breakthrough scenarios

[techumseh]

I want to try a more positive thread: Which scenarios do you consider to have been breakthroughs in scenario design? And why?

You don't have to limit yourself to technical innovations or use of events; use of art, sounds, scale -anything that set a new standard is valid.

I'll start with Harlan Thompsons' "Lord of the Rings", for a number of reasons:

1. It was the first detailed scenario following a story line from a work of fiction, and it used individual characters as well as military units.

2. It incorporated photo reduction style artwork.

3. It made original use of the rules text, eg. Bilbo as the ringbearer (sub flag) and the ring as a nuclear missile.

[Chris 62]

Jay Bee's quest for Eldorado comes to mind. A mission scenario, where you have no cities, but must fight the elements to win. Of course, Red Front, with it's innovative use of the go to command, and my all time favorite, Kull's Anciet empires, the early empires, which told the early history of man so well, and was one of the few scenarios that I played with all the different tribes, as the multiple events files made each race different.

------------------
All knowledge begins with the phrase: I don't know.

[PolarisGL]

[*]Red Front (& Second Front)
-First scenario to go on successful full scale complexity. The events, art work, and just how it was structured was very innovative.
[*]Pelopponesian War (sp?)
-I thought that the huge battle on a small map was very nice. And that's next to the beautiful art work. Alex is brilliant when it comes to the art work.
[*]Spartacus
-Wow. Quests, art work, events, stories, the whole thing. Very innovative and fun.
[*]Kobayashi's Star Trek Scenarios
-I like these because they successfully make space warfare possible on the Civilization II engine. Master of Orion was nice as well.
[*]SubWars
-Bernd, I know it's not out yet and won't be for a few months, but this is another sign that I await this wonderful looking scenario. You can tell the underwater interface will be unique.

-

Techumseh, this is indeed a more positive thread.

By the way, Techumseh, I just looked at your home page. So you're behind The Crade of Civilization? Excellent site. Don't know why I didn't know you were the webmaster before.

[WarVoid]

Quest based scenarios are very innovative. Treasure Island, a deeply quest based scenario i'm working on now is gonna change Civ2 RPG history.

[techumseh]

Actually, it's really William Keenans' site. It was started as part of a project to cooperatively make ToT scenarios by 4 individuals: Kull, Mike Daumen, William and me. William agreed to do the site, the rest really hasn't got off the ground.

[Exile]

Shay Yates Roberts' "Pirates of the Caribbean" scenario was something very new. The idea wasn't simply to conquer your opponents, but to raid and plunder. I liked the events that give a player cash when they blow up an enemy ship and plundering enemy settlements. The timeline that created new pirates as they historically appeared was also a nice touch. The map was superb.

Salutations,
Exile

[master on high]

*cough*bump*cough*

[Cal]

I'm surprised no one mentioned River War yet, I thought it was a fine example of what a historical scenario should be: enjoyable, winnable, and informative.

[techumseh]

Ahh, but that's not the criteria, Cal. It's about breakthroughs - innovations that set a new standard in scenarios. What was it about Riverwar that had never been done before?

I have another suggestion: "Slash and Burn" by Dan Sheltema (?). It was based more on hunting and fishing than warfare. That, plus a tech tree based on primitive hunter-gatherer technologies, made it more of an anthropological than a war scenario. The use of terrain graphics and sounds established a new standard for atmosphere. It really felt like being in the rain forest. It was an inspiration for J.B.s' "Eldorado."

[Cal]

...It's innovation was in its ability to be fun while using "tired and true" scenario structuring.

Besides... I don't think I'd ever seen the "build a road to where you need to conquer because the terrain costs many move points" strategy before.

I thought Eldorado was too easy... I survived the jungle and captured three cities on my very first try.

[The ANZAC]

To justify having Riverwar here:

It used units to signal the proximity to Khartoum and start defenses and the river closes up during the winter months, so that is innovative. Also the time/setting of the scenario makes it different

[Allard HS]

Whether RiverWar is an innovative scenario or not is not for me to decide, and I wisely will keep myself away from that discussion.

However, please let us not be distracted by this interlude and abandon such an interesting topic.

I personally think that some MPS scenarios were of great innovative influence. And then, mostly the ones at CiC. Napoleon was an excellent scenario. WW1 was ok, too. But it was the whole scenario disk taken as a whole, I just mean the scenarios, not the new tools, that triggered a new generation of scenarios. Before, it used to be an exception that a UNITS.GIF was included with a scenario. Afterwards, no scenario was complete without.

The FW scenarios were also of great importance, but were somewhat less innovative, in its pure form.

P.S. what do you guys think of my new avatar?

[Chris 62]

I like it...

Originally posted by Allard HS
what do you guys think of my new avatar?

It's Alexander of Macedon, isn't it? From a mosaic, but I can't remember which one...

[BeBMan]

Nice avatar. The mosaic was found in Pompeji, if I´m correct

[Stefan Härtel]

The mosaic shows the battle of Issus in 333 BC between Alexander III. the Great and Darius III Codomannus. It is 5.82 metres long and 3.13 metres high, consisting of one and a half million pieces. It was found in the house of the Faun in Pompeii in 1832 and today is in Naples.
It might be the only known picture of the Persian war standart. It could be hanging on a lance, but unfortunately, most of it is gone.
Apart from being one of the most impressive mosaics of all times - the destructive expression in Alexander's eyes, and the fear in the face of Darius - I think I also read somewhere that it is the largest early Roman mosaic.
It is said to show an accurate representation of Alexander's face.

I wanted to have the face of Darius for my Avatar, but I've no idea how I should do this - only weird screens appear when I want to.