Post by Keith Heitmann on Dec 9, 2004 19:04:27 GMT -5
By Matt Zimmitti, Tilted Mill Team Member (QA and Dev. Support)
In this lesson, I will cover the last few things that you should set up in the editor that make a scenario “complete”. And away we go…
1) World Level Text
It is important to have supporting text for your world level sites. If you have a plot that is going to unfold, then the world level sites are where it will happen. Here’s some things you should pay special attention to:
- Take some care in how you represent sites that are active versus inactive. You don’t necessarily want to lead the player by the hand and tell them where to go. That said, if you are too ambiguous the player might not realize that a site is important or represents a threat. Akhetaten is a sandbox scenario so we don’t have to worry too much about this, but if your scenario has goals make sure the player can tell which sites are more important than others.
- If a site has a propaganda value, make sure you fill in prop build and prop description text.
- Be wary of site name/icon overlap. It’s a good idea to make all the sites active/visible once they are all there just to see if the icons and text bump into each other.
- Deactive text should be present for military sites.
2) The Story Tab
- The editor manual covers this pretty well on page 10. I also want to mention that it is important to enter the scenario name at the top of this page. The history text field is not used, nor would I advise selecting anything from the movie drop-down.
- You can use import/export of localization files to speed up the process of production. If you make a cool world level and want to attach it to different city level maps, enter a file name into the “Localization Text File Name” field and hit export. You can then open up a different scenario and import that file. What this will do is replace the current world level with the one you imported.
- The “Scen Instr. Map” drop-down is where you select a background image for the overview. Images that appear in this list are in the data\Scenarios directory of your install. (the directory mentioned in the Editor Manual is no longer correct)
- The “Inst. Sound Over” drop-down is where you select an mp3 file to play over the instructions. If you want to use this for your own scenarios, you will need to post or distribute the mp3 separately with the scenario. These mp3s are to be stored in the data\Audio\Sounds directory of your install. (the directory mentioned in the Editor Manual is no longer correct)
3) The Debrief Tab
- Text box labeled “Aftermath” is what appears when the player wins the scenario.
- I do not believe that the Movie or Soundover are supported at all.
4) The Goals Tab
- The Editor Manual describes how the actual goals work.
- I would avoid entering anything in either the “Goal Overview” or “Play Tips” text boxes. If you have goals in your scenario, it is a safer bet to just bullet them out in the scenario instructions. You should delete the “xxx” that appears in these fields for each goal.
- You need to hit the “Submit as Goal” button to add the goal to the list. It’s pretty easy to forget this step, especially on the last goal in a list.
5) The Players Tab
a) Events
Disabling events is neat if you want to make a very particular type of scenario that, let’s just say for example, has only half the gods. Perhaps you want to make a scenario where no one ever gets Bilharziasis and children never have bad dreams. I am a realist so I leave them all turned on.
b) Worship
Set the city patron here if you want one. Disabling deities in this tab does not disable those deities’ events. It only disables the ability to dedicate buildings to them. If you want to do a scenario with only x number of deities then make sure you shut off their events as well.
c) Construction
Here you can disable buildings. You can technically disable units here as well, but I’m not exactly sure what that might do. Disabling certain buildings is useful if you want to restrict things based on the period of history in which the scenario takes place. For example, obelisks are disabled in the Old Kingdom scenarios of the Grand Campaign. Try disabling bakeries… I dare ya.
d) Options
- Starting Bricks/Food: This is what is tossed into the storage area that arrives with your palace. It’s a good mechanic to use to balance the difficulty of the first year of the scenario.
- Year: The starting year for the scenario. Mainly cosmetic.
- Week: The starting week for the scenario. NOT SO COSMETIC! Unless you have some specific reason to do otherwise, I would suggest that you start your scenarios in week 16. This will give the player enough time to set up the beginnings of their society before the first planting season.
- Time Period & Current Pharaoh: Not used
- Starting Prestige: If you would like the player to start with a prestige bonus, here is the place to enter it.
- Starting Pharaoh Age: If you want to be mean, set this to 65. Otherwise below 25 is a good place.
- Starting Pharaoh Number: This dictates the roman numeral after the name of the starting pharaoh.
Fin.
Well, we’re done! On time, no less. Ship it! Oh yeah, testing.
Most of you guys are pretty good about having someone test your maps so I don’t really need to rant about this. The bottom line is that you should make sure that people (other than the scenario designer) actually play through and make sure everything works. I thought the military was hard enough, those that tested the scenario disagreed. Very well then. More raiders it is. The military is optional after all. All kinds of little typos and mis-clicks happen. Test like crazy.
I managed to touch on most of what you guys wanted, but I definitely couldn’t get to a few things. These lessons are really just a primer intended to people up to speed. As always, if you have a question about something more complex than what is in here or something I omitted due to time constraints, post away and we’ll chat about it.
Hope you enjoyed.
Related files:
Akhetaten.scn
In this lesson, I will cover the last few things that you should set up in the editor that make a scenario “complete”. And away we go…
1) World Level Text
It is important to have supporting text for your world level sites. If you have a plot that is going to unfold, then the world level sites are where it will happen. Here’s some things you should pay special attention to:
- Take some care in how you represent sites that are active versus inactive. You don’t necessarily want to lead the player by the hand and tell them where to go. That said, if you are too ambiguous the player might not realize that a site is important or represents a threat. Akhetaten is a sandbox scenario so we don’t have to worry too much about this, but if your scenario has goals make sure the player can tell which sites are more important than others.
- If a site has a propaganda value, make sure you fill in prop build and prop description text.
- Be wary of site name/icon overlap. It’s a good idea to make all the sites active/visible once they are all there just to see if the icons and text bump into each other.
- Deactive text should be present for military sites.
2) The Story Tab
- The editor manual covers this pretty well on page 10. I also want to mention that it is important to enter the scenario name at the top of this page. The history text field is not used, nor would I advise selecting anything from the movie drop-down.
- You can use import/export of localization files to speed up the process of production. If you make a cool world level and want to attach it to different city level maps, enter a file name into the “Localization Text File Name” field and hit export. You can then open up a different scenario and import that file. What this will do is replace the current world level with the one you imported.
- The “Scen Instr. Map” drop-down is where you select a background image for the overview. Images that appear in this list are in the data\Scenarios directory of your install. (the directory mentioned in the Editor Manual is no longer correct)
- The “Inst. Sound Over” drop-down is where you select an mp3 file to play over the instructions. If you want to use this for your own scenarios, you will need to post or distribute the mp3 separately with the scenario. These mp3s are to be stored in the data\Audio\Sounds directory of your install. (the directory mentioned in the Editor Manual is no longer correct)
3) The Debrief Tab
- Text box labeled “Aftermath” is what appears when the player wins the scenario.
- I do not believe that the Movie or Soundover are supported at all.
4) The Goals Tab
- The Editor Manual describes how the actual goals work.
- I would avoid entering anything in either the “Goal Overview” or “Play Tips” text boxes. If you have goals in your scenario, it is a safer bet to just bullet them out in the scenario instructions. You should delete the “xxx” that appears in these fields for each goal.
- You need to hit the “Submit as Goal” button to add the goal to the list. It’s pretty easy to forget this step, especially on the last goal in a list.
5) The Players Tab
a) Events
Disabling events is neat if you want to make a very particular type of scenario that, let’s just say for example, has only half the gods. Perhaps you want to make a scenario where no one ever gets Bilharziasis and children never have bad dreams. I am a realist so I leave them all turned on.
b) Worship
Set the city patron here if you want one. Disabling deities in this tab does not disable those deities’ events. It only disables the ability to dedicate buildings to them. If you want to do a scenario with only x number of deities then make sure you shut off their events as well.
c) Construction
Here you can disable buildings. You can technically disable units here as well, but I’m not exactly sure what that might do. Disabling certain buildings is useful if you want to restrict things based on the period of history in which the scenario takes place. For example, obelisks are disabled in the Old Kingdom scenarios of the Grand Campaign. Try disabling bakeries… I dare ya.
d) Options
- Starting Bricks/Food: This is what is tossed into the storage area that arrives with your palace. It’s a good mechanic to use to balance the difficulty of the first year of the scenario.
- Year: The starting year for the scenario. Mainly cosmetic.
- Week: The starting week for the scenario. NOT SO COSMETIC! Unless you have some specific reason to do otherwise, I would suggest that you start your scenarios in week 16. This will give the player enough time to set up the beginnings of their society before the first planting season.
- Time Period & Current Pharaoh: Not used
- Starting Prestige: If you would like the player to start with a prestige bonus, here is the place to enter it.
- Starting Pharaoh Age: If you want to be mean, set this to 65. Otherwise below 25 is a good place.
- Starting Pharaoh Number: This dictates the roman numeral after the name of the starting pharaoh.
Fin.
Well, we’re done! On time, no less. Ship it! Oh yeah, testing.
Most of you guys are pretty good about having someone test your maps so I don’t really need to rant about this. The bottom line is that you should make sure that people (other than the scenario designer) actually play through and make sure everything works. I thought the military was hard enough, those that tested the scenario disagreed. Very well then. More raiders it is. The military is optional after all. All kinds of little typos and mis-clicks happen. Test like crazy.
I managed to touch on most of what you guys wanted, but I definitely couldn’t get to a few things. These lessons are really just a primer intended to people up to speed. As always, if you have a question about something more complex than what is in here or something I omitted due to time constraints, post away and we’ll chat about it.
Hope you enjoyed.
Related files:
Akhetaten.scn