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Date: Jul 02 1999 18:37:39 EDT
From: "Apolyton Announcements (Apolyton Civilization Site)"
Subject: Apolyton&Friends News 24-30/June/99


Greetings to all 1811 of you :)

I was on the road yesterday so we are a day late.
Anyway, here are the news of last week(June 24-30)

On Apolyton, CTP continued to provide most of the news, but we also had
some interesting civ2 and smac news. Don't miss our Civ2:ToT forum(we
upgraded our forum script btw) where John Possidente, a member of
Microprose's civ2 team, is answering nearly every question on the upcoming
Civilization 2: Test of Time(only 4-6 weeks away!). For the CTPers, the
rest of the plocalized patches are out, see out file
database(). And of course, please visit our
new smac Hall of Fame and see if you can beat these
scores!()

Not to forget, if you have a story of a smac game or a piece of smac
fiction to submit for our upcoming "Centaurian Tales" sub-section, please
mail it to Jools Weevil(jools_jr@hotmail.com).

As for the hosted sites, the Silver Fleece Medal for June was announced on
the Spanish civ2 site!

In the "Friends" part of the newsletter, news from Civ2- Master Deity(a
good try to gather the best civ2 players, try to see if you can!), History
of Civilization, Fantastic Worlds: Jorrit's Civilization II Page and Mr
Temba's(who probably is the only site which participated in all the issues
of the Apolyton&Friends newletter)

If you have a civ2/smac/ctp site and want to have your news included here
contact Dustin Dunn at dustin_dunn@hotmail.com(only on this address to be
sure)

And now in detail...
=========The news from Apolyton=========
----------------------------
**Civilization II Section

NATURAL DISASTERLESS IN ToT
(July 1, 1999) Don't expect to see a city burning out of nowhere in the
upcoming Civilization II: Test of Time. Here's what John Possidente,
representative from Hasbro and member of the ToT team, had to say about
random events:
"Well, we haven't put the natural disasters back in ( I wanted to, but
I was outvoted. :( ). On the other hand, we have used the events macro
language to add a number of random events of our own, especially in the
new and improved Midgard scenario.
We've also added a "Randomize" modifier to the events language, for
scenario builders. Many of the actions you can program into a scenario can
now have random aspects--timing, locations, and that sort of thing".
This is just one of the many on-going discussions in our ToT forum...
with answers directly from the source! What ARE you waiting for?


10 VERY NEW FILES
(June 25, 1999) While in the last couple of weeks we posted new files that
had been sent to us some time ago, this week we have 10 very new files,
released these weeks. They are 1939, Civ Chess, Chess, Exodus 1947, Gwani,
Ice Age, More Real, Near Future, Spain and World War I: Medieval This just
proves that there is no end in CivII creations!

ToT QUESTIONS? GET THE ANSWERS
(June 25, 1999) Since it's "yes-it's-still-alive" announcement at this
year's E3 in Los Angeles last month, we have learned more about what is in
and what is out in Civilization II: Test of Time, which is being regarded
as the last add-on to the immensely popular Sid Meier's Civilization II
title.
John Possidente, a member of the ToT team, has been very active in our
forums answering all questions regarding the product from numerous Civ
fans. Here are just six responses from the ever-growing number of
discussions John has had on various issues regarding ToT in the little
over a week our ToT forum has been in existence!
Some of the responses may even surprise you! Read on...

(THE COLUMN) REBUTTAL: From BW, To PCGamer
BlueWaldo has something to say about a particular group of reviewers.


----------------------------
**Alpha Centauri Section

Limited Beta Confirmed
--(June 28) We would like to draw your attention to this thread in
Firaxis' forums. Jeff Morris, in response to the question which of the
company's upcoming games will be open to a public beta test, the following
portion of his response came as an unexpected surprise:
"SMACX will certainly have a limited public beta test, but we're also
looking to establish a reliable team of public testers to draw upon at
various times. Stay tuned for more details".
Indeed we will! :-D

It's Family Approved
--(June 28) Yes, there are more SMAC reviews out there that we have yet to
comment! FamilyPC Magazine has given Firaxis' latest commercial product
two-thumbs up with a very supportive 89% rating.
"If you've never played a complicated empire-building game like
Civilization, Alpha Centauri is a good place to start. Although gameplay
is abstract and difficult to understand at first, its built-in
encyclopedia explains everything clearly. You can also automate various
game functions, which can make the game simpler, shorter, and more
enjoyable. If you loved Civilization, Alpha Centauri is a must-have".
At the same time, we see that the staff of FamilyPC have yet to review
what many consider to be SMAC's main competitor in the field,
Civilization: Call To Power.

Hall Of Fame Opens!
--(June 25) Our SMAC Hall of Fame is opening today with 11 saved game
files. We have HoF lists for the six difficulty levels and the four
victory conditions. In addition to that, we have a monthly challenge,
which for June is a "One City Challenge". Check the HOF Page for more on
all this.

SMAC on Bryce
--(June 25) A very special smac site was added in our Links page today:
SMAC/Bryce 3D is a site "Devoted to those of us so obsessed and addicted
to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri that when we're not actually playing it,
we're building it with Bryce 3D" as the creator says. Some nice images
there, check it out! And speaking of other sites, check out the Chiron
Archives for some good smac fiction.

----------------------------
**Civilization: Call to Power Section

LOCALIZED PATCHES RELEASED
(June 30) After weeks of compiling and implementing various tweaks to bugs
here and there, Activision has completed and made public Patch v1.1 for
all localized versions of CTP. As discussed in the John Heinecke's (Lt.
John) status report from the CTP team for June 29th, the French, Italian
and Spanish patches are now available for download. They are 3.8MB, 3.6MB,
and 3.8MB in size respectively.
ACS is proud to be one if not the first to mirror these latest patches,
which can be downloaded from our CTP File Database along with the German
and English versions released some time ago.
Before beginning to download or install either of the patches, as it is
with any other software update, you should familiarize yourself with the
documentation of such files. The important notes for these three patches
(as it is with the German version) are as follows: users who have modified
their version of the game with the English Beta Map Editor should
reinstall before applying this update, and are not intended for use with
the Linux version of CTP.

STATUS REPORT: JUNE 29th
(June 30) Late yesterday, Lt. John (John Heinecke) from the CTP Team at
Activision posted their latest status report, dated June 29th. From what
he had to say, it seems that the team, reunited after taking seperate
vacations, is diving right into the next patch!
"The French, Spanish, and Italian patches are posted on our web page.
Sorry about the delays, but we had a hard time with our localization of
the patches and QA bandwidth problems.
The demo is done, it will be released on cover mounted CD's with gaming
mags first, and then online (it's pretty big, ~75MB, so we don't think
that too many people will miss it online).
Our programmers and designers are finally all back in the building
after taking staggered vacations (the designers went first, then the
programmers, then others). Now we're putting plans together for Patch 1.2.
We're looking at Hotseat/PBEM, and some new scenario tools. I'll let you
know more details as they evolve".
Good news all around!

MAP PLUGINS EXPLAINED
(June 29) Has anyone played around with the Map Plugins, whether it be for
a creation you're making or just for fun? Whether you have or not, take
into consideration this note from Joe Rumsey of the Activision CTP Team,
aka Mr. Ogre, which was posted on our CTP Creation forums just yesterday
on this very subject.
"The first plugin creates a height map. The "geometric" DLL used by
default basically just sprinkles rectangles around the map, trying to do
so in such a way that they clump together to form continents. After it's
done, it can actually run the same code as fault.dll, but see below.
The second pass acts as a filter on the output of the first pass. The
crater.dll that's used places random circular depressions in the height
map.
Once the height map is done, the game sets the water at a level that
will give the correct percentage of land, and turns the rest into land,
hills, and mountains.
The next two plugins control temperature and humidity. They generate
height maps the same way as the first two plugins".
There's more to the post than that! See for yourself!

BACK ON THE LIST
(June 29) CTP is back on PCData's Top Ten Games Listing for the period of
June 13-19, 1999. Regaining to the #10 position, CTP returns to the list
after a one-week absence, which was its first fall from the weekly report
since its release in the first quarter of '99. Will it keep moving on up
the charts again? Only time will tell!

LOKI SPEAKS
(June 28) Here's your chance to talk to Loki! Go ahead, ask them anything!
President Scott Draeker, Lead Programmer Sam Lantinga, Programmer Michael
Vance and Customer Services Manager Kathryn Sorhaindo will be on the next
live episode of "The Linux Show" on Tuesday, June 29. Listen live on
TTalk.com, call in on 888-591-tech, or chat on IRC.PINNATEL.COM:6665
Channel #linuxshow. The program will commence at 6:00 pm pacific, which is
8:00PM Central, 9:00PM Eastern Time, 1:00AM GMT.

WHO NEEDS SLEEP?
(June 28) You don't have to be a strategy enthusiast to enjoy CTP, says
reviewer Jeremy "Unknwn" Kats, who has recently become one of the latest
in the ever-growing list of addicts to the Civilization series. And yes --
he's a Linux user. Here are some excerpts from the full review:
"I have one starting comment... don't forget to sleep.
Once you start playing, you immediately become immersed in the sounds of
the game. The soundtrack is excellent! The sounds of tribal drums in the
first CD audio track are just what is necessary to get you into the game.
Play is smooth on my P200 even though I do run at 1280x1024. The interface
takes a little getting used to, mainly in what pressing the left versus
the right mouse button at certain stages of the game does.
But, even with the small control nags, you get used to it. The game is
indeed very addicting. If you enjoy turn-based strategy games, go out and
buy Civ: CTP now. If you don't have any significant experience with them,
I also recommend going out and getting a copy. Although they aren't my
favorite, it's still lots of fun. Loki has definitely done a good job on
this port and I look forward to their future titles".

PRIZES SHIPPED
(June 28) This is just a quick note to the winners of our recent Power Up!
Contest that their prizes were shipped today -- all the details are
available for reading in the emails that were sent to them privately
earlier in the day. Thanks for being patient folks!


----------------------------
**Civilization III Section

June.30 Another Links update


----------------------------
**Civilization Scenario Collection(hosted site)

(Jun 30) "New" scenario in Middle Ages: Arab Conquests, by Alexei
Andrievski (Scenario #19 in this section, 81 in the site)


----------------------------
**Spanish Civilization II Site(hosted site)

(Jun 29) Silver Fleece Medal for June announced
(Jun 28) Links page updated (1 new link)


=========Apolyton's Friends News=========
--------------------------
Civ2- Master Deity

06/24/99
- I received the following information regarding the league, for those
interested in more details:
The Master Deity League is up and running now with twelve players
registered.
The rules make it rough, so this league is definitely not for whiners.
However, the points system is designed so that no player ever loses points
for playing and every player gains points just for doing their best, so it
is a good place to hone your skills and develop your game.
The league rules are also very unforgiving of players with lousy ISPs.
So if you have a lousy connection and get booted often, then we are
definitely not the league for you.
The difference between this league and others is that all MDL games are
played with the same basic rules. This allows players to get a truer
sense of how they compare with others.
At the moment, there is only one regularly scheduled game. But members
are welcome to set up their own regularly scheduled games. The only
requirements are that the league be kept informed and that league rules be
followed.

--------------------------
History of Civilization

06/26/99
- A new - the 5th - Competition is opened now. Welcome to Competition
Section of my site (see link at the site entry) and test your knowledge of
Civilization!

--------------------------
Fantastic Worlds: Jorrit's Civilization II Page

06/26/99
- I have a new modpack!
- Well, and last but definitely not least: I'm currently building up a map
archive... so within a few weeks a new section with over 350 maps will pop
up here!!

--------------------------
Mr Temba's

06/28/99
- Surveys updated.
06/27/99
- Chess and Phantasia were added to the Homeless Scenarios Collection.
Added a link to The Squids Lair : Civ Sector

--------------------------


That was all for this week ladies and gentlemen,

Until next time
Markos Giannopoulos - markg@apolyton.net
Apolyton Civilization Site - apolyton.net