The Sea Kings!

[EZRhino]

Hi. Its been sooo long since I posted on these forums. Anyone remember me?

After several years as something of a gypsy I've recently sent down enough roots that I thought it safe to build a new computer. Since then I've been playing some of newer scenarios out there and I'm completely blown away! Things have really come along way in the last few years. Civilization 2 scenario creation is having a golden age right now and I feel empowered to try to realize my lifelong ambition to make a scenario for civ 2.

This is my work in progress: The Sea Kings

A scenario of trade and piracy set on the wine colored sea of the late bronze age Mediterranean. On a home-cooked giga map(mostly done), the scenario will start after the supposed eruption of Thera circa 1450B.C. and run to the end of the millennium.

The central players will be:

-1 Achaean Confederation: Sackers-of-cities, opportunistic merchants and buccaneers with out equal.

-2 He-ku-ptah(Egypt): Ancient people of the the black land, the beloved of ptah's extensive agriculture supports a huge population and an aggressive militaristic theocracy.

-3 Hatti: Capable diplomats, the Hittite Empire survived the cold steppe of central Anatolia, surrounded by vicious hill tribes and belligerent kings, and grew to be masters of on the the ancient world's greatest empires. Consummate statesmen and master charioteers the Hittites are a people to be reckoned with.

-4 Amurru: Miserly counting their hoarded shekels the shrewd Canaanite traders find themselves sandwiched between the ever growing Egyptian and Hittite colossi. Will they stubbornly protect their lands and trade routes against all transgressors, or will they be forced to choose sides?

-5 Sherdan Sea Peoples: Children of PO-SE-DA-WO-NE, a mottly collection of pirates, mercenaries, and transients; the peoples of the sea were partially responsible for the destruction of the of the great empires of bronze age and the ushering in of the new and miserable age of iron. Their name was whispered in fear first in the sailors dives and fishermen's jetties and later by the great kings and heads of state of the bronze age.

The Libyan tribes:ancient enemies of the pharaohs, come out of the dune seas of the Sahara from their desert citadels and shimmering hidden oasises that no outsider will ever see; crossing the scorched red sands to spread a message of fear to the the sedentary children of ptah.

-6 Arzawa: Hidden away in relatively remote part of western Anatolia the Luwian kingdom of Arzawa was nonetheless and important link between east and west. A member of the Assuwa league they are safe from the baleful gaze of the powerful northern Kashka tribes.

-7 Minor Achaean&Danaan states (tentative): Finding no place for themselves amongst the crowded mainland palace states, these second sons and exiled princes of the bronze-clad Achaeans are eager to compete for the old Keiftu trade routes.

Featuring:

Interesting advantages and liabilities for each player civ, lending themselves to their own particular styles of play.

Deeply researched late Bronze Age atmosphere

Changing military and economic technologies will over time radically change the dynamic of the game. Be prepared.

Pretenders to the throne! If the Great King died whilst away on campaign, a war of succession was usually the result. While not always catastrophic, civil wars will arrest the development of your civilization until you can find a legitimate heir to the throne.

The bronze age sackers-of-cities fought wars not for land or political power, but for booty, pretty slave girls and cattle; the sources of honor! Raiding barbarian villages is critical to fueling the growth of your embryonic empire, but beware, each act of brigandage may hold consequences for the future.

Here are a few tentative screen shots




:

[Harry Tuttle]

Very interesting scenario topic. I love it.

[fairline]

I second that

Welcome back and good luck with this. Ooh, and I see it's ToT too

[AGRICOLA]

This one looks like a winner: bronze to iron age transition, Trojan and sundry other neverending wars, many of the wonders of the ancient world, great looking terrain and units.

[Boco]

Originally posted by EZRhino
Changing military and economic technologies will over time radically change the dynamic of the game. Be prepared.

Pretenders to the throne! If the Great King died whilst away on campaign, a war of succession was usually the result. While not always catastrophic, civil wars will arrest the development of your civilization until you can find a legitimate heir to the throne.
:

You've hooked us! Can't wait...

[techumseh]

It looks very interesting. I'll keep an eye out for it.

[Cyrion]

I'll join the chorus: this sounds very interesting!

Is this for MPGE or ToT?

If you need help, with the events file for instance, just ask!

[EZRhino]

Thanks everybody. Cyrion, I'm sure I'll take you up on it The scenario will be for test of time, the events language seems to be much more versatile.

[curtsibling]

I am liking the looks of this...Always love playing ancient-era scenarios!

[EZRhino]

I've finished the map
Q: Is it possible to hex edit, or in some other arcane fashion hack special resource squares into existence? Or is there just the seed?
I want the mountains of Cyprus to have more copper, but I like my current seed. Can anybody help me?

[Boco]

That's a major step forward!

Sadly, you can only hex resources on or off within the pattern. No spare terrain types to devote to this?

[McMonkey]

Originally posted by EZRhino
I've finished the map
Q: Is it possible to hex edit, or in some other arcane fashion hack special resource squares into existence? Or is there just the seed?
I want the mountains of Cyprus to have more copper, but I like my current seed. Can anybody help me?

I love this scenario already. The premise sets the scene perfectly. Can't wait to see it.
Re: Copper
It may be too late now if you have finished the map but one idea for extra copper would be to take an unused terrain type (glacier?) and give it the mountain/hill + copper graphic and change its stats to a high shield production. You can then choose where to place this precious commodity! The only problem could be lack of available terrain squares as the screenshots show there are a lot of different ones already! Just a thought.

[Boco]

We just need to get Skyer to change the equation that calculates the pattern. Change it to so that all squares are special resources. Then, hex away or use Mercator's utility.

[EZRhino]

Thanks
Sadly I'm unwilling to sacrifice any of the other terrains for a "special resource" terrain

Originally posted by Boco you can only hex resources on or off within the pattern.

What do you mean by this exactly? Within the pattern?

[EZRhino]

I've found an alternate solution to my dilemma. Mostly done placing cities. Conceptualizing the tech tree. Working on Special terrain icons

[EZRhino]

I finished placing cities. Here is a screen shot of the mini-map

[curtsibling]

Awe-inspiring map!

Looks like an epic indeed!

[fairline]

Excellent map indeed

I'm really looking forward to this one

[Harry Tuttle]

Very nice indeed!

[McMonkey]

The map looks awsome, I love a big scale epic!
Did you create it from scratch? If you don't mind me asking, what is your technique?
I have ordered a copy of ToT and cannot wait to have a go at this!

[MacGalleo]

Very nice map!

[Boco]

Love those Darbs! Makes me want to make a trek to the Oracle of Amon at Siwa!

What's impassable in this scenario?

[EZRhino]

Originally posted by Boco
Love those Darbs! Makes me want to make a trek to the Oracle of Amon at Siwa!

What's impassable in this scenario?

Thanks It was all your idea Right now deep desert, and mountains are impassable to regular heavy infantry, chariots and siege trains. I'm contemplating making it the same for the darb.

[Boco]

That'll give light troops a good role!

Btw, virtually all of "my" ideas are just refinements of earlier work by others such as Allard, Kull, and Techumseh. So take it a step further and better!

[EZRhino]

Still working on the map.

Here is a screen shot of the cities of the syro-palestine area.

[EZRhino]

I've got another question for you veteran scenario developers out there. As some players I can't seem to cover the whole map with black. The squares of the cities of another civilization are revealed and will not be covered up. Does anybody know what causes this? Is there a way to cover them up?

[Boco]

That has happened when I create new cities after hiding the map. I haven't looked into other variables contributing to this. Perhaps it's linked to who has the view at the time of founding.

I change the visibility of all squares once I get the map tweaked. Usually use a combo of creating units and hex-editing. If you need help with hex-editing, I'll be glad to lend a hand.

[EZRhino]

Originally posted by Boco
I change the visibility of all squares once I get the map tweaked. Usually use a combo of creating units and hex-editing. If you need help with hex-editing, I'll be glad to lend a hand.

Thanks Boco Is there a tutorial around somewhere dealing with this?

[Boco]

Not that I know.

I use AXE v2.0. Catfish (and Allard & Mercator previously on MGE) has done most of the hard work and published what can be found where in a file at "Saved Game File Format for Test of Time 1.1".

Do you use Excel? If so, I can dig up a file with vba code that assists you in editing terrain attributes. Got the idea from an xls that Catfish once posted.

[EZRhino]

Yes I do have excel, that sounds great! Thanks