Teach me CtP2

[H Tower]

I don't own the game, I've never played it. I've only played a couple hours of CtP, so I know almost nothing about the game. Despite all this, unless the votes drastically change in the next five hours, I'm about to be elected Senior Justice of the CtP2 Democracy game. I'd appreciate any basic game play tips and stuff anyone could pass on I know Civ2 pretty well, so if any of you play both, just tell me the basic differences between the two, including how different the AI is from Civ2

[child of Thor]

(after 2years on this game I still find out about new things all the time here on the forums!)

I think what you are asking for is a very tall order, just simply because with all the different Mods, you can get a very different game. I wouldn't know where to start really. Even the manual turns out to be very unspecific once you have played the game a couple of times.
Why don't you just pick up a cheap copy from somewhere? It'll probably be the easiest way for you to get to understand the things you want to know. I suppose basicaly it is a civ type game and has the basic same aims(expand,improve,conquest). Not very helpfull i know......sorry.

[Pedrunn]

First of all PW and Stack this are the biggest changes.

How hard is to you get a CTP2 copy? The game quite cheap?

[HuangShang]

the game should be around $5 right?

[celicakydd]

$14.99 US dollars accourding to http://www.gamestop.com

[H Tower]

speaking as a very poor college student with tuition bills coming up in about a month and half, i would prefer to put off the purchase until i know how my finances will look in february. but if its only $15 bucks i may to splurge.

pedrunn, I know about PW froms a short time playing CtP, but what is Stack? does that mean that we won't be seeing screen shots of the AI loosing 15 units in a single battle?

[Devil of Truth]

H Tower – you’ve played CTP? Excellent ! Then you’ll understand CTP2 in no time.

I think what Pedrunn meant with stack, is the major difference between the ways CTP2 and Civ2 engage in battle.

Firstly, you can only have 12 units per tile (square, whatever) – so no – you won’t see the AI loose 15 units at once.
In Civ2, when a stack is attacked the most able unit defends. If that unit is destroyed, the entire stack goes up in smoke. Whether there were 2 or 20 units in that stack!

CTP2 has arguably the most realistic combat system to date, here’s a brief idea how it works.

Broadly speaking, there are four types of units:
1. Attack;
2. Defence;
3. Flanker;
4. Ranged.

When attacking (or defending) an army stack assumes a formation according to their type (as defined above). This formation is assumed automatically, so you don’t have to define it. Under ideal conditions, an attacking or defending unit takes the front line – they will also bear the brunt of the attack (and are usually the first to die). As their name suggest, flankers will attack from the sides (and usually fall after their frontline comrades). Ranged units will stand back, and fire over the frontline units (and they usually die last). This way, you’ll have maximum firepower concentrated on your attack.

There is a reason for all the “ideal conditions” etc. If you don’t have any attacking or defending units, the flankers or ranged units will take the frontline. Because they weren’t designed for this type of punishment, they usually don’t last long.

As you may have guessed, you have to destroy every unit in the stack, before the stack falls – and sometimes this is quite a challenge.

I hope I didn’t confuse you too much.

[Devil of Truth]

Ooh yeah... one more thing... spend the $15. It’s the best education you’ll ever get!

[aaglo]

I bought the game for 10€ a couple of weeks ago

I played it a couple of times. I was a bit disappointed with the looks of the game (after SMAC and CIV3 experiences), but the game itself is quite good. I just have to find more time to play CTP2...

BTW, I started a game with the retail version, then pathced the game. Now all tutorial hints & other miscellaneous text boxes don't make sense at all.

Activision would better hope that these troubles go away, when I start a new game... or they will suffer...

[Harovan]

Originally posted by aaglo
Activision would better hope that these troubles go away, when I start a new game... or they will suffer...

Activision. Yea, sure .

Applying the CtP2 mods over a localized copy of CtP2 can mess your game up seriously. Better patch the game into an english version and apply the mods later. The folks in this forum can certainly tell you how and give you the needed files.

[Immortal Wombat]

aaglo, the message box error is easily fixed. Open the chat box (press ' ) then type /reloadslic. It should all be fine after this.

[aaglo]

sir ralph... it's not localized version. Here we use the English versions...

IW - thanks for the tip. I'll try that.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by aaglo
Activision would better hope that these troubles go away, when I start a new game... or they will suffer...

Actual they won't suffer, because if you start a new game with the patched version all the messages are correct.

-Martin

[Pedrunn]

Now that you now PW and stack. You must know that differently from CTP1 and civ series. You dont have a worker for every population point to assign in a tile. All the tiles in the city radius (city border) are worked according to the question 27 of the FAQ topped in this forum (you dont need to know the formula though). And the bigger the size of the city the bigger the size of the city radius. Eg size 1 to 8 has radius 1, size 9 to 20 has radius 2, ...

Next i would try to figure out how the diplomacy and trade works (it is simple)

PS Dont forget to check the screenshot database (topped in this foum) to at least have an idea of the game looks.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Pedrunn
Eg size 1 to 8 has radius 1, size 9 to 20 has radius 2, ...

This depents on the mod that you are using, in Cradle and in Medpack2 this numbers are correct but if you play the default game or GoodMod for ApolytonPack then a city of size 1 to 6 has a radius of 1. A city of size 7 to 17 has a radius of 2. ... Of course to find out the exact numbers of your mod just check out the citysizeX.txt of the according difficuilt level you are using.

-Martin