Gripes/Likes about CTP2

[Cyrius]

Ok everyone, first, everyone needs to realize this game was just CTP with a makeover. Thats all it was! face it. I don't think we should have paid $50 for a makeover. But I did. And here's what I thought:

Almost immediately after opening the package I was totaly shocked to find that the enitre space portion of CTP1 had been completely cut out. The only survivor was the space plane. Not much of a survivor. I realize some people didn't think the space section of the game had any relevance to the game, but for me that was the biggest reason I played. I loved trying to build those spaceships - it was a goal. And the idea of having huge colonies floating in space directly above the enemy empires was really cool. I really didn't care about the underwater cities - I was a bit urked that they were better in so many ways than ground or space cities (I am very disapointed to find they are just as hard to attack in CTP2 - underwater breathing should allow ground troups to walk on ocean floor or something). And whats up with this gaia controller crap? Haven't gotten that far, so it might be interesting, but it doesn't seem like it...

Why did they have to completely remove space? I haven't reached the modern age in CTP2 yet, but every time I think about space being completely removed it makes me think, "why keep playing?" I'm sooo ticked. Arg.

Ok, ok, enough on that. Space was the #1 reason I played CTP1, and #2 was the combat system. I'm very happy to see that system is still alive and kicking. It seems like the ancient age actually lasts longer, and I spend time marching armies of warrior/hoplites/archers around, which is very cool. The addition of flanking units is certainly unusual, and I haven't decided if I like it yet or not. The new battle maps are intersting (city ones). Since I haven't reached the modern age yet I don't know if they resolved the problem with air vs. ground and air vs. navy, or ground vs. navy, which were all critical problems in CTP1. An army of hoplites could possibly take out a tank somehow, but never a fighter jet. That was sad.

Gripe #2: What happened to controling your cities?!? This method of automatically placing workers drives me nuts. I put a farm down, and wonder, will this do anything? I have no idea. Speacilists? It used to be if you had four grasslands and the rest swamps/deserts you put the first four ppl as workers and the rest as labourers/scientists, and this worked fine. But now a specialist just detracts (very bizarrly) from the other resources. Its just plain frustrating to build city imps, tile imps, and pick specialists and have no idea what impact your changes are having exaclty. So now I just build stuff I feel like building, for no real good reason. Its sad. I capture computer cities and they have food incomes almost twice most of my cities and I don't know why. Arg!

There is one good improvement in CTP2. AI. Diplomacy seems to funciton much better to me, and I really like that. I can actually make some friends fairly easily in CTP2. Not very many friends, but it is possible. It even seems like the AI makes an attempt to remove ppl from your country when you demand it. They don't succeded, but at least it looks like their trying. Stupid greeks landed 3-4 archers on my continent and when I demanded they leave they tried to walk out but of course they coudln't since they'd come by boat, so they just walked as far as they could and fortifed. Really annoying. I just killed em all. Still, there are some major problems with diplomacy/AI:
1. NO WARNING BEFORE ATTACKING ALLIES. This is nuts! I really hope somebody knows of an option that will turn this on or something. I was at peace with french, had military and research treaties with them, and then I accidently attacked a hoplite while trying to move a warrior, and BAM! Everything was over. This is ridiculous! It causes frequent re-loads of autosaves.
2. Failure to withdraw. Even though they might make some kind of attempt, I'd dare anyone to actually speak of a time when the computer actually withdrew all its troups from a player's territory. I don't think it is actually possible.
3. Diplomacy system is complicated and bizzare. I read the rules on what tones to use, but do they really make any difference? If they do, I can't tell how. Also, the offering/requesing system is wierd. Comps give unusual counter offers sometimes, or reject outright good offers.

Gripe #3: The civs. Nicuraguans? I'm sorry, but I thought enough people complained about this last time to get the devs to put in some sensible civs. I saw a CTP2 add in a magazine which read "What if the Aztecs invaded Spain?" Well, we won't find out here, cause instead we've got the Mayans! Geez. Canadians? Please. This is sad, and should have been changed. SECONDLY, Why the heck didn't they bother to change the city models?!?! They could have just included that city model mod we had for CTP1!!! Instead, the Mayans have middle eastern architecture. Arg!

IN CONCLUSION, I'm going back to the store tommorow to buy a copy of CTP1 since my x-friend took my old copy with him. Throw in a few mods and patches, and viola! I've got a better CTP1 than 2. Anyone else see this as sad?


P.S. Oh, btw, the map is prettier. And thats nice. But the world map in the corner? That definately got uglier. Oh, the inclusion of the Earth map is nice too. But ppl really shouldn't be able to cross Panama unless they build a city there (the canal). After all, this was a major issue in human histroy for hundreds of years. Borders are nice too. Expanding City land usage is interesting too. And the city planner (I haven't got one yet) sounds like a nice idea.