Newbie alert

[El Civ]

I've only ever owned and played Civ II until about a week ago when I found CtP2 for $3 at a local Wal-Mart and bought it. I have to say that while I may never abandon Civ I am quite smitten with CtP2.

Since I am dense and have a large learning curve I began playing at the easiest levels to become familiar with the game. I've noticed that every time I initially encounter the Irish they are quite arrogant, even when less powerful than me. Personally I take this as an invitation to war

My question is whether this is a trait of the Irish in the game. Are certain nations inclined/scripted to be either peaceful or warlike? I only have the CD and not the manual for the game (and haven't downloaded it yet). Also, am I stuck always having the blue flags no matter which nation I play as? I know everyone here will tell me to use mods and I will eventually, but want to learn the game better before I advance to mods and greater difficulty levels. And please tell me that the AI's ability to defend its cities will improve as I move up in difficulty levels. Size 10 cities (or larger) with only a warrior or hoplite defending is absurd.

[Maquiladora]

Firstly, the AI civs are saddled with the same personalities everytime you play. You can change this is 2 ways. Theres a mod in the ctp2 directory section to randomize leader personalities i think or you can open the file civilization.txt in ...\Call To Power 2\ctp2_data\default\gamedata and edit the personalities in there to the ones you want. example:

IRISH	#5	
	{	
	CIV_LEADER_NAME IRISH_LEADERM_NAME	
	CIV_LEADER_NAME_FEMALE IRISH_LEADERF_NAME	
	CIV_PERSONALITY_MALE "PERSONALITY_STALIN"
	CIV_PERSONALITY_FEMALE "PERSONALITY_GHANDI"

Its the civ personality ones.

To change the colour so its not always blue for player 1, open colors00.txt in ...Call To Power 2\ctp2_data\default\gamedata and edit the numbers in there corresponding to the RGB values.

If you want the AI to defend its cities, or rather attack you constantly then youll have to use a mod. Its not often you see an AI defend with more than 4 units in the default game.

[El Civ]

If you want the AI to defend its cities, or rather attack you constantly then youll have to use a mod. Its not often you see an AI defend with more than 4 units in the default game.

Thanks for the assistance. I have once, thus far, seen the AI defend it's final existing city with something like 4-5 hoplites and 3 or 4 warriors. My two armies (one composed of 2 units, the other of 3) wiped them out--and the defenders were even fortified. As I said, I'm dense but combat so far is painfully easy. My initial impressions are that this game is an improved version of Civ II with a dash of SMAC thrown in (i.e. the futuristic techs). I don't regret not purchasing Civ III but I do regret not getting CtP2 earlier.

[Maquiladora]

Unfortunately the trouble with such a flexible combat system is getting the AI to use it well. To make the AI challenging in making its armies and attacking en masse has always been thought of that the AI needed a huge tech lead to do significant damage to the human. While this works, it isnt really fair and can be frustrating, although its a good challenge.

I still think the AI can be made to make good stacks of units at the right time and assualt cities with multiple 12 stacks, and do damage without a massive tech lead. Its just working out how exactly.

Sorry for my rant but ive been thinking about this alot while messing with various AI files. Stick with CtP2, its much deeper than it first seems.

[Pedrunn]

Welcome,

Yes it is a invitation of war. Every civ has it own personality mixed together with a 6 different military strategy (and others enacted in special ocasions) and 3 diplomatic personality. And the messages in the diplo screen depends on regard and there are 2 types of first encouter message depending on the civ relative strenght (weaker and stronger).

The AI will only give you a hard time as time goes by with mod. The more in the future you are the dumber the AI. Mod help this. But i do agree with you about knowing the game unmodded first. Try Apolyton Pack next and be patient with the crazy settler bug of this mod ok (We are working on it).

The Manual is Crap. A waste of material. Either there are too few info or there is wrong info. From the package you only lost the charts which are really helpfull but you can still see the in the www.calltopower2.com "Game" section. As for really usefull info check the Apolyton CTP2 FAQ

Enjoy the game

[El Civ]

So when the Irish greet me with their superior attitude and comments about their leader being one that should not be trifled with, they are inviting a fight? Well, it's a fight I shall give them then. Actually I already have and have quickly seized the city of Cork.

In the earlier portion of the game, around the time I have roughly 8-9 cities and they range from size 3-8 or so, what sort of numbers should I be looking for in a size 8 city that is good at production? For instance, my top 3 cities in my current game have ratings of 115 to 130ish in production. Is that high, low or average? And finally, I never liked the micromanagment of Civ II and have been using the city mayors quite a bit. They help with PW as I tend to forget to build anything other than roads in a timely manner. Are the mayors for amateurs or do the veterans here use them too? Thanks for the help thus far.

[Pedrunn]

Actually he just thinks superior than a insignificant fly like you And depending of his personality (there are different messages for some personality) he may be inclined to start a war with you

And i missed the info. There are about

One of the things i love about CTP2 is how it transformed micromanagement of other games in macromanagement. Giveina much bigger focus in the macro.

[Pedrunn]

If the message was agressive that is probably because he has a agressive personality therefore there is a good chance that he can start a war with you specially if he dont likes you.

[Maquiladora]

Dont use the city mayors. Really they will waste your PW and mess with specialists. My advice is, never build any mines until advanced mines (adv mines include commerce), try and strike a balance between growth and commerce until then. Dont waste beach tiles on nets, save them for ports. When your cities reach about size 16+ use a couple of scientists in the good science cities.

Oh and build a farm and build a city on top of it

[Maquiladora]

Only use specialists early on for farmers, only if your city is obstructed in some way for food. Maybe its overlapping another cities borders, or has alot of mountains around it, one extra farmer is usually enough to keep it growing at the same speed as your other cities.

Try to build near the coast if you can, its the best source of resources.

Ive got loads of other tips but its just one way to play the game, which sorta makes up my whole game strategy, so dont take it for gospel.

[HuangShang]

ahem, dont forget the strategy database yo