Three new Scenarios

[McMonkey]

Just been on CFC and found three interesting new scenarios by a new guy there called Jamestout. Have played one for a few hours (now 3am!) and had a blast! The graphics are really cool too! Thought it might be worth checking out.

Britain and France 1100

Crusades 1100 and Colonialism

Now I need to sleep

[Bostero]

re:

wow, the colonial scen covers until the discoverment of the Biplane and the Bomber!!!!

[Exile]

Preliminary Review

CRUSADES 1100

After a brief glance at this one, I can say that this is a worthwhile scenario, and if it's a first effort, a very good one. The problems I've seen are small and only require some minute changes, primarily in text and city arrangments. The good things are many.

First, the map. This orientation is very smart, and maximizes the space used in terms of civ placement. The slight "tilt" eliminates a lot of undesirable map space and, whether intended or not, funnels the AI into areas that were historically active. The Map is large enough to convey the distances traversed both easily and with difficulty during the period, yet not so big that the AI gets lost. Very well done.

Graphix; Everything fits together very well, practically seamless. The units are mods of vanilla and Bernd's, but done very consistently. The terrains are well thought out and fit the period. The cities are a new design for this reviewer, but fit well with all the other graphics.

Technology; The tree you've designed is clearly a good combination of vanilla techs and period-specific techs that are well-chosen. The tree makes sense and has a number of units, improvements, and wonders placed very well to promote gameplay.

Improvements; Like the technology, the improvements are also a good combination of vanilla items and new period-specific things. Everything is consistent and fits well.

Wonders; The wonders are artfully done. The scenario has a number of placed wonders at the start that give the various civs their identity and advantages, and this is typical, but the majority of wonders have uniquely generic names that neatly allow any civ to build them and not be jarring because of historical "wrongness." To clarify, how many of us have played scenarios in which an AI has built a wonder called, say, "the tower of london" in Paris? This design escapes that kind of undesirable nomenclature by using the very general names for the various buildable wonders. Very nicely done.

Governments; Once again, nicely done. The only suggestion I can give is to get a Describe.txt in the scenario and change the texts inside the Governments box to fit the labels. Easily done.

General comments; The units seem to be mostly 1 hit point. IMO, this makes them very vulnerable to attack. My guess is that the scenario is intended to be precarious? Facilitating easy and rapid conquest, but limiting the ability to hold conquered territory? I'll have to play it more to see how this works out, but this is a very good idea. We're all used to seeing primarily ancient units with a single hit point. Having every unit in the game with only one is very likely going to be challenging. In general, there are very few changes made in terms of cosmic principles. For example the terrains are a little less productive, but the cities' population limits are still 8 and 12. The lower Danube is navigable and I'm guessing that this is intended to do 2 things; first to funnel the various barbarians into medieval Europe and away from the southern balkans and to 2.) protect the greco-thracian core Byzantine area from attack.

Problems; Your pedia text needs a few rewrites, as does your wonders description text. Apparent oversights. The terrain description need several rewrites too. Your buffalo looks like a bunch of rocks, your buffalo somehow is "ivory" etc. More oversights, easily corrected. The Turkish city of Ankara is building a barracks, but already has one. I will hereafter refer to this problem as #1. Konya is supporting one peasant(settler), but is running a food deficit with no reserves, so that the peasant starves on turn 1 with no apparent recourse. Is this what you intended? The Fatamid city of Alexandria is in Revolt on turn 1; is this what you intended? 5 Aragonese cities are # 1; Santiago, Saragossa, Toledo, Porto, and Valladollid. The French city of Bordeaux is # 1. The city of Tours is building a marketplace but already has one. The Byzantines seem to immediately discontinue their production of the Mass Servile Labor wonder on turn 1. Is this what you intended? Is there a way to prevent it? Your pedia text for units displays the ICBM. Is this intended? (lol) I would find some way to eliminate the desert oil and oasis terrains--the AI will choose to build near them if you don't. You'll have AI cities in ridiculous locations otherwise--in the middle of the sahara. Adding a People.gif or bmp might be advisable, but including a Readme file is really a glaring omission. Even if brief, every scenario should have one to explain the various quirks and special attributes of your scenario, to credit those who contributed and to take credit for your own work.

More to come.

[curtsibling]

These scenarios are very nice - As well as very unique units,
they also have some interesting design ideas included...

Good to see something so cool appear out of the blue!

[curtsibling]

The cities are extremely nice - Very interesting inspiration for me!

I might have to contact Jamestout and ask if I can derive some cities from his designs...

[Gagliaudo]

Exile: really interesting and teaching analysis

More: I appreciate medieval scenarios' historical accuracy (especially cities)

[McMonkey]

I really hope Jamestout will join us at Apolyton as well as CFC as he is obviously a very talented designer. With the support this community can offer his potential is huge. Just the fact that the guy has THREE completed scenarios is an indication that he is a dedicated designer. I am afraid that my resolve is often weak and although I have several projects, finishing them is often a problem

BTW has someone added a spell checker? I have not seen it before! Its a real life saver for semi literates like me

[Exile]

Really?

I've only seen the two scenarios, Werd. The Crusades and the Colonialism. Where is the third? Post a link?

[McMonkey]

Look in post #1 of this thread. Its the Britain and France link. Should have gone to specsavers

[Exile]

thanx got it. Quick reply indicates you're here now. Your email box suddenly go nuts?

lol

Have fun. More will come later.

[jamestout]

Here I am

Hi everyone

Glad you all liked the scenarios. I've now registered on this site too so if I come up with any more I'll post them here as well.
Thanks to Werd100 for publicising the scens and everyone can feel free to use any units or graphics in my scenarios in their own. Many of my units are grafted onto existing ones and then reworked in my "style". As for the cities, they are my own creations - I usually try to draw mine three dimensional and build the larger cities using the smaller sizes as a base to make it look as if they grow organically.
Thanks to all who have tried out the games and given your comments.

[McMonkey]

Glad to see you have found us JT. It took me years to find Apolyton. I had been dl scenarios from CFC for several years and had looked at Apolyton briefly when I was searching for graphics but I missed the CivII creation forum. It was only when Eivind pointed me here that I found CivII was not only alive but thriving!

[Exile]

Welcome.

Glad you found us John.

Now fix your scenario.

lol

It's a good one. Only a few minor bugs to fix and it'll be well worth playing. I'll give it a fuller review once that's done.

[techumseh]

Re: Here I am

Originally posted by jamestout
Hi everyone

Glad you all liked the scenarios. I've now registered on this site too so if I come up with any more I'll post them here as well.
Thanks to Werd100 for publicising the scens and everyone can feel free to use any units or graphics in my scenarios in their own. Many of my units are grafted onto existing ones and then reworked in my "style". As for the cities, they are my own creations - I usually try to draw mine three dimensional and build the larger cities using the smaller sizes as a base to make it look as if they grow organically.
Thanks to all who have tried out the games and given your comments.

Hi jamestout. I've tried your Crusades and now your Colonialism scenarios. I like them both, and particularly like the artistic style.

Do you have any others in mind?

[jamestout]

Hi Tecumseh

Glad you like them! I'm actually working on another scenario at present, set in 200BC, using the same map as for the Crusades scenario. The tribes are: Romans, Macedonian Greeks, Parthians, Ptolemaic Egypt, Carthage, Celtic Tribes and Germanic Tribes. It's hard trying to represent all the important factions with just seven tribes, of course, so I've had to condemn some important kingdoms/empires/city states to barbarian status, but I think the choice in justified in terms of the length of time each hung around for (ok, perhaps not Carthage and Macedon, but there you go!). So, for example, the Seleucid Empire is largely barbarian with the Parthians in control of Persia slightly earlier than in history. But of course the Parthians went on to usurp most of the former Seleucid realm, so there's the justification for that.

I'm designing unique units for all the civs, as well as new city styles, so watch this space!