If not Civ 3, then what?

[debeest]

I tried to post this a week or two ago, but it seems to have gotten erased from the system.

It doesn't look to me as if Civ 3 is going to replace Civ 2 for me. But Civ 2 has gotten a bit, uh, familiar over the past five years. If I want variants, what would you recommend? Call to Power? Test of Time? Fantastic Worlds? Conflicts in Civilization? Alpha Centauri?

Of course, I haven't played multiplayer yet, and now I finally have the hardware for it. Do any of these variants offer multiplayer? (I know Alpha Centauri does.) Or do I have to get MGE?

[Smash]

SMAC is not too bad.Its basically Civ2 gone sci fi.It seems alot more like a civ2 scenario than an actual seperate game though.

Its real cheap these days.

If you have MGE you can play all the best scenarios which are like brand new games in a way.
And of course MP.Its a rush.Very good.

[Lars-E]

Get CiC - LaFayette has a thread about it in here. They're comparing scores. I'll get around to it as soon as I 'master regular civ2' - meaning getting scores like samson etc. I'm playing occ at the moment. I tried a river scenario - occ23 from Paul's site. I think The Paulicy including his one page 'occ strategy reference table' is the best that's ever written on civ2. Genius.

(BTW, in occ23 I had the same progress as solo and Ribannah up till Darwin, after that my science rate fell behind. What was I doing wrong? I could only get food caravans...)

There's another civ2-version at amazon.com which has 20 scenarios. You could try that one.

Get MGE. I don't have it, but it must be fun and I bet you could learn a lot from it...

SMAC? Bought it, but gave it away after playing like 2-3 times. Looked gloomy and black. Those graphics were not inviting. I guess it could be fun if you had the patience, but it is based on made-up future techs - fiction. History is more fun.
It could be more interesting after reading Velocryx-strategy, but I never did.

Anyways if you wanna try other games there's always half-life which is excellent. I hear that half-life 2 is in the making..

[War4ever]

SMAC was a fun game for awhile.....if you buy civ3 you will see alot of SMAC ideas in there...

i too found it gloomy and not a difficult game to beat.

sids games tend to follow the same principles....and i found the ai easy to manipulate... you should be able to find it for $9.99 or less

I never like the ctp series...1 or 2....but there are others who think they are superior to civ2 in many ways....these too are now quite cheap to pick up and if your willing to add patches and mods can be quite enjoyable.

Personally i prefer windows based games..where i don't need to alt tab out anywhere but thats just me being picky

SMAC MP is a slow process, even slower than civ2...

In fact i don't know anyone who plays it online though there are alot of people who PBEM like they do with CTP.

This isn't to say there are no SMAC mp games..... i just don't play them if there are.

i keep hearing rave reviews on EU2 (europa universals) apparently the learning curve is quite high , but the game is supposed to blow many out of the water in the strategy realm.

i don't have alot of time for games.... so i pick and choose my computer time wisely...and thus for my buck...civ2 MGE rocks.. like stated above the scenarios are like playing new games all over again and the MP part of the game is an addiction i find hard to contain at the best of times....

to quote Ming "keep on civing"

[La Fayette]

debeest
If you enjoy challenge, the answer is definitely CiC now, because Xin Yu has turned a greedy eye towards my previous records at those scenarios.
IMO he is probably the strongest strategist playing this game and there is a lot left to be learnt playing with (or against) him (and I know you are one of those who love to go on learning endlessly).
I have asked Xin Yu to let me know which one he chooses after he gets finished with tearing 'independance' to pieces and I intend to play it with him.
You are welcome (so is smash, so is war4ever, so is Lars E, so is anyone convinced that civ2 is FUN).

[Spartan_RawB]

If you haven't tried multiplayer civ II, you are in for a shock in your first multiplayer game. It will take you much time to human cunningness and cut-throat competition. I've been active in all civ ladders out there for several years now, and I can tell you that human players best exploit your mistakes.

I say it is mandatory that you get MGE. If none is available, get Test of Time (there are patches that convert ToT into Civ 2 MGE at www.civfanatics.com under civ 2 downloads section). I look forward to playing you online and sharing multiplayer strategies.

[DrSpike]

AFAIK cedric greene's site still has the 2.42 to MGE upgrade, which would be a more direct route than buying t.o.t. You wont get the scenarios though.