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One of the things about scenario designing that I've found most challenging, and fun too, is trying to thwart AGRICOLA's aggressive and ruthless playtest style. Aggie lacks any sort of sentimentality or desire to follow historical precedents. He sees a scenario in an abstract way, as a complex equation to be solved, regardless of deviations from historical realism.
On the other hand, I'm a historical romantic. I like a scenario to look like, sound like, and feel like, the original battle, campaign or war. I tend to use historical strategies, and not go "outside the box" very much. In designing scenarios, I want a historically successful strategy to be successful in the scenario as well.
This represents a double challenge. First, how to block off, as much as possible, ahistorical or unrealistic strategies, and force the player to employ historically realistic strategies in order to win. And second, how to make the scenario fun not just for Aggie and players like him, but also for intermediate players as well. Here are a few tricks I've tried:
1. Limit or control units and their functions
Aggie uses specific units en mass. In particular he loves engineers (or settlers). Don't let him build any! He'll have the whole map paved like a Wal-Mart parking lot in no time. If the human player needs 1 or 2 engineers, give them at start or by events.
Ditto trade units and diplomats. If trade units produce lots of gold (depending on what techs are given and the size of the map), expect mass trading followed by mass rush buying of powerful units. In Frederick the Great, I only allowed the Prussians to have trade units by events, one for each enemy trade unit captured - and events only create 'hides', so the payoff is low.
For a human controlled player, building diplomat or spy units can really upset the balance. Fortunately, by editing their functions in the Game text file, you can control which functions a spy can perform. Get rid of 'bribe' for sure - I prefer to only permit 'investigate city'. The functions of AI controlled spies are not limited by editing, so I restrict them to the human player only.
2. Watch cost/benefit carefully
Aggie will exploit any advantage, ignoring any units that don't provide value for the shields or gold needed to build them. More powerful units, and those with special abilities, should cost a premium. For example, a unit that is twice as powerful as another should cost three times as much.
To prevent a massive siege train taking one city after another (one of his favourite tactics), I like to make siege artillery units as expensive as possible, and add the missile flag, so they are destroyed after attacking. I believe this is realistic, as sieges are very expensive and time consuming.
3. Differentiate units
Maximize the different abilities of units, so the human player must build a variety of types. Differentiation of attack and defence units, those that can attack fortified cities, defend against air attack, and those that can move through zones of control, treat rough terrain as road or move onto impassible terrain are all useful.
4. Limit mobility
Obviously, fast moving armies allow the human player to conduct much more effective offensives, which is why Aggie likes higher MF units. This is fine, but you can balance higher speeds with somewhat lower attack factors. This forces the human player to stop from time to time to let his units recover.
Don't use railroads except in very limited ways, eg. as suburbs around large cities. NEVER allow the construction of railways.
5. Control diplomacy
The Civ2 diplomatic model is a pain, as anyone who's tried to keep an ally can attest, but it provides opportunity for the human player to shake down the AI civs, sometimes in a massive way. This is unrealistic and undesireable.
For most scenarios, rigid alliances and hostilities are preferable, so the ToT flag system to prevent civs from talking is very valuable. It has the added advantage of allowing specified civs to talk, via events. AI controlled diplomatic units can screw up alliances, so don't allow them.
6. Use events
The AI is incompetent and easily defeated, so it must be supplemented by event generated unit production and directed offensives. To provide a reasonable challenge to a good human player, AI forces should outnumber the human controlled force by about 3-1. Fortunately, the ToT AI allows multiple units (up to 255) to be produced by just one event.
It also allows multiple triggers, so you can set up counter-offensives and ambushes, which Aggie loves. Make frequent use of the MOVEUNIT event to get your reinforcements moving in the right direction. Feel free to be as fiendish as you can - the Test of Time events give you enormous flexibility.
To provide a fun and winnable experience for intermediate players, you may wish to use a different event files. Simply varying the number of event-generated units is the best way to make a scenario more or less difficult. And, of course adjusting the difficulty level, although in an events-driven scenario, it may not be enough.
I hope this is of some use. I'm looking forward to comments anyone might have.
On the other hand, I'm a historical romantic. I like a scenario to look like, sound like, and feel like, the original battle, campaign or war. I tend to use historical strategies, and not go "outside the box" very much. In designing scenarios, I want a historically successful strategy to be successful in the scenario as well.
This represents a double challenge. First, how to block off, as much as possible, ahistorical or unrealistic strategies, and force the player to employ historically realistic strategies in order to win. And second, how to make the scenario fun not just for Aggie and players like him, but also for intermediate players as well. Here are a few tricks I've tried:
1. Limit or control units and their functions
Aggie uses specific units en mass. In particular he loves engineers (or settlers). Don't let him build any! He'll have the whole map paved like a Wal-Mart parking lot in no time. If the human player needs 1 or 2 engineers, give them at start or by events.
Ditto trade units and diplomats. If trade units produce lots of gold (depending on what techs are given and the size of the map), expect mass trading followed by mass rush buying of powerful units. In Frederick the Great, I only allowed the Prussians to have trade units by events, one for each enemy trade unit captured - and events only create 'hides', so the payoff is low.
For a human controlled player, building diplomat or spy units can really upset the balance. Fortunately, by editing their functions in the Game text file, you can control which functions a spy can perform. Get rid of 'bribe' for sure - I prefer to only permit 'investigate city'. The functions of AI controlled spies are not limited by editing, so I restrict them to the human player only.
2. Watch cost/benefit carefully
Aggie will exploit any advantage, ignoring any units that don't provide value for the shields or gold needed to build them. More powerful units, and those with special abilities, should cost a premium. For example, a unit that is twice as powerful as another should cost three times as much.
To prevent a massive siege train taking one city after another (one of his favourite tactics), I like to make siege artillery units as expensive as possible, and add the missile flag, so they are destroyed after attacking. I believe this is realistic, as sieges are very expensive and time consuming.
3. Differentiate units
Maximize the different abilities of units, so the human player must build a variety of types. Differentiation of attack and defence units, those that can attack fortified cities, defend against air attack, and those that can move through zones of control, treat rough terrain as road or move onto impassible terrain are all useful.
4. Limit mobility
Obviously, fast moving armies allow the human player to conduct much more effective offensives, which is why Aggie likes higher MF units. This is fine, but you can balance higher speeds with somewhat lower attack factors. This forces the human player to stop from time to time to let his units recover.
Don't use railroads except in very limited ways, eg. as suburbs around large cities. NEVER allow the construction of railways.
5. Control diplomacy
The Civ2 diplomatic model is a pain, as anyone who's tried to keep an ally can attest, but it provides opportunity for the human player to shake down the AI civs, sometimes in a massive way. This is unrealistic and undesireable.
For most scenarios, rigid alliances and hostilities are preferable, so the ToT flag system to prevent civs from talking is very valuable. It has the added advantage of allowing specified civs to talk, via events. AI controlled diplomatic units can screw up alliances, so don't allow them.
6. Use events
The AI is incompetent and easily defeated, so it must be supplemented by event generated unit production and directed offensives. To provide a reasonable challenge to a good human player, AI forces should outnumber the human controlled force by about 3-1. Fortunately, the ToT AI allows multiple units (up to 255) to be produced by just one event.
It also allows multiple triggers, so you can set up counter-offensives and ambushes, which Aggie loves. Make frequent use of the MOVEUNIT event to get your reinforcements moving in the right direction. Feel free to be as fiendish as you can - the Test of Time events give you enormous flexibility.
To provide a fun and winnable experience for intermediate players, you may wish to use a different event files. Simply varying the number of event-generated units is the best way to make a scenario more or less difficult. And, of course adjusting the difficulty level, although in an events-driven scenario, it may not be enough.
I hope this is of some use. I'm looking forward to comments anyone might have.
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