Limited Scenarios

[Exile]

Right now I'm working on a Saxon Conquest of Britain scenario, with the intention of making it historically accurate, not a fantasy Aurthurian thing. What's been bothering me a little is the idea that it almost certainly won't include "everything" in the Civ2 game package. There won't be much in the way of wonders--mostly obscure stuff from Bede references. There won't be much in the way of tech advancement--the technology hardly "advanced" from c. 450-800 (the period of the scenario). And lastly, the units will be pretty limited--not a lot of variety; there just weren't that many different military systems involved in this region in this era. Now, why did this bother me? If the scenario serves its purpose, isn't it ok? On the same track, I just conceptualized another scenario last night. This one is even more limited. It's an "Air War Over the Reich" scenario and will use almost exclusively air units. "Ground" units will probably be represented as "factories," "Aircraft plants," and "Cracking Plants," etc. No ground combat and no sea combat. This idea sounded great when it first hit me. Now I'm wondering--is it too limited?

Must a scenario include the entire gamut of Civ2 features to be considered a "good" scenario? Is there a place for scenarios that use only part of the Civ2 features to create a specific type of sub-game?

Any opinions about this idea?

Curiously,
Exile



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Lost in America
"a freaking mastermind." --Stefu
"or a very good liar." --Stefu

[Henrik]

You should probably use as many civ components as possible, if you can't come up whit thechs do other stuff whit research, like a tech that will hire you some one time mercenairies and take away some gold for example.
I'm having a simmilar problem whit my scenario, I designed a (Imho) very good tech tree but the problem is almost all techs that give the player anything is researched from start, I know that I allways love to do research when I play a scenario...
The scenario works fine and (again Imho) is pretty good, but I still need to come up whit thechs to use, if anyone knows any techs from around 1650-1660 please help me out!

[Masis]

Exile..

How interesting, I too made a scenario that eliminated the fantasy from the tales of Arturius, to make a historical scenario instead.
Made it graphically better, with a variety of units.
It lacks an events file still.
Perhaps if I send it to you, you can suggest what events could be included and any other modifications you seee apropriate, you can be a joint Author and that will free up your time to make the WWII scenario instead.
My e-mail is in my Profile.

What do you think of the idea?



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MRP

[Shaka Naldur]

´the air war scenario looks okay,
it depends of the objectives that there are but..., don´t know, probably you should say a litlle more about that scn

[Exile]

Henrik; 1650-1660? Can't help you there.

Masis; I already have both a beautiful Civ2 map of Britain and 3 different topical maps of Britain from the end of the Roman era. The best one from the last category I had to have enlarged to 2' x 3' size so I could see all the detail. Making this map is one of the things I'm looking forward to doing in this project. Right now, I'm reading Bede in order to get a feel for the era & some ideas. Thanks for the offer, but . . .

Shaka; Ever play the old Avalon Hill game Luftwaffe? That game was fatally flawed; the Germans, if played correctly, could never lose. While watching a TV documentary about ball-turret gunners and B-17s in general, it occurred to me that re-doing the Luftwaffe game with the Civ2 engire would generate much better results than the boardgame. In this instance, the flaws of the Civ2 engine would actually become strengths; individual squadrons attacking one-at-a-time, just as it would have occurred over Germany in WWII. Additionally, with the ability to control air units' "range" it would be a simple matter to duplicate the limited range of German fighters, the increased range of allied fighters, the long-distance capability of allied bombers, etc. Also, it would be fun to create the different fighter-types available to both the allies and the axis; FW-190s, increasingly better BF-109s as the war progressed, Jet fighter ME-262s and rocket-plane HE-163s, both w/severely limited range. In fact, I could even create some limited use for the icbm and cruise missle units by making them V2s and V1s respectively. The scenario would only run for a limited number of turns, during which the allied player would be required to destroy a certain number of points worth of German industry. The events file could be set up to generate the appropriate text messages when a German ground unit/industrial plant is destroyed and the player can keep track of his point total, then compare it against the victory condition schedule at the end of the scenario--again, produced onscreen w/a text message from the events file. There is more, but these are some of the basic ideas that led me to conceptualize the thing.

Salutations,
Exile

[Masis]

Exile...

Glad to hear you have a decent map of Britain, the one I got was lousy, I had to build Ireland myself as well as making modifications.
Due to my scenario being purely about the Age of Arthur, I used sources like Gildas (Ruin and conquest of Britain) and Nennius (The 28 Cities of Britain) which were really helpful and interesting to destroy the fables of Arthuriana and bring to life the real 100 year epoch from the 'up-yours Rome' of 409AD to the beginings of Scottish expansion into Pictland 523AD.

Was Bede a later biographer-around 9th-10th centuries?

Wondering...

How are the cities gifs?
Found some decent types, one modeled on a Hill-Fort type and the other on a standard Sub-Roman type.

As for units, well you can forget about anachronistic Knights in moulded armour, the real kinghts of those days were few and far between, derived from the classic Roman cavalry class (Equites), using whatever armour they had to hand and a single horse-tail instead of classic Roman plumes on their helmets.

Even before the 5th century, Germans of all ethnic groups had resided in Britannia either as Foederati or Merchants, be they Franks or Swedes.

[Exile]

Masis; As it happens, I'm a degreed historian. I do my own research. It's a little surprising that you're doing an historical British scenario and haven't heard of Bede. The city graphics that will be used are, so far, informed by my reading. The secondary sources haven't been much help, and Gildas, et al. are summed up in Bede. I am aware of the technology and military history of the period.

Salutations,
Exile

[Henrik]

quote: Originally posted by Masis on 03-24-2001 08:24 PM Even before the 5th century, Germans of all ethnic groups had resided in Britannia either as Foederati or Merchants, be they Franks or Swedes.

Just a little note:
I am a Swede and I don't feel very German, infact Sweden has never been German, it was Danish for a few years after Stockholms Bloodbath, but never German...

[Masis]

Exile...

Me, well, I am a mere amateur, but I guess Bede is a Saxon, and I am a staunch Romanist. He he!
Henrik...

Well, aparently the whole Germaic race can trace its origins to Scandinavia...

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MRP

[Henrik]

Isn't it the other way around? The only original population of Scandinavia was the Sami, the "Germaic race" as you call it is more likely to have come from the south up into Scandinavia, so I guess in a meaning of the word we are German...