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Mark_Everson
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Canton, MI
Jan 1970
time: 00:25
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As was discussed in the Reworking our Demo Approach thread, we are working on a series of scenarios that add new functionality to Clash in a way that gives tutorial guidance to the player. That way the learning curve isn't so steep it scares off playtesters. To that end, I'm going to describe what's being done in terms of coding going forward over the next several months, and attempt to frame that in terms of tutorial scenarios that can be constructed around teaching the new capabilities to players in an engaging fashion. First I'll list the new capabilities that are going to come online in my best guess at a rough chronological order. That way if you don't like my proposal for tutorial scenarios, you can roll your own.
New capabilities and who's doing them:
1. Rework tech model to the new knowledge-based system and greatly expand the tech system to cover much of ancient world technology [Richard, Laurent]
2. Get xml spec for economics going, and refactor econ code. This will enable more flexible scenarios in terms of economic activity, and also support #5 [Mark]
3. Diplomatic code implemented (at least first version) with a gui [Vovan]
4. Get government model code working, partly using gui Gary designed. [Mark]
5. Implement a flexible high-level economics gui [LFS]
6. First implementation of 'Real' AI [Laurent]
7. More advanced Technology GUI [?]
8. There was also some discussion by Gary about what he would like to do for Demo 8 in the previous Plans for D8 thread. This included save games and how to handle cities as a “square within a square” As he comes back online, I expect he will devote his efforts in those areas.
As I think you can see, when we get these done, Clash is going to be Much closer to a reasonably-fun and functional 4x game. As always we'll be flexible in our plans, since its impossible to tell who RL might sideswipe  . And who knows, we may also get more coders and other team members  .
Now, on to a strategy to produce demos with an appropriate tutorial ladder that covers this stuff.
For Demo 7.3 I only want to count on #s 1 and 2 above, and tech is the really critical one here.
Expansion and Innovation Scenario (This has several details taken from scenario 4 in the link above.)
This scenario will start off in terms of game mechanics where the Dawn scenario left off. The player will start with a compact civ with technology slightly above the bottom of the barrel. In the distance, near the edges of the map are other civilizations at the same stage. The scenario's main purposes are to introduce to the player to a more epic-style Clash game, and talk about the tech model in some detail. I hope the scenario can get much of the way through classical antiquity and let the player either build a big empire, or grow in a more cooperative mode with the other civs, depending on what the player prefers. It can also be used to provide a tutorial for wall building, sieges, and some more-advanced economics concepts. For dealing with the other civs, the scenario will use a very simple diplomatic approach that does not involve the player greatly. The main goal is to expand and either hold at bay, or conquer other civs as the player desires. All the balancing and decisions that the player needed to make in the previous scenarios is expected to be needed with a vengeance here!
1. The game starts with the players' civ in free-expansion mode, with only occasional barbarian attacks to provide a little tension. Several other small civs are placed so they're not too close. The AI civs will each get a larger starting civ to help compensate for the current AI’s disadvantage vs a human player. There will be a race for the available land on the map as in the beginning of most 4x games. While the player is doing this they will be introduced to what technological progress can do to aid their expansion, including key things to do if they prefer a peaceful or military path. Dialogs telling the player about how tech works, and explaining key technologies will be common throughout the early parts of the scenario
2. When the player runs into other civs, a permanent diplomatic status is randomly generated. My notion is to have it weighted toward peace for now. If the player should attack an enemy then the status changes to war automatically and stays that way forever. Or perhaps a 20-turn or so lull in the fighting could automatically change it back to peace? Perhaps occasionally one of the civs could change state randomly or in response to player actions.
3. The player has the choice between attempting coexistence or conquest. Coexistence will allow for better growth in the more peaceful technologies due to tech diffusion. Growing economically will also be much easier without the demands of outfitting major armies. Conquest will improve the military arts, at least to some extent. It will also increase the civilization's size, allowing more RP (research point) generation within the civ. We will need to balance so that either strategy is viable.
4. Victory could be technological, military or economic. The technological victory could be as simple as achieving a given breakthrough technology, or might be defined in terms of needing a certain technological lead over the others. The other conditions could be something like: If at any point you have 4/5 of either the total military or economic power on the board, you win, although there would be an option for you to continue playing anyway. Or alternatively there could be other objectives. Suggestions?
I think that in constructing this scenario and in initial testing we'll learn a lot about the tech model. Once it gets into the playtesters' hands we can see if it is sufficiently captivating, and if not, act accordingly.
For Demo 8 we would have a scenario TBD that highlights the Diplomacy and Government models, and also uses whatever real AI is available at that point. I don’t have a really good idea for a tutorial scenario for these much beyond what was suggested as Tutorial Scenario 3 in the link above. I’ll recap it with fairly substantial modification here.
Internal and External Threats
The purpose of this scenario is to introduce the government model, and ethnicity in the social model to the player. The player will have to master these to hold on at the end. The internal threats are from riots of captured peoples of other ethnic groups, The external threat is, as before, a massive barb invasion at the end. We will also include the need for some nuanced diplomacy.
1. Much of the government and social model will be needed for this. The player’s power to tax will be limited by the governmental setup. The properties of the government will also affect technological and economic growth. Deciding how to balance these issues, and the ethnic-based and other riots mentioned below will be the key to winning.
2. In addition to the player there will be several other civs, that must be diplomatically isolated one at a time to be conquered profitably. If the small civs are made to band together through inept diplomacy by the player then the player should have a very difficult time of it. This would allow introduction of the diplomacy model in a reasonable way. The player must expand through conquest since the Evil Empire  is known to be heading this way, and only under a unified civ is there any hope of resistance.
3. The delicate intra-civ manuvering in this scenario, once the player conquers some of the smaller civs, is to provide the player with conquered peoples that need to be administered. The reason is that Discrimination-Based riots are relatively straightforward to implement, and provide the player with a reason to engage in internal power struggles using the govt. model. The short version of this challenge is that there is a strong religious power block in the civ that is intolerant, and the player can only reduce overt discrimination by using the governmental apparatus. Trying to wrest away power from the strong religious political block is one way to prevent extreme oppression of the conquered peoples, which causes them to riot and/or revolt.
4. At the end there will be a substantial invasion by a big civ “offstage”. Whether the conquered peoples fight for the player, or the invaders is based on previous player actions.
I am not quite happy with this one yet, so counter-proposals are very welcome.
With Demo 8 should also come our first challenging whole-ancient-history scenarios. If random maps are available we should use them. If not we can at least have a selection of several pre-made maps with appropriately-advantaged AI civs sprinkled about.
What do you think?
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16-01-2003 06:24
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