It's been a while since I've last taken up the interest on adventure design for this game, but alas, 2021 has gotten my spirits up enough to decide on completing an adventure I have long since abandoned from 2018.
So as long as people here don't mind, I'll be putting up a design journal or diary in this section of the forum to record my own activity and update it probably once a month to document my own progress with this adventure. I have never uploaded an adventure here in Zeus Heaven, but with this adventure, I'm hoping that is about to change! And I'm really excited to resume work on this adventure again.
BOOK I: ELISSA AND AENEAS
CONTENTS:
-- Introduction
-- Parent city map design
-- Features
-- Colony maps
-- Bridge on cliffs trick
-- End
___________________________________________________
Introduction (rough): “To my loyal sister, Anna,
I sing of arms and of a man. A man whose fate and wealth torn his thread of life apart. He was the first man to have melted my aching heart; a man whom I loved so dearly. None more just, none more caring and none more loving than my beloved Sychaeus.
Tell me, Anna. What was the wound that my own husband inflicted, so hurting that my brother, Pummayaton, corrupted by his greed, compelled a man remarkable of goodness and piety to face a horrible death and leave me, his sister, to live a lonely life. Can such greed conquer the minds of people?
Anna. You, whom have witnessed my most terrible ordeal, I am sick and longing, with an empty hope. How could I have been so blind to trust a deceitful monster? Anna, only now have I truly witnessed the house’s hidden horrors; the horrors I have uncovered when my husband’s pallid ghost revealed the altars where his breast was impaled by my brother’s sword; and under those horrid altars, his body remains unburied.
I can’t live in this terrible house any longer. I can’t bear to see my beloved country fall to such a man; a country ruled by the corruption of men is doomed to fall. The people here live in fear of what's to come, and many have decided to risk their lives to serve me instead of Pummayaton.
Anna, you must escape! Escape this cursed land! Leave the lands of Phoenicia immediately and set sail for Cyprus, where Teucer, our father's most favoured friend, awaits your arrival. Escape, Anna! Even if Poseidon wields his mighty trident and crushes the Levantine coast, you must escape!
Yours,
Princess Elissa"
In this adventure, you will re-live the story of two characters, Princess Elissa of Tyre, and Prince Aeneas of Troy, who both plot a courageous retreat from their homelands and embark on the wilderness of the Mediterranean to find a new home for their people, to escape the fate that had befell them.
Eventually, their fate will coincide and their trials will take its course to distract them from their destinies. Will they succumb to their trials and fail? Or will they take the helm and lead their people to greatness?
PARENT CITY MAP DESIGN (~97% done)
Aerial View:
[JPEG, (4.03 MB)]
Zeus Mapper View:
NOTES: This is by far the most difficult map I've ever designed for Zeus. It is a map conceived through 7-8 months of research, ideas drafted on an 88-page word document, and a review of a lot of related literature based on the city's outline. Inspiration of the map design include:
-- google map (and Earth)'s aerial view of the city
-- sketches of Ancient Carthage to what it looked like
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vqr2jvtxscg/UDaLAa087RI/AAAAAAAAb3E/cnPEvf0nOaA/s400/62174894.ufgyFt6V.TunisiaMay062951.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/68/1d/0c681d483fe2a570a9e37eea62b277f2.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Megara_carte_1844.jpg
-- ideas based on the original Aeneid's description of the city's surroundings.
-- Christopher Marlowe's play on Carthage.
-- Queen Elissa's fate according to Ovid's Heroides.
Thanks to all this, every single part of the parent city map has a functional role, which is either attributed to gameplay, story, history, or as illustrated in the Aeneid. However, because of the editor and game's limitations, I've had to compromise the map's accuracy, in order to accommodate the gameplay.
E.g. If I made the cothon's outline 100% accurate to the historical cothon of Carthage, this would've killed its functionality as a trading pier, a warship hub, and a fishing wharf, and I wanted the cothon to function in the game as it did in its heyday, so I've had to risk accuracy for functionality here.
E.g.2: I've also had to scale down the mountains northeast of Carthage (Megara). If I gave it 100% accuracy, I would've had to choose to not show the Cothon, or not show the mountains and coast to the northeast (where would Aeneas land?!). So I had to scale things down here as well.
Notes on what to improve :
-- I believe I've added the forests way too sparingly in the western part of the city, and so two thick forest may need to be added, and perhaps reset the location of the boars to allow sanctuary placement.
This is where Aeneas and Elissa would go hunting boar together in the thick forests; the caverns to the west would be the place where they would be alone together when the stormy rains from Hera sets in, allowing them to confess their love (episode 6).
-- Some rocks may need to be removed to allow more space to erect sanctuaries. The biggest one for this map is Hades, so I might have to trim parts of the map to accommodate it.
Hades' sanctuary is used as a plot device in the last few chapters to symbolize the Queen's imminent death because of her love for Aeneas, who has sailed away and left her to complete his fate. The story shows Elissa has succumbed to madness because of her aching heart.
This is where Hera will come in to save the Queen, and try to arrange for Elissa to become her cup bearer on Mount Olympus, just like how the Trojan, Ganymede, was to Zeus.
-- Elevation 2 cliffs for the rocky outline in the south-west part of the map may need to be done.
-- (optional): maybe add meadows on flower hill? I can alsoexploit a trick where olive and orange trees will freeze when inaccessible, keeping them ripe until accessible. This allows for nice eyecandy.
Flower hill (named because it looks like a flower with petals, a stem, and a leaf) was the honeymoon residence of Sychaeus and Elissa when they were wedded years ago.
In this story, Sychaeus was an inventor, who constructed many devices that facilitated daily life. As Elissa returned to this place, she finds Sychaeus' workship is still there, and is determined to use his inventions for her people to prosper. (Chapter 3)
This isn't in the original story, but was a story I had to invent in order to progress the gameplay and find a suitable role for the flower mountain in the game.
-- Maybe re-design the cliff edge in south-west part of map facing the cothon, and beautify it more (?)
-- Some additional feedback from here would be nice as well.
________________________________________
FEATURES
--This adventure in fact, showcases two different adventures: a small 2 episode campaign, and a main large 10 episode campaign (7 parent city episodes, and 3 colony episodes).
This is because I wanted this adventure to portray Carthage's beginning, and also portray Carthage's end. I also wanted to portray how fate has manipulated Rome and Carthage from their early beginnings to the enmity they've had upto 144 BC, when Carthage was sacked by the Romans.
SHORT ADVENTURE (2 episodes)
The 2-episode short adventure will get you to re-live the end of Carthage, and also allows you to re-build the stature of Carthage and perhaps even change its history.. Maybe even conquer Rome itself!
I have also decided to give players the freedom to build Carthage and go to the invasion-heavy episode whenever they are ready (because the final episode of this short adventure is brutal, just as how the Romans sacked Carthage at the time!
And so here, players are given the choice to partake in the city-building aspect of ch 1 to build the Carthage that they have envisioned, or take on the military themed aspect of ch 2 and defend the city from the clutches of Rome.
LONG, MAIN ADVENTURE (10 episodes total)
This 10-episode adventure will get you to re-live the founding of Carthage, and its early beginnings. Through Queen Elissa's letters to her sister, you will re-enact the decisions that the Queen had to face when she founded Carthage.
Take note however, that everything you do in each episode will influence many different outcomes that will decide your fate, and could make your situation easier or harder on future episodes. Will you side with the Greeks, or the Trojans? Will you accept or decline a marriage proposal? Will you help Aphrodite or Hephaestus? Choose wisely!
You will also re-live Aeneas' journey as well, via the colony episodes, and experience the hardships he had faced on his journey to found a new city for his people.
As a result, this long, main adventure will allow you to re-live the journey of two different characters, with different paths (and an intertwining one!), and it is your responsibility to help these two characters to achieve their goals, survive their trials, and lead their people to success.
--The main adventure requires the player to start from a .SAV file, and the first episode takes you to a colony episode instead of the usual parent city. The short adventure starts as usual.
--MODIFIED PRICES ON GOODS. In this adventure, the prices of all goods are reduced based on:
--TIME LIMITS. At many parts of the adventure, time limits are given, where you must complete the episode in a specified amount of time, otherwise scripting will take effect that renders the map unplayable, losing you the game. Time limits are not present in the SHORT adventure, and in the LONG, MAIN adventure, only a few episodes do not have the time limit being planned, such as the final episode.
--ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. In every episode, additional information highlighted in green to the end of the intro text is used to indicate instructions not seen in the objectives. Examples include not killing a monster, accept or decline a marriage proposal, choosing a quest, or time limits. This connects the story to the gameplay and comprehending this information can prevent defeat in many occasions.
____________________________________________
COLONY MAPS
This adventure features 4 colony maps, of which all are only playable from the main LONG adventure, and one of the colony maps is where the game will start from the .sav file (ch 1).
In these colony episodes, the player takes on the role of Aeneas and the Trojans, as they face trial after trial on their journey to their promised land in Italy.
ACESTA (100% done)
Originally, this was to be called Lilybaeum in a very early version of this adventure, but decided to use Acesta to keep faith with the Aeneid. Drepanum was also a contender, but the events depicted in the Aeneid was more suitable to a Greek adventure rather than Atlantean, and Acesta was more interesting.
The map of Acesta is in fact, based on the Phoenician colony of Lilybaeum in Sicily (present day "Marsala").
https://docplayer.it/docs-images/63/49513544/images/157-0.jpg
The challenge in this map is not too difficult, but tricky nonetheless. A cyclops guards the mountains, but can be easily tricked. But the real challenge is trying squeeze a population of 3,000 in a tightly packed map, and without access to an infirmary.
This means players must think before they act; rapid fluctuations of population increases and decreases are also to be expected. Fortunately, a sanctuary to Apollo can be built to help with disease short-term.
Playtesting this colony showed the challenges are perfect. They are doable, and multiple ways to achieve the given goals can be exploited. There's no need to improve.
AVERNUS (~90% done)
Avernus is a colony map based on the region around Napoli, in Italy. It is a large map with a large, active volcano (Vesuvius) that constantly erupts and quakes the region every year.
https://www.mapsof.net/uploads/static-maps/Naples_map.jpg
This map functions mainly as the site of entry to the underworld, and only one objective is given: Build the Gates of Hades. But there is only one area where it can be built, and that is the hill surrounded by water. To access it, you need to perform two quests.
So far, I'm very satisfied with the map, even though some minor changes need to be made (e.g. the donut-like island on the west, and the beach on the north of the map).
I will also try to revamp the events for this map, and change the gameplay, as playtesting showed how tedious parts of the playthrough in this colony was, even though it was an interesting map.
Other ideas to improve AVERNUS would be to:
(1) Add another objective: X orichalc per year
(2) Add orichalc ores on the massive volcano in the east
Here, I'm thinking of using orichalc as the "blood-ore" tribute that is to be given to Charon, in order to access and ferry the underworld. But to gather the orichalc ore, one has to climb the volcano and mine the orichalcBEFORE the lava blocks access to all the ores on the volcano.
Accessibility is not a problem however, as earthquakes would break the cooled lava, restoring access later. But the challenge is getting the timing right to fulfill the yearly quota.
BUTHROTUM (~40% done)
This was a much later addition, and features a skull like mountain surrounded by a river with only 2 access points: both from the south. No fish dwell in the sea, and the meadows and marble to obtain in this episode dwells in inaccessible areas that can only be made accessible by completing a quest.
I also wanted this map to be a puzzle scenario, where completing the quest will make parts of this map accessible via (non-permanent) tidal wave events that will connect small islands like dots that are a tile apart. You are to find which islands in the map will connect to the main land in order to get the resource. However, connecting to one section of land means forgoing the other lands
Small islands haven't been added yet, and it's still in the blueprint stage. I also intend to turn the skull island into a mountain surrounded by water.
To-do list for Buthrotum:
-- add small pockets of islands with some that are only one water-tile apart, which would connect to the mainland via bridges after a tidal wave event.
-- use 1-elevation cliff tool for skull island.
-- parts of the skull needs some scrubbing.
-- (optional) maybe add another mainland area on the west for sanctuary or pyramid building??
Completion of this map is still pretty far-off.
__________________________________________________________
COLONY MAP: SIDON (30% done)
Launching the main adventure from the .sav file will take the player to Sidon, a colony map. This is where the main story begins. It is a colony map that is far from finished, but it follows very faithfully the city of modern Sidon today, which is re-created in the editor.However, this is only a rough sketch of the land.
So far, only an outline to the city's walls are drafted using the forest tool, and the outer mountainous regions are already painted.What's left is to place forests, meadows and copper ores on the map, as well as produce a final blueprint of the actual city to reproduce in the game.
This won't be as difficult as Carthage was, and it may probably take a month or so to finalize the design. But here's an early version of the city's blueprint, though I intend to make the city more complex than this:
https://i.imgur.com/30cmO81.png
(rough) STORY IDEAS IN SIDON:
Here, the player's main role is to rescue the princess from being assassinated by preparing a fleet, and a company of soldiers that serve as followers to join and escort the Princess away from Sidon.
-- In this episode, the princess is represented by aMaenad, who is set to appear in the Palace's royal courtyard a few months after game begins. She has just witnessed her husband's murder in the palace, as ordered by her brother, Pummayaton, and has gone insane.
-- A sanctuary to Aphrodite is in the mountains (unsure where to place it yet), and it serves an important plot point both in the story and in the game.
-- Greek assassins are hired by King Pummayaton to kill the Princess in Sidon, and secure his ascension to the throne.
-- Meanwhile, the Trojan War has just begun, and the Sidonian leader must decide who to support: the Greeks, or Trojans. The decision he employs will influence what occurs in both Parent Episodes 1 and 2.
----------
(rough) GAMEPLAY IDEAS IN SIDON:
-- The princess (Maenad) must not be killed, otherwise you lose the game (scripting will take place that will make the game unplayable - not only in this episode, but future episodes).
To prevent that, the player could micromanage by placing a wall between the assassin (hero) and the princess (maenad), but this is tedious and difficult to do, especially in a city.
Another way is to try and delete the Hero hall, but this isn't possible, as every few months (which occurs at random, probably 1-3 months), King Pummayaton will issue hero requests for the assassins to report to him of the task assigned, and Elissa's whereabouts. The other way is lure-and-block: get Princess Elissa to the sanctuary of Aphrodite in the mountains, to destroy it, made possible by setting it "aggressive" to mythological buildings.
With the latter, this also aligns with the original story perfectly well, where the Princess went to the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, and took the priestesses to make wives for her followers. Both Elissa in the story and in the game share one thing in common: they both desecrated a place of worship.
-- Troy and Sparta issue military requests, and the player must decide which side to support and contribute troops to in the Trojan War. Whoever he supports can affect gameplay in this chapter, and ch 2 and 3.
-- A Sanctuary to Apollo must be built, as a way for the princess to find out what future holds for her, and where to take her people.
_________________________________________
BRIDGE ON CLIFFS TRICK
As the adventure starts on a sav file, right into a colony episode, I took the decision to employ a nifty little trick I discovered with the bridges a long time ago, for Sidon - something I wanted to keep secret until this adventure's release, but it's already been kept too long now. The general idea is this:
A bridge is set between two cliffs:
https://i.imgur.com/yCtYESz.png
And people can use the bridge to cross from one cliff to another:
https://i.imgur.com/gf5SeIC.png
How is this done?
THE BRIDGE ON CLIFFS TRICK
First, ensure there's water between the two cliffs, and place water beneath the cliff edges where you want the bridge.https://i.imgur.com/rFLNgX3.png
Set a tidal wave event on both sides of the island.
https://i.imgur.com/pOsoqiP.png
Place the bridge immediately as the tidal wave occurs
https://i.imgur.com/r8VHQlr.png
When you place it, the bridge looks really weird and out of place
https://i.imgur.com/l9GgdFx.png
But as the tidal wave is not permanent, the water will return back to land, and will destroy the ends of the bridges. And so you end up with a bridge that can function between two cliffs.
https://i.imgur.com/MulSkFz.png
https://i.imgur.com/gf5SeIC.png
The reason this occurs is because parts of the bridge can still remain intact if specific locations are destroyed (test this using Fireballs from Heaven cheat on the bridge), but only specific sections.
Here, I decided to use the bridge-on-cliffs trick to allow the player to lure the Maenad to Aphrodite's sanctuary in the mountains, and delete the bridge after the Maenad crosses it, thus "protect the princess".
But in difficulties other than Olympian mode, I don't believe this strategy on the Maenad is doable, but it is still a nice way to give a multitude diversity of strategies to explore in different difficulty levels.
______________________________________________
//END.
This concludes my journal so far on this adventure. My next update will hopefully not be long after this, and will be on the chapters being done, and my progress so far. Hope this didn't bore anyone too much, and I'm hoping to come back to this post to review some of my plans and document my progress.
More to come!
So as long as people here don't mind, I'll be putting up a design journal or diary in this section of the forum to record my own activity and update it probably once a month to document my own progress with this adventure.
-- Introduction
-- Parent city map design
-- Features
-- Colony maps
-- Bridge on cliffs trick
-- End
___________________________________________________
I sing of arms and of a man. A man whose fate and wealth torn his thread of life apart. He was the first man to have melted my aching heart; a man whom I loved so dearly. None more just, none more caring and none more loving than my beloved Sychaeus.
Tell me, Anna. What was the wound that my own husband inflicted, so hurting that my brother, Pummayaton, corrupted by his greed, compelled a man remarkable of goodness and piety to face a horrible death and leave me, his sister, to live a lonely life. Can such greed conquer the minds of people?
Anna. You, whom have witnessed my most terrible ordeal, I am sick and longing, with an empty hope. How could I have been so blind to trust a deceitful monster? Anna, only now have I truly witnessed the house’s hidden horrors; the horrors I have uncovered when my husband’s pallid ghost revealed the altars where his breast was impaled by my brother’s sword; and under those horrid altars, his body remains unburied.
I can’t live in this terrible house any longer. I can’t bear to see my beloved country fall to such a man; a country ruled by the corruption of men is doomed to fall. The people here live in fear of what's to come, and many have decided to risk their lives to serve me instead of Pummayaton.
Anna, you must escape! Escape this cursed land! Leave the lands of Phoenicia immediately and set sail for Cyprus, where Teucer, our father's most favoured friend, awaits your arrival. Escape, Anna! Even if Poseidon wields his mighty trident and crushes the Levantine coast, you must escape!
Yours,
Princess Elissa"
In this adventure, you will re-live the story of two characters, Princess Elissa of Tyre, and Prince Aeneas of Troy, who both plot a courageous retreat from their homelands and embark on the wilderness of the Mediterranean to find a new home for their people, to escape the fate that had befell them.
Eventually, their fate will coincide and their trials will take its course to distract them from their destinies. Will they succumb to their trials and fail? Or will they take the helm and lead their people to greatness?
Aerial View:
Zeus Mapper View:
-- google map (and Earth)'s aerial view of the city
-- sketches of Ancient Carthage to what it looked like
-- ideas based on the original Aeneid's description of the city's surroundings.
-- Christopher Marlowe's play on Carthage.
-- Queen Elissa's fate according to Ovid's Heroides.
Thanks to all this, every single part of the parent city map has a functional role, which is either attributed to gameplay, story, history, or as illustrated in the Aeneid. However, because of the editor and game's limitations, I've had to compromise the map's accuracy, in order to accommodate the gameplay.
-- I believe I've added the forests way too sparingly in the western part of the city, and so two thick forest may need to be added, and perhaps reset the location of the boars to allow sanctuary placement.
-- Some rocks may need to be removed to allow more space to erect sanctuaries. The biggest one for this map is Hades, so I might have to trim parts of the map to accommodate it.
This is where Hera will come in to save the Queen, and try to arrange for Elissa to become her cup bearer on Mount Olympus, just like how the Trojan, Ganymede, was to Zeus.
-- Elevation 2 cliffs for the rocky outline in the south-west part of the map may need to be done.
-- (optional): maybe add meadows on flower hill? I can also
In this story, Sychaeus was an inventor, who constructed many devices that facilitated daily life. As Elissa returned to this place, she finds Sychaeus' workship is still there, and is determined to use his inventions for her people to prosper. (Chapter 3)
This isn't in the original story, but was a story I had to invent in order to progress the gameplay and find a suitable role for the flower mountain in the game.
-- Maybe re-design the cliff edge in south-west part of map facing the cothon, and beautify it more (?)
-- Some additional feedback from here would be nice as well.
________________________________________
--
This is because I wanted this adventure to portray Carthage's beginning, and also portray Carthage's end. I also wanted to portray how fate has manipulated Rome and Carthage from their early beginnings to the enmity they've had upto 144 BC, when Carthage was sacked by the Romans.
The 2-episode short adventure will get you to re-live the end of Carthage, and also allows you to re-build the stature of Carthage and perhaps even change its history.. Maybe even conquer Rome itself!
I have also decided to give players the freedom to build Carthage and go to the invasion-heavy episode whenever they are ready (because the final episode of this short adventure is brutal, just as how the Romans sacked Carthage at the time!
And so here, players are given the choice to partake in the city-building aspect of ch 1 to build the Carthage that they have envisioned, or take on the military themed aspect of ch 2 and defend the city from the clutches of Rome.
This 10-episode adventure will get you to re-live the founding of Carthage, and its early beginnings. Through Queen Elissa's letters to her sister, you will re-enact the decisions that the Queen had to face when she founded Carthage.
Take note however, that everything you do in each episode will influence many different outcomes that will decide your fate, and could make your situation easier or harder on future episodes. Will you side with the Greeks, or the Trojans? Will you accept or decline a marriage proposal? Will you help Aphrodite or Hephaestus? Choose wisely!
You will also re-live Aeneas' journey as well, via the colony episodes, and experience the hardships he had faced on his journey to found a new city for his people.
As a result, this long, main adventure will allow you to re-live the journey of two different characters, with different paths (and an intertwining one!), and it is your responsibility to help these two characters to achieve their goals, survive their trials, and lead their people to success.
--
--
-- (1) maximum number of goods produced each year,
--(2) wage rate of each building,
--(3) cost to produce one building,
--(4) profit margin
--
--
--
Not only does this make things more challenging in the world stage (e.g. it is now tougher to increase favor of cities using gifts, and tougher to pacify rivals to prevent unscripted attacks), but it also encourages increased trade, which Carthage was famous for.
--
--
____________________________________________
This adventure features 4 colony maps, of which all are only playable from the main LONG adventure, and one of the colony maps is where the game will start from the .sav file (ch 1).
In these colony episodes, the player takes on the role of Aeneas and the Trojans, as they face trial after trial on their journey to their promised land in Italy.
Originally, this was to be called Lilybaeum in a very early version of this adventure, but decided to use Acesta to keep faith with the Aeneid. Drepanum was also a contender, but the events depicted in the Aeneid was more suitable to a Greek adventure rather than Atlantean, and Acesta was more interesting.
The map of Acesta is in fact, based on the Phoenician colony of Lilybaeum in Sicily (present day "Marsala").
The challenge in this map is not too difficult, but tricky nonetheless. A cyclops guards the mountains, but can be easily tricked. But the real challenge is trying squeeze a population of 3,000 in a tightly packed map, and without access to an infirmary.
This means players must think before they act; rapid fluctuations of population increases and decreases are also to be expected. Fortunately, a sanctuary to Apollo can be built to help with disease short-term.
Playtesting this colony showed the challenges are perfect. They are doable, and multiple ways to achieve the given goals can be exploited. There's no need to improve.
Avernus is a colony map based on the region around Napoli, in Italy. It is a large map with a large, active volcano (Vesuvius) that constantly erupts and quakes the region every year.
This map functions mainly as the site of entry to the underworld, and only one objective is given: Build the Gates of Hades. But there is only one area where it can be built, and that is the hill surrounded by water. To access it, you need to perform two quests.
So far, I'm very satisfied with the map, even though some minor changes need to be made (e.g. the donut-like island on the west, and the beach on the north of the map).
I will also try to revamp the events for this map, and change the gameplay, as playtesting showed how tedious parts of the playthrough in this colony was, even though it was an interesting map.
Here, I'm thinking of using orichalc as the "blood-ore" tribute that is to be given to Charon, in order to access and ferry the underworld. But to gather the orichalc ore, one has to climb the volcano and mine the orichalc
Accessibility is not a problem however, as earthquakes would break the cooled lava, restoring access later. But the challenge is getting the timing right to fulfill the yearly quota.
This was a much later addition, and features a skull like mountain surrounded by a river with only 2 access points: both from the south. No fish dwell in the sea, and the meadows and marble to obtain in this episode dwells in inaccessible areas that can only be made accessible by completing a quest.
I also wanted this map to be a puzzle scenario, where completing the quest will make parts of this map accessible via (non-permanent) tidal wave events that will connect small islands like dots that are a tile apart. You are to find which islands in the map will connect to the main land in order to get the resource. However, connecting to one section of land means forgoing the other lands
Small islands haven't been added yet, and it's still in the blueprint stage. I also intend to turn the skull island into a mountain surrounded by water.
-- add small pockets of islands with some that are only one water-tile apart, which would connect to the mainland via bridges after a tidal wave event.
-- use 1-elevation cliff tool for skull island.
-- parts of the skull needs some scrubbing.
-- (optional) maybe add another mainland area on the west for sanctuary or pyramid building??
Completion of this map is still pretty far-off.
__________________________________________________________
Launching the main adventure from the .sav file will take the player to Sidon, a colony map. This is where the main story begins. It is a colony map that is far from finished, but it follows very faithfully the city of modern Sidon today, which is re-created in the editor.
So far, only an outline to the city's walls are drafted using the forest tool, and the outer mountainous regions are already painted.
This won't be as difficult as Carthage was, and it may probably take a month or so to finalize the design. But here's an early version of the city's blueprint, though I intend to make the city more complex than this:
Here, the player's main role is to rescue the princess from being assassinated by preparing a fleet, and a company of soldiers that serve as followers to join and escort the Princess away from Sidon.
-- In this episode, the princess is represented by a
-- A sanctuary to Aphrodite is in the mountains (unsure where to place it yet), and it serves an important plot point both in the story and in the game.
-- Greek assassins are hired by King Pummayaton to kill the Princess in Sidon, and secure his ascension to the throne.
-- Meanwhile, the Trojan War has just begun, and the Sidonian leader must decide who to support: the Greeks, or Trojans. The decision he employs will influence what occurs in both Parent Episodes 1 and 2.
----------
-- The princess (Maenad) must not be killed, otherwise you lose the game (scripting will take place that will make the game unplayable - not only in this episode, but future episodes).
Another way is to try and delete the Hero hall, but this isn't possible, as every few months (which occurs at random, probably 1-3 months), King Pummayaton will issue hero requests for the assassins to report to him of the task assigned, and Elissa's whereabouts.
With the latter, this also aligns with the original story perfectly well, where the Princess went to the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, and took the priestesses to make wives for her followers. Both Elissa in the story and in the game share one thing in common: they both desecrated a place of worship.
-- Troy and Sparta issue military requests, and the player must decide which side to support and contribute troops to in the Trojan War. Whoever he supports can affect gameplay in this chapter, and ch 2 and 3.
-- A Sanctuary to Apollo must be built, as a way for the princess to find out what future holds for her, and where to take her people.
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As the adventure starts on a sav file, right into a colony episode, I took the decision to employ a nifty little trick I discovered with the bridges a long time ago, for Sidon - something I wanted to keep secret until this adventure's release, but it's already been kept too long now. The general idea is this:
A bridge is set between two cliffs:
And people can use the bridge to cross from one cliff to another:
How is this done?
First, ensure there's water between the two cliffs, and place water beneath the cliff edges where you want the bridge.
Set a tidal wave event on both sides of the island.
Place the bridge immediately as the tidal wave occurs
When you place it, the bridge looks really weird and out of place
But as the tidal wave is not permanent, the water will return back to land, and will destroy the ends of the bridges. And so you end up with a bridge that can function between two cliffs.
The reason this occurs is because parts of the bridge can still remain intact if specific locations are destroyed (test this using Fireballs from Heaven cheat on the bridge), but only specific sections.
Here, I decided to use the bridge-on-cliffs trick to allow the player to lure the Maenad to Aphrodite's sanctuary in the mountains, and delete the bridge after the Maenad crosses it, thus "protect the princess".
But in difficulties other than Olympian mode, I don't believe this strategy on the Maenad is doable, but it is still a nice way to give a multitude diversity of strategies to explore in different difficulty levels.
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This concludes my journal so far on this adventure. My next update will hopefully not be long after this, and will be on the chapters being done, and my progress so far. Hope this didn't bore anyone too much, and I'm hoping to come back to this post to review some of my plans and document my progress.
More to come!
[This message has been edited by Mazeppa (edited 03-03-2021 @ 03:15 PM).]