The Road to Empire: Preview

[Spanky]

Introducing my upcoming scenario set in the age of imperialism:

"The Road to Empire"

The time frame is 1875-1920, and the world is your playing field. Featured civs are the British, French, Germans, Russians, United States, Chinese and Japanese. If all goes as planned, you will have the choice of playing any one of them.

Here's a few shots to wet your appetite...

[Spanky]

Ah, good ole blighty...

[Spanky]

Send brave explorers into the Dark Continent...

[Henrik]

Can you actually call a unit "rifles"?
It sounds wrong to me, then again english is not my first language.

The shoots looks good and the time period is an interesting one.
I am looking forward to playing this.

[Spanky]

Build your nation - but tread softly, or face the justified wrath of a native people...

[Henrik]

One more thing, isn't the french city style on shot one a little "ancient looking"?

[Spanky]

Trade with faraway nations - or keep them from running you over.

[Spanky]

Henrik, thanks for your comments. I was hoping to get my screenshots through in one go, but I appreciate your interest!

To answer your questions:

Though I haven't made up my mind yet, "Rifles" was actually sometimes used instead of "Riflemen", at least in Britain. For the time being, I'm giving every riflemen unit a unique designation according to its nationality, since I'm using different graphics for every power. The U.S. have "Riflemen", the French "Fantassins", the Germans "Schützen", and the Russians "Infanteriya". The Japanese and Chinese get to upgrade to a generic "Infantry" unit once they acquire this western technology.

Regarding city style, you may be used to associating the classical type with antiquity, but it is also used for the "American" civ in the original game. The modified version I put together includes a pillared dome for the big cities which only came up in the early modern era (thanks Captain Nemo - I 'swiped' that one from you!). This neoclassical style was in fact very popular in the nineteenth century, especially in the United States, but also in Republican France and Russia. The Germans, on the other hand, favored neo-medieval styles for their houses and public buildings. The British deliberately built the new parliament building in Ottawa in a neogothic style to set themselves apart from the Americans further south - not to mention their own parliament in Westminster and other famous buildings like St. Pancras station. I wanted to emphasize such differences in the game to make every civilization have its own 'feel'.

[Spanky]

I'd like to emphasize that there's still a long way to go, but in terms of graphics and overall design, things are pretty much in place.

Some of the key features:

• Intensely revised, historically accurate map covering all the world's major cities in 1875
  
• The world's population distributed according to historical sources
  
• A national, governmental perspective: Scientific breakthroughs, such as the combustion engine are the result of private entreprise and generated through historical events - the player can only develop concrete applications once these take place (such as the rigid airship in the 1890s)
  
• On the other hand, no history-on-rails approach: events are there to help simulate an historical environment, but wars and the like are the result of player interactions (whether human or AI). For example, there is no Boer War starting at a certain date - but take Pretoria by force, and you have a problem on your hands! Also, no limit on negotiations. The intention is to provide an experience more like the original Civ2, but confined to a certain era
  
• City, Unit, and People graphics reflect geographical and cultural diversity as far as possible

The latter also applies to the diplomacy screen, which will feature typical anthems for every power, revised symbols and ornaments, and accurate titles and ruler portraits.

Here's an example:

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Spanky
A national, governmental perspective: Scientific breakthroughs, such as the combustion engine are the result of private entreprise and generated through historical events - the player can only develop concrete applications once these take place (such as the rigid airship in the 1890s)

Speaking of techs do you represent cryptology in some way in this scenario?
Its role in world history was a lot bigger than most people think. If you want sugestions on how this could be implemented mail me.

The latter also applies to the diplomacy screen, which will feature typical anthems for every power, revised symbols and ornaments, and accurate titles and ruler portraits.

I did the same thing for my Carolus Gustavus scenario

Overall this sounds really cool could I playtest?

[PolarisGL]

Hmmm...

Wow!

This looks to be one of the best scenarios...

[Jimmywax]

Yes, I agree with Henrik that the Paris graphic looks a bit out of date. Otherwise I am looking foward to seeing this. I like the different terms for the riflemen's natioalities. It's a nice touch you don't see often.

[Shaka Naldur]

wow, it looks awesome,
can I playtest it??

you MUST change the city graphics,

I´m looking forward to play it

[JPetroski]

In regard to those cities:

I understand why you're using those city styles, and I understand why some don't agree. I offer another possibility:

Why not keep the "neoclassic" sections of those cities, while changing the graphics of the "lesser buildings" within the icon. That way your graphics are still retain your ideas, while being new.

Another idea would be to just have those cities come up for a Civ's largest cities. Hartford, Connecticut, offers many buildings of the neoclassic style on a few major buildings(greek-roman style pillars, etc.), while Farmington, CT, a much smaller town, doesn't really have any buildings like that at all.

Just some ideas,

JP

[Case]

*drools*

This scenario looks supurb!

One sugestion though: change the British colour from orange to red (as used on maps of the time to illustrate the size of the Empire)