Designer Diary #5 on pc.ign.com...

[Tavenier]

Originally posted by Arne
"Privateers and English Sea Dogs can use enslavement attacks to capture enemy cargo ships intact, handing the treasure over to the victorious pirates."

Sounds good, dosn't it?

Civilization meets Pirates! meets Colonization

Three of my favourite games combined!

Couldn't be better!

 

[FlakJacket]

Yup. The Spanish and Portuguese can do all the local on the ground slaughtering, I'll just make a load of Sea Dogs and nick all of their stuff when they try taking it back home.

That's a thing though - can privateers block trade routes, because I can't remember now? This could get interesting.

 

[Tavenier]

I think I will build me some colonies in the north. For fur. For the rest I will only build privateers and attack Spanish and Portuguese fleets.
The WIC will rise again!

 

[Tavenier]

And if someone is going to make a Huron civ, please let me know!

 

[casual_moose]

a huron civ would be a good idea but wouldnt it be sorta similar to the iroquois?

 

[Tavenier]

Originally posted by casual_moose
a huron civ would be a good idea but wouldnt it be sorta similar to the iroquois?

I think it will. But it would be great to play a conquest based on the wars between French/Huron armies and the British/Iroquois armies.
The Iroquois were 11 tribes which formed a federation. In the US constitution some of the Iroquois aspects are incorporated.
The Huron were a bigger empire with simply more land and more people. But because of the British giving many modern weapons to the Iroquois they won.

 

[FlakJacket]

Originally posted by Tavenier
The WIC will rise again!

Cool. Gives me something to knock over and steal all their stuff. But seriously, this is looking to be the best scenario so far. Lets see what else they can pull out of the hat with the others.

 

[Stile]

IIRC, the Meso-American conquest introduces new terrain, the rain forest, which is impassable and 0/0/0. I suspect the designers used this to prevent contact and/or alliances in the New World. The only downside I can see would be fewer New World land battles between European powers. Then again I guess that didn't really happen much.

Looks like another great conquest. I can't wait to find out all the intricate details of all of them.

Earlier (maybe in a chat) it was stated that all the conquests were created by using the editor. Did anyone else get the feeling by reading this diary and its references to code and builds that there was more involved than just the editor? Was the editor altered to empower these scenarios? or does code refer to some higher level design not open to the mod community?

Disclaimer: I have never created a scenario and don't intend to, but I am interested in the level of scenarios that other civfanatics can produce.

 

[Evie]

As far as we know what is said there is that they altered *the editor* to give themselves the power to create all that is involved in this scenario - that is to say, anything they did in there we can do as well.

 

[Tavenier]

Originally posted by FlakJacket
Cool. Gives me something to knock over and steal all their stuff. But seriously, this is looking to be the best scenario so far. Lets see what else they can pull out of the hat with the others.

I am very curious how they will do the Napoleon-conquest. They must have think up something with leaders. Giving units one square away more power, or something.
That's also one I am looking forward to!

 

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Stile
Earlier (maybe in a chat) it was stated that all the conquests were created by using the editor. Did anyone else get the feeling by reading this diary and its references to code and builds that there was more involved than just the editor? Was the editor altered to empower these scenarios? or does code refer to some higher level design not open to the mod community?

I think you are referring to this:

we just needed to move that code so it applied to all possible improvements and wonders. Over a few builds, we developed the following set of treasure-producing buildings

Let me de-mystify it for you. When he says "we just needed to move that code..." it appears he is talking about improving the editor so that it contained the functionality they needed to create the necessary buildings for the scenario. Thus that "code" is not in the scenario, it's in the editor and therefore available to us.

As for "Over a few builds...", I believe this references the iterative process of creating a scenario. Each time changes are made to a scenario, it is considered a new "build" of that scenario. So the treasure-producing buildings they created were tested and tweaked over a series of "builds" or versions of the scenario.

Just thought I'd expand on Oda's response above to help put your mind at ease.

 

[Portuguese]

Originally posted by Gingerbread Man
Yes, this has great replayability! Just think, maybe one conquest would take, 15hrs? Nine conquests, and and a go on each playable civ, that is more than 200hrs of play!
Imagine, a good move might take 2hrs, cost US$20 to buy, watch it twice, listen to the director's commentry, thats costing about $3 an hour.
Conquests takes 200hrs, costs US$30, that's $0.15 an hour. Fifteen cents an hour! What could be better?

Better only if the Port were in

Hey they are!!! [dance]

Of course, this is the best scenario, IMHO

 

[rdomarat]

This section sounds very interesting for the modders out there.

Originally posted by kring
The Finishing Touch
The plans for the scenario always called for the presence of Iroquois, Aztec, Maya, and Inca civilizations, but they were not to be playable civilizations. How could they possibly hope to compete with the European powers? In another flash of inspiration, we realized there was a way...

By merging elements of the Mesoamerica scenario tech tree into the game, and by boosting the cultural value of Mesoamerican cultural buildings in relation to European ones, we were able to set it up so that a well played Mesoamerica civilization can outpace a European civilization in single-city cultural value. By setting a low enough single-city cultural victory limit, a path to victory as a Mesoamerican civilization was created. But beware, playing as a Native American civilization is not for the faint of heart. When those first European ships appear to the east, you know your eventual demise is at hand. Can you hold them off long enough to preserve your cultural heritage and still claim victory? It is possible and just one of the many challenges awaiting Civilization players who enter the Age of Discovery. -- Ed Beach

Do you think this is implying that there is a different Tech Tree for the Mesoamerican civs than for the European civs? Or are they implying that a tech tree exists where certain techs are just not available to some civs but are to others? It's also possible that they've just added the tech tree for the Mesoamerican conquest as a prerequesite to all the techs that the Europeans have, have given all the European civs the techs on this era, and somehow ensured that the Europeans don't get all the benefits that the Mesoamerican civs get from the techs in that Conquest.

There's still lots of questions to be answered, but I think it will be really need to see how this was done, and to imagine what the scenarios that can be made from this type of functionality.

 

[Portuguese]

Originally posted by Sarevok
Ill be the British or the French. the spanish and portugese killed too many people for my tastes. i just might also play Ming China too

Study Port history better and dont' miss your history classes.
Spa (specially) and English killed much more ansd what you have said is, at minimal, unfair...

 

[Tavenier]

Originally posted by Portuguese

Study Port history better and dont' miss your history classes.
Spa (specially) and English killed much more ansd what you have said is, at minimal, unfair...

Indeed, you're right. The British, for instance, eliminated the Tasmanian people.

 

[Emperor Xerxes]

Originally posted by Stile
IIRC, the Meso-American conquest introduces new terrain, the rain forest, which is impassable and 0/0/0. I suspect the designers used this to prevent contact and/or alliances in the New World. The only downside I can see would be fewer New World land battles between European powers. Then again I guess that didn't really happen much.

I think it was to force the Incas to build cities in a realistic patturn, i.e. not in the rainforest.

The Incas did try but they couldn't keep settlements going in the rainforest so eventually they just gave up.

 

[Philips beard]

Originally posted by Sarevok:
Ill be the British or the French. the spanish and portugese killed too many people for my tastes. i just might also play Ming China too

Hey dont put all the blame on the spanish! The spaniards brought civilization to America

 

[Tavenier]

And gold to Europe!~

 

[Philips beard]

Hehe, and also gave Europe, especially Spain the greatest inflation problems ever, hehe.... It really costed a lot to be the savior of the world

 

[Tavenier]

Originally posted by Philips beard
Hehe, and also gave Europe, especially Spain the greatest inflation problems ever, hehe.... It really costed a lot to be the savior of the world

And eventually most of that gold ended up in China. China accepted only gold for centuries. They must have got an extremely large goldreserve nowadays. Anybody knows about that?