 2000, 1:58 EST/CtP) The following is not an April Fool's joke! Besides, Dan posted the Mariotti interview 48 minutes before midnight :) Anyway, if you haven't read it yet, go ahead and do it now! Those with programming skills should be interested in the following
Q: We were hearing before the release of CTP that you would be able to get into the AI dll's. How did this not work out in the end? A: In fact we DID release the API for the AI DLL and provided some sample code for a very simple AI. Interested parties should contact me for more details.
Sounds cool enough? Steve later clarified that there was never a "big" announcement of this until now, but sample code and API documentation was provided to at least one interested developer. Stay on hold, we are working with Steve to release something right here on Apolyton. It would be good to see though if there is actual interest in this, so post on this thread! -MarkG
MARIOTTI SPEAKS ON CTP2 (1 April 2000, 2:09 EST/CtP2) In one of the first interview of a CTP developer after the CTP2 anouncement, Steve Mariotti talked to us about CTP1 and CTP2. As it was the... one year anniversary of CTP1's release, we spoke more about it, but there was some interesting parts on CTP2
On SLIC: SLIC has been significantly reworked to make it more powerful and easier to work with (can you say 'interactive GUI based debugger?') In fact, SLIC has been more closely integrated with actual game events, so that just about everything can be augmented in the scripts.
On our CTP2 forums: We've taken the fan feedback VERY seriously. The Apolyton group have been great at giving us very cool suggestions for CTP II.
On AAIP files(and obviously other mods): They'll be similar, but different. The concepts and techniques applied to tweaking the AIP's for CTP1 will still be valid for CTP II, but the syntax and value ranges will be different
Finally, again a hint in mods: We've also gone further in the extensibility arena, opening up even more of the engine to others. We're not offering a DLL API for the AI this time, but we're offering a lot more flexibility with just about every aspect of the game engine
Civilization Fanatics Center 04/09/2000 A New Forum!! - Strategy-Gaming Online has created a forum for the Civilization series. This will be our new forum. I encourage you to participate often... post new topics, replies, and answer other civ fanatics questions. Registration is very simple; you just pick a user name and password. You will be able to participate in any Strategy Alliance forum with your account!
Minor Updates - I corrected some spelling mistakes and slightly improved the site's appearance. Also, several more players have joined the Civ2 Multiplayer List.
04/05/2000 Grand Opening: Best Strategy Games Store - Here you will find my personal recommendations for the best strategy games. Check it out!
04/04/2000 A New Map: Europe-Atlantic - This map was created and submitted by Tony Fr. "I created this map from a Harlan Thompson's World War Two scenario. Out of frustration over the fact that all of the other Europe maps have practically no Atlantic Ocean to create a good Allied World War Two scenario, or that they include too much of Central Asia, I decided to extrapolate the World War Two map from Harlan Thompson's World War Two Europe scenario, cut off Russia at the Urals, and expand the Atlantic Ocean. This greatly extends the distance between Britain and North America, and makes any Allied-oriented World War Two scenario (which I'm working on and will release soon) more realistic. I did change the map around in other ways too, by tweaking the design of North America, including a more realistic look, and also filling in a little bit on Spain (which was anemic-looking on the previous map). I hope you enjoy."
03/31/2000 46 Maps Added to Civ2 Downloads Collection - These are some of the maps I have gathered over the years. Many of them were created a while ago. But that doesn't mean they are bad maps, of course.
