Call To Power 2, version 1.1 patch

PingEnvy · December 14, 2000, 22:19

The patch is now complete and we are in the process of passing the file around now. It will be live on the Activision site tomorrow (too late for webmaster tonight). I've also passed it along to FilePlanet, Avault, 3D Files, Voodoo Extreme, and Blues News. Here is a dump of the readme that's included with the patch:

==================================================

Call to Power 2
Version 1.1 Readme

This Readme file contains notes about changes made to Call to Power 2 with the 1.1 patch. It is installed onto the root of the Call to Power 2 directory. For answers to other issues, please see the Readme file included with Call to Power 2, or the Help File or our website at http://www.activision.com and http://www.activision.com/games/ctp2/.

Note for Windows® 95 users: In order to view the full Call to Power 2 Help file system, you must have a web browser installed.

December 1, 2000

Table of Contents

I. Purpose Of This Update
II. Outline Of Changes
III. Post release Addendum to User Manual

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I. Purpose Of This Update

This update primarily addresses multi-player stability issues discovered after the release of Call to Power II. We wanted to resolve these issues as quickly as possible to ensure an acceptable multi-player experience for all users. We also wanted to thank all of the users of the Apolyton forums for their feedback and input.

Notes on faster multi-player gameplay
Based on feedback we have received, here are some tips for a faster and more enjoyable Multiplayer experience in Call to Power II:
· Limit the number of human players in the game to a maximum of four, but preferably two or three.
· Try to avoid using Huge or Gigantic maps.
· Use the Speed Turns option to keep the game running at a brisk pace (speed turns require all players to complete their moves within a limited time). Try setting a limit of 40 seconds or so to start.
· Utilize Mayors in each of your cities to reduce the need to micromanage individual build queues.
· Try starting your game in a more advanced age, with an appropriate level of starting Gold and more Settlers.
· When possible, have the player with the fastest Computer and Internet connection act as the Host for the game.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
II. Outline Of Changes

A. Multiplayer Issues
- Resolved several general issues.
- Addressed synchronization issues.
- Issues with nukes in network games have been resolved.
- Huge improvements to stability overall.
- Resolved client border update issue with captured cities.
B. Diplomacy Issues
- Embargo button on Diplomacy Manager remains enabled when confirmation is cancelled.
- Resolved some AI issues regarding diplomacy.
C. Miscellaneous
- Message occurring when a Wonder is nearly complete is now triggered earlier.
- Various general and stability issues with Scenarios have been addressed.
- Several text issues in the non-US versions of Call to Power II have been resolved.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
III. Post release Addendum to User Manual

How to Win Through Science
Only a truly advanced and careful leader can master the Science Victory. To succeed you must:
1) Research 'Gaia Controller'
2) Complete the Wonder 'The Solaris Project'
3) Build at least 10 Computer Cores and 10 Gaia Satellites
4) Cover 60% of the map with Obelisks
** This includes ocean area too. You may only build on territory controlled by you or an ally.
** Building more Gaia Satellites than the minimum will increase the area of effect of each Obelisk. Max Satellites = 20.
5) Initiate the Gaia Controller
6) Hold your cities and Obelisks for 10 turns

Correction to the 'Multiplayer Readme'
The Multiplayer Readme included with Call to Power 2 specifies that the host of a multiplayer game can handicap Public Works. This is inaccurate. The host cannot set Public Works for players.

The original Readme file states, "The only way to win a multiplayer game is with blood. This is untrue. Players are able to win by diplomacy.

Correction to the original 'Readme.rtf'
The original Readme file stated that small maps can only have up to 6 players at any time (including the player). This is incorrect. However, we do recommend no more than 6 players for the small maps.

The original Readme mentioned that breaking a Trade Route caused the loss of 1 Caravan. This is true. However, if the Trade Route was created with Freight Transports, then breaking the route will show a loss of 3 caravans in the Trade Manager.

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Activision is a trademark of Activision, Inc. (c) 1997-2000 Activision Inc. All rights reserved. Licensed by Activision, Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.

==================================================

We are nearly complete with both the Slic documentation and the WW2 scenario. Both should be ready to go early next week. Ciao!

- Doug "PingEnvy" Pearson

PingEnvy · December 14, 2000, 22:21

Oh yeah. I sent it to MarkG as well, but it bounced.

Too big... 3.5 MB.

- Doug "PingEnvy" Pearson

PingEnvy · December 14, 2000, 22:33

The patch is now available at:
http://www.fileplanet.com

Under the patches folder near the top of the list.

- Doug "PingEnvy" Pearson

Spiker22 · December 14, 2000, 23:42

What about the corrupted save game files problem? Has it been fixed by the patch? The readme doesn't mention anything about it.

Narck · December 15, 2000, 00:22

MrOgre said it did fix that problem...

Paul · December 15, 2000, 02:08

"The language of your OS will not allow you to use this patch." Activision, please fix that.

The Rusty Gamer · December 15, 2000, 02:49

Yeah, I'm getting that "The language of your OS..." message too, and I'm in New Zealand. We still speak English here, even if we do have a funny accent.

December 15, 2000, 02:52

wow a chcher, haha...amazing...well....we do have the best networking system in the world, I guess it shouldn't be too surprising.

Atahualpa · December 15, 2000, 03:21

Just tweak around this. Open "Control Panel", there is an option that leats you set your Country Code/Language (its an earth icon IIRC). Set it to English (US), restart. Apply patch. Set it back and restart. Though I have not tried this, I think it has to work.
Please report back if it has.

Ata

Al'Kimiya · December 15, 2000, 03:49

quote:

The original Readme file states, "The only way to win a multiplayer game is with blood. This is untrue. Players are able to win by diplomacy.

Nice! Only science victory left then

The Rusty Gamer · December 15, 2000, 03:54

I was going to post about that technique myself. I changed the regional settings to USA, ran the patch, and then set it back to New Zealand. And it worked! Though they should still fix it anyway.
Started a couple of quick games to see if we get different civs to play against now but - NO! Still, the Americans, Irish, Scottish etc. I can't believe that such a basic flaw should remain in the game.

Aemilius · December 15, 2000, 04:34

quote:

Originally posted by Paul on 12-15-2000 01:08 AM
"The language of your OS will not allow you to use this patch." Activision, please fix that.

Ik heb je probleem ook eventjes gehad maar heb het ondanks mijn Nederlandse Windows versie voor elkaar gekregen. Er is een makkelijke oplossing. Verander
voor het installeren van de patch eventjes de landen instelling.

Ga daarvoor naar start en selecteer "instellingen" en dan "configuratiescherm". Ga naar landeninstellingen en verander je landinstelling van het "Nederlands standaard" in b.v. "Engels Verenigde Staten". Laat Windows je system opnieuw opstarten.

Als je systeemopnieuw is opgestart en je Nederlandse
OS de VS instellingen gebruikt, start dan opnieuw je
patch installatie op. Je zal dan zien dat de patch zichzelf zonder problemen installeert.

Groetjes van Aemillius Ceasar.

Aemilius · December 15, 2000, 04:42

quote:

Originally posted by Russell on 12-15-2000 02:54 AM
I was going to post about that technique myself. I changed the regional settings to USA, ran the patch, and then set it back to New Zealand. And it worked! Though they should still fix it anyway.
Started a couple of quick games to see if we get different civs to play against now but - NO! Still, the Americans, Irish, Scottish etc. I can't believe that such a basic flaw should remain in the game.

Indeed, i have the same problem too. It seems that the
game is set to use always the same civilisations agaist you. But lucky, we have the game editor tool where we also can change the opponent civilisations.

Greetings Aemillius Ceasar

Atahualpa · December 15, 2000, 05:14

regional settings exactly that was what it was called!!

Maybe Mark or Dan should post this as News Item, not that so much of these threads pop up.

ATa

The Viceroy · December 15, 2000, 05:18

Chaps,

The game is only set to use the same civs if you play Beginner or Easy .. not medium upwards (if you change the userprofile.txt to nonrandomcivs=no) but beware .. its will change back again if you start another beginner/easy game

But I agree completely .. ACTIVISION, ARE YOU LISTENING ?????? This is a stupid bug .. my 5 month old could code this change ! what are you playing at ?

Another thing.. After the huge hoo haa regards to your early release in the US/Canada .. and leaving the rest of the world waiting, you have the stupidity to release the US/Canada patch first !!! DEEER BRAIN TO ACTIVISION, COME IN ACTIVISION .. have you never heard of SUPPORT ??? Single .EXE's to cover the lot .. isn't that easier to support ??? and doesn't annoy your customers also. Please its not rocket science !

Id be interested to discover what the results of installing the US patch on non-US versions is ?? let us know if you notice any problems ..

------------------
"Wherever wood floats, you will find the British" . Napoleon

Paul · December 15, 2000, 05:33

Dan posted in the news item that is was only for the US version, but on fileplanet it says

quote:

This is the version 1.1 patch for Call To Power 2 which is a universal patch for all languages. It fixes several issues in the game, including game play changes and bug fixes.

Also, the patch installer gave the choice of several languages, so I would guess that Dan may have made a mistake. Besides, I didn't see PingEnvy say anywhere that it was for the US version only.

When I get home from work I will change the regional settings and install the patch.
[This message has been edited by Paul (edited December 15, 2000).]

The Viceroy · December 15, 2000, 05:45

For ALL LANGUAGES, as long as they are English(US) ..

In which case, why are you having to change your settings to install it ?

Do we have a bug in the patch install ??

ha

I find it amazing that a professional software house is releasing multiple installs ... their version control must be spaghetti Junction ..

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"Wherever wood floats, you will find the British" . Napoleon

Apollon · December 15, 2000, 05:52

"The language of your OS will not allow you to use this patch."

COME ON! PLZ! NOT more problems

I'm getting insane enough with the savegame corrution problem!
Plz fix it...
[This message has been edited by Apollon (edited December 15, 2000).]

Apollon · December 15, 2000, 06:24

Weee! it worked

Try this (many have said it already):
Open, Control Panel - and the icon that looks like a earth globe, might be called National preferences or such. Change the language selection to English (US/American). Restart, install the patch and PLAY!

it should work, it worked on my Swedish version of Win98

be0wulfe · December 15, 2000, 11:38

I noticed that the readme's said nothing about the save game patch? I take it this was not addressed? I will apply the patch and see what my experience is, but I fully expect to have to return this POS to Activision for a full refund since my return time with EBX is now well past.

So much for faithin your fellow geek.

PingEnvy · December 15, 2000, 14:05

The version 1.1 patch is multilingual and supports all current versions of Call To Power 2. I'm talking to the installer guy now to find out why New Zealand isn't detected properly. There are 5 unique internal patch versions:

ENGLISH, GERMAN, FRENCH, ITALIAN, SPANISH

Based on what's been said here in the forums it seems that the English version is not being correctly detected for New Zealand. If it's effecting any other OS's then please say something in the forums. Thanks.

- Doug "PingEnvy" Pearson

marc420 · December 15, 2000, 14:07

quote:

Based on feedback we have received, here are some tips for a faster and more enjoyable Multiplayer experience in Call to Power II:
· Limit the number of human players in the game to a maximum of four, but preferably two or three.
· Try to avoid using Huge or Gigantic maps.
· Use the Speed Turns option to keep the game running at a brisk pace (speed turns require all players to complete their moves within a limited time). Try setting a limit of 40 seconds or so to start.
· Utilize Mayors in each of your cities to reduce the need to micromanage individual build queues.
· Try starting your game in a more advanced age, with an appropriate level of starting Gold and more Settlers.
· When possible, have the player with the fastest Computer and Internet connection act as the Host for the game.

I can't avoid saying this. To me I read this as saying that we suggest you turn off all of the fun things in a CIV type game in order to play multi-player.

More players mean the Diplomacy gets richer and more enjoyable.

Bigger Maps mean that strategies besides go run over and conquer the nearest Civ have more validity. Same goes for beginning games with young civs. Starting at younger ages also allows for more variance in strategy

Short Speed Turns means that clicking a mouse fast is a more important game skill than strategic thinking.

Turning on Mayors handicaps players who want to fine-tune the production of their cities and units, again handicapping those who favor strategy.

I could read this as being titled "How to make a CIV game play like RTS."

This emphasizes even more why PBEM and HOTSEAT play are essentials that must be added to this game.

[This message has been edited by marc420 (edited December 15, 2000).]

PingEnvy · December 15, 2000, 14:08

Sorry I meant to say both:

The Netherlands and New Zealand

They are both not detecting correctly. We are looking into it.

- Doug "PingEnvy" Pearson

PingEnvy · December 15, 2000, 15:17

We are working on a new patch installer this morning and should be able to get that out by early next week. The current installer detects based on regional settings and doesn't properly query the available list for some OS's. We are modifying the installer to check against which version of the game is installed instead. This is a minor change that will fix the problems we are currently seeing in a couple regions where the installer says your OS/region is not supported.

It does however take a little bit of time to test it on all the available OS's and keyboards to make sure everything works as it should. If you are seeing the following message:

"The language of your OS will not allow you to use this patch."

You can install the patch that is currently out by modifying your Regional Settings within the control panel in Windows. Within this selection change the language or region (depending on OS version) to the appropriate language. There are 5 unique language versions of CTP2 as shown below:

English - English (US), English (UK)
German - German
French - French
Italian - Italian
Spanish - Spanish

If you modify your regional settings to one of the above then the installer will install the appropriate version of the patched assets. When the installation is complete switch your regional or language setting back to its previous setting.

This is only a temporary fix as we are updating the patch installer now and will be releasing an updated patcher version 1.1a (or equiv) in the next couple days which will no longer use the same detection method. Sorry for the inconvenience.

- Doug "PingEnvy" Pearson

wheathin · December 15, 2000, 15:46

Great. A patch for the patch.

Alpha Wolf · December 15, 2000, 16:30

as for myself, I'm waiting for patch 3 before I use any of them

------------------
History is written by the victor.

The Rusty Gamer · December 15, 2000, 18:24

Having sucessfully installed the patch using regional setting changes as mentioned above, I reloaded the first major game I've been playing and now I keep getting funny text messages that make no sense and also seem to be referring to another civilzation. That is, war messages when I'm actually at peace with everyone. There may be two reasons:
1) I think I loaded it after I'd started playing another game so it might be to do with a bug there.
2) Games saved from the old version may be incompatable with the new version.
But something's gotta be fixed anyway.

Mr Ogre · December 15, 2000, 19:03

Hmm. It is supposed to correct that automatically, I'm not certain why it isn't (is everyone having problems with weird strings?)

In any case, you can still solve it manually, in two ways:

1) open the network chat window (press ' by default) and type "/reloadslic" without the quotes and press enter.

2) Open the editor ("Cheat mode") and press the Reload SLIC button. This method has the disadvantage that your score will no longer be kept (since it's in cheat mode), the first method does not.

It's only a problem when the strings have changed. The save file version was changed for the patch, and the game is supposed to do reload the scripts from the source automatically when loading an old version file, but I guess it's failing at least some of the time. Rats.

Robert Viener · December 15, 2000, 20:22

Please advise on work around for patch installation. Program is on my F (removeable) drive and setup message says it cannot find installation.
Bob

Mike the Nuke · December 15, 2000, 21:22

quote:

Originally posted by marc420 on 12-15-2000 01:07 PM
I can't avoid saying this. To me I read this as saying that we suggest you turn off all of the fun things in a CIV type game in order to play multi-player.

More players mean the Diplomacy gets richer and more enjoyable.

Bigger Maps mean that strategies besides go run over and conquer the nearest Civ have more validity. Same goes for beginning games with young civs. Starting at younger ages also allows for more variance in strategy

Short Speed Turns means that clicking a mouse fast is a more important game skill than strategic thinking.

Turning on Mayors handicaps players who want to fine-tune the production of their cities and units, again handicapping those who favor strategy.

I could read this as being titled "How to make a CIV game play like RTS."

This emphasizes even more why PBEM and HOTSEAT play are essentials that must be added to this game.

[This message has been edited by marc420 (edited December 15, 2000).]

Agree 100%. Hope they add a Hot Seat Option soon. Right now, it sounds like they may need a patch for the patch. I'll wait until they resolve these items and add Hot Seat (PBEM too, as it seems to require similar programming to Hot Seat) before I consider buying this game.