The World of Jules Verne

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by curtsibling
I will have a crack at the Nautilus, once I make good on the promises I have made to various peeps!

Btw, nice screenies Chris, this one seems very interesting.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
Many thanks before hand Curt. Now that I have whats essentially a completed terrain set thanks to Gareth refering me to Catfish's amazing collection of terrain's. Combined with the new jaged cliff coastline I made up and the wonderfull world map provided by my man Steph, I can honestly say that I am happy with how the world of Jules Verne looks in my ToT display window.

Now I'm by no means anywhere near completion, but the map and terrain's were a giant hurdle I'm glad to have cleared.

It's the one thing that turned me to ToT - The capacity for awesome terrain!

[Sarsstock]

Well, I have just begun the early stages of city placement and have been hit with quite the predicament. As you all know, this is a game not necessarily of conquest but rather exploration and discovery. My problem is that I'm concerned if I create a large number of cities, say the amount of cities that were in Imperialism: 1870 that there will be so little free space in the gamemap discoveries and exploration will be quick and simple.

I wonder if maybe I should make an effort to limit the number of cities to make exploration more of a challenge. Is it possible to have a large number of cities and make exploration difficult?

Also, I'm contemplating changing the name of the "Anglo Alliance" as they now are an alliance of nations such as France and Russia. How does "Imperial Alliance" sound? If not that feel free to make a suggestion.

[Patine]

First off, I would go with less cities on the map, like the admittedly minimalist placement of the original. This greatly facilitates exploration (after all, this isn't a historical scen, remember).

'Imperial Alliance,' as a name may be better suited to the new Continentals, as you portray them, actually; perhaps 'Entente' or something along those lines for the renamed Anglos.

[curtsibling]

'Imperial Alliance' sounds pretty good to me!

If the map is giant, I would consider making the 'civilised' world's cities in the places
like China, Europe and Eastern USA...But everything else could be enigmatic.

This is fantasy after all, the African interior, the far reaches of Asia and
the depths of Western/South America could be open to any mad design!

I say real-world be damned and let your imagination run amok!

[Sarsstock]

Thanks Curt, your right that I shouldn't be too concerned with historical facts when I'm making a game where King Kong can be used to lead an army against the forces of Cleopatra CI in her lost Egyptian city.

Still, I'll try to use some historical facts in placing cities, for instance I want to know just what the extent was of the Boer settlements in South Africa in 1861, this way I can set up a potential conflict between the Boers of South Africa and the colonial Brits.

[Patine]

The best way to arrange conflict between Britain and the Boers, I think, is to make the Boers (likely focused in Johannesburg) a Continental property.

Also, I had an idea for you concerning including Tarzan. Now obviously, even the King of the Jungle and Lord Over All the Apes can't single-handedly defeat a whole regiment of troops, even Aboriginal ones, so making him a unit might be inappropriate (and it seems you're hurting for unit slots as it is). I think, have a tech, triggered by some event involving African exploration, that signifies Lord Greystoke's discovery. This tech, coupled in research with a diplomatic, civilized tech (possibly the one allowing the building of Universities) will allow the civ with that tech to befriend him (with the resulting tech). He'd then lead that civ to the Source of the Nile, King Solomon's Mines, or other African goodie through an event triggered by that tech being researched.

[Sarsstock]

Hmmm.... it would save me the use of some unit slots and at the same time add an even great challenge to discovering the event trigger units. You see, I was worried about the relative ease of defeating one event trigger unit which then automatically spawns the next even trigger unit, its a process that would go by pretty darn fast. If I applied this idea of yours to all the event trigger units it would force the human player to divert his or her entire science output towards the path of discover if they wanted to make any real progress in exploration.

This means a player would essentially have an option.... the option being using his or her research to build better weapons and conquer the world or use it to uncover the secrets and mysteries in the World of Jules Verne, and that is exactly the kind of choice I want the human player to have to make.

[Patine]

Here's some ideas for Wonders for you:
-Edison's Laboratory: Replacing either Copernicus or Newton
-Moving Pictures: Like in the original, replacing Cure for Cancer
-Saar Coalfields (beginning in a Western German city): Replacing King Richard's
-Sherlock Holmes' Vigil: Replacing Shakespeare

[Sarsstock]

Well I definitely use Edison's Labritory in the wonders. It will be crucial as its contstruction will automatically upgrade all of your naval and armed forces in a single turn. Imagine the potential this holds if your playing as the Aboriginal Confederacy... one turn your armies are made up of spear and arrow wielding warriros from Arizona to the Outback, but the next turn you have divisions of modern rifle bearing soliders capable of going toe to toe with any army on earth.

Now Patine I seem to remember there was another wonder you proposed once.... an actual gigantic outdoor market or bazzar in Morocco that saw scores upon scores of historic relics that rest in Museum's the world over today pass through its vendors hands back in the nineteenth century. I can't remember its name of the top of my head.

[Patine]

Oh, yes, the Marrakech Bazaar. That was the one. It's mentioned, I believe, in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' as a sidenote.

[Sarsstock]

Yes the Marrakech Bazaar was the one I had in mind. My goal is to have a new wonder for each of the wonder slots and for most of the wonders to play some sort of pivitol role in the course of the game.

[Patine]

Are you planning to incorporate the 'Punched Card' advances that are paired in research with the 'Time Machine' advance to give 'Prepare for Time Travel' advances, each allowing a modern or future improvement or unit, from the original game, and if so, will they be 'found' via triggers by the Aboriginals, as in the old version, or by a random player, or what?

[Sarsstock]

Well thats a very good question Patine and the answer is..... I have absolutely no idea how it was done in the old version. Is there any chance you break it down how the whole punch card system worked in the previous installment? I would like to incorperate it as it sounds from what I gather to be a good idea that enhanced gameplay.

Also, as much as I wanted to include Harry Turtledove's works in the scenario in the form of units from "Guns of the South" to the shape of international alliances from "How Few Remain" I might have to abandon the Turtledove influence all together. The "Guns of the South" units never really seemed to fit in with the rest of the game and I couldn't really come up with a reasonable way to include them in the game story. I was determined to use the alliances from How Few Remain (The alliance of the CSA, France and England verus Germany and the USA), however I now see that this means one side will control too large a portion of Asia, with the CSA, French and British side controlling both India and Indochina.

Pretty soon I'm going to post the city placement file so it can be scrutinized for errors and such.

[Patine]

Fortunately, I had reverse engineered, as it were, the MPS Verne scen early in my Civing days, even before I discovered Apolyton, just to learn how the game worked. As you know, an advance with a 'no' 'no' prerequisite cannot be researched, but can only be the prerequisite of units and governments, not improvements or Wonders. Whereas, an advance with a 'nil' 'nil' prerequisite can be researched by anyone at anytime. Here's the hook. The punched cards had 'nil' and 'no' as their prequisites (one of each), which meant they couldn't be researched, but could be given by event, and could be traded, captured, and stolen (which 'no' 'no' ones cannot, note) and can still be the prerequisite of improvements, Wonders, and other advances ('no'no' ones can't lead to advances either).
Another advance, that was triggered by killing the city of Bala trigger unit lead to Time Machine, also a 'nil' 'no' advance. Each coupling of research between Time Machine and one of the Punched Card advances led to a separate Prepare for Time Travel Advance, each of which granted something like a Recylcling Center, Rocket Car, or some other high-tech goodies. And you see, each Prepare for Time Travel advance, which grant these techo-goodies, had as its research prerequisites Time Machine and a different Punched Card. Thus, each Prepare for Time Travel had to be researched once you had acquired the prerequisite techs by event, trade, capture, or espionage. The Punched Cards were given to the Aborigines on separate random turns, thence to proliferate by trade, capture, and espionage. You see, in the original version, the Aborigines were discouraged as a human player.