CTP: The Best Civ, or TBS, Game Ever?

[Lord Maxwell]

Well, I'll give you a run down of what I felt was the respective strengths and weaknesses of CTP and smac.

CTP has a better combat system. (It's almost as if armies are fighting. Not quite there yet, but almost.)

Ctp had (but no longer has it appears) a crappy interface, while smac has a great one. (Ctp has some features I sure would have liked to see in smac, like riot warnings.)

Smac's design workshop makes you dance with joy. Customizing units for the job at hand is just great. Gotta love it. (Esp in multiplayer, where you can expect some wicked combinations in return.) I never really liked static unit types again after that. (Off course, the best design workshop, as well as the best ai, goes hands down to a weird old game called Stars! (Of which there soon will be a new, and amazingly enough, commercial runnerup, Stars! Supernova.)

AI-Well, I never played CTP long enough to see how badly it cheats. I enjoyed that people who couldn't see cloaked units couldnät figure out who was responsible for the eco-rangers.
Smacs ai-well, it could have been better. But it was pretty good, best I have seen. (Lack in-depth analysis of ctp here, remember that I have some 400 hours playing smac behind me now.

Civilization feel. Well, I didn't quite enjoy all the things in smac, but neither did I like the entire tech tree in ctp either. A draw.

Movies-smacs wonderful, often sarcastic and humourous, movies win every day of the week. (Not that it matters much, but the beautiful filming from the inside of a chicken factory when you build cloning vats makes me heart warm every time.)

Best civ game- Neither!
Civilization, the very first one, wins it hands down. No contest. Ain't even close. Ok, if you play it today it sucks.
Neither would Da Vincis models make a very big impact today, but for it's time it was THE ´best game.
You have to compare it to contemporary games and technology. Nothing in ctp or smac is revolutionary in any way. They do not make use of modern development to any extent at all. (While civ had some nifty world building routines, which I think they pioneered back then.)
It just had the most bang for it's age. (A catapult hasn't got much to say in the modern age, but it sure dominates the game for quite a while.

Civ is the best civ game. Really. What are we debating here?

Now, I sure prefer playing smac today. (Might even get turned on to ctp now that some of the most tedious elements are gone.

But civ is the best civ game. Runner ups never compete.

[Nordicus]

LM:
Very well expressed and thoguht-out points. I respect your views, and I can respect anyone who has at least given it a shot without shooting it in the head just "cuz it ain't Civ2" or Civ1.
I have never played SMAC (personally, I like down to "earth" types, myself, so to speak ), so my bashing it is either jokingly, sardically, or to show SMACers how it feels when a game is accused of sucking unfairly. Hey, if someone thinks CTP sucks, well, that's their opinion--I'm not a crusader. But if it's attacked constantly without thought or reason or logic...then I must defend what's right, which is why I started this thread--> so that some positives can come out, so that some support can grow for what could very rationally be the best Civ-type ever, and so that we can stop (or pause, in some cases) pissing and moaning about and maybe do something about...since there's so much that can be done in CTP, having been thru a lot (but not all yet) of the files, I can say that we've barely touched the surface.

But I very much agree that the original Civilization was a classic, and always will be (can't count how many times I played it, it was, for its time, out-standing in so many ways), but those days are gone.
Anyway, I can appreciate your opinions

[Nordicus]

*bump*

[Nordicus]

*bump*

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"There can be no maximum of creation without a concomitant maximum of destruction, no supreme good without supreme evil"--Heller, paraphrasing Nietzsche.

"The more passion for the argument, the less evidence for it"--Russel.

"Getting hit with a bat is the business of the victim."--Berzerker.

[Nordicus]

*booom-puh*

[Kyle]

Curious, the one's saying that CtP is good, etc, are you playing the original game (w/ patches) or the game with patches and mod packs?


When I had the game installed (had to take it off, stopped working) I didn't use any mod packs. I found the game to be mediocre compared to Civ2 and SMAC.

[DaveVegas]

I think you guys have a screw loose. CTP is a big disappointment as a turn-based game. I have been playing Civ ever since it first came out. CTP ends up being very boring and lacks the "whats going to happen next turn" addiction. I never even could finish a game. There isn't one magazine that gave it a good score! You guys should just forget the piece of crap game that it is! My opinion backed by all major magazines!

quote: Originally posted by Nordicus on 10-28-1999 01:54 PM Okay, fellow Civers. We've heard the complaints, know about the bugs, the *ahem* reasoning about how it's the 'worst' game of all-time, but this is question here: Is it the best Civilization, or Turn-Based-Strategy, game ever? I'll vote first. 1. Best Civ game? Yes. Despite it's faults, its bugs, and the Civ2 stuff they left out of it, I think that the logical view is that, without having tried TOT or SMAC, it kicks butt! Pound for pound, I think it's better than Civ and Civ2. 2. Best TBS? I don't know. I haven't played every TBS out there, so I'll decline from giving an opinion on that side. And... 3. If you don't have an opinion about either or don't think it's in 1 or 2, what's something you like about CTP? ...I like lots of things, which I'll include later, but for now... What do you think?

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[DaveVegas]

Hey now here is a dude who knows turn based games! I am a SMACX player myself. Which is better than SMAC! Wake up and start playing the best turn based games!

quote: Originally posted by ProvostB on 10-28-1999 10:59 PM the best TBS game out there is SMAC. Period.

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[DaveVegas]

Okay it is obvious that you can not afford to buy another game besides CTP? It is the worst turn based game out there. What are you guys thinking? Gamespot gives it a 3 or 4 I think it was. There isn't nothing you can base it on. It is the most boring turn based game there is. It is too bad Firaxis did not design it. It could have been real good just lame programmers! Give it up, it is a dead horse!

quote: Originally posted by Locutus on 12-15-1999 03:22 PM Your absolutely right, Nordicus. Let's not get distracted by misguided and pathetic people like AH or Bkeela. We know better than that. Ctp is the best TBS game of all!

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[DaveVegas]

Logically you think that CTP is a good game? Then where is your logic? I have been using computers since 1979 I have seen it all. I have played the best and worst. Turn based games are my favorite. CTP could have been good, but the way it is, logically you can not defend it. It totally sucks big time. I know of no one but you guys on here that seem to like it. List pros and cons and the cons will out do the pros. There are not enough good points about the game. I love SMAC and SMACX and CIV II and CIV I. They are the best turn based games. I have everyone that has been made since 1995. It is not an opinion really it is now a fact if you even look at polls. No rating over 4 out of 10 makes it a bomb!

quote: Originally posted by Nordicus on 12-19-1999 12:18 PM LM: Very well expressed and thoguht-out points. I respect your views, and I can respect anyone who has at least given it a shot without shooting it in the head just "cuz it ain't Civ2" or Civ1. I have never played SMAC (personally, I like down to "earth" types, myself, so to speak ), so my bashing it is either jokingly, sardically, or to show SMACers how it feels when a game is accused of sucking unfairly. Hey, if someone thinks CTP sucks, well, that's their opinion--I'm not a crusader. But if it's attacked constantly without thought or reason or logic...then I must defend what's right, which is why I started this thread--> so that some positives can come out, so that some support can grow for what could very rationally be the best Civ-type ever, and so that we can stop (or pause, in some cases) pissing and moaning about and maybe do something about...since there's so much that can be done in CTP, having been thru a lot (but not all yet) of the files, I can say that we've barely touched the surface. But I very much agree that the original Civilization was a classic, and always will be (can't count how many times I played it, it was, for its time, out-standing in so many ways), but those days are gone. Anyway, I can appreciate your opinions

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[MidKnight Lament]

I still play plenty of CTP (granted that I didn't buy SMAC) and still have loads of fun. I've got both the patches, but haven't used any mods. I've only just finished deity. Next I'm going to win without loading the game (to cheat) once, and after that I'll try out Awesome AIs. I wanted to beat the game fair and square before I tried out any mods.

I am not at all sorry I bought CTP. And it still greatly amuses me that so many CTP bashers frequent the CTP forum. What, are you having a bad day and need to take it out on something?

Just because we enjoy CTP doesn't mean that we're imbeciles.

- MKL

[WesW]

I don't know why I am bothering to refute Mr. Las Vegas' list the things he likes better about SMAC (he *did* list some, didn't he?). Anyway, here are some quotes of mine from earlier in this thread:

I played SMAC for about a month or two, and got tired of it because it was so much like civ II.
The social engineering model was very good. It really made you think. This was about the only major improvement though, imo.
The diplomacy had more options, sure, but the attitude and actions of the AI was essentially unchanged from civ II.
The 3d terrain loses its novelty after a while, and the unit design shop gets to be a pain after a while.
The design shop and the faction advantages are from MOO2, btw, which I played for over a year, so maybe that is why they grew stale for me.
Utrecht's gripes are all valid, but most all of them have been corrected my the mod-makers here.

About SMAC: Look inside the AI cities- you'll see the same ineptitude that is in civ II. There is no co-ordination between the settlers and the cities, the improvements they build are stupid choices, a lot of their force disposition is the same way. If you could look at the source code for SMAC, I bet at least 90% at the AI routines are copied from civ ii. It's sad, because the effort put into the storyline, improvements, Planet and all that is very, very impressive. But you strip away the few added features, and it's just civ ii with new graphics, and the things from MOO2 I mentioned earlier. CTP out of the box wasn't any better, but it is now with the work the people here have done on it, and it just keeps getting better.
CTP's interface takes time to get used to, and could probably be improved, but a smooth interface don't mean beans if the AI is so incompetent it's insulting, and that's what civ II's became after I knew enough to evaluate it throughly.

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Yeah, can you believe it. I got wiped out on chieftain. -Don Blevens (aka Scorpion59)

This last one is from the CtP II forum:

As far as gameplay and game engine and basic code go, I have played both civ I and II, SMAC, plus MOO and MOO 2, and many scenario-based games from Panzer General to Imperialism to the Heroes of M&M series.
It's CtP that I keep coming back to, because, with some mods I made, the AI in CtP can now clearly outperform that found in any of the Sid Meier games. If you were to pit the AI in Ctp with the AAips versus that in SMAC (which is almost exactly the same as in Civ II), the game would be over in less than 200 turns, imo.
When you get past the new-ness of better options to do this and that, and choosing govs and so-forth, the only thing that really matters is the competancy of your opponent, and the AI in the current Sid games is almost completely imcompetent in non-tactical aspects, imo.
[This message has been edited by WesW (edited March 28, 2000).]

[Nordicus]

Oh...here's another one.
Great points, Wes. But I envision yet another "It sucks"/"It rocks" variety of *ahem* logical argumentation.
Everyone's entitled to their opinions.
(And, ah, yes, popular opinion is equated with factuality, isn't it?
BTW, here's one of mine:

quote: But I think a few will eventually give it another go--how old is Civ2 already? And if they don't, oh well. They'll probably be that way until they're toothless old men, sitting in a park, yelling out to passers-by: "When I was young...Civ2 was the best! And SMAC is still better than this new-fangled Civ8 they have out now...."

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"There can be no maximum of creation without a concomitant maximum of destruction, no supreme good without supreme evil"--Heller, paraphrasing Nietzsche.

"The more passion for the argument, the less evidence for it"--Russel.

"If you don't agree with me, you're in denial."


[This message has been edited by Nordicus (edited March 28, 2000).]

[WesW]

Bumped in response to similar threads now active.