posted 01-25-09 09:52 AM CT (US)
Hello everyone! I was just a silent observer at this site and only now have I decided to start contributing, I hope someone will still read this post.
I'm an admirer of the beautiful scenarios and campaigns of Ingo van Thiel, Anastasia and others, and after the retirement of Ingo van Thiel, I decided to try to create a scenario/campaign based on the tips learned from the marvelous campaigns like Ulio.
The basic idea:
Setting:
Transylvania, around end of the 16th century, then a more or less independent country. Why this setting? I decided to follow a "beyond good or evil" path, and the many nations, cultures and chaotic political background present a golden opportunity to create an environment, where the player can never be sure who is with him, and who is against.
Name:Fairy garden
It was used by some historians. Even with a lot of problems, there was a balance (even if a fragile one), without major wars, letting culture to prosper. Also, it was the first place in the world after the reformation where religious freedom was legally accepted.
One of the tasks of the player is to maintain that fine balance.
I will try to shortly present the factions forming that country:(you can skip this if you are more interested in other details)
- Hungarians: The rulers were Hungarian princes (this time I picked one of the Báthorys), and the Hungarians were mostly settled in the valleys, the nobility having tiny castles scattered around the country, while the rest living in mediocre towns or villages.
- Saxons: they possessed the most developed walled cities in the country, with the advanced technology. They were mostly loyal to the princes, providing quality military hardware
- Szeklers: living in the mountains and forests, these people of Hungarian ethnicity were tasked to protect the borders of the country, but they have rebelled a lot to try to gain back their ancient privileges.
- Vlachs (the Romanians of today) were mostly living in villages in the mountains, working as shepherds or farmers, and being mostly neutral to everyone.
The two superpowers
- Ottomans: They have conquered most of Hungary, and sometimes helping, other times raiding Transylvania
- Austrians: They were ruling the part of Hungary unoccupied by the Ottomans
The main task of the rulers of Transylvania was to navigate between the two superpowers, with the hard task of not angering any of them.
With the listing of these nations I was not meaning to offend anyone. The real situation back then was way more complicated than I could have written it in a short list
Playing style
RPG/adventure
I will add some kind of leveling (obtaining some weapon and armor upgrades), but not the Diablo-style, where a 12th level hero is 100 times stronger than a 5th level one. This leveling will be not that important to win the game.
The player character is a messenger/agent of the ruling prince, and there will be some factors very important to shape the game in non-linear way:
-Devastation: how much the country has suffered from war/raidings. This number can rise and fall depending on your actions (fighting or ignoring bandits, for example)
-Ottoman angryness: If you get the Ottomans pissed off, it won't be that good for the country.
-Prestige: How the Price valors you (depends on how successful have you completed your missions)
- Austrian angryness: (not sure I'll implement it)
- Personal mood: depends on friends dying etc., might influence the endings (not sure I'll implement it)
There will be alternative ways to accomplish some or most of the missions.
Problems
I have worked with other editors, but this will be my first major AOK map, so I will depend on the help of the community.
Some issues this far:
1. Lag: What does influence the lag? I know unit count is important, but what are the main factors? I would like an answer like "1000 building/scenery objects are approximately equivalent in slowing the game like 100 units, or 5000 trees, or 500 triggers". Many of the authors of the greatest maps surely have some experience in it.
2. Size of the map: I started with a map size of 255, and after completing only 2 towns I had noticeable lag. It has fewer objects than the Ulio maps, so what can cause it? I mapcopied it to a smaller map, and the lag was gone. (and the scenery all messed up, because of the cliffs and uniform forests/houses). What do you suggest? Completely rebuilding everything on a smaller map, and trying to condense everything as far as possible? (I know of no means to save variables between scenarios of a campaign, so I need to have as few scenarios as possible - ideally only one) Is there another solution, and the map size does not contribute to the lag?
I haw a LOT of forests (as most of the country was covered by forests, hence the origin of the Latin name - sylva meaning forest)
3. Variables: What is the more efficient way to store them?
a) as food/gold etc. of an inactive player
b) as units created/destroyed in an unreachable part of the map
(the angryness counts should be between 0 and 10 or 20, so no talk about thousands)
4. Eye-candy
4.1. The 8 players are too few to represent every faction. I have 3 civilian players just for the towns (poor town/developed town/oriental themed town). How can I create eye-candy that has national buildings of nations not present on the map. It's hard even without it, because every time I load my scenario in the editor, every building reverts to dark age (is still correct when I play it, though)
One idea to solve this would be to rename civilian buildings to "saxon city house", "vlach house", "szekler house" etc.Will non-repeating triggers (hundreds or thousands of them) used to rename stuff at the beginning of the game cause lag later in the game?
4.2 How to create overlapping buildings seen in many other maps? I couldn't find it in the FAQ.
5. Miscellaneous:
5.1. Altering unit stats besides health and attack. Is there a workaround without using mods? The most needed stats would be attack and sight ranges.
I found a workaround for realistic musketeers: give them a lot of attack strength, let them fire once, the freeze them for some time. However, giving them a higher range, less accuracy and slower reloading would be nice, as it work globally, and not only at some predefined location with heawy scripting.
6. Language: English is not my native language, so if you can help to fine-tune some dialogs, it will be appreciated
7. Time: It's a big map, and it would need months to complete. I can't promise to deliver it in a few days or weeks.
Other ideas, tips, or questions would be greatly appreciated.
Greetings, Val
I'm an admirer of the beautiful scenarios and campaigns of Ingo van Thiel, Anastasia and others, and after the retirement of Ingo van Thiel, I decided to try to create a scenario/campaign based on the tips learned from the marvelous campaigns like Ulio.
The basic idea:
Transylvania, around end of the 16th century, then a more or less independent country. Why this setting? I decided to follow a "beyond good or evil" path, and the many nations, cultures and chaotic political background present a golden opportunity to create an environment, where the player can never be sure who is with him, and who is against.
Name:
It was used by some historians. Even with a lot of problems, there was a balance (even if a fragile one), without major wars, letting culture to prosper. Also, it was the first place in the world after the reformation where religious freedom was legally accepted.
One of the tasks of the player is to maintain that fine balance.
I will try to shortly present the factions forming that country:
- Hungarians: The rulers were Hungarian princes (this time I picked one of the Báthorys), and the Hungarians were mostly settled in the valleys, the nobility having tiny castles scattered around the country, while the rest living in mediocre towns or villages.
- Saxons: they possessed the most developed walled cities in the country, with the advanced technology. They were mostly loyal to the princes, providing quality military hardware
- Szeklers: living in the mountains and forests, these people of Hungarian ethnicity were tasked to protect the borders of the country, but they have rebelled a lot to try to gain back their ancient privileges.
- Vlachs (the Romanians of today) were mostly living in villages in the mountains, working as shepherds or farmers, and being mostly neutral to everyone.
- Ottomans: They have conquered most of Hungary, and sometimes helping, other times raiding Transylvania
- Austrians: They were ruling the part of Hungary unoccupied by the Ottomans
The main task of the rulers of Transylvania was to navigate between the two superpowers, with the hard task of not angering any of them.
RPG/adventure
I will add some kind of leveling (obtaining some weapon and armor upgrades), but not the Diablo-style, where a 12th level hero is 100 times stronger than a 5th level one. This leveling will be not that important to win the game.
The player character is a messenger/agent of the ruling prince, and there will be some factors very important to shape the game in non-linear way:
-
-
-
- Austrian angryness: (not sure I'll implement it)
- Personal mood: depends on friends dying etc., might influence the endings (not sure I'll implement it)
There will be alternative ways to accomplish some or most of the missions.
I have worked with other editors, but this will be my first major AOK map, so I will depend on the help of the community.
Some issues this far:
I haw a LOT of forests (as most of the country was covered by forests, hence the origin of the Latin name - sylva meaning forest)
a) as food/gold etc. of an inactive player
b) as units created/destroyed in an unreachable part of the map
(the angryness counts should be between 0 and 10 or 20, so no talk about thousands)
4.1. The 8 players are too few to represent every faction. I have 3 civilian players just for the towns (poor town/developed town/oriental themed town). How can I create eye-candy that has national buildings of nations not present on the map. It's hard even without it, because every time I load my scenario in the editor, every building reverts to dark age (is still correct when I play it, though)
One idea to solve this would be to rename civilian buildings to "saxon city house", "vlach house", "szekler house" etc.
4.2 How to create overlapping buildings seen in many other maps? I couldn't find it in the FAQ.
5.1. Altering unit stats besides health and attack. Is there a workaround without using mods? The most needed stats would be attack and sight ranges.
I found a workaround for realistic musketeers: give them a lot of attack strength, let them fire once, the freeze them for some time. However, giving them a higher range, less accuracy and slower reloading would be nice, as it work globally, and not only at some predefined location with heawy scripting.
Other ideas, tips, or questions would be greatly appreciated.
Greetings, Val
[This message has been edited by Val the 2nd (edited 01-25-2009 @ 10:58 AM).]
. You should have some playtesters help you out a bit to see how much lag they have, and what might be causing it.
. For stat changes (such as LOS), try taking advantage of technologies like Tracking, Civ bonuses (i.e. place a unit as a specific civ, then change ownership - same as for buildings), and of course the triggers for HP and Attack.
