"Hero of Wudang Mountain" - Gweilo's design blog

Topic Subject: "Hero of Wudang Mountain" - Gweilo's design blog

Gweilo
Angel

posted 07-25-16 20:36 ET (US)

I finally watched both seasons of Netflix's original series "Marco Polo". I grade it about a 'B' in historical accuracy, but the performances are exceptional and I'm thoroughly hooked. Can't wait for season 3!

My favorite character on the show is Hundred Eyes, the blind Daoist monk. Netflix released a short film about his background at the Daoist monastery on Wudang Mountain, and I must say it's just about the best 28 minutes of film you may ever see. More on it here.

It has inspired me to create another custom campaign for Emperor.

The campaign is named "Hero of Wudang Mountain", and I have created a teaser album of screenshots from the design and playtesting, which you can see here (warning, it will show spoilers):

http://emperor.heavengames.com/gallery/Hero_of_Wudang_Mountain

The campaign will be designed for advanced players. It's only going to have one map, but I will do my best to make it worthwhile. You can see a minimap of it now in the teaser album. It's an 'enormous' size map with a huge mountain range on it. I looked at real topographic maps of Wudang Mountain to incorporate some historical accuracy.

The campaign will begin in 1259 CE when the mongols were poised to invade the Southern Song dynasty. There will be four missions and here are the draft titles:

Mission 1 - The Renewal of Wudangshan

Mission 2 - The Siege of Xiangyang

Mission 3 - Defenders of Wudangshan (or possibly The Fall of the Song)

Mission 4 - The Great Khan's Bargain

Luckily this time period is well documented so I'll be able to include a lot of historical accuracy into the missions.

I anticipate a release date later this summer.

Expand your fun by downloading free custom campaigns for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.
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[This message has been edited by Gweilo (edited 01-12-2017 @ 03:02 PM).]

Author

Replies:

Gweilo
Angel

posted 07-26-16 06:01 ET (US) 1 / 16

I'm going to try to script as much of these actual historical events as I can.

1259 - The death of Monge Khan, Great Khan of the Mongols. The mongols begin recalling their armies until a new Great Khan can be elected.
1259 - Mongols elect Ariq Boke as Great Khan, in a partial Quiriltai.
1260 - Kublai holds his own Quiriltai and is elected Great Khan. Civil war begin.
1260-1264 The war between Kublai and Ariq Boke for leadership of the mongols.
1264 - Ariq surrenders to Kublai, ending the civil war.
1264 - Construction of the city of Khan-Baliq begins.
1268 - Mongols begin invasion of Southern Song. The city of Xiangyang is besieged.
1271 - Kublai Khan decrees the beginning of his Yuan dynasty over China.
1273 - Xiangyang is captured by Kublai Khan's army.
1274 - Emperor Duzong of the Song dies. The Empress Dowager is unable to contain Chancellor Jia Sidou.
1275 - Jia Sidou leads the Song army in a decisive battle with the mongols. The Song army is destroyed.
1275 - Jia Sidou is arrested and sentence to exile, but is later executed by his escort.
1276 - The Song capital of Lin'an is captured by Kublai Khan's army. Song loyalists flee south with the two Song boy princes.
1279 - The last Song loyalists are defeated by Kublai Khan's forces in the Battle of Yashan. The last Song boy prince dies. Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty now rules over all of China.

I may have to gloss over the civil war between Kublai and Ariq Boke, I just don't think I'll have enough available space in the splash screens to write much about it. If you want to experience that, play my "Builder for the Great Khans" campaign.

Expand your fun by downloading free custom campaigns for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.
Visit Zeus Heaven to expand your knowledge of Zeus and Poseidon.

[This message has been edited by Gweilo (edited 07-27-2016 @ 06:56 AM).]

Gweilo
Angel

posted 07-27-16 06:47 ET (US) 2 / 16

I have the storyline written through mission 3. I've found several Daoist quotes from Lao Tzu to use in the storyline; I think it will help the feeling of immersion during gameplay (a player assumes the role of a Daoist monk).

Started playtesting mission 1 and I'm already seeing tweaks I need to make to the map. The map does seem quite challenging and is one that player's will want to explore (via the PAUSE key) for awhile before deciding where to build.

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Gweilo
Angel

posted 07-29-16 08:11 ET (US) 3 / 16

I made my first run through of mission 1 last night. I needed to add money to the starting funds because:

a) the map has a plethora of trees and ruins on it that a player will want/need to remove (and that costs $$)

b) since this is a simulation of a monastery economy, taxation is not allowed so that makes money tighter.

I was quite pleased with how the map played, it does give the 'huge mountain' feel I was hoping for.

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Gweilo
Angel

posted 07-29-16 13:26 ET (US) 4 / 16

After considerable thought I decided to drop the last mission from the campaign. There isn't really much I can add for a player to do after mission 3. So the missions are now planned like this:

Mission 1 - The Renewal of Wudangshan - 9 years - 1259 to 1268 CE

Mission 2 - The Siege of Xiangyang - 8 years - 1268 to 1276 CE

Mission 3 - The Fall of the Song - no time limit, starts in 1276 CE

This campaign is going to focus on how a somewhat-neutrally affiliated monastery could prevent being subjugated/destroyed while being right in the middle of a major war.

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Gweilo
Angel

posted 07-31-16 12:36 ET (US) 5 / 16

I finished a complete playtest of all 3 missions. Wow! I hope you will find this campaign as tense and action-packed as I did during this playtesting.

I uploaded 6 new screenshots into the playtest album, which you can see here: http://emperor.heavengames.com/gallery/Hero_of_Wudang_Mountain

Missions 2 and 3 are quite a wild ride (especially M3), and the feeling of isolation as the Song cities fall to the mongols is exactly what I wanted. The stress on a player to keep trade flowing amid the war is a good challenge, especially considering there is no taxation in this campaign (monasteries don't tax their inhabitants).

I'm also really happy with the map. It is very challenging to react to invasions on a map of enormous size with a limited military force. Suffice it to say that summoned heroes and creative usage of gatehouses will prove vital to the defense of the mountain.

I need to begin work on the readme file, which really wraps things up on this project. I should be able to release this campaign sometime in the next few weeks, most certainly before the end of August.

Expand your fun by downloading free custom campaigns for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.
Visit Zeus Heaven to expand your knowledge of Zeus and Poseidon.

Gweilo
Angel

posted 08-02-16 07:55 ET (US) 6 / 16

I'm almost done with the Readme file. I also want to do one more complete playtest through the campaign before releasing it.

Everything looks good for a release in a week or so.

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Sajuuk
Pleb

posted 08-02-16 08:17 ET (US) 7 / 16

Sorry for not commenting in the last week or so. Been very busy and have taken a short hiatus from Emperor. Not to mention getting "struck down" with back pain and illness as well >_>

This campaign looks very interesting! I assume you will be using the window of opportunity in this campaign, but seeing only 3 missions looks interesting: I might try this campaign when I'm feeling better (and when I've got Emperor installed on my PC)

Gweilo
Angel

posted 08-02-16 10:56 ET (US) 8 / 16

Actually, even though this campaign maintains a tight timeline I am NOT using the 'window of opportunity' scripting technique. Missions 1 and 2 have a hard time limit mission goal (9 years and 8 years respectively). Mission 3 has no time limit but it does have a survive 5 years mission goal (with no penalty for playing past the 5 years).

Hope you are feeling better!

Expand your fun by downloading free custom campaigns for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.
Visit Zeus Heaven to expand your knowledge of Zeus and Poseidon.

Gweilo
Angel

posted 08-04-16 19:41 ET (US) 9 / 16

I found a few things to tweak in mission 2, mostly the timings and sizes of invasions and other events. I think I have it balanced now. I'll start playtesting mission 3 in the next few days.

The Readme file is almost done too.

Expand your fun by downloading free custom campaigns for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.
Visit Zeus Heaven to expand your knowledge of Zeus and Poseidon.

Gweilo
Angel

posted 08-05-16 21:25 ET (US) 10 / 16

The campaign is now released! Get it here:

http://emperor.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=486

Happy gaming!

Expand your fun by downloading free custom campaigns for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.
Visit Zeus Heaven to expand your knowledge of Zeus and Poseidon.

Sajuuk
Pleb

posted 08-08-16 06:51 ET (US) 11 / 16

[This message has been edited by Gweilo (edited 08-08-2016 @ 12:55 PM).]

Gweilo
Angel

posted 08-12-16 08:30 ET (US) 12 / 16

I just released an Open Play version of the map. It is modified somewhat to make it more flexible for Open Play (a list of the mods are noted on the download page). You can download it here:

http://emperor.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=487

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user3
Pleb

posted 07-14-17 02:02 ET (US) 13 / 16

Ouch, I'm playing M2 after completing M1 with 1 month left on purpose. The first defensive request results were great then the second ruined my day! Third... more problems! Forth was impossible considering the invasion I'm fighting. I succumb to your 3 ally desire, breaking the alliance. Six months later I can finish the monument as my crops are harvested
or
try playing to the end of the time limit again

loving to see the 5th chevron on both forts.

PS I'm hoping for Elite housing in M3 as I sketched out an area and got the Market Square preloaded for a quick start.

[This message has been edited by user3 (edited 07-14-2017 @ 02:12 AM).]

Gweilo
Angel

posted 07-14-17 06:48 ET (US) 14 / 16

I'm happy you seem to be enjoying the challenges, but...ummm...don't get your hopes up for elite housing. I kept this campaign consistent with my other 'monastery' simulations (e.g., "Shaolin Monastery" and "Servant of the White Lotus"). My research still indicates that while Chinese monasteries had magnificent temples and other monuments, the living quarters of the residents was more modest.

Plus, I didn't want to spoil the fun of sprinting your two military units from one hot spot to another to defend that enormous map.

Those fighting monks truly earn those 5 chevrons.

Expand your fun by downloading free custom campaigns for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.
Visit Zeus Heaven to expand your knowledge of Zeus and Poseidon.

[This message has been edited by Gweilo (edited 07-14-2017 @ 06:50 AM).]

user3
Pleb

posted 07-14-17 08:16 ET (US) 15 / 16

Finished, the second to last double invasion gave me problems so I bribed one and fought the other. I got Huang Di to help with the last big invasion, not that he did more then fire a few arrows at a straggler catapult.

I got a few ideas for handling the defensive requests, better. I'm not replaying M2 in-entirety; just going to check the ideas out before moving on to M3.

Too bad about the Elite housing. The map looks so empty.

Quoted from Gweilo:
Plus, I didn't want to spoil the fun of sprinting your two military units from one hot spot to another to defend that enormous map. Those fighting monks truly earn those 5 chevrons.

A few Mongul invasions had to travel distances, but not my troops. Couldn't get the Battling Rats to 5 chevrons, the 'A' team did. Maybe next mission they will find fearless wills.

I'm maintain endgame saves of my first run so others can see the mess I made of it.

Gweilo
Angel

posted 07-14-17 08:37 ET (US) 16 / 16

I could say alot more about managing the military request events but I don't want to spoil your discovery. Needless to say, I covered your options (and the consequences) in the HOWM_Readme.txt file that you got in the download. You may want to peruse it at some point.

Expand your fun by downloading free custom campaigns for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.
Visit Zeus Heaven to expand your knowledge of Zeus and Poseidon.

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