posted 12-16-13 02:30 AM EDT (US)
It is highly likely that you were referred here for either one of my scenarios or a part of my Scenario Design Walkthrough and Guide. If so, you will find what you need in the "Quick Links" section below. If not, have a look under "Table of Contents" and explore the content on offer.
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The idea for this walkthrough series came to me back in early 2013 after having tried to make a map for Portal 2 in Valve's Hammer Editor. It would have been impossible for me without a walkthrough that guided users step by step through everything necessary to make a map in the Hammer Editor. This made me think of the AoE3 Scenario Design community, which is quite small. I wondered, if I made it easier for people to get in to scenario design, would the community grow? The purpose of this walkthrough is to guide new users through the creation of a functional, fun, online ESO compatible scenario.
This is my first entry in the scenario design walkthrough and guide. It was written in early 2013 and covered the absolute basics of the scenario editor interface. It documents the functions of almost all the buttons you see in the editor and explains the premise of the scenario that this series guides you through building. This part only covers the absolute basics of the interface, and as such might be skippable if you are already familiar with it (but you will still need to read the first half to understand the purpose of the scenario this guide is creating).
This is the second part of my scenario editor walkthrough and guide. It is a lot longer and more involved than the first part, but still explains all steps in a new-user-friendly manner. It covers map layout planning, gameplay planning, the player's experience, balance considerations, and of course actual map creation and unit placement. This is an essential read for anyone working through the walkthrough.
Coming soon.
There are hundreds of versions of Colloseum floating around on ESO and the downloads section of this site. You probably have five to ten different versions sitting in your scenarios folder right now. So what makes this the definitive, ultimate, and simply the best version of Colloseum around?
Well, it's simple. This version is based on the extended unit set version, and expands and improves on it to the point where it is unparalleled in both balance and fun. This edition disables all the "unfair" mechanics that are present on other versions of Colloseum, like making harbours and boats, and killing the neutral units you move your old coot to. The unit choices are designed to make this playable in Post-Imperial no matter what civilisations are chosen! Notably, the bloodfactories mechanic in this version gives a target for early battles where players are not yet ready to assault the walls. This version also includes the control point mechanic where holding certain sections of the map grants bonus units. The map is perfectly balanced for all players, nobody gets any advantages. This is simply the best version of Colloseum possible for online ESO gameplay. I have yet to see another version of Colloseum come anywhere near to this in terms of balance and fun.
This is a deliberately unbalanced variant of the my Colloseum version described above. Put simply, it is for cheaters! This edition is made to look almost identical to my balanced version (even the file name seems innocent) so your rival players will never suspect what is coming!
This joke edition adds several settlers to the upper right portion of the map (visible only to player one) that the host can delete for certain extra bonuses. Simply select a settler, and press the delete key on your keyboard to activate your special power! You can (among other things) cripple the movement of opposing players' old coots, wipe all units off the map, instantly defeat any one of your rivals, and of course summon up hordes of Ronin and Mediocre Bombards! The best part about all this is that you can choose which cheats you want to deploy and when to do it (and how subtle you want to be about it). You can even play the whole game without cheating if you wish. There is also an extra special surprise that is automatically activated if anyone destroys your command post....
This is a heavily modified version of Barracks Wars. It adds fort walls, saloons, artiliary foundries (only to allow the Ottomans to make Abus Guns for balance reasons), decks, arsenals, and much much more. This is significantly more balanced and fun than the original Barracks Wars.
These are recordings of me doing the classic Iroquois BB rush in 1v1s to rank up fast. I execute it a lot better in the second and fourth recordings (and against a higher ranked opponents too), but still make a few mistakes with my micro. I won three of these recordings in under ten minutes, and I won rec number four after 10 minutes and 10 seconds! I lost rec number three though. Rec number four is the highest ranked player I have recorded winning against with this strategy.
This is a rather old treaty recording from back in late 2011. My gameplay was not as refined as it is right now, however I was not as rusty (I no longer play as often as I once did) at the time of this recording. The recording ends abruptly when my team starts winning; this is because the game went out of sync at that point. There is also
Ever wondered whether seven settlers per mill/plantation is better than ten or not? Ever wondered if the ideal number of gatherers per mill/plantation changes depending on whether you are using settlers, villagers or French CDBs? Ever wondered just how much better settler wagons are than ordinary settlers? Well wonder no longer! This scenario is a versatile, configurable and easily adapted tool for answering questions just like those. It comes with an instructions file that will explain how to use it. The scenario can even be run online with another player to simulate lag (however, never fear, the scenario is designed to stop them from interferring with the testing).
This is a recommended download before reading part three of my scenario editor walkthrough. The guide will be created under the assumption that everyone reading it has these triggers. The triggers are the most useful ones from the downloads section and forums put together into one easy download. Please note that while this trigger folder contains the vast majority of triggers the average scenario designer might need, there are some types of triggers that were left out to prevent the trigger list from becoming bloated and appearing intimidating to new users (mainly shop triggers are missing, but they can be simply added by downloading the relevant trigger pack and adding it to the folder). Scenarios created with these triggers are
This is a recommended download before moving on to Part THREE of my Scenario Editor Walkthrough and Guide. It is the scenario file of the map so far at the end of Part TWO.
I also create scenarios for the original Age of Empires. None have ever been released. If I ever do complete any of release-quality, I will place them in this section.
Data accurate as at 16
If you ever need to contact me to ask for help in scenario making, or would like me to clarify or explain anything in this post or any of my other materials, do not hesitate to contact me. You are also welcome to submit feedback through these methods as well as make requests for future content.
Check out my series of guides for the scenario editor in the link below! | Best Otto TR score
The definitive collection of my scenarios, along with my scenario editor walkthrough, recorded games, and much much more!
[This message has been edited by anterior2 (edited 02-15-2015 @ 10:53 PM).]