Wow, you sure do love to troll. Those are some pretty funny ways to mess with people, I especially love the spamming houses one and the "enjoying the weather" one. About scouting... AI should need to scout, Petra doesn't.

It certainly optimal to have historical accuracy and to be able to seize the opportunity to teach history, however the more important thing is to teach game mechanics. Over the course of the discussion we decided it'd be best to focus mostly on imparting the game mechanics while giving it a touch of history.  For the other campaigns they will be 10000000% grounded in history. However, I  think it's best for the tutorial to focus on teaching the new player how to play and not having the player have to figure out the mechanics of 0 A.D. while also keeping up with a historical narrative.

@Vantha@ShadowOfHassen well it seems I was going for historical accuracy when historical ambiguity was decided, which I find suboptimal since it misses the opportunity of teaching history. That's why I was thinking for each scenario to be specific historical events, like Hamilcar gaining control of the gold and silver mines of Sierra Morena, subduing certain Iberian tribes, and expanding to the east, for people to learn more things besides Hasdrubal and the (re)founding of Carthago Nova. At least these things are what I find interesting in historically themed RTS. I agree with not doing “the great commanders a bit of a disservice if you scale them back for a beginners tutorial”, but that's the opposite of what I proposed with the prelude concept (in case a proper Hannibal campaign was also wanted).

To me we already had this discussion like 20 different times . Ultimately, we wanted a short tutorial that was stand alone and historically ambiguous. We wanted it short so if campaigns weren’t someone’s cup of tea, they could get in , learn the basics, and then do multiplayer. The historical ambiguity was so that we had freedom to prioritize teaching game mechanics without justifying every little thing. Also the simple fact is that @Vantha has already started on the maps. He’s willing to put in most of the work (unlike me who while I say I’m willing to work honestly is kinda busy /lazy and don’t) so he does get final say. The last thing is honestly those other campaigns should be separate , they could be beginner campaigns or sequels to the tutorial , but I honestly think it does the great commanders a bit of a disservice if you scale them back for a beginners tutorial (face it , Petra has a steep learning curve and it’s need to be set on very easy or sandbox so that beginners aren’t steamrolled. Not very fun for Alexander the Great or Hannibal then I think.)

I will try to be as open about how I feel about the situation as I can: For me the die is cast. There are of course several ways to go about structuring and designing a tutorial and connecting it to a story. For me, though, the focus and primary goal of the tutorial campaign is teach how to play, the story is secondary. Following this mindset, a while ago (easy to miss in this long thread), I first put together quite a detailed plan for the campaign's structure, what to teach in each of the individual matches. And only afterwards did I search for a piece of history in which this preexisting plan could be embedded. We did a lot of brainstorming and I eventually came to the conclusion that the founding of a colony (and then also the story around Carthago Nova and Hasdrubal the Fair) aligned best with what I envisioned. Also, it was something new and interesting for me personally -- unlike Hannibal or Alexander, whose stories I've heard and dealt with dozens of times in the past. I am well aware that this might not be the case for many players and that a classic Hannibal or Alexander campaign might have been more appealing to some. However, considering the size of this project and that I'm essentially the only one implementing it, motivation and personal interest are important resources for me. I was deliberately trying to aim for something that also excites me personally, even if that comes at a slight cost of appeal for others, simply to help myself stay motivated to work on it. Keep in mind that I am still doing all of this in my free time. The main thing is not to make the tutorial campaign absolutely perfect in every single aspect, but to eventually finish it and get it into the game, to help new players learn the game, and along the way to provide better storytelling features for future campaigns. And again, in my opinion the idea with Carthago Nova still fits really well and elegantly onto the learning and teaching process I had in mind. And it's also historically fairly relevant. For these reasons, I want to make the story of the campaign self-contained and only revolve around Hasdrubal.   @Thalatta@Genava55 These are good concepts and I can definitely see how they would make for great campaigns, but for this one, I want to go in a different direction. However, making some usual story-focused campaigns as well for more experienced players is still a big goal, and ideas are always welcome. It could make sense to open a designated thread for campaign concepts like this.