CTP2 on XP

[Nikolai]

I just saw a good offer on CTP2 in a shop near me. I haven't played any of the CTP's(I regiatered here around the CTP2 excitement, but decided against it when I read the reviews here at poly), but have noted that it is supposed to be better than what often has been said. I also would like to know for myself if PW is good or not, and not just read about it. My...little... problem is, that I have WinXP, and on the back of the CTP2 CD case, it says that I can't use XP? Is there any way to play it on Xp at all, with some helping program or anything?

[Martin Gühmann]

Re: CTP2 on XP

Originally posted by Nikolai
I just saw a good offer on CTP2 in a shop near me. I haven't played any of the CTP's(I regiatered here around the CTP2 excitement, but decided against it when I read the reviews here at poly), but have noted that it is supposed to be better than what often has been said.

That's right that CTP2 was very well bugged when it was released, but the mods where able to remove some of the flaws and with the source code CTP2 is getting better and better. Currently we are working on the AI, and we still need to do some work, but I think even in the current state the playtest version is worth a look, exspeacilly if you just want to play SP.

Originally posted by Nikolai
I also would like to know for myself if PW is good or not, and not just read about it.

PW was invented to abstract the tarrain improvement, because as a builder you ended in Civ2 with hundrets of settlers just for the sake of improving your terrain. It is a nice concept if you have maybe ten settlers improving your terrain you move the settlers to the next spot to improve and see when the improvement is finished. but if you have 200 of settlers then it is a waste of time. And that's the reason for PW. You just decide were an improvement should be build and give the command to build it given you have enough PW. No need to move around a settler. Some of your production is converted into PW, how much production is converted into PW is determined by the PW tax that you can set. If you compare it to Civ2 then there happend something similar, because the settlers are units and for these units support is needed. And the support is taken from the city production.

Originally posted by Nikolai
My...little... problem is, that I have WinXP, and on the back of the CTP2 CD case, it says that I can't use XP? Is there any way to play it on Xp at all, with some helping program or anything?

There are a lot of people who run the game on WinXP, but as I don't have WinXP I cannot give you usefull information about.

-Martin

[Locutus]

The game runs fine on XP and Activision even 'supports' it. If the packaging says XP is not supported, that's probably a (possible) issue with the installer, not the game itself.

Let me guess: you found the Xplosiv edition? If so, don't worry -- that version installed fine for me. Regardless, if there is a problem installing or running the game we can probably help you here.

[Nikolai]

Xplosiv is the one. Then I'll go buying it next time I am near the store, hoping it's not sold out.

[Locutus]

If it is, I think I still have a few copies lying around

[PhillipAWyllie]

I've got the Activision Value edition, and it seems to work fine on XP. Although just recently when I tried to save a build-que with same name as a previous one( just to overwrite it) the game froze.

[Nikolai]

It seems to work fine for me yet.

[hexagonian]

Play the vanilla game, but be warned - the AI is very poor...

For the best AI Competition you aRe ADised to downLoad onE of the fine player-created Mods.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by hexagonian
For the best AI Competition you aRe ADised to downLoad onE of the fine player-created Mods.

I would just give one advice to you Nikolai, if you start a Cradle game don't set the difficulty too high if you don't want to be wiped out of the map before you reach 0 AD.

By the way, I have Windows XP and CtP2 runs fine on my computer. If you are experiencing some troubles with XP and CtP2 there are a few tricks that can solve most of the problems. Just let us know...

[Nikolai]

Thanks. I had some problems in the start, because I installed two mods and didn't notice I had to change a setting in the .ini file... But after I changed that, it has worked very well. Too many good games and too little time to spare is my main concern now.

[Deathstar]

The only problem I have noticed about CTP2 and Win XP is when you try and install CTP2 with AIM running in the background. Wether this is a Win XP problem or an AIM problem, I am unsure. Just completely close out all AIM processes and CTP2 installs flawlessly. The patch takes time to find on my machine, again, I dont know if this is only from Win XP or my huge amounts of HDD space @ slow RPMs. Cradle seems to be buggy in mp, but works great in sp. The city expansion mod allows you to crank out units very quickly along w/ everything else (PW, units, buildings, etc.). Whats great about the game is it is hugely modable, if you havent already guessed. Come up with a mod and have fun playing.

[Tamerlin]

There are indeed some problems with XP and the 1.11 patch. To solve this problem the Apolyton CtP2 directory is offering a patch that can be "manually" unzipped into the CtP2 folder.