The Road to Empire: Preview

[Spanky]

Introducing my upcoming scenario set in the age of imperialism:

"The Road to Empire"

The time frame is 1875-1920, and the world is your playing field. Featured civs are the British, French, Germans, Russians, United States, Chinese and Japanese. If all goes as planned, you will have the choice of playing any one of them.

Here's a few shots to wet your appetite...

[Spanky]

Ah, good ole blighty...

[Spanky]

Send brave explorers into the Dark Continent...

[Henrik]

Can you actually call a unit "rifles"?
It sounds wrong to me, then again english is not my first language.

The shoots looks good and the time period is an interesting one.
I am looking forward to playing this.

[Spanky]

Build your nation - but tread softly, or face the justified wrath of a native people...

[Henrik]

One more thing, isn't the french city style on shot one a little "ancient looking"?

[Spanky]

Trade with faraway nations - or keep them from running you over.

[Spanky]

Henrik, thanks for your comments. I was hoping to get my screenshots through in one go, but I appreciate your interest!

To answer your questions:

Though I haven't made up my mind yet, "Rifles" was actually sometimes used instead of "Riflemen", at least in Britain. For the time being, I'm giving every riflemen unit a unique designation according to its nationality, since I'm using different graphics for every power. The U.S. have "Riflemen", the French "Fantassins", the Germans "Schützen", and the Russians "Infanteriya". The Japanese and Chinese get to upgrade to a generic "Infantry" unit once they acquire this western technology.

Regarding city style, you may be used to associating the classical type with antiquity, but it is also used for the "American" civ in the original game. The modified version I put together includes a pillared dome for the big cities which only came up in the early modern era (thanks Captain Nemo - I 'swiped' that one from you!). This neoclassical style was in fact very popular in the nineteenth century, especially in the United States, but also in Republican France and Russia. The Germans, on the other hand, favored neo-medieval styles for their houses and public buildings. The British deliberately built the new parliament building in Ottawa in a neogothic style to set themselves apart from the Americans further south - not to mention their own parliament in Westminster and other famous buildings like St. Pancras station. I wanted to emphasize such differences in the game to make every civilization have its own 'feel'.

[Spanky]

I'd like to emphasize that there's still a long way to go, but in terms of graphics and overall design, things are pretty much in place.

Some of the key features:

• Intensely revised, historically accurate map covering all the world's major cities in 1875
  
• The world's population distributed according to historical sources
  
• A national, governmental perspective: Scientific breakthroughs, such as the combustion engine are the result of private entreprise and generated through historical events - the player can only develop concrete applications once these take place (such as the rigid airship in the 1890s)
  
• On the other hand, no history-on-rails approach: events are there to help simulate an historical environment, but wars and the like are the result of player interactions (whether human or AI). For example, there is no Boer War starting at a certain date - but take Pretoria by force, and you have a problem on your hands! Also, no limit on negotiations. The intention is to provide an experience more like the original Civ2, but confined to a certain era
  
• City, Unit, and People graphics reflect geographical and cultural diversity as far as possible

The latter also applies to the diplomacy screen, which will feature typical anthems for every power, revised symbols and ornaments, and accurate titles and ruler portraits.

Here's an example:

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Spanky
A national, governmental perspective: Scientific breakthroughs, such as the combustion engine are the result of private entreprise and generated through historical events - the player can only develop concrete applications once these take place (such as the rigid airship in the 1890s)

Speaking of techs do you represent cryptology in some way in this scenario?
Its role in world history was a lot bigger than most people think. If you want sugestions on how this could be implemented mail me.

The latter also applies to the diplomacy screen, which will feature typical anthems for every power, revised symbols and ornaments, and accurate titles and ruler portraits.

I did the same thing for my Carolus Gustavus scenario

Overall this sounds really cool could I playtest?

[PolarisGL]

Hmmm...

Wow!

This looks to be one of the best scenarios...

[Jimmywax]

Yes, I agree with Henrik that the Paris graphic looks a bit out of date. Otherwise I am looking foward to seeing this. I like the different terms for the riflemen's natioalities. It's a nice touch you don't see often.

[Shaka Naldur]

wow, it looks awesome,
can I playtest it??

you MUST change the city graphics,

I´m looking forward to play it

[JPetroski]

I understand why you're using those city styles, and I understand why some don't agree. I offer another possibility:

Why not keep the "neoclassic" sections of those cities, while changing the graphics of the "lesser buildings" within the icon. That way your graphics are still retain your ideas, while being new.

Another idea would be to just have those cities come up for a Civ's largest cities. Hartford, Connecticut, offers many buildings of the neoclassic style on a few major buildings(greek-roman style pillars, etc.), while Farmington, CT, a much smaller town, doesn't really have any buildings like that at all.

Just some ideas,

JP

[Case]

*drools*

This scenario looks supurb!

One sugestion though: change the British colour from orange to red (as used on maps of the time to illustrate the size of the Empire)

[JPetroski]

How far along is this scenario anyway? I enjoy this time period, and can't wait to see it come out!

JP

[Henrik]

Oh and I see that both Stockholm and Copenhagen has that city style as well, I don't know which cities belong to the independents/neutrals/whatever civ, but I don't think that the city style is very suitable for them either.

[MagyarCrusader]

2 questions:

1)Why did you use the POS world map that came with the game?

2)Which civilization(s) gets the cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? I'm surprised that you left them out, seeing how they had a central role in european polics during the time period.

[Spanky]

Thanks for your comments, guys. I'm on Central European Time here, so bear with me if the replies take a while.

Whew - lot's of questions. Here goes:

On playtesting: Thanks for the offer, - I'll get back to you when the time comes (see below).

How far along is this scenario anyway? I enjoy this time period, and can't wait to see it come out!

I know what you mean, JP - sadly, I must say I'm not much further than 'Alpha' right now:

Graphics and sound are more or less in place, so is city placement, population distribution, and about 80% of improvements.

I'm currently on agriculture, industry and traffic routes. North America, Europe, Australia and India are complete in this respect.

The tech-tree needs to be tackled, though the design is pretty much in place, and the Events file is all but inexistant.

Add to that fine-tuning, etc. etc.

One feature I forgot to mention, which I haven't implemented yet: realistic distribution of trade items and trade routes (thanks Gothmog for CivCity!).

change the British colour from orange to red (as used on maps of the time to illustrate the size of the Empire)

I've considered that myself, Case. The thing is, red in itself is way too dark for the City names, which need to be a light color. And I find orange works better than pink in that respect - think 'contrast'.

1)Why did you use the POS world map that came with the game?

This game has its roots in a time when I wasn't even aware of a Civ community, so I made do with what I had. The only regret I have is that consequently, the Atlantic is larger than the Pacific - if anybody knows an easy way to change this at this stage please let me know.

2)Which civilization(s) gets the cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? I'm surprised that you left them out, seeing how they had a central role in european polics during the time period.

Well, sadly there is no space on a map of this scale for both Vienna and Budapest, so I had to omit the latter. Vienna, Prague and Trieste are technically Barbarian cities (I call them 'Foreign'). I would have loved to include this Empire as a player, but the point is that they weren't very active in the global arena, largely confining themselves to European politics. You'll find that I've had to leave out the Italians as well, despite their African adventures.

Finally,
On city style:

Wow - I'm surprised this is such a big issue. Could I hear some more opinions on this? I'm not sure whether I can assign too high a priority to it, since a lot of other things need to be done.

There is also a significant problem: I cannot make the style used by France, the USA and Russia differ too much from the 'Foreign' (Barbarian) cities, since some of these are located in Europe and Latin America. Since Civ2 only allows seven powers at a time, I've had to include these as well as the Middle East, Africa and parts of the Far East in the 'Barbarian' slot. Gameplay-wise, this is not a problem, but graphically it is. I solved it in the Far East by reserving non-walled cities for the Asian style. European and Islamic cities therefore need to share a style amongst themselves. Since the latter's architecture has roots in Antiquity and the former imitated it during this time, I went for that solution.

If the objections are to the 'lesser' buildings within the icon, I can understand that to some degree, though I don't think they look too exotic at this scale.

If people are more concerned with the pillars, I can assure you that this was the thing to do with public buildings at the time. La Madeleine, one of the most prominent churches in Paris, looks like a greek temple - actually, Henrik, so does the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, and wouldn't you agree the Royal Palace in Stockholm is neoclassical?

Anyway, I'll be happy to hear some more feedback on this.

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Spanky
I've considered that myself, Case. The thing is, red in itself is way too dark for the City names, which need to be a light color. And I find orange works better than pink in that respect - think 'contrast'.

How is this red colour?

[Spanky]

Not bad, Henrik! But I still think contrast is the way to go for me - I do have my redcoats, mind you, but personally I feel the uniforms would clash with a red shield. Also, the lighter the text, the better as far as I'm concerned.

By the way, thanks for the cryptology suggestion. Could you tell me some more about that? My browser crashes when I try to send you a mail. You can send me one at anklin@hotmail.com if you like.

[Chris 62]

I was hoping someone would tackle this era for quite some time.

Once again, a high level of care is indicated from what is shown thus far.

I have mixed feelings on the city styles, but I do think that Britain should be a Red color.

This looks to be worth the wait. Good luck with it!

[JPetroski]

I have to agree with the general consensus... I definately feel that the British Empire should be red. The color of the Soviets in Nemo's Red Front is perfect, but, if you don't agree, you are the designer (I will be changing the color on my own personal copy though)

Hope to see this out "soon", although that could be awhile, as cpoulos said, its worth the wait.

[techumseh]

Red? That's the colour of those Godless bolshies! Have you ever looked at a map of the Empire, man? The sun never sets on the British Empire, and it is PINK! God save the Queen (Victoria)!

[Spanky]

By jingo, it warms the heart.

By the way, Techumseh, I remember a pretty impressive preview of "Blood and Iron" on the Cradles site. Any progress with that? I don't own Test of Time myself, but it sure seemed like a reason to get it.

[Spanky]

Well, in view of concerns voiced about the neoclassical city style looking "antiquated", I revamped the lesser buildings within the icons to make them more modern-looking. Keep in mind that I couldn't take it too far, since they still need to look suitable for Islamic countries.

That said, I think you'll agree it's an improvement.

Thanks for the input!

[Mao]

Looks great. Scott Fuhr was actually working on something very similar to this (Age of Imperialism) not too long ago too btw.

[Scott F]

I really need to finish that sometime soon, too.

[Jimmywax]

Those new city graphics are a big improvement. I can't wait to see the finished product.

[Henrik]

Yes much better, I also like the "Minestery of the interior" thing