Jan III Sobieski

Nikoagonistes

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 3, 2004
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Old Apolyton Thread
Old Scenario Creation Thread (which decidedly did not get as much attention as its Apolyton counterpart.)

This scenario, which I've been working on since '07, is a single-player campaign set in Central/Eastern Europe during the mid-late 17th Century (specifically, from the time of Jan Sobieski's time as Hetman (a top general in the Commonwealth) through his reign as king (including, of course, the siege of Vienna) and ending with Sobieski's death.) Controlling the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in general (and Sobieski in particular), the player will face Janissaries, Tartars, Prussians, Russians, Cossacks, and others and such as he strives to retake the Commonwealth's lost lands, fight off the Turkish menace and (optionally) reforming the government to help ensure Jan's son Jakob (and not some lavicious Saxon upstart) succeeds Jan on the throne.)

SL veterans, of course, will be familiar with this scenario; I'm just spelling things out for any newcomers. :) The majority of the scenario is done, but there are a few things I need to complete:
  • Space Race/Royal Elections. One possible government reform that was discussed in Poland at this times was royal elections vivente rege (elections held while the king was still alive.) To implement this, I thought of using the Apollo/Space Race Stuff - once you're able to pass the appropriate reforms (techs) you can hold vivente rege elections (build the Apollo Wonder). Then, it's a race for each faction to get their candidate elected (their ships make it to Alpha Centarui) - which actually has some historical basis, as the main candidates for the Polish crown usually had the backing of one European power or another. Of course, with this I'm wondering if I should take the trouble of redoing all the AC graphics and movies and such (changing the text is doable. The rest, however...
  • The suburban "railroad" tiles need their 20th-21st century placehold graphics replaced with their 17th-century European equivalents.
  • The readme file.
  • Various odds and ends, I think.

I'm aiming for a Sept. 12 release (anniversary of Sobieski's victory at Vienna.) What do you think?
 
I think it sounds great! I've been looking forward to this one for a long while now ;)
 
This is awesome news! I have a few younger cousins who are starting to get teased about their heritage at school. It would be nice to have them play a game that shows a great moment in Polish history :)

If I can be of any assistance, let me know!
 
I often wondered if it was possible to mod the Space race to something else(f.e Holy Roman Empire).I am very interested to see how will this evolve.
 
Eagerly anticipating this scenario. I remember seeing some of the original Ottoman tents captured in the battle on display in the Armoury of Vienna some years back. I just got back from a week in Krakow where I saw some more of the tents in the Wawel's Oriental collection as well as arms and armour of the period in the Armoury. There was also a medieval themed festival all week outside the castle where there was Winged Hussar armour on display, Pancerni walking around and displays of Medieval horsemanship. To say I'm inspired by this scenario after seeing all that would be an understatement. I'm practically foaming at the mouth :D
 

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Problem - I planned to replace the spaceship pics with more appropriate one (about the Polish royal elections) and was using GifX to swap the numerous .gifs in the ss.dll, but when I tried to look at them in-game, the game crashed. :/ Anyone know how Boco modified his ss.dll for El Aurens? I did look at his stuff as a "guide" - and I even used some of his "blank" pics (is that OK? I didn't ask his permission, which doesn't seem right :/, but he hasn't been active in the community lately...)

I dunno. I'm thinking of jettisoning the "space race" thing altogether, if I can't do it properly. I know AGRICOLA suggested, to represent political reform, allowing the player to switch from Republic to Communism, however the game, once in "scenario mode," doesn't seem to allow custom titles (which is why, when two rulers have the same form of government, but different titles (ex. both Brandenberg and Sweden have Monarchy, but one is ruled by an Elector, and the other by a King) I had to turn one ruler into a "female.")

Democracy might be a candidate for the reformed goverment, with its lack of corruption; however, it's "2x unhappy people per outside unit" rule makes it less effective as a wartime government (especially since you'll probably always have to keep the army in the field somewhere), not to mention the fact that the Senate will always vote 100% in favor of peace (the latter effect can be negated by the UN wonder, but still...)

Fundamentalism is also an option - I'd simply have to make the Sultan a "female" and change the male title to "King" - as it has no unhappiness, troops can be supported freely to an extent, and the science handicap can be abolished in the rules.txt. There is, however, the issue of corruption - if Fundy's corruption level is higher than Republic's, then it pretty much goes against the whole "reformed, more efficient" government thing.

So, I'm not sure what route to go on with the whole "government reform" thing. What do you think?
 
Fundamentalism is also an option - I'd simply have to make the Sultan a "female" and change the male title to "King" - as it has no unhappiness, troops can be supported freely to an extent, and the science handicap can be abolished in the rules.txt. There is, however, the issue of corruption - if Fundy's corruption level is higher than Republic's, then it pretty much goes against the whole "reformed, more efficient" government thing.

As far as I know, there is no corruption whatsoever under Fundamentalism. If you can satisfactorily compensate for the lower rate of tech progress by altering Cosmic Principles in Rules, then go with Fundy.
 
A screencap of what's to come - the road from Poland to Vienna with Curt's new suburb graphics! (Modified a bit by me!)
 

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It is done!

Download Jan III Sobieski v.1.0 today!

It took a lot of work today, but - on the anniversary of Sobieski's greatest triumph, I give to you this humble scenario. Looking through all the little things, trying to tie up all the loose ends before this day is over, I wondered if this is what Sobieski must have felt like rushing to relieve Vienna.

Of course, releasing a Civ II scenario isn't exactly the same thing as saving the capital of a major European power from the armies of a great jihadist army, so maybe the comparison is a little stretched. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it! :)
 
Congratulations on finishing a great scenario. :goodjob:

I'm looking forward to playing it again as time permits.
 
Congratulations! I can appreciate how much work you have put in to getting this finished. The early stages of development are always the most fun. The final finishing touches that never seem to come to an end can be very frustrating but it feels so good to finally put it out there. Downloading and playing now! :goodjob:
 
One very minor bug spotted. In the events file you need to remove the @DEBUG line as it will check the entire events file before starting the game. Obviously this has no detrimental effect on the scenario itself, just a cosmetic thing!
 
I've been playing Sobieski all morning now and I am very, very impressed! I'm desperately trying to tear myself away from the computer and go to the gym but the one more turn factor is sticking me to my seat :lol:

After a few turns getting familiarized with the situation I started to try and gain my objectives in the east. This has been no easy campaign as the AI fights back very well and on a few occasions I was very lucky not to lose Jan. The game seems to be very well balanced and challenging. Keeping all the enemies at bay is a bit of a balancing act.

The graphics are just beautiful. I love all the outlandish costumes of this period, they make it a pleasure to play! Going to force myself to go out now but I am looking forward to continuing later on. Very well done GoD!!!

One minor point. The Engineer shows up in the Pedia. I guess it is not meant to be there.
 
My afternoon/evening campaign has been a real battle for survival at times. When I first started I was a little concerned that this would start quite difficult and then get progressively easier as my strength grew. This is not the case at all, if anything the scenario has got more challenging as time passes. There are some really nice touches along the way with the events. Having a blast!
 
Found a few minor bugs:

- Imperials develop Supermarkets

- There seem to be an awful lot of Turkish controlled Duchy Hetmen each turn in the Ukraine (I'm currently on year 1679 and last turn there were at least 20!). This is a real challenge for me to defend against but I kind of feel it could be an error in unit type?

- I would include a list of city names for each nation as the AI is founding a lot without names.

- It is getting very close to a point where enough of the objective cities are destroyed that I cannot get a decisive victory. Perhaps you could include a couple of extra objectives to ensure this does not become an issue.

- I would change the technology icons so there isn't steam engines etc...

Other than these minor issues everything else is fine.
 
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