Three months is a long time to scratch the civ itch - apply for a copy of CtP2 & AoM

[hexagonian]

Originally posted by Dis
so let me get this straight? Is this a mod for CTP2?

Yes

Originally posted by Dis
Is it pretty good?

More ...
Yes, but that may be subjective...Read what has been posted from other players.

Originally posted by Dis
I'm tempted to reinstall this game and give it one last try...

What do you have to lose??? You have the game already, and if you have hi-speed, all you lose is some computer time.

[Ninot]

It can be kinda confusing that a mostly CTP2 thread is in a Civ IV forum.

Oh, btw Hex, i installed it all on my laptop last night but didnt get a chance to play. My laptop might have problems with it, as it didnt look entirely right on the screen. But I think I fixed it, so I'll try again soon as I can.

[LDiCesare]

I don't think it's that confusing to have this thread here, for 2 reasons:

1) This game is very likely to appease Civ players until Civ IV comes out. It's just so good and entertaining.
2) It shows what wonders one can build given extendive modding capabilities (SLIC and txt files). Since Civ IV will offer Python/xml scripting, it means we may hope Civ IV community may, eventually, spawn a mod of this quality too.
The new concepts (using settlers on resources to get advances) inside are also worth showing, as this game is probably more original than Civ IV will be, and some people may want Civ IV to be something more than Civ2 or 3 rehashed.

[Dis]

one more question, is there documentation for all this modding? Is there an in game help (I can't remember if they have a civpedia similar to civ3) that explains all the changes?

[angrybowen]

AOM/ctp2 has a Great Library, similar to the civilopaedia.

Stankarp went to a lot of trouble to put the AOM changes into the GL. The new concepts are denoted with a * in the GL. Units than can be promoted or upgrade have a #* after their name, goods that can give an advance have a * after their name and so on.

It is the only major mod with the GL basically completly updated.

Locutus called it an unofficial expansion pack for CTP2

by stankarp.

The claim is AOM is as different to CTP2 as civ3 is to civ 2. I disagree, it is MORE different. I cannot apply many, actually most, of the tactics and strategy I used in CTP2.

[hexagonian]

A pdf readme is available at

The Ages of Man

This spells out what the Mod does, and the gameplay elements involved.

The readme and strategy guide are also part of the download package

[Daddy-O]

Hex,
I got the CDs in the mail Thursday night. Listened to the bonus files on the way to and from work. I will have to use it for much of my civ gaming.

Now for the challenge that I agreed to. Am I to play 500 turns of CTP2 and AOM to compare or just AOM? I didn't forget to get my boys involved in the testing.

The instructions that came with the CD are very clearly written. The inserts and tech tree are of professional quality. I am sure this expansion is of the same quality.

I'll keep you posted on our progress.

THANKS!

[hexagonian]

skrobism,

Glad you liked the extras. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing...

(Sorry ninot, I thought of it a day after I sent out your package)

I'd suggest that you play AOM to start, and not even bother with CTP2. Treat it as you would any new game that you just bought...You can keep in mind the gameplay elements from civ3 as you play.

The CD does not have the current update though - feel free to download it from The Ages of Man

Enjoy!

[Daddy-O]

Will do.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
Since Civ IV will offer Python/xml scripting, it means we may hope Civ IV community may, eventually, spawn a mod of this quality too.

Hopefully that won't be necessary to make Civ4 into a worthwhile game

[Proteus_MST]

Dunno if it is possible or wanted, but if you develop AoM further, I have a suggestion for another feature:

Units on Hills and/or mountains having a greater visibility range.
After all it is realistic to assume, that a unit on a mountain can at least see lower terrain at a greater distance than units on the flat ground (Civ 3 had this too, units on mountains can see 3 hexes [on hills 2 hexes] and mountains/hills can also be seen from units on the flat ground at the same distance)

[Dis]

oh I didn't realize the deadline was Aug8. I sent a PM. oh well.

But seeing as I already installed ctp2, I'm giving it another whirl. And I'm still not liking it . The interface is just horrid.

I'm going to post a screenshot. Maybe someone can tell me what tiles my citizens are working. I have no idea. How do I know where to place farms if I don't know what tiles they are working? And after all those turns elapsed, I only had enough public works to build 3 roads.

And then the screen does not center on my active unit. And then you can accidently hit end turn (return) when you still have units that haven't moved this turn. Argh! This game is just not fun. It feels more like work.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Dis

I'm going to post a screenshot. Maybe someone can tell me what tiles my citizens are working. I have no idea. How do I know where to place farms if I don't know what tiles they are working? And after all those turns elapsed, I only had enough public works to build 3 roads.

They work all tiles inside your city radius at once

Until size 9 they work all the surrounding 8 hexes and gather a certain percentage of the summed up production/commerce/food of all these tiles (until by size 8 they get 100 % of these 8 hexes).
From size 9 on they get 100 % out of the 8 tiles surrounding the city and a certain perventage of those hexes 2 tiles from the city away (until at AFAIK size 17 they reach 100% of the second ring [and at size 19 the city radius again expands and they get 100% of the first and second ring and a certain poercentage out of the third ring])

So, to answer your question:
It doesn´t matter at which tile you build your farm as long as it is within your city radius, but it is advised that you build it as near to the city tile as possible.
(although AoM introduces a new concept, not present in Vanilla CtP2, i.e. that in the first ring surrounding the city, suburbs and visible wonders appear and perhaps destroy your tile improvements [but they improve the terrain for themselves, giving Boni to Commerce and Production of the tile, so you can say, one improvement [for which you paid] gets replaced by another improvement which didn´t cost you anything ])

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Dis
But seeing as I already installed ctp2, I'm giving it another whirl. And I'm still not liking it . The interface is just horrid.

If the interface was designed for civ2 it would be horrid, but its not, its designed for CtP2, thats brings me to your next point...

How do I know where to place farms if I don't know what tiles they are working?

Did you read the manual for civ3 or smac? If you read the CtP2 manual it would tell you the city works the tile under the city and ALL surrounding tiles, in the case of a new city, 8 surrounding tiles.

To be honest, if youve tried CtP2 before and still dont know this, it tells me you gave up pretty quickly.

And after all those turns elapsed, I only had enough public works to build 3 roads.

What were you expecting?

If you understand how Public Works are produced (from the manual again) it should tell you not to waste so many turns on generating Public Works early in the game, when you have hardly no production base to tax from.

I wouldnt be surprised if you built those roads expecting a boost in arrows.

And then the screen does not center on my active unit. And then you can accidently hit end turn (return) when you still have units that haven't moved this turn. Argh! This game is just not fun. It feels more like work.

Where you managed to turn on the grid through the graphic options menu (it isnt default), from there you had to move the mouse up a little bit into gameplay options and press "auto-center on". It wouldnt have taken you long to find that if you were looking, or were you expecting it to read your mind?

[Ekmek]

Maq,
No need to be so harsh. but I'm wondering if Dis downloaded the Apolyton playtest version as well. Oh and cant AoM be downloaded from apoliyton still so he can get it that way.