My name is Veta and I'm interested in transferring over one of the greatest Brood War diplos to StarCraft II. If you're familiar with the game in question it needs no explanation but if not I'd be happy to elaborate here or even show you on StarCraft 1 (I have CD keys if you need). Blood & Iron: Europe 1870 was a strategy diplo, a special sort of diplo.
The gist of the map is that the game takes place roughly right before the Franco-Prussian War, during the Age of Rifles, as a consequence Germany is unified and is one of 7 playable nations (Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Ottoman Empire, Russia). Although I'm sure Spain could be added for an even 8. During this time period the nations of Europe have already standardized and phased out their many different types of regiments. As a consequence the game follows a very simple dynamic of unit variety:
-Riflemen (Ghosts) are your bread and butter
-Cavalry are shock troop Zealots (this was achieved through the use of shields on StarCraft 1)
-Artillery are Siege Tanks
-Some custom/new unit could be allocated to be a Machine Gun (instead of the Marine)
Essentially you have a bit of a triangle balance wherein Riflemen>Cavalry>Artillery>Riflemen. Machine Guns would be a sort of fortification or support troop but should by no means be a necessary or massable unit. Bunkers are the fortification used on StarCraft but frankly a better system could probably be devised on StarCraft 2 to represent trenches or garrisons.
Lastly Naval Units and battles were very simplified. At this time Iron Clads were becoming prevalent and there was a serious standardization of navies. In StarCraft 1 this was represented by a single battleship unit and dropships. In StarCraft 2 I'm sure this could be represented with a Battleship unit and a Destroyer unit, as well as transports, the naval sieging of cities should be very limited however (unlike that WW2 diplo).
Some mechanics that made this map great:
-Cities spawn partisan infantry (basically static infantry defense) whenever they are undersiege. Cities are not assimilated until these rebel infantry are quelled. As the game progresses so does the strength of these partisans.
-Different Cities have different values (this is done by either making them worth more strategically or by placing a resource near them)
-Resources are capturable special buildings that represent either a Coal Mine, Iron Mine or Oil Rig. This could easily be simplified by ascribing different values to Cities.
-You can industrialize each city you own by building a factory, which represents industry. (Industry is limited by your number of cities and is expensive enough that it is an investment)
-The years progress as the game progresses, allowing year based diplomacy.
-You can strike up alliances, defense pacts, secret alliances or what have you with other nations.
-War is announced when it is declared via triggers, if you begin losing a war you can surrender and pay reparations which subtract income and give it to the winner. You can also negotiate a cease fire wherein certain terms are met (surrender of cities or otherwise)
-As empires expand the minimap is updated to show how these empires grow
-The Naval aspect of the game is built around Overseas trade. There are 7 overseas trades on the map (1 for each player). Navies battle over these trades during war or they can leverage them for what have you. Navies are expensive enough that they can detract from your army strength should you invest too heavily in them.
-You can buy Rights of Passage to pass through the neutral nations
-A detailed scoreboard system depicting the year, income, industry, city count, kills and deaths (and perhaps military might in SC2)
-As the game progresses and so too does your technology (through upgrades) the neutral nation's strength also progresses accordingly.
-Lastly each nation generally had the same units at its disposal. No spawns or wars were triggered. Certain nations did have hero versions or special versions of units. For example, the Germans had elite riflemen that spawned with 800 hp vs the 750 for regular riflemen. I can get into more detail with this but essentially some nations received slightly better (5-10%) versions of different troops, but not enough to detract from the strategic value of their other types of troops.
The one thing to emphasize about this map that made it truly great however is that units were high HP and low damage relatively. This meant that microing and troop management had less importance than say the general maneuvering of your troops, troop makeup, and actual strategy (where you allocate troops & resources). The game didn't have a huge learning curve and, like I said I'd be happy to elaborate, play a game, or show the map to anyone interested in this project.
Indeed, we're currently far along as far as unit dynamics and such. What we're eventually going to struggle with is dialogs and some more complex trigger stuff. If anyone's interested in helping make a Diplomacy-Like map during the preamble to WW1 send me a PM. Our team is pretty well organized so it shouldn't be too hard to get someone caught up.
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Hello Gents,
My name is Veta and I'm interested in transferring over one of the greatest Brood War diplos to StarCraft II. If you're familiar with the game in question it needs no explanation but if not I'd be happy to elaborate here or even show you on StarCraft 1 (I have CD keys if you need). Blood & Iron: Europe 1870 was a strategy diplo, a special sort of diplo.
The gist of the map is that the game takes place roughly right before the Franco-Prussian War, during the Age of Rifles, as a consequence Germany is unified and is one of 7 playable nations (Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Ottoman Empire, Russia). Although I'm sure Spain could be added for an even 8. During this time period the nations of Europe have already standardized and phased out their many different types of regiments. As a consequence the game follows a very simple dynamic of unit variety: -Riflemen (Ghosts) are your bread and butter -Cavalry are shock troop Zealots (this was achieved through the use of shields on StarCraft 1) -Artillery are Siege Tanks -Some custom/new unit could be allocated to be a Machine Gun (instead of the Marine)
Essentially you have a bit of a triangle balance wherein Riflemen>Cavalry>Artillery>Riflemen. Machine Guns would be a sort of fortification or support troop but should by no means be a necessary or massable unit. Bunkers are the fortification used on StarCraft but frankly a better system could probably be devised on StarCraft 2 to represent trenches or garrisons.
Lastly Naval Units and battles were very simplified. At this time Iron Clads were becoming prevalent and there was a serious standardization of navies. In StarCraft 1 this was represented by a single battleship unit and dropships. In StarCraft 2 I'm sure this could be represented with a Battleship unit and a Destroyer unit, as well as transports, the naval sieging of cities should be very limited however (unlike that WW2 diplo).
Some mechanics that made this map great: -Cities spawn partisan infantry (basically static infantry defense) whenever they are undersiege. Cities are not assimilated until these rebel infantry are quelled. As the game progresses so does the strength of these partisans. -Different Cities have different values (this is done by either making them worth more strategically or by placing a resource near them) -Resources are capturable special buildings that represent either a Coal Mine, Iron Mine or Oil Rig. This could easily be simplified by ascribing different values to Cities. -You can industrialize each city you own by building a factory, which represents industry. (Industry is limited by your number of cities and is expensive enough that it is an investment) -The years progress as the game progresses, allowing year based diplomacy. -You can strike up alliances, defense pacts, secret alliances or what have you with other nations. -War is announced when it is declared via triggers, if you begin losing a war you can surrender and pay reparations which subtract income and give it to the winner. You can also negotiate a cease fire wherein certain terms are met (surrender of cities or otherwise) -As empires expand the minimap is updated to show how these empires grow -The Naval aspect of the game is built around Overseas trade. There are 7 overseas trades on the map (1 for each player). Navies battle over these trades during war or they can leverage them for what have you. Navies are expensive enough that they can detract from your army strength should you invest too heavily in them. -You can buy Rights of Passage to pass through the neutral nations -A detailed scoreboard system depicting the year, income, industry, city count, kills and deaths (and perhaps military might in SC2) -As the game progresses and so too does your technology (through upgrades) the neutral nation's strength also progresses accordingly. -Lastly each nation generally had the same units at its disposal. No spawns or wars were triggered. Certain nations did have hero versions or special versions of units. For example, the Germans had elite riflemen that spawned with 800 hp vs the 750 for regular riflemen. I can get into more detail with this but essentially some nations received slightly better (5-10%) versions of different troops, but not enough to detract from the strategic value of their other types of troops.
The one thing to emphasize about this map that made it truly great however is that units were high HP and low damage relatively. This meant that microing and troop management had less importance than say the general maneuvering of your troops, troop makeup, and actual strategy (where you allocate troops & resources). The game didn't have a huge learning curve and, like I said I'd be happy to elaborate, play a game, or show the map to anyone interested in this project.
Here's what we have so far:
sounds like a cool map. With some models outta SC2 this could be a very entertaining gametype
Indeed, we're currently far along as far as unit dynamics and such. What we're eventually going to struggle with is dialogs and some more complex trigger stuff. If anyone's interested in helping make a Diplomacy-Like map during the preamble to WW1 send me a PM. Our team is pretty well organized so it shouldn't be too hard to get someone caught up.