The Rood and the Dragon - the Anglo-Saxon scenario

[LouLong]

Rather than unzip it then displace it I advise to unzip it directly into "Civ3/Conquests/Scenarios".

That could help.

Otherwise please state precisely the text of the error you got.

 

[Plotinus]

It probably is a common error of some kind, though not necessarily a stupid one, as these file structures are pretty arcane!

The Scenarios folder should contain not only the Rood biq but also a folder called Rood, which is subdivided into Art and Text subfolders and so forth. It may simply be that when you downloaded and unzipped the whole thing that folder went astray. On the other hand, it may be that you got that right but for some reason a particular file went missing... let us know what the error message said and it ought to be solvable.

EDIT: Come to think of it, if the game crashed when you tried to open the startup screen of the scenario, rather than during the game itself, I bet it is that you've simply misplaced the folder. It needs the leaderhead graphics for the faction selection, so that's probably what it couldn't find.

 

[Ciceronian]

Started playing the scenario and thought it was great! In fact, it's at least on the same level as the Conquests! For instance, the comparable Conquests game is FoR. But do the barb civs have any sort of unique units? No, only those dumb marauders and warlords and pillagers which are the same for all. But your scenario has plenty of different units for all the civs. OK, so the Anglo-Saxons all have the same units, but that's historically accurate and theres still lots of variety. The thing with changing religion from Pagan to Christian is also great and the tech-tree is well designed. The pedia entries are interesting and educational, I'm quite interested in Anglo-Saxon history and I'm still learning new stuff. The civs are well placed oh and the advisors and diplo menus are way cooler! All in all a brilliant scenario and probably even better than the Civ 3 Conquests!
One little problem though: I'm a bit unclear about the victory conditions, as it just gives the standard entry in the pedia and when I hit F8 for the victory conditions screen it just gives me a load of garbage (i.e. victory points limit = 10, or wonders built = 175). Seems a little off! Otherwise though, as I said, probably the best scenario I ever played!

 

[SeaDog98520]

WoW!!! Thanks ever so much.... it was just a matter of that extra folder you mentioned and putting it where it belonged. loads and runs fine now.. and what a proper treat to play... can see my wife getting pissed all over again at me for getting lost in the game just like when I first got c3c... yardwork gets ignored, the 'honey-do' list grows and grows... and gets ignored..

Tell me, is this and other scenarios being created by people who are doing this just for the love of it, or can they get compensated somehow... they should be hired by the companies as their work is every bit as good as the game I paid money for...

again. thanks alot. it will take so much delicious time to master this new scenario, to learn the civs, the tech tree and the necessary strategies to win.. love it..

Shaughn

 

[Plotinus]

[Ciceronian] A pedia entry I forgot to do! Damn it all! Well, I don't know why you're getting odd info like that. If you want to check the correct values you can simply open the scenario in the editor and look at the Scenario Properties screen. I'm glad you like it otherwise!

[SeaDog] Good to hear that it worked, and thank you very much for the kind words. Clearly you need to start a multiplayer game with your wife! And no, naturally I've not been compensated - I just felt like making a scenario that I would want to play. I'd always thought that Anglo-Saxon times would make a good scenario, as it would be atmospheric and have the potential for interesting challenges, and I was slightly disappointed that some of the Firaxis ones seemed a little uninteresting, little more than a map and restricted tech tree, such as the Middle Ages one (although I still enjoyed them). In fact making scenarios seems to be more fun than playing them, at least when they work, so despite having a zillion more important things to do I'm working away on the next one right now, though it will be a while before that comes to fruition. Firaxis did recently advertise for scenario makers, but (a) it didn't exactly fit in with my career plans and (b) Baltimore would be quite a commute from London! Still, if you *want* to give us money I'm sure something can be arranged...

 

[Alcamar]

Yesterday I downloaded this scenario and started to play.
Untill now I am really impressed,
I am playing at regent and was surprised to notice that the AI civs are that much faster in research than they seem to be in a normal game.
Do they have initially more contacts so can they trade more or is something altered with respect to research.
In a normal epic game (regent level) I am never outresearched by the AI.

But the overall impression is that this scenario will be fun but hard to win.

 

[Plotinus]

[Alcamar] All of the Romano-British kingdoms are likely to be well advanced in techs, especially in the early stages, because they are better established, with more cities and so on. Also, Ireland will be very ahead in techs, because they are even better established: they are the scientific and cultural powerhouse of the scenario. So for much of the game, the Anglo-Saxons will all be playing catch-up. So in this scenario, even more than in the main game, tech-trading is an essential tool to success. It's a good idea to contact all the Romano-British kingdoms as quickly as possible, and preferably the Irish as well. The AI Anglo-Saxons will try to do this, and you may notice that the further west they are, the more advanced they tend to be - because the kingdoms along the east coast, such as Lindsey, East Anglia, and Kent, find it harder to get to the Romano-British quickly.

All of this means that the pace of tech research can be fast - although it will slow down a lot in the second era, partly because the techs cost more and partly because by this stage the weaker kingdoms will be getting winnowed out!

If you make a beeline for the Overseas Trade tech at the start of the second era, you may be able to sell resources or luxuries to Ireland in exchange for technology. That can be a handy strategy.

I'm glad you're liking the scenario so far. Let us know how you get on!

 

[Alcamar]

[Alcamar] So in this scenario, even more than in the main game, tech-trading is an essential tool to success. It's a good idea to contact all the Romano-British kingdoms as quickly as possible, and preferably the Irish as well. The AI Anglo-Saxons will try to do this, and you may notice that the further west they are, the more advanced they tend to be - because the kingdoms along the east coast, such as Lindsey, East Anglia, and Kent, find it harder to get to the Romano-British quickly.

Thanks for your answer. Indeed this is what was happening. I was playing as Northumbria and apparently did not enough initial scouting.
Thus, I restarted the game (again Northumbria and regent) and did much more exploration and immediate trading. This helped alot, I am now advanced in techs and can broker all the communications.

BTW, I did get the overseas trading (the Irish gave it to me )

And now I am preparing for war to expand my territory.
Untill now there have been no war what so ever, these Anglo-saxons are rather peacefull. But I will make sure this will change in the near future.

 

[Bianezzi]

Anyone willing to start a pbem with 4 players?


I've played this one in single player with Sussex (utterly destroyed ), Lindsay (just for fun) and East Anglia, this one still going with success; I've managed to conquer all the east of Britain and now I'm preparing myself for the vikings.

So Plotinus how do you like the idea?

 

[Plotinus]

Well, I've never played MP of any kind and I have no time for *anything* right now (having just discovered that other commitments require my writing approximately 6,000 words a week for the next five months) so I'm not going to be able to take part, but I'd love to see this played MP. I have to say that I'm not entirely happy with the MP solution I came up with, which as you will see involved only removing some of the civs and abolishing Ireland altogether. The map is certainly too big (it's arguably slightly too big even for the single player version). I have a half-formed intention to make a new map specifically for the MP version, which would simply be smaller (and with no Ireland, of course - damnable eight-civ rule!), but I haven't got round to it. One day I will, and maybe I will even make some tweaks to the main game - there are one or two newer units that I might like to stick in there, for example... But it won't be for a fair old while and certainly not before I finish my current scenario project.

In the meantime, though, I should think that MP "Rood", while not yet everything I would have liked it to be, ought to be perfectly possible and probably involve some truly epic and thoroughly nasty warfare. It would be great to get feedback on how it goes and what might be done to improve it. I'm amazed by how many people seem to have downloaded the MP biq, as I imagine MP to be a minority concern, but apparently not!

 

[Abaddon]

hey, any chance of jsut uploading the map for me as thats all i really want? please pretty please?

 

[Plotinus]

Well, you could just download the MP file, since that's a biq without any other stuff.

I should say that I based the map on one someone else did, but when I tried to find it again to remind myself who it was and credit him, I couldn't find it again. But I did make an awful lot of changes to the map, partly for accuracy and partly for gameplay.

 

[Abaddon]

actually i downloaded the lot ( wub you broadband)

and am really enjoying the whole new style to the game!

 

[Abaddon]

Just finished. and i must say... i love this scenario! fantastic work. You are fighting to the very end!

2 ikkle glitches i found:

In the foreign advisor screen, the Mercians text looks very odd (mothballed, most is missing)

and when renewing peace with the irish, what they says all gobbledegook.

i guess i should have sceenyd the irish one.. or kept a save.. sorry!

 

[Alcamar]

Still playing this amazing scenario and enjoying it a lot.

But: According to the F8 screen 5000 culture points is enough for a cultural victory. I saw the Irish approach this limit quite rapidly so I was trying to get used to the idea of losing. But they passed the 5000 limit and nothing happened, (I was still around 2200 points at that time). Now they have almost 6000 culture points and still the game continues.

What is happening, did I miss something basic?

 

[Plotinus]

[slozenger] I thought I'd ironed out all the Diplomacy glitches... I can't imagine why that should have been. If there's gobbledegook involved rather than the wrong string I'd say it sounds like the file got messed up during downloading, although I don't know how likely that is if everything else worked. If anyone else spots such things then let me know!

[Alcamar] Well, as you know, in order to win a Cultural Victory you must have at least twice the culture points of the next civ down. Evidently the Irish have more than twice your culture, so the only possibility I can think of is that some other civ have more than you, and they are the ones who are fending off the Irish. If you look at the culture graph it may suggest who it is (it may, possibly, be the Vikings, who won't appear on the graph if you haven't met them yet). Whoever it is, it sounds like you have them to thank for keeping you alive!

 

[Alcamar]

Well, as you know, in order to win a Cultural Victory you must have at least twice the culture points of the next civ down. Evidently the Irish have more than twice your culture, so the only possibility I can think of is that some other civ have more than you, and they are the ones who are fending off the Irish. If you look at the culture graph it may suggest who it is (it may, possibly, be the Vikings, who won't appear on the graph if you haven't met them yet). Whoever it is, it sounds like you have them to thank for keeping you alive!

Stupid me I did check the culture graph but completely forgot that I have no contact yet with the vikings. Really stupid, as my entire empire is already (military) preparing for their arrival and then I forget their cultural contributions.
Well, probably I played too long

Btw: around what turn / year can I more or less expect the arrival of our scandinavuan friends?

 

[Plotinus]

Played too long? Inconceivable!

As for when the Vikings turn up - that's pretty much up to them. They're not very predictable. In theory, they should appear at approximately the same time that they did in reality - that is, the end of the eighth century or the start of the ninth. That's if you're playing at Monarch level - the higher the difficulty level, the earlier they are likely to show up. But you never know!

 

[Rubberjello]

If there is still interest in a PBEM game with this scenario, please chime in. I'll be happy to set up a game over on the PBEM forum. The only provisio is that most PBEMs fail whenever there is more than 4 committed players involved. So I would like to keep it to 4 players, unless everybody swears on their firstborn that they will keep the game moving.
Great scenario, btw. I just never commented on this thread before because there was not really anything I could contribute to make it better. I just *really* appreciate the level of detail that went into the Civilopedia. I learned quite a bit of history from it!

 

[JaseEmtP]

I just wanted to say that I thought this was a very good mod. I played and had a great time even though the vikings gave me a hell of a time.