Chapter 2
Getting Started
In this section you will get a guided tour
through a few dozen years/turns, to help familiarise
you to various parts of CtP2.
If you want to learn about the options available to you before you start the
game, then read the
next section, 2.2.
If you don’t want to bother with pre-game setup then you can easily begin a game
quickly by
using default setup — so don’t go into the ‘Options’ menu yet. First let’s start
a ‘New Game’.
You should see now see the ‘New Game’ setup screen. For this game we will leave
the options
alone. You will be Julius Caesar for this walk-through. Once you’ve had a look
at the various
option buttons, click the green ‘Launch’ button at the bottom of this screen.
Now you can skip
the next section and go straight into learning how to play at section 2.3.
(Various start-up options explained.) After the intro movie has played you will
find yourself in
the Apolyton Edition start menu.
From here you can select the type of game you wish to play and various in game options.
On the left hand side we have the multi-player options, these are:
Network game will allow you to setup a Multi-Player on-line game or a LAN game.
Email game will allow you to play by email (PBEM).
Hotseat will allow you to play a Multi-Player game, with all players on one PC.
On the right hand side of the screen we have the single player options, these are:
New Game starts the single player default game.
Load Game loads a previous game.
Tutorial starts the in-game tutorial, a good place for new players.
At the bottom of the screen we have three other buttons, going from left to right these are:
Options allows you to setup some game parameters, sound and graphics settings.
Credits lists all the people who have helped in the Apolyton Edition remake.
Quit don’t do it!
What is a turn, what happens between turns, when a new turn starts?
What’s all that black stuff, why are some parts of the visible map ‘greyed out’?
What to do with that donkey guy, what to pay attention to when finding sites to settle?
After a short loading screen, you will find that you have two settler units on a
small piece of
visible land (The number 2 in the unit ‘shield’ indicates two units in the
stack). Most of the
game map is completely black. Before we move our settler units lets have a look
around at what
does what in the User Interface (UI).
At the bottom left we have a large grey box — this is the mini map, and gives
you a larger view
of the world around you. At this moment it will be nearly all black, as you know
nothing of the
world around you yet. You can click in the mini-map to move the game view to
that area of
the map. At the top of the mini-map box are various filter options for the
amount of detail you
wish to display on the mini-map. Once you are further into the game these can
help you with
an at-a-glance worldview on how your empire is doing compared to the other
players. Until you
have explored a decent amount of the map around you, we can minimise the
mini-map to give
us a better view of the game world. Click the minimize button in the top right
of the mini-map
now, you can always expand it later as and when you need it.
At the top of the screen is a grey bar with many options. From left to right they are:
Empire provides links to:
• Empire Manager screen (F1)
• Trade — Market screen (F4)
• Trade — Summary screen (Ctrl+t)
• Science Manager screen (F6)
• Gaia Controller screen (Ctrl+g)
Cities provides links to:
• Build Manager screen (Ctrl+b)
• City Manager screen (F3)
• National Manager screen (F2)
Units provides links to:
• Unit Manager screen (F8)
• Army Manager screen (.)
Diplomacy provides links to:
• Diplomacy Manager screen (F7)
• New Proposal screen (Ctrl+d)
Status provides links to:
• Great Library screen (F5)
• Ranking (world) screen (Ctrl+k)
• Score screen (F9)
• Wonders screen (W)
Options accesses various in game options that effect different things:
• Zoom in on the world map (-)
• Zoom Out on the world map (+)
• Gameplay (F)
• Graphics Ctrl+f)
• Sound (Ctrl+v)
• Music (Ctrl+m)
• Advanced (Ctrl+p)
• Cheat Mode (!)
• Save Game (S)
• Load Game (L)
• Restart (with the same game settings) (Ctrl+z)
• New Game (Ctrl+x)
• Quit (Q)
In the bottom right of the screen you will find the main user interface hub.
This is the main UI console that you will use to access CTP2’s various
management screens.
The circular part contains buttons which provide access to the following
screens.
The Empire Manager screen is divided into two pages:
Domestic Policy, on which you can set the amount of food your people receive.
The work hours
per day they work and the amount of this overall production that goes into
public works (PW).
Also you can set the amount of gold they get paid as wages and the amount of the
overall gold
that goes into your scientific research.
Government, on which you can get information about the efficiency of the
government type your
empire is working under, and a pull down list of the types of governments you
can currently
choose.
At the beginning you have only one choice — Tyranny, not a great system and you
should aim
to move to a more advanced one as soon as you can by researching the required
techs (see Science
Manager).
The Unit Manager screen gives you information on all your units and is divided into two pages:
Unit Statistics, on which you can see a complete list of all your unit types and
their combat
ratings. Also on the left is a small box in which your Military Advisor gives
you information,
you can toggle this box on/off with the ‘Advisor’ button on the bottom left of
the Unit Statistics
screen. Just above the ‘Advisor’ button is the unit war status slider — this can
be used to change
the war readiness of your units. It has three settings:
At peace your units cost little to support and are at one-third combat strength.
On alert your units cost a medium amount and are at half combat strength.
At war your units cost the most in support and are at full combat strength.
You start with ‘At war’ support costs, and it’s best to leave it like that for now.
NOTE: It takes a few (depending on your
government) turns for your War Status to change to the new
selection, so take this into account as you can leave yourself vulnerable if you
make a change at
the wrong time!
Just below the ‘War Status’ information panel, is the ‘Disband Unit’ button — be
careful with
this button as its possible to disband all units of a certain type when in our
current ‘Unit
Statistics’ screen!
The last button on the bottom right is the ‘Quit’ screen button; this closes the
‘Unit Manager’
screen.
Tactical Info — this screen gives you a complete breakdown of each and every
unit. It displays
the units name, army number, any orders, its location and its current health
rating. From here
you can highlight each individual unit in your armies — if I need to use the
‘Disband Unit’
function, I do it from this screen rather than the ‘Unit Statistics’ page.
This screen allows you to conduct diplomatic relations with any of the other
Empires you have
come into contact with. Next to the nations name this screen displays the
nations regard of
you, its relative strength, whether you have an embassy established, and the
type of alliances or
treaties you have with each other. To engage in diplomacy you need to select a
nation from the
list and select one of the options at the bottom of the screen. These are, from
left to right:
Intelligence — provides more detail on that particular empire and its relations
with you, using
the pages called foreign relations, Domestic and Science.
Create proposal — initiate diplomatic proposals in which you can set the
demands, your tone
of address, and various other diplomatic options. There are many options
available to you. The
basic process involves these few steps:
1. Select the tone of your proposal (from kind to angry)
2. Select either a Request, Offer or Treaty
3. Select an additional Request, Offer or Treaty to make an exchange with that
selected in
step 2.
4. Send it off
You will need to have encountered another civilisation before you can undertake
diplomatic
actions. It’s worth experimenting with all the options to get the hang of it
(you can always go
back some steps if you make a mistake).
Declare War — for when diplomacy breaks down.
Embargo — your Empire will automatically close all trade links with the chosen
party.
This screen gives you information on the current advance you are researching in
the top left and
centre graphic box. The number below the picture is the amount of turns
remaining before you
have learnt this new advance. The bottom half of the screen is used to display
the advances you
have already learnt, represented by your civilisations colour in the first
column of blocks. There
are seven other blocks running across the screen.
As you meet other civilisations they will have their colours represented here.
It helps you to see
how far ahead or behind you are in your advances in comparison to the other AI
civilisations.
Clicking on either the ‘Change Research’ button, or the number of turns
remaining box under
the picture, will enable you to change the advance you want to research.
Its one of the first thing I do when starting a game as often you will be on a
difficult advance to
discover as a default.
A useful function in the ‘Change Research’ screen, is the ability to set advance
goals. At the
bottom of the screen is a ‘Goal’ button. Clicking on this enables you to access
the ‘Great Library’
and select a particular advance goal for you to aim for. When you do this all
the subsequent
advances that lead to this goal will have an asterix (*) symbol next to them, so
you can see what
advance choices you make will lead you quickly to your chosen Goal, very handy.
At the start of the game I usually set my Goal to ‘Monarchy’ — its good to get
out of ‘Tyranny’
as soon as you can, to have a more productive level of government.
If you want some information about any in game aspect of Call To Power 2, this
is the place to
go. Down the left of the screen are ten buttons that will give you lists of all
game:
1. Advances
2. Units
3. City Improvements
4. Wonders
5. Terrain
6. Goods
7. Tile Improvements
8. Governments
9. Unit Orders
10. Concepts
Everything is listed in alphabetical order and there
is even a search function at the top left of
the screen. At the bottom of the screen you can access the ‘Set Goal’ options as
discussed above.
One word of warning — spending too long in the ‘Great Library’ can spoil some of
the surprise/
mystery of the game, so if you are new to the game use it sparingly.
Use this screen to setup trade routes when you have ‘Goods’ to trade. There are
two pages in
the ‘Trade Manager’ screen:
Market — here will be listed all the available trade routes you can setup, if
you have enough
trade ‘caravans’ to do so. Each trade route has a cost in the amount trade
‘caravans’ required
to set the route up. You need to build ‘caravans’ in your cities when you have
researched the
required advance. Once you have selected the route you want to open by clicking
on it, and have
enough trade ‘caravans’, click ‘Create Route’ at the bottom of the screen.
The direction the route travels will be decided for you. Sometimes if this route
goes through
enemy territory it can be a good idea to think about using another route, or you
will find it
getting pirated fairly often!
At the top of the screen are three buttons that toggle the trade routes you can choose:
Own — will only display the routes you can setup within your own empire
Friendly — displays all your routes plus all those of other friendly
civilisations
All — all possible trade routes are displayed
Next to these buttons is the ‘Cities per good’ slider, this can be set to
between 1 and 5. What
this does is lists more possible routes for the trade good to go to.
At the bottom left of the screen is another ‘Advice’
button, this gives access to the trade advisor
whom can give you suggestions and also displays information on the trade routes
and caravans
you have or have used.
Trade Summery — this screen shows you information on all your active trade
routes. It also will
enable you to see if any of your routes are being pirated, a pirate flag will
appear to let you know.
If this happens it is a good idea to follow the trade route with a unit if
possible and remove the
pirate (or when you can see which civilisation the pirate belongs to, use the
diplomacy screen
to tell them to stop!).
The amount of money the trade route creates and the amount of caravans needed to
keep it open
are also displayed here.
At the bottom of the screen there is a ‘Disband Route’ button, this enables you
to cancel any
route you select from the list displayed.
This gives you a quick overview of all your cities. There are three main pages
of information
within this screen.
Resources — on this screen you get a resource breakdown for each city, it
displays the city name,
population size, happiness, food, production, gold, science, pollution and crime
rate. You can
toggle what priority this information is displayed in by clicking on the title
tab (if you want to
know which cities produce most food for example, click on the loaf of bread and
it will toggle
between the highest and lowest food producing city).
At the bottom of the screen are two buttons that can be selected when a city in
the list is
highlighted.
Build Manager — takes you into the build queue for the selected city
Disband — this button will disband any selected city, so be careful!
Status — this screen enables you see what each city is producing at that time
and how many
turns it will take to finish. Also at the bottom of the screen you have options
to toggle on/off
the city ‘Mayor’ function and set parameters for it.
To turn the Mayor on, select a city from the list
then click the ‘Mayor’ button in the bottom left
of this screen. The information panel above will update any changes you make
with the Mayor
status. There is a pull down menu next to the mayor button where you can select
a priority for
the mayor to follow (for example ‘production’).
To be honest I never use them, they are pretty hopeless at their jobs! I prefer
to manage all my
cities manually — still if you want a laugh/cry, then give them a go.
Just to the right of the ‘Mayor’ button is the ‘Rush Buy’ button. When you have
selected a
city from the list in the ‘Status’screen you will be able to quickly build
whatever is in that cities
build queue at the time, by clicking the ‘Rush Buy’ button. The cost is in gold
and is displayed
to the right of the button. This can be useful when in a Wonders race, or when
you notice an
enemy army approaching a poorly defended city.
At the very bottom of the screen there are the ‘Build Manager’ and ‘Disband’
buttons, they
work the same here as described previously.
Specialists —
City Manager — This screen gives you detailed information on a specific city.
How to build units, how to move them around, how to attack? Basic info on
different types of
units.
What's their purpose, how to build things, what are specialists and mayors?
What impact do they have on resource collection, movement, defense?
What are empire settings and governments?
What the purpose of research?
What are good and how to trade them?
2.13 Opponents, War & Diplomacy
What are those other guys doing there, how to I fight them, how do I stop fighting them?
What to do to win, what victory types are there?