CTP: Should I Even Ask?

[MikeLynch]

OK, a while back I picked y'all's brains regarding Civ3 and modding it to be more like Civ2, just with added features.

I spent the last three months or so on that project and decided ToT was still better (for my purposes). But I know I will miss some of Civ3's goodies.

Now I'm pondering Call to Power. Never played it, but I know it comes after ToT and you can have a bunch more enemy civs in one game.

Anybody familiar with CTP from either a playing or modding perspective? How is it? What's different? What's possible?

 

[Joeb WK]

Call to Power isnt as bad a game as people will tell you but it isnt anywhere near as good as Civ many people feel angry towards CTP because they felt cheated when they bought it thinking it its was the sequel to Civ 2. Personally I think its worth buying if you see it for under a £5 but over that its not really worth it. It has some interesting features such as Slavery,puplic works,underwater cities,the ability to bombard cities and uncoventialnal warfare as well as going into a strange future. I found the game play in it quite slow and theyre where long periods without much happening. My favourite part of the game was when you built this ai entiety wonder and this wonder movie comes up with this pyraimid shaped computer this with eye on top saying "With out good no evil without want no lack the circuit is one and one is the machine." and then it starts flashing I SEE ALL it was really strange.

 

[Mercator]

If you're tempted to buy CtP, buy CtP2. The source code for CtP2 was released, so some good might come of that yet... You still need a CtP2 CD for that, in case you were wondering why you should buy it at all if the source code was released.

But I'm not familiar with CtP. Well, I borrowed CtP from a friend years ago, but I only played it for a day or something, so I don't remember.

 

[PeteT]

For a comparison of CTP2 and Civ3, go here:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112597

CTP2 is much more moddable than any other civ game but you have to have some programming experience (or a lot of time to learn) to implement your ideas.

 

[MikeLynch]

Those words -- "much more moddable than any Civ game" -- have got me salivating.

Excuse me for a moment.

*wipe wipe*

Okay, now I have to see about acquiring this game, for starters.

 

[yoshi]

I have it but the last time I played it was...I can't even remember. Yes, it's VERY moddable. As for features, just to give you an example: counter-bombardment (if artillery bombards your artillery, your artillery bombards back). The battle-view looks corny but has its interesting elements. There is also unit grouping. You should check out one of the CtP2 WW2 mods/scens.

The main reason why people don't play it much is because of their bad experiences with the lame vanilla game and the fact that it's a tad glitchy.

You should be able to find it quite easily but it may cost you a bit more than what JWK said as gaming shop owners are quick to jip innocent gamers.

 

[MikeLynch]

The battle-view looks corny but has its interesting elements.

I assume it's animated? I also assume this would cause a problem for someone (say, me) who wanted to replace all the graphics with Civ2-style graphics?

You should be able to find it quite easily but it may cost you a bit more than what JWK said as gaming shop owners are quick to jip innocent gamers.

I scored it on eBay for $15 (after shipping IIRC). Not bad, but not awesome.

 

[yoshi]

I assume it's animated? I also assume this would cause a problem for someone (say, me) who wanted to replace all the graphics with Civ2-style graphics?

You can disable that feature.

I scored it on eBay for $15 (after shipping IIRC). Not bad, but not awesome.

A bit pricy for Ebay but what's a few dollars more...

If you want to see the good stuff you have to look at the guts; forget the vanilla game--it sucks big time. Try DLing a scen from Poly.


Check out the tutorials for CTP. It's far more complex (and unecessarily complicated in many ways) than one initially thinks--one of the reasons why many civers stuck with Civ2.

 

[MikeLynch]

You can disable that feature.

Yaaaay!

It's a good thing I've already resigned myself to digging around in CtP2's "guts" when it arrives, since it looks like that's the only way to get my money's worth.

 

[yoshi]

If you're going to be working on CtP2, you might want to check out what they're doing with the source code. If you do, post anything of interest in the thread in my sig.

 

[Newbunkle]

I have CTP. There was an annoying bug in it that got me every time I tried piracy. If you disconnected a rival's trade route, then they would keep accusing you of the same incident forever, even if you make peace with them later. It screwed up diplomacy for the rest of the game. I guess they might have fixed it in a patch, but is it realyl worth looking for it now that I have civ 3?

 

[yoshi]

...Civ3 has it's share of bugs.

 

[Ekmek]

A lot has been fixed (and added) with the source code patches. THe nice thinkg is with the code out, problems and additions can always be addressed. Civ3's tech suport is over...

 

[Maquiladora]

I assume it's animated? I also assume this would cause a problem for someone (say, me) who wanted to replace all the graphics with Civ2-style graphics?

Not a problem at all, it just depends how much detail you want. The most important thing IMO is similarity between sprites. You could convert all the civ2 units exactly as they appear in civ2 and this would be fine, but mixing them with fully animated or different sized units would be odd-looking. You could even convert the civ2 terrain, city sprites, goods, tile imps, everything and create an even more coherent whole. You can do whatever you want, there are no boundaries in CtP2 now.

Im attempting to convert Red Front for CtP2, something like 100+ new sprites have already been made for it in the space of a month, so nothing is impossible. Could you create Red Front with events in civ3? Hell no. In CtP2? Of course.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130853

 

[Maniacal]

i bought CTP2 for $20 canadian a few years ago, i bought it over CTP1 as i figured the sequel would be better, WRONG, CTP2 is good, but has less units then CTP1 and u cant see the space ship, YOUR ONLY SPACESHIP is a troopcarrier, still, good game and i fire it up for something different.

 

[MikeLynch]

You could even convert the civ2 terrain, city sprites, goods, tile imps, everything and create an even more coherent whole.

This is what I (eventually) intend to do, basically. Right now, though, I'm a little burned out on Civ-modding, after spending three months on Civ3 before realizing that its multiplayer mode sucked so much a$$ that I had to abandon it.

 

[Maquiladora]

This is what I (eventually) intend to do, basically. Right now, though, I'm a little burned out on Civ-modding, after spending three months on Civ3 before realizing that its multiplayer mode sucked so much a$$ that I had to abandon it.

I hear you, I go through periods, multiplayer and modding (CtP2 of course). There have been a couple of people who tried a Civ2 mod over on Apolyton before (including me) but I gradually left it, lack of time mostly. There is at the moment a Civ3 mod in the works too. http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130520