Important Installation Notes If you are a first-time player, make sure you read this entire file for all info. Simply unzip the text files into the Call To Power 2\Scenarios folder. Depending on how this is packaged onsite at Apolyton, The Court or my own site, you may be getting separate zip files for pictures and sprites. If so, do the following… After unzipping the .txt files, unzip pictures into the following directory Call To Power 2\Scenarios\Cradle of Civilization\scen0000\default\graphics\pictures and the sprites into the following directory Call To Power 2\Scenarios\Cradle of Civilization\scen0000\default\graphics\sprites Hereafter, any additions will be handled as separate zip files to cut down on downloading. I do not anticipate adding too much in the way of new units/advances/wonders/improvements. Most additional changes will be to the .txt files and will be tweaks to the various settings. You need to make the following change in the userprofile.txt file located in the following directory Activision\Call To Power 2\ctp2_program\ctp Look for the line DebugSlic=Yes and change it to DebugSlic=No This is needed for the militia SLIC file. Otherwise the gamefile will do some strange things. To load a previously saved game, you will need to first create a new Cradle game, then you can load your previously saved game. BTW, this is how CTP2 works with all Mods... The game will pause for a few seconds when a civ gets a unit from a goody hut - this is normal. Eventually the goody huts are cleaned out. The best games seem to be with the following settings, although you are free to do what you want. - Larger maps. - 8+ civs - especially with higher Barb settings. File Creation and Graphics The following people have provided valuable input to this Mod, and their work is appreciated. SLIC coding for the MilitiaUnits and for the WonderBuildings/CapitalRebuild was provided by Wouter, aka Locutus. SLIC coding for the WonderUnits was provided by Ben, aka Immortal Wombat. Diplomod/Withdraw SLIC coding, AirUnit Return coding, and the CaptureCity SLIC coding was provided by Dale. Thanks to those who have made graphics and sprites available onsite at Apolyton. I probably wouldn't have done this in the first place, if these files were not available. - Harlan Thompson - graphics - Jerome Lux - sprites - Tom Davies - sprites And thanks to everyone who have make suggestions to fix CTP2 gaming issues on the Apolyton Forums (especially WesW and Alpha Wolf). Your work is what makes the game a whole lot more enjoyable to play and mod. Basic Alterations for First Time Players 1. The Ancient Age has been stretched out to about to about the Mid-late Modern Age, turnwise. The focus of this Mod has always been on the Ancient/Medieval Age. Generally, I do not play the game too much after Mid-Modern anyhow (at least that was the case with CTP1). The timeline starts at 7000BC and runs through 2300AD though, and will allow for about 1400 turns. I have not made too much effort to get the years to line up with the flow of the game in terms of the tech tree. However, the tech tree does follow the course of history. 2. There are about 57 new Ancient/Medieval Techs - the bulk of which falls in the Ancient Age. I refer you to the pdf files for information, and for a poster-sized, printable Tech Tree. Acrobat Reader is needed to open the pdfs, and can be downloaded for free at www.adobe.com. 3. There 6 new Governments Dynasty City State Oligarchy Dictatorship Tribunal Empire Caliphate I refer you to the pdf files for information and a comparison analysis chart. 4. There are 17 new Wonders Stonehenge - (+10%) Food Code of Hammurabi - (-25%) Crime Temple of Solomon - (+1) Happiness for entire civ Valley of the Kings - Free Apothecary for every city Hanging Gardens - Free Aqueduct for every city Lighthouse of Alexandria - (+1) Movement for boats - Increases gold from foreign trade Olympics - (+1) HP each unit Temple of Zeus - (+2) Happiness for entire civ Spartan Philosophy - (-20%) Readiness cost for units Hadrian’s Wall - (-10%) Readiness cost for units - Protection from barbarians Coliseum – Free Arena for every city Resurrection - (+1) Happiness for entire civ Mecca - (+10%) Science for entire civ - 2 Scientists for host city Silk Road - (+10%) Production Shakespeare Theatre - (+1) Happiness for entire civ Newton’s Theories - (+10%) Science Manhattan Project - 5 Scientists in host city In addition, many of the old Wonders will obsolete when certain techs are researched. Refer to the Great Library for details. 5. There are approximately 30 new Units and the differences in strength as you advance is gradual. This is an attempt to make overall combat more difficult. You will need to gain a sizable tech lead to get a sizable advantage in combat strength factors. (at least this is the hope) Be aware that there are changes across the board on all units in terms of every element related to that unit. I refer you to the pdf files and the Great Library for information on every unit. 6. There is also a set of Wonder Units that are tied into the creation of certain Wonders. I tried to align them to a theme within the Wonder – hence the selection of certain leaders. They will grant veteran status to any units underneath them. They also operate as ranged units, so they will not be sitting on the front lines taking the early hits – and are generally stronger than their counterparts. There is a happiness penalty if the unit is disbanded or lost. The Wonder units are as follows Hammurabi - Code of Hammurabi Ramses - Valley of the Kings Nebuchadnezzer - Hanging Gardens Alexander the Great - Spartan Philosophy Caesar - Appian Way Muhammed - Mecca Charlemagne - Hagia Sophia Hernan Cortes - East India Company Ulysses Grant - Emancipation Proclamation Dwight Eisenhower - Manhattan Project Norman Schwarzkopf – Internet 7. There are 17 new City Improvements Here is the list of all city improvements through the Renaissance and what they are useful for. Happiness Shrine Theatre Arena Mosque Basilica Science Ziggurat Academy Monastery Publishing House University Gold Bazaar Marketplace Agora Bank City Clock Craft Guild Food Granary Aqueduct Silo Efficiency Apothecary Physician Bath House Production Forge Work Camp Conscripted Labor Mill Craft Guild Crime Courthouse Forum Castle Defensive/Offensive Wall City Wall Ballista Tower Castle Afterwards, improvements are the standard CTP2 ones. Please note that the Population/Efficiency growth improvements are different than that of the default game. Since there is a limit of 64 Buildings, I had to delete the following buildings. Matter Decompiler Micro Defense Nanite Factory Cornucopia Vat Aqua Filter They will show up in your build queues though - but the AI will not build them. 8. I have also implemented the following tweaks, which will make the game more challenging. One of my main purposes in creating this Mod was to address the shortcomings of the AI. I worked from the principle that if the AI was not capable of exploiting a feature in the game, then I would (attempt to) severely limit what the player could do in that same situation. This would make the game more difficult, because the tried-and-true strategies of the past may not work as well. a. Units with Bombard Capabilities have the Counterbombard ability b. Global Slider Adjustments - Base Wages are at 5 gold per worker instead of 4 - In addition, the gain/loss on the Production slider is at .05 instead of .15 per slider click It is my impression that the AI does not use the sliders too much – therefore, these adjustments will help level the playing field. This will make it harder to max out the sliders to catch up to the AI on harder levels. There is also a happiness penalty for maxxing out your sliders. Basically, you gain more unhappiness for working/underpaying/starving your workers than if you treat them well. The standard rate is (-3) for unhappiness and (+2) for happiness, although there are different settings for certain governments. Please look at the government.pdf file for the government breakdown and comparisons. c. Rush Buy Modifiers have been increased in the later governments. It will cost more to Rush Buy later in the game. d. Healing Rate for Units has been greatly slowed down - It has been totally eliminated if the unit remains out in the field, and is at 5% per turn in a city. e. AI Goody Hut Priority - Increased Barbarian attacks - reduction of free stuff from Goody Huts. f. AI Production Boost on the more difficult levels g. AI Power Bonus and Siege Priority Boost - this is supposed to make the AI more aggressive and more willing to attack cities - there are also many tweaks in the Strategies.txt file. h. Happiness issues have been modified with the following... - Base happiness is now at 75 instead of 73 - Revolutions are at 68 - Pollution has been modified to affect happiness earlier in the game i. City Population growth has been slowed - the first cap is at 12 instead of 18. - Aqueducts are now a food enhancement improvement (per Granary) - The City Efficiency Improvements are now the Apothecary, Physician, and Bath House j. There are now 2 types of Slavers. The Slaver works as a stealth unit, but it cannot be stacked with an army to capture slaves. There is also a Slavemaster, which does not have stealth capabilities, but can be stacked with an army to capture slaves. This is an effort to make slaving a little more difficult for the player, as the AI does not use slavers in stacked combat. Creating a military unit with slaving abilities will help the AI reduce the advantage that a human player has. In addition, the Chariot, Legion and Praetorian units will automatically enslave a defeated foe. k. Pezheterois, Legions, and Janissaries now have the ability to Beach Assault l. Aircraft Carriers only carry 2 Planes ...plus a few others that I can't recall at the moment. There are folders with files that will allow you to slow down the science rate via more expensive advances and increased base wages, and will allow you to play with cheaper units. These are contained within the Scenarios\cradle of civilization\scen0000\default\gamedata folder. Switch those files with the existing ones for a different gaming experience. The increased wage setting is a preferred one of mine, but it has not been tested thoughout the course of a game. A higher base wage setting will stretch out the playtime in the Ancient Age – which is what I had intended for this Mod anyhow. The main reason why I have packaged the Mod with the lower wage setting is that most players prefer having the chance to play the entire scope of history. I figured that the addition of more Ancient techs will extend the playtime of the Ancient Age too. The default Mod setup for wages is 5 gold per worker, and the increased setting is at 8 gold per worker. I have run these settings through all the governments, and they all generate positive gold, but this did not take into account the large size of cities toward the end of the game. I had originally envisioned this Mod to work with a base wage of 12 gold per worker. This setting of 12 made for a very challenging early game, but in playtesting, the AI could not manage its civ very well. I believe that the AI can handle a setting of 8 gold per worker. General Notes and Requests to Players The use of external modifications/SLIC coding, in conjunction with my Mod is at your own risk. (I have not had any conflict with the Frenzy Mod, but I have not tested it extensively either) There are several SLIC files which will enhance the game The Militia trigger will build a Militia unit in every newly-built city, and will maintain that Militia unit until that city reaches a population of 10 – then the Militia will disband. This trigger has gone through much development – but it serves the purpose of protecting small cities from Barbarian attacks. The AirUnit trigger will help the AI maintain its air force, as it had a tendency to crash its planes. The CaptureCity trigger will destroy ½ of the buildings in any city that falls to invaders, and will destroy ¾ of the buildings if the city is nuked. The Capital trigger will help the AI rebuild its Capital if it is captured. The Diplomod trigger enhances the diplomatic aspect of the game. (see Dale’s readme) The WonderBuildings trigger will remove any Wonder-created buildings from the build lists. The WonderUnits trigger will create a set of Wonder-related units. (see above) If you experience any game crashes, please note the message when it crashes, what you were building or doing, and so forth. I am no expert on tracking them down, but I will do my best to make some suggestions and try to find the problem. Also take note of the following trends in the game as they occur, and tell me how this plays out in your game, as this will help make this a better Mod if I do updates. Timeline - is it following the trends of history? Pollution - are tiles becoming polluted, and when? Happiness - I really want maintaining Happiness to be an issue for a player. Combat - If you find yourself building a unit to the exclusion of all comparable units, then adjustments need to be made. Finally… If you do build a Scenario off of this mod, I would ask that you notify me, as I would like to play it (and give me credit in your readme file please). And feel free to make any of your own personal alterations to this Mod. As a sidenote, I have enjoyed getting into the guts of the game and creating a game that I would enjoy, and hopefully, be challenged in playing. I was hoping to create some scenarios off of this Mod - however, it will be based on how players ultimately use this Mod. If there is little interest in this Mod, there will be no need for me to build anything. Scenarios, by their very nature, have limited replayability. As a creator of a scenario, I probably would not play what I have done, as I would know the setup and how to exploit it, so to spend a lot of my time creating something that will not be used would be a waste of time (though I have a lot of ideas for scenarios) It is unfortunate that CTP2 was met with a lot of resistance in the civ community. I do feel that the foundation is there to make a good game. I had absolutely no experience in tapping into gamefiles, but have found the files in CTP2 to be very easy to modify, and very stable. I have not had a gamefile crash for quite some time now in my playtesting. To those of you who want to be critical of the game, spend some time delving into the files and see what you can accomplish. I am available for advice on many of the files you can get into, and the files you can ignore. I have gained a bulk of my gaming experience by playing CTP PBEM - there is a saying that once somebody plays Multiplay/PBEM, any single-play game becomes a cakewalk. That is very true to a great extent - and I consider myself to be just an average player too. The quality of players has increased dramatically since Civ was first released - and I do feel that game companies are very hard-pressed to meet the expectations of these players. If you haven't seen it, there was an ongoing discussion in the CIV3 Forum regarding the difficulty of creating a competent AI. It is a fascinating read, and shows to me that the problems perceived in CTP2 are problems that are common to all games. Dave aka hexagonian email: hexagonia@yahoo.com Post suggestions on Apolyton in the CTP2 Mod section.