Community Campaign (Dow 1)

[SteviEboY]

Ah, I see

Honestly, if I needed to download anything other than maps I wouldn't be interested in this.

So Kendall, have you had anyone else so interest, or is this it at the moment?

[KeNDaLL2000]

Ive only got less than 10 so i don't think this will be started anytime soon...ill work on it as a side project since school and overall life is taking over

[Jaguar-Lord]

hey kendal,

if you want to lead a project like this you should better prepare your project from A to Z

SCENARIO without this you are doomed form the start, this will allow you to restrict area of work and will decide for the final shape of your "product",
maps, (how many maps : and forget about known maps, custom maps will be necessary, yes it is a lot of work but being lazy with the workload will only attract minor, if any, attention.
as many sides as races involved (up to your choice but their will always be people to cry "i want to play the pink eldar..;please"

fixed number of players per sides, the more player the harder to manage.

a website dedicated to the campaign management with updated news, graphic rendering of sides progression in flash on a starmap or whatever the scenario dictates for (a spacehulk, a hivecity, a whole planet....ad aemonworld) on a regular and weekly basis (not to say dayly..


you are not ready to drive this ? forget it.
you want to make this for real, and not only chating iddlely in the forums ?
gather a mapper team, 3 skilled mappers should be enough
a scar coder to add custom script (bonuses for whinners and so on.
a dedicated hamachi server or via gamespy but it is better to keep it private.
a web master ,at best asomeone able to maintain and create dynamic multimedia content for the site.

and a full ammunition load of ceativity and nrg

goodluck,

Jag

ps: remember how it was difficult to drive eight mappers into the CMPII project....?

[Junk angel]

urgh don't mention it (I remember the first one)

Though to be honest, I'd personally try to avoid most race mods. While the work gone into them is sterling, the balance on the release versions is often questionable.

If mods are to be run, I would recommend either DCpro or SSpro.

Also why should retail maps be avoided? I think many of them would work quite well to be honest for just such a project. (personal long standing love of tiboraxx in 1v1 :P)

[SteviEboY]

J-L makes some valid points, especially about the numbers of players. If you have to many then it will fail. Poeple's gaming times and connection issues always being the main problems that I've come across over the 3 or 4 of these that i've set up.

I was quite disheartened when you pretty much said 'only 10 and i don't have time' and thought well this is never going to take off. Hopefully it will.

In regards to Mods, do we really need to use them at all?

About the Maps, there are plenty out there already retail, which as wraithcat points out, are good enough and a whole plethora of fan made maps out there for us to use, we wouldn't need to make our own, Scar maps included.

I like the idea of having a dedicated website for this as well.

The main thing we need to do is decide the scenario and how the campaign is going to be played out. Will the fights all be 1v1 (save me) or team games of different sizes.

An example of a scenario

The Segmentum Pacificus has been over run by a huge Ork waaaagh. The Imperial Fists have been sent in the cleanse the system of the foul Xenos.

Battle 1 - Urdesh

Imperial Fists
The Imperial fists have been sent to the plaent of Urdesh to remove the Xenos from the planet and prevent the orks for capturing and making use of the the technologies there.

Orks
Lets go and get some more dakka and kill some umies whiles we're at it.

You could add the other races into it as we progressed, a chaos cult has been discovered or an forgotted eldar webway gate.

For final games you could make use of the defensive map mod, i think that's what it was called, or have at least incorporate them somehow.

[KeNDaLL2000]

Well I'm not going to stop this project Stevi...it will just progress slowly ( i just need help).

I was planning on having a dedicated website and or a forum along something to record multiplayer games(hopefully). I know it will be a long shot, but I'm going to try to find or create a tool that will be able to count how many times a map is played and the outcome of each game. If i am successful in doing this it will show me what style of maps people enjoy and also cut down on error and cheating.

If i am unable to do this i would just create a poll where you would just caste a vote every time you succeed in a mission that would allow you to vote once every 30 mins

Also why should retail maps be avoided? I think many of them would work quite well to be honest for just such a project. (personal long standing love of tiboraxx in 1v1 :P)

The original idea behind using the original map is that people would not have to D/L map to be able to participate however that would make it a bit drab and boring. I know for a fact that i have several maps that i made for dow 1 that could be used and edited.


If anyone has a ideas for a story share it as making up stories isn't really my forte.

[Jaguar-Lord]

ok, here's a quote from y 2066 thread at RN on the subject of multipleyr campaigns it is a bit more detailedand i hope it will give you some ideas:

My previous experiences as a tabletop roleplaying gamemaster for nearly twenty years shows me that plot, scenario and extensive background are essential to immersion into virtual reality universe. The child present in each one of us is in constant need of thrill and legend of epic scale.

This seed is present deeply buried into the constantly growing W40k universe. Since novels based on this universe begin to emerge from the warp it's growing to a full tree.



After a little reading dealing with the need people express when asked what they want to see in a DoW-DC campign, I sensed a deep need for storyline-scenario. The other is that the human being in order to fully enjoy any experience feels a deep urge to share it with others of his own kin.

Even a good campaign with strong storyline and rich background lacks this because it's single-player only.



For this reason I decided to give a new orientation to the maps I'm making.



If I was to tell you that it's possible to play a multiplayer campaign with Dow ?

I for sure will be frowned upon by the dubitatives ones!



but



There is a simple way to do a multiplayer campaign :



just take the storytelling technique and game-control mechanims used in tabletop RPG and hybrid these with the DoWgame.



All the storyline, the plot and the causes-consequences related to defeat or victory underlying the whole campaign stay external to the game engine using wathever format you find fit with your own feelings.



The only thing needed to be done are :



Decide of your campaign orientation :
exploration, epic battle, deamon hunt, whole world invasion....galactic crusade.

Design the environement and setting:
concepts, particularities, iconography and so on. History.....historical context (post heresy, terra siege, humanity fall, Eldar past, Necron internal war,.......)

Create the storyline and the plot : this is the most critical phase of the whole operation for you have to think on every aspect of the plot. This kind of game doesn't express the same freedom of action present in true RPG. The basic here is designing a (not so-)simple "decision tree " underlying the storyline.



At this stage you'll decide which race you want to see in the game and which are going to fight each others and why. Everything is possible just remember to stay as close to the existing-official W40K background, this choice will have a direct impact on the way all the following will be designed.



Example: if the necron player won the previous episode he starts on "starting location" 2 on "Obsidian Cave" map. The Obsidian Cave map as been designed to give edges to the player in starting location 2 , like more ressources, strategic advantage, more starting unit.......anything decided by the storyline......



More : using multiple SCAR files originaly external to the engine and tweaking the map from the events determined by who achive his objectives or not you can
achieve a high degree of game control on the maps.



Then you must establish a timeline : time flows and a good commander has to make the good choice at the right time.





Ok let me give you an example:



The chaos player manage to take and hold the CL on top of the central pyramid on the Obsidian Palace map. This was his main objective, he emerged victorious.

"The chaos commander controls now the ancient necron city and starts to head straight to what's hiding beneath the pyramid. Using hundreds of mutated slaves
they slowly reach what looks like a underground gigantic stone door pulsing with the green energy of unlife.
As soon as the first slave touched the cold stone his body turned to a dusty bag of dried flesh drained from his live. From the mouths of the faces carved on the door frame a deep moan ascent to fierce howl turning every living beign present in the tunnel to bonedust.


The chaos commander decided to use excavation machine, folded and dormant aboard the "Chaac-mol", the mothership of the chaos force lurking into the
immaterium near the Xibalpa system. For these machines to be deployed and brought under the city without revealing the starship existence, the chaos forces needs to open and maintain a warp-gate long enough to bring the Excavators and reinforcement to the ground. This is a slow but hidden way to bring the
machine to the ground. The most optimistic logisticians projections says 40 hours will be needed to achieve deployement, a long enough time for the enemy to
attempt a offensive on the chaos force entrenched into the obsidian palace.

An other way to get things done will be to take control of the space port lying east of the Obsidian palace, this will need a swift and fierce strategy and the loss of many lifes but more pleasing to the blood god. The chaos commander decided to consult is seers to get a glimpse of the gods mood."



From here you got the embryo of a decison tree: the chaos player have to choose between two maps: get to establish a invocation gate near the city or choose to take control of the space port lying in the sand.



During this time what are the other players doing :



They're given the same kind of choices.

One : try to retake Obsidian Palace.
Two : establish a strong base to the abandoned space port.
Three wait for incoming reinforcement......



Here enter's the timeline into the dance : if the chaos player decided to go for the invocation gate, it will take him 2 days. The chaos takes his shot and failed to complete "Invocation map" game.
He decided to turn his wrath to the space port, but two days have actually past and the imperial player has already taken the space port and is deeply entrenched into his position with artillery and mass of troops droping from orbit.....



The chaos players decides then to attack the space port on day three.

The gamemaster looks at the timeline: on day three an world event occurs: "the chaos gods anticipating a tsunami of blood turn their attention to the Xibalpa system, the immaterium started to boils with corrupting energy, giving more powers to chaos".
The game master loads along the "spaceport map" the "entrenched marines" SCAR-file (giving the space marine 10 turrets at specified markers, 1000 power at start, two operational power generators on slag deposit and two
Whirwinds) and the "world_event-day3" SCAR-file (giving to the chaos player: three possessed marine squad, 2obliterators squad and one bloodthirster as soon as he killed 100 enemy unit).



Now you get the point and the possibilities.





You have already guess that truly, one individual is absolutly needed : a gamemaster, someone who'll be the storyteller, ruler and will keep the game rolling, who'll get familiar to the decison tree, the plot the timeline and all the maps and files organisation.




Create the main Characters:
These characters will be actualy played by the human players, they have personal backgrounds history, objectives, motivation and so on ( the concept can be extended as far as you need it proportionaly to the roleplaying part of your game style).



Create non-player-characters: optional, some characters here to add some fun and scenaristic thickness to the story line. They can be used to play in a more roleplaying manner, thus introducing political plot and manoeuver between players.

Design the maps you need: quite simple in fact, time consuming but absolutly necessary !!

The fact that the multiplayer campaign map will be very specific to the campaign you are designing will effectively inder their use in an another style of game (like using a map in standard way without the event and scar code associated) thus making the map imbalanced and useless for traditional gameplay.



Do some texture work if you need to: a volcanic map without volcanic textures is no fun really. But a deepstriking team of terminators raiding a tyranid hive showing tyranid texture (incoming.... ) is a must !!!


Write a good story and make a clear procedure guide describing which file is needed when and what for....

This could turn into a true nightmare if the guide is messy, I'm sure you understand why !!

The gamemaster will have some hard work putting all the files altogether at the right time in the right place, giving life to the story and tracking the victories and defeats of the players and the consequences on the flow of events while keeping the story telling flowing.



You don't need to install a mod or new features breaking your online game. All the files ( the maps, the scar files, the decision trees are external to DC engine, they are brought into play when needed, thus requiring a bit of drag-and-drop pratice following the guidelines of the campaign guide.



This multiplayer game is particulary well suited for LAN-party where all players being in the same space(room) can effectively assume and play their role to the max, plotting again each others forging alliances and treason....promises and lies about support and logistic.



I'm aware that this way of playing DoW is quite.....alien to some of you but I'm sure this could be fun.

[SteviEboY]

Some of it's a little over the top for DoW but a lot of points are on the mark. We do need a good story etc.

[KeNDaLL2000]

Originally Posted by JL

Decide of your campaign orientation :
exploration, epic battle, deamon hunt, whole world invasion....galactic crusade.

Design the environement and setting:
concepts, particularities, iconography and so on. History.....historical context (post heresy, terra siege, humanity fall, Eldar past, Necron internal war,.......)

Create the storyline and the plot : this is the most critical phase of the whole operation for you have to think on every aspect of the plot. This kind of game doesn't express the same freedom of action present in true RPG. The basic here is designing a (not so-)simple "decision tree " underlying the storyline.

I think we'll try too stick to this formula.....

Originally Posted by SteviEboY

Some of it's a little over the top for DoW but a lot of points are on the mark. We do need a good story etc.

..And for that we need a good writer - there is where the problem lies i can't nor do i know anyone who is creative in that department. I might venture onto a warhammer forum but i don't think that will be necessary as i have gotten some pms from people interested in making stories on relic's forum. Hopefully they will good.

Another thing that i'm a bit concerned with is the fact that I'm the only one officially mapping or doing work. I need to know for sure if any of you are goning help me so plese state so in your next post.

[Redeemed74]

As long as we are not committing to a huge number of hours a week I would be able to sign up. Way back in the day I was game master of a fair number of "The Fantasy Trip" table top games. I've never had any trouble coming up with storylines, but it has been a learning curve for me to get familiar with the W40K universe. One question I would have would be if we want to have a "liniar" story or an open one, that no one really knows the outcome of. It seemed to me from the beginning that you were for the open one, where every battle is decisive in building the storyline. One like that can be quite interesting but would seem to me rather hard to have a high level of immersion in. Another way would be kind of like the old "Choose Your own Adventure" books where you had options that affected things, but the choices often just took you on detours and there were only a few real directions that the story really built. So it could be that whoever wins would affect to a degree what happens in the storyline but it still keeps on course with the overall theme.