I Need Some Ideas...

[Djugashvili]

That's the funny thing: I DON'T.
But I shall get it, soon.

And, My God! What thought is going into these responses! I better get busy...
to bad its 2 in the morning and I need some sleep.

Great Posts. Need More.

[Cam]

Djugashvili - just to clarify something - don't feel obliged to pursue a structure with a 'split USSR' on the basis of my initial uncertainty over how you were setting up the game! I just envisaged that it was going to be about unifying the USSR and keeping the more immediate neighbours off your back. The whole multi-tribe USSR proposal was really just an idea that stemmed from this misunderstanding, and for all intents and purposes may be totally impractical.

Fast_Eddie's suggestion that it be set up as a Test of Time scenario also does make sense, although you should be able to still construct a good game with the FW version of Civ2.

[Djugashvili]

I figure that if I am to make a scenario this grande, I might as well do it with the latest technology available. I'll pick up a copy of ToT with money I got for Christmas (thank you, Grandma!)and see if I can figure it out soon enough to make my scenario using that. This is going to be great.

And your idea about what the plot would be is pretty much it, with a few twists.
[This message has been edited by Djugashvili (edited December 26, 1999).]

[Hendrik the Great]

In order to alllow more accuracy couldn't you just make 3 scenarios? I mean make them Episodes of a Triology.
Part1 : 1922 up to 1939
Part2 : 1945 up to the beginning of the Space Race
Part : Space Race to Present; perhaps go a few years into the future, too. Then we could experience how it would be like if...

If you choose to do so it would allow you to use more units for each of the time periods and more technologies since you basicly have 3 scenarios then that belong together.

Most of the work basis for the 3 scenarios could very indentical.

I hope this helps!
[This message has been edited by Hendrik the Great (edited December 26, 1999).]

[Captain Nemo]

I replied to your question about the events modification via the .bat file in your thread on the Scenario League. The credit for this goes to Mike Jeszenka; he explained how to do it to me.

I think there is some real merit to the multi-part, multi-map approach:

1917-1925 "Unification" could be played exclusively on a Soviet map with "local" enemies such as the Whites, the Baltic States, Poland and ethnic factions/warlords within the Soviet Union. External influence should be in the form of blockades and help to the Whites from US/UK/France... Maybe an expeditionary force just after the Revolution.
It could include the extrication of the Soviet Union from WWI with options of peace settlement with the Germans or continued War against the Germans?
Somehow the results achieved in part one would need to be exported into part 2 played on a larger scale map with differents civs... That's the tricky part. I don't know what the options are in ToT as far as switching maps?
Has anyone decoded the .sav files and know how to edit them? I have played around with them to try to edit out killed units on the casualty board and change attributes of cities and add Civs to a game in progress. I was only successful in editing the city styles, other editing attempts resulted in the program crashing.
What I was thinking is to import the city ownership, money, and tech. advances from the first part to the second via a small utility program so the second game would start where the first left off. But with all new goals and foes.

1926-1935 "Building of the Soviet Union". Strictly a peaceful technology/ industrialization race against the capitalist world...

1936-1945 "Worlds at War" Spain, Finland, World War II. I don't see how you can leave out this step that took the Soviet Union from an isolated Communist nation to one of the World's two great superpowers. WWII was the catalyst that forged the Soviet Union. Spain was a first "attempt" to export Communism and a rallying cry for idealistic Communists around the World. Finland was the beginning of Soviet expansionism.
I think a more "restrained version" of WWII (Not a tactical level rendition like Red Front) in the Soviet Union would be in order.

1946-1988? "USSR as a World Power" (Or "The Evil Empire", R. Reagan, or "Cold War") Full blown world map: 7 nations: Soviet Union, China, USA, East Block, Nato, Neutrals, "Unstable nations" + barbarians also representing some areas up for grabs. The "Unstable nations" would be the "swing nations, target of bribing, negotiations etc... Goal would be to build, capture, influence, bribe your way to greatness without triggering an all-out nuclear war.

A lot of the work for this "Superscenario" is already done as there are versions of Cold War and WWII and the Russian Civil War already existing... But how could it all be linked into one playable game?

Alex has a very good scenario, never released, for the Russian Civil War 1917-1925 with fantastic units and lots of very special events... It is not finished yet and there were some playability issues but you might want to contact him and see what he thinks.

[Djugashvili]

Damn, your good.

Thanks for the insight, Komrade. Yeah, I'm not sure how I can incorporate WW2 into it, but I'll work with it. I'm getting ToT today, I hope, and I'll get started. This is going to take a looong time...

...but it's something I really want to do.

[Mao]

Djugashvili,

I'd love to playtest it. Maybe you should start a thread at SLeague too about this.

[Mao]

It's for ToT? Never mind.

[Djugashvili]

Mao, I haven't finalized ANYTHING yet, but I'm really thinking ToT. Why not? If it's because you don't have it, I don't don't have it yet either, so don't feel bad.

And I'll probably move this to SLeague if there's THIS much interest...

[lmstoudt]

Instead of multi-maps, how about this, to insure continuity: one map & one set of rules.txt, units.gif, events.txt, etc. for each part of the mega-scenario. After the end of the first part, instruct the player to rename all the files appropriately, & there you go. You'd be in for some really complex programming to make it seamless, but I think its do-able.

[Djugashvili]

That's exactly what I originally planned on doing, but with the DOS thing Komrade Nemo told me about. I'm not sure of my programming capabilities, and what Nemo was saying about the different maps sounded pretty cool.

I'm going to have to make a final decision on this later today; it'll be the first big decision so far.

But until I do, my mind is open...

[Hendrik the Great]

What a good night sleep can do for you...

In order to show the economic decay you can give the USSR wonders like Hoover Damm, Adam Smith, and wonders that are good for production or perhaps also some which are good for science and then let them become obsolete with time. Their impact could be devastating...

Another idea: Is it possible to make factories, manufacturing plants and power station become obsolete? If it is you can use this also to show the ongoing decay of the industry.
If you can discover certain techs or build certain wonders you could prevent that from happening. As far as I know something like this can be done with ToT.

[Djugashvili]

Interest in this is especially high, I have found out, so I think I'll move this thread to the more-posted-and-looked-at Scenario League forum. Continue with the great ideas there, komrades.