Rise of Empires: Europe

[HisDivineShadow]

Rise of Empires: Europe
By: HisDivineShadow
Version Check: 0.6 Alpha

Final Edit: I am giving up on this, the server splits re-appeared as of test version .04 alpha, and I have been unable to track down the new cause. I am done pulling out my hair over this. It was a great concept, and turned out very well in the few games were less than three people dropped and we were able to actually play. But there is no point in continuing the map development if it is impossible to play due to server splits. Thank you, who have been keeping up with my releases and posting your comments.

Concept: At the core of the map is the building of empires. To create the greatest empire in the game. Whether this is achieved through conquest and warfare, or through diplomacy and alliance. This map will follow the course of history; the very founding of the empires to the not so distant future. Game-play will be focused on military aspects, the city management will be simple and to the point, allowing even beginners to enjoy the game. There will be a bounty of options for players; from surrendering (becoming a vassal) to a superior power, to declaring independence from those powers. The map will feature the whole of Europe, and areas of Africa and the Middle East.

Planned Features:
-Cities will generate income for players, they can be upgraded at each epoch to give greater amounts of resources.
-Each city will have one or more upgradeable foundations.
-These foundations can be upgraded with such things as city expansions, to generate more money, research centers, to generate tech points, or fortresses, to provide defense.
-If these are killed, they are respawned, owned by the killing player.
-Tech advancement through the epochs will include a range of options from army advancements to civic technology.
-The player will choose from a variety of leaders (hero units) at the beginning of the game, these leaders will include presidents, dictators, oligarchs, monarchs, tribunals, and warlords, just to name a few.
-At any time during the game the player may perform a revolution to change their leader with no penalty.

Any comments are appreciated!

Cheers,

HisDivineShadow

 

[WindexGlow]

Terrain looks very good, will test when it's available.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

Progress updates: (values in parenthesis reflect only the first epoch)
-Three buildings from the first epoch are completed. (3/5)
-Two units from the first epoch are completed. (2/12)
-Cities have been placed around the map, as have city resources.
-Trigger function to change ownership of cities and city resources is in place.

Idea Requests:
-I am at a loss as for what terrain features should be added to Eastern Europe. Most specifically the area of Eastern Poland and the whole of Russia. Any ideas anyone could offer would be helpful, thank you.

 

[Mini-Me]

The map will feature the whole of Europe, and areas of Africa and the Middle East.

You have cut of almost whole of scandinavia, the whole of finland thats for sure. Last time I checked we were part of europe.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

Future releases will more than double the map size (mainly width, but at least one height increase). I will be adding North America, mainly. But that is a long way off. I fully intend to add all of Europe, so if your country is left out, don't feel bad!

Edit: After just testing I found that the map size limit is smaller than I had thought, and I will not be able to add much to Scandinavia. Sorry mates. I have added the blank area where North America will go, however.

Edit: Update: Re-placing most cities for balance issues in my first test run. Will be releasing a test for people to play around with in about 4 days.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

I had a long (and horribly drawn out) debate with a friend of mine, and he has managed (after severe threats that include blackmail, torture, and possible murder) to convince me that Sweden and what was later Finland played a very critical role in shaping Europe, notably in the thirty years war. After such consideration, I am reducing the size of my planned North America in order to accommodate more of these lands into my map. There Henry, don't hurt me!

To Anyone Else: Don't take my badinage seriously, though I have reconfigured my map to fit the new areas. Besides, now I can add Iceland.

Edit: I've fallen behind on many of the things I thought I would have made more progress on, for that reason the release may be set back as much as a week. I just don't have the time to work on it steadily, all of my efforts have been in 2 or 3 hour patches as I find a bit of spare time. Sorry to anyone who was following Rise of Empires.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

The alpha is out, if anyone is interested, I could use some feedback. Editable version released, asking for help, see above.

 

[WindexGlow]

Please do not -rep me for the below. It is called constructive criticism.
-Terrain is flat
-Some computers can't handle the high elevation
-You can't even build anything (using only the $2 unit right now)
-After building 3 fighters (the $2 one) the game will give you 6 wood. At this point the game also puts you at a massive food amount. Almost in the millions.
-why can any fighter build any building they want to?
-red has a major advantage, he's on a piece of land with massive amount of those circles, and only entrance onto it.
-no difference in those 2 main buildings
-no choice in units (only 2 units in total, and 3 buildings?!)
-rivers are pretty bad looking, most are straight lines with 90* turns
-your mountains are barely visible
-You don't need that high of a camera height, some units can be very difficult to see
-the artic doesn't have any resource rings
-rock formations look like you took the circle pallete and just clicked once
-certain players have a massive advantage to other places by being in easier to defend places and places with more resource rings
-what's the point of a city foundation if you can't build on it (the large resource ring)

I understand it's a beta, but normally people actually play the game themselves to look for bugs.
And that list is only from a version with 5 custom units only (2 units, 3 buildings and 2 of those buildings are the same thing, one just costs 3 times more)

Play or not: I would say no, even when it's in it's beta/full game unless there is a massive amount of units and unit choices to make along with player balance in where they are.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

It's alpha anyhow, and the north-eastern area isn't quite finished yet, so that is why it is empty. I am working on more stuff even right now. The first epoch is meant to have very little options. The neolithic, nomadic tribes, had every person contributing to the earliest settlements (the warriors would also be the builders, and the hunters, and the farmers, with women-folk being purely there for breeding, as most people only lived to be about twenty, and there was a massive need for children to replace adults that died; either from harsh conditions or from their line of work). If you have any ideas for what else can be added, I'll gladly review them, and possibly implement them into my map.

Edit; Specific Request: I have, currently, the intention of having more than 12 start locations, and having the players pick their chosen spot in the game, instead of having the player slot assigned to a specific position on the map. Yet I am at a loss as to how I should do this!? I thought about possibly using a creep shop and having specific creep units determined for each country, or having an area where a 'selector' unit would move to a region which would trigger a specific country for that player. I might even be able to do the latter, but if anyone has any better ideas, I'd appreciate it.

 

[WindexGlow]

Simply have players randomly assigned to places. It's pretty easy to do.
And balance the land out, that huge island has only 1 spot for enemy forces to enter it.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

Planning for boats in future epochs, and england really doesn't have that much of an advantage, considering that there is a limited number of cities on it (and currently only the larger 'foundations' give any bonus income, the 'resources' will be upgradeable, later on, to give specific bonuses. I have added a check and auto correct function to the food trigger. I think it is working properly now. Thanks for pointing that out.

Edit: Also, you mentioned wood earlier, that is going to be 'tech points' allowing for technology advancement. It is not yet implemented. Alpha, remember. Have patience!

Edits: I am experiencing server splits whenever I play it online, I am at a loss to explain this. I have removed trigger functions and re-tested. The problem persists. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[WindexGlow]

Posting your unprotected map might help.

 

[Captain Griffen]

Could be stuff like unexpected object editor settings. EG: very very high values for health and stuff, negative values where it expects positives, etc.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

It is posted unprotected.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

I've done a dry test run, literally deleting all triggers, and the server split persists. I remain unable to figure out the cause.

 

[Mini-Me]

Thats no reason to double post. Use edit.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

I have found the error and fixed the server splits!!! The problem came into play because I am using "cliff tiles" for the snow. In normal world editor this would never become an issue, but in WEU for some reason the cliff tile became available to use as a cliff! I had used 3 cliff types (grass, dirt, and snow) in my map, and that caused the server splits. I loaded regular world editor, modified the tileset, and removed an unused tile, then it re-loaded, the extra cliff was gone (replaced with grass) and it functioned properly, without server splitting.

I'm going to look for a WEU forum to post the bug. An updated version of the map is released.

Edit: It seems that both the "forum" and "official website" of WEU is just a garbage spam site (both are the same). Something called WC3Campaigns.com I looked around but after pop-up number eight I got sick of it and closed the site. I don't know where this bug should be posted to let other people know there is an issue. Oh well, I guess.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

As seen in the final edit of the first post: I am giving up on this, the server splits re-appeared as of test version .04 alpha, and I have been unable to track down the new cause. I am done pulling out my hair over this. It was a great concept, and turned out very well in the few games were less than three people dropped and we were able to actually play. But there is no point in continuing the map development if it is impossible to play due to server splits. Thank you, who have been keeping up with my releases and posting your comments.

Please close the thread.

Cheers,

HisDivineShadow