Concept
For quite a while I’ve had a few different ideas bouncing around in my brain about a SF scenario. It's just a starter kit for a scenario maker, not a complete scenario. I've hinted at it in a couple of PMs, etc. So I've been thinking of it as the SSSFSSK ...

... Welcome to the
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2964/concepts.jpg
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9300/threadtitle.jpg

Some of my favorite stories in the genre are set on some version of a Stanford torus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Torus). There’s the Ringworld (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld) series, the Gaea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaea_trilogy) trilogy, and the Culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_(The_Culture)) novels.

I wanted to try my hand at a “ringworld” map, but the path from there to a scenario remains very nebulous for me. So here’s a “starter kit”. A map, some resources, tech icons & a couple of wonder splashes. Followed up by a few ideas about potential civs, some suitable units, and some other notes to kick start the brainstorming. Maybe someone will get inspired to grab the baton & run with it.

Scenario Ideas

Gaea vs. a coalition of other civs. Some could be in a locked alliance, such as the Titanides & the humans loyal to Cirocco Jones. Others might switch sides over time.
A battle-royale as in the Ringworld novels.
An “indegenes only” scenario where there is no technology beyond what can be produced on the ring itself.
“House Rules” - set the player up as a Special Circumstances agent. One human and one drone -virtually unbeatable in combat. Let them pick another civ & guide it to any victory conditions without SC directly conquering rival non-player civs. Being able to trade techs, start “let’s you and him fight” wars or control vital resources would help represent the kind of covert action the Culture involves itself in.

Downloads
Biq, Resources, & Terrain (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12595&act=down)
PCXs (techs & wonder splashes) (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12596&act=down)
Title Screens (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12597&act=down)

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1289/aerialpreviewsmall.jpg (http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/9015/aerialpreview.jpg)The Map

Ideally I would have liked to make a “Ringworld” map. There is no way to keep such a map in scale - to match the usable length (max 362 in C3C) the width would have to be less than one tile. On the gripping hand, Gaea is doable. Even so, I’ve increased the width by 2 tiles or so. I decided to make the map wrap North-South to emphasize the peculiar nature of the setting. The geography is based on the maps roughed out by Doug Eigsti (http://www.freewebs.com/herbboehm/gaeamaps1.htm) with additional info I gleaned from the novels.

Yes, that thumbnail's a screenshot of the entire map.

Terrain & Resources

There are a lot of tundra regions because that’s the description of the “night” zones in the novels. At this stage most of the resources are left as is, and distributed randomly. A few are carefully placed based on the requirements of a Gaean scenario. The terrain I have used includes elements by Ares de Borg, Rhye, Balthasar, and whoever made the Marsh/Swamp used in TAM. The only really critical change is the volcano where Kong is found. It is located in an icebound region, so I have doctored one only of the set in order to hide the grassland base terrain.

Gaea has no metals, so everything she creates is organic. There are many flora and fauna that t5ake the place of machines, electronics, etc. The Ringworld series also describes biologicals developed via “guided evolution”. The advanced of the Culture is entirely capable of any sort of genetic and somatic manipulation. So here are several special resources (some are just renamed, some are icons I've made):
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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/5264/resources.th.jpg (http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/5264/resources.jpg)


Labor Pool - Gaea uses animals as her carpenters, masons, etc. Ones that look like beavers are the best described.
Cecils - sea monsters, for the amusement of Gaea or jaded Culture citizens.
Kong - a “one-off” that I’ve used more to mark the location of the one and only giant ape. While it’s included on the pcx sheet, it probably wouldn’t be necessary for a unit there’s only one of. Adapted by me from the Toho Kong unit by Supa.
Weenie Bush - described in the Ringworld stories as a source of healthy nutrition. The look and taste is entirely hot dog.
Mushrooms - another food source that could appear in other entirely stark regions.
Exotic Furs - there are plenty of exotic animals, and I’ve never been entirely happy with the available icons. So here’s my version.
Titanide Eggs - the Titanides are only able to conceive as part of a Carnival where the Wizard fertilizes there eggs. The resource is placed approximately where the Carnival is located in the books. I imagine a building or small wonder that would be limited to locations with the resource in their radius. Another icon by me.
Salt Flats - a negative resource to represent particularly nasty desert areas.
Mephitic Area - Gaea uses noxious substances at several points to protect areas or to drive her antagonists in a certain direction.
Gems - my variation on the icon
Cables - Part of Gaea’s internal support structure. I made a resource since the cables appear in many different terrains and are locations for special units, and bonuses both + & -.


I have not made pedia icons for any of these resources.

The Civs

Tech icons are included in the package to serve as Era Zero prerequisites
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4735/earthcivlarge.png http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9439/gaeanlarge.png http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3558/puppetciv.png http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5981/kzinciv.png http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9452/pakciv.png http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5759/specialcircumstances.png

Humans - a nuclear war becomes an excuse for Gaea to begin importing refugees as occupants. Hence the use of a ruined city as their icon.

Titanides - Centaur-like beings that were one of the first intelligent species Gaea created. Described as “flashy as a neon kaleidoscope”, their fur and skin can be any conceivable combination of colors and patterns.Placing civ-color on their units shouldn’t be problem. They further decorate themselves with more jewelry and flowers, etc. than a hippy during Mardi Gras. They are lovers of music. Their names, like the rest of their language, is expressed in song. After they first came in contact with humans they began adopting names of human musical instruments for nicknames & use modes to describe their complex reproductive arrangements. They are obsessed with soccer, playing it whenever possible.
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http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4148/titanides.th.jpg (http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4148/titanides.jpg)

Puppeteers - Three legged herbivores whose society is based on a herd mentality. What looks like twin heads are really combination mouth/hands and eyestalks. Their brain is located in the hump at their shoulders. While obsessed with safety and thus skittish to the point of cowardice, when cornered they will spin around and deliver a devastating kick with their rear hoof. Called Puppeteers because they are masters at covertly manipulating entire cultures and economies. discoverers and explorers (only by the insane) of the ringworld.
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http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1774/puppeteers.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1774/puppeteers.jpg)

Kzinti - Cat-like features, a naked tail like a rat, membranous flexible ears, 2.4 meter tall 230 kg. of ferocity. An intensely bellicose patriarchal culture present on the Ringworld. In war they use everything from claws to swords, and futuristic weapons.
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http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2838/kzin.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2838/kzin.jpg)

Protectors- It turns out that there is an additional stage of life for humanoid species. When a symbiotic virus in the Tree-Of-Life plant (which looks and tastes like yams) is consumed, humans transform into Protectors. Their armored skin, superhuman stength and extreme intelligence allow them to achieve their sole purpose - survival of their genetic line no matter what. Complete control of Ringworld becomes a major goal for the Protectors.
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http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9956/protector.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9956/protector.jpg)

The Culture (http://www.orionsarm.com/civ/Banks_Orbitals.html) (Special Circumstances): A pangalactic hegemony, predominantly human, but incorporating other beings. They live in many forms of habitats as well as on planetary bodies. The Culture is so technologically advanced that it has no need for a material economy. Supposedly an anarchic utopia, Minds - a social network of AIs - plan and carry out a covert agenda that affects the Culture as a whole. Many of the AIs are instantiated as vast starships and give themselves obscurely poetic or ironic names, such as Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival or Funny, It Worked Last Time. Special Circumstances is the element within the Culture that handles any need to violate skirt their version of the “Prime Directive”. Often a single human agent accompanied by a decommisioned combat drone ( AI) can redirect the development of an entire planetary civilization.

Minor Cultures
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4642/citybuilderciv.png http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2730/coven.png
Ringworld’s City Builders (occupants and maintenance engineers of floating cities), or the Coven (a feminist separatist civ living at a Lunar LaGrange point) from the Gaea series are possible civs. Others of Ringworld’s strange tribes such as the green-furred herbicorous Grass Giants or the “Ghouls” who deal with one of the more pressing public health problems are two more possibilities. Given Gaea’s obsession with Earth media, especially Hollywood, just about any SF or Fantasy race is fair game to include in a scenario. “Werewolves of London vs. the Nazis from Mars” or any other B-movie is suitable inspiration.
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http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2253/minorcivs.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2253/minorcivs.jpg)


Units

There are plenty of units already made that would be approrpiate -
Gaea takes most of her ideas from human news & entertainment media. She uses zombies. And Elvis could certainly make an appearance. Plotinus’ beaver worker matches the description of Gaea’s “craft trades”. Just about any of the weirder units floating around would actually make sense in a Gaea scenario - even the Kool-Aid Man by utahjazz7. Here are some screenshots of some potential interactions:

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4792/unitsprev.jpg

Further Suggestions -

Blimps - think whales of the sky. Translucent fins & nacre blue bodies.
Angels - bird-brained humanoids that Gaea set up as antagonists to the Titanides
Buzz Bombs - a cross between an aerial shark and a kamikazi pilot. Shoots living missiles.
Bolex - Gaea uses living cameras as scouts and spies. They’re easily disposed of and not too bright, but they’re more persistent than paparazzi.

thumbnails
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1174/wizard02.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1174/wizard02.jpg)

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4204/airunits.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/4204/my.php?image=airunits.jpg)

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4903/bolex.png

Titanides vary in several important respects from Centaurs. The centaur unit available is inadequate to represent them. There are free Poser models of the Titanides (http://wa1gsf.net/subpage3c.html) available. Surprisingly (to me), a Pierson’s Puppeteer (http://www.sharecg.com/v/33776/Poser/Piersons-Puppeteer-(PC)?PSID=db40e5531f6c9e4b2cc59896421ef763) model is also available.

Techs & Wonders

I’ve included 37 vaguely related tech icons, including those intended as Era 0 civ techs; there are also 6 wonder splashes. I’m only going to describe a few of them.

Transhumanity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman#Posthuman_in_transhumanism) - the Culture is one version. The Mechanists and Shapers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaper/Mechanist) from the Schismatrix setting are another.
Smart Planes - aircraft with limited Ais capable of dynamically morphing the wing geometry and other aerodynamic characteristics in response to maneuvers and flying conditions. Used by humans on Gaea.
DroneNet - Covert surveillance exists on Ringworld, Gaea, and is a ubiquitous tool of special Circumstances.
Uplift - David Brin has written a series of novels in which client species are “uplifted” - their intelligence genetically enhanced and their culture guided until they are capable of full membership in the galactic community. Panda warriors , anyone?

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http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2498/techspreviewssmall.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3261/techspreviews.jpg)


Nuclear War - the war on Earth triggers a burst of creativity & production by Gaea. The wonder could affect a whole civ, or be a location for autoproduction.
The Singularity - an event/technological wonder thst allows for all sorts of transhuman goodies.

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http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/7168/wonderssmall.png (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9144/wonders.jpg)

Title Screens
Finally, I’ve included a finished title screen (indexed) and several background images (rgb), all at the standard 1024x768 for those with other scenario concepts or names in mind.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/844/titlespreview.jpg

Go for it!

I know that I am definitely NOT sufficiently advanced in working with the editor to try something like this, but I was wondering if for a Ringworld map, you could create a series of maps, with a few tiles of overlap on each map, both on the X and Y axis, and then when you cross from one map to another, use the editor and put in the necessary units on the new map area. I have been thinking about breaking the Faerun map that I have been working on into something like that, but having a Western, Central, and Eastern map surface, with the Western and Eastern maps actually splitting the map in half, and using the Central area for the large overlap. It would take some work setting up, but then the whole scenario will take some work.

Sounds like you're talking about requiring players to use the editor to advance from one map to the next. Pretty cumbersome.

Sounds like you're talking about requiring players to use the editor to advance from one map to the next. Pretty cumbersome.

I understand that it would be cumbersome, but it would expand the possible area to explore and encounter new creations on. You beat one set of challenges and move on to the next set. Remember in the Ringworld Ocean, you have maps of Earth, Mars, Kzinti, and several other planets to consider. Have a separate map for each one connected by the ocean. And you would not have to worry about Ringworld storms either. It would also help to avoid 10+ minute in between turn times that I run into on very large maps with lot of civilizations and units. Come on, Monkey of Cyan, think out of the box for a science fiction scenario.

Oh, and for those of you not familiar with the Ringworld novels, or needing more information on them, you might be able to track down a copy of the Ringworld Role Playing game, that has a massive amount of information on creatures and technologies encountered.

Wow. Just wow. At best it looks like you had a good start on a scenario here. And at the very least, there's quite a lot of interesting and new material here for us modders to use.

Looks awesome, I spent some time checking the page out... made me think back to Alpha Centauri for a minute (Planetary Awareness, Planet Buster :)). I'm not familiar with Ringworld, but this has peaked my interest to check it out.

Tom

:eek: WOW !!! :eek: Really a awesome collection of exceptional arts !:eek:
DL`ing ...:) Checking ...:D
:goodjob:


Bye
General 666

Thanks for the positive comments, everyone.

@ Timerover51: I pretty much ignore mental boxes altogether. On the gripping hand, there are always practical limits to consider. In this case, consider someone who only plays Civ3, who now must learn how to use the editor in order to transfer units one by one from one biq to another. more than a 10 minute between turn lag time, not to mention the learning curve, and needing to exit the game in order to continue. Then consider the player whose version of C3C lacks an editor altogether. ;) By the way, did you ever get together those resource maps to post?

Thanks for the positive comments, everyone.

@ Timerover51: I pretty much ignore mental boxes altogether. On the gripping hand, there are always practical limits to consider. In this case, consider someone who only plays Civ3, who now must learn how to use the editor in order to transfer units one by one from one biq to another. more than a 10 minute between turn lag time, not to mention the learning curve, and needing to exit the game in order to continue. Then consider the player whose version of C3C lacks an editor altogether. ;) By the way, did you ever get together those resource maps to post?

I guess what I envision is a series of games, each with a more narrow focus than trying to cover all of the diversity of Ringworld on one map. One would be making contact with the human remnants on the Earth map, and attempting to retake it from the Kzinti. The basis for the assumption of human remnants is a combination of computing the meat requirements of the Kzinti verses normal game yields per square mile and the likelihood that the Kzinti would like to continue to hunt intelligent prey, a la The Most Dangerous Game. Every time I look at how much land is going to be needed to support one Kzinti, I come up with a maximum of about 4 per square mile, and an overall planetary average of about 1 per square mile, so you would have a Kzinti population on an Earth-type planet running in the tens of millions at best. Some environments, like the Amazon basin, New Guinea, and the Indonesia archipelago would not be at all conducive to supporting a population of Kzinti, so those would be the areas you would look for humans first.

As for moving players from one map to another, I envision an explorer team with a small military force, not a massive invasion fleet, like maybe Louis Wu backed up with a 4 or 5 unit army of Crusader types, to start with. For Mac users, that would be a problem, but for Windows users, you have a basic tutorial on how to preset units on a map. It would be nice if you could figure out some way of giving Louis Wu a research bonus ability without getting rid of him, but I do not think that the editor would allow for that.

Those are some of my ideas. What I might do is start looking at some of my books again, and coming up with maps to post here for other guys to work with for the scenario.


@ Timerover51: By the way, did you ever get together those resource maps to post?

I was not able to get at them today, but I should have at least one up tomorrow, to show off my idea. It does look like I will need to use a strategic/luxury resource slot, so it does not totally solve the problem, but it does represent another approach.

Oh, and for those of you not familiar with the Ringworld novels, or needing more information on them, you might be able to track down a copy of the Ringworld Role Playing game, that has a massive amount of information on creatures and technologies encountered.

After doing a google search ,I have found out that this PC game was discribed as "extremly rare":( and "even expensive if the game is damaged":mad: !!!

I have no idea what Ringworld is all about ,so I guess that will prevent me from playing this on the Civ-Engine.:sad::cry:

Bye
General 666

I have no idea what Ringworld is... yet, but this all looks great.:goodjob:

Sounds fun. I read Ringworld just recently. I thought the puppeteers were so called because of their appearance, though? Although obviously there's a bit of double meaning going on.

Sounds fun. I read Ringworld just recently. I thought the puppeteers were so called because of their appearance, though? Although obviously there's a bit of double meaning going on.You are right, Plotinus. I had forgotten that originally they were named that because of the sock puppet appearance of their "heads". The other meaning came later.

for the curious (sorry kids, all books)-
Ringworld (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld) - then read the whole series - what the Protectors are doing doesn't become clear until the end.
Gaea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaea_trilogy) - the 3rd book - Demon - is my favorite, but it won't make any sense without reading the other 2.
Culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture) - even though it's the second published, I'd start with Player of Games
Schismatrix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schismatrix) - getting the whole build-up to transhumanity thing
Revelation Space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_universe) - & successive novels: transhumans encounter alien cultures
Singularity Sky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_Sky) - post-singularity AI in action - may make clear what Archailects (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archailect) would care about as far as humanity goes.
The Ringworld game (http://www.dennisantinori.com/RingworldRPG/) is an RPG in the same medium as D&D. No pc game as far as I know. The link is to a fansite with a lot of info about the game. The b&w kzin & puppeteer images I used are scans from the game books. I've the whole set & wouldn't sell. Although I might be convinced to trade them straight across for an 8 core Mac Pro.

Those were my primary inspirations.

After doing a google search ,I have found out that this PC game was discribed as "extremly rare":( and "even expensive if the game is damaged":mad: !!!

I have no idea what Ringworld is all about ,so I guess that will prevent me from playing this on the Civ-Engine.:sad::cry:

Bye
General 666

The game that I was referring to was a boxed set of three booklets put out by the Chaosium. I have a complete set of the game, along with two of the Ringworld books, including a first edition with Louis Wu going in the wrong direction to prolong his birthday. The problem is to play the game properly, you need to have read the books, and the early teen market that buys most of the RPG games normally had not progressed to reading the series. The following is a website link covering the game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld_(RPG)

I suspect that you should be able to still find sets floating around. I think that a friend of mine who has a hobby shop might still have a couple of sets. If you want to design a Ringworld scenario, the game would save you an enormous amount of time, as it includes a lot of information from Niven's Tales of Known Space series, of which the Ringworld novels are a part.

Oh, did I mention that I'll throw my autographed copy of Ringworld Engineers into the deal?