I wish all of you a happy new year. It has been a considerably long time since I have posted to these forums, and I hope that everyone has had a sterling new year. I am here to offer you the christian perspective on call to power 2, as well as a general review of the game itself.

Initial comments: spectacular. Frankly, it has been a long while since I have had such a hard time ending a session of civilization. The Call to Power team has done an excellent job of modeling civilization, and conforming themselves to every single ideology that a player can conceive of. How does this break down for those of the christian persuasion? The televangelists are finally somewhat decent, and there are no longer the ludicrous comments originally contained in Call to Power 1. As a result, Christians should NOT boycott this game. This game allows you to build a flourishing christian empire. They allow for those whose political ideologies heavily influenced by theology to build theocracies, and expand the influence of religion abroad. While I think that even more detail can be provided in these areas, and while I think they should have been a bit more generous on the science and production side of the theocratic goverment (christian nations are well known for achieving the greatest scientific advancement), and while I also think they should have made a difference between theocracy and ecclesiocracy (a theocracy believes in the separation of church and state, but NOT God and state), all in all there are a variety of options for the player interested in pursuing civilization with a distinctly christian perspective.

They also incorporated my suggestion about a having enhanced nuclear diplomacy: way to go! This was an excellent enhancement to the game design and the advanced diplomatic option really add the edge to the game that I was looking for in the older versions. The AIs seem especially intelligent in this game as well. I wish that the instruction manual would have made clearer exactly how you destroy your reputation however. There are times when I request troops withdraw from within my borders, and when they do not comply I declare war. I am not sure if this damages my reputation, but it shouldn't since a legitmate request of troop withdrawl was made in advance. The designers do not go into detail about how the AI thinks about these things specifically. That is something that can be improved. However, nuclear treaties and advanced options more than make up for this drawback.

Finally, there is no more farfetched speculation about the future of the world. The science fiction has been toned down to a more reasonable level and an emphasis on historicity has been added. This has made the game much more enjoyable.

BOTTOM LINE: Christians and everyone else- this is definitely an excellent buy, and the best civilization game to date.

My rating is 9/10.

"The AI seems especially intelligent"?

Hello?

cf the original CivNation's posts in: ../../Forum35/HTML/000226.html

../../forums/Archives/Archive-000002/HTML/20001229-23-016680.html

Jesus Christ is LORD, and His law must rule over the nations, and will rule over the nations.

I don't have anything against reigion, just people who take every opportunity to ram it down the throats of others and in inappropriate places, like this forum. I honestly believe that zealots like you put more people off of religion than you could possibly convert.

------------------
"They let the ground keep that ancestral treasure,
gold under gravel, gone to earth,
as useless to men now as it ever was."
From Beowulf

"BARBARA BOXER AND DIANNE FEINSTEIN, GIVE MARXISM A BAD NAME! THEY BOTH MEWEL AND WHINE SENSELESS
BABBLE, THAT NO SELF-RESPECTING FIVE-YEAR-OLD WOULD BELIEVE! JUST SHUT UP, FOOLS!"

CivNation, I do have a question for you - While religions flurished in many forms across the globe since the first tribe formed, it was only within a short time that Jesus, Allah, and Buddha all came about. Frankly, it seems that great civilizations might need a central unifying religion. This being the case, shouldn't that be a major element of the teck tree. After all, we have concepts of government, why not further concepts of religion?

Regardless of your thoughts on this matter, it bears examination. For example, I love railroads, I'd talk about them when I can (horay Southern Pacific!). However, I'd fell pretty pissed if the game decided not to include railroads as a tech addition. Frankly, Railroads had a huge impact, and it would really suck if Activision wasn't comefortable with the idea of them and left them out.

Anyway, a post is a post. If you feel that someone is ramming something down your throat, close your mouth.

I've read the other past posts by him. He's (or even she) is either a zealot or a troll. I really don't care which. I really hope he's a troll, but zealots like that usually cause more harm than good. people get persecuted, burnt at crosses, etc by people that say the say things he did. If you think I'm being harsh, check out his past postings. He advocates stoning! No, I'm sorry, I've spent too many years fighting for the ideals of freedom and being sent to the armpits of the world to abide him.

quote: Originally posted by CivNation2001 on 01-04-2001 04:45 AM Those who do not convert to Jesus Christ will perish utterly. The judgment and wrath of God rests upon all who do not sign the treaty of King Jesus and do not unconditionally surrender to His rule.

Well, looks like I'll perish then.

Really, what difference does what he says make?

As far as zelots resulting in needless deaths, agonies, and such, you can point to the crusades, the inquisition, the conquestidores, and several other (for a want of a better phase) localized horrors.

Governments, on the other hand, firebomb entire cities (and have thrown in a couple of nukes, too). They have been behind vertually every horror of every century. So if its overall bodycount, I'm certain that governments have killed, maimed, and tortured far more people than religious institutions.

Further, the concept of charity is a christian church function. That dosn't show up in your tech tree - its a church issue. Other insitutions might piggyback on it, but its been largely a Christian effort over the long dark centuries.

So if the guy wants to talk about how he views the game from a religious perspective, why the heck not. We have people looking at it from diplomacy, trade, and every other way.

Its just words.

Some other CivNation stuff:
../../Forum6/HTML/001191.html