New to civII

[calad]

Hello. After playing civIV and civV i started to think older versions of civ-series. Most of people says that civIV is superior to civIII and civV is crap. However many people say that original civ is classic and civII is updated version of original civ.

Before I will buy civII I have few questions:
1: there are couple versions of civII, which one is most recommend?
2: are there recommend mods?
3: how does civII work on windows 7?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I think the only versions of Civ 2 that are available for purchase these days are "Multiplayer Gold Edition" and "Test of Time." Both of these work on 64 bit Windows Operating Systems with the application of a simple patch.

Multiplayer Gold Edition (MGE) is more popular and will be necessary if you want to participate in the Game of the Month. Test of Time (TOT) is to my information (I don't personally own it) aimed at scenario making and playing, so there might be some better mods to play. Check out the Scenario League to find out what kinds of scenarios are for MGE and TOT if you are going to base your decision on the available scenarios.

The "Classic" version of Civ 2 (version 2.42 or earlier) and the Fantastic Worlds expansion are 16 bit games, and won't run without virtualization software. They do have the advantage of having a much more reasonable AI (one that will doesn't hate the human because he is human). You probably won't find these versions unless you buy a CD from someone.

This thread gives some more information about running civ 2 on 64 bit operating systems.

 

[calad]

Thx but that much I already learned from wikipedia.

Im aiming for good sp experience so I will leave out MGE. What are differences between TOT and 2.42 versions? They seems to be much identical.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

TOT has the same hostile AI as MGE. From my understanding it is basically MGE with some greater scenario making capabilities, but TOT can't read MGE saved games (MGE can read 2.42 saved games).

Essentially, the order of the games goes like this:
2.42 and below -- the basic civ 2 game.
Fantastic Worlds -- adds a lot of modding capabilities
MGE -- FW with multiplayer capabilities and also 32 bit game; has a hostile AI
TOT -- I think MGE with extra scenario/modding tools and abilities

There is a method for downgrading MGE to 2.42 (and keeping both versions on your computer), but I've never tried it on a downloaded version of MGE or in a virtualization setting. If you get a "Classic" disk from somewhere, upgrading to MGE is a common process via Cedric's Patch.

 

[Catfish]

The "Classic" version of Civ 2 (version 2.42 or earlier) and the Fantastic Worlds expansion are 16 bit games, and won't run without virtualization software. They do have the advantage of having a much more reasonable AI (one that will doesn't hate the human because he is human).

Maybe some of the regular players of the single-player-mode standard game could road test the AI patches for MGE/ToT to determine if they're a more practical solution for reasonable AI; as opposed to stuffing around with 16-bit versions and virtualisation/dual-booting.

Im aiming for good sp experience so I will leave out MGE. What are differences between TOT and 2.42 versions? They seems to be much identical.

MGE is closer to both of them than they are to each other.

TOT has the same hostile AI as MGE. From my understanding it is basically MGE with some greater scenario making capabilities, but TOT can't read MGE saved games (MGE can read 2.42 saved games).

Yes. The other major difference is appearance.

 

[calad]

No wonder civII is relatively unknown because it is really confusing to separate versions of it.

Anyway I prefer more reasonable ai than good graphics or multiplayer, my choice is 2.42.