Scenario: Somalian Civil War

[Curumbor Elendil]

Yeah, the weaponry in the Somalian civil war is fairly primitive. Tanks are rare and highly prized. Apparently there has been some naval bombardment, but I don't think aircraft have been used at all. The main tools of assault are artillery and four wheel drive vehicles outfitted with machine guns and rocket launchers they call "technicals."

I hang out pretty much exclusively on the Multiplayer and Gameleague fora, hence the Warlord rating.

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Curumbor Elendil
jason.sorens@yale.edu
ICQ 56126989

[The ANZAC]

Maybe you should have UN peacekeepers?

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"There's one more thing you men can say when it's all over and you're home once more. You can thank God that twenty years from now when you're sitting by the fireside with your grandson on your knee, and he asks you what you did in the war, you won't have to shift him to the other knee, cough and say, 'I shovelled **** in Louisiana.'"
-General George S. Patton addressing his troops before D-Day landings June 1944

[Curumbor Elendil]

Yes, there is a Peacekeepers unit, available only to the UN, and an Aid Worker unit (which performs espionage functions).

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Curumbor Elendil
jason.sorens@yale.edu
ICQ 56126989

[Civfan]

I downloaded your scenario the other day and have troubles loading the scenario. I read you can play on FW and MPG, but it won't load with my FW. I tried using Angello's MPG convertor to the scenario but it didn't reconize the scenario. Also I believe its the new one as theres no back up files. I checked with the units.bmp and terrian.bmp and saw only one new unit? Is this the right scenario?

[Curumbor Elendil]

It was created with MGE, so perhaps it does not work with FW. I think there is only one additional unit space taken, but some of the old units have been converted to new ones. I'm not sure why it's not working for you.

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Curumbor Elendil
jason.sorens@yale.edu
ICQ 56126989

[Kull]

Scenarios created with FW can be played with MGE, but not vice versa.

[blackclove]

...but if you use Angelo Scotto's MGEConverter you can play some of them on FW. The program seemed to work for me for Somalia but it crashed out on the first turn, so I suspect MGEConverter couldn't handle it. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

MGEConverter is available for download off of SLeague's front page.

[Cam]

Not wishing to detract from the topic and yet doing so - Jason, I think you have legitimate grounds for a re-review as per sleague.apolyton.net/Features/newpolicy.shtml given that many of Kevin's complaints were seemingly not valid if "Rising of the Celts" was put together pre-FW (although it does look like a frightening number of starting cities!). Mark Laanan's proposed process might be a little bureaucratic, but still, if the review bothers you - please advise! Then again, Kevin might want to consider re-scoring the review?

Back to Somalia...

[WarVoid]

FW is cheap now since it's been out for a couple of years.
It's only like $7.00
Pick it up at EB or Babbages.

[Cam]

quote: Originally posted by Curumbor Elendil on 05-21-2000 12:44 PM The reason for the huge number of cities is that I figure it's not worthwhile wasting space on the map, especially in a long scenario in which players might settle those spaces. Is there any particular problem for gameplay with so many cities?

This is a personal one for me, but I'm always a bit wary of scenarios that have more than about 70 starting cities in total, as micro-management gets somewhat tedious (that's "a sweeper" I admit, as there are some good games that start with lots of cities {'Red Front' springs to mind}). Games with zillions of cities do run the risk of becoming a drawn out process of churning out tons of units and initiating mass attacks, with little emphasis on well-considered strategy. Some players become quickly bored if the start is too unwieldy and does not promise to improve. It's just my opinion mind...

If you're particularly worried about 'sleaze', use low-yielding terrains such as desert and/or jungle and rename it/them (e.g. to 'marshes') and use alternate graphics. The AI will not settle on these terrain types and if the human player does, they will have a hard time of making these new cities productive.

Sorry, back to Somalia....

[WarVoid]

ALL RIGHT!!!

I'm not the ONLY Apolytoner from CT.

Sounds like a very interesting scenario.
Not too many Africa based scenarios out there today.

I'll DL it now and see what it's like.

You might also be interested in the 3rd Scenario Design Contest. Check it out at HAC and Scenario League.

[Curumbor Elendil]

Cam--I don't really care that much. I do plan to update the scenario. Actually, I think the scenario that he reviewed included a few experimental updates that use FW-type features (like an events.txt). I plan to make a 2.0 scenario. The reason for the huge number of cities is that I figure it's not worthwhile wasting space on the map, especially in a long scenario in which players might settle those spaces. Is there any particular problem for gameplay with so many cities? In my many playtests it didn't seem too much of a problem if you're just playing the AI.

This FW-MGE incompatibility really irks me. I never purchased FW because MGE was supposed to include all FW features. Come to find out that AI acts differently in MGE (much more aggressive), and now for some reason scenarios made with MGE are incompatible with FW. Guess I need to shell out for FW.

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Curumbor Elendil
jason.sorens@yale.edu
ICQ 56126989

[WarVoid]

Finished playing as the RRA just a little while ago.

A very nice scenario indeed. Good city locations and accurate objectives. Nice unit placement.

My recommendations: Edit your diplomacy. I was able to make peace with everyone the first turn.
Convert the files to gif format to save space.
Terrain can use a little improvement but I peronally think it's good enough. You could always add in things like dunes and beaches, more desert type terrains.
Need more units, just not enough of a new selection to make this seem like Somalia. It still feels like civ2, wheras it should feel like your in Somaliland. Use some of the units from the Desert Lion scenario.

Overall a very good scenario indeed. Keep up the good work.

[Curumbor Elendil]

quote: Originally posted by WarVoid on 05-23-2000 05:41 PM Finished playing as the RRA just a little while ago. A very nice scenario indeed. Good city locations and accurate objectives. Nice unit placement. My recommendations: Edit your diplomacy. I was able to make peace with everyone the first turn.

I can prevent peacemaking on the first turn, but I do not want to eliminate diplomacy altogether, because the historical fact of the Somalian civil war has been the making and breaking of numerous ceasefires, peace agreements, and even alliances, which dovetails nicely with the usual sort of outcome under the MGE AI. Also, if you play the scenario to win, i.e., to conquer all of Somalia, you do not really want to make peace the first turn. (The RRA are not recommended for play, as their historical purpose was not to gain control of the Somali state, but to defend a particular clan's holdings.)

quote: Convert the files to gif format to save space.

Hadn't thought about that, I'll give it a try. (As a rookie Civ artist, I edit everything in the packaged scenario editor, not in an image-editing program.)

quote: Need more units, just not enough of a new selection to make this seem like Somalia. It still feels like civ2, wheras it should feel like your in Somaliland. Use some of the units from the Desert Lion scenario.

Yeah, I need to do more research and get some new ideas. Actually, I think a lot of it will involve redrawing and renaming a bunch of already existing units, like partisans, artillery, etc.


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Curumbor Elendil
jason.sorens@yale.edu
ICQ 56126989

[Mercator]

quote: Originally posted by WarVoid on 05-23-2000 05:41 PM Convert the files to gif format to save space.

Actually, using bitmaps is much better. Bitmap files are indeed a lot bigger than GIF's, but bitmaps tend to compress a lot more when packed into a ZIP. So when you want a quicker download, it's recommended you use bitmaps; when you want to spare the harddrive, use GIF's.