The Road to Empire: Preview

[JPetroski]

How far along is this scenario anyway? I enjoy this time period, and can't wait to see it come out!

JP

[Henrik]

Oh and I see that both Stockholm and Copenhagen has that city style as well, I don't know which cities belong to the independents/neutrals/whatever civ, but I don't think that the city style is very suitable for them either.

[MagyarCrusader]

2 questions:

1)Why did you use the POS world map that came with the game?

2)Which civilization(s) gets the cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? I'm surprised that you left them out, seeing how they had a central role in european polics during the time period.

[Spanky]

Thanks for your comments, guys. I'm on Central European Time here, so bear with me if the replies take a while.

Whew - lot's of questions. Here goes:

On playtesting: Thanks for the offer, - I'll get back to you when the time comes (see below).

How far along is this scenario anyway? I enjoy this time period, and can't wait to see it come out!

I know what you mean, JP - sadly, I must say I'm not much further than 'Alpha' right now:

Graphics and sound are more or less in place, so is city placement, population distribution, and about 80% of improvements.

I'm currently on agriculture, industry and traffic routes. North America, Europe, Australia and India are complete in this respect.

The tech-tree needs to be tackled, though the design is pretty much in place, and the Events file is all but inexistant.

Add to that fine-tuning, etc. etc.

One feature I forgot to mention, which I haven't implemented yet: realistic distribution of trade items and trade routes (thanks Gothmog for CivCity!).

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

I've considered that myself, Case. The thing is, red in itself is way too dark for the City names, which need to be a light color. And I find orange works better than pink in that respect - think 'contrast'.

1)Why did you use the POS world map that came with the game?

This game has its roots in a time when I wasn't even aware of a Civ community, so I made do with what I had. The only regret I have is that consequently, the Atlantic is larger than the Pacific - if anybody knows an easy way to change this at this stage please let me know.

2)Which civilization(s) gets the cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? I'm surprised that you left them out, seeing how they had a central role in european polics during the time period.

Well, sadly there is no space on a map of this scale for both Vienna and Budapest, so I had to omit the latter. Vienna, Prague and Trieste are technically Barbarian cities (I call them 'Foreign'). I would have loved to include this Empire as a player, but the point is that they weren't very active in the global arena, largely confining themselves to European politics. You'll find that I've had to leave out the Italians as well, despite their African adventures.

Finally,
On city style:

Wow - I'm surprised this is such a big issue. Could I hear some more opinions on this? I'm not sure whether I can assign too high a priority to it, since a lot of other things need to be done.

There is also a significant problem: I cannot make the style used by France, the USA and Russia differ too much from the 'Foreign' (Barbarian) cities, since some of these are located in Europe and Latin America. Since Civ2 only allows seven powers at a time, I've had to include these as well as the Middle East, Africa and parts of the Far East in the 'Barbarian' slot. Gameplay-wise, this is not a problem, but graphically it is. I solved it in the Far East by reserving non-walled cities for the Asian style. European and Islamic cities therefore need to share a style amongst themselves. Since the latter's architecture has roots in Antiquity and the former imitated it during this time, I went for that solution.

If the objections are to the 'lesser' buildings within the icon, I can understand that to some degree, though I don't think they look too exotic at this scale.

If people are more concerned with the pillars, I can assure you that this was the thing to do with public buildings at the time. La Madeleine, one of the most prominent churches in Paris, looks like a greek temple - actually, Henrik, so does the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, and wouldn't you agree the Royal Palace in Stockholm is neoclassical?

Anyway, I'll be happy to hear some more feedback on this.

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Spanky
I've considered that myself, Case. The thing is, red in itself is way too dark for the City names, which need to be a light color. And I find orange works better than pink in that respect - think 'contrast'.

How is this red colour?

[Spanky]

Not bad, Henrik! But I still think contrast is the way to go for me - I do have my redcoats, mind you, but personally I feel the uniforms would clash with a red shield. Also, the lighter the text, the better as far as I'm concerned.

By the way, thanks for the cryptology suggestion. Could you tell me some more about that? My browser crashes when I try to send you a mail. You can send me one at anklin@hotmail.com if you like.

[Chris 62]

I was hoping someone would tackle this era for quite some time.

Once again, a high level of care is indicated from what is shown thus far.

I have mixed feelings on the city styles, but I do think that Britain should be a Red color.

This looks to be worth the wait. Good luck with it!

[JPetroski]

Britain's color

I have to agree with the general consensus... I definately feel that the British Empire should be red. The color of the Soviets in Nemo's Red Front is perfect, but, if you don't agree, you are the designer (I will be changing the color on my own personal copy though)

Hope to see this out "soon", although that could be awhile, as cpoulos said, its worth the wait.

[techumseh]

Red? That's the colour of those Godless bolshies! Have you ever looked at a map of the Empire, man? The sun never sets on the British Empire, and it is PINK! God save the Queen (Victoria)!

[Spanky]

By jingo, it warms the heart.

By the way, Techumseh, I remember a pretty impressive preview of "Blood and Iron" on the Cradles site. Any progress with that? I don't own Test of Time myself, but it sure seemed like a reason to get it.

[Spanky]

New look for cities

Well, in view of concerns voiced about the neoclassical city style looking "antiquated", I revamped the lesser buildings within the icons to make them more modern-looking. Keep in mind that I couldn't take it too far, since they still need to look suitable for Islamic countries.

That said, I think you'll agree it's an improvement.

Thanks for the input!

[Mao]

Looks great. Scott Fuhr was actually working on something very similar to this (Age of Imperialism) not too long ago too btw.

[Scott F]

I really need to finish that sometime soon, too.

[Jimmywax]

Those new city graphics are a big improvement. I can't wait to see the finished product.

[Henrik]

Yes much better, I also like the "Minestery of the interior" thing