Red Front for ToT

[CapTVK]

As for Nemo's final reason for retirement. I believe he was working on a scenario based on the "Battle for Britain" but ultimately he got frustrated because the Civ2 engine simply didn't allow him to do what he wanted to do. Despite various tries and workarounds it just didn't work in the way he wanted.

So in the end he retired from Civ2. That's his choice and it should be respected. His legacy remains...

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Heresson
traitor

He done his CIV2 tour of duty - Have some respect for the man...

Youth of today!

Pah!

...

[rmsharpe]

Indeed. Nemo did wonders for us, there is no need to trash his name since he has left.

Nemo was a scenario pioneer.

[Eivind IV]

To be honest I've never played Red Front *scared of the mob*...

Looking forward to the update though

EDIT: This was an obvious joke.

[fairline]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
http://pub120.ezboard.com/biaapaopen...ile?login=nemo

I was searching for WWII stuff about Silesia, and I came across this:

"I have a great deal of respect for the USSR's War effort and have studied it in depth (I actually designed a Computer Game Scenario on the subject called Red Front)" -- Posted September 30th, 2002.

But I went to his profile and he is still an active user there, making posts as recently as today.

Top sleuthing there RM. It's an 'Axis and Allies' players forum and it would appear to be the Nemo posting there regularly. At the risk of coming over as a rather scary stalker, I joined up with the intention of PM-ing him about the Delux Redux; unfortunately he has disabled private mesaging I think, and it would be uncouth of me to post there publically.

CapTVK: As Agricola says, it would be great if you could contact Nemo about this project to seek his approval. It might help to entice him here so that he can look at the standard of recent work by Curt, Harry and Catfish in order that he could see this is a serious proposition.

[fairline]

Originally posted by CapTVK
Well, I got his permission to use his (and Alex's) graphics for Freeciv 2.0. I'm sure he won't mind that his original scenario get's an update as long as the original author(s) are mentioned.

But I will try and contact him again to get his official seal of approval.

Ah, I see you are already on the case. Thanks

[curtsibling]

The Captain must still get a lot of mail about his Civ work!

Fame has a price!

But I hope he turns up and sees that we are all forging ahead on the path he pioneered!

[AGRICOLA]

@Heresson

Sorry to have to disagree with you again

Originally posted by Heresson

My points are based on Your claims why he's resigned, not his.

Just to set the facts straight, when I said that

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
If he felt that the Civ 2 engine could not be made to do what he wanted to accomplish, he chose to retire rather than lower his standards.

it definitely was not my claim, it was based on my reading of

Originally posted by Kaptain Ken on Colwyn's Red Front 1.5 thread
As a playtester for both RF1.4 and BOB Blitz I can say that finishing The Battle of Britain would require fixing the AI. I believe that being unable to overcome the AI like he did in Red Front was what drove Nemo to give up scenario designing for Civ II. I have not communicated with Nemo since Alex came to visit America a couple of years ago, but believe he would not mind haveing Red Front updated/modified so long as credit is given for his original design work. I am playing 1.5 now and generally like what I see, but only to August of '41 so far.

My interpretation of Kaptain Ken's post seems to have been reasonably accurate in view of the very recent post by CapTVK on this thread.

Originally posted by CapTVK
As for Nemo's final reason for retirement. I believe he was working on a scenario based on the "Battle for Britain" but ultimately he got frustrated because the Civ2 engine simply didn't allow him to do what he wanted to do. Despite various tries and workarounds it just didn't work in the way he wanted.

So in the end he retired from Civ2. That's his choice and it should be respected. His legacy remains...

OK?

[CapTVK]

Well, i've mailed him. Let's see what happens.

[Captain Nemo]

T.J.T van Kooten asked me to pop in on this thread and give an OK to proceed with the conversion. You have my blessing on making any modifications and changes you see fit and using my original units/ideas/files etc.

Reading the thread I can see much discussion as to why I retired from Civ2 scenario design... simple reason: burn-out. After spending almost every free hour over 3 years designing Red Front, Second Front and Blitz I was ready for doing something else. The fact that Blitz did not work well was also a bit discouraging, especially after spending so much time on it. It is a completely finished scenario and just doesn't work well.

I am really happy to see that my scenario is still alive and well. That you very much for carrying the banner forward!

[AGRICOLA]

Thank you Captain Nemo.

Thank you CapTVK.

[Heresson]

My point is that no matter how great Nemo was, we should criticise Him for leaving civ2.
If we'll be annoying enough, perhaps He'll come back

What was the exact thing that drove him mad in this Britain scenario?
Let us think together, perhaps we'll find a sollution?

Anyway, rebelling against reality is not noble itself when nothing comes out of it.
In this case, Nemo's revolt against the reality brought no positive results to us, and therefore, I feel free to criticise his decision, which of course doesn't mean I do not respect Him as a scn creator. The other way round!
I wouldn't complain at His retirement if I didn't like His scenarios.

[Harry Tuttle]

Thanks Nemo!

[Eivind IV]

Thanks, nemo!
Are you aware that you've visited us in the very rennaisance of civ2? Please come back!

[Boco]

Thanks for the years of fun you've given us, and enjoy the hobbies that you've moved on to.

[our_man]

Good to hear from you Nemo! I hope you decide to return to the fold someday - it says a lot if over four years down the line Red Front is still the benchmark scenario for a lot of people!

[Harry Tuttle]

Ok, I've got some good patriotic music from this site:

http://www.sovmusic.ru/e/top20.php

I've DLed and I'm working on converting:

USSR Anthem (Stalin's version)
If war will be tomorrow...
March of the Soviet Tankists
The Saint War
Varshavyanka
Proshaniye Slavyanki

There all good, "get your blood pumping" patriotic music. I think they could be good environmentals for major events in the game, maybe file switchovers or something.

I've also DLd Tech's OMG and RO sounds, and Cat's RF sounds. I"ll also probably use Curt's various scenario sounds as well as whatever I can dredge up from my AE unit sound file.

I'm going to try to use the clearest sounds I can find and mix them in a fashion so as to overlay the various sounds you'd here in battle. No "Boom", silence, "Squel" here.

[Jimmywax]

Originally posted by Heresson
What was the exact thing that drove him mad in this Britain scenario?
Let us think together, perhaps we'll find a sollution?

If memory serves me correctly, he didn't like how the german bombers would stack up outside of London. The problem there is obvious, almost the entire Luftwaffe bomber force would be wiped out after the first turn. There was an attempt by another second person to solve this by creating "stackable terrain" (invisible fortresses). I don't know if it worked or not, but it was after Nemo gave up on it anyways and allowed the beta to be released by FMK (I think).

[Captain Nemo]

>> Originally posted by Heresson<<
>> My point is that no matter how great Nemo was, we should criticise Him for leaving civ2.
If we'll be annoying enough, perhaps He'll come back <<

As of right now, I'm not inclined to come back. I spent an ungodly amount of time on those three major scenarios and I can't dedicate that much time anymore... Besides I'm an old guy (47) and there is a lot of young blood that is more qualified than me to make the next generation of scenarios.

>> What was the exact thing that drove him mad in this Britain scenario?
Let us think together, perhaps we'll find a sollution? <<

The AI was just too stupid. In the first phases of the Battle he (the AI) would pile Luftwaffe Bombers in stacks of 30-40 and allow a single RAF Fighter to kill them all. Later in the scenario as a new "phase" opened up (War declared against a Civ called "British civilians") the Luftwaffe would just bypass all the major civilian objectives in London and keep going after fighter bases in Northern England. I could not get them to attack the London landmarks as the scenario was intended to do (This was the trigger for operation Sealowe, which obviously never happened). If anyone wants to see if they can fix it, I still have all the files and would gladly pass them to anyone interested.

>>Anyway, rebelling against reality is not noble itself when nothing comes out of it.
In this case, Nemo's revolt against the reality brought no positive results to us, and therefore, I feel free to criticise his decision, which of course doesn't mean I do not respect Him as a scn creator. The other way round!
I wouldn't complain at His retirement if I didn't like His scenarios. <<

I did not "rebel", I just burned out on Civ2. It took too much out of my life and that could not be sustained indefinitely so I retired. I truly appreciate that the scenarios, especially Red Front, still live on... it is very encouraging to see that others have enjoyed my work and have been inspired by it.

[Jimmywax]

If you could see how red I am right now. Here I was trying to explain what frustrated the "Great One" and then he himself answers like right when I do.

[curtsibling]

Good to hear from you, Captain Nemo!

It's an honour of the best calibre to keep up the design rationale your scenarios created!



PS
@Heresson: Your ticket to camp X-ray is in the post, young man!

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Ok, I've got some good patriotic music from this site:

http://www.sovmusic.ru/e/top20.php

I've DLed and I'm working on converting:

USSR Anthem (Stalin's version)
If war will be tomorrow...
March of the Soviet Tankists
The Saint War
Varshavyanka
Proshaniye Slavyanki

There all good, "get your blood pumping" patriotic music. I think they could be good environmentals for major events in the game, maybe file switchovers or something.

I've also DLd Tech's OMG and RO sounds, and Cat's RF sounds. I"ll also probably use Curt's various scenario sounds as well as whatever I can dredge up from my AE unit sound file.

I'm going to try to use the clearest sounds I can find and mix them in a fashion so as to overlay the various sounds you'd here in battle. No "Boom", silence, "Squel" here.

Great work, Harry!

[Harry Tuttle]

The AI was just too stupid. In the first phases of the Battle he (the AI) would pile Luftwaffe Bombers in stacks of 30-40 and allow a single RAF Fighter to kill them all. Later in the scenario as a new "phase" opened up (War declared against a Civ called "British civilians") the Luftwaffe would just bypass all the major civilian objectives in London and keep going after fighter bases in Northern England. I could not get them to attack the London landmarks as the scenario was intended to do (This was the trigger for operation Sealowe, which obviously never happened). If anyone wants to see if they can fix it, I still have all the files and would gladly pass them to anyone interested.

This is off topic for this thread (or is it?), but hey, Nemo's here.

I have suggestion, if it wasn't tried, for anyone who wants to take up Nemo's work or Nemo himself. The AI likes to go after high cost units. Why not create a non movement unit of high cost and place it in spots that you want attacked?

Also, as far as the stack goes, fotresses could be placed around the major city targets allowing for a "one attack one kill" of any units on the tile. The fotress graphic could be changed to something that denotes a defensive value, like a "plus" sign, instead of the usual concrete bunker. That way it wouldn't look out of place sitting in the ocean around London or any other coastal city.

Ah well, back to sampling the songs of the Rodina...

[Harry Tuttle]

Oh yeah, I just DL'd the mod: Enemy Terrain - for Wolfenstein 3D, complete with a whole bunch of zipped weapon, human, and vehicle sounds. Ooooooh, I love this stuff. Gotta ask for permission first, emailing now.

[typhoon]

Captain Nemo! Without you we would still be in the days of using Sid Meier's graphics! You're a genius at drawing tanks!

And don't mind Herreson, hes a twit

[techumseh]

Nice to hear from you, CN. I can appreciate your reasons for retirement. When you produced SF right after RF, some of us wondered if you ever slept!

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Ok, I've got some good patriotic music from this site:

http://www.sovmusic.ru/e/top20.php

I've DLed and I'm working on converting:

USSR Anthem (Stalin's version)
If war will be tomorrow...
March of the Soviet Tankists
The Saint War
Varshavyanka
Proshaniye Slavyanki

There all good, "get your blood pumping" patriotic music. I think they could be good environmentals for major events in the game, maybe file switchovers or something.

I've also DLd Tech's OMG and RO sounds, and Cat's RF sounds. I"ll also probably use Curt's various scenario sounds as well as whatever I can dredge up from my AE unit sound file.

I'm going to try to use the clearest sounds I can find and mix them in a fashion so as to overlay the various sounds you'd here in battle. No "Boom", silence, "Squel" here.

I´ve also got Eastern Front 2. It also includes a nice selection of Russian and German soldiering songs. All wav´s, no MP3´s here.

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Captain Nemo

>> What was the exact thing that drove him mad in this Britain scenario?
Let us think together, perhaps we'll find a sollution? <<

The AI was just too stupid. In the first phases of the Battle he (the AI) would pile Luftwaffe Bombers in stacks of 30-40 and allow a single RAF Fighter to kill them all. Later in the scenario as a new "phase" opened up (War declared against a Civ called "British civilians") the Luftwaffe would just bypass all the major civilian objectives in London and keep going after fighter bases in Northern England. I could not get them to attack the London landmarks as the scenario was intended to do (This was the trigger for operation Sealowe, which obviously never happened). If anyone wants to see if they can fix it, I still have all the files and would gladly pass them to anyone interested.

There may be a way, but it goes beyond Civ2 (ToT would also be a possibility). Currently I don´t think it would be achievable on the short term. However, The "Blitz" may yet come to pass.

[fairline]

Originally posted by Captain Nemo
T.J.T van Kooten asked me to pop in on this thread and give an OK to proceed with the conversion. You have my blessing on making any modifications and changes you see fit and using my original units/ideas/files etc.

Reading the thread I can see much discussion as to why I retired from Civ2 scenario design... simple reason: burn-out. After spending almost every free hour over 3 years designing Red Front, Second Front and Blitz I was ready for doing something else. The fact that Blitz did not work well was also a bit discouraging, especially after spending so much time on it. It is a completely finished scenario and just doesn't work well.

I am really happy to see that my scenario is still alive and well. That you very much for carrying the banner forward!

Thanks a lot Nemo! To endorse what others have already said, Red Front is still the benchmark for WW2 civ2 scenarios and we'll try out best not to screw it up too much in this conversion to Test of Time

While you're here I just want to say how massively influential your graphics have been to many of us posting in this thread; this is particularly true of your genius idea of using an isometric view for your military vehicle gfx. Take a bow

while you're here no.2: Just out of interest, did you ever consider using Test of Time for scenario design? Just a thought if you ever reconsider your retired status

@CapTVK: Thanks a lot for taking the time to contact Captain Nemo

[Harry Tuttle]

Also, another update, I've asked and received from one of our resident Poly Commies, Comrade Tassadar, links to Soviet songs. Thanks for your help Tass.