Scenario Design Guide thread

McMonkey

----Evertonian----
SLeague Staff
Joined
May 9, 2005
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CONTENTS:

A) CONCEPTS & CONSIDERATIONS
B) ORGANIZATION
C) GUIDES
D) EVENTS
E) TESTING & FINISHING
F) UTILITIES

The idea behind this thread is to gather all of the accumulated information, techniques and group wisdom of years of scenario creation so that members, new and old, can share their experience. New designers will benefit from this experience and old hands may just learn a new trick or two.

If you would like to make a suggestion for contents or write a guide please feel free to post and I will compile it into these initial posts in the thread and ultimately into a compiled document.
 
Concepts

The most important part of a scenario's design is the initial concept. Will it be a historical campaign, an empire builder, a dungeons and dragons style adventure or an epic space opera? What will the victory objective be and who is the protagonist?

Get it right and you can be onto a winner, make critical errors in judgement early on in a project and you will find yourself struggling to get around them and your plans may ultimately fail!

As a general rule you should think about the strengths and weaknesses of the Civ2 game engine. Will your scenario idea work with the AI and does it play to the strengths of the game?

A lot can be achieved with events and clever scenario design but some scenarios suit the Civ2 engine better than others. For example World War 2 scenarios with fast moving offensives lend themselves well to Civ2 whilst the trenches and stalemate of World War One are hard to replicate. That's not to say that it can't be done, but it will require a lot of work and careful planning.

Think carefully about what you want to achieve with your scenario. If it is your first attempt why not try something modest in scale. Get it working well and looking good. You will build up experience and can increase the scope with your next project. I know from personal experience how tempting it is to try and build the biggest and best scenario possible from the off, but in hindsight I would have been better of setting myself more realistic goals. We all learn by experience and even a failed scenario can be a great learning experience, but I can tell you that there are few things more satisfying for a designer than releasing a fully functioning piece of work and hearing positive feedback from the community.

Map Making

There are several options. You can use an existing map if one exists (fingers crossed), use a utility to make a new map or build one by hand (my personal preference).

I work out the shape of the map first by making a scan or photocopy and drawing a box around the area you want to make. Then you need to use the map editor to make the map on there the right height x length. This may take a little playing around to get right. Next draw a grid this map using tundra or whatever (4x4 or 5x5 squares work well). Add up the number of squares on each axis then measure your paper map dimensions. Divide the dimensions by the number of squares (IE 120cm divided by 30 squares = 4cm per square on the paper map). Draw the grid on the paper map and check it matches the one on the editor. Start copying across square by square. Once you have the shape of the landmass set out add rivers, then mountains and so on. Remember to plot the locations of key cities before you blend out the grid. That's how I do things anyway. Its slow but it produces very accurate looking maps.

I draw a grid using paint or some such program. I use a horizontal/vertical lined map as it is a guide rather than a square by square plan. Getting the map the right size may take a bit of playing around as I think it needs to be twice as high as it is long (or it it the other way?).

The image I used with a grid drawn on with MS Paint:


How the map looks on the map editor after removing the corresponding grid:


Frustrating Agricola

See this entertaining and informative article by Techumseh on how to design the toughest possible scenario to challenge the best players. Our dear friend Agricola sadly passed away but his legendary play-testing skills and witty feedback reports will live long in the memory of the Scenario League!

Special Terrains (+Food/Shields/Trade/Defence/Minefields)

Sometimes getting the resources for key cities right can be fiddly with the vanilla terrains. A quick and easy solution is to make use of the extra ToTPP terrain slots to create special terrains (such as high shield, food or trade output). This way large industrial cities can easily be given the output they require with the addition of a couple of high shield terrains. This is not a new concept, but ToTPP has made the process much easier.

Other special terrains I have used are high defence villages which I can place at strategic locations (you could use trenches, riverbed or whatever). One cool technique I have borrowed is the Minefield from Techumseh's Operation Market Garden scenario. This terrain type is impassable for most units (except engineers) who can move into the square and transform it (clear the mines) allowing other units to pass.


Spread of defensive terrain

One of the things I really enjoy when playing a scenario is making the best use of terrain, both for defence and attack. A flat, featureless map is often not that much fun to play, unless it is a deliberate design feature. Try and mix up the terrain as much as possible so that units can be deployed outside of cites in defensive positions. Where's the fun in just moving huge siege trains from one city to the next?

With the extra ToTPP terrains it is more feasible than ever to include unique terrains, like villages with high defence values, impassable minefields or rivers that act as a barrier to attacking troops. You can also include large rivers (ocean terrain) to create crossing points and funnel the action along historical lines.

John Ellis's farming system

One of the unique features of John Ellis' classic Seize the Crown was the system of agriculture. Instead of basic plains and grassland that could be irrigated John introduced a whole system where fields needed to be prepared (engineer transformed) before they could be irrigated or changed into pasture of grazing animals. I forget the exact details right now but I would recommend checking the scenario out for inspiration.

Curtsiblings Oilfield system

I don't know for sure if this is an original idea or borrowed from elsewhere, but I first noticed it in Curtsibling's Imperialism 1870 for ToTPP update. The normally fairly unproductive swamp terrain can be converted by engineers to Oil Fields once the prerequisite technology is obtained. The oldfield terrain gives a much higher shield output that can be further increased by building a mine on the square. This is a really simple but very effective way to represent the importance of oil in the industrial period. Think of Arabia prior to the 20th century. The seemingly barren deserts suddenly spouting forth black gold. Of course this concept can be adapted to many other concepts.

Tech Tree

Will you design a traditional tech tree that mimics the original Civ2 vanilla game or use events in a completely different way. For scenarios that cover a specific conflict you might consider using the events as a way of producing reinforcements via events.

Events

Events are the most powerful tool at a scenario designers disposal and can transform a most scenarios from average to outstanding. Take a look at the events.txt file of other scenarios for ideas. You can always copy & then edit other peoples events into your own events folder. No need to write them from scratch.

Fine Tuning

This is such a crucial aspect of scenario designing. For me there's nothing worse than starting a scenario to find loads of unnecessary popups (City already producing, civil unrest in etc...) that are not explicitly part of the game's design. Spend some time eliminating these annoyances and the scenario will give a much better first impression.

All tech trees and unit files begin with an initial blueprint, but the best ones are constantly tested and refined before being signed off. You don't have to get everything done in one sitting. Scenarios can take a long time to finish so you have plenty of time to re-evaluate and make changes. Little tweaks can end up having a major impact on gameplay.

Testing

Play-testing is vital to ensure your scenario has no bugs and works as intended. It is rare for everything to work perfectly first time. Be prepared to start your scenario, make an extensive list of required fixes, try again, write up another list and so on. It can be disheartening, but if you're organised and persistent most issues can be ironed out.

Once you have corrected any bugs and got the gameplay balance right you can look at recruiting a playtester or two to give you their take on the scenario. Be prepared to take on board constructive criticism. Having somebody else's input can be extremely valuable. They may pick out issues you had never considered or offer ideas for improvements that will enhance the scenario.
 
Organization - Split up events into folders

One of the most important parts of designing a scenario is planning and organization. Its very easy to become overwhelmed by the enormity of the task and lose your direction. I find that breaking things up into manageable sections is a good way to keep up my momentum. For example, I create an events folder with sub folders for different events categories (set up, negotiations, offensives, reinforcements, economic etc...). In each folder I have an events.txt. This has the added bonus of allowing me to easily test sections of the events for bugs and to see how they work out before compiling all the individual events.txt into the final one. It also allows me to deal with one aspect at a time and not get bogged down in a massive events file where it can be hard to locate the part you need to work on.

Annotating events

I have found it useful to annotate my events and divide them into sections. This makes it much easier to keep tabs on what is triggering and where. I usually add a brief description of each event (using a ; semicolon above the event - IE ;2.7 Turn 3 5x German Stuka Amiens). I normally break the events into sections (as noted above - Events folders). I usually give each section a number and then each event in that section has a sub number (IE 2.7 = Section 2, event 7). This may take a little time to set up, but I find that it saves me a lot of time in the playtesting stage!

Another short-cut I use it the *asterisk. When writing events I may not have time to write text or add co-ordinate straight away so I put an asterisk in place to remind me to fill them in later. When I go back to the events.txt I use the find command to track down *asterisk and fill in the blanks. Before I finish a section of the events I check there are no left over asterisk that will cause the game to crash.

Print off maps (Co-ordinates/notes)

I find it extremely useful to print off some maps (and photocopy a few spares). I expend the world map and take a screenshot, then with paint I use the fill tool to change the sea colour to a lighter shade of blue and the land to white (you can leave certain terrain types, such as mountains, visible if it assists your planning). Depending on the colour of the cities I sometimes change them to black rectangles so they show up better. I then print the map of A3 and make photocopies as spares.

These maps are extremely useful for planning your events and for other administrative purposes. I usually write all the city names and their co-ordinates on one map for quick reference. I use other maps for planning events (offensives, reinforcements, move units etc...). I'm really into my maps, but I think this method would be useful for all scenario designers.

Co-ordinates list

To assist with writing events I create a text document with a list of cities and their co-ordinates (written - 124,77 ;Bilbao *ToT will not read anything on a line after a semi-colon). When it comes to writing events I can then quickly copy and paste into the locations section of the create unit events without having to refer to the map. This has the added bonus of allowing me to quickly see where the co-ordinates will trigger when reviewing or altering the events file.

Templates (Events templates)

Obviously there is no need to write every event from scratch. I'm sure everyone copy/pastes existing events and adapts them. A good idea is to create a template with every type of event in a separate text file. I can then copy and paste easily, saving me lots of time. I usually use the * asterisk (see Annotating events) where unit type/owner/locations etc... would be. This way I can never miss anything (hopefully).

TO DO & DONE text files

Building a scenario is a major undertaking. It is essential to find an efficient way of organising your concepts, goals and ideas to keep the momentum going. It is very easy to come across problems that will see your project grind to a halt. The way I have found to get around these issues and keep my projects on track is the TO DO list.

The TO DO list is a text document organised into sections, such as: Concept, objectives, units, events, bugs and so on. Every new idea I have gets added to the list and as I complete tasks I mark them as DONE and periodically move all of the DONE tasks to a section at the bottom of the file. This helps me keep track of changes I have made and also lets me see how much progress I have made which can be encouraging when things get tough.

If I encounter issues I cannot fathom I usually seek help at the Scenario League forum, leave the issue to one side and get on with other tasks on the TO DO list. Sometimes another member of the forum will come up with a solution and other times the answer will come to me whilst I'm doing the washing up and I can go back and move on with things. The key is to not get bogged down when you hit a snag.

Having a TO DO list is also a lot easier to organise than reams of paper notes. I still use pen and paper a lot, but I try to keep as much of my planning on the TO DO list as possible.

I often design events in the TO DO list and then transfer them into the events file. This is a good way of ensuring that the events file doesn't get mixed up.

I realise this sounds like a very simple idea, but I have found it makes designing scenarios much easier. You can break things up into manageable chunks and get some meaningful work done every time you sit down to work on your scenario.

Here is an example of how my TO DO list looks:

- Slightly reduce number of Nationalist aircraft in latter counter attacks

- Cut back on opening turn text

- Stats for new units

- Modify events for Puertollano counter attack

- Slightly increase Tech Paradigm in favour of Republic

- Alter Italian Guadalajara offensive slightly as per tootall_2012

- Sort out the Army of Africa movement events

- Add mines

DONE:
-----
DONE- Work out why Fifth Columnist isn't working (Full stop in folder name!)
DONE- Medium AA Cannon (Add to Soviet reinforcement events x10)
DONE- Heavy AA Cannon (Add to Soviet reinforcement events x7)
DONE- Mobile AAMG (Add to Soviet reinforcement events x8)
DONE- Republican Cavalry (Pre place a couple and add a random turn event)
DONE- Rep Combat Engineers (Specific turn event. Add a few)
 
Barbarian Papers

ToT Events Macro

Sounds

Frustrating Agricola

Civ2 Combat Guide

Hex Editing

Test of Time Advances Slot Properties

How to represent Gliders, Helicopters etc.

Test of Time Advances Slot Properties
Creating an engaging scenario or mod-pack for Civ2 will in all likelihood involve modifying the advances or technology tree as set out in scenario's

RULES.TXT file. The tree itself can be modified, however a large number of 'slots' (row position in the table) have unique characteristics and care must be

taken to ensure that tribes begin with and if appropriate discover technologies appropriate to their circumstance.
Test of Time Advances Slot Properties
 
Macro

Test of Time uses Macro for events. There is a text file explaining its features (located in the Test of Time folder). I would advise checking out existing events files from other scenarios for ideas and to get your head around how they work.

Lua Scripting

With ToTPP TheNamelessOne has added Lua scripting for events which is a more versatile and powerful system than the original Macro. I have yet to use Lua, but it does promise to increase the scenario designers our box of tricks!

@DEBUG

By adding the @DEBUG line to your events file and then launching the scenario a report.txt file will be generated in your scenario folder. This will show each working event and stop at the point where there is an event that will not work. You can then go to that point in your events file, check what the problem is, fix it and then repeat the process until report.txt indicates that every event is working. An essential tool for any designer. Just remember to delete the line and run the scenario file through DELEVENT before doing your final save and releasing the scenario, else debug will continue to run, causing a lengthy delay before the scenario launches!

Fall back events

Strongholds

Move units
 
ToTPP

The Test of Time Project Patch created by TheNamelessOne massively expands the capabilities of Test of Time for scenario designers. Many bugs have been fixed and lots of exciting new features have been added including 127 units, increased number of cities allowed, massively extended events space and much, much more. I would recommend all designers make use of this wonderful patch which is available here.

CivCity
CivCity allows you change all kinds of city parameters. Some items can't be changed except by hex-editing; other items are just made easier to change. Civcity allows you to set up trade routes, change trade commodities and select which improvements a city has. City parameters such as owner, founder, the food box, the disorder flag and more can be set. It is available to download here.

CivStack

Delevent

CivTweak
CivTweak allows you change the important startup parameters, fix the bronze-age city style problem, reactivate tribes, and change barbarian cash and form of government. It is available to download here.

Tech Tree Checker

CivEngineer

Civ2Unlimited

Flag chart

Sounds (Gif)

Units Grid

Dummy Resource

Dummy Sprite

Tech Tree template

Events template

CivHot
CivHot is a small program that does one thing. You can create a hot-seat game for non-multiplayer versions of CIV II, such as Fantastic Worlds.

Carl's Scenario's and Programs for Civ2
 
That would probably be a good starting point. I'm not necessarily planning on writing comprehensive guides for all of these bullet points, we could just include a brief outline of what the feature does and then add a link to the page where it resides. No sense in re-inventing the wheel.

The guide itself can focus more on new content and new ideas. This list is more of an aide to memory for things we would like to include, refer to, add links to etc...

If you feel like writing a section go ahead and we can then compile it all. I'm totally flexible about the structure of this project. We can adapt it as we go along to incorporate any new content we get. I'm planning to write a section about how I organize my project to start off with.
 
Building a scenario is a major undertaking. It is essential to find an efficient way of organising your concepts, goals and ideas to keep the momentum going. It is very easy to come across problems that will see your project grind to a halt. The way I have found to get around these issues and keep my projects on track is the TO DO list.

The TO DO list is a text document organised into sections, such as: Concept, objectives, units, events, bugs and so on. Every new idea I have gets added to the list and as I complete tasks I mark them as DONE and periodically move all of the DONE tasks to a section at the bottom of the file. This helps me keep track of changes I have made and also lets me see how much progress I have made which can be encouraging when things get tough.

If I encounter issues I cannot fathom I usually seek help at the Scenario League forum, leave the issue to one side and get on with other tasks on the TO DO list. Sometimes another member of the forum will come up with a solution and other times the answer will come to me whilst I'm doing the washing up and I can go back and move on with things. The key is to not get bogged down when you hit a snag.

Having a TO DO list is also a lot easier to organise than reams of paper notes. I still use pen and paper a lot, but I try to keep as much of my planning on the TO DO list as possible.

I often design events in the TO DO list and then transfer them into the events file. This is a good way of ensuring that the events file doesn't get mixed up.

I realise this sounds like a very simple idea, but I have found it makes designing scenarios much easier. You can break things up into manageable chunks and get some meaningful work done every time you sit down to work on your scenario.

Here is an example of how my TO DO list looks:

- Slightly reduce number of Nationalist aircraft in latter counter attacks

- Cut back on opening turn text

- Stats for new units

- Modify events for Puertollano counter attack

- Slightly increase Tech Paradigm in favour of Republic

- Alter Italian Guadalajara offensive slightly as per tootall_2012

- Sort out the Army of Africa movement events

- Add mines

DONE:
-----
DONE- Work out why Fifth Columnist isn't working (Full stop in folder name!)
DONE- Medium AA Cannon (Add to Soviet reinforcement events x10)
DONE- Heavy AA Cannon (Add to Soviet reinforcement events x7)
DONE- Mobile AAMG (Add to Soviet reinforcement events x8)
DONE- Republican Cavalry (Pre place a couple and add a random turn event)
DONE- Rep Combat Engineers (Specific turn event. Add a few)

EDIT: I have added this post to the relevant section above and made some other additions.
 
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