First CTP in Korea? In Asia?

[marcuspeddle]

Today I walked into the office and there on the desk was the Fed-Ex package I was waiting for. Inside was possibly the first copy of CTP in Korea or Asia (I ordered direct from Activision). During spare time during the day I sized up the tech tree and read through part of the manual. I was pretty excited when I finished my last class and got home to my computer!

The game loaded with no problems and I thought the artwork and music were good. There was one tune in particular that sounds very epic. After loading I started a new game on easy level with all the default world settings. When the game started I built a city right away because the terrain looked good. I'm playing the Koreans, by the way, so my first city is Seoul. I used the build queue to build two hoplites and a settler (that's what they suggest in the manual so I played along). After exploring around for a site for a new city I realised I'd been stuck on an island with mostly desert and swamp terrain. Aarrgh! Anyway, I built five cities on the island, including one up north where I found jade (represented by a statue of Buddha) sitting in the middle of jungle and blocked off from the rest of the island by swamp. Nice touch, actually. I like the idea of a 'lost city' in the middle of the jungle with a big Buddha next to it. I built a couple of coracles and put some settlers on the land mass next to my island. There I discovered the Americans who refused a peace treaty or even an exchange of maps. A little later they contacted me and asked to sign a peace treaty. I've also found the Irish and the English. I bullied the English into signing a peace treaty and bullied the Irish into exchanging maps.

The game is going slowly because I'm playing on an easy level and I'm on an island seperated from everyone else. It's taking me a while to get used to the interface but it seems very good. I just learned how to trade and it's great. No more guiding caravans across continents, putting them on boats and getting them slaughtered in some foreign land. The graphics and music are nice but the units move a little slowly for my taste. I guess I'm just used to Civ2 where the move was instant (no animated sprites). I haven't had any crashes but there was a moment after I built the pyramids when I thought the program had locked up. No problem, though.

I think my first game is going to be slow and a little confusing until I get used to all the controls. I've only had battles with barbarians but they went okay. the army making feature is great for escorting settlers around. I'm still in the Ancient Age but will soon be moving into the next one. Then I can build longships and get out of the shallows!

I'll write more about my impressions of the game as I keep playing. So far, I give it a thumbs up. When it's available in your country run to the store and pick up a copy.


------------------
A civilisation is great when old men plant trees they will not live to sit under.

[marcuspeddle]

I played more after my posting yesterday and I got into a was with the Americans. They stationed a hoplite near one of my cities and I asked them to moce but they wouldn't. Then I threatened them with war but they still wouldn't budge. So . . . I brought out an army and killed the hoplite. The States declared war on me (I should have declared was first but I wasn't thinking about how my regard would be affected. Oops) and I marched into two of their cities with few casualties. After resting up a little I went for the capital and crushed their defences but at the cost of almost all my units. I was using ranged, defensive, and flanking units and that's what probably saved me. After building up my army again I took the last city on the island. The Americans now only have Glasgow (taken from the Scots, obviously) which is on another land mass. When I get some decent ships I'm going to go over there, take the city, and give it back to the Scots and see if they'll sign a peace treaty.
I don't have any complaints about the game so far and I'm into the renaissance era. The ancient era passed very slowly which is what I always wanted in Civ2. I noticed the glitch that someone mentioned about dead soldiers standing up before the screen closes but it doesn't affect game play so it's no big deal. I just imagine it's the soul of the dead soldier getting an early start on the journey to the hereafter. I'm playing Korea so I wish the units looked like Koreans instead of everyone looking the same. I wonder how much more disk space you would need to have different looking units for every civilisation? More than it's worth? I'm having a bit of a problem finding my way around various menus but I think that's just because it's the first time I played. I'm sure a couple days more playing will fix that. When I played CTP I thought the battle screens were stupid and time wasting but this time around I like them. It's very satisfying (and sadistic?) to see my new infantryman gun down the enemy's hoplites. Combat seems balanced but I haven't gotten through much of the game yet. Last night I forced myself to turn off the computer at 12:00 and go to bed. If I didn't have to go to work the next day I would have stayed up a lot later.
I don't know if my posts are very interesting or useful but I'll keep posting for my first game or until this thread gets pushed back far enough that it's not worth searching for.
Take care


------------------
A civilisation is great when old men plant trees they will not live to sit under.

[joey802]

In korea? hmm is the game in hangul?

[marcuspeddle]

No, it's the North American version. I ordered direct from Activision. Who knows how long I would have to wait for it here in Korea otherwise.

------------------
If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl friends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys.
- - - Orson Welles