Save Empire Earth

I may as well share with you guys what I'm working on. Anyone who visits sotyscndesign will probably see that this is just a copy paste of the same thread




The project that i've been pouring my soul into lately is basically another version of Venice v1.0, and mine is also set in the Mediterranean.

My basic philosophy behind my concept asked two main questions:

1) Empire Earth reflects strongly on the militaristic subjugation of an opponent. Since this is the focus of the game, there are a large number of military-oriented scenarios. What if a scenario could be made that requires a player to overwhelm an opponent in more than just one primary way- what if the player needed to conquer the opponent ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY, POLITICALLY and then PHYSICALLY. Surely it would make for a far more engaging conquering experience. How would I approach this using the tools Empire Earth has provided me?

2) Can i make a better scenario than Von Bert

~

I thought about it for a while, and I believe that my goal can be met, but it will require a buttload of time and patience to deal with the bugs, get everything to flow and most importantly, to BALANCE.

I made my first synopsis of the map:

- the goal is to make money
- money can be made by harvesting resources and selling (trading) them with neighboring ai cities
- some neighbors will have things you don't have, but things you need in order to prosper
- you get reputation for good trade deals. High rep = increased business and money
- you do bad things, you lose rep, less money earned from trade, rep gets too low, you get attacked

This became the core of the scenario. I've since expanded on this idea to include various other factors... it would be too exhausting for me to list them now but i do have nearly everything planned and organised.


As far as actual work goes, i've completed the physical map, with all cities and microenvironments (rocks flowers tall grass seashells etc)

I also set up the patrolling ai's ships and their own battle triggers
I also set up the unit system for the resource transportation (to transport resources they needed to be in some kind of controllable movable medium that can be loaded onto ships. I used rams for this).
At the moment i'm working on the basic tax system and getting that bug free. I'm pretty close i think, but its still pissing me off. I might go into detail with that in a bit

Here are just a handful of the features i have planned for this scenario:

- as epochs progress, cities grow larger and the environment changes (the ai is not active in this map)
- calamities affect trade and will change how ai players interact with the human
- the ability to tap into a global market and invest money and expand trade capabilities
- supply and demand principles: items in high demand pay well, those which arent do not. Demand is determined by regional political, social and economic conditions (after a famine, the price and demand for food goes up, but supply drops)
- option for changing governmental styles
- monopolising trade - both regional and international
- technology tree: you can combine basic resources to make new ones of increasing complexity and value
- skilled units: use resources to build units, either for own use or for trade. Some units require certain technologies and resources before they can be built
- historical events: my game spans from roughly the Bronze Age to Modern Ages, and historical events all occur throughout, providing both obstacle and opportunity for the player


My strongest focus for the map is its economy, followed by society. Politics is crucial to making your development effective and efficient, and military comes in last with lowest focus. I'm purposely making it difficult to win just by destroying your neighbors' capitols, because this kinda makes the game lame



As this is, i suppose, my main thread for the map's discussion, i'll be updating alot and, if its's allowed around here, doubleposting as well. I wanna use this thread as a means of getting all my thoughts out and for people to dissect them and sort things out/make them work. Feel free to ask questions about my map, nearly everything i want to do i've already figured out how to do, i just have to lay it all down, fix the inevitable bugs and make it all flow

I won't be releasing the scenario as a wip for evaluation etc... i'd really like for everyone to see this one for the first time in its 100% complete form

In terms of statistical data this is what i have so far-

669 triggers
1460 conditions and objects
2352 effects
331 areas

By my honest personal calculation, i'd say this is (still) about 1/20 of the finished work. I'm looking at at least 6000 triggers for the supply/demand system alone. Probably alot more now that i think about it some more. Either way all good though lmao

I'll put up a few screenshots of some things so you have something you can look at

EDIT: here they are!



^ This is your home city Venice (yes same city)





^ French city of Bordeaux, farmers at a vineyard





^ Northern Spain, some farms in foreground, Barcelona on the horizon. The large megastructure in the distance is the Sagrada Familia (may or may not be there in the early ages still deciding)





^ View of Rome, Coliseum at left, Roman Forum at right





^ Rural farms in Calabria, south of Rome





^ Palermo, Sicily... Mt Etna there (it will erupt during the game). I put really nice grass there because volcanic soil produces really rich earth for foliage growth haha





^ Athens, Temple of Olympian Zeus on left, Acropolis Parthenon and Propylaea on center-bottom right, Argos across the way in Peloponesia



Resolution kinda sucks, but at least theres something to look at

Got several more screenies, but will post a bit later

I hope you don't have 6000 triggers enabled at the same time. This would instantly crash the scenario lol.

lightnessking wrote:I hope you don't have 6000 triggers enabled at the same time. This would instantly crash the scenario lol.

awwwwwgh........ better not >=(


But certainly there's alot going on all at once. I started this project last year but didn't have a powerful enough computer to keep working on it after a month. Now that my newer, better computer is here, i've come back to continue my work xD

My intention is to stretch the game's trigger mechanics to its limits just to see what the hell can actually be done

Make Australia with the English killing off the Aboriginals (not racist, just history), and then convicts sent to Tasmania .

herik wrote:Make Australia with the English killing off the Aboriginals (not racist, just history), and then convicts sent to Tasmania .

Haha lolwut? You from Straya too brah? I only wanted to use resources that can be traded on a global level, and that reflect somewhat on historical and geographical factors. Like, Australia and Britain don't even appear on the map, but i'm going to include a trade dynamic that even immaterial countries have (basically part of the global market). So yes, this is actually an option haha

Actually, you've just given me a pretty good idea. Because the scenario gets a little repetitive (mine, produce, sell), i've added lots of kinda like miniquests, which you can fulfill for gold or reputation, ir other benefits. In this case, I could include British ships taking convicts to the penal colonies, and have them start out at the far left edge of the map (at Gibraltar), and say they got damaged in a storm and you take them to your docks to heal. Then they pay you and send them off on their way to Suez (these are global commodity checkpoints, where you send your resources for trade worldwide.

This opens up alot of interesting things actually..... will think about it some more

Glad I could help

This looks like it can be great. Politics and economics are two things that are insufficient in the majority of Empire Earth scenarios, adding them would certainly increase replayability.

I would like to know how these two things would work though. They would be great additions but I can't think of how they would be implemented.

- option for changing governmental styles
- monopolising trade - both regional and international

My government system is probably not as deep as you imagine... Basically, the option to switch provides a different ratio of perks and liabilities for your resource growth. I've based it very strongly on the ancient turn based game Civilization, of which i'm a big fan. For example, the most basic government Despotism is the easiest for beginners to use but allows the smallest opportunity for expansion. Taxes are low but political and economic potential are also quite low. The next ones up raise taxes and genersl periodic costs, but bonuses can be made, like increased citizen speed or the option to recruit citizens very easily by converting an opponent's (really useful actually... i hit the pop cap of 80 in no time). Communism is a government style that favors war. You get an influx of military units every few months, but productivity becomes level and cannot change.

The best governments of course place restrictions on certain game dynamics. Like under Democracy you cannot start wars or build any military units, but you have to stay productive or your government will collapse..... but then the total productivity is massive (increased cit speed, carry amount, etc etc)

The way it works with the ais is with a unit variable counter. At the start of the game, say i have start with 500/1000 player variable 1 with Italy. My actions with Italy affect how they regard me. If i make trades with them for items of high demand, i get say, +3 to Playervar1. If i make trades when demand is low, it goes down a little. I can now insert any trigger to modulate that 500/1000 to make it go up or down. They can be as good as providing assistance after a calamity, sharing gold when they need it, or defeating pirates who raid their cities. But they can also be really bad, like declaring war or not trading anything at all. I find the creativity is in figuring out what events change what. Your interaction with a single city determines how their neighbors view you too. If you develop shady business through accepting and giving bribes and developing an illegal trade circuit, the immediate neighbors (around Italy, that's France and Spain), will know and your playervar1 with them will steadily go down as yours with Italy skyrockets. Government styles just allow the same events to alter the playervar1 to other players in different sizes.


Gosh, big post (again) =/

Monopolies are alot simpler. They only apply to stone and iron, but also to a majority of skills units. The triggers for regional monopolies are simple- occupy all the accessible stone mines or iron mines on the map for X amount of time and watch your reputation vanish. Skilled Unit monopoly is just when you have lots and lots of the same Skilled Unit on the map for too long. Regionally, monopolies screw up an opponent's earning capacity, so they really hate you if you do that. But, some cities have primary imports for which they'll pay big bucks for their favorite resource (including some complex resources that i've created for the map all have bases in the basic reources... Like I created the resource GUNS, which falls under IRON), so if you monopolise iron, your reputation with the ais that really love guns and electricity and steel and stuff all go up drastically).

International monopoly is a bit more mathematic and trigger-oriented. Cuz the entire international trade dynamic exists entirely off screen, it only exists in triggers. Once again, if it can be triggered, with enough of them all working together in a balanced way, absolutely anything can be made to happen.

My efforts with this scenario are to make the game seem as close to real life as possible. I've always been fond of Empire Earth and it's the only in-game editor i use, and i really dig the challenege of being limited by what it can do in order to make the game do what I want.



I had more cool ideas whilst mindlessly duplicating triggers. Because in the early epochs everyone starts out small and isolated (just like real life)... i wanna make it you can physically access your neighbors by chopping down trees and clearing paths and stuff. Land trade is really useful because its free, so I wanna make it a little harder than just waltzing on in from Venice to Barcelona on foot (cuz you could totally do that in the Bronze Age haha)