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 Design
Criteria
- Map: Should be highly
symmetrical, having 12x12 "Huge" land squares,
surrounded by a water border approximately 2
"Large" squares thick. Should provide elevation to
make certain areas of the map more "desirable" to
control than others, and so skilled players can maximize
unit attack strength by attacking from a higher elevation.
Should evenly and fairly distribute elevation throughout.
Don't include obstacles like mountains in which units can
get stuck.
- Number of Units: All standard
land and water-based military units should be included, (except siege when
villagers are not available). Each player should start with ALL
standard military units so that any civ choice has the
potential to lend an advantage to the game. For example, the
Japanese Kataparuto technology is useless without trebs, but
a useful civ bonus that, if played well, could alone tip the balance of the
game.
- Unit Flavor: Units should be BASIC (not
elite or heavy, etc.), so that age settings and player civ
choice may result in maximum army differentiation at the
start of the game.
- Heroes: None. Heroes have
special attributes not understood by most players, and are
not designed to be combined en masse. Villagers can not
build
hero-strength walls or towers to counter these units. The
scenario is designed to allow players to maximize their
knowledge of existing unit attributes, not "super"
attributes like extra-high hit points or attack. Also, many
heroes look exactly like regular units in the game, and that
kind of deception can easily cost someone the game.
- Unit Placement: Units
should be rotated (facing the same direction) to ease unit
identification and minimize confusion at game start. Cavalry
should be able to quickly charge out to intercept incoming
enemy units. Weaker units should be protected by stronger
units. Placement should reduce or eliminate risk of defeat
by a simple enemy rush.
- Outposts: Each player needs
sufficient early warning of enemy movement near one's camp.
Each player should be able to see at the beginning of the
game (with Castle age technology) where each enemy camp is
situated. However, enemy outposts should not be so close to
one's camp that they are auto-targeted and destroyed by
one's units when the game starts.
- Villagers: If present,
should not be allowed to build buildings that can be used to
create more units or research additional technologies.
- Triggers: No triggers are
allowed which result in the granting of any special units,
technologies or unit upgrades. The scenario is designed to
allow players to maximize their knowledge of existing
terrain features, building and unit attributes, not made-up
"features" like hidden upgrades, etc. The scenario
is complex enough without throwing in these additional
features.
- Regicide: If a player loses
one's king, that player should be instantly eliminated from
the game, one way or another.
- Advantages: If an
advantage, however slight, is to be given to any of the
players at game start (as a result of elevation, unit
placement, etc.), the advantage should not be given to the
"host" (also known as the "Blue"
player). The host usually has more experience playing the
game than the other players, which is an advantage in
itself.
- Player Placement: Player #1
should be placed opposite Player #2. Player #3 should be
placed opposite Player #4, etc.
- Colors: Player #1 should be
blue, Player #2 should be red, Player #3 should be green,
Player #4 should be yellow, etc. Ensemble has yet to fix
some of the major trigger-related bugs associated with
player color selection in custom scenarios, so it's better just to leave this
aspect of the game alone for now.
Copyright © 2000,
SavvyPlayer. All rights
reserved except where otherwise noted. Age of Empires logos and information Copyright © 2000 Microsoft Corporation, One
Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 U.S.A. All rights reserved. Names,
trademarks, and copyrights are the property of the originating companies. Links
Do Not Necessarily Suggest Endorsement.
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