Age of Strategy Forums

I was thinking if it was possible to create an entire campaign from one massive map. There would be tons of triggers to initiate each chapter, with messages etc and all of your choices would count. For example sending troops up from your capital to help defend somewhere when all of a sudden an Ambush on your capital in the next chapter. If it is to be made, I would be willing to give it a go although I am not good at triggering... Maybe some one else could do that part.

I have begun work on the map. it is 100x100!
I have a few ideas for the story-line:
The player is trying to conquer the world - is an aggressor.
The player is fighting against an empire which is conquering all of the world.
The player owns the world and is fighting against an uprising
The player is the uprising.

Any ideas?

I like the uprising idea.

Each Chapter includes the territory of the prior chapter. So TC in the prior maps can be used to help the player.
Chapter 1 Uprising - is a small portion of the map (20x20), to take control of the village in the mountains. Map starts in the bottom right corner of the 100x100 map.
Chapter 2 Establishment - is 40x20 portion of the map, to leave the mountain to establish a base in the valley (like have to build 10 stables) and 50 knights while eliminating a garrison
Chapter 3 Freedom - is 40x60, to take your 50 knights and liberate the next two villages to the north.
Chapter 4 The fort - is 60x60, (there is a river that must be crossed with your knights to storm a strategic fort to the west of the northern town). Make it where assassins are needed to break the siege.
Chapter 5 Trade Road - is 100x60,secure the trade routes south of the fort
Chapter 6 Retreat - is 100x60, the capital sends a large army and now has the middle 40x60 area and the player has to recapture
Chapter 7 Door Steps - is 100x80, push northward and liberate the heavily fortified towns to the east and west of the capital
Chapter 8 Trap - is 100x80, mercenaries come from the south while the capital pushes south, player has to eliminate the threat
Chapter 9 Liberation - is 100x100, player takes over the kingdom
Chapter 10 Defend - is 100x100, three rival kingdoms (East, West, and South) send armies to take over the weaken kingdom, player has to defend and eliminate all threats. Turn trigger comes in and adds reinforcements to the invading armies. The invading armies are not allied. Player has the old kingdom guards helping as an AI team.

Cool idea, but one problem you will face is that the AI will take eons to move. Overall the larger the map the longer the game.

I don't think you understood.
It will be one map. Open world. You choose what to do. Each chapter is a message that gives you objectivesfor the next chapter, but you choose how to achieve it. There will be a ton of triggers too, so the Ai only spawns in its towns when you are nearby.
It will work by the player attacking cities to grow, but also the longer they wait, the more and the stronger armies are sent to crush them.

Ok, yes I understood. If the map size is 100x100, that is bigger than even I have tried to make and that was around 80x60 (and it was to be trigger/chapter as well). I had pretty minimal units and it took forever for the AI turn. But it may work, you might as well try it.

No, it won't take long, as the ai won't have spawned in the cities until the player gets within viewing distance of it. Or, if possible they would be stationary

ok...

You should make it work in a balanced way. If you can retain what you gained in the previous maps you should give a good challenge in the next step. Another thing you should do is adding extra improvements or staff to research in a log time (like some smith improvements that get cost something like 10/20/50/100 turns or you won't have much to do going on

The terrain is complete! Here is a screenshot of my map, hope you like it!

Looks nice.

boat based maps are not my favorite, but the island approach will make controlling the triggers easier.

Looks epic.

this is a VERY cool idea!!

as far as the concept goes:

ollie444 wrote:I have begun work on the map. it is 100x100!
I have a few ideas for the story-line:
The player is trying to conquer the world - is an aggressor.
The player is fighting against an empire which is conquering all of the world.
The player owns the world and is fighting against an uprising
The player is the uprising.

Any ideas?

why not make several campaigns in the same map, but from the point of view of the 2 or 3 different warring factions? faction A would be the first campaign, and if successfully completed, it could unlock faction B's campaign, etc...kind of like the CHALLENGE mode in Unreal Tournament...if any of you remember that game...I still have a working copy...

Thanks. Great idea! Seems a waste of all this work for one map right?

ollie444 wrote:Thanks. Great idea! Seems a waste of all this work for one map right?

well, the map's spectacular, but a single campaign seems like it would be a waste of all the work that went into building the map...I still like the idea, though!! I'm a FIEND for big maps!!!

I have an idea for adding very large maps with loose triggering, e.g. some number of units in one area (e.g. some capital) will spawn some number of units in another area, research techs, etc..

The difference between these maps and conventional trigger maps are that the overall triggering does not push the player into a single storyline.

With the size of the maps (playtime equivalent to entire campaigns/multiplayer games), triggers can become part of the 'map world' itself, giving flavour to the world, reinforcing enemies etc.

This can also lead into a new breed of historical maps, capturing the breadth/grand strategy of an entire era instead of depicting only particular historical battles.

Gem rewards (if given) may be calculated more similar to random/skirmish games than conventional campaign turn count.

(These maps may also be made as pre-set multiplayer, but unfortunately most will be imbalanced)