Civ 2, MGE, ToT

[CivAgamemnon]

Many moons ago, after I had purchased Civ 3 Vanilla, I came across Civ 2 (original) in a bargain bin. Naturally, I grabbed it - and then a few weeks later, saw ToT in the same bin. Of course, I had to purchase it.

Then I put the games away in some storage box and forgot about them - until recently, when I "rediscovered" them during some cleaning. I decided to install and do some playing, just to see what C2 was all about, and gain some appreciation for what we have in 3. (Note: not a big fan of 4.)

I've done some browsing of the downloads section here, and discovered that I can covert the original to MGE, which is fine by me.

So the question is, once I convert the game to MGE, would installing ToT do any good?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I don't own Test of Time, but I understand it has a lot more features for scenarios than does MGE.

I would advise you to keep a copy of classic civ 2 in a seperate folder. The computer is much more reasonable in classic and therefore actually allows some diplomacy. Also, you can play classic without the CD, if that is an issue.

 

[CivAgamemnon]

Acknowledged. Thank you for the information, Prof. Garfield.

 

[Catfish]

There's a thread with an almost identical title only a few down from this one: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=321804. There are no-CD cracks for all versions; the one for MGE is even hosted here at CFC.

 

[CivAgamemnon]

I must have missed that thread when I was reading this subforum; Thank you, Catfish!

 

[Tasonne]

ToT is sort of like a different game, bud. I've played all of them and, while MGE is virtually identical to Civ II, it does offer extra features that (1) allow users to play scenarios without having to copy and paste all kinds of files, making playing them a lot less of a headache, sometimes (2) are more multiplayer friendly as the title suggests.

Civ II or MGE cannot be upgraded to ToT the same way Civ II can be upgraded to MGE. It is, sort of, the same game as in the units/technologies are the same. Difference is the visuals. ToT's interface is different, units are animated, not unlike Civ III, though they are, in fact, all Civ II units.

Also, the game offers 2 very cool, sort of, "Scenario Modes": A Fantasy scenario with a bunch of different races like elves, orcs, humans and such. Not only that but, one of the things I found reeaally nice about ToT is this particular scenario/mode that offers players a map that encompasses four separate "parallel" maps: underground, sky etc.. I'll let you figure it out The other ToT scenario is a sci-fi one which is pretty cool also.

Overall, IMHO, a very decent game worth playing. MGE is good too and so is the original, and every other one, though, I haven't played IV yet

 

[CivAgamemnon]

Tasonne: That sounds intriguing. I think I'll add it on to MGE.

IMO, don't bother with C4. It's all about graphics and the gameplay's so changed from C3 that it'll make you start grumbling, if you're a Civ Purist. While C2 was a huge step up from C1, and C3 just a little more than C2... well, C4, imo, is a step *backwards* in terms of gameplay. A search of the boards will reveal a lot of the griping that goes on about that.

However, one thing I liked about C4 was the event occurrences, sort of like C2, I guess. That's the one thing C3 lacked - the scripting ability. But the gameplay... ugh. The rules are completely different, and it might as well be a completely different series.

I hope C5 isn't like C4.

And thanks for the advice, man!

 

[McMonkey]

ToT is basically an upgraded version of Civ2. Once you have installed ToT you can run it with the Civ2 disc and you can run Civ2 with the ToT disc. The files will be installed into separate folders so you can run both of them separately, no issues with one overwriting the other. As far as I can gather the idea of ToT was to give a better platform for scenario creation. Improvements from Civ2 and Civ2 MGE include:

- 18 Extra unit slots
- Up to four maps in one scenario
- A much larger events file and more flexible event language (Including flags)
- Improved graphics, both animated ones and 2D ones which are larger and can use more colors
-Extra technology slots
- Features such as Impassable terrain

Some of the finest scenarios for Civ2 have been created using ToT. The biggest improvement IMHO is the much larger events which allow scenario designers to make the AI a real challenging adversory. I never played the basic ToT game as I found the graphics really ugly but everything can be modified so that's not a massive problem. Hope that helps.

 

[CivAgamemnon]

Noted. Thanks, Werd100/McMonkey.

 

[Catfish]

Extra technology slots

It's 100 for all versions. Main differences WRT scenario design are listed here.

@CivAgamemnon:

In case you missed all these links embedded in links, a quick buyer's guide, of sorts, can be found here and a graphics modpack for ToT's Original game, here. The best version really depends on what you use it for, ie, standard game, multi-player or scenarios/modding. If MicroProse had never messed with AI diplomacy (in MGE, inherited by ToT), I could've easily said that ToT, with community-modified graphics, was the best version of the lot - but I can't. In terms of gameplay, ToT's Original game is virtually identical to MGE's standard game.

 

[CivAgamemnon]

@ Catfish: Noted on the links, and thank you. I enjoyed looking over your site. It's well planned out and executed, and I'm sure I'll be grabbing your LotR scenario at some point.

At this point, I'm looking for both single-player and scenario games, so I'll go with ToT. The HoF doesn't interest me, and while PBEM is alright, it's not really a goal for this game as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks again for your help, dude.