I'm putting this up here for posterity and possibly for collaboration and help if anyone is up for it. I'm kind of a lousy map designer.
I've only just barely started on the map, just a "central park" area and a basic shape of the map, and I have a pretty complete idea of what I want the map to look like and the scenario to play out like. This is an HD map because I want to take advantage of the African architecture and the map editor objects; in particular, there's a handy building that randomly chooses a Wonder out of all the Wonders in the game so you can have every Wonder in the game in one map.
Anyway, here's the idea:
_ T H E _ M A P _
The map would be an extremely dense map full of buildings and narrow streets. It would look like a fully functional, hopefully organic-looking city, with multiple ethnic-based neighborhoods, industrial areas, parks, schools, churches, etc.
I've chosen 1 civ per architecture set except Western European, which will be filled in by GAIA units. The city will be extremely diverse looking.
_ G A M E P L A Y _
Basically Grand Theft Auto. Kind of similar to the extremely popular Grand Theft Horse scenario but with active AI players who are very, very, very slowly working their way to their own goals.
Single-player. The player would play as a member of one of 6 gangs. You could choose to be a member of one of the gangs at the beginning of the game, and each gang has different pros and cons. The player will make temporary alliances with the different gangs to try and eliminate other gangs, but there's a heavy emphasis on the word "temporary," as the player ultimately wants his gang to succeed.
The player must also deal with the mostly passive city, it's residents, and the police force. That's where sidequests come in.
A huge emphasis will be put on Monks; the player will slowly convert important buildings of the city, as well as enemy police and city residents to add to his own small army. The player must capture Relics and obtain other resources to build siege weapons and create units of his own. To facilitate the scarcity of resources, you have to pay bribes and pay upkeep to your soldiers.
_ S T O R Y _
Epolis - Byzantines - a Spanish port colony in present-day Florida built by survivors of the Byzantine Empire. It is ruled under a Republican style with a Senate and has attracted numerous, different ethnic groups from all around the world.
However there is an underbelly of organized crime, and 6 gangs currently are vying for control of the city. They are based on American crime organizations so it's extremely anachronistic but medieval Italians getting into Hand Cannon fights with medieval Blacks is hilarious.
Cosa Nostra - Italians - The Italian mob. The Crown of Castile originally brought a bunch of Italians out here to help them run the colony and now Italians have come out to the city in droves. On their coattails are unsavory folks from Italy looking to make a buck; the Cosa Nostra are the richest gang in the New World owing to their money hungry contacts in Italy. The New World may not have much gold but silver is the next best thing and their cousins back home want it.
Undzer Shtick - Teutons - The Jewish Mob. Jews are basically persecuted everywhere, and the Jews of Spain in particular paid a very tidy sum to Spain to be allowed to leave Spain and settle in the New World. A win-win for the Crown, and many Jews have emigrated from all over Europe. Some of the Jews remember the persecution they've suffered and have decided to form a mob for the "protection" of their people. And if some of their people disagree with their methods, they may as well be Gentiles.
Red Mafiya - Slavs - The Bulgarian mob, stand-ins for the real-life Russian mob. Lots of Bulgar and Sorbs fled from the Ottoman Empire to come along with the Greeks. They are mainly here to make as much money as possible to send back to the Balkans to help with the independence effort...while taking their own cut, of course.
Yakuza - Japanese - I was originally going to have the Chinese Triads here but I couldn't come up with a good excuse to have them. Mainly Christian Japanese stowed away with the Portuguese and the Spanish to head to New Spain fleeing persecution. Many disgraced Samurai or lower class Japanese are trying to get out of Japan, too, to avoid getting their heads chopped off for insulting somebody. But some of these samurai miss the power that was taken away from them by the Shogun, so they want to be daimyos in this new world.
Maya Kartzel - Mayans - Stand-ins for Mexican organized crime. The Spanish conquest of Mayan lands has taken forever but it's inevitable. A group of Mayans saw this fact and decided to hightail it out of Yucatan and began settling the Caribbean. They brought their farming techniques to Epolis and were a welcome sight for the leaders of the city. However the writing is on the wall, and the Europeans want to take over the entire New World. Some Maya know they have to do some unsavory things just to survive.
Sons of Gold - Malians - The Transatlantic slave trade is in full swing, and many Malinke traders see the economic potential of the New World so they've decided to settle. Among these Malinke are men with vision, using the massive amounts of gold from the West Africa they are buying slaves and forming their own personal armies. These slaves know they cannot go home, most of their parents are dead, but gold has bought their freedom and that's all that matters.
I've only just barely started on the map, just a "central park" area and a basic shape of the map, and I have a pretty complete idea of what I want the map to look like and the scenario to play out like. This is an HD map because I want to take advantage of the African architecture and the map editor objects; in particular, there's a handy building that randomly chooses a Wonder out of all the Wonders in the game so you can have every Wonder in the game in one map.
Anyway, here's the idea:
The map would be an extremely dense map full of buildings and narrow streets. It would look like a fully functional, hopefully organic-looking city, with multiple ethnic-based neighborhoods, industrial areas, parks, schools, churches, etc.
I've chosen 1 civ per architecture set except Western European, which will be filled in by GAIA units. The city will be extremely diverse looking.
Basically Grand Theft Auto. Kind of similar to the extremely popular Grand Theft Horse scenario but with active AI players who are very, very, very slowly working their way to their own goals.
Single-player. The player would play as a member of one of 6 gangs. You could choose to be a member of one of the gangs at the beginning of the game, and each gang has different pros and cons. The player will make temporary alliances with the different gangs to try and eliminate other gangs, but there's a heavy emphasis on the word "temporary," as the player ultimately wants his gang to succeed.
The player must also deal with the mostly passive city, it's residents, and the police force. That's where sidequests come in.
A huge emphasis will be put on Monks; the player will slowly convert important buildings of the city, as well as enemy police and city residents to add to his own small army. The player must capture Relics and obtain other resources to build siege weapons and create units of his own. To facilitate the scarcity of resources, you have to pay bribes and pay upkeep to your soldiers.
Epolis - Byzantines - a Spanish port colony in present-day Florida built by survivors of the Byzantine Empire. It is ruled under a Republican style with a Senate and has attracted numerous, different ethnic groups from all around the world.
However there is an underbelly of organized crime, and 6 gangs currently are vying for control of the city. They are based on American crime organizations so it's extremely anachronistic but medieval Italians getting into Hand Cannon fights with medieval Blacks is hilarious.
Cosa Nostra - Italians - The Italian mob. The Crown of Castile originally brought a bunch of Italians out here to help them run the colony and now Italians have come out to the city in droves. On their coattails are unsavory folks from Italy looking to make a buck; the Cosa Nostra are the richest gang in the New World owing to their money hungry contacts in Italy. The New World may not have much gold but silver is the next best thing and their cousins back home want it.
Undzer Shtick - Teutons - The Jewish Mob. Jews are basically persecuted everywhere, and the Jews of Spain in particular paid a very tidy sum to Spain to be allowed to leave Spain and settle in the New World. A win-win for the Crown, and many Jews have emigrated from all over Europe. Some of the Jews remember the persecution they've suffered and have decided to form a mob for the "protection" of their people. And if some of their people disagree with their methods, they may as well be Gentiles.
Red Mafiya - Slavs - The Bulgarian mob, stand-ins for the real-life Russian mob. Lots of Bulgar and Sorbs fled from the Ottoman Empire to come along with the Greeks. They are mainly here to make as much money as possible to send back to the Balkans to help with the independence effort...while taking their own cut, of course.
Yakuza - Japanese - I was originally going to have the Chinese Triads here but I couldn't come up with a good excuse to have them. Mainly Christian Japanese stowed away with the Portuguese and the Spanish to head to New Spain fleeing persecution. Many disgraced Samurai or lower class Japanese are trying to get out of Japan, too, to avoid getting their heads chopped off for insulting somebody. But some of these samurai miss the power that was taken away from them by the Shogun, so they want to be daimyos in this new world.
Maya Kartzel - Mayans - Stand-ins for Mexican organized crime. The Spanish conquest of Mayan lands has taken forever but it's inevitable. A group of Mayans saw this fact and decided to hightail it out of Yucatan and began settling the Caribbean. They brought their farming techniques to Epolis and were a welcome sight for the leaders of the city. However the writing is on the wall, and the Europeans want to take over the entire New World. Some Maya know they have to do some unsavory things just to survive.
Sons of Gold - Malians - The Transatlantic slave trade is in full swing, and many Malinke traders see the economic potential of the New World so they've decided to settle. Among these Malinke are men with vision, using the massive amounts of gold from the West Africa they are buying slaves and forming their own personal armies. These slaves know they cannot go home, most of their parents are dead, but gold has bought their freedom and that's all that matters.
[This message has been edited by The Battler (edited 11-08-2015 @ 10:42 PM).]