Monster SCENARIO Project

[lch]

So this is how Gandalf managed to accumulate over 9k posts.

[Aezeal]

If you can't change neighbours I guess you can't add province either..

basicly you can't change anything really fun or game changing then.. too bad.. I like the idea of cold, ermor etc getting visuals with it.. but it really doesn't change much.

You could make a REAL huge mod file and add units later in the game depending on scales.
To be really fair about that you'd have to have settings for all scales in advance though and 90% of the wouldn't be used.. seems a bit like a waste. (This idea is derived from the summons thread where someone wants the ulm warwagon unlocked at prod 3... which is a real nice idea. but as I said.. a lot of work.. for a lot of races... and not much would be used.)

[LDiCesare]

Adding national spells based on how the game evolves could be fun:
1st to reach level X in research unlocks national spell Summon Nasty Djinn.
Whoever controls DeadRat Province unlocks unlocks national spell Summon RatLord.
Nation controlling least number of provinces, and, if tied, best in research, by turn 12 unlocks Summon Meek Paladin.
etc.

Longer to code, nation specific events could be done too, like:
Any nation controlling less than 12 provinces by turn 10 and the 2 smallest nations (more if tied) by turn 10 get a permanent discount of 10% in gold and +1 attack for their best non commander unit.
Nation with best dominion by turn 15 gets its weakest national priest gain H2 if it was only H1, with a cost increase of +20 gold.

[Gandalf Parker]

The .map file is read once, but the image is read each time you boot up Dominions.
The MODs are read each time but it does cause problems if you try to add things to the game later. But you can CHANGE things already in the game. So units, items, spells, pretenders, etc can be changed. A spell could be put in at the beginning of the game which said something like "a mistery" and then later changed to do specific things depending on how the game had progressed. Such as, a "Spell of Balance" and if there is too much Order dominion then it becomes a spell of Chaos, and vise versa.

[iceboy]

It would be awesome if this scenario was a gigantic map that created the "World of Dominions" that you could play the three different ages with!

[LDiCesare]

It could be possible to progressively, as turns increase, make units unrecruitable and replace them with new ones, thus faking a change of Ages. The only problem is Ermor and R'lyeh LA dominions are probably impossible to change in-game?

[Gandalf Parker]

For a single game to progress thru the ages would require that the intial mod include all of the units for all of the nations for all 3 era's. The units for mid and late eras would start out "zero'd out" in abilities. And I guess the national magic sites would have to be included also, with mid and late eras also being zero'd out. Each nation would start with 3 home castles with the appropriate magic sites. As the game moved to mid era the early units and national sites would become zero'd and the mid age would become filled in. There would be some problems with nations which did not progress in a direct line thru all 3 ages but the game could include those as pop-up AIs and only allow human-playing of the ones that do have a 1-2-3 progression.

That would he a MASSIVE project. I think I would leave something like that to someome abit less A.D.D. than I am. But I would love to see it done Mostly, because along the way it would create the "mods which simply duplicate a nation" which I have been asking for to allow big games to allow nations to play the same nations. To prove who's strategy for that nation is better. Could you see games where 20 players all play Ulm against other Ulm's?

[Edratman]

The way I was thinking to have a single game progress through the ages was to run 30 turns or so EA. The game stops at that point, someone with a lot of time and patience edits the map to reflect the changes from the EA phase and the MA game starts a new game on the edited map. The sequence repeats on the MA to LA transition. This is manageable within the editing parameters as they exist now.

The game would probably have to limit itself to the nations that do segue through the ages, although things like EA Helheim and Vanheim could both be assigned a Vanheim MA nation.

Excluding the time it would take to do the map edit, the largest hurdle is figuring out how to do the troop/ commander transitions from era to era.

Gandalf, I also am surprised that no one has played a MP game with everyone playing the same nation. Someone has made a map where all provinces are hexagons. That would level the field a bit more. The only chance factor would be sites and province type distribution. A game like this would definately provide maximum bragging rights for the winner.

[Gandalf Parker]

There are maps which take care of the province type problem. And Im not sure if anyone has but it would be possible to also take care of the magic sites distribution. Also population density, types of independents, etc etc. About the only thing left random would be the events which could be set at low for the game if that doesnt factor into some peoples pretender builds (like it does with many of mine).

And as I understand it, the mod would be very doable. But apparently boring. Instead of creating anything, you would just be trying to use mod commands to duplicate each nation into a mod.

I feel such mods would serve the community strongly. Not only for the strategists to fight out "my Ulm is better than your Ulm". But as starting points for new modders for example. It would certainly help me to see how mod commands would create a nation I already know pretty well from playing it. How is each ability granted by mod commands. Then I would SEE exactly where to try small changes such as national spell or the armor of a particular unit.

I can also see some fun scenario games such as "the Brothers Ulm take on the World". Or "The 7 Kingdoms of Ulm. The Ulm Pretender was on the road toward becoming The One. He had 7 sons when he was finally killed in a stupid arena combat."

[Gandalf Parker]

lch said:
So this is how Gandalf managed to accumulate over 9k posts.

Heehee. Actually padding the beginning of the thread with placeholders was something I saw someone else do and it struck me as a good idea for something like this.

On the other hand, this is beginning to show people why I have that post count. I tend to post idea threads that create a ton of conversation. And (hopefully) get half a dozen people to start projects since most of my talk ends up just being talk. Many of our best projects from Dom1, Dom2, Dom3 started that way.

My brain is active but my fingers are lazy.
Gandalf Parker