Scenario Idea: Space Opera for ToT

[NikolajRomanov]

Hi, after beeing absent for quite a few years I'd like to return with an idea for a ToT scenario. After searching for a good 4X Space Opera I finally thought of making one for ToT wich while simple enough to be edited by the likes of me still presents a nice series of tools to create a nice game.

There is already a selection of scenarios available which served as an inspiration but ToT offers an excellent oportunity on improving on those already present by making use of the multi-map feature. My plan was to use 2 maps with one to place the important Star Systems and Planets and another as Galactic view and possibly third as some kind of "warp" dimension. There is selection of backgrounds available from Warhammer 40K to Starwars or even creating a whole new universe and I'd be glad to get feed back and hear proposals of the community as well as possibly enlisting a few recruits to help me as I doubt that I'll be able to finish it on my own.

As a nice boon I'll add a blueprint for a Galactic Map which is my own amateurish attempt to create an outline for the Milky Way. It is very simple in design with Grassland representing Starclusters and Swamps to represent the Galactic Core but it can be easily used and improved by anyone interested in making a Scenario on Galactic scale.

[Arthedain]

Long time no see, mate This project sounds really interesting.

[McMonkey]

A Warhammer 40K scenario would be something different. I think Star Wars has been done before and there is so much info available that getting an accurate version to work would be a nightmare as peoples expectations would probably be very high. 40K is much more of a blank canvas to work with and I would expect there's plenty of graphics on the net you could rip from other games.

[NikolajRomanov]

How is it possible to have more than one type of ocean terrain ? I have seen the standard SFmod getting it to work on one of the secondary maps but my own attempts to reproduce that effect have failed miserably.

Secondly I'd like to hear proposals for the design of the second map layer (inhabitable star systems). With the Galactic map offering entry points to enter the inhabitable star systems I am pondering about the generic design of these systems. They could either be simulated as Star Clusters with several type of stars each offering a different balance of resources or as individual systems with a generic "star" as well as several different planets within the system.

Which one would you prefer or do you have alternative ideas ?

[Catfish]

How is it possible to have more than one type of ocean terrain ? I have seen the standard SFmod getting it to work on one of the secondary maps but my own attempts to reproduce that effect have failed miserably.

It's a hard-coded cosmetic effect for the Sci-Fi game's gas giant map. It'll only occur in saved games possessing the Sci-Fi flag. You can turn the effect on and off by altering the state of the 982nd byte: 0x00 Original, 0x01 Sci-Fi, 0x02 Fantasy. The ocean tiles are taken from 4 different terrain slots. Because it's the base tile that's affected, you need transparency in the coastline tiles (terrain8) to see the banding.

[McMonkey]

I vote for one star plus several varied planets per system.

[techumseh]

It's a hard-coded cosmetic effect for the Sci-Fi game's gas giant map. It'll only occur in saved games possessing the Sci-Fi flag. You can turn the effect on and off by altering the state of the 982nd byte: 0x00 Original, 0x01 Sci-Fi, 0x02 Fantasy. The ocean tiles are taken from 4 different terrain slots. Because it's the base tile that's affected, you need transparency in the coastline tiles (terrain8) to see the banding.

I've wondered about this for years. Thanks again for your systematic sleuthing. What happens when the actual (land) terrain used to graphically represent ocean is present?

[Catfish]

I've wondered about this for years. Thanks again for your systematic sleuthing.

I remember discussing this with Mercator and Boco years ago on CFC, back when Boco was working on El Aurens 2 and I was working on WotR (both multi-map scenarios). Aside from the graphics, the only other effect seems to be a change in the status bar labels; the third type of band (the one using the graphic from terrain slot 8, starting at 0) actually draws labels from terrain slots 6, 7 and 10, depending on which of the 3 graphics variations (terrain7, columns 1-3) is used.

What happens when the actual (land) terrain used to graphically represent ocean is present?

As far as I see, they behave exactly the same as any other land terrain type, it's just that their tile graphics are shared with the ocean slot. Those terrain slots are not used on Nona maps.