Caesar's Gallic War

[Jerec]

I can't quite seem to remember. What tech was it that triggered the paratrooper pop-up? IIRC it is Combined Arms.

[Jerec]

Whenever you have time, McMonkey.

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=94070_Caesar'sGallicWar.zip

alpha 2

[McMonkey]

I'm on it. Should have some time today after I put the finishing touches to Aeterna!

[McMonkey]

Sorry Jerec. I did not have the time to do any testing today as I was finishing off Aeterna Civitas so we can begin the PBEM tomorrow. Once that is released I promise to give Gallic Wars a proper test and post my comments.

[Jerec]

Whenever you have time, McMonkey.

That means no rush. By all means, finish AC first.

[Jerec]

House Rule for any playtesters (McMonkey)

No bribing barb units when the text box
"We will mercilessly sack the city of _____ unless
you pay us ___ gold!"
pops up.

I've tried deleting this whole pop-up in the game.txt, but it still triggers and pops up when the barbs are about to sack a city.

[Catfish]

You can't delete the pop-up, but you can edit the text so that the check boxes don't appear and the player doesn't get the second option (ie, to pay the ransom). Just make sure there are no blank lines in the text to be displayed. Use "^" if need be.

[McMonkey]

Jerec

I have been playing a quick familiarization game and think this scenario has tons of potential. These are just my initial observations and I may change my opinion later into the game. Sorry these comments are a bit random in order but I am pushed for time as England vs Switzerland starts in a bit!

Although I am not that far into the game it seems a bit easy. I did not have a proper plan and just attacked in small groups and I have managed to wipe out the Aedui by June 57 BC. I lost Volcae mainly through neglecting its defences. I think with a little planning I could easily hold all my cities against Gallic attacks.

I would consider increasing the attack stats of the Gaul units and their numbers. This could be a problem if you can bribe units as the Romans will acquire very powerful units and unbalance the game.

I like the events taking gold for losing units while creating replacements. The Green Legion to Veteran Legion event is a good idea as are the slave units which will help build more Green Legions.

The GAME text changes are well done and add atmosphere. The tech tree looks interesting, future tech could be renamed. A tech tree printout would be a bonus.

I don't like the useless Cavalry as there is not really much to scout out as the map is all visible. You could cover the map for the Roman player to uncover. Should not take too long to do. All cities need city walls to prevent population decrease.

You need to include a brief read me to explain the objectives, what units roles are and suggest what techs to develop. Should I load summer or winter to start with?

Have you considered making terrain stackable? The German warbands near Sequani were destroyed very easily. If there was stackable terrain they would be a lot harder to defeat.

What role does trade play in the scenario and which cities should I try and trade with. I sent some trade units out and got very little gold in return. This seems more of a war game than a trading game so could traders be dropped?

You could add extra event only or pre placed special units using the spare unit spaces.

I think the graphics need a bit of attention. I have been having a tinker and will send you my interpretation to see what you think. I guess that is down to personal preference though and I guess you have not finished them yet anyway.

The map is an excellent choice and seems like a god scale. As I said before, I think this scenario has a lot of potential but I think it needs to be made a lot tougher. So far I have not felt particularly challenged or under pressure!

Will post more soon. Keep it up

[Jerec]

Although I am not that far into the game it seems a bit easy. I did not have a proper plan and just attacked in small groups and I have managed to wipe out the Aedui by June 57 BC. I lost Volcae mainly through neglecting its defences. I think with a little planning I could easily hold all my cities against Gallic attacks.

I would consider increasing the attack stats of the Gaul units and their numbers. This could be a problem if you can bribe units as the Romans will acquire very powerful units and unbalance the game.

See my last paragraph on the bribing units problem, and I have maxed out the number of units the Gauls get as it is with the limited events space.

The GAME text changes are well done and add atmosphere. The tech tree looks interesting, future tech could be renamed. A tech tree printout would be a bonus.

I don't like the useless Cavalry as there is not really much to scout out as the map is all visible. You could cover the map for the Roman player to uncover. Should not take too long to do. All cities need city walls to prevent population decrease.

I used Cavalry to scout for villages and minor tribes, which the Romans cannot see at the start of the game. They are also useful as far-ranging raiders to destroy villages.

You need to include a brief read me to explain the objectives, what units roles are and suggest what techs to develop. Should I load summer or winter to start with?

Starts with the beginning of the campaign season. Summer. Techs are for you to decide, each has its merits. Just start looking at them in the Civilopedia. The tree itself is very simple, shouldn't be too hard to understand. Oh, and for objectives, I just assigned an objective point to EVERY SINGLE Gaulish city, and the German city plus a few in Britain. Total victory, no less.

Have you considered making terrain stackable? The German warbands near Sequani were destroyed very easily. If there was stackable terrain they would be a lot harder to defeat.

Yes. Personally, I have no qualms with stackable or unstackable, and see the ideas from both. From the point of view for this scen, I think that once the leading/best troops in a massed (stacked) army were destroyed, the whole thing devolved into a route and subsequent slaughter/defeat. If one of the German barbs go down, the whole bunch does. Hence, unstackable. It also makes you more careful...

What role does trade play in the scenario and which cities should I try and trade with. I sent some trade units out and got very little gold in return. This seems more of a war game than a trading game so could traders be dropped?

Trading I just made an option. Period. Why restrict it? With the initial cities in the Province, yes, there is low trade. Capture a few Gaulish cities and develop them, and you will have a booming economy soon enough, at least enough to even out the debt you start with.

You could add extra event only or pre placed special units using the spare unit spaces.

I think the graphics need a bit of attention. I have been having a tinker and will send you my interpretation to see what you think. I guess that is down to personal preference though and I guess you have not finished them yet anyway.

The map is an excellent choice and seems like a god scale. As I said before, I think this scenario has a lot of potential but I think it needs to be made a lot tougher. So far I have not felt particularly challenged or under pressure!

I would be interested in seeing your tinkered units.

Thanks for saying that. I like the potential of this too. But like you said, there is not much pressure until Vercingetorix's uprising. When that happened for me, all my legions were spread out and those #@/*$! Gauls captured at least three cities before I could even react. But yes, there should be more pressure. Therefore, I've been seriously thinking about a ToT conversion. Been familiarizing myself with the ToT rules.txt and have been reading every article on ToT at Cradle of Civilization and Sleague. As far as I can see, I wouldn't need to delve into any of the advanced parts of ToT beyond the 3x event space and the Units Advanced section, where I would make some Gaulish units unbribable, as that is an option for the Roman player (the Gaulish Interpreter = diplomat).

Will post more soon. Keep it up

Keep at it. And thanks a lot! ToT, here I come. *sigh*

[McMonkey]

I have not got to the Uprising yet so I will reserve judgement until then.

I think ToT would be a wise move. You don't need to go into the advanced rules/events to begin with but using TOT would solve several problems:

Bribing units. With ToT you can set certain units as unbribable.

Events space. x3 as large!

Better events. You can include create unit events that create hundreds of units at a time, not just 1 per turn. Think of the uprisings you could create with that!

Better graphics. Check out some of Fairline's Celtic units in the Ancient section of the Scenario League section:

Ancient ToT units

More unit spaces. You could add loads of one off characters that are unbribable with events triggered when they are killed or something like that.

It would also leave you much more flexibility to fine tune the difficulty level. Sticking with MGE will make it very difficult to make changes as the events space is so tight. I know you can use batch files but taking advantage of ToT's larger events may be a simpler solution. You can still use the batch files to swap between summer and winter!

ToT is much better for these type of single player battle against the AI type games. MGE is ideal for multiplayer games and longer empire builders but the limited events can only be overcome by using complex batch file setups which can be a pain to work with unless you are VERY organized and have a lot of time to spare!

Converting the scenario to ToT is not too hard to do using the Civ Converter utility (though it once took me a whole day before I was missing a comma or something daft like that!). I'm sure someone would help you convert the file, especially if it wins another convert to ToT

[techumseh]

Well said, grasshopper. My work here is done.

[Jerec]

Originally posted by techumseh
Well said, grasshopper. My work here is done.

Pity you didn't finish that article on ToT scenarios that's on Sleague.

[Jerec]

Originally posted by McMonkey
I'm sure someone would help you convert the file, especially if it wins another convert to ToT

As a matter of fact, I've just been working on converting and ran up against a wall. I'm sure I put in the correct path to the CivConverter and to the scen itself, but I keep getting an "error loading scn" notification. Anybody willing to take a shot at converting the latest posted version of CGW?

[Jerec]

Originally posted by Jerec
Anybody willing to take a shot at converting the latest posted version of CGW?

I can't believe it. No one wants to take the trouble to convert me and my scen to ToT?

And before anyone asks, yes, I still can't get CivConverter to work.

[curtsibling]

Put your current SCN file into a zip, post it here - And I will do it for you!