[WIP] "Grand Strategy" Campaign - A25 mod

[wraitii]

Hello everyone,
I think it's time I reveal a "secret project" I've been working on occasionally: a “Grand Strategy” campaign mod for A25. Because our UI is flexible, and because campaign data is just JSON, we can do quite a lot in terms of modding.

My intention here is to do something somewhat similar to Rise of Nations' Conquer the World campaign, though with some twists.
The code is over at the github repo: https://github.com/wraitii/0ad_grand_strat . If you want to help out, the easiest is to make PRs or issues over there.

The end-game is to merge something back for A26 or later, depending on advancement.
As you can see, the mod is currently unfinished: it's technically playable, and some of the core mechanics are there, but it needs a ton of polish and quite a few features (& well, testing) before it's properly done. Though at the moment new core code in 0 A.D. itself isn't necessary, some things might be easier to do there.

Screenshots:

 

You can download a .pyromod from GitHub.

Changelog:

Spoiler

v0.2

Added a setup screen to choose your civilisation and starting province
More enemies, & enemies can attack you (though you can auto-win).
Handle difficulty less rudimentarily so AI can actually be dangerous.
Allow scrolling around the map via the map edges.
Add city icons to inhabited provinces.

v0.1

Initial reveal - sorta playable, but not really.

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

@Yekaterina You can try and make a video to see how it looks.

 

I guess you need a custom build.

[wraitii]

2 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

I guess you need a custom build.

Nah works fine with the RC or SVN.

[Lion.Kanzen]

13 minutes ago, wraitii said:

Nah works fine with the RC or SVN.

I'll do it myself, but Kate can still leave her point of view.

[Yekaterina]

Already downloading!

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

I record a game but Im still confuse.

[Yekaterina]

Ok I had a go. Are all of the AIs equally difficult? I managed to defeat the Dacians (Persians) with no loss at all. 

It is a very fun concept of conquering Evrope bit by bit, and a good practice as well. There is one recommendation: don't use nub biomes. Anything other than Temperate, Arctic, Subalpine, Rhineland and Agean-Anatolian is nub. 

There are too many cherries in Macedonia. 

It is a very fun campaign, thank you! 

nubia nubia nubia

 

 

[wraitii]

1 minute ago, Yekaterina said:

Ok I had a go. Are all of the AIs equally difficult? I managed to defeat the Dacians (Persians) with no loss at all.

Yeah, it's all sandbox for now. The "plan" is that garrison level on each province would determine difficulty, as well as some overall difficulty setting chosen when starting.

Ideally there would be some more game types than just straight up conquest, but I need to actually code those as well

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

I am going to make suggestions, I don't know if they are contemplated.

List of suggestions.

•  the mode for now can be boring only one type of scenario. there should be a siege mode and an invasion mode. i will explain the details later.
• capture marvel mode in some provinces.
• A brief of the mode for now I assume there are only a few factions in play or to select and play.
• I guess it's too obvious and you should already know that.
• territories must have visible names.
• zoom mode (zoom in, zoom out).
• the economic part is not available yet, the diplomatic part is not available either, for now there is only one possible character to move.
• for the same reason there is no diplomacy yet.
• it would be excellent to manage more territories.
• save and load mode. 

 

[smiley]

I assume the provinces are individual textures and you are storing the coordinates to properly arrange them?

My suggestion is to just use a good old map texture and have provinces defined using geojson. Then again, current GUI design wouldn't necessarily make that cleaner since masking provinces with colors and stuff would be kinda weird.

[Lopess]

This mod looks beautiful! I will play more but I already see its potential, and for sure in the future a campaign based on it should be added to the main game, and modders will reuse this code for greater diversity in their mods. Wraitii congratulations

[wraitii]

14 minutes ago, smiley said:

I assume the provinces are individual textures and you are storing the coordinates to properly arrange them?

Indeed. TBH I will need more layers, and probably an underlying 'map' layer, then some specific 2D textures for each provinces on top. For now, the drawing capabilities of the GUI are limited, and this is essentially a hack. But with it being 2D, it's not really resource intensive either.

[smiley]

That might very well be enough. The only thing that using geojson would offer that the current approach can't would be dynamic provinces with changing borders. The main application for Geojson is to make maps interactive, but you can already kinda do that since sprites have input detection.

That and maybe ease of content creation.

[hyperion]

At a glance It isn't obvious to me what the objective is or what balance and garrison are about, move vs attack etc. A help button popping up some sort of manual would be nice.

[Lion.Kanzen]

 

 

I will open a post of game modes, i.e. types of battles for this mode and in general.

 

i like some ideas from Paradox to Imperator of Rome.

Spoiler

mperator: Rome’s features include:

◾Character Management: A living world of characters with varying skills and traits that will change over time. They will lead your nation, govern your provinces and command your armies and fleets. We also introduce our new, more human-like character art.
◾Diverse Populations: Citizens, freemen, tribesmen and slaves - each population with its own culture and religion. Whether they fill your armies, fill your coffers or fill your colonies, keep an eye on their happiness - your success depends on their satisfaction.
◾Battle Tactics: Choose your approach before battle to counter the stratagems of your foes.
◾Military Traditions: Each culture has a unique way of waging war. Romans and Celts have different options available to them. Unlock unique bonuses, abilities and units.
◾Different Government Types: Manage the senate in a Republic, hold your court together in a monarchy, answer to the clans in a tribal system.
◾Barbarians and Rebellions: Migrating barbarians may sack or settle your best land, while disloyal governors or generals can turn against you - taking their armies with them!
◾Trade: Goods provide bonuses to their home province. Will you take advantage of stockpiles for local strength or trade excess goods to spread the wealth around?
◾Provincial Improvement: Invest in buildings, roads and defences to make your kingdom stronger and richer.

 

[wraitii]

13 hours ago, hyperion said:

At a glance It isn't obvious to me what the objective is or what balance and garrison are about, move vs attack etc. A help button popping up some sort of manual would be nice.

The objective is to conquer everything of course

The rest is indeed unfinished. A help button is definitely a good idea regardless.

[av93]

My inspiration would be Dawn of War "Dark Crusade" and "Soulstorm" grand campaigns.

The empires have different territories and the capital
If you conquer the capital, you win a special bonus and disables the ability of that enemy to move and attack
Capital scenarios have special features and objectives, and usually are hard and scrippted.

Additionally, there' could be neutral territories with some civs that doesn't belong to any empire, but you have to still conquer them.

 

Nice job!

[wraitii]

Uploaded a quick update to smooth some things out. Now the AI won't always be sandbox, there's a few more enemy civilisations, and you can pick your civilisation & starting province (+ you can scroll around the map if you move the mouse to the border).

[Lion.Kanzen]

we are going to need avatars for the characters.

[Lion.Kanzen]

zip link here.

https://github.com/wraitii/0ad_grand_strat/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

[Lion.Kanzen]

i´m making a new version of "banner" map.

[Belisarius17]

I like your mod...love the music too... ...I have been playing like for 5 months now, and decide to make a scenario too.. At first, It was design for 8 players, but issues with the population, and the game freezing, forced me to make it for 5 players instead, with the other factions becoming buffer states...As you, I am also working on a scenario base on the map of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea.  I have named O AD Empires at War... Hopefully it will be published soon.. here is how is looking so far. 

Edited June 16, 2021 by Belisarius17

[Lion.Kanzen]

18 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

i´m making a new version of "banner" map.

texture source under CC0 

https://www.hippopx.com/en/paper-old-texture-parchment-background-antique-out-of-date-128652

[Lion.Kanzen]

AoE I style map

[Saatamia]

It would be possible to add the icons of the war fleets