Middle Earth, Oil Wars, Forty Thousand
-
Hi all - Christopher Flanagan here; creator of the original Middle Earth map(s), Oil Wars and Forty Thousand Beta (and a couple others). I am available if anyone wants to discuss those maps.
My thoughts on the maps:
Middle Earth
I did not make the current balance edits to Middle Earth - Free folk and Elves are way too strong while Goblins and Sarumon are underpowered in my opinion. Otherwise still happy with this map and unit illustrations almost 20 years later. High points for me was when someone made a strategy wiki for it, and when it got bundled into the main Triple-A download.Oil Wars
Needs more missiles, drones etc - but this map turned out to age pretty well. A tech tree would be cool. I am curious if anyone has gotten into it much. It could be updated to a starting scenario closer to 2023.
Has anyone else used the Oil Wars units to make another modern scenario? Ukraine/Europe/WW3 scenarios could be interesting.Forty Thousand
That's how many turns it would take to play this one out. It's a real grind with so many factions, but that was always kind of the idea. The AI can't really play effectively with Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard as separate players - perhaps they should be combined. I should add Necrons (maybe a mechanic where tomb worlds "wake up" and start producing crons). Drukhari, harlequins, etc seem fine to leave out as they aren't really out to conquer the galaxy.
Possibly some units stats should be played with. Could be interesting to give Dark Angels improved Terminators, Blood Angels and Space Wolves enhanced marines, etc.
Would be fun to see some other maps made with these units. -
Thanks for making the Middle Earth map, I spent many hours playing it and then modding it.
Are you working on a map at the moment?
-
@thedog thank you, I am not currently working on any. I have become somewhat disillusioned with game design. Like the Flappy Bird creator, I feel conflicted about "wasting" people's time. It actually means a ton to me to hear the game brought you joy. I have also played it a lot - it was a case of "creating the game I wanted to play." Forty Thousand and Oil Wars were made in the same spirit.
I actually have invested a lot of energy in an original world conquest boardgame inspired by Axis and Allies that would be easy to port over. It is set in 350BC right before Alexander the Great overthrew the Persian Empire. Factions are Maya, Gaul, Carthage, Rome, Persia, Nanda Empire, Xin Dynasty.
I didn't create it, but I quite liked the Game of Thrones / Westeros map - extremely challenging. Also I am happy to see others creating successors to Middle Earth.
I did create some other fantasy maps around the time of the 1st Middle Earth, including an original one called Grekos - I'm not sure if it still survives anywhere.
At one point I was thinking about a Pangea type map, where the 3 factions were Dinosaurs, Mammals and "Cave Men."
Now I'm more interested in world religions and mythology, so I would maybe think about doing something like a world conquest game set in 11,000BC where Atlantis (located Eye of Africa) is on a campaign of world conquest, and there are Dragons, Giants, Naga, Rakshasa, etc.
-
Although old this might scratch your religions and mythology itch?
Everyone wants to believe in god(s).https://store.steampowered.com/app/722060/Dominions_5__Warriors_of_the_Faith/
-
@ninjawolfhybrid My copy of Forty Thousand has disappeared. Can you post a link to it?
-
@rogercooper
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sa5UJuzBSib3ljQSvusxaZB4Z4u7q0W-/view?usp=share_link - here's what I have it still works in my version of triple-a. -
@ninjawolfhybrid I have seen a number of efforts to use the TripleA engine to create an area movement 4X game. Unfortunately, TripleA does not really have what it takes be used this way.
The fundamental problem is the lack of a generalizable diplomatic structure. You can have free-for-all without diplomacy but that isn't interesting or realistic. TripleA doesn't have the tools to create alliances that have a moderate tendency to gang up on the leader, which would make an interesting game.
I could see TripleA being improved to the point where it could run 4X games well, but it would require substantial new code, not simply clever XML design.
-
@thedog I made a new map, thanks for the encouragement. It's called Alexander350 (world conquest set in 350BC). .zip in Maps & Mods, tell me what you think.
It does use modern region names (Oil Wars map), and units from Middle Earth with only minor tweaks.
