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Old October 19th, 2005, 08:09 AM
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Default Re: Random observations about mapmaking

Even more interesting than attack-in-the-second-turn would be the enemy attacking in the first turn, and a message to accompany it. I have thought of making a tutorial using a predefined pretender and modified Clash of Titans map, using these two tricks.

Of course, no map-editing commands are able to send you messages, not in the beginning nor in the end. But we don't have to use a map, because we can share an already-generated game. No scenario to my knowledge does this, but there is no reason not to. If you play the first turn or two yourself, appoint a prophet and send in-game message or messages to all nations, you can achieve interesting results. Example:
You give a province number Xthe following information:
#land X
#landname X "Sacred Hill"
#victorypoints 1
#owner 0
#commander Demonbred
#unit 10 Abysian Infantry
#unit 10 Humanbred
#owner 4
#commander High Priest
#commander High Priest
#commander High Priest
#temple
#defense 5
#knownfeature "Glowing Hill"
#knownfeature "White Man Hill"

You make a new game for this map, winning condition being victorypoints but with no random VPs at all, and start it. In the first turn, you name a prophet (probably from pre-set commander that fits the scenario, be it High Priest, or Fire Lord, or Harbringer) and send yourself a message. The message would tell how a (beautiful being/brave hero/holy man) appeared and told how foul Abysians attacked the most holy site on the entire world, massacred the priests, and how you would have to get it back. Now host it, and Ta-da! You have a scenario that is little more than the others.

The "first" turn reads that it is a second, but starts with a fight where Abysians massacre three poorly-defended High Priests, and the messages tell you both the story behind this, and that the message-bringer is your Prophet. If this is a tutorial, you could have sent another message, in which you tell what kind of general strategy to follow, and even give hints about hard provinces. As you can just copy the game files into another folder and play that copy, you can just play a few turns to be sure there is no Inkpot End anywhere, as well as host the first turn again if the priests got away.
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