Which mods should I get? A newbie guide.

[WesW]

Trying to figure out which mods to get for your CtP game is confusing, especially for someone new to Apolyton. Therefore, I have pasted some posts here which, I think, do a good job of explaining which mods to get, and what order to install them in.

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

Note: I have combined the Med mod and the Apolyton Pack into a single download. Currently it is available only at my homepage, given in the link at the top of this post. In the futrue, it will also be available here at Apolyton.

[Nordicus]

Wes, good idea.
You could also add, maybe as a 4a), Skorp's map add-on mod

[ghen]

Aww man, leave me hanging again.. Well I'll bite, whats the map add-on?

edit: Uh huh.. well I don't read the CtP front page, so sue me.
[This message has been edited by ghen (edited March 09, 2000).]

[skorpion59]

Actually, the map pack add-on Nordicus is talking about was a map pack I created when the Apolyton Pack was first released. I am in the process of creating a new Map Pack add-on which will be much better and have more realistic maps in it.

Don

[MadWoodster]

Any ideas whether these will finally allow pre made maps to work with WesW's Medival Mod?

[skorpion59]

MW,

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.

Don

[This message has been edited by skorpion59 (edited March 10, 2000).]

[MadWoodster]

My apologies for the lack of clarity on my post, I'ld like to be able to use the 24 player world map, with WesW's medieval mod in single player mode. This has to now been impossible but I look forward to your map pack.

[Demolition]

Hi

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\..... ?


Thanks wesw for your help on installing the game I have played it serveral times now.

[WesW]

Demo, I would highly recommend that you place CtP in the default directory; program files/activision...
All of the mods here are designed to fit this directory structure, so if you move the game, you will have to manually adjust the mods when you unzip them.

[WesW]

Glen Gross wrote in with some common, and good newbie questions that I thought I would paste here, including my replies:

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

3. With regard to your Awesome Aips 1.0, I was reading the readme and I noticed that you indicate a building priority for the ai. I was wondering if this has been modified to include the "stockade?"

Yes. It should be in the building list at the bottom of the readme.

4. Also, I was reading in one of the threads that there was some thought that the AI was not building any of the new units. Is this true and if so, what can I do to fix it? Someone mentioned copying some files to the ai data, but i'm not sure which ones.

Yes, the new aidata files have to be put in the default directory, but this is done automatically in my mod. If you want to go back to playing games without my mod, you would need to put the original files back in.

5. Finally, more of a broad question or a statement of my understanding. Is it true that your Med mods only come into play when I choose your scenario and that the mods that come with the Apolyton Pack (CD and TPs powerslic etc) affect all games regardless of scenario or not? If so, then is there a diff unit and advance chart? I'm not sure this question makes sense. If not let me know. Like I said it is more of my generally understanding of these mods etc. I'm just beginning to get involved with these things.

All mods only come into play if you select them from the select scenario screen (unless they place themselves in the default directory). You need to read and understand the patch 2 readme, and then read and understand the mod readmes as well before installing a mod.

[Smeagol]

I am just installing CivCTP, and I am installing the game, the 1.2 patch, the 1.21 hack, and then the Medieval Mod at Wes's site (which includes Awesome Aips and the Apolyton Pack)... could someone tell me exactly which files I have to enter, save, or alter manually? I know this might be in one of the readme files, but there are so many of them and I don't know which ones I have to follow. Thanks in advance.

[WesW]

I have spent a lot of time working to make the readmes shorter, and have even made a "read 1st" file which outlines which readmes you "need", and which may be skipped.
This should be one of the more significant improvements in the Med mod 3, imo.

To answer the question- the only change you "have" to make on your own is to the userprofile text. This is described in my prior post. You might want to read the AAips readme as well, if you have an older computer (under 300).

[Atahualpa]

I would recommend, installing the
"Awesome Aips (Original" over the original game files.
Then I would recommend installing
"The Apolyton Pack" + "The medieval mod"

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!

Ata

[ajbera]

After taking a break from CtP to allow the Modmakers to work their magic, I'm ready to start playing again (as soon as I get a second hard drive, that is.) As was suggested in this post, I'm going to install:
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)

Is there any problem with loading Nordicus' new Trade Goods on top of all this?
And, although I know this has been answered ad infinitum, how do I change the program to allow for more than 8 players? (And while I'm asking, at what number of opponents would my PC start to act sluggishly? I have a Celeron 300A overclocked to 450 and 256 megs o' RAM.)
My thanks to everyone, from the modmakers themselves (I love you, I really, honestly do) to those taking the time to discuss things to anyone answering my question.

[ajbera]

Oops, one more question: how much space does CtP take up? Until I get a second drive I have to ration space carefully. How much drive space would a standard install take? A full install?
Thanks.

[WesW]

Right now, Nordicus' Trade Goods mod is *not* compatible with the Medieval mod. If you want to, you could go to my homepage, through the link here, and get the latest beta edition of the Medieval Pack, which contains a version of Nord's mod.
I also think Tom is working on making a Medieval mod-compatible version of his mod.

[TheBirdMan]

Just to bring this to the top again.

[Fidler]

I posted a message on the CTP Help page about Time and I got some good advice from Wes...
So I went to the Newbie Buide Topic and downloaded the sequence as advised ... trouble is, I dont think I got all of the Medievel Scenario since it crashes and I get error messages about missing sprite files (eg GG34.spr not found in asset tree).
Can you tell me what I've done wrong?

[WesW]

Fiddler, go back to the Medieval download site, and get the little "fix" noted there. This should solve your problem.

[Fidler]

Wes - thanks for your reply - I tried it but I'm still getting the error message. By the way I downloaded the Scenario from your home site (your Medmod v3) and not from here (which is Medmod 2.1) - could that be the answer?

Regards
[This message has been edited by Fidler (edited April 30, 2000).]

[WesW]

Fidler, that would be it. The graphics for version 3 of the mod are not posted at this time. You need to wait until they are, which should be in a day or two, or you need to install the version available here at Apolyton.

[Fidler]

Thanks Wes - Next problem!!!...I stripped out all the mods and reloaded the fixes and Apolyton...but Apolyton crashes when the first Civ Advance comes along and I get the same error message (about not finding sprites etc) - what am I doing wrong?

[WesW]

Sprites are the units in the game.
You have to be more specific about exactly what you installed, and how.

[Fidler]

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?

[WesW]

Fidler, have you gone into the userprofile text, and changed debug slic to "yes"?

[Fidler]

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

[WesW]

Fidler, the particular file you mentioned is part of the PowerSLICs, so that is why I asked. I don't know off hand what the problem would be. Anyone else care to comment?

[Paul]

The only thing I can think of right now is that the 1.21 hack is not properly installed. In the Acticision 1.2 patch graphics would not be loaded from the scenario folders. This was one of the things fixed by the hack, so if a picture does not load I suppose that the hack is not working. So either it was not installed or maybe it was a game you started before you installed the hack?

[Steve Clark]

Good grief!!!

[Locutus]

*BUMP*
Let's keep this visible