your impresion of the individual WotW and FoWs you have gotten so far,

your inpresion of the "Fix" aplied to units to eliminate Phalanx Vs Battleship-Phalanx Vs Tank problems

also,(in general) how far into the game have you gotten?

My questions:

1) Will Activision continue support of this game AFTER release even if it bombs in sales? Example: new downloadble scenarios, new graphics etc etc

2) How does CTP2 compare with the current benchmark in civ games, SMAC? How does it compare to the granddaddy, civ2? Was it everything CTP was supposed to be? Did they take all the annoyances of CTP away?

3) Based on the current state of CTP2, will it turn into a successful franchise?

2) How are the tools for snenario making, I know it's not you're specialty but maybe you could browse them and give us you're feeling.

3) How is the end of game replay, is it in the game, comparable to Civ I ?

Is the AI capable of launching a concerted assault to take back one of its cities it lost?

Can the AI launch a major amphibeous assault, originating from a distant location and then reinforce its holdings with sea transports?

Is the concept of "Blitzkrieg" feasable in CTP2.

From what i understand of the "Blitzkrieg" (or Lightning War)is that it require Tanks + Motorized Infantery + Airpower and/or Motorized Artillery.

In CTP i couldn't create a true "Blitzkrieg" concept since there was no concept of Motorized Infantery and Artillery. Therefore if you starcked artillery or infantery with your tanks you were slowing down all the stack thus preventing any fast attack in enemy territory (unless you sticked with roads)

From the latest screenshot (preview day 5) i did notice the presence of what seems to be motorized artillery (A truck with some kind of a cannon or missile)

So what about Motorized Infantery?

quote: Originally posted by hexagonian on 11-11-2000 08:22 PM Can the AI launch a major amphibeous assault, originating from a distant location and then reinforce its holdings with sea transports?

If CTP2 AI is able to come close to something like that, i will have to raise my hat to whoever coded that AI

Personnaly i will be happy if the AI is just able to cross the sea.

In CTP1 once i was on an island the only thing i had to worry about was the enemy settlers and the occasionnal stealth unit.

- Does it cost just as many turns/resorces to build any average single military-unit in CTP-2, comparing with any average unit in Civ-2/SMAC?

Many players (including the AI) seems to overemphasize food-production and large city-population (good or bad - thats subjective, i know). I tend to emphasize somewhat smaller cities and have upto 30-40% of the tiles as forrest/mined hills.

- Can i tweak the AI to work towards the same 30-40% resource emphasize - not only through mayors, but also how the AI manage its own AI-controlled cities?

- Is it just as difficult to control big 20-25+ cities in CTP-2 compared with Civ-2/SMAC?
- Is it easier to build these mega-cities? I coudnt help noticing many really big cities, despite the fact that many of its city-area tiles wasnt cultivated.

About government-related max-limits on number of cities, and on overall empire-sizes:

- Any max numbers of cities per government type?
- Any government-related indevidual city-grow limits?
- Does happiness-problems get an increasingly bigger (and finally, almost unsolvable) problem with 30, 40, 50, 60+ empire-cities? Any practical limits? How big can an empire be without self-destruct?

About "settler-mania" (this is a MAJOR issue for me). What im aiming at is the strategy of building settlers, settler and almost only settlers early on (with some early wonders thrown in here and were) until i get at least 20-25 cities - and THEN starting to cultivate these cities, by adding city-improvements and terrain-improvememts. I dont like that and i hope CTP-2 have rules to combate this.

- How many undeveloped cities (without any, or very few city-improvements) can i build early on , before i *must* build more city-improvements? Is there any improvement-related limits on unrealistic super-fast empire expansion?

quote: Originally posted by MarkG on 11-12-2000 05:22 AM [QUOTE]- Is it just as difficult to control big 20-25+ cities in CTP-2 compared with Civ-2/SMAC?

Reply: I mean any indevidual 25+ city.

quote: - How many undeveloped cities (without any, or very few city-improvements) can i build early on, before i *must* build more city-improvements? Is there any improvement-related limits on unrealistic super-fast empire expansion?

Reply: I didnt ask for the government-related limits. I was wondering if there is city-improvement -related limits as well. For example:

- To expand beyond 6 cities; you must build a temple in city 1 to 6.
- To expand beyond 12 cities; you must build temples in city 1 to 12 and marketplaces in at least 6 of them.
- To expand beyond 18 cities; you must build a temple in city 1-18, marketplaces in 12 of them and courthouses in 6 of them.

The configuration temple + marketplace + courthouse is the barebone minimum configuration you have to build in order to expand beyond any 24 > 30 > 36 city empire limits.

Above could be tweakable through the .txt-files; You could choose something else, or [None] if you dont like the idea. Above should of course affect human and AI alike.

If the answer is NO - their arent any such limits: you can, after quickly discovered Monarchy, spray 20 settlers to build 20 cities, and THEN start to build and cultivate them with improvements.

quote: Originally posted by Ralf on 11-12-2000 06:33 AM Thanks MarkQ...

sorry, this post might appear as a bit off-topic but.... isn't his name MarkG? perhaps you mixed him up with DanQ, Ralf? )

How long does it take to play a multiplayer game????????

AI invasions (has been mentioned by others). Test harder - can it (the AI) do it?????

AI defend. Does the AI still get confused if you use a strong task-force and "cut" through its frontline and attack its cities from "inside"?

Because maybe it's a little hard to answer such an question, I'll add a some minor questions:
- making lots of trade routes adds a lot (and I mean A LOT) of money to the treasury?
- does exist a threat like "... or I stop trading with you!" and if exists, does it scare the AI ?
- can you call a trade embargo? I mean, make a request to ALL civs to stop trading with an agressor?
- does a lot of trading between 2 nations improve the diplomatic relations between them?
- is there any other aspect of economy other than trading in the game?
- the traded goods have any other use than the trade route itself (money)?
- are there any new units/city improvements/wonders related to the economy?
- is it possible to help building a wonder with caravans?
- does tourism appear in CTP2 (for the purpose of gold income, of course)?

Finally : can I win the game only trading? (and of course defending my borders ). Can I play Switzerland (or Taiwan, or Hong Kong or somebody like that)?
Btw, it reminds me: can a civ be neutral?

That's it for now. Additional related questions are also wellcomed

Thanks Markos.

P.S. I've just seen the Statistic screen. How is the economic rank calculated?

Thanks.

As I have never played CTP before, how easy is it to jump into the game? Is there a steep learning curve?

Can you give us anything else, or maybe more details, about the 32 civ situation?

When you speak about number of city limit under such and such a government, how is it limited? By increased inefficiency or the like?

How bad can my questions get?

Mark theres a question in there somewhere

70 by 140 for maps that appalling.. Also I think I recognise that "giagantic" world map it looks very similar to the world map in MPS CIV1 which has to be at least 10 years old!!!!!!

Now Im sure I saw a World map for CTP1 that was similar in size to the MPS Civ2 world map which was alot bigger...Any chance you can import the CTP world map into CTP2 with the scenario editor?

Anyone know if the developers plan on increasing the map size in a patch?? It seems to me that its a bit silly to increase the game lengh by 150 turns but make the map smaller..(compared to CTP1)

As judging by one of the polls on this site regarding what sort of scenarios people would play most, said historical earth maps of one era or another I would imagine Im not the only one less than impressed...

Regards

- When you are allied with a civ, does it mean that all the other treaties (science, trade, military) are automatically activated or should you propose each treaty separately ?
- Is there an order in which you must propose the treaties, or you can propose whatever you want? Is there a logical order between treaties ?(for ex., can I propose alliance or science treaty even if I don't have trade treaty?) Are there any interdependencies between treaties? (other than the obvious ones )
- Does each type of treaty improve the relations independently? So, a science treaty is just a treaty, that gives you science bonus, or does it also improves relations?
- Is the trade treaty a prerequisite for sending caravans, or just a bonus?
- I presume a war cancels all treaties.