Aeterna Civitas

[McMonkey]

Aeterna Civitas:

[McMonkey]

The Beta version of this ancient scenario is available to download (see signature link below) at the Scenario League wikipedia page. I still have a few finishing touches to do but basically it is ready to play and I would appreciate any feedback you good people may have.

It has been designed with PBEM in mind and therefore historical accuracy was not the top priority.
It should work as a single player game too though I am not sure how challenging the AI civs would be. There are loads of barbarians to contend with so setting the game options to speed up the AI turn may be advisable.

I am due to start a seven player PBEM game at the German site and would like to have all the fixes done before I start, which will be very soon! Depending on the outcome of the PBEM I may try and design a single player version, either for MGE or ToT in the future

[tanelorn]

What a great map! Woa! I am impressed!
Troop types are exelent.
Amazing work. Congratulations!
Still, you asked for it, here are some points to consider (since you asked for it ):

Leader names - Seleucus is male, Seleucis is female .
Bireme, not Brireme
Cretan archers used composite bows (Being Cretan, I'm insanely picky. And we still dress in black and boots you know, I have an illustration by the late Angus of a Cretan like that, I'll look it up. I'll scan it at work, ok?)
N.Africa
Jol (eastern Mauretania) was named Caesarea in the 20's BC.
Sicily
Zancle in Sicily was founded in the 8th c. BC. and renamed Messene in the 5th c. BC.
Catana is the Latin spelling of modern Catania. Catane is the Greek spelling.
Asia Minor
Caesaria was named Mazaca (capital of Cappadocia) up to the Roman "anexation/ clientage"
Sebasteia was not significant up to Diocletians time. I think the name was given in his honour. Comana, nearby, was a major temple site & city instead.
Balkans
Eumolpias was named Philippoupolis at 342 BC by Alexanders father
Salona was named after Diocletians palace. It was settled from ancient Tragurion (Greek, modern Trogir) nearby.

Things I'd like to see on the map, no big deal:
Greece
The three main temples of Ancient Greece are not included,
Dodona, to stand for the kingdom of Epirus
Delphi, to stand for the roman allies, the Aetolian League (also anti- Macedon and pro-Seleucid). Delphi was so rich that it was a prime target for practically every invader.
Olympia, to stand for the anti-everyone Achaean League. Corinth also fits the bill (after Sicyon)
Black Sea
The most important Greek colonies there were the two capitals of the Bosporan Kingdom, Panticapaeum (Kerch) and Phanagoria, just across the straits.
The two Scythian capitals, Gelonus (Poltava), an impressive city, and the later Scythian Neapolis (Simferopol).
Tanais (near Rostov) the northernmost extent of Greek culture
Ireland
Eblana (Dublin) noted by Ptolemy the chartographer
Italy
Atria or Ravenna at the Po delta, Greek or Etruscan, or both.
Spain
Emporion (Ampurias) or even better Saguntum (Sagunto) given the latter's importance in the Punic wars
Malaca (Malaga) for the Carthaginians.
Egypt
Pelusium, the gateway to Egypt, near Port Said. Who ever captured it controlled Egypt. That's where most major battles for Egypt were fought. Like a dozen or more. Very important.
Hieracon (Asyut) just to put something between Memphis and Thebes. Not important.
Arabia
Iathrippa or Yathrib (Medina)
Sweden
The Suiones tribe mentioned by Tacitus, hence Swedes
The Goutai by Ptolemy,Geats in the sagas, later Goths of Gotland

Great work!
Started playing, notes forthcoming.

-edit-
Also, purely cosmetic. The theory that African foot fought with the Macedonian sarissa pike, presumably introduced by the Spartan mercenary general Xanthipus is shaky at best. At that time, Sparta itself had not converted to the pike, it is highly unlikely. The Romans crushed the massed pike formations repeatedly. African foot is attested using hoplite arms and armour (linothorax, helmet, aspis, short spear) which partly accounts for their greater flexibility and effectivenes against the legions.

[McMonkey]

Thanks for the feedback, exactly what I need!

The map is basically the same as the one I used for my WWII scenario minus America. I like to recycle things

This game has a slightly unusual history. I originally intended to make it a single player MGE game for play as Rome. I would have tried, within Civs limitations, to be as historically accurate as possible. As things turned out I let the project mature while I worked on other things.

After joining in PBEMs for the first time I thought of the project and resurrected it as I figured it would be much quicker to make it playable for seven intelligent human players than it would for human vs AI.

The result is a workable though a little rushed game with many historical errors. I do not think this will be too much of a problem for the PBEM as it is the human challenge that will keep it fresh.

I would like to gather ideas for a future single player version, possibly for ToT, where the Rise of Rome is the theme. Thanks for your comments, they will be noted filed away and will one day re-emerge

[McMonkey]

Help Needed

1,

Werd, is it intended that bonus-grassland doesn't give a shield as it should normally do?

In the rules the Grassland (bonus) terrain is set at 1,1,1 but in the game, as you pointed out, there is no shield showing in the city screen. I tried altering the values but nothing happens. When I tried altering the shileld cound for Tin that worked fine! Anyone know what I have to do to fix this? Not a major problem but one I would like to sort out!

2, Can anyone explain how to make terrain stackable in MGE?

3, Is there a way to cover parts of the map? I think not but it is worth asking, there may be a tool!

4, Can anyone explain how to get the Title to show? I have had no luck so far. The one I want to use is in post #1.

[kobayashi]

3 cover the whole map using the cheat menu (toggle reveal map) and then use an eagle with move 50 and sight =2 to fly about

4. again cheat menu, scenario parameters, toggle set scenario name.

[McMonkey]

Thanks Kobayashi

Re:3, That is what I did (or thought I had done) the first time but there were random areas reavealed. I think I may have had those areas as Roman cities and had the barbarians capture them and that is why they are visible (???) . I will just have to try again and hope it works this time! I have included a screenshot of the Roman map. When I started there were loads of barbarian cities revealed. I linked them up to make the map look neater but it means that too much of the map is now visible. (I cannot seem to make sense lately, I think alcohol is rotting my braincells!!!)

Re:4, I will give it a try. By Title I meant the title screen picture, is that what you meant too?
EDIT - Just tried and I do think we are talking about different things. I just can't get the 'Title' picture to show, when I load the scenario there is just a black screen in the background.

[kobayashi]

Barbarian activity is automatically visible.

[McMonkey]

But not all barbarian cities are visible to the Romans at the start when the map is blanked out, just some areas.
I will try covering and revealing again to see if that makes a difference.

I get round having to watch all the barbarians milling around be unclicking show enemy moves. This was their turn ends much quicker.

[tanelorn]

Perhaps you misplaced Roman units in Barbarian cities and forgot about it? Check for Roman units in the revealed areas.
The pattern suggests unit movement.

[Boco]

3. Need help hexing visibility?

[techumseh]

2. Use Merc's CivStack utility, available here: http://www.civgaming.net/mercator/ma...downloads.html

If you're using MGE, then you make terrain stackable by adding forts to every tile, then removing the graphic. This has a number of effects you will have to take into account. The units defend at a higher value, of course. Barbarian units with a mf of 2 will "fort up", wherever they are and not move, and in my experience, unit movement by the AI in general is impeded.

If you're using Test of Time, and the scenario has no air units, you can add airbases to each tile instead. (Airbases in MGE act like railways, with no movement points expended) As far as I can tell, there is no negative impact on the movement of ground units if you use airbases instead of fortresses.

Generally, avoid using stackable terrain on oceans, as transports which are sunk will leave the units they were carrying floating immobile in the ocean.

[McMonkey]

@Tanelorn
I do not think this was the case. I think it may have been something I did way back in the development and then forgot about. Some of the map was revealed by myself to link up the cities to make it look a bit more tidy.

@Boco
I may need help. How much work is involved? If it is tricky I will try and start again myself. If it is fairly easy then I would take up the offer, thanks? (P.S. I could write what I know about hex-editing on the back of a postage stamp!)

@Techumseh
Thanks for the link. I may well use it in the future. I have been thinking about it in this scenario and I have decided to leave it as it is. By not making terrain stackable there is a greater element of risk and on a large map with varied terrain you will need to use all the units in your army during a campaign to attack your enemies, not just drive some artillery and a few infantry up the main road.

[McMonkey]

I am just putting the finishing touches to this scenario (sounds / icons etc...) but I still cannot get the title to work. I NEED TO KNOW FOR THE SAKE OF MY SANITY! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SOMEONE MUST BE ABLE TO HELP ME!!!!!!

I have saved it as a GIF file. It is no larger in bytes or pixel size than others I have seen but when I load the scenario all I get is a black screen. HELP!

BTW I decided to start again with the map covering / revealing so don't worry about hex-editing etc, thanks!

[curtsibling]

Best thing to do is copy and paste an existing scenario title
image into your folder, and then resize it to your planned
size, and finally copy/paste your image into the copied title.