Campaign Mode?

[Fionn]

Will there be a campaign mode like the ones in the AOE series?

[BurningSushi460]

I hope that they add a semi-historical kind of campaign but not the schmaltzy Black Family defends a holy fountain from some cult kind of story that AOE3 prompted.

[feneur]

We do intend to create campaigns, and no we're not intending to do something strange like in in AoE3, but rather something historically based.

[Fionn]

Excellent! Historical campaigns are much better than cliché fairytales.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I know for sure we want to do at least a Tutorial Campaign. We might release additional single player campaigns with subsequent patches.

[Jeru]

Yes, I agree a tutorial campaign is very important imho

[BurningSushi460]

So in terms of the campaign, what would one have in mind for it?

My thoughts would be to make it a little bit like AoM. The campaign can be made as one big one that would weave through most of the factions in the game, allowing people to get a taste of everything. You could attempt to find a piece in history where all factions are related somehow and you would go from one faction's POV to the next after a certain number of missions.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Naw, we'd prolly go smaller, like AOK, with historically based mini-campaigns, like the Greco-Persian Wars and the Punic Wars. etc.

[buggy123]

Of course you can't forget about player-made campaigns

[darthturtle]

I would LOVE to see single player campaigns in 0 A.D. since I'm not a multiplayer person (plus the ping is TERRIBLE in Vietnam) and I would enjoy a campaign based on history since I'm interested in ancient warfare.

However, if you're doing the Persian invasion of Greece, I wonder how the Thermopylae scenario will turn out.

[Sophokles]

I'm looking for an epic, all-inclusive, decision-based, historically accurate Roman campaign that takes place during the fall of the republic. Very few games cover this piece of history, but I can see a lot of potential for a game.

Am I right? I can't see any problems with it, right?

[Mythos_Ruler]

The problem there is that most of the action would be Roman vs. Roman.

[Jeru]

Plus, the first things that need to be taught in the game are really basic - micromanaging citizens, using resources, farming and stuff like that. That doesn't really tie in with the fall of the republic - we'd have to start with a story of a dawn of a civilization, like Rome, Greece or Persia.

So it might be a cool campaign but not for the tutorial campaign, which imho would be the first priority.

Edited September 1, 2009 by Jeru

[Mythos_Ruler]

For a tutorial, I was thinking along the lines of using Leonidas as the main character, kind of how Age of Kings' tutorial was William Wallace.

[darthturtle]

He won't be running around kicking Persians into bottomless pits would he?

[Sophokles]

Leonidas did not have the patience to tutor American children.

If the tutorial needs a main character, it should be more like Aristotle or Seneca. I'm sure you have a philosopher-ish mesh somewhere.

[Jeru]

"Welcome to 0 A.D., I'm Socrates and I will be philosophizing for you today. Click left to move me towards the house, assuming there are such things as 'to click', 'left', 'to move', 'me' and 'house'."

[Sophokles]

Not what I had in mind.

Still, Leonidas is not going to teach me about citybuilding.

[Silver]

That doesn't really tie in with the fall of the republic - we'd have to start with a story of a dawn of a civilization, like Rome, Greece or Persia.

It reminds me of the AoE tutorial.

In Egypt at the dawn of civilization - build 5 houses.... you win!!

[buggy123]

lol i never like those campaigns where u just wait till collect enough resources or whatever. Much more prefer fighting/action...and lots of it

[Belisarivs]

Leonidas did not have the patience to tutor American children.

Did you try Medieval Total War (not MTW2) tutorial?

"That is not it!! Do it as I told you before you feel flat of my sword." Or something this way.

[Sophokles]

On second thought, the rise of civilization is a much better idea:

"Welcome to 0 AD, stranger. Before we can tell you how to pan the camera, you should know that the Roman Republic is failing. There are exactly 8 former friends of yours about to backstab you. The Senate has declared you an outlaw, and the optimates are calling you a traitor. The colony you see before you is about to be pillaged by Spartacus. Oh, and you gave Cleopatra Philopater herpes.

Once again, welcome to 0 AD."

[Silver]

I prefer the dawn of civilization kind of campaign to a guy telling me what to do.

My only complaint about a dawn of civilization type of game is that they often break it up into many games, when one game would make it more fun.

[Jeru]

The top goal of a tutorial campaign is to let complete novices learn how to play the game as easily as possible. That means eliminating unnecessary complexity, like Sophokles mentioned, and starting from the absolute very basics, which might entail having a narrator hold the user's hand and order them around, at least at the beginning. (I am in college and unfortunately I see bad teaching every day )

So although we want the game to be fun for experienced RTS players, the tutorial campaign is not the place to accomplish that. This goal is better served in other campaigns that might be bundled with the game, in user-generated scenarios and campaigns, and in multiplayer gameplay.

Why dawn of civilization and not the fall of Rome? Teaching the game should start with teaching how to manage the simplest units, like civilians, in the earliest phase of settlements, which is a village. From there the user will learn about towns, cities, building armies and such. The dawn of a civilization is a good historical background for this.

There's no word yet on the number of scenarios in the campaign. Maybe we'll manage to bundle it all into one scenario, but that's a long time off.

[Elven Ranger]

Is there going to be different ways you can complete it,so you can enjoy in more than once?

Edited September 4, 2009 by Elven Ranger