Campaign Ideas for 0 A.D.

[SMST]

Any comments on this one? It would be interesting if the developers had something like this in their mind.

Well, that would be my concept of Alandil's idea of the rise of Syracuse:

Tutorial - Rise of Syracuse

A new colony

Starting with a few colonists on the shores of Eastern sicily, you are going to found that what will become Syracuse later.

(Basic movement/Citizen soldier concept/building/Civic centres/Ressource gathering/hunting/lumbering/mining)

From village to town

You have to gather more ressources and research new techs to finally advance Syracuse from a small village to a town.

(Female citizens/advanced Ressource gathering/agriculture/herding/technologies/phase advancement)

Defense and attack

Syracuse needs to expand, but in order to do that, it must deal with the aggressive native Sicilan tribes.

(Basic combat/basic counter system/experience/leveling up/conquering territorries)

Allies and Adversaries

In order to expand its economy, Syracuse has to forge alliances with the Carthagenians in the western part of Sicily and with Athens back in Greece. But are those allies to be trusted?

(Advanced buildings/fortifications/trade - land and sea/diplomacy/support units)

The Battle of Himera

The Carthagenians attack the Sicilan Greeks at Himera. They need to be driven back under the command of Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse.

(Advanced combat/stances/formations/super units/unique techs/heroes - Gelon)

The fleet of Carthage

On land, the Carthagenians are defeated, but Gelon needs to destroy their fleet in order to secure his rule. His ultimate goal is, however, to destroy the enemy's fortress at Panormos.

(Naval warfare/ramming/boarding/transporting units/siege weapons/siege)

Is that "rise-of-civ" like enough? Did I forget any major game feature?

[Mythos_Ruler]

I'd say reduce the number of scenarios by half. Otherwise that's not too bad.

[SMST]

I could see 5 and 6 done as one. Just listed them seperately to get a round lot.

[oshron]

i think i figured out how the leonidas/themistocles scenario could work: after three in-game days, a cinematic starts up that details the death of leonidas and the spartans and explains that themistocles then moves the navy to salamis and, in october, the persian fleet arrives and themistocles defeats them

[Aldandil]

To make it shorter how about this:

The Rise of Syracuse

Build your town from scratch, learning how to erect buildings, create units, gather resources, and launch boats. In the late half of this scenario you also learn the basics of combat vs. the native Sicels and/or Elymians whose land you stole, but who are a bit too weak to be a challenge for experienced players.

The Battle of Himera

Carthage attacks. Fight a land battle against the Carthaginian faction.

The Battle of Cumae

Fight a naval battle against the Etruscans.

That still leaves the problems of modding Etruscans and native Sicilians.

Does anyone have any other ideas for a tutorial? Syracuse can't possibly be the only suitable idea.

Edited June 7, 2010 by Aldandil

[oshron]

i still say that it would just be easier to do a typical--and entirely fictional--roman settlement in gaul just for the purposes of educating the player, since the pre-imperial romans are the most rounded civilization and are the entire basis of the game

[SMST]

Alandil, you first scenario is way too long, I think. Remember that you need to keep the motivation going, especialy in a tutorial, and that you as a newbie player need to get a reward in form of completing a scenario.

And I skipped Cumae in my draft because there is too much messing up with Etruscians.

For other topics, we could search other Greek colonies or have a "Rise of Rome" campaign with the founding, the struggle against the Etruscians, and the Samnite war.

[oshron]

how 'bout this:

Learning Campaign: Unit Movement

You are a Roman commander who has been given the task of leading an expedition into Gaul. Recently, the area has fallen back under the control of the local barbarians. Your task is to remove them from power and re-established a Roman presence in the area. But first, you have to move your advance troops there.

--learn how to move your basic soldiers and about troop movement and formations; the scenario ends with a roadside skirmish with some gaulish celts

Learning Campaign: Economy and Buildings

Now that the Gallic guards have been defeated, you must restore the Roman settlement. Build a Civic Center over the old Gallic settlement and establish an economy and a small army in preparation of the operation.

--learn how to build basic structures and about gathering resources; the scenario ends when you have 5 of each unit available to you

Learning Campaign: Combat

Now that you have a small armed force, send out some of your troops to hunt down the Celts in the area and kill them. Then, hold back a Celtic counterattack and destroy their fortified base.

--learn the basics of in-game military and what units are used best against what other types of units

--learn how to effectively defend yourself by building Outposts and Walls

--learn about the uses of professional soldiers (Super Units) against citizen-soldiers

--learn how to advance to the next Phase

--learn how to use machines to lay siege to a city or base; the scenario ends when you destroy the Celtic Civic Center

[jomas]

hello, first post ever.

i skimmed over the site and was thinking that if every faction(team?) was different would they have there own mini tutorials like Celts sacking Rome and such?

[Jeru]

Hi jomas, welcome to the forums, you're invited to stay and participate in more discussions.

This is very far into the future and by no means definite, but I think one tutorial is enough, no need to learn the same concepts over and over. Beyond that, I think it is reasonable to expect some representation of all 6 factions in the campaigns in the game, if only to introduce them all to the players so they can recognize the different units and buildings, as well as for some historical and educational perspective and *ahem* fun.

(Just an idea off the top of my head: There might be a campaign on the Greek-Persian wars where the player might play for the Greeks in one scenario and then play for Persia in the next, offering a look into both sides of the story. That would save work on separate campaigns for Greece and Persia).

Edited June 23, 2010 by Jeru

[SMST]

(Just an idea off the top of my head: There might be a campaign on the Greek-Persian wars where the player might play for the Greeks in one scenario and then play for Persia in the next, offering a look into both sides of the story. That would save work on separate campaigns for Greece and Persia).

There was a similar idea of mine about the Second Punic war some posts above, if you noticed.

[Jeru]

Sorry, good idea, I wasn't following this thread very closely

[SMST]

Sorry, good idea, I wasn't following this thread very closely

*grin* No problem. There were actually some concerns (also by me) about changing factions halfway through a campaign. I think it was Alandil who wrote that the identification may get lost.

[Jeru]

There are pros and cons to everything. Some people might appreciate the impartiality and the originality in this kind of storytelling. It would also help decrease a Eurocentric bias that exists in a lot of portrayals of antiquity (think "300").

Anyway it is not set in stone either way.

[oshron]

well in the AOM campaign, you played as all three civilizations in the game in one continuous story. there was one tutorial campaign that introduced you to the greeks (which were the most basic civilization in the game: simplest unit setup with archers, spearmen, etc. and simplest method of gathering favor--essentially like any classical AOE faction) but when you entered the egyptian (and later norse) portions of the game, a special tutorial cinematic came up that explained the differences between the factions, basically just who the heroes and favor generation methods are. if there was something like that, it could potentially be that theres one tutorial campaign focusing on teh romans (which, as i understand it, are going to be the most rounded civilization) and then a special closing cinematic that explains some differences between the romans and the other factions in that release. additional cinematics could be added for the additional factions in subsequent releases

Edited June 24, 2010 by oshron

[Jeru]

I have never played AOM but it seems the mechanics of the game have a lot of variation depending on the faction you're playing (e.g. different ways of earning favor from the gods). In 0 A.D. (as well as AoE I & II) I don't think the differences are anywhere near as significant - Gameplay is essentially the same no matter what you're playing, you just get different bonuses and whatever.

So narrating from more than one point of view is just a nice option to consider IMHO and not a must, as it is in AoM.

Edited June 24, 2010 by Jeru

[oshron]

the more major differences with the factions in AOM, short of their mythological elements, were just the heroes that they got, their methods of gathering favor, and any other specific differences that they had. for instance, they explained in the norse cinematic that the norse in that game have the ox cart, a mobile dropsite for resources, and that their villagers cant construct buildings, and that is instead done by their infantry units. for 0ad, one ofthese applications could potentially be in the second release with some of the nomad factions, like "While the horse archers of all other civilizations must stop to fire their bows, the Huns can fire arrows while in motion." something like that

[comp3820]

<---Insert New Idea--->

I don't know if this had been suggested already, but I didn't see it when I skimmed through a couple pages of this thread.

I was thinking about a map-based campaign, where the player is allowed to make a lot more decisions in the campaign (is non-linear a good word for it?).

For instance, a large map with Carthage on one side and Rome on the other. You are Hannibal, and you need to get to Rome. Now, this large map wouldn't be playable - it would be divided into smaller, playable "tiles".

You would start in control of the Carthage tile, and click on an adjacent tile to start a game there. If you win that game, you get that tile on the large map, and you move on to another tile (your choice).

I imagine you could include quite a few minor tribes in between Carthage and Rome. The free style of the campaign could allow resource/troop transfers from one tile to another, and/or the loss of Carthaginian support while Hannibal is in Rome. Resources would be measured by tile, but you could also see on the large map how much of each resource total you have.

I don't know if any of you have ever played Stronghold, but it has a campaign somewhat like that, except that you can't choose which tile you are going to next, so it is still a linear campaign. A better comparison might be Risk, except that you fight the battles for the territories.

I like (or would like, I guess) this style of campaign because it allows much broader decisions to be made - go through Spain to Rome, or by boat? Spend lots of time in Carthage, garnering support (troops and supplies) or hope you can forage on the way? I'm not completely familiar with Hannibal's conquest of Rome, but I'm sure there were other direction he could have gone besides across the Alps.

Edited July 29, 2010 by comp3820