The Necromancer (scenario)

[Elensar]

I have been contemplating a scenario for a while.

On one hand, the game is about the desperate efforts of the good guys to withstand the attack of a dark and terrible enemy.

The other half is an attempt by a few brave heroes (and some exceptionally brave soldiers) to do what an army may well fail to do - to destroy the Necromancer in his dark tower.

I am reasonably sure what style of units would be nice (have drawn/frankensteined some which I will post here if anyone is interested), but aid with graphics and scenario building would be much appreciated.

Note: This will be for Test of Time.

[curtsibling]

Survive a huge wave attack by events-created undead armies...
Then sally out to kick mage butt with some unique hero units...

Sounds cool!

I take it the emphasis will be war, rather than empire-building?
How many turns will this one be?

PS
If you need icons/cities I have got some - Got some cities to make for Civ2Units, then I can help you out...

[Timoleon]

[techumseh]

That sounds promising. Have a look at this scenario by William Keenan - it's probably a good source for your's: http://coc.apolyton.net/scenarios/scn-necrociv.shtml

[curtsibling]

Now, that is an old classic!

Will's monster units were fantastic...!

[Elensar]

War, yes - but I do want to have technological research in there, because that gives the player a way to trigger things.

I'm not sure on turns - under 200 is my from-the-giant-invisible-hat guess. Running out of time shouldn't be a problem, other than in the sense that the Necromancer won't grow weaker with time...

Icons/cities would be welcome - though I may not need any new, specifically-for-this ones any time soon, if you have a file or files with your current creations handy (or a link) I'd be delighted.

Necrociv is indeed interesting - and the idea of hero units represented by wonders (with the wonders going obscelete when the hero dies) is one I heartily approve of.

My first priority is getting the graphics together and figuring out how I want to draw the (main) map.

Also. Should there be any other civilizations (nations and such, not a civ dedicated to "triggers" or the like) besides the protagonists and the Necromancer?

I don't feel creative/inspired enough to come up with multiple player nations, though if anyone has ideas, I've love to hear them.

Thanks for the support/ideas - will post what I'm currently picturing using for a unit soon (have to finish drawing it). Finished!

[Elensar]

Hm. One thing I need to work on for this that I haven't even started with is the map.

How big a map can the AI handle, counting good use of "go to" and such?

And for that matter, how big a map is desirable speaking as a player?

I'm leaning towards the larger end of medium - but I'm not sure.

Update:

Factions: No real names for now, will work on that.

The Highlanders: More Norse than Scottish. NW part of the map.

The Kingdom: You. Typical kingdom. Western part.

?

The Free City-States: Middle in a SE sort of way. More like the Italian than Greek city-states, though not too closely influenced by either culturally.

The Nomads of the Steppe: East

The Undead: Northeast.

So if anyone is reading this, one thing I need to get that I'm not sure about is some horsemen - Charlemagne's era to 11th century, I think.

Rough idea what the map should look like, so going to post a sketch of it (done in Paint) for anyone following.

[curtsibling]

Any news on this one - Sounded like it had potential!

[Elensar]

It slipped off my list of projects to work on. Never did do the map - though I think I have a rough idea in my head now what I want it to look like after doing some map drawing for something else.

Part of the problem is that I really don't know much about building a scenario.

So some questions and thoughts.

Should there be another couple medievalish kingdoms as well as the intended player civ?

Presumably this will be a two level map - one for the main level, and another for after you enter the Necromancer's tower.

Map below.




Red = Highlanders, blue = you, green = city-states, brown = nomads, black = Necromancer.

Should the map be altered?

I would like to do this, because the concept of a desperate war and then sallying out to kick the mage's butt would be fun to play. But I'm just not sure about my ability to do this.

[curtsibling]

The scenario set-up seems sound.

The dots could be small kingdoms, groups of 5-10 cities, all with unadvanced and medieval
tech levels. The Dark Mage could be suddenly given (via events) some techs that enable
him to build his undead hordes. He would have his diplomacy turned off, but all the other
civs could talk, so they can battle (or more wisely) team up to fend of his Evilness...

What I would do is plan the tech tree out first. Basically use the normal CIV2 tree with
renamed techs as needed. Use the extra techs, and make use of the added blank rules
and unit slots. Basically, what you want to achieve is a huge rush of evil units into the
map that are just slightly too powerful for the player to handle, but not overly so...

You want that dramatic feeling of biting the fingernails, not knowing if the next attack
will finish off the garrison of your most important city! This can be achieved nicely with
good unit stat balances and timely use of events to give the enemy units and to give
the player and his AI allies (or rivals) some much needed bonus units or heroes...

On the subject of heroes, giving each kingdom (including the Necromancer) a 'Hero'
to use as an avatar is a great idea. Makes you have a unit that singly is powerful,
but at the same time cannot be everywhere at once. Exile's "Age of Crusades" has
units like this and they are used to excellent effect...Check that scenario out, as it
has much content and design that you will find very educational...!

I think your plan initially should be to lay out what kind of units and research you
want the civs to aim for. Then, plan out what units the civs start with and what will
be reasearchable...Once you know that, you can start artworking a unit file and then
making up the rules file, etc. Basically, start with a list of your civs, decide what
units and tech they all start with (some might have unique techs), and plan ahead.

My main rule is: Always do the tech tree first - Everything flows from there!

And before I forget, check this page out - TOTALLY essential for scenario making,
I still use it even now, it is a real treasure house of MGE and ToT modding info!

http://sleague.apolyton.net/Guides/0civilisation2.php

Hope my rambles here have been helpful!

[Elensar]

One thing that comes to mind is having the option for "counterattacks" - so if you just fortify in your cities and wait, that won't work.

But if you use your heroes and knights (very expensive but not unique) to move about and use their attack value (as well as their much better defense value), you should be able to hold on.

Rambles much appreciated.

Fortunately, ToT means I don't have to waste technologies making some units only available to some tribes.

Hm. Should happiness be an issue? Somehow it seems inappropriate, and yet on the other hand a creative use of it (like how in...forget who off the top of my head, way too many unciv related thoughts floating about - one of the LotR scenarios posted here it involves the Nazgul scaring the bejesus out of people) would be very appropriate.

Maybe if you lose major cities, they contain happiness wonders (and happiness structures are unbuildable/expensive) - so if your capital falls, you risk having your people sucumb to despair...



First things first, figuring out what I want available at the start (improvements, units, wonders). If you have to research anything besides basic defenders, that puts you in a tight spot just to start. And that may be ideal.

[curtsibling]

Yup! Losing valuable cities could have the desired "panic" effect!

You could either base happiness wonders in the cities at risk,
or perhaps use techs (awarded by events) to null certain wonders...

Let us know how you get on and if you need any help along the way!

[Elensar]

Well, now that I have a rough sketch of what I want the map to look like, I need to translate it into Civ terms.

After that, I'll post screenshots and see what people think - naturally, terrain that would be changed from the default won't look right just yet, but first things first.

How big a map can the AI be expected to handle offensively?