Video games - Call to Power II

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	Video games - Call to Power II

Call to Power II is a PC turn-based strategy game released by Activision as a sequel to Civilization: Call to Power, which was, in turn, a game similar to the Civilization
computer game by Sid Meier. The game could not have "Civilization" in its title because the word civilization is trademarked by the makers of the original civilization series.

Differences from Civilization: Call to Power

Call to Power II (CTP2) had a number of differences from the previous Civilization: Call to Power (CTP). Many reviewers and players criticised CTP for its interface, which prompted a complete redesign of the user interface in CTP2. Overall, the CTP2 interface is largely considered cleaner and easier to use, although not without its shortcoming, many of which were caused by programming bugs.

CTP2 also included several gameplay differences. Maximum army size was increased, some balance adjustements were made to avoid the balance problems from the original CTP (for example, Ships of the Line were so powerful in CTP that getting them first could mean winning the game), and the economical system in CTP2 was reworked so that controlling good terrain became more profitable. Another difference in CTP2 was that you would get bonuses for certain achievements, if you are the first to do that (recapturing one of your cities, sailing around the world, etc).

The diplomacy model in CTP2 is a major improvement over CTP diplomacy, with more different agreements available for negotiation. Players could, for example, ask the AI controlled civilizations to stop researching some technology, or to reduce their nuclear weapons arsenal.

Space colonization and the space layer was removed from CTP2, along with the "Alien Life Project" victory condition. Another victory condition was introduced, which required the player to cover most of the planet's territory with Gaia sensors and build the Gaia controller wonder, winning the game.

Problems

After CTP2 was released, it became evident that the game had a number of very serious bugs and shortcomings. For example, there was no option of PBEM play, which had become popular among CTP players, and was also expected to be in CTP2. Later, one of the developers posted modifications to one of the game files that would allow access to PBEM mode, but it worked poorly, basically to the point of being unplayable. The conventional multiplayer mode was also buggy and almost unplayable.

The computer player A.I. in CTP2 was commonly considered weaker than in its predecessor, having trouble moving its units around its own bigger unit stacks, being unable to defend captured land (leaving cities it captures undefended on the next turn), and often ignoring defense of its own lands almost completely (it was quite possible for the human players to conquer a large portion of an AI empire with just one or two units).

CtP2 also had some other bugs, related to scenario editing, in-game diplomacy and other elements of the game.

To address these issues, Activision released a patch for CTP2. The patch did add some new functionality to SLIC (see below) and fixed some of the worst bugs in CTP2, but unfortunately, it still didn't fix the AI problems and didn't add PBEM support either. Conventional multiplayer became playable, although some bugs that could be used as cheats remained.

Not long after the patch was released, Activision officially announced that they are ending all support for the Call to Power series, and there will be no further sequels, expansion packs or patches. The developer team that worked on CTP2 left Activision.

Mods

One of the most remarkable feautures of CTP2 is its great support for mods. A lot of game rules are stored in text files, along with many AI scripts. Even more importantly, CTP2 had a fully documented scripting language called SLIC, with a C-like syntax, through which many things about the game could be tweaked. The only patch for CTP2 enhanced the functionality of SLIC, allowing mods that change the gameplay significantly to be created. The CTP2 community created many mods, with the primary goals of fixing the AI and balance issues that were in the original game. Later, new gameplay feautures were incorporated through mods as well. These mods allowed the CTP2 community to enjoy the game much more, as they fixed at least some of the worst problems in CTP2.

Past mods for CTP2 include the Super Apolyton Pack, Medieval Mod, Cradle, GoodMod, and Call to Conquest (see External links).

To improve the interface a Diplomod has been created featuring graphics from other games to give Civilization leaders pictures found in other Civilization games like Civilization 3 and Civilization 4.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Call to Power II ]

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