Brief Guide to Multiplayer Scenario Design - Part 2

Discuss, upload or download a new Scenario

Moderators: Global Moderator, Age Moderator

Post Reply
User avatar
murdilator
N3O Member
N3O Member
Posts: 249
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:29 pm
Location: Norway

Brief Guide to Multiplayer Scenario Design - Part 2

Post by murdilator »

Greetings again all :)!


I will proceed to explain Groups that hold triggers, Explorer triggers and also how I create and use them. Below on my signature I have four scenarios available for download. For this purpose I will require you to download 1v1OntarioV2, which has easy-to-read, non-complex explorer triggers. By itself it is an excellent 1v1 map, around 280x280 to 324x324 meters.

Link to 1v1OntarioV2:

http://aoe3.heavengames.com/downloads/s ... ileid=2213

When you download it, unzip (if it needs unzipping), and put it in this folder:

%USERPROFILE%/MyDocuments/MyGames/AgeOfEmpiresIII/Scenario/

Proceed to go into Age of Empires III and go to Options --> Scenario Editor. When you reach there, there is a load scenario button up in the top left corner (it is where saving and stuff like that is if you do that manually). Load 1v1OntarioV2, and press "t." This will get you to triggers. You will also notice that there are several groups of triggers if you click on "Ungrouped." If I recall correctly, all the vital triggers and Fade_To_Color triggers are in ungrouped, and on the side I have catagories named Balance, Random Natives, Explorers1, Explorers2, Dynamic Weather, and possibly some others.

I want you to look at the Explorers1 triggers. They should be named and ordered in my scenario triggers like this:

Trigger Group: Explorers1

AztecWarchief1
ChineseMonk(s)1
DutchEnvoy1
EuropeanExplorers1
FrenchScout1
IndianMonks1
IroquoisWarchief1 (Might place a discovery travois)
JapaneseMonks1
SiouxWarchief1
SpanishWarDog1

BE SURE TO LOOK AT THE CONDITIONS IN DETAIL. THESE ARE VERY SIMPLE BUT WORK WONDERS IN AOE III.

Diagram of in-scenario editor 1v1OntarioV3 (Later version of 1v1OntarioV2):

Image


If you noticed any a's in front of the trigger name, like aEuropeanExplorers1, and bEuropeanExplorers1, this means that all a's are placing the Explorer units in the original location (Player 1's usual starting base), and b's indicate creating Explorer Units at another location (in a 1v1 like this one, at Player 2's usual starting base). This is because I often randomize my Town Center's starting locations in my scenarios in order to give the scenario more re-play value and adding the taste of a standard Random Map, or RM. However, this uses a bit more complex triggers called Quest Vars or Quest Variables that require about two other triggers to work. I plan to get into this a bit later after Explorers have been explained.

Now how exactly do these Explorer triggers work? I've seen your conditions and effects but how long does it take to make these? Also, how can I make sure that the computer understands what civilization (British, Dutch, etc.) I or other players are and create the correct type of Explorers for that team? When I make my triggers, I make a specific trigger for each Explorer type for each civilization for an entire player. However, the first step in this is creating additional trigger groups in the Group Editor, found where triggers and "Army Editor" are located.

The first step in this is creating additional trigger groups in the Group Editor. You will create two new groups, naming them Explorers1 and TC Randomizer.

Also in the Group Editor, you can exchange triggers between Trigger Groups, such as Ungrouped and Explorers1, for example. You can figure this easy enough on your own. For the Explorer triggers, I use the nifty Age0British, Age0Dutch, etc. triggers. These detect whether a player has the Age0Technologies available only to British, Dutch, etc. This is valuable for giving a civilization their correct explorer unit. A Sioux Player would not be happy with an Explorer. Also you will see that I use "Run Immediately," which makes the trigger come as fast as it can. I use medium-low priority for these triggers so that they 1) come fast, 2) do not interfere with the higher-priority triggers, and 3) prevent lagg when first starting the game. I will now show a rubric of the ten Explorer triggers:


---------------------------

Ten Explorer Triggers


1st Trigger:

Trigger Name: AztecWarchief1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> xpAge0Aztec (Age0xpAztec?) --> Status: Active, Player 1.

Effects: Change Unit Type (Cinematic Block near the Town Center Area converted to xpAztecWarchief).

2nd Trigger:

Trigger Name: ChineseMonks1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> ypAge0Chinese --> Status: Active, Player 1.

Effects:

- Change Unit Type (Cinematic Block near the Town Center Area converted to ypMonkChinese1);

- Unit Create: ypMonkDisciple


3rd Trigger:

Trigger Name: DutchEnvoy1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> Age0French --> Status: Active, Player 1.

Effects: Unit Create --> Envoy, Player 1, near town center, away from other Explorer Units.


4th Trigger:

Trigger Name: EuropeanExplorers1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

***Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> OR box checked --> Age0British, Age0Dutch, Age0French, Age0German, Age0Ottomans, Age0Portuguese, Age0Russian, Age0Spanish, ALL PLAYER 1.

Effects: Change Unit Type (Cinematic Block near the Town Center Area converted to Explorer)


5th Trigger:

Trigger Name: FrenchScout1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> Age0French --> Status: Active, Player 1.

Effects: Unit Create: NatScout (may be NativeScout, I don't remember).


6th Trigger:

Trigger name: IndianMonks1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> ypAge0Indian --> Status: Active, Player 1

Effects:

- Change Unit Type (Cinematic Block near the Town Center Area converted to ypIndianMonk1);

- Unit Create --> ypIndianMonk2 near the other monk, like a war dog, except leave a little more room because it is an elephant.


7th Trigger:

Trigger Name: IroquoisWarchief1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> xpAge0Iroquois (Age0xpIroquois?) --> Status: Active, Player 1.

Effects: Change Unit Type (Cinematic Block near the Town Center Area converted to xpIroquoisWarchief).


8th Trigger:

***Trigger Name: JapaneseMonks1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions; Tech Status Equals --> ypAge0Japanese --> Status: Active, Player 1.

Effects:

- Change Unit Type (Cinematic Block near the Town Center Area converted to ypJapaneseMonk1);

- Unit Create --> ypJapaneseMonk2;

- Unit Create --> ypBerryWagon1 opposite the monks on the other side of the town center possibly near a clearing of trees. If there are no berries on this may, use the Unit Create Multi trigger and create two ypBerryWagon1 units. They will begin in the same area (and be able to move into formation), but if you want more professional look, use two separate Unit Create triggers and place the Wagons near each other.


9th Trigger:

Trigger Name: SiouxWarchief1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> xpAge0Sioux (Age0xpSioux?) --> Status: Active, Player 1

Effects: Change Unit Type (Cinematic Block near the Town Center Area converted to xpSiouxWarchief)


10th Trigger:

Trigger Name: SpanishWarDog1 (Active, Run Immediately, Medium-Low Priority).

Conditions: Tech Status Equals --> Age0Spanish --> Status: Active, Player 1.

Effects: Unit Create --> War Dog, next to an Explorer Unit.


---------------------------

This is the basic rubric for Explorer Triggers. Other variants include a's, b's, c's, and d's for four randomized locations. The more players you have, the more creative you have to get. I would suggest creating the triggers in the order listed, as in the above list:

AztecWarchief1
ChineseMonk(s)1
DutchEnvoy1
EuropeanExplorers1
FrenchScout1
IndianMonks1
IroquoisWarchief1 (Might place a discovery travois)
JapaneseMonks1
SiouxWarchief1
SpanishWarDog1

Doing all your triggers in the same orderly fashion makes them easy for you to look at when doing other triggers (when doing Fire Event triggers, because the lowest triggers are the newest, and for randomizers, you need the fire event triggers). Also, it allows other designers to see that 1) you know what you are doing, 2) it is easy to follow, and 3) people respect you more and will be less prone to seize your work. When your name becomes known in Scenario design, nobody dares take your work, lest they actually risk getting banned.

However, apart from this, many of you were probably dying to see what that Unit Create Multi in this pic was:

Image


There is a bug with placing Town Centers, houses, or any pop-giving building in the scenario editor for multiplayer scenarios: The game simply doesn't pick up that you have the building's population, so if you delete it, you have negative population. This means you start with 0 population of housing. As a matter of fact, though, you can use ypPopBlocks, also used on the map Honshu, to give +5 starting population. These cannot be destroyed, nor do they count as a unit ingame. You can make two of these with Unit Create Multi to compensate for placing your town center. However, this does not apply when you start with cinematic blocks and turn them into Town Centers or other buildings.

Creating your first set of Explorer triggers like this (for instance, all ten Explorer Triggers for Player 1) will probably take some fifty minutes. Afterwards, you do not need to create them, but rather copy them. This takes maybe twenty-five minutes per each player rather than fifty - a much better, but still strenuous deal. Trust me, only do four players' Explorer triggers at a time, or else you will be exhausted mentally. Be sure to do it in one go though, so that you keep track of where units are. That is also why order is important. When you copy, you first click "Copy," on the triggers you want (so that you can see them, and in this case, the ten Explorer Triggers). STOP, then go up in the right hand corner to the Group Editor, where you also do triggers and "Army Editor," and click on Group Editor.

Make a new group called Explorers2. IN THIS SAME PLACE, click on the groups on the left part, and get Explorers2 and Explorers1 to exchange the "Copy_of_EuropeanExplorers1," "Copy_of_AztecWarchief1," and all the other "Copy_of's" into Explorers2. Begin by first renaming them (so that you don't get mixed up) by highlighting "Copy_of" and pressing backspace or delete and highlight the player number (for this instance, the "1" ending) and either press backspace and press 2, then pressing the Enter/Return Key, or simply highlight the "1" and press 2, and press the Enter/Return Key. After this, go through the triggers one by one, changing the player's ownership of the conditions and effects from Player 1 to Player 2, and for Unit Create triggers, change the location from near Player 1's Town Center area to near Player 2's Town Center Area, where the Explorer Unit would be. Place Disciples and Wardogs nearer to the Explorer Unit, and place Envoys and Native Scouts on another corner of the Town Center Area.


Some Scenarios, like my War of the Five Indias V6, do not give Explorer units in the beginning. This is purposeful and saves quite a bit of time. However, if you are creating any regular map, THESE ARE A MUST. Now if you are toying around with the editor at this moment, you probably notice that there is a condition called Tech Available. Now, you ask me, what does this do and what is the difference between Tech Available and Tech Status Equals? They both do about the same thing, but Tech Available is more specialized and can be used in less strong terms than a player choosing a generic civilization. However, the important part is that Tech Status Equals is better, namely because it reacts 5 seconds faster, allowing you to get Explorers and other units down quick when you want them. Who wants to reassure players that there Explorer Units will indeed come in five seconds? Would you like to do that twenty times per game? No, my friends, you would not. That is why we use Tech Status Equals Conditions :).




I plan to answer a couple more questions here. I am practically done for the day. I may do some editing now and then. (Edited July 12, 2010).




Hope this helped some!



Regards,



murdilator
"Feel the Might of the Sioux!" - Gall, when fighting and defeating your army at his own base.

---------------

Scenario Design Competition Participant 2009:

3v3 WildernessRoad: https://aoe3.heavengames.com/downloads/ ... ileid=2521
Post Reply