NEW SCENARIO: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

[Thunderfall]

<img src="http://www.civfanatics.com/images/civ2scen/atlantis_screen0.jpg" border=1 align=right>Erin Ryan's NEW scenario, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, is one of those scenarios that you know it has to be a great scenario at first glance. The author's attention to details is visible everywhere. It's the first scenario I encounter that includes 2 customized videos for the ship launch and the victory movie. The Civilopedia has very complete info on improvements, units, wonders, and artifacts. It also comes with an easy to read tech-tree in DOC format. It's quiet amazing to see the Atlantis island being swallowed up by the ocean little by little, until the entire island is gone!

As you can see from these screenshots, Erin Ryan also did a great job with the graphics: <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/images/civ2scen/atlantis_screen1.jpg">Main Map</a> <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/images/civ2scen/atlantis_screen2.jpg">City Screen</a> <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/images/civ2scen/atlantis_screen3.jpg">Civilopedia</a>.

>> <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2scenfan.shtml#atlantis">DOWNLOAD THIS SCENARIO!</a>

 

[shamrock]

The premise of this scenario is as follows: You are Atlas, leader of the Atlantean Civilization. You are technologically superior to all other civilizations, but somehow must survive the imminent sinking of your continent and effectively start over. In order to win, you must either conquer the world or construct a Deep-Sea Submersible (instead of a spaceship) that will allow you to journey to the lost city of Atlantis. And as if things weren’t challenging enough, each of your two brothers leads a powerful faction of Atlanteans who possess certain key artifacts which will make your task even more difficult.

In order to achieve a thoroughly Atlantis flavor to this scenario, I’ve implemented the following:

- All new tech tree (click here to download)
- All new units
- All new wonders
- New improvements
- New terrain
- New cities
- Multiple event files and rules files
- Comprehensive Civilopedia

Note that the complete scenario is quite large, consisting of 4 different zip files:

- ATLANTIS.zip (701k, required): Main game files
- SOUND.zip (1.2M, highly recommended): All sound files
- GRAPHICS.zip (1.9M, suggested): Modifications to a few key graphics
- VIDEO.zip (3.1M, optional): Two new Atlantis-themed videos

 

[shamrock]

Here is the world map in 9300 BC. Seems pretty familiar, but there are definitely some key differences, some obvious, some not so obvious…

<IMG SRC="http://fountainhead1.home.mindspring.com/civ/map.gif" border=0>

 

[shamrock]

The "Deep Sea Submersible" looks suspiciously like a spaceship! Hmmm.

(Note that GRAPHICS.zip is necessary to achieve this effect).

<IMG SRC="http://fountainhead1.home.mindspring.com/civ/sub_ss.jpg" border=0>

 

[kobayashi]

Guys,

I'm in the process of playing this one and I will be doing a review when I finish.

 

[kobayashi]

Great game so far. I expected the island to sink slowly but it was gone in a couple of turns. The sinking sequence is quite well done.

I managed to get off the island in time on my third try and have got most of Africa and the Iberian peninsula. Definitely worth a try..

 

[kobayashi]

I have tried twice and I cannot even come close to winning at the recommended level (second highest). After settling in Africa, I have conquored spain, greece and egypt and part of Italy from the yellow and orange players. BUT At 2600BC, the Mayans are already building destroyers and making a discovery every two or three turns.

Does anyone have a similar experience or am I that lousy. Also is it because I have yet to find any of the portals?


Other comments
The church improvement doesn't work because its prerequisite has been probably changed from the default position. That really screwed me up when I was building churces all over.

correction: the churches work later on when I discovered another advance (but don't know which one)

[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited July 18, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited July 19, 2001).]

 

[Conditional Zenith]

I couldn't get the scenario to work. When I tried to start it, it said "failed to load: file has more recent version number than game."

I have Fantastic Worlds

Can anyone help?

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Conditional Zenith

you will only become strong if you obey the regulations

 

[kobayashi]

Try the MGE COnverter by Angelo Scotto in the downloads section.

 

[shamrock]

Kobayashi-

Thanks for playing the game - I hope you've had better success on subsequent attempts (one hint: use a diplomat and your large treasury to wreak some havoc up North

).

Please let me know if you have any other feedback. Good point on the churches - I allowed the player to build churches (cathedrals) when Monotheism was discovered, but the churches have no effect until Theology is discovered. I've since changed this and can release a newer version if there is enough interest for me to do so, or if there are other changes required as well.

Has anyone else tried this scenario? Is it TOO tough?

 

[kobayashi]

I did use diplomats, thats the only way I could actually conquer cities in the first half of the game. Everytime I get a 500 gold bonus. However, the guys in europe are the only powerful guys willing to be friends with me and once I went to war with them, there was no way to survive.

Perhaps part of the reason it was so difficult was that I played at the second hardest level. (readme says don't play at Diety). Believe me I tried everything - stacking ballons on ground units, continuously stealing techs, starting a base in America.

Maybe you should officially make the recommeded level King or Prince.

Alternatively make it possible to negotiate with the evil brothers - i.e. make a friendly race to the lost city an option. Also add some event message hinting where the damn portals are - I explored every inch of ocean without finding them.

p.s. are you going to try my latest scenario?

[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited August 04, 2001).]

 

[shamrock]

Go further North, Kobayashi. If you can acquire a Mariner city on the European continent, you're likely to get a large city, some great units, and an ideal staging point to Western Asia, where there is gorgeous terrain for city building (and the Tuaoi Land Portal...)

Yeah, deity is almost impossible (even for me, and I designed the damn thing).

Great idea on the event message to clue the player in as to the location of the portals - only problem is that I can only specify the general region because the precise location is actually random.

As for not finding the Ocean Portal, I'll bet I know why. You probably used a unit like the Tuaoi Galley to search for the portal, as this is a unit that can spot subs (i.e. see the portal) and has 2 space visibility, However, because spot subs only works for adjacent squares, you've got about a 50% chance of passing right by it. Of the 4 or 5 people that I've talked to about the scenario, only one of them was able to find the Tuaoi Sea Portal. I guess I should remove the sub ability of the portal so that it can be found easier. Finding these portals really does open up a new facet of the game.

What is your latest scenario, Kobayashi?

 

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by shamrock:

What is your latest scenario, Kobayashi?

Star Wars - Insurrection. Would love to get some feedback from you and reverse our roles.

 

[Conditional Zenith]

It's me again.

I found the converter and used it.

Now when I try to open it, it says:


Error "-3" in module "12" data: 306 270

File open failed: MODULES.DB
Most recent DOS error: 2

Can anyone shed any light on this?

If I could have a guess, I think it is the first rules.txt file which is causing problems, but I'm not sure.

------------------
Conditional Zenith

you will only become strong if you obey the regulations

 

[kobayashi]

No I did not forget you. I've been thinking about your problem. Normally I would say that that the events file is too big cause that's roughly the same message I get when my events file is too big. Even after conversion, there is usually one remaining problem. The events buffer for MGE is much bigger than FW and you would need to cut the events file down to below 18k. (depending on the contents, FW can handle between 18-22k of events before crashing).

The problem with this reasoning is that the event files seem to be only 13k or so in size for Atlantis.

Does anyone else have a theory?

 

[CivPartisan]

Conditional Zenith,

It is possible the there are factors in the labels.txt that are giving you trouble.

Rename the labels.txt to labels.bak
and try to start the scenario. If it works the stringheap size for the labels is wrong for FW or the number before the string labels is wrong. I'm not at my regular computer but I can check it later on FW when I get home tonight or tomorrow.

Of course, if a labels.txt was not provided with this scenario I will be forced to eat my words and try this scenario myself in FW.

John

 

[Conditional Zenith]

I tried your advice and still no sucess. Thanks for trying though.

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Conditional Zenith

you will only become strong if you obey the regulations

 

[The_Newbie]

I have the problem too. It also happened with star contact part two