Map Editor options/trigger suggestions

[TaxCollector]

Something I'd love to have in Caesar iv is a powerful map editor.

Many succesful games that remain popular for a long time have a good map editor. Because people will tend to make more maps if the editor has nice list of options.

My wish list:

Events :
-A player's population goes under a certain number
-Stock of a certain good in warehouse drops below a certain number
-Player loses a specific building
-Player finished a certain building/monument
-A house reaches a certain level
-Amount of buildings on fire
-Culture/prosperity/favor/peace drops/rises below/above a certain number
-Amount of employees needed exceeds a certain amount
-Amount of unemployment exceeds a certain number
-Amount of cities conquered/lost
-Amount of people of a certain class
-Amount of cash rises/drops above/below a certain number
-Happyness of people drops/rises below/above a certain %
-Countdown timer reaches a certain time
-etc etc...

Actions (what will happen if an event has occured):

-player wins/loses
-building/unit/amount of cash/goods, gets removed
-enemy army attacks
-popularity drops/rises
-caesar requests cash/goods
-Earthquake/tidal wave/Vulcanic eruption occurs
-God attacks/blesses
-activate countdown timer
-make building available/unavailable

Adding this to the map editor will attract various play styles.
Examples:

Cash rises above 200000 denari--> enemy army attacks
Population drops below 1000--> player loses
A house reaches palace level--> tidal wave is activated.

It would also be cool to have conditions combined with the action.
example:
population drops below 1000--> less than 5 wine in warehouse--> player loses
By adding the 5 wine condition to the trigger, the action "player loses" will only take place if the player has less than 5 wine in his warehouse.

anyway these are just suggestions, think about it.
I'm sure Tilted Mill's scenario designers would love this :P

[homegrown]

*cough* random maps *cough*

:)

Wouldn't want y'all to think I was taking a break by not responding to an editor thread with my #1 request.

[MarkDuffy]

*cough* random maps *cough*

Absolutely!

I hate to draw maps. It is what has kept me from learning the editor.

Random map in the game options also! :)

[TaxCollector]

I understand you all like random maps but that's not the point of this thread.

[sitearm]

* chuckles sympathetically *

TaxCollector:

1. See "threadjack" defined here (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=68787&postcount=1)... :)

2. Don't worry, see "threadjack solution" given here (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=68485&postcount=25)... :p

I understand you all like random maps but that's not the point of this thread.

[King Faticus]

I really like your editor Ideas (keep em commin) :cool:

[homegrown]

I really like your editor Ideas (keep em commin) :cool:

It's too bad not a one of them is new. All of this is covered in the CotN editor, if you know how to do it. Forgive me for at least adding something that hasn't been done yet.

I'm taking some great exception to the way people are treating each other here. I keep forgetting that some people think their opinions/suggestions are better than others.

[King Faticus]

I've never played cotn personally.... I just can't get int egyptian culture
plus all the screen shots were flooded with the same colors (i get migranes easily and constant colors make me feel sick) browns tans and beige with a little paint on each building (this exempts the green areas around the river i love the contrast in colors here)

[sitearm]

King Faticus: Caesar III has quite a lot of desert tan maps, I've noticed... : ironic eye roll :

You might download the Children of the Nile demo (http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/downloads/demo.php) and try it out, for several reasons. First, make sure it runs on your computer, as Caesar IV will be at least as demanding of your hardware. Second, you'll see there are quite a lot of colorful scenes. CotN light changes based on time of day and it's quite fantastic, really (see scene below in three different lights at sunrise). Third, you might like it. Fourth, it's free! :D

I've never played cotn personally.... I just can't get int egyptian culture plus all the screen shots were flooded with the same colors (i get migranes easily and constant colors make me feel sick) browns tans and beige with a little paint on each building (this exempts the green areas around the river i love the contrast in colors here)

[Josh]

To counter your wishes, while I In no way would like them to handicap everyone's editor, a 'Simple' mode, would be most desireable, Allowing people to just play in the mud, draw their city the way they want it, and then have a 'Randomly' designed world level map, give them a form to fill out for what they want to be able to import, and what they want to be able to export, and then have the computer draft up a world map to suit.

In simple mode it would be great if lot of the conditions and variables were taken out, or if "templates" could be made to do basic common stuff.

Have it all done in forms ask you a couple questions about your world map and other settings, and let the rest of it default unless otherwise stated.

This would make it easier for newbies to make their first map and get playing it, the editor would be less overwhelming to people not wanting to get deep into the technical side of things, and the people who see 20 options boxes with forign words get frightened and dont try the thing.

The number of maps produced by the community for COTN was... underwhelming at best, Myself I tried a map and got hung up on these very things, And im sure I cant be the only one who thought the 8 threads of map creation was a little much compared to the old C3 Editor.

This isnt saying they shouldnt release the wonderfull fully featured developers edition editor! Its just saying that some time spent making a simple easy to use editor could benefit the map making community greatly. And therefore expand the life of this game in the community.

[Azeem]

Very true. While the CotN editor has some amazing capabilities, it's not exactly easy to figure out. :) In the old CBs, you could easily build a map and add events for that map in just a few hours of mapmaking. In CotN, it's a lot tougher since there are so many factors involved. Of course, the editor for Caesar 4 should allow complex events and triggers, but it would also be nice if the interface and the controls were a bit more intuitive. I have to do too much guessing in the CotN editor. ;)

[Gweilo]

Here are a couple of items for my C4 Editor wish list:

1. The capability to use custom city names of the designer's choosing, instead of being forced to use only names on a delivered list. This would really open up the creativity and historical accuracy of fan-designed campaigns.

2. The capability to use custom city leader names of the designer's choosing, same reason as 1.

3. A "Message" scripted event, in which the only result when the event fires is to pop-up a message to the player. Of course, the message's text must be totally customizable by the designer. There are endless applications for this simple event, such as tutorials, in-game help & hints, enhanced storyline, etc.

4. Campaign/mission splash screens that allow larger amounts of text to be written. For example, the 1024 bytes allowed in Emperor is not big enough (to wordy designers like me!)

5. Higher limit to the maximum number of scripted events in a mission. For example, the limit of 110 scripted events/mission in Emperor is too low.

Thanks for your consideration on these. :)

[arcan]

To counter your wishes, while I In no way would like them to handicap everyone's editor, a 'Simple' mode, would be most desireable,
I agree : the possibility to go into every details has to be there, but I'd also like the option to have the possibility to just "make the city map".
In example : I create a city map and choose which buildings/wonders can be built. I don't have to create a WM : either use one from another game, or the editor takes a "basic" map.

and other such things, so that one doesn't have to go into much just to create a city map and play it.