Scenarios

[vladikus]

Not straining my eyes from reading the forums too much, I have been trying to find out (having not fooled with modding at all) how closely one can get to making a scenario.

Would it be possible to limit the player to certain nations, have them start at a certain point on the map, and send them messages at certain times during the game (say after so many turns), give them items after taking certain provinces, and if they kill a single unit then that would the victory condition?

It's just that I saw this part of the forum title was "Scenarios," which made me curious.

Thanks in advance for the answers.

[Gregstrom]

Would it be possible to limit the player to certain nations,

Yes


have them start at a certain point on the map,


Yes


and send them messages at certain times during the game (say after so many turns),


No


give them items after taking certain provinces,


Nearly - you can have the items on indy commanders in a province, meaning they could get get picked up after a fight.


and if they kill a single unit then that would the victory condition?


I don't think so. If the unit was indy, had morale 30 or 50 and was in the map's only VP province, then a VP victory condition could simulate the required effect.

[Sombre]

Or you could just call the game when someone proved they killed that unit.

If you run a mod with the scenario game (in MP) you can effectively add messages and more gamesmastery type effects by modding units, spells etc. For example you could say the first person to conquer a certain province gets +1 fire magic on all their commanders, or you could have a monolith style unit in each person's starting province with a desription that changed to give messages from the Pantokrator. Stuff like that is technically easy, but would be a bit fiddly for the DM/GM/Admin/Host.

[Gregstrom]

Also, you could (using a mod) run a GM nation with access to some of the debug mod spells, gem producing units etc. They could then send out in-game messages, gifts, cast appropriate remote spells and so on.

[LDiCesare]

If you run a mod with the scenario game (in MP) you can effectively add messages and more gamesmastery type effects by modding units, spells etc. For example you could say the first person to conquer a certain province gets +1 fire magic on all their commanders, or you could have a monolith style unit in each person's starting province with a desription that changed to give messages from the Pantokrator. Stuff like that is technically easy, but would be a bit fiddly for the DM/GM/Admin/Host.
I think it's more or less viable but deciding on what kind of in-game condition has what effect requires the GM to be able to see what the players do. Or you can just take the game out of their hands. In fact I'm doing something remotely like that over there: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=323730
I actually mod units and plan battle orders based on what the players tell me to do and hope some of them will be creative enough that they design new spells. It allows to do some funky stuff like dismounting your light cavalry and using them as archers for a battle, that I can't see how one could do in-game (if you have 2 armies, one where you want your archers on foot and the other where you want them mounted for instance). Also a way of getting the light cavalry to actually be useful by splitting real battles into several phases.

However none of that can help if you want a SP scenario, which is a pity, since simply getting a text telling you to change the mod file could accomplish a lot. One could try to trick the game by naming a province "If you conquer me then replace mod.dm by mod2.dm" but it's not really good.

[Illuminated One]

Yep, sounds awful. :)
Interesting idea though.
It should be possible to create a script that changes the mod files or sends messages when conditions are met.
Would require a server side script, and is quite complex, however.

[Gandalf Parker]

Here is a discussion on creating a monster scenario using all present options and workarounds.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=39304

Here is a thread on the things that are broken about scenarios
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43209

Yes, mentioning scenario in the forum name was a bit of a hopeful on my part. But then later we found out that many of the things which were supposed to be part of scenario are broken so we never did really end up with much.

[vladikus]

That's disappointing that random events can't be edited or created. Imagine the possibilities, the chaos, and the adventure! I love random stuff.

[Gandalf Parker]

They can be "faked" in some ways using mods, mid-game switched mods, admin-run nations in the game, etc.

If you love randoms (like I do) have you checked out the Chaos games? Or the SemiRand games? Both include AIs so you can join one and play by yourself if you want (or get others to join and play)
http://www.dom3minions.com/HostedGames.htm

Gandalf Parker

[NTJedi]

That's disappointing that random events can't be edited or created. Imagine the possibilities, the chaos, and the adventure! I love random stuff.

Yes, this is one of the modding features I requested. Provided examples as well... so it's already in the wishlist for when Dominions_4 gets started. My guess estimate is Dominions_4 to be finished in 2015.

[vladikus]

If you love randoms (like I do) have you checked out the Chaos games? Or the SemiRand games? Both include AIs so you can join one and play by yourself if you want (or get others to join and play)
http://www.dom3minions.com/HostedGames.htm

Hey, thanks Gandalf, I hadn't noticed that before.

Yes, this is one of the modding features I requested. Provided examples as well... so it's already in the wishlist for when Dominions_4 gets started. My guess estimate is Dominions_4 to be finished in 2015.

Man, I'll never get to play it then because everyone says the world will end in 2012... darn. Seriously though, I need to read your posts because I think I have reiterated (as well as many others) what you have already requested or said. Still, it's gratifying to fantasize.