pillage and plunder

[Shay]

Looking for something to do while you're waiting for your backordered copy of Civ3? After a year of work I've finally finished Age of Piracy (ver. 2.0). If you've got a looting gene you might enjoy it. My thanks to Kull for his excellent beta analysis. I fired off an email to Dan and Markos tonight, but I know they're really busy so I'm not sure how long before AOP is posted. But if you don't want to wait you can get it directly from the AOP site. http://shayworld.com/games/aop
Happy hunting!
-Shay-

[BeBMan]

Well, sounds great, but - I have to register somewhere before the download starts? Why I need a password?

[Mercator]

I´m just wondering, Shay, how popular was your Sacrifical Blood scenario and the accompanying website?
Why do you always make your scenarios in such an odd fashion? Starting with the weird way you packed AoP1, and then your Sacrifical Blood thing... I think it puts off many Civ2 scenarios fans. Especially because we basically never hear from you, except when you announce a new scenarios. Do you frequent any of the major Civ2 communities? Do you have any idea whatsoever what is going on?

I´m sorry if this sounds a bit negative. I´m sure you´re doing a great job (I can´t tell, since I don´t have MGE and thus can´t play your latest scenarios), but you´re just so... different.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

I look forward to playing it - AoP is one of my favorite scenarios! If the new version is better, woo hoo!

Sacrificial Blood is a good game, I suggest others try it. As with AoP, the goals are different than the normal CivII game. I always find innovative scenarios refreshing to play. Also, I happen to know much about the Maya, so maybe the familiarity with the game's topic plays a role...

[Shay]

AOP registration

Originally posted by BeBro
Well, sounds great, but - I have to register somewhere before the download starts? Why I need a password?

Hi BeBro,
Sorry for the inconvenience of having to register in order to download Age of Piracy 2. I've set it up this way for three important reasons:
1) I want to know how many people are downloading the scenario. This is my only way to gauge the level of interest and learn what type of scenarios people like. One of the things I learned from doing Sacrificial Blood is that most people don't share my interest in Pre-Columbian cultures, so I decided that revamping AOP2 might prove more popular. People seem to like pirates.
2) I want to be able to communicate with AOP2 players. If I publish any updates or bug fixes I want to be sure they know about it. Civ fans put a lot of time and work into their playing, and I want to be sure it continues to be a positive experience for them.
3) Before I presented AOP2 in this forum, it was in beta-testing for several months. It was thoroughly playtested by almost 200 people. I solicted volunteer playtesters from my list of people who had registered for Sacrificial Blood. Without their vital help, AOP2 would not be nearly as well developed. If I write another scenario, I will likely do the same thing again. I will reach out to the people who registered for AOP2 and ask for their help in playtesting. This is the only way I can think of to deliver you the best possible games.
-Shay-

[Shay]

Originally posted by Mercator
I´m just wondering, Shay, how popular was your Sacrifical Blood scenario and the accompanying website?
Why do you always make your scenarios in such an odd fashion? Starting with the weird way you packed AoP1, and then your Sacrifical Blood thing... I think it puts off many Civ2 scenarios fans. Especially because we basically never hear from you, except when you announce a new scenarios. Do you frequent any of the major Civ2 communities? Do you have any idea whatsoever what is going on?

I´m sorry if this sounds a bit negative. I´m sure you´re doing a great job (I can´t tell, since I don´t have MGE and thus can´t play your latest scenarios), but you´re just so... different.

Hi Mercator.

The installation process in Age of Piracy 2 has been streamlined and optimized. If you have experience with file management (moving, copying, deleting files) you should have no problem. The whole thing takes less than five minutes to install once you've downloaded the files. I had almost 200 playtesters, and only two of them reported any problems carrying out the installation.

AOP2 is a very different type of scenario. In fact, it's a modpack really, because of the massive number of modifications in the basic game files. This requires a more complex, non-standard installation process. Certain files have to be in a certain place or AOP2 simply won't function properly. I know how to make a standard scenario with a standard installation, but I've chosen not to do so. In order to provide you a richer gaming experience, I've changed a lot of the core game variables. The price to pay for that added value is that the installation may now take 5 minutes instead of 1 minute. If you opt to play AOP2, I hope you decide that those extra installation minutes were worth the trouble.
-Shay-

[Jimmywax]

I remember seeing a neat little utility a while back where it managed your mod packs for you. I think this would be perfect for your scenarios, the problem is that I can not remember for the life of me where I saw it. Has anybody else seen this?

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Shay
The installation process in Age of Piracy 2 has been streamlined and optimized. If you have experience with file management (moving, copying, deleting files) you should have no problem.

Well, I didn´t really mean their could be any actual problem with it, I just wondered why the difference, but indeed you do seem to change the dll´s too, for instance (as far as I could tell from the description of Sacrificial Blood).
I´d love to try AoP2, though, but I don´t have Civ2 multiplayer. Maybe I can see if it works with CivConverter. Have you tested that?

[Case]

11.5 megabytes!
Could you make a 'cut down' version for those of us on tight download limits? (eg seperate the sound file from the essential game files)

[Cal]

Originally posted by Case
Could you make a 'cut down' version for those of us on tight download limits? (eg seperate the sound file from the essential game files)

Yes, please do. The download site doesn't support "resume", I spent over an hour downloading only for it to be lost when my connection went out.

[Grothgar]

Right hmm i have downloaded the whole thing. And i did as the readme said but it didnt make a age of piracy folder so which sound goes with which scen etc because theres three of each!

[BeBMan]

Shay, please reconsider that Password thing. I can understand your reasons, but in my eyes this is not a good way to distribute a scenario. I registered, but no download area came up, so now I have the pw, but no zip file...

[Shay]

Civ Converter

Originally posted by Mercator


Well, I didn´t really mean their could be any actual problem with it, I just wondered why the difference, but indeed you do seem to change the dll´s too, for instance (as far as I could tell from the description of Sacrificial Blood).
I´d love to try AoP2, though, but I don´t have Civ2 multiplayer. Maybe I can see if it works with CivConverter. Have you tested that?

No I haven't tested it with CivConverter. But I would be shocked if it worked. You might be able to get some functionality but it wouldn't end up being the same game. I modified every single game file plus a bunch of the default system files. The modifications went beyond text editing and into hex editing.

[Shay]

Originally posted by Jimmywax
I remember seeing a neat little utility a while back where it managed your mod packs for you. I think this would be perfect for your scenarios, the problem is that I can not remember for the life of me where I saw it. Has anybody else seen this?

I'm not sure how helpful it would be. To my knowledge, there are no other modpacks out there which need to be installed like this one. Also, as long as the installation instructions are followed carefully, the installation shouldn't take more than five minutes. I can install it in under a minute.

[Shay]

file size

Originally posted by Case
11.5 megabytes!
Could you make a 'cut down' version for those of us on tight download limits? (eg seperate the sound file from the essential game files)

Yes, I sympathize with your bandwidth limitations. And unfortunately, my ISP doesn't support ftp access, which would allow you to resume the download. I did originally have the game files split up into smaller chunks. But I got a lot of complaints during playtesting. There are three scenarios within the gamepack and people had trouble reassembling them together. I've discovered that people can be remarkably impatient and are bad about following instructions so I tried to make the installation as simple as possible by making it all one unzip. When I changed over to that system, most of those complaints went away. Sadly, I'm not sure I can make everyone happy here. I don't have enough space left on my server to post two different versions of the game files.