Call to Power II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Call to Power II

Developer(s)	Activision
Publisher(s)	Activision
Release date(s)	November 2000
Genre(s)	Turn-based strategy game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer over TCP/IP, IPX
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone (6+))
Platform(s)	PC
Media	CD
System requirements	166 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM, 320 MB space, DirectX7 compliant video card (for the Windows version)
Input	mouse, keyboard

Call to Power II features special bonuses for some achievements

Call to Power II featured a reworked diplomacy system

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.

1 Differences from Civilization: Call to Power
2 Problems
3 Mods
4 Source Code Release
5 Source Code Access
6 The Apolyton Edition
7 External links

[edit] 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 shortcomings, many of which were caused by programming bugs.

CTP2 also included several gameplay differences. Maximum army size was increased, some balance adjustments 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 is that the player can receive bonuses for certain achievements, if s/he is the first to do the action (recapturing a city, 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.

[edit] 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 were ending all support for the Call to Power series, and there would be no further sequels, expansion packs or patches. The developer team that worked on CTP2 left Activision.

[edit] Mods

One of the most remarkable features 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 features 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.

Mods currently in development include the Call to Civilization Mod and Ages of Man, which has four complete releases.

[edit] Source Code Release

Call to Power II screenshot

After Activision ceased to support CTP2, the Apolyton Civilization Site became the de-facto support place for CTP2, being the only active online community of this game and offering help with technical problems. That site is also largely where the modding efforts for CTP2 occurred.

At one point, the members of the Apolyton site contacted Activision and asked them to release the source code to CTP2. After several months of negotiation, Activision agreed and the source code was released in October 2003 exclusively to the Apolyton Civilization Site. However, the license was not the GPL and there were limitations to how the source code might be used, for example, no commercial use of anything created with the source base was allowed.

[edit] Source Code Access

Currently, the Source code project is accessible through a SVN Server. Initially, set up by user 'kaan' another apolyton member 'DarkDust' has provided a home for the code. Through Apolyton, those wishing to view the source code or wish to modify the code can find the SVN Server forum at the apolyton link below for more information.

[edit] The Apolyton Edition

Since then, continued work to improve CTP2 has made many improvements to general gameplay and the AI, fixed most known bugs, and added new features. The multiplayer modes are still only in a semi-working state, but the single player part of the game works much better with code modifications than it did in the original game. Work on the source code continues with a team of volunteers with several playtest versions available at the Apolyton website's playtest thread.

The latest Call to Power II Apolyton Edition 2006.09.09 Playtest (September 9, 2006) is available at Apolyton. The playtest is a fan created "patch" with more stability and additional features. A website dedicated to these features and how to implement them can be found at Bureaubert's CtP2 page.