Campaign Mode?

[plumo]

Well there are possibilities:

1. The Roman civil war between Caesar & Pompeii

In this case you could play as Pompeii, after being defeated in Greece, having to rebuild your army in Egypt...

2. The civil war between Octavian & Marcus Aurelius & Cleopatra

Egypt as well as a hiding spot, to raise new armies.

[Fionn]

What about a series of levels leading to the (unfortunate) assassination of Caesar? (Similar to Caesar's campaign in AOEI)

- Start of Gallic Wars

- British Expedition

- German Expedition

- Fall of Vercingetorix

- March on Rome

- Civil War (Munda?)

To be fair, leaving out the war against Hannibal and the war between Octavius and Marcus Antonius would be leaving out a lot of Roman Republican history. However, we can't expect the programmers to be able to do all of this... Perhaps more campaigns will be available after the initial release?

[Jeru]

I'm as big of a fan of a good story as the next guy, but I reiterate, the central consideration behind the tutorial campaign will be learning. Everything else is secondary. Of course everyone will be welcome to make their own campaigns - just as the AoE editor has been used for creating many visual effects, puzzle games etc.

Also - re: "we can't expect the programmers to be able to do all of this" - programmers won't be insomuch the bottleneck for implementing this scenario or that campaign, as they deal with more important, overarching features of the game in general.

[buggy123]

yeh, as long as they release a powerful, easy-to-use, intuitive scenario editor, the fan base can contribute a lot!

[darthturtle]

I believe that is one of the features the developers are planning to include. As long as the fans can make scenarios, not having a campaign wouldn't be a problem

[Hiram]

I actually enjoy the city building part of rts games; creating a beautiful city, while keeping its militar functionality is a for of art

[oshron]

i still suggest that the learning campaign be about Phillip of Macedon, since that allows for all the building as well as military. or you have something having to do with the rise of rome, since the romans are apparently the full-on basis of the game(as in, all the other factions are cultures that the romans encountered)

[SMST]

i still suggest that the learning campaign be about Phillip of Macedon, since that allows for all the building as well as military. or you have something having to do with the rise of rome, since the romans are apparently the full-on basis of the game(as in, all the other factions are cultures that the romans encountered)

I suggested the Rise of Athens as a tutorial campaign - you have many things in there, getting told the basics in Athens, moving on to Greek colonies to do economic and cultural advanced stuff, in the end, returning to Athens for the greco-persian wars where you will get to use advanced military options.

This has also a historical resemblence - for example, the Greeks developed their culture further as they began to build colonies in Asia Minor and Southern Italy and came into grips with local cultures there (before that, they only had the basics of civilisation, as the beginner player will have). Another example being the Battle of Salamis, this was the first time the Athenians ever had a greater navy and thus, they needed to learn how to command them.(!)

The Greek culture is also quite fitting for that, since it has become a kind of "demo civilisation" for 0 A.D.^^

[Aldandil]

I would definitely like to see a tutorial scenario designed for folks who want to play the game but have never used an RTS before in their life. Take me, for example: my entire lifetime RTS experience is one game of Warcraft III against the computer AI, assuming Warcraft is actually an RTS and not something else.

What would a complete newbie need to learn? How to manage citizen workers, how to maintain a functional economy, how to manage multiple fronts in a battle without losing track of what's going on and missing something important, how to efficiently advance buildings and units in a timely way instead of a stupid way, how to avoid the most common newbie blunders, etc.

Starting small, with a brand-new city that isn't under attack until after you have established it and learned how to run it, seems like a better way to start than dropping the beginning into the middle of a battle, when they don't know the first thing about farming or economics.

The narrator could even be a legendary city-founder of the civilization in question. I know this strays into the myth end of things instead of actual history (but then, so does the above suggestion for the Trojan War), but it would be neat. For example, you could start by founding Rome with Romulus as your narrator, or founding Athens with Kekrops as your narrator (presumably he'd be a human instead of a snake-guy, to cut down on the mythiness), or founding Carthage with whoever was credited with founding it. If that sounds too mythical, you could use a colony, such as a Greek colony on Sicily, or a Phoenician colony somewhere, whose historical founder is known, and have the founder as the narrator.

You shouldn't feel guilty , a lot of people want to play as romans ( check 'who you want to play first" thread")

I'm far more inclined to play Greeks, Iberians, or Celts first. Where is that thread, anyway? It doesn't turn up in search. Do threads get deleted after a while?

Edited April 13, 2010 by Aldandil

[Mythos_Ruler]

I was thinking a Leonidas campaign (like the William Wallace campaign for AOK).

[oshron]

failing that, maybe something outright fictional would work

[SMST]

I was thinking a Leonidas campaign (like the William Wallace campaign for AOK).

I don't know much about him, but what else than the Battle of Thermopylai did Leonidas do and how could one make that into a campaign?

@oshron: Well, for a game which claims to be the most historically accurate RTS it woukd be rather unfit with something completely fictional.

What do you guys think about the Athens-Variant?

[plumo]

I also feel a lot for a 'Rise of Athens' tutorial.

Many possibilities:

- Building your city / reinforcing the acropolis

- colonizing the mediterrenean

- persuading neighbouring islands to join your 'sea-alliance'

- struggles with Persia, Sparta, later Thebes

-....

The list is endless.

[Aldandil]

- persuading neighbouring islands to join your 'sea-alliance'

And by "persuade" you actually mean bribe, blackmail, embargo, and force with the point of a sword, right?

[plumo]

Of course

But it can be interesting to use a combination of all of them. cfr. : Age of Kings, Mongols Campaign, scenario 1 where you had to unite the tribes using different methods.

This can be pushed to the next level by not only using different methods to accomplish this but by making the AI respond to the methods you use...

For example: as Athens you want Delos, Aegina, Paros and Naxos to join your sea-alliance (all islands).

1. Objective: Persuade Delos by destroying their fortress and sinking their warfleet.

2. Trigger: If you do so without losing too many units: Aegina will be afraid and offer to join.

Trigger: If you do so with losing a lot of units: the other island will be less impressed by your remaining military and can form an alliance against you, thus making it harder for you to fight them individually.

[SMST]

Of course

But it can be interesting to use a combination of all of them. cfr. : Age of Kings, Mongols Campaign, scenario 1 where you had to unite the tribes using different methods.

This can be pushed to the next level by not only using different methods to accomplish this but by making the AI respond to the methods you use...

For example: as Athens you want Delos, Aegina, Paros and Naxos to join your sea-alliance (all islands).

1. Objective: Persuade Delos by destroying their fortress and sinking their warfleet.

2. Trigger: If you do so without losing too many units: Aegina will be afraid and offer to join.

Trigger: If you do so with losing a lot of units: the other island will be less impressed by your remaining military and can form an alliance against you, thus making it harder for you to fight them individually.

Well, it sounds quite nice, but it should be a tutorial campaign and that is way too elaborate for a tutorial.

However, that kind of scenario is exactly what i would want to do for the three advanced campaigns.

[AuroN2]

When this comes out, i will dedicate a few hours to makin g a few simplistic maps for a campaign called the iron pillar (based on the events in the book), based on marcus tullius cicero, in the time of jullius caesar, so look forward to it

oh and there will be a massive twist to fit it into an rts format, so insstead of going through his peaceful life, there will be like when on his private island, a pirate raid, and you get to play with greek mercanaries etc, and obviously if he dies its gg cos he being you means if he dies, you die (obviously).

Edited September 7, 2010 by AuroN2

[DGMurdockIII]

this would be great if you could some how play this co-op with a friend or another person ether online or LAN

[Mythos_Ruler]

Rethinking this we could do a straight-forward tutorial, learning how to build up a city from scratch, etc. For this purpose we could start with the Gallic sack of Rome in 390 BC.

http://www.unrv.com/empire/gallic-sack-of-rome.php

[SMST]

Has been discussed berore as a possible turorial. I still think Greeks should be the tutorial civilisation, though.

[plumo]

I'd also go for Greeks. From Polis to League or something.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Greeks are kinda like the "default" faction in that they'll be pretty well-rounded, while the Romans will err more towards the late game and siege warfare.

So, I could see building a Greek colony from the ground up. Perhaps based loosely on Taras (Taranto) or Poseidonia (Paestum) or somewhere like that.

[SMST]

I was gaoing for Syracuse in one of the older threads because they had a conflict with Carthage in which the player could learn military stuff, but Taras would fit nicely as well. Perhaps one could also make up a conflict between the colonies or something.

Edited September 29, 2010 by SMST

[AuroN2]

Then they could have a conflict with rome, and learn how to take their armies on with hellenes troops, or something along those lines.

[oshron]

i know this is a historical rts, but cant the darn LEARNING CAMPAIGN just be used to educate the player about the game WITHOUT being historical? itll be alot easier to get the lessons across when you dont have to find something historical to fit it into