Playtesting "The River War v4 beta (for ToT)"

[Allard HS]

As this scenario was almost finished anyway, I decided to release it as a beta, hoping to receive feedback.

It is basically a remake for Test of Time of my old little River War scenario, but with quite a lot new options and corrections, making use of the new capabilities of ToT.

It's actually v4 already, although most of you only know v2 or perhaps even only v1. v3 has never been released, just been lying around on my hard disk for eternity. When I decided to convert it to ToT, and changed a lot again, I decided to start counting it as v4.

Anyway.. What has changed? Well, quite a lot actually, guess you'll just have to see and find it out for yourselves.

I would like to receive some feedback though. A lot of things still have to be done (extra units, wonders, actual tribe placement, etc.), and some other things I did simply not include in this beta (dll's, sounds etc.).
I would like to hear your reactions on possible mistakes, game length, tech ratio fine-tunement, and anything else that is noticeable.

I hope this upload option works well, never tried it:
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=59_RiverWarv4beta2.zip

[Allard HS]

Of course.. some screenshots

[Allard HS]

the attack on the Suakin province....

[jim panse]

Ha, excellent, Allard

I really enjoyed playing previous versions - and now this! I shall give it more than one try in the upcoming days ...

Btw, it is good to see you´re still active

[Boco]

A sight to behold! I'll try it this weekend! Good to see Fedil and Caneva in it!

Mag ik uw Engelse tekst uitgeven? It looks to be 99% correct, but there are minor errors here and there. Btw, my English is somewhat better than my internet Dutch (is 'uitgeven' even the correct term?).

[Boco]

Okay, I couldn't wait until the weekend. The map labels are masterful. Henrik would love 'em. How did you make them?

Trade routes, zeribas, fortresses, and the use of impassable terrain...this looks excellent.

Any suggestions on tech research route? Or is that what you want us to test?

[Allard HS]

Mag ik uw Engelse tekst uitgeven? It looks to be 99% correct, but there are minor errors here and there

Uitgeven? You're going to publish it? I think you mean to correct it - verbeteren. Of course.
I did copy whole parts from Churchill's book, so that should contain no mistakes, but of course, it seems that Churchill was dyslectical...

How did you make them?

Creating an invisible city is not too hard. Just build a city and remove the "city present flag" on that square. Also in some cases remove the "map discovered" flag from that square and those around, and you have a perfect mystery city to be explored, or a map indicator.

Any suggestions on tech research route? Or is that what you want us to test?

Basically, yes. I changed all event-given units to researchable units, inspired actually a bit by El Aurens. But there are only a dozen or so technologies.

[Boco]

Originally posted by Allard HS
Creating an invisible city is not too hard. Just build a city and remove the "city present flag" on that square. Also in some cases remove the "map discovered" flag from that square and those around, and you have a perfect mystery city to be explored, or a map indicator.

This sounds useful! Time for me to show some ignorance. Are the cities themselves otherwise conventional? It can change hands or be eliminated by foreign civs? No stack death in the square while the city stands?

I'll publish for a percentage of the profits!

[techumseh]

I'm glad you're going to finish this for ToT, Allard. Let me know if I can be of any help.

[Allard HS]

Are the cities themselves otherwise conventional? It can change hands or be eliminated by foreign civs? No stack death in the square while the city stands?

I'm sorry, perhaps I was a bit unclear.. Well, you'll have to see for yourself in the scenario, and it'll show....

Basically, there are only normal cities. Some other (normal and capturable) cities, on parts on the map that have not yet been explored, have been hex-edited to allow that specific city square (and not the usual nine squares around it) to be explored by the British. This to make the key objective cities clear, and to show which way the player should lead his army (because he doesn't have any time to waste looking for them).

There are also some (both explored, and unexplored) "phantom" cities, just for map signalling. I could have chosen to place them at odd-even locations, but that poses separate problems - and is more difficult to realise - so I chose to eliminate them from the map. This way, they can produce units, and the name shows up. However, nobody can enter the city (because it does not seem to exist at that location) and no city icon is visible. I had to figure out though that the cities would not starve to death, or grow too large and build units too easily or overlap other cities' squares.

[Boco]

Do you want public or private feedback? It may contain some spoilers.

[Allard HS]

Public is better, I think, to keep the discussion alive. Oh well, hopefully, it will still be hard enough even with spoilers.

Here's another screenshot to whetten everyone's appetite. I think I got carried away a bit with Paint Shop Pro's effects, but it looks nice and, well... kitschy like this.

[Boco]

Allard, you gave me the 'just-one-more-turn' syndrome. This is more fun than the original and is a better simulation, too.

I'll give a more detailed report later. One quick question: did you intend a 1 tech/turn rate? It's not difficult to maintain. I seem to be getting reinforcements pretty quickly.

[Jimmywax]

Originally posted by Boco
Do you want public or private feedback? It may contain some spoilers.

That's okay, I never read the playtesting anyways. I just look at the pretty pictures.

[Boco]

Okay, I'm sleepy. Stopped after capturing Bashtinab in 3/97. In my first test, I botched things with a poorly planned attack on Abu Hamed. I cheated and reloaded to give the AI a better challenge.

So remember, I'm not even into the main campaign yet. Some random (i.e. incoherent) thoughts:

• Eliminating the Tokar barracks trick is good.
• What are your thoughts on including a Red Sea naval squadron?
• Isolating the Red Sea coast so that RE's are needed to link up is a good simulation of the historical challenge.
• So is channeling cross-desert marches along trade routes. I like the choice of RR routes to Abu Hamed. Creative use of mines.
• Airfields as old fortresses is a superb idea.
• Historically, the Camel Corps followed a difficult but passable route between Merowe and Abu Hamed. Would it alter the AI's behavior too much to put one in?
• If it's not already on your list, you might want to use a different icon for the Dervish artillery. If you're drafting Fairline, tell him it's more important than Turkish trains.
• Unbuildable Anglo-Egyptian Unit stats aren't listed in the Civilopedia. Instead of making them obsolete, you might want to use an unreachable preq.
• As the beta test matures, it would be helpful to have some clues in Describe.txt indicating what happens when you receive specific techs.
• If you think it would help, I can compile a list of suggestions for Game.txt.
• The steamers were sternwheelers. From the pics I've seen, the Maxims were largely mounted on artillery-style carriages. Fairline, did you once say you saw a pic of a tripod mount?

This scen is superb. I'm looking forward to the Atbara campaign.