Mod advice

[Barley]

Ive been playing CTP2 for 3 years, mostly MP games but ive been attracted to try the Mods as a new venture this year (dont know why I havnt before - maybe the fear of change or worried I may mess up my PC / copy of CTP2 - yes im a technophobe).

I have a couple of questions.

1) Which Mod/Mods would you advise me to use as a starting point? - Cradle sounds interesting but im not sure if its to big a jump with all the new units, advances etc to contend with, or maybe Apolyton Pack or then there is Medieval Mod. Im not sure which one and would appreciate some advice.

2) Are the Mods single entities, i.e. you only use one or can they be combined? - I presume they are just dowloaded to your CTP2 folder and replace other files and thus should be used singularly.

3) As I play CTP2 Multiplayer games very often, for which I would need to revert to the original game, how would this be managed? Can the Mods be turned on/off easily and how is this done or would I have to create a seperate version of CTP2 in a different folder or something?

Many thanks...

[Maquiladora]

Id have a totally seperate installations of CtP2 for mods and one for MP. I had some strange problems with trying to play unmodded when id installed mods and modswapper, and when something does go wrong you can be confident its not the mods messing it up.

Id start with Apolyton Pack, it has all the same techs, units, wonders, buildings etc but the AI is tougher (read tougher only, not smarter).

[Barley]

Thanks mate, ill install it at the weekend when I have time to sort things out and mess around.

Guess ill be back with probs and questions re the installation.

[Tamerlin]

Can't help you with your questions related to MP but I can tell you as Maquiladora wrote it earlier that you should start with the SAP2, this mod is really CtP2 as it should have been, the concepts of the original games are the same.

If I were you, before installing a mod, I would copy my whole CtP2 folder into my activision folder and name it "Call to Power 2 MP" (it works, I have done it for the Democracy Game). The only difference is that you will have to start the game from the executable in the "Call to Power 2 MP" folder instead of using the shortcut in your Start Menue.

Then, install modswapper into your regular "Call to power 2" folder and do the same with the SAP2. You will then start a SAP2 game from the modswapper shortcut that will appear into your Start Menue.

Of course you will not forget to change the DebugSlic=Yes line of your userprofile.txt to DebugSlic=No because you will have read the Readme file provided with the SAP2.

[Pedrunn]

Re: Mod advice

Originally posted by Barley
2) Are the Mods single entities, i.e. you only use one or can they be combined? - I presume they are just dowloaded to your CTP2 folder and replace other files and thus should be used singularly.

Yes they are single entities and cant be combined. Except in case of expansions like GoodMod can be played together with SAP2 making a new game.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The files dont get replaced at all. Thats how Modswapper works. You install Modswapper and then can install all mods at once. When launching Modwapper each mod became a option to choose from, including the original game. So dont worry about messing out your CTP2. Or worry about having to reinstall a mod everytime you played another mod. Just choose your modswapper option.

Originally posted by Barley
3) As I play CTP2 Multiplayer games very often, for which I would need to revert to the original game, how would this be managed? Can the Mods be turned on/off easily and how is this done or would I have to create a seperate version of CTP2 in a different folder or something?

As answered before, dont worry. To play the original game just choose the modswapper option: Original Game. And about turning off mods? hah. No need too. Since you can have as many mods you want in you CTP2 directory, the only problem in changing a mod for a new game is to choose the best choice in the modswapper.

[Maquiladora]

Id still be careful Barley, Modswapper does change the game files but some mods overwrite the pictures and some files that modswapper doesnt use and this can cause resynchs every turn they are different on each players machine.

[Barley]

The only difference is that you will have to start the game from the executable in the "Call to Power 2 MP" folder instead of using the shortcut in your Start Menue

Where is this, can someone give me the path?

[Barley]

Ive installed Modsswapper and SAP2, I started the game from SAP2 but there is nothing different visually i.e. the game options, map sizes, difficulty levels all appear the same as the original game.

Is something wrong as I was expecting more difficulty levels in the list (the Mega map seems no bigger either).

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Barley
Where is this, can someone give me the path?

I believe he means that he has made a copy of the entire CTP2 directory and called it "Call To Power 2 MP" - so where it is on your machine is nowhere yet...

[Barley]

Ive copied the folder, I meant where is the executable - what is the path within the CTP game to find this?

[Maquiladora]

...Call To Power 2\ctp2_program\ctp same folder as servers.dat