[Oblivion437]

Avatar, if you've ever gotten into the deeper hooks of both games, as I have, you know damn well how utterly unbalanced every element of CTP is. There's not a single group of elements in the game that aren't ridiculously unbalanced, such that exploitation is the key to the game.

The Genetic and Diamond ages both lack any sense of perspective on mankind's future, typical late '80's futurism in a late '90's box.

The unit balance is the most utterly horrible in its class. I'm serious. We're talking two-units-worth-buying bad.

The Lawyer, when you can afford him, is indestructible, and practically all powerful. A lawsuit WILL destroy anything. As I understand it, there was a patch to fix that, but it broke the damn game in two, and rendered the software inoperable on WinMe systems. The Lawyer can in one turn, kill off your best unit, shutdown your capital, and not get hit by anything. There's only one way to pick up a lawyer, and that requires your opponent be so damn stupid as to put him into a stack.

Also of consideration is that all other stealth units and special forces are practically unstoppable. They can't even be taken down directly, most of them. Gather half a dozen spies, some cash, and get them near the enemy capital, and have them all sent on nuke missions. They'll flatten it sooner or later, even if five of them fail.

PW production is ridiculously oversimplified, and it makes linking distant cities impossible, whilst giving you Godlike control over your landscape at a very early point in the game.

You can at the end of the game build a mountain, put the most advanced mine on that mountain, and reap incredible production benefits, and the thing pays for itself in a few turns. You can even throw down mag rails for a gold production bonus (15 I think?)...

Crime doesn't actually do anything, production queues don't work most of the time, the visuals lack the epic sumptuousness of Civ3's Tower of Babel inspired aesthetic, a touch so subtly wonderful as Oliver Stone's script writing for Conan the Barbarian.

Furthermore, practical limitations on various technologies in Civ3, such as not being able to establish an embassy until you have a written language to communicate in, amplify the verisimilitude and suspend disbelief, such restrictions in CTP feel wholly artificial.

However, CTP does get points for the damn funniest units ever: The Eco-Terrorist and that Nano-former, both of which were used by crazed environmentalists to blow up cities and factories to stop pollution. Green Peace at center stage!

Pritchke, Rataxes...

I've played the hell out of both Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire.

My two favorite Turn-Based strategy games of all time, hands down. Far superior to CTP, far more imaginative, and at times, terrifyingly chilling in its vision, the game has a feel that brings me back...It's a wonderful construct of a game, and its downbeat, heavy-handed atmosphere is incredible to behold.

The mind-worms are similar to Barbarians, very much so, but they don't have anything to raid. The best you can do is push back their sources, and keep them at bay. They truly do inspire a terror of sorts, and they keep military spending good and high. As a matter of fact, nearly all movement in the game is military, as only heavily armed units can actually withstand the beasts. That they get artillery support in the expansion only adds more interesting trouble.