Monster SCENARIO Project

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmmmm that might work. Good thinking.

Not sure if its enough to build a big project around by itself but if we can come up with others then we might have an interesting scenario game.

What other middle age (era 2) nations can someone come up with a mid-game change of tactic that would make sense.

Ulm shifting from nationals to independents?

Pangaea shifting from nationals to carrion?

Oceania shifting from aqua units to amphib units?

Arcos shifting from expansion to research?

Bandar discover cave men and start using them?

Mictlan shifting to or from a blood-base?

If we did them all then we could put watches for indicators on all of them to switch in the change file for each as they reach the indicator. And it would be a different game when you played it again because in one game Ermor might never hit its indicator and in another game Arcos might not. They could even be different for a winning indictor or a losing indicator.

[Gandalf Parker]

How about this...
In case Ermor gets too powerful, the mid-game mod will change Ermors pretender into an Eater of the Dead? Seems to match the theme.

[Gandalf Parker]

NT Jedi said in a post in the Dom2 forum:
Map Makers asking for placing timed events

As listed within the title... this is for Dominions_3
many more interesting maps can be made if map makers can setup timed events. Examples listed below:

1) Timed Event: Day_20 Give Ermor 50 Pale Riders and 2 Devils
Published Time Event: Yes
Comment at start of turn: Ermor has begun war on the realm

2) Timed Event2: Day_27 Heal all afflictions for territory_21
Published Time Event: No
Comment at start of turn: ((Not used))

3) Timed Event3: Day_33 Give Marginon 8 angels
Published Time Event: Yes
Comment at start of turn: Help has arrived from the sky

4) Timed Event4: Day_40 Assassination on province_35
Give Assassin to independents and activate
Published Time Event: Yes
Comment at start of turn: Hired Assassins are on the move


This would greatly increase the type of single player games which can be created.
For a more detailed list of types of events which can exist I recommend viewing the map editor of Heroes_3.

Some of these would be pretty cool. But I think that due to the limits on things like the number of units you can mod with a mod... they might have to appear in batches. I could see creating 10 versions of an assassin unit. Then scatter unit assassin1 to a random 100 provinces, assassin2 to a random 100 provinces, etc etc. Then at random times during the game the groups could attack. When it comes up for assassin1 then all 100 of them will suddenly become active assassins. The in-game message could be something along the line of "A band of assassins do a united strike." which wouldnt be too hard to do for a scenario-map.

Since there are so few ideas popping up, does anyone have the Heroes_3 map editor he mentioned?

[Gandalf Parker]

another NT Jedi example

example:
Event: Give ERMOR
Commander: Demon Knight
Items: Marble Armor; Amulet of Antimagic
Units: 30 Demon Knights
Guards: 2 Devils
Province: Ermor Capital
Day: 58

This is doable altho the clutter it would create in the home province might make it only a nice thing to do for the AI, not players.

[HoneyBadger]

It would be fun if, when an early nation was defeated, a new middle era of the same nation suddenly popped up, and then again for the late age version. Sort of a nation secondform. Or for a scenario, that it happens on a certain turn.

[Gandalf Parker]

HoneyBadger said:
It would be fun if, when an early nation was defeated, a new middle era of the same nation suddenly popped up, and then again for the late age version. Sort of a nation secondform. Or for a scenario, that it happens on a certain turn.

Im not sure if I can come up with a way to do that.

The closest I can think of would be something like...
1) Play the EarlyAge Map for 100 turns.
2) Parse the info on each nation still in the game (debug log and scoreboard).
3) Create a version of the same map and name it MidAge.
4) Place the nations the same, give them the same provinces, as much as possible replace the units with appropriate units and extra experience bonuses.
5) Play the MidAge Map for 100 turns.
6) Rinse and Repeat for the LateAge Map.

[Sombre]

You could use a mod file and change all the recruitment options and national spells of whichever nations you wanted at a certain point in the game. That wouldn't be hard at all.

[Gandalf Parker]

Sombre said:
You could use a mod file and change all the recruitment options and national spells of whichever nations you wanted at a certain point in the game. That wouldn't be hard at all.

That would be great!
Do we know if those will work with mid-game change?

So far my thinking has been tied into the idea of putting a unit in at the start of the game, then changing its parameters in the mod file in mid-game. I have some ideas on how to do game-events, Bogus groups, and in-game messages that way.

If a nation could simply be switched from era to era that would be great. Hmmmmmm.... we might still have to create magic sites in the mod in order to modify them on the fly. Create Ermor-A and Ermor-B magic sites to assign to Ermor, then change them from early age to middle age to late age.

[Sombre]

Yeah they work with midgame changes just fine. You just wipe their recruitment options and add in all the new ones, move the national spells to different nation numbers etc.

You can't change which magic sites are at the cap using a mod, at least not halfway through a game, but you can easily change the properties of those sites - cap only commanders and troops, gem income etc. No problem.

[HoneyBadger]

Or, maybe on a larger (1500 province) map, at some point adding in the middle, and then the later era nations, on close by provinces, while still keeping the original ea nations, and making those middle and late nations allies to their ea nations, atleast to begin with. This would not only simulate growth and diversity, "new blood": new strategies and techniques for old nations, but also the potential to "split off" into separate colonies, which may become independent. It would also make huge maps more interesting to play. This could later be expanded to include modded in nations, for the sake of interest and diversity-for instance, if a province formerly occupied by independent cavemen suddenly transformed into a strong Ogre Kingdoms nation on the 50th turn and started taking the piss out of you.

If the human-played nation or nations in the game could come to control their middle and late eras, as close allies, that could also be a lot of fun.