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Call to Power 2 Preview: Day 6

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  • Call to Power 2 Preview: Day 6



    My diplomatic efforts finally show results

    Science related screens

    Select, cut and....

    Paste!

    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....


    Reply to Ralf
    One of my two great(in length ) replies

    - In CTP2 there seems to be a need for building pretty big and well-balanced 8-12+ unit armies to be able to achieve anything at all. I can see why increased 800-1000 turns can be helpful here.
    oh yes, it is quite often to be against 6-10 units when you attack a city. bombarding a city before attacking it is the only way to go(of course you can attack directly with 2-3 stacks if you like )

    - Does it cost just as many turns/resources to build any average single military-unit in CTP2, comparing with any average unit in Civ-2/SMAC?
    I would say it takes the same time spent on the game.

    - Can i tweak the AI to work towards the same 30-40% resource emphasize - not only through mayors, but also how the AI manage its own AI-controlled cities?
    Perhaps. there are texts file for the building lists and the tile improvements according to the mayor choice. Not sure if the AI uses them for itself as well, but i guess it does.

    - Is it easier to build these mega-cities? I couldn't help noticing many really big cities, despite the fact that many of its city-area tiles wasn't cultivated.
    Well, if you consider that my own cites were at about 16-17 and the ai had a few 26 size cities...

    - Any max numbers of cities per government type?
    Still exist. it is shown on the national manager, on the government selection tab.

    - Any government-related individuate city-grow limits?
    No.


    - Does happiness-problems get an increasingly bigger (and finally, almost unsolvable) problem with 30, 40, 50, 60+ empire-cities? Any practical limits? How big can an empire be without self-destruct?
    Didn't get over 35 in the first game. I'll try to go back to it later...

    - About "settler-mania" (this is a MAJOR issue for me). What I'm aiming at is the strategy of building settlers, settler and almost only settlers early on.
    Due to the fact that the city are can now be much bigger you will either accept that you will have small sized cities or you have to find lots of lots of space. and if you're not alone on the continent you will have to remember the existence of borders.

    - How many undeveloped cities (without any, or very few city-improvements) can I build early on, before I *must* build more city-improvements? Is there any improvement-related limits on unrealistic super-fast empire expansion?
    Well monarchy, republic and theocracy have a 20 cities limit(tyranny is at 10). you have to wait for fascism and communism for more(35).

    - About the increased amount of game-turns: Any opinion how that affects the overall pace of the game? To the better?
    At first i thought it would take much more time. the thing is though that larger armies, build queues and mayors can make the game much shorter than what a 800-turn civ2 game would be.

    Reply to Slingshot
    And the other reply

    - Will all the diplomatic options be reduced to just a couple of useful ones? (Like a 28-speed bike that you only use 4 gears on).
    Depends on how you play the game i guess.

    - Do the units keep shouting "Find the enemy!"? Does the settler always have to stretch so much, and does the monk unit have to wave its arms all the time?
    Voices can be turned off like in ctp1, the settler sprite is different. I don't remember if the monk does anything different.

    - Are the Wonders balanced?
    Can't say with only a couple of games.

    - So far, the best thing about the game are the music files released by Activision. (They're downright inspirational!) But are the rest of the tracks annoying?
    Still playing with them. none of them annoying for me.

    - Can I play Zimmer's "Roll Tide" .MP3, or something by Gustav Holst in lieu of other bad tracks?
    You can have Winamp playing on the background.

    - Does the music change with the age, or are we going to listen to tribal drums while building underwater cities?
    No different music for each age.

    - Is there a unique feeling with each age, or does a player's strategy never have to change?
    Well, when it comes to land, you always have ranged, defensive, offensive and flanking units. of course as new units come up (sea, air, special) and new governments are available you have to take some decisions.

    - Can a player be behind in wealth but use her science prowess to catch up?
    It depends .

    - If you don't get too many wonders, are you hooped?
    I don't know.

    - Are there other aspects of the game that keep a player from enjoying a few hours of immersion?
    Well, you won't find many "toys"(dancing diplomats, video advisers, throne rooms, city views...).

    - My experience with CTP1 multiplayer was awful. How do I know that CTP2 will be better?
    Didn't have the chance to play multiplayer.

    - Are all of the governments more balanced, or is everybody going to jump straight to Theocracy in the beginning of the game?
    Theocracy takes some time...

    - When another civ agrees to stop trespassing, is it going to keep breaking the agreement every second turn?
    In my last game i have trespassing agreements (which don't expire BTW) with 3 civs and they have kept them so far.

    - Are stealth units going to be sent in droves regardless of other civ's opinion of your own? (CTP1 was really a disappointment here).
    Surprisingly, I haven't seen many stealth units so far (even slavers).

    - Is everybody going to hate you, and will it be almost impossible to set up meaningful trade routes? Will there be as much technology trading as there was in Civ2? (I found CTP1 a disappointment here, too).
    How to increase regard of others towards you is going to be one HOT topic on the strategy forum. Things are complicated (in the good way) .

    - Basically, I want to know what it is that makes playing CTP2 more rewarding and immersive than listening to my favorite. MP3's and playing Solitare.
    IMHO it is very hard to ruin the civ recipe.

    That's all for today, and see you, tomorrow.



    Index, Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
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    • JDI_Falcon's Call to Power 2 Review
      by JDI_Falcon

      First things first:
      I have a Cyrix 300 (225mhz) with 64mb of ram and a Voodoo 3 2000. One of the major complaints after the original CTP release was how slow it ran even on extremely powerfull machines, well with CTP 2 there is no such problem. Even on my weak Cyrix computer the time between turns is short, the unit movement smooth and the sound is clear and unchoppy. This is also on a decent resolution of 1280 X 1024.

      Now the review:
      OK, now I absolutely hated CTP. I bought it and within days had sold it again on EBay for something like twenty-five dollars. And one of the reasons I hated it so much was because of its sloppy, hard to decipher interface. This has been 100% remedied in CTP 2. The interface is clean cut, everything is easy to find and I had no trouble figuring out what button went with what option, etc.

      As far as diplomacy and warfare improvements go, I don't see much. Part of the fun of Civ 2 was getting that attitude from the AI when in negotiations with them. In Civ 2 you really wanted to beat down the Mongols after a sneak attack or something. In CTP 2 you don't get the feeling that your opponent is a living breathing enemy (not that you should but it should seem like something more than just programmed responses).

      Warfare is the same as CTP, the stacked unit method and such, but the "Army Manager" and "Unit Manager" make keeping track of specific armies far easier than in CTP. I never played CTP in very great detail but the government systems in CTP 2 are excellent and a side by side comparison to each other at the "Empire Manager" really makes it easy to decide which one you want to run your empire. The wonder cut scenes are interesting and the music decent but they don't compare to! Civ 2.

      The AI is from what I can see at least a small amount improved. I played my first game at Beginner level in order to get the feel of the game, and I still found myself having mild trouble capturing some English and American cities, but after a few hours it was obvious that I was by far the most powerful civ in the game. But from what I can tell, the harder difficulty levels should prove to be near impossible.

      From this point, I didn't see much that showed a great improvement over CTP and I was disappointed. However, when I played later and later into the game, I started getting into it, my empire started to take shape and I actually started to have fun again. There was that "just one more turn" feeling again, but I wouldn't say it was a strong as Civ 2's. I found myself actually wanting to build up massive armies and take out the next English city rather then just quitting and putting CTP 2 back on the shelf for years to come. I cannot put my finger on it but CTP 2 has something that CTP did not that actually makes you want to play the game, and take it from me, I have been playing Civ 2 since 96 and have purchased ever single addon. This is a good game, its no Civ 3, but its still a lot of fun, and I would recommend it to any die hard Civer. However, try to get it at a lower price, like on EBay ! or something, cus its a tad expensive for something that still uses 65-70% of the original game art and programming.

      Rating for a new comer to Genre:
      Graphics: 9
      Gameplay: 8
      Interface: 9
      Multiplayer: 7
      Sound: 8
      Overall: 8.9

      Rating for a player of CTP 1 (Improvements Over CTP):
      Graphics: 8
      Gameplay: 9
      Interface: 10!
      Multiplayer: 5
      Sound: 7
      Overall: 8

      ...
      January 18, 2011, 18:50
    • Tilemacho's Call to Power 2 Review
      by Tilemacho

      OK here you can find my thoughts during my first CTP2 game. I have a celeron 400 with 192 RAM and Voodoo 3000 16 RAM. I bought 128 RAM during the game so I compared 64 to 192 RAM: 64: Load= 32 sec next turn= 25 sec at turn 407 (year 1732) 192: Load= 25 sec next turn= 22 sec ... The huge difference was after playing for 5 hours continuously. With 64 RAM loading a game took about 2 min and next turn 1 min15 sec, whereas after I upgraded there was no difference at all no matter how long I played. The game didn't crash at all although I didn't try any scenario or the cheat options.

      ...
      January 18, 2011, 18:29
    • Call to Power 2 Previews and Reviews
      by MarkG

      As we did with Civ2:MGE and CTP1, we are happy to present you with a preview of the latest civilization game, Call to Power II. Beyond that, we present you with reviews from actual players of the game, as well as links to the entry of CTP2 in the Apolyton Links&Products Directory(where more player reviews can be found) and to the previews and reviews of CTP2 in various gaming sites.

      Three Years Review

      After three year of Call to Power 2, Locutus reviews what was happening in the last three years about mod making and the source code release. Read.

      Player Reviews

      Christoph Nahr's Review

      Originally posted on the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic newsgroup. Quote: " Too many flaws for a classic but a good game still, and could be great if it's properly patched." Read.

      Tilemacho's Review

      Review after the first game. "Once again I felt that "one more turn feeling" which to say the trough had missed since Civ2!" Read.

      JDI_Falcon's Review

      Quote: "I cannot put my finger on it but CTP 2 has something that CTP did not that actually makes you want to play the game" Read.

      DarthVeda's Review

      CTP1 Hater turns into a CTP2 Lover. "I don't doubt that I may very well finally put my copy of Civ2 to rest" Read.

      Apolyton Preview, Part 2: CTP2 Previewed, The Real Thing

      Coming very soon, no release date though... Or won't ever.

      Apolyton Preview, Part 1: Daily Impressions

      Day One

      Mark's first day with ctp2: Installation, System Requirements, Difficulty Levels, Screen Resolutions, Moving Units, Right-click Menus, Great Library, Diplomacy Impressions, Great Autosave, 32 Civs, No Crash. Read.

      Day Two

      Second day for Mark: Explanations, Replies, No Crash, No Crash, No Crash, Manual in electronic format, Army Management, Units stats, Music, Radar Map buttons, Append to Multiple Build Queues, Retreat Button, Comparing Governments, Not yet 32 civs. Read.

      Day Three

      Explanations, Replies, Yes 32 Civs, New Way For Resource Gathering, AIPopCheat, Too Many Screens, Borders and Trespassing, 1280x1024 With "Clear" Map, ICS still there or not, CTRL+S CTRL+L Read.

      Day Four

      Text files, Trade Routes, Commerce Tile Improvements, Scientific Victory, Screens and LDL Files, Alexander's Way To Victory Read.

      Day Five

      Map/Scenario Editing, Why He Hates You, Mayors Do Tiles, Control Panel Totally Gone, Threats Work, Advices In Unit Manager, Flanking Units Read.

      Day Six

      The Impossible Medium Game, Reply to Ralf, Reply to Slingshot Read.

      Day Seven

      Editor Documentation, Editor Experiences, Map Sizes/World Map, Diplomacy: The Friendly Side, Diplomacy: The Ugly Side, Diplomacy: Treaties Read.

      ...
      January 18, 2011, 17:25
    • Call to Power 2 Preview: Day 7
      by MarkG


      Saving a map

      Saving a scenario. CTP2 takes care of all needed directories and files under the /scenarios folder

      Loading my just-made scenario!

      The Score formula

      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.

      ...
      January 17, 2011, 18:11
    • Call to Power 2 Preview: Day 6
      by MarkG


      My diplomatic efforts finally show results

      Science related screens

      Select, cut and....

      Paste!

      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....

      ...
      January 17, 2011, 17:42
    • Call to Power 2 Preview: Day 5
      by MarkG


      A battle with more modern units(from one side at least)

      Battle view when you attack from the sea. What is missing? My ship...

      Now I have some excuse for war....

      Threats work some other times...

      The Unit Manager screen also provides advice on where you need more units. On the bottom left my favorite choice for the radar map: no geographical or other info and just the borders

      Bye bye Germans

      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)

      ...
      January 17, 2011, 17:07
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