Have you or will you ever play CtP2

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by Locutus

it's ridiculous and uncalled for to have such a humongous prejudice against a game (IMNSHO)?

You obviously haven't played with (recent) mods...

You can't expect everyone to like CtP2, but to dismiss (or bash - even worse) it would giving it a decent chance is rather stupid IMHO (the same goes for Civ3 and any other game BTW).

I couldn't agree more. I had a huge dislike against CTP2, based on all I had heard about it and Activison, over the past couple of years.

But playing the game recently with the mods (especially Cradle and Med Mod), I have changed my tune. While the game isn't perfect (which one is?), it is very playable, enjoyable, challenging, and feels like a civ game. I was expecting a totally alien playing experience. So I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it.

Playing any game does not have to be a zero-sum situation. It doesn't mean you have to play one game over the exclusion of all other games.

You can play Civ3 (for the graphics, animations, culture and AI), Civ 2 (for many of the great scenarios), CTP2 (modded for the army concept, Wonder movies, Public Works, better AI), EU2 (for its grand, elegant scope and strategy), and Age of Empires series (for its polished quality, fun, etc), and enjoy playing them ALL

After all, the game's the thing: No matter what the game, or who made it, if it provides a good, solid gaming experience, then it is worth your time.

On CTP2, Activision dropped the ball. No doubt about it.

But because of its customizability, some very talented people have put out some great mods. All the praise goes to them. Without the mods, I wouldn't be playing the game now.

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by hexagonian
As it stands now civ3 allows up to 16 civs. CTP2 can allow up to 32, plus it can allow cities that revolt to create new civs DURING THE COURSE OF THE GAME through the modification of a file handled at the player's end (this is not part of any official Mod or the default game, BTW - it is a suggested change to be made by a player).

hexagonian: How do you implement the 32 civs and new civs starting in a game of CTP2? What file do i edit?

I'm very excited over the idea that I can play a game on a huge map with 32 other civilizations. Will this concept interfer with any of the mods such as Cradle or Med Mod?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Captain
where do I get the latest mod for that?

What about:

http://www.geocities.com/hexagonia/

for the latest version of Cradle. I think you can find there also Apolyton Pack, but I am shure. At least you can find Apolyton Pack in the Apolyton CTP2 DataBase.

http://wes.apolyton.net/

for the latest version of MedPack2
And of course my own page, there you can find GoodMod:

http://guehmann.bei.t-online.de/englishd.htm

By the way signatures are very useful aren't they.

Originally posted by Minuteman
You might want to check this website for ctp2 mods. This is where I found the ones that I used to use.

Than you shouldn't wonder why CTP2 does not meet your expectations. You can find here Apolyton Pack 7 or 8 month old. In the pasttime the developement went on. GoodMod wasn't released as Dale left us. It contains now a lot more than new goods. An improved AI some new slic files. By the way these files are also in Cradle and MedPack2. Dave made a lot of modifications to his Cradle. Reworked the strategies.txt. Yeah I copied the AI priorities into my file added player1's new goals and defined a lot more of my own goals.

Yeah there is a reason why we are talking about recent mods and not about half year old outdated mods.

So the links above should help you.

Originally posted by ADC
If that was in civ3 I would hate Civ3, the PW system just made me have to click thousands of times each round

You mean to have 200 up to 300 settlers is a better sollution. That happend Civ2 and that was the reason why I did not bought SMAC after I played a demo.

Originally posted by campmajor!
But the PW is one thing I did not like. I tend to forget to use it!

That is just a question of exercise.

Originally posted by player1
It's pity that CTP2 mod community looks a little desorganised (but not too much). I mean 3 mods, 3 diferent AIs, why they didn't combined their efforts to get one awesome AI.

If I take a look on the Civ3 files section , I have the feeling that the people there are less organized as in the CTP2 community - hundrets of files.

Actual we combined our efforts, otherwise Wes and Dave wouldn't use so much of my slic code. You wouldn't find the aggressive settings in Cradle, I just bumped two thread about the AI modification that are in Cradle, yesterday. And I am shure that most mods will include the terraforming AI. So we work together also if we create our own strategies.txt. I copied most stuff of my strategies.txt from Dave's, Wes' and your strategies.txt. I added also a bunch of new goals, and emailed my results to Wes. By the way that is my latest goal for the AI :

GOAL_BUILD_FORT

That is a nice one isn't.

Originally posted by Alexnm
I have to say that I played CTP2 modded (Apolyton Pack) and it was a very fine and balanced game, much better than the original version. But I still think that Civ3 is better... I don't know why.

Maybe you played a more than half an year old mod. If I compare pure Apolyton Pack and GoodMod in combination with Apolyton Pack than I have a notion. Even with Apolyton Pack you have AI cities that aren't well developed, not enough improvemnts not enough infrastucture. So you have bad bases for unit production. In the latest GoodMod version you have well developed AI cities, these cities are better production bases than my cities. You can see this also on the power graph. Before GoodMod I saw only one grap that went up. Now all the other graphs go up instead of the garph of my own civ.

Originally posted by Leonidas
You can play Civ3 (for the graphics, animations, culture and AI),

Not for the graphics I took resently a look on the resources.pcx I had to wonder if these graphics were really the ones that are displayed on the map. Even my button graphics of the dye good that I graped from a screenshot looks better.

-Martin

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Leonidas

hexagonian: How do you implement the 32 civs and new civs starting in a game of CTP2? What file do i edit?

I'm very excited over the idea that I can play a game on a huge map with 32 other civilizations. Will this concept interfer with any of the mods such as Cradle or Med Mod?

See this thread. It is question number 7. But I think that will only work with 28 opponents, but this should be enough.

-Martin

[Samudragupt]

28 - civs - WOW
But then again who wants to play against a Jamaican civ.

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann


See this thread. It is question number 7. But I think that will only work with 28 opponents, but this should be enough.

-Martin

Thanks for the link Martin - "only work with 28 opponents" - now there's an understatement (LOL)


Samudragupt: All the major civs are included - from Canadian to Spanish, from Roman to Cartheginian and everything in between.

I can't wait to make the changes - 28 civilizations in one game

[joseph1944]

I play both.

[Minuteman]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann


What about:

http://www.geocities.com/hexagonia/

for the latest version of Cradle. I think you can find there also Apolyton Pack, but I am shure. At least you can find Apolyton Pack in the Apolyton CTP2 DataBase.

http://wes.apolyton.net/

for the latest version of MedPack2
And of course my own page, there you can find GoodMod:

http://guehmann.bei.t-online.de/englishd.htm

By the way signatures are very useful aren't they.



Than you shouldn't wonder why CTP2 does not meet your expectations. You can find here Apolyton Pack 7 or 8 month old. In the pasttime the developement went on. GoodMod wasn't released as Dale left us. It contains now a lot more than new goods. An improved AI some new slic files. By the way these files

-Martin

Actually, I haven't played ctp2 in about 7 months, which is when I downloaded those mods I recommended. As far as going back to play the game again with the new mods you mentioned, I just might do that if I ever get a hankering to play the game again.

[Bloodaxe]

I picked up a ripped copy just after it was released to try it out. Played it twice then deleted it. That just about sums up my opinion of the game...

[ACooper]

Remind me again please. It's kind of fuzzy. What does this have to do with Civ 3?

[Minuteman]

Originally posted by ACooper
Remind me again please. It's kind of fuzzy. What does this have to do with Civ 3?

It's one of those "which is better" polls....standard comparison/contrast thread.

I guess a thread like this wouldn't be needed if Civ III was little easier to mod for. Not being a modder myself, I couldn't care less about it being hard-coded. However, it would have been interesting to see what some of the more talented Ctp2 modders would have been able to do if it wasn't.

After all, when I did play Ctp2, it was these guys that made playing that game even remotely bearable. Hopefully, Firaxis will keep these guys in mind whenever they get around to designing expansion packs for Civ III.

[The Rusty Gamer]

Stirring the pot...

I'd love to know if anyone at Firaxis has had a decent go at the CTP series! C'mon Firaxis guys, level with us. You've at least looked at it haven't you? Admit it. ADMIT IT!

[hexagonian]

Originally posted by Leonidas
hexagonian: How do you implement the 32 civs and new civs starting in a game of CTP2? What file do i edit?

I'm very excited over the idea that I can play a game on a huge map with 32 other civilizations. Will this concept interfer with any of the mods such as Cradle or Med Mod?

A small note - if you want to have the cities that revolt convert into splinter civs, make sure that the MaxNumber in userprofile.txt is no higher than 33, as this is the number of civs in the Cradle files. I believe that the number of civs in the Apolyton Pack and Med Mod are higher though. (WARNING - I have never tried the number that high, and since there is a limit of 28 civs in a game, this may not work either - a good compromise might be 24 normal civs and 4 splinter civs for a total of 28.)

Interesting results on this poll - Modded CTP2 and civ3 are running neck and neck...

And yes, the difficulty of truly modding civ3 is probably why this poll is showing up here - that and the reports of late game tedium due to the worker system vs PW and a half-patched group movement command in civ3 - issues that have already been addressed in the CTP setup.

[Leonidas]

MedMod v2.0:

Well, I started a game last night with 28 civs on a huge map. With all these civs, and with a map that has diverse terrain ranging from vast oceans, inland lakes and jungles, to polar ice caps and barren deserts, it is a rich, diverse, "living" world.

I sent out my ambassadors to explore some of the world and establish embassies with some of the other civs. Many of the AIs are at war with each other (each trying to gain more land). It was something for my ambassador to enter Viking territory, and find their cities being besieged by Russian armies and catapults; or to stumble across huge cities (15 size in 600 AD) of the Zulus, as they were engaged in brutal battles with the Phoenicians. . .

I have one city on an Isthmus, and every turn ships from all over the world sail past that city laden with diplomats, soldiers and trade goods that are bound for all parts of the unknown world. Many of the ships have very colourful sails. . .

So far I destroyed two civilizations in an early land grab, and now, with 10 cities I am consolidating and building up my infrastructure. I am in contact with 20 other civs, but there are still huge tracts of unexplored land, and still 5 unknown civs yet to be contacted.

After seeing the size of the map and the size of the some of the other civs, conquering the world will be very, very difficult, if not impossible (which is the way it should be). Now, I'll have to form some strategic alliances, sharpen my diplomatic skills, maintain a strong army, and push ahead with tech advances.

I can see in the decades ahead that a major world war (involving 2 dozen civilizations) is in the offing. . .

Cradle v1.2:

In Cradle Mod v1.2, the AI is maniacal. Try playing this mod on "hard" level or higher, and you are in for a severe challenge. Just trying to survive will be an accomplishment

Picture a dozen Tony Montanas running around yelling: "Say hello to my little friend", and you get the idea. . .

On a different note:

I went through the files last night in Med Mod v2. I noticed that it uses DiploMod v3.3. Is it possible to add "DiploMod v3.4" as well as the "FrenzyMod" into my current game without screwing it up?

Anyway, just to say thanks to all the modders. I'm looking forward to many more great changes. Hopefully, Firaxis will get some ideas from all this to add to later patches for Civ 3

[Changmai Beagle]

Both

I'm playing Civ3 now, but lurking on CTP2 - I'll likely be back looking at the scenarios being developed. The Alexander scenario showed there is a lot of scenario potential in CTP2. Combined with the work of Dale, IW, Hex, BO, WW, MG et al there has been development of a real working game.

I like some aspects of both. But then, why did the Canadian chicken cross the road

To get to the middle