Introducing: Rhye's of Russia (historical scenario)

[micbic]

At first, good luck with this, gonna be truly interesting
On topic: What will be the spawn date and place of the Russian civ in this scenario?

 

[Baldyr]

Thank you! I'm actually doing some progress as we speak (loading autoplay while I type), even if I'm not friends with the Python stuff, or anything.

I haven't figured out how to change the spawn date (the game goes bananas as soon as I try this) so right now I'm testing it with the standard 860AD date. The player starts out with one Swordman (Varangian warband) and one Great General (Norse noble family) - in Novgorod (just a Fort on the first turn). First order of business is to establish a base of operations in Kiev - which flips two turns later with a couple of units. Then it's pretty much a question of getting ready for the Mongol onslaught - this bit is what I'm testing right now, by the way.

 

[micbic]

So the player will start out with no Settlers at all...? Very intriguing.

 

[Baldyr]

Well, we'll just have to wait and see where this ends up...

This particular round of testing didn't go so well by the way, even if it was kinda cool in its own right. (I actually got an idea for Kiev not always flipping, so as not to make it entirely deterministic.)

This is how it went down:

As my Varangian horde traveled southward through the Slavic forests they encountered the ruins of several settlements around the river Dnepr. Kiev (now only a Town - since Cities don't become ruins when razed in this particular scenario, but become Towns instead) was somewhat intact. As Kiev wasn't anything the rumors had promised, I plundered what remained instead. Down by the Black Sea I did manage to hire a band of Pecheneg horsemen (I accidentally flipped a Horse Archer), but opted to spare the Byzantine town of Cherson (on the Crimea, protected by a Pikeman) and sacked the Khazar capitol of Sarkel instead. After I had plundered the remains of Sarkel I thought it was time to head home to Holmgård (Novgorod, remember?). On the way my battle worn troops got some assistance from local tribesmen dwelling among the ruined remains of the Tjernigov settlement (random event).

In my absence the fortress village had grown into a small city and my Norse kindsmen didn't recognize me as their ruler. (See attached screen shot.) So I had to throw out the pretenders and take back what was mine! Finally, with a base of operations it was time to regroup and communicate with my old friends back in Scandinavia (I managed to get Open Borders with the Vikings).

As soon as my troop strength was back up developments in the region got my attention; the ancient port of Duna Urbs closed my river trade routes (spawned as the independent city of Riga) and the tiny settlement of Moscow managed to become an important center of commerce in the Vladimir-Suzdal region, on the eastern Volga trade route. I decided to add this principality to my now growing domains. (See attached screen shot.)

...and there I got screwed once more by the malfunctioning Mongolian spawn area, so I had to terminate this session to do some further debugging... Well, it was fun while it lasted!

 

[corovanrobber]

Just wondering then, how can with such a Novgorod location Saint-Petersburg exist? It would be either way misplaced.

 

[Baldyr]

The answer is that either one of these cities can be substituted with a Town instead, if you wanna have all historical locations represented.

In the play test session above I chose to capture Novgorod because I wouldn't have had any city otherwise. If I already had Kiev, I might have razed (or rather disbanded) the City of Novgorod in favor of a Town instead. (Cities no longer become City Ruins, but Towns instead.) See this thread for my house rules (Swamps that are workable and all that jazz, remember?).

So its basically a matter of choice. The scenario will inevitably evolve into the realm of alternate history anyway, so why not have a Russia based on ancient Novgorod? Or keep Kiev the center of Russian culture? And no one can force you to found Petrograd in the first place. (Its just too bad you can't disband your own cities to make room for other ones...)

It would take some planing, then. I would probably build Minsk and raze Novgorod anyway. This would also leave some much needed room for Petrograd. But other configurations are possible - and I would just fill all other city sites with Cottages that become Towns.

 

[Baldyr]

I'm currently fighting an uneven battle with the Python files, but I'm happy to report that I've actually made some headway. All the dynamic improvements work, as do the spawning cities and units. Also, the Mongols have an extended spawn area but are very unstable and tend collapse eventually, paving the way for the creation of the Russian Empire. The scenario is actually playable now, even if its really easy just to sign a peace treaty with the Mongols and carry on as if nothing had happened.

Right now I'm trying to add a piece of code that will make the Mongols declare war on practically everyone once they spawn. Once I've managed that it should be a lesser issue to make them less likely to sign peace treaties - before they collapse.

I can tell you that its a pretty mighty sight to see the Mongols come out of nowhere and rise to the top of the scoreboard. They got enough units to conquer Europe, but the AI is too stupid and General Winter only allows for one attempt at any Kievan Rus' city. (After that the Mongols will just wander aimlessly in the woods, taking more and more damage for every turn...)

 

[BurnEmDown]

Just remember that being at war with everyone hurts their stability, but I think you can remove the negative stability they get from wars, to not make it impossible for them.

 

[Baldyr]

I actually want the Mongols unstable - and I have managed it so that they pretty much collapse by 1425AD. Which is a bit late, by the way.

You are right about the other Civs, though. Perhaps the Mongol scourge will be so short lived that they will be able to recover?

I do think I found a way to set the initial stability for Civs, though. So these need to be balanced until it works right.

 

[Davinci07]

When will it come out
?

 

[usi]

A great necromancer can resurrect the dead, but there might be no spirit left...

 

[Baldyr]

I was doing this for the previous version of RFC but then I got too busy modding the mod. And then I learned how to program, and started working on other projects.

Now I have to redo everything, but thats alright because it will be done in a heartbeat with PyScenario. The problem is that I wanna include my RFC mod-mods, which also needs to be carried over to the new version (probably the Epic/Marathon one). So I have my hands full, ok?