What are you working on?

[committed hero]

I am thinking about 75 turns. I think I have set some city objectives but I haven't completed this process.

 

[JPetroski]

With Over the Reich very nearly almost done, I'm starting to think more about other projects in various states of completion. Basically, I need to daydream a bit after playtesting and tweaking OTR all week!

1. Germanicus on the Rhine ToTPP
-I hesitate to change this too much as it is the last scenario I built with Agricola's help, but I want to try out @Prof. Garfield 's lua event translator to see how it works.
-I don't intend to make massive changes but I do want to add in ranged units and potentially introduce the railyard strategic redeployment pathfinding from OTR in place of the airport "Forced March" currently in the scenario. I think with the conversion and addition of these two events, I'd call it a day.

2. Midway.
- @McMonkey @Grishnach and I did a lot of work on this, probably way more than needed. Some recent developments in OTR (notably payload) present far more elegant solutions than we started with.
-I plan to make a few key changes that will dramatically reduce the number and types of units needed, and get this mini-scenario released, hopefully to coincide with the new movie. Honestly, I dont think it would take much time. 16 hours or so, plus testing? I might do this first just to finish something.
- This is another MP only scenario but the turns should be so short (3 minutes or less) that it would be ideal for network play or having a friend physically over. Or, just skyping while sending emails back and forth rapidly.

3. The Rise of Macedon
- McMonkey, Grishnach and I spent hours upon hours late into the night on this. If they dont come back I'm going to finish it myself just out of pure annoyance at the time already spent.

4. Boudicca
- This exists in an excel sheet, rules file, and unit file at this time, but would complete my Roman trilogy. It will follow Paulinus' desperate attempt to stave off annihilation at the hands of the Iceni Queen.
- This would be my attempt to see if I could create a scenario that flows almost like Red Front, with your forces overwhelmed at the start and a need to somehow prevail.

5. The Hinge of Fate
- A single player WW2 in Europe and Eastern US scenario. Considerable work has been completed in excel and art files, but this is the sort of monster that would take a year to build.

6. Operation Downfall
- A pipe dream at this point, but the proposed US invasion of Japan. I have the map and that is it!!!

What are the rest of you up to? 2018 was a grand year, we slowed a but in 2019. Will 2020 be another huge year for Civ2 scenario design?

 

[Fairline]

All of the above please JP! Are Midway and Rise of Macedon sp btw?

 

[JPetroski]

Macedon is SP only. Midway was meant for MP and really just a quick "scenariette" between friends, but I'm envisioning something small enough that it might prove a useful testbed if someone wanted to explore getting the AI to use some of the ranged attack/payload features included in lua.

I can all but tell you the AI will mess it up

 

[Patine]

With Over the Reich very nearly almost done, I'm starting to think more about other projects in various states of completion. Basically, I need to daydream a bit after playtesting and tweaking OTR all week!

1. Germanicus on the Rhine ToTPP
-I hesitate to change this too much as it is the last scenario I built with Agricola's help, but I want to try out @Prof. Garfield 's lua event translator to see how it works.
-I don't intend to make massive changes but I do want to add in ranged units and potentially introduce the railyard strategic redeployment pathfinding from OTR in place of the airport "Forced March" currently in the scenario. I think with the conversion and addition of these two events, I'd call it a day.

2. Midway.
- @McMonkey @Grishnach and I did a lot of work on this, probably way more than needed. Some recent developments in OTR (notably payload) present far more elegant solutions than we started with.
-I plan to make a few key changes that will dramatically reduce the number and types of units needed, and get this mini-scenario released, hopefully to coincide with the new movie. Honestly, I dont think it would take much time. 16 hours or so, plus testing? I might do this first just to finish something.
- This is another MP only scenario but the turns should be so short (3 minutes or less) that it would be ideal for network play or having a friend physically over. Or, just skyping while sending emails back and forth rapidly.

3. The Rise of Macedon
- McMonkey, Grishnach and I spent hours upon hours late into the night on this. If they dont come back I'm going to finish it myself just out of pure annoyance at the time already spent.

4. Boudicca
- This exists in an excel sheet, rules file, and unit file at this time, but would complete my Roman trilogy. It will follow Paulinus' desperate attempt to stave off annihilation at the hands of the Iceni Queen.
- This would be my attempt to see if I could create a scenario that flows almost like Red Front, with your forces overwhelmed at the start and a need to somehow prevail.

5. The Hinge of Fate
- A single player WW2 in Europe and Eastern US scenario. Considerable work has been completed in excel and art files, but this is the sort of monster that would take a year to build.

6. Operation Downfall
- A pipe dream at this point, but the proposed US invasion of Japan. I have the map and that is it!!!

What are the rest of you up to? 2018 was a grand year, we slowed a but in 2019. Will 2020 be another huge year for Civ2 scenario design?

At the moment, I'm working on my Italo-Turkish War scenario I'd announced, though this is my busiest time at work, and progress has been very slow. I would like to, once I feel my rusty scenario-making skills are sharpened a bit, finish my five "imcomplete but started at one point of another scenario" - those being my Modern Pacific Rim, my Modern Middle East, my Fall of Rome, my War of the Spanish Succession (with separate North American Colonial map), and my Empire of the Rising Sun Scenario. Anything beyond that would just be aspiration for having lack of actual beginning progress at some point.

 

[CurtSibling]

1 - Overlords - WW2 giant map global campaign.
2 - Grand Moff - Star Wars empire builder.
3 - Imperialism III - Major rebuild and improvement on Imp2.

 

[techumseh]

1. Finish Burma Campaign.
2. Fix Sealion events.
3. Pick one of a number of unfinished scenarios and finish that.

 

[Broken_Erika]

1:Finish Sci-fi collection part 4
2:Finish random unit collection(mostly generic ww2ish ships)
3:Finish massive feline unit collection

Currently playing Fallout 4 on my new gaming PC.........so it could take a while.

Spoiler My New Toy :

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Next priority for me is to help @techumseh with Burma, if he still needs the help.

Last year I was thinking of doing Imperialism with Lua, but I probably won't start that project. If I made it multiplayer, it would probably never get played, given the existing player base, and single player would require devising several campaigns for a few different nations. I think my efforts would be put to better use elsewhere.

Instead, I figure I'll write some "off the shelf" code for people to use, and give some coding assistance to projects when required.

I'll probably at least try to re-write Civ II in Lua up to a "proof of concept" level, and see how difficult it is. If it's not that bad, I might just focus my efforts on cloning the game.

 

[JPetroski]

Last year I was thinking of doing Imperialism with Lua, but I probably won't start that project. If I made it multiplayer, it would probably never get played, given the existing player base, and single player would require devising several campaigns for a few different nations. I think my efforts would be put to better use elsewhere.

Can't say I blame you for being hesitant to build a dedicated MP game. I really wanted to make Hinge of Fate MP but OTR has convinced me that until we can grow the community a bit, it just isn't worth it. Midway will be MP for no other reason than I think an air scenario needs to be.

I am hoping to get a few guys from Aces High over to try out OTR though. Once we have a few Let's Plays going I'll post them over there and ... help procure ... a few copies for friends if they're interested. It's about as targeted a recruitment drive as you can get. Midway, I think, would build on that.

I'll probably at least try to re-write Civ II in Lua up to a "proof of concept" level, and see how difficult it is. If it's not that bad, I might just focus my efforts on cloning the game.

Keep me informed and let me know what help you need. If its viable I could go through the wishlist thread for ToTPP and compile a list of what folks have asked for. The more that can be achieved in text docs vs. Lua, the more people likely to adopt it.

 

[JPetroski]

 

[Fairline]

oooh druids n Romans on Ynys Mon...

Romans in Britain?

 

[JPetroski]

...with the Britons doing their very best to kick them out!

 

[CurtSibling]

My projects for 2020...(Might be done by 2050!)

1 - Overlords - WW2 global campaign. 80% done.
2 - Grand Moff - Star Wars empire builder. 30% done.
3 - Battle of Zarklaw 3 - Fantasy epic campaign on a new map. 50% done.
4 - Vendetta ToT - Remake of an old MGE scenario, units and map done.
5 - Chernobog - Alt-History-Lovecraftian project in the works, units done, map WIP.
6 - Bad Karma - Another old MGE idea I found and might dust off for ToTPP...Hippie warfare in an urban map!

 

[Patine]

Currently, Empire of the Rising Sun. After that, my highest priorities are the various scenarios I've started, but grown frustrated and discouraged by the pre-LUA and ToTTP limits of the game that I think now be doable. In no particularly (yet) established of priority.

1. Fall of the Roman Empire
2. War of the Spanish Succession
3. Modern Middle East (1990-2020)
4. Modern Pacific Rim (1990-2020)

Also, not abandoned due to difficulty with the engine, but an enthusiasm to take back up EotRS (largely in light of @Fairline's awesome units), I'll also finish my Italo-Turkish War project in there, too. And, I may take another whack at my Fall Gelb idea if I can think of a way to make it an actual challenge, and not a walk-over for EITHER side in a skilled player's hand, as @McMonkey had pointed out as a problem with it.

 

[Fairline]

All of those sound grand - Grand Moff and Chernobog from you please Curt and Fall of the Roman Empire and War of the Spanish Succession from you please Patine. Thanks

 

[YazzyT]

I've never made a scenario before for TOT (and only some half baked ones for FW/MGE), but with the Test of Time Patch Project allowing way more tools for scenario creation I've decided to take a crack at making a scenario from scratch about the May-June 1940 Battle of France, inspired by an old MGE scenario called Drole de Guerre by Javier Arriaga. I have the units planned out (using the additional unit slots TOTPP allows), I've created a rough map since there's a surprising lack of existing maps of just France (still needs work, but I have to thank Mercator's Civ2 site for the MapEdit program which allows me to whip up maps super fast), and have some ideas about the gameplay of the scenario, but I think it will take a long time to make; any advice you guys have for me is greatly appreciated.

The scenario would improve upon Drole by having the BEF and French forces both under player control, as the old scenario had the British and French civs separated which led to British units being used aimlessly and blocking the French; additionally, although that scenario was fun to play and pretty accurate, it did not take full advantage of even the FW unit slots, so I'm going to use all 127 slots to make the unit list as detailed as possible. I really appreciate Fairline's WW2 unit compilations as they cover almost anything I could possibly want to use in my scenario. Obviously, the objective of the scenario is to prevent the French (and, if you are a really good general, the Dutch and Belgian) governments from falling to the Germans. One objective I'm not quite sure whether to include or not is saving the French navy. My map includes England and Algeria, and I thought it would be interesting to require the player to choose between using the French fleet to counter the Italian & German forces or flee to Algeria & England with successful preservation counting as a condition for full victory. However, the campaign was mostly not focused around naval combat and I have thought about nixing naval warfare to include more air and ground units; in that case I would truncate the southern half of the map and get rid of all the Italian naval units. The same goes for the evacuation of British forces such as at Dunkirk; I am thinking it would be interesting to offer the player the choice of whether to withdraw them or not. I apologize for making folks read this huge paragraph! Let me know if this scenario sounds fun or interesting & what to do to make it more so.

 

[JPetroski]

@YazzyT it sounds extremely interesting and I'd love to play it. I think you're on the right track with removing the French/Italian naval effort. Dunkirk is interesting but I'm curious how you'd compel this. Also, will people keep playing if they lose to the point that they must evacuate, or would they just start over? It's a question many of us planning a "rise to fall" scenario must contemplate.

 

[YazzyT]

@YazzyT it sounds extremely interesting and I'd love to play it. I think you're on the right track with removing the French/Italian naval effort. Dunkirk is interesting but I'm curious how you'd compel this. Also, will people keep playing if they lose to the point that they must evacuate, or would they just start over? It's a question many of us planning a "rise to fall" scenario must contemplate.

It is kind of an over-complication, I just think it would be a little jarring to have your british troops completely destroyed, which historically didn't happen and wasn't likely to happen. I was thinking of it more as the difference between a 'decisive' and a 'marginal' defeat. But I guess by the time you're even considering evacuation, the game is already lost. Also, I was considering the fact that, despite the impression you get from pop culture, Dunkirk wasn't the final BEF evacuation. The Dunkirk evacuation started on May 26, while later evacuations took place as late as 25 June. I'm open to nixing the whole idea of evacuation but I sort of like the idea of maybe giving the player the option to surrender or keep on fighting. I'm going to go ahead and delete Algeria though.

 

[Patine]

I've never made a scenario before for TOT (and only some half baked ones for FW/MGE), but with the Test of Time Patch Project allowing way more tools for scenario creation I've decided to take a crack at making a scenario from scratch about the May-June 1940 Battle of France, inspired by an old MGE scenario called Drole de Guerre by Javier Arriaga. I have the units planned out (using the additional unit slots TOTPP allows), I've created a rough map since there's a surprising lack of existing maps of just France (still needs work, but I have to thank Mercator's Civ2 site for the MapEdit program which allows me to whip up maps super fast), and have some ideas about the gameplay of the scenario, but I think it will take a long time to make; any advice you guys have for me is greatly appreciated.

The scenario would improve upon Drole by having the BEF and French forces both under player control, as the old scenario had the British and French civs separated which led to British units being used aimlessly and blocking the French; additionally, although that scenario was fun to play and pretty accurate, it did not take full advantage of even the FW unit slots, so I'm going to use all 127 slots to make the unit list as detailed as possible. I really appreciate Fairline's WW2 unit compilations as they cover almost anything I could possibly want to use in my scenario. Obviously, the objective of the scenario is to prevent the French (and, if you are a really good general, the Dutch and Belgian) governments from falling to the Germans. One objective I'm not quite sure whether to include or not is saving the French navy. My map includes England and Algeria, and I thought it would be interesting to require the player to choose between using the French fleet to counter the Italian & German forces or flee to Algeria & England with successful preservation counting as a condition for full victory. However, the campaign was mostly not focused around naval combat and I have thought about nixing naval warfare to include more air and ground units; in that case I would truncate the southern half of the map and get rid of all the Italian naval units. The same goes for the evacuation of British forces such as at Dunkirk; I am thinking it would be interesting to offer the player the choice of whether to withdraw them or not. I apologize for making folks read this huge paragraph! Let me know if this scenario sounds fun or interesting & what to do to make it more so.

I actually had started work a while back on a Fall Gelb scenario, though I had a smaller map in scope - no Algeria or any but the Coastal Mediterranean, only the Northeastern corner of Italy, only the Kent/Dover/London corner of England, and I don't even believe I had Brittany. My biggest concern was making it a challenge, and not an easy victory for a skilled player, as EITHER side, to be honest, as I recall.