The Altera Centauri collection has been brought up to date by Darsnan. It comprises every decent scenario he's been able to find anywhere on the web, going back over 20 years.
25 themes/skins/styles are now available to members. Check the select drop-down at the bottom-left of each page.
Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
I don't see how... I only have 5 units, and the visible AI ones number about 3 tops. Does it animate the ones I can't see?
Well, in that case you're right, it won't help much. But later in the game it will, especially if you have RoP with somebody and your territory gets crossed by other civs.
Is CTP2 really that much better than CTP? The game tried too many weird ideas and many of them just flopped. Ocean cities worked in Alpha Centauri but they didn't work in CTP. Satellities were great in Alpha Centauri but flying cities were so dumb in CTP.
If they remove the useless units (monk, televangelist, etc.) and the flying cities, it would be better. It would be good if they got rid of the PW concept too. Public Works points were very unbalancing.
I love the resources of Civ 3 and the size limitations of your empire due to corruption. It will be appreciated in multiplayer. I thought Alpha Centauri had a better system, though. Your drones would rebell if you surpassed the max # of cities. This made it hard to make a lot of cities but it was still quite managable. Civ 3 corruption isn't as good as the drone rebellions but it still succeeds to keep the game balanced.
I would like to see Oasis or Bananas in tough terrain tiles. Civ 3 needs some easier starting locations. A lot of it depends on... Luck.
I have just send a post on a similar subject in the General section of the Civilization 3 forum. Though I still prefer CtP2 (the PW is really a great relief) here is what I think of my first Civ3 "real" game :
------------------------------------
"I have played Civ2 for a long time and then CtP2. I must admit I had less trouble to adapt to CtP2 than Civ3 though many features (tech, improvement) of the later are close to its predecessor's ones.
First, I decided to discover the new concepts and features through the tutorial, the game proved very interesting though the AI was of course no match at this level. At the end of the game I had mixed feelings, a very good game though not as fun as Civ2 and CtP2.
I knew one thing for sure, I would have to give this game a second chance.
One week ago I decided to play a Civ3 game again. Not particularly confident in myself I selected Warlord as the Difficulty. The AI civs expanded very quickly and choked me around 0 AD. A bit irritated, I don't like to loose against a "Warlord" AI, I immediately started a new game in which I was determined to be more cautious and careful. Once again, shortly after 0 AD, I was overwhelmed by the expansion of the AI and its ability to produce tens of units. I started again... same result...
At this moment I thought I had missed something and came back to Apolyton for a few strategical hints. Not wholly satisfied with the threads here (perhaps I haven't found the good one), I tried the Strategy thread of the "Civ Fanatics" and discovered the War Academy and an article named :"Faster Expansion: a Key Element of the Early Game" (if you are already fed up with my post you can find the link at the end of it). This article allowed me to understand why the core civ2 players can have some troubles at the beginning of a Civ3 game and give a "recipe" for a good start.
I then started a new game and applied the given "recipe" with success, I'am now around 1000 AD, I've successfully resisted to two wars and I'am about to teach a lesson to the aggressive Zulus. Thanks to this article, I'am now enjoying the game though I have some criticisms.
I already knew the AI intelligence was cheating in Civ2, as in many other games, and sometimes in a rather crude manner. In civ3, the AI civs are tough opponents because they are blatantly cheating. I'am not irritated by the fact the AI civs are cheating but by the way they are cheating.
Example : well before the AI civs discover the technology required, they are perfectly aware of the future location of the strategical resources they will need much later and send settler to create cities nearby. Rather strange to think about Salpeter when you are still using bronze for your weapons. In the same way, I'am not sure the resource distribution on the board is really random and fair, as is the initial location of our first settler I presume.
Whatsoever, I would have prefered a more subtle way of cheating.
OK, before I started playing computer games I was playing tabletop wargames and boardgames and this means I'am rather used to follow the same rules as my opponents. This could explain why I don't like a blatantly cheating AI, but once again this is rather the crude manner of cheating I dislike.
Wether the AI is cheating or not is not the point, the AI civs are tougher and this is a good thing.
My only complain comes from the fact the beginning of the game is rather mechanical and for many more turns than Civ2. Moreover I prefer to play with few cities as I don't like to manage tens of cities and hundreds of workers (especially at the end of the game), but the high expansion rate of the AI civs is urging you to build as many cities as you can to halt this overwhelming growth.
If you are an old time Civ2 player and want some hints for the beginning of a civ3 game you should read this article :
Originally posted by King of Rasslin
Is CTP2 really that much better than CTP? The game tried too many weird ideas and many of them just flopped. Ocean cities worked in Alpha Centauri but they didn't work in CTP. Satellities were great in Alpha Centauri but flying cities were so dumb in CTP.
If they remove the useless units (monk, televangelist, etc.) and the flying cities, it would be better. It would be good if they got rid of the PW concept too. Public Works points were very unbalancing.
Your post shows you never played CTP2. No space cities in CTP2, space isn't a bad idea but the AI couldn't cope with it.
For your second problem moving around 200 and more engineers every turn is a really stupid idea, I needed more than one and a half hour to move all of them, just to finish one turn. So PW is a very good solution to this problem, just click on this tile and some turns later the terrain is improved. In Civ2 I had to move one enginer from one end of the world to the other end of the world. This is really stupid.
Of course I haven't played CtP2. I was saying how dumb CtP 1 was. Workers are more balanced than "pumping" a single city. Having to move workers around is better than instantly making a super mine anywhere you want it- instantly. You know that the PW system absolutely sucks. It just DOESNT WORK.
But I am glad to hear they removed space cities in CtP2. I might get it when it's selling for $9.95. Even classics like Total Annihilation:Kingdoms sell this cheap, so I won't be waiting very long.
Originally posted by King of Rasslin
Of course I haven't played CtP2. I was saying how dumb CtP 1 was. Workers are more balanced than "pumping" a single city. Having to move workers around is better than instantly making a super mine anywhere you want it- instantly. You know that the PW system absolutely sucks. It just DOESNT WORK.
Sorry but I have to contradict you, in Civ2 I was able to build a road, a realroad, a mine, a farm, an advanced farm, everywhere on the map even on foreign/hostile terrain just move my settlers/engineers to the enemy, building a road/railroad to his cities and then send some troops to him, ok actual only a spy/diplomat and buy his city. So there is no differnce betwen putting a mine by just using the mouse on themap or using an engineer by using your railroad network. The only difference is that you need hours to improve the whole map. Espeacily if you are using 21 units to "pump" a city. So in the end PW is not the time killer as these stupid engineers in Civ2 were.
Edit: I forgot you can't build tileimprovements on land that you don't own or none of your allies own, like in CTP1 and Civ2, IMO this is good, because in this way you can't build a road/railroad/maglev to your enemy cities and start an easy invasion.
It would be good if they got rid of the PW concept too.
I have to agree with the King. Well, sort of. I don't think PW is horrible; I just prefer the worker unit method. Why? Because with the PW method, you don't have to worry about protecting your "workers". You just plop the improvements on the tile. With worker units, you need to protect them from enemy units.
Furthermore, If I recall correctly from CTP 1, you cannot do tile work unless it's within a city radius or next to other improvements. In other words, I can't build tile improvements out in the middle of nowhere if I wanted to. Sometimes I like to improve an area for a future city before my settler gets there.
Finally, the worker units give me a sense of accomplishment. Sad but true Plopping all those tile improvements in one turn just doesn't feel constructive. I realize that the accumulation of PW points is supposed to simulate the passage of construction time, but the feel just isn't there.
Anyway, just my $.02. Mark G and I went round and round on this one some time ago. Sometimes it's fun rehashing and debating these old arguments.
I am so glad they got rid of improved farmland in Civ 3!
PW points should be stolen whenever a city is taken in CtP. They should be treated like gold is. The bad part about PW points is that you have to replace an obsolete improvement. Nothing becomes useless in the Civ series.
Originally posted by Chronus
I have to agree with the King. Well, sort of. I don't think PW is horrible; I just prefer the worker unit method. Why? Because with the PW method, you don't have to worry about protecting your "workers". You just plop the improvements on the tile. With worker units, you need to protect them from enemy units.
That is a point but you have still to protect your tile improvements, you put a tile improvement somewhere within your borders and then some hostile unit come across and pillage it.
Originally posted by Chronus
Furthermore, If I recall correctly from CTP 1, you cannot do tile work unless it's within a city radius or next to other improvements. In other words, I can't build tile improvements out in the middle of nowhere if I wanted to. Sometimes I like to improve an area for a future city before my settler gets there.
Actual if I want to improve an area in the middle of nowhere I would first build a road/railroad/maglev to this point. This was possible in CTP1 and it was also possible to build a road/railroad/maglev streight to your enemy city and use/exploit it as a reinfocement route.
Originally posted by Chronus
Finally, the worker units give me a sense of accomplishment. Sad but true Plopping all those tile improvements in one turn just doesn't feel constructive. I realize that the accumulation of PW points is supposed to simulate the passage of construction time, but the feel just isn't there.
Yes this is a very good argument from your point of view. Much more constructive then just saying PW sucks. Yeah using units is in the early game a nice feature but in the late game just tedious.
Originally posted by King of Rasslin
PW points should be stolen whenever a city is taken in CtP. They should be treated like gold is. The bad part about PW points is that you have to replace an obsolete improvement. Nothing becomes useless in the Civ series.
Actual in GoodMod you can steal PW when you capture a city like gold. About the tileimprovement replace part, this wouldn't be any problem to give the civ a PW bonus if an advanced tile improvement is build on an obsolete one. Yeah slic is really missing in Civ3.
Originally posted by Jaybe
More than 3 days now, and no game report from Immortal Wombat. OTOH, it's the weekend and he may be too busy playing (or didn't like it).
Didn't he say he was going away for holiday? It might be a while before we hear from him again.
Originally posted by King of Rasslin
I am so glad they got rid of improved farmland in Civ 3!
I don't consider the railroad sleaze to be a good solution. I would be thankful for farmland and advanced mines. Railroads should vastly increase pollution, so that only a strategical net will be built.
The bad part about PW points is that you have to replace an obsolete improvement. Nothing becomes useless in the Civ series.
If I remember correct, advanced improvements costs the same in PW points on improved terrain like on new, but the time to complete is much less.
Originally posted by King of Rasslin I might get it when it's selling for $9.95.
King of Rasslin,
Actually, it already is selling at that price, that's how I ended up getting it. If you do try it, be sure to use a mod that can be downloaded from this site, some good ones are MedMod2, Cradle, and WAW (I haven't tried goodmod yet, sorry Martin ). From your posts, however, you seem rather biased already, so I'm not sure that you'd like it anyway...because of the PW concept etc.
I remember CtP2 coming out costing $50. After CtP1, I wasn't going to throw good money away. I guess the $10 would be worth it, if the mods really help out a lot.
Originally posted by Haupt. Dietrich
Didn't he say he was going away for holiday? It might be a while before we hear from him again.
I did? I know I should have done... I did go away.
I'll probbly play some Civ tomorrow.
But which one?
Concrete, Abstract, or Squoingy? "I don't believe in giving scripting languages because the only additional power they give users is the power to create bugs." - Mike Breitkreutz, Firaxis
Plopping all those tile improvements in one turn just doesn't feel constructive. I realize that the accumulation of PW points is supposed to simulate the passage of construction time, but the feel just isn't there.
Tweet
Comment