A history of scenario making?

[El León]

Hey everybody. I don't know if this exists, but I am interested in compiling a history of scenario-making for Civ2.
I guess the first step would be making some outlines for the history Chronological/thematical/site, I don't know.
Next step would be compiling a list of srouces: interviews and looking though archives. (Of course, playing, too )

Would this sound like SLM material? Anybody else interested?

The first obvious outline would be based on the chronology of Civ 2 releases:
- Original
- CiC
- FW
- MP
- MPGE

And I guess while I'm at it, I should also include ToT.

EDIT - And while I'm at it, I might want to spell "history" instead of "hisotry".

[techumseh]

What a fabulous idea. Would you consider using SLM as a vehicle to research and publish?

[El León]

It would be my privilege.

When are submissions for SLM magazine due?

Continuing on the chronology, when did ToT come out in relation to the chronology I posted? What about other Civ2 related releases (such as the scenario compilation)?

[mordhiem]

Top idea!

As for a timeline, how about Pre-Nemo, Nemo and Post-Nemo ? (Guess who my fave designer is )

[El León]

Controversial subject. The influence of Nemo is one of the things an informed history could help settle. (Maybe I could even convince him to respond to an interview...)

[techumseh]

Well, we publish every 2 months, the next one is due at the end of January. But I assume this is a fairly long term project, so why don't we use the next issue to solicit input?

ToT was the final version of Civ2, launched in the looming shadow of Civ3.

BTW, I think that Harlan Thompson's influence far exceeded that of Nemo's.

[DarthVeda]

shadow of civ3? I wasn't aware civ3 cast a shadow...

[St Leo]

Wayback Machine
Page with Outdated Links to wayback to.
A different set of links.

Example:
Modern Fascist Civ2 Site
Jan 16, 1999 Fascist Civ2 Site

Apr 21, 1998 Ultimate Civ2 Site


Dec 05, 1998 Tour Eiffel
Jan 24, 2002 Tour Eiffel

It seems as thought you can't travel to early enough to see working versions of some great sites of yesteryear like Allard's, Glyphweb, or Rocky Mountain. Actually, Allard's site is still there presently, but it's missing an index that would tie it all together.

LeoWWI was released in July of 1998.
The MooJr Modpack was released in November of 1999.
Roman Riots was released in March of 2000.
Fictional Americas was released in May of 2000.
7of9 was released in November of 2000.
Imperial Ambition was released in December of 2000.
Renovated 1650 was released in December of 2001.
Dual Europe was released in April of 2002.

[Exile]

Yep.

Great idea.

[Case]

Wow, that's a brilliant idea

[ravagon]

Originally posted by DarthVeda
shadow of civ3? I wasn't aware civ3 cast a shadow...

Civ3 consists solely of a shadow and has no other form of substance whatsoever.

The MooJr Modpack was released in November of 1999.
7of9 was released in November of 2000.

I seem to have missed those two. Are they still around anywhere perchance?

[kobayashi]

would be good to capture the scenarios which introduced new concepts or tools to the community.

like

X-com combined more than one tile to form pictures.
Underdark used salves to represent pollution.

Fractional movement values? - was it imperium romanum
Quest based scenario - was it spartacus?
Land based carrier - Lord of the Rings?

Also monumental research like the barbarian paper by Will Keenan.

[klesh]

Of course the development from having multiple files to be manually switched and delevented, to single batch programs that set up the game for one civ only (having several of those in the scenario's folder), then having one single batch program allows everything to be tidy and concise. I suppose the latest 'discovery' in the batch realm would be from Marko Urm and his discovery that batches will run delevent on .net files too... perfect for PBEM specific scenarios.

-FMK.

[El León]

Perhaps it should be re-thought as a "technological development" outline. Initially I am not too interested as to who came up with what, but rather with which developments made the most impact on scenario-making.

I would propose then, that the most important "technological" changes, in no particular order, were:8
Events (i understand that this came in two stages, right?) and Multi-playing
Any other ideas?

Then my outline would be:
1. Civ2 original
2. CiC and FW (event capacity)
3. MP and MGE (multiplaying)
4. ToT?
(within these, we could identify landmarks, I suppose, like Harlan Thompson's LOTR, Nemo's Red Front, etc.)

Other questions:

What about hex-editing? Has this been very influential?

Also, it feels that alot of scenario making is influenced by forums rather than being solo work. I know of Civfanatics and Apolyton which are still alive (not to mention the german site), but I realize there was/are other influential forums...

[techumseh]

How far back do you want to go? I think Jeff Head made some of the first scenarios which had new graphics and sounds. You can still find them in the Best of the Net Collection included in MGE.