Rockin' the cradle

[Minuteman]

You dudes don't mind if a Civ III "Fanboy" drops by for a visit, do you?

I keep reading about all these wonderful mods for CTP2 in the thread that Wombat posted in the Civ III forum, and I'm just a little curious. In particular, I'd like to know more about Cradle, which a few people have mentioned greatly improves the AI.

What improvements to the obviously lacking AI in CTP2 does Cradle make? Does it just make the AI more aggressive, or does it actually improve the "intelligence" of the program's decision-making?

Like I said in Wombat's thread, I haven't played CTP2 in about 7 months or so. Back then, the Apolyton mod pack was the best choice, but even that didn't do anything to appreciably improve the game's sub par AI, which is why I stopped playing the game altogether.

I still have the game, however, and I'll give it another look if some genius modder out there truly has fixed the weak AI.

Where can I get more info on Cradle?

[child of Thor]

Hi Minuteman, more info on Craddle is over in the 'Creation/Mod...' forum of CTP2, plus you could read the thread by Locutus at the top of this forum - he gives a very good overview of all the Mods for CTP2. given a choice between Craddle and Med Mod , i don't think i could do it - they are both very good improvements on CTP2, and each has a different feel about it. The AI is improved in both and is most aggresive in Craddle. I play both and have on going campaign's that i switch between.So go and have a look and then play - the limp biscuit that was CTP2 is now a great game. I enjoy it best in multiplayer with/against a few friends

[Minuteman]

Originally posted by child of Thor
Hi Minuteman, more info on Craddle is over in the 'Creation/Mod...' forum of CTP2, plus you could read the thread by Locutus at the top of this forum - he gives a very good overview of all the Mods for CTP2. given a choice between Craddle and Med Mod , i don't think i could do it - they are both very good improvements on CTP2, and each has a different feel about it. The AI is improved in both and is most aggresive in Craddle. I play both and have on going campaign's that i switch between.So go and have a look and then play - the limp biscuit that was CTP2 is now a great game. I enjoy it best in multiplayer with/against a few friends

Thor, thanks for the quick response & info. I'll be sure to check out that thread.

hmmm. Locutus...Locutus...that name sounds familiar but I can't place it.

Didn't he try to organize the creation of a comprehensive mod for Civ III, but gave up in disgust after Firaxis sued some kid over in Germany for copyright infringement? Gotta check that one out.

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Minuteman
Didn't he try to organize the creation of a comprehensive mod for Civ III, but gave up in disgust after Firaxis sued some kid over in Germany for copyright infringement? Gotta check that one out.

Yeah, the Expansion Pack Civ list I believe.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Minuteman
hmmm. Locutus...Locutus...that name sounds familiar but I can't place it.

Didn't he try to organize the creation of a comprehensive mod for Civ III, but gave up in disgust after Firaxis sued some kid over in Germany for copyright infringement? Gotta check that one out.

Well, there's about a gazillion things you could know me from but the various XPC threads from the Civ3-Civilizations forum (and the 'Which Civs are in Civ3, just the facts madam' threads before that) is in your case indeed the most likely one.
BTW, the German lawsuit thing was just what triggered my departure from Civ3; there were many other reasons for it, which I won't bore you with right now (to summarize it *extremely* briefly: IMNSHO Civ3 s*cks).

Back to the topic: for more info on Cradle, you can download the various readmes from hexagonian's website, the file behind the link 'update 12/19' contains all of them (plus a bunch of other textfiles for the game itself; you don't need those but they can give you an good idea of how modding in CtP2 works, if you're interested).
Also, as child of Thor said, the 'Mod Wrapup' thread at the top of this forum is a nice (brief) review of the most important mods for CtP2.