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Making
a good scenario
part 2
3) Parent and
colony map creation is the last step you need to take when setting
up your adventure. Once the world map is in place and all of your
goals and plans are on paper start creating your maps. Remember
to insert all of the required resources for each of these maps and
have fun.
4) Add the
story through text is my last step and personally my hardest step.
I am not a great storyteller and it does take me some time to put
together the tale I want to tell.
Okay so far
I have tried to layout the foundation for a good adventure. Now
lets see if I can pick apart a few things to help you develop more
than a working adventure... Lets make it a great one.
Once everything
is done and set up you will go to your editor and select the create
adventure button. If anything was wrong with your adventure, you
will see it here and you will not have created the final adventure.
One of the most common errors here is food type. Often times a player
will create an adventure with three food types in his parent city
and then go on to a colony and have two food types etc. Then when
the create adventure button is selected the player gets the message
"too many food types colony1....." The editor allows four food types
and you are wondering why you get the error. In Zeus you are allowed
four food types total throughout the world. That means, colonies,
rivals, vassals and trade all added together can only equal four.
Now that the
adventure is working lets once again look at the difference between
great and okay. In your worldview it is essential that you spend
the time to alter your trade routes to suit the landscape or seascape
depending on the route. Also make sure that Islands trade by sea
and land traders do not cross-oceans. This all adds to the polish
of your product.
While still
in the worldview lets take a look at each of your cities properties.
All of these cities have a tribute paid and received slot. Try to
edit the tributes to match the cities resources. It is pretty boring
to have all of the cities you conquer pay you 100 Drachma. And even
more boring to have your colonies pay you in Drachma when, in fact
you founded that colony for a specific resource.
Next while still
in worldview take a look at your city names and leader names. It
is pretty embarrassing to publish and adventure that has ten Athens
on the map with one leader ruling them all.
Now lets take
a small look at the events of each episode of your adventure. Zeus
has a very powerful editor to use, but you can destroy a great map
and adventure if you do not work out your events properly. I am
not going to go into great detail with this, as I feel this would
be a whole different article (maybe how to use the editor) In your
events, planning is once again the key. A tidal wave that is set
to recurring on the 4 month of yr 0 will recur every year in the
exact same place, at the exact same time. Yes this is nice, but
lets try to make it more interesting. Zeus does not really have
a random function, but you can create one yourself. Add more than
one tidal wave zone. Make sure they do not touch each other or they
will become one. I like to have three. Now in your events set one
tidal wave to recur like I said above. But also toss in a tidal
wave on the 7-month of yr one. Have it from a different zone. Now
add another on the 6-month of yr 0 from the first zone. Now in the
third year have one from the third zone. I like to have the third
zone set up as a larger wave and it happens late in the episode.
The others build up to it and the player has a tougher time planning
around the waves. This sort of set up can also be used for military.
Use lava and earthquakes wisely as well. If you plan a large-scale
earthquake, try to be fair and have the event occur early. Later
disasters can destroy great cities and a lot of work by a player,
who may not return to your creations later. Always place earthquakes
on sea level land. There is a tiling problem on higher land and
you can get odd texture results because of it. Lava is another thing
that you want to make sure looks good. Try not to paint huge sections
of terrain red with the lava tool. It really does look awful when
the event takes place. Use a tiny or small brush for lava and paint
small streams of the red goo for better effect. Never place lava
on rocks or edges of land changes. You get bad tiling here as well
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