Expanding my gaming horizons

[Jmaster]

I'm relatively new to Poly, so please bear with me.

The only game on Poly I've played is SMAC. Does anybody have any suggestions in case I decide to go game-buying? I prefer strategies, preferably ones with epic storylines.

[Hendrik]

Alien Crossfire well you don't have much of a choice, there are fewer bugs in SMACX than in SMAC, especially if you want to pop boom with Morgan or Yang using a golden age.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Actually been playing a bunch of CTP2. Quite enjoyable, far better IMHO than CIV3. Since it has an active modding community, you buy one game and essentially have 5 to choose from if you download the mods found here at 'Poly.

From what I understand CTP was ****e when it first came out. A bit less ****e for CTP2, actually I find CTP2 (unmodded better than CIV3). But it really shines in some of its mods.

Worth a look see considereing you can pick it up for less than $20.


OTOH, SMAC and SMAX will always be my favs.

[Andemagne]

Civilization 2 Multiplayer Gold, Civilization 3, Colonization, Master Of Orion 2, .....

[Method]

Originally posted by Andemagne
Civilization 3

/me makes farting noise with tongue

that is by far, without exageration, the worst game ever created. buy SMAX if you can find it, but if not, MOO3 looks like it might be good (though i've never played moo2).

ogie: CTP2? is it actually good?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by TKG


* TKG makes farting noise with tongue

that is by far, without exageration, the worst game ever created. buy SMAX if you can find it, but if not, MOO3 looks like it might be good (though i've never played moo2).

ogie: CTP2? is it actually good?

Yeah, I like it quite a bit. As far as the historical TBS go. It is on the money. Make sure you download the patch and then the apolyton mods including modswap utility.

Its different. No settlers/engineers/formers instead terraforming is done through Public Works. Take a tax on all productivity (shields) and it gets applied to a terraforming budget/bank.

Beats manipulating hundreds of units to t-form. OTOH I haven't figured out how to expedite t-0forming as you can by gang forming.

Combat kicks a$$. Armies fight instead of individual units. Armies rely on good combined arms strategies including range units firing from second ranks, melee units taking the bront of the frontal assault, and flanking manuevable units being able to attack from the sides/flanks. Combat explodes into a tactical resolution wherein you can retreat (as the attacker only).

The biggest thing thats different is that the workers are automatically assigned (and no means to manually assign them ala CIV2/3 or SMAC). From size 1-8 you work the first rign of squares around your city. Whats more there is no specific square your citizen works moreover it is an average of those 8 squares output. So at size 1 you get 1/8 the output of all 8 squares. Size 2 1/4 etc. AS your city grows from size 8 to 9 all the first rings of squares are worked. The 9th citizen then works the average of the next ring of squares until your reach size 21(?) then you have a third ring of square that your city can work.

All in all different from previous CIV games but its still TBS and still very enjoyable and for my money far superior to the CIV3 drivel.

I was surfing over there and saw rave reviews from Vel. I gave it a go and it wowed me. I give fair warning though it is different.

[Straybow]

I'm not sure that it averages all available tiles. I've seen significant changes in growth by placing one farm by a new city. That leads me to think that it chooses improved tiles over unimproved tiles. I suppose the CTP2 fanatics would know better than me.

I found the game a bit slow moving and I despise the trade model almost as much as I despise Civ3 resource and luxury trade models. Then again, if you haven't played Civ2 you may find ignorance is bliss.

[Mr. President]

For me Civilization 2 involves too much micromanaging; I'm tired of Alpha Centauri at the moment for the same reason. Civilization III wouldn't install on my computer, so I spit on it.

So in other words, I'm not playing any of the games covered at Apolyton at the moment, and this post was a complete waste of time.

[spartak]

Not really.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Mr. President
So in other words, I'm not playing any of the games covered at Apolyton at the moment, and this post was a complete waste of time.

At least you don't have to try to get some time to play Civ3, SMAC and CTP2...

[Clear Skies]

Master of Orion.
Imperium Galactica has some merit, not much though.

[Andemagne]

D'oh! I forgot CTP and CTP2.

Originally posted by TKG
(though i've never played moo2)

it's a great game, try it.

[Frankychan]

Originally posted by Mr. President
For me Civilization 2 involves too much micromanaging; I'm tired of Alpha Centauri at the moment for the same reason. Civilization III wouldn't install on my computer, so I spit on it.

So in other words, I'm not playing any of the games covered at Apolyton at the moment, and this post was a complete waste of time.

I don't even know where to start...

Anyway, Jmaster-don't worry. I like to think of us SMACers (AC-players) as an elite group.

Good games to play are (as said before) Masters of Orion. Another one I personally like is Age of Empires, even though its really old. You could play Shogun: Total War but I don't think it has much plot to it, just make war and build up your provinces.

[Velociryx]

If you're looking for a game with a epic feel to it, you could do a lot worse than Ctp2. I was a big-time naysayer of the game for a loooong time when it came out, because I based my opinion on the general buzz here at 'poly, but after having given the game a test drive for myself, I rapidly came to the conclusion that the buzz was wrong.

Here's an excellent example of what I mean. Civ3 is the most recent game in the lineup, and yet, here are the common complaints of that game:

1) Combat sucks. Too unpredictable.
2) Relatively weak armies
3) No wonder movies
4) Limited customization
5) Anemic tech tree with too many "speed bump" techs (techs that provide nothing in the way of benefits, but that you MUST research anyway)
6) No caravans. Trade too abstracted.
7) Nothing functional in the way of spying or "unconventional" war.
8) less-than-gratifying victory screens for everything but winning the space race.

CtP2, a far, far older game, shipped with all of these problems addressed. Modding has only made the game stronger and more attractive (they've even got a mod where wonders built appear on the map as tile improvements....TALK about eyecandy!

We've got wonders, a GREAT army/combined arms system that means you actually have to put some thought into your unit arrays, Public Works which is a HUGE timesaver and MM-fighting tool (sorry Og, no way to speed terraform terrains, but OTOH, with a beefed up PW tax, you can do multiple tiles per turn...so far, my highest one-turn PW total was just a shade under 40k! )

And, just to prove how moddable Ctp2 really is, there's a move afoot by the modders there to convert all of Civ3's units (workers included) to Ctp2.

It simply would not be possible for Civ3 modders to return the favor.

So...there's that, a vast, intricate tech tree, a trade system that makes sense (could be deeper, but IMO, it's better as it stands now than Civ3's), more diplomatic options--still a few glaring omissions but ::shrug:: can't have everything I guess--and TONS of unconventional war options (spies, clerics/conversions, franchises in rival cities....tons of others!).

Well worth the price!

-=Vel=-

[Straybow]

Anybody tried HoMM 4 yet?