posted 04-25-03 00:31 AM CT (US)
1. Always check your scenario for typos. If you can't spell well or don't have good grammar, copy/paste all your chat messages into Microsoft Word or a similar program and run it through the spell checker.
2. You almost never want to use the Send Chat trigger. Only use it in specialized cases, such as when you want only one person to see the message (multiplayer), or if you want a small message to appear. A perfect example of the latter is found in 3. Please, if you are making a campaign file (.cpn or .cpx), DO NOT include the scenario bitmap image in the Zip file. When you make a campaign, all AI files and bitmap images are automatically saved along with it, meaning including it is worthless... it will appear anyway. Ever wonder why 4. Before submitting your file to the Blacksmith, ALWAYS check for bugs. Sometimes one (or two, or three...) will get past you, but you should not have anything obvious getting through. Always be sure to check for accidental paths through forests, et al., that might allow the player to skip a vital part of the scenario. 5. Allow ample time for the player to read the messages. Use different positions for the chat, as well as considering a point/chat interface to allow the player to read at his/her own pace. There is a timer setting for the Display Instructions trigger. If you set it to 0, it will remain forever unless another overwrites it or it is cleared with the Clear Instructions trigger. 6. In multiplayer eye candy may lag the map badly, but in single player, it is always nice to have pleasant scenery. Spread flowers and other GAIA objects liberally, and don't forget to change elevation around. 7. If you are making a town, be creative. Straight Road with a few buildings will not give you a 5 for Map Design. Instead, put some broken road in, add a bunch of trees, flowers, and dirt, and use the map copy feature to good use to create new and interesting buildings. If it's a poorer town, don't even consider roads. Put more dead trees in, and put Dark/Feudal Age buildings rather than Castle/Imperial Age buildings. 8. Make your paths interesting. It's no fun to see a path of trees guiding you around a Grass 1 map. If this is the case, you should move to a smaller map and use all of it. The most annoying part is that you might have a small break in the trees allowing the player to move out into complete Grass 1. 9. Don't allow a scouting computer unit to walk in and disrupt your cutscenes. Use the 10. Remove old map revealers from past cutscenes, or change them to an enemy player's possession if for some reason you need to use them later (edited at request of Darkmaster). 11. If any part of your scenario has a place where the hero "moves" to another point on the map (entering shops, etc.), it is a nice touch to give that new unit any upgrades/armor the player might have found on his journey. 12. Always have the player lose if a main character dies, unless of course him/her dying is part of the story. You don't want a unit being "resurrected" later in the game (unless of course it's part of the storyline 13. Please remember to make your scenarios challenging. Battles should take some strategy, and unless you have different difficulty levels, the player should not have a large multitude of units after a major battle, unless those units will accompany the hero on a later journey. 14. A good storyline is the start of a good scenario. Allow for multiple objectives, and use more creavity than "Destroy the Enemy." [This message has been edited by zyxomma100 (edited 04-26-2003 @ 11:52 AM).]
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zyxomma100- Age of Kings Heaven forumer
Proudly thwarting Dark_Aro's evil plans since 2002
"There is nothing more sad than watching a teutonic knight chasing a petard."
