Welcome To Bitterfrost!

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 07:49

A fantasy scenario by Curt Sibling.
Also featuring: Favouredflight, Fairline, William Keenan, Erwan, Catfish, Bebro and St. Leo!

"In the years of cold, the empire was witness to a large island erupting through the waves of the northern sea.
The magelords were convinced this island was the one spoken of in old tomes, sunk during a meteor strike many ages past.
Now the promise of rich minerals and meteoric iron has prompted the Imperion to send representatives from his vassal provinces.
Each has the grand task of creating a strong colony in the name of the empire...No matter the hardships."

"But they are not the only pioneers on the arisen island...And what of the races who lived there originally?"

"It's time to find out...Let's get on the boat and set sail for Bitterfrost!"

Bitterfrost is an empire building fantasy scenario, taking place on a harsh island populated by maniac natives and worse.
Your mission is to pick one of the powers and build a colony into a kingdom, and then an empire. Finally becoming the total ruler of Bitterfrost.

This might not be as easy as it seems...

Each power begins with one city and a few minor defence troops, except the Undead, who had the foresight to bring a whole army.
The empires available are thus:

The Crusader Kingdom:
Righteous, grim, and some might say prudish, the Crusaders are warriors and seek to unite Bitterfrost with faith, or failing that, steel!
They have little time for magic-users, and may even go on a crusade without warning!
Their emphasis is on battle and grabbing as much meteoric Iron as possible!
Perfect for build and conquer-style players.

The Bursar Council:
They want your money, but they might give you some of theirs, if you have something they want. Gold is what their greedy eyes are on!
Bursars are heavily into commerce and have many innovations. They could probably buy Bitterfrost.
They have some good warriors and a trade advantage.

The Coven:
Some call them pagans, or heathen magic users, but they call themselves the Coven.
They are users of magic and are (shockingly) ruled by women!
But these people from cold climes are no mere mages, they also excel at the arts of war.
This has led to the formation of spell-slinging warriors like the Guardians.
The Coven begins with a good knowledge of magic, but will have to learn the runic language of Bitterfrost.

The Undead:
In the dire East, the Undead kingdom has ruled for an age.
From this awful place, a fell Lich and his army has arrived in Bitterfrost and built a keep.
From this inauspicious fort, the skeleton legions seek to smash the mortal kingdoms and rule the land with immortal hate. Prepare for war!
The undead have many frightening monsters at their command, and begin with an evil legion of skeletons. Also they will send out ghosts to spy and cause much mayhem...
For those who enjoy playing the baddies, look no further.

Harpy Sisterhood:
An old legend exists about a realm, whose ruling witches accidentally transformed themselves into half-human maniac mutants.
These were the harpies...Their breed has devolved through history, and are now crazed she-barbarians, with mating rituals best not spoken about.
Since there are no harpy males, they kidnap compatible males to breed. A colony of them has appeared recently off the coast of Bitterfrost.
They may be seeking to infest the island. Having very little interest in material technology, harpies do however, understand pragmatism.
Thus, they might hire humans to help them trade or spy.

Zatarn Tribe
The tribal Zatarn are somewhat like the Amazons of our own world, except the Zatarn are horned and grey skinned.
No to mention, more brutal, fanatical and numerous.
For a long time they lived on small island communities like their enemies, the Urzit.
Since the island's appearance, they have flocked there to build a tribal empire.
The Zatarn males exist for breeding and are docile, the females fight and hunt.
This quaint, low-tech, but role-reversed society is one of extremes.
The tribes are ruled by evil shamanesses who conduct blood-soaked warfare to appease their gods...Really!
Expanding quickly and butchering the Urzit seem to be the Zatarn's two main goals...Currently.

The Urzit
The Urzit where thought to be native to small islands in the Northern seas.
But as it turns out, a lot of them headed towards Bitterfrost in canoes as soon as it emerged.
It seems the Urzit were coming home, the island was their original land, before the elder-days disaster that sunk it.
Sadly, the intervening years have seen the Urzit become near-savage barbarians and tireless brigands and pirates.
This has made the other powers (especially the Zatarn) hate them with a passion.
The Urzit may not be around for long on their newly discovered homeland.
They do bring it on themselves though, with their pillaging antics.
The Urzit are basically the non-playable barbs of the scenario...

Anyone else?
Amusingly, in their rush for colonisation, the humans, undead and other races have not paused to wonder why
an island the size of continental Europe has suddenly risen after aeons on the sea bed...Raises many questions in your head, eh?
A riddle indeed, but even the powerful and wise must ask themselves:
Why did the place sink anyway? Why did it resurface? What secrets lie inland? And why have the Urzit colonised it so quickly?
And who are the purple skinned monsters that are stammered about by half-mad beggars in the colony dockyards?

Well, I am not going to tell you!
(unless you hand over a gold groat - Thankee sir!)
All I will say is this...There are rumours that the ancient race that ruled Bitterfrost has something to do with the island's reappearance.
Not much is known of these heathens, apart from their odd skin colour
and the fact that they reputedly ate their own children for fun, among other bohemian atrocities.
The cosmos hurled a meteor unto their empire and sunk it from the sight of the gods...
A lucky event for the world, since these demons had armaments a soldier would soil his armour in fear of.

But there is much you will discover for yourself!
Best not to fear monsters from the past, but greedy beggars that are here and now!
The other kingdoms will keep you on your toes, and you must give as good as you get!

The boat has almost arrived, get ready to wage war, trade, build and freeze with fear...Bitterfrost is on the horizon!

FULL VERSION NOW AVAILABLE!

Game files...

Sounds...

INSTALLING BITTERFROST.
You know to do it by now!

Make a 'Bitterfrost' folder in your MGE Scenario directory.
Then within the 'Bitterfrost' folder, make a 'Sound' folder.

All game zip files go into the 'Bitterfrost' folder.
All sound zip files go into the 'Sound' folder.

Make a cup of tea, sit back, begin the scenario and enjoy.

Enjoy!

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 07:50

Before you begin to playtest, mighty warriors!
A few things you should know...

The scen begins counting turns from the first year of your colony.
The rules are mildly differing from civ2, but in the same vein.
You still must build, defend, attack and explore.
The turn equals one month, with a Bitterfrost calendar.
Each civ has special units and powers. Some have extra techs, or units.
The Ancient civ is not for really playable, but you can try them if you are a sadistic beggar!

Using your settlers:
You improve tiles by continual use of the 'I' key.
Terraforming is laid out in this order of quality...

Iceland
becomes
Coldland
becomes
Thawland
becomes
Richland (which can be subjected to irrigation)

Hearthland is made from using the 'M' key on forests.
Hearthland can be irrigated or mined...As you see fit.

Mountains can be mined as normal.

Hills are now called walls, and are walls...Oddly enough!

Roads (called paths) are invisible, to maintain graphical neatness.
(The walls and other features look rather awful with roads over them.)
You can read the info bar when the cursor is over the tile to find out if roads are present.

Pollution is called 'Vile Mess' and must be cleaned with the 'P' key.
Engineers are only available to humans and do not transform, they just work fast.
Harpy units are flyers and have flying settlers, called Nest Mothers.
The Coven's settler is the Witch unit.
The Undead have a worker also.
The tech tree has various areas to research, some areas are closed to certain civs.
But techs can be traded via diplomacy, assuming your civ is capable of diplomacy.
Governments can be changed, depending on what style of rulership you have...
The road multiplier is now 4.

The Bitterfrost calendar.
Direchill -January
Icethaw - Febuary
Seedbreak - March
Newleaf - April
Lifespring - May
Plantchime - June
Sunjoy - July
Warmpeak - August
Dullsky - September
Coldbreeze - October
Snowcheer - November
Yulefall - December

Anything else, you will find out for yourself...

Please give me any feedback on what you think...

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 07:56

A real in-game screenshot.

The best of enemies meet at a frozen river...

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 08:01

Roll of Honour...
I want convey my major thanks to all the creators who allowed my to use their work as an inspiration in Bitterfrost.

Especially Favouredflight and Fairline.
Also William Keenan for helping me visualise, when I hit a creative brick wall!
More or less, a mighty cheer to CDG and Poly SL for keeping this community alive!

PS
And I hope Mercator does mind me using his awesome new cursors!

fairline · October 12, 2003, 08:04

FavFlight has some serious competition. The screenie and Title pic are jawdroppingly (is that a word?) good.

'nuff said!

BTW, what did I do?

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 08:22

Thanks!

I used a lot of your armour and stuff from your Roman units!

Yourself, Favouredflight and Bebro are the medieval armour masters!

Palaiologos · October 12, 2003, 09:10

Dddownloadinggg.....

*trembles with excitement*

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 09:28

Many things in the scenario may have to change, so I am ready to do any edits!

Mercator · October 12, 2003, 10:43

Quote:

Originally posted by curtsibling
PS
And I hope Mercator does mind me using his awesome new cursors!

Not at all.

(and I see you're using my irrigation graphic too)

I might have to put CivConverter to good use. It looks stunning.

Harry Tuttle · October 12, 2003, 12:31

Mmmmmm, boobies.... AHEM! Uh yeah, nice Harpies there Curt! Playing it right now, fun stuff

Arthedain · October 12, 2003, 12:41

Great scenario! Playing as the crusaders now, will continue tomorrow

Palaiologos · October 12, 2003, 12:45

OK Curt have played 353 turns thus far, Deity, Crusader kingdom.

1.Awesome looking scenario.

2.You GOT to make paths visible.If you think that building them on walls looks crap then add invinsible RRs on the walls.

3.The tech gap between Wight-Wight lord, Chevalier-Palladin etc, is too short(i.e only a tech).Chevaliers become obsolete before they are even built.

4.I'd say remove the "Map of Bitterfrost wonder".It reveals the whole map to ALL players, spoiling the fun of exploring.

5.The NPC civs, are they supposed to do something?The undeads just irigate every tile around their Capital and then just sit there.Where are the undead hordes that will spread doom in their path?It would be cool if undead legions rose and attacked everything and everybody.

More to come....

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 13:04

Yep, I noticed this with the undead, I think they need some severly beefed up units...

It's the Celestial Sight wonder that reveals the map, I will consider removing it...But it doesn't appear for ages anyway...

I will see about making the top knights (paladins, etc) appear later...

Keep the feedback coming!

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 13:06

Invisible RRs, that is a good idea...

Means I will have to ditch the dark RR ruins, but what the hell!

I'll look into this!

Harry Tuttle · October 12, 2003, 13:16

Really cool graphics! I haven't wanted to play an explore and conquer game in a long time, but this is bringing me back.

Three things:

1. More Undead aggression, and more Undead. Gotta make it hard man!

2. The text messages that popup everytime a village is destroyed is giving me a tendancy to close a popup everytime it comes up. I've nearly missed a few of the storyline events.

3. It's still early in the game, but it seems that the Harpies have only a few new units. I understand that they have "very little interest in material technology" but then again these are flying creatures who capture males for breeding. Couldn't they have a diplomat unit to capture their enemies? And why does the Nest Mother need the "ignore city walls" if she has no attack points?

Palaiologos · October 12, 2003, 13:17

Quote:

Originally posted by curtsibling
Yep, I noticed this with the undead, I think they need some severly beefed up units...

Mmmm....I don't think the problem lies in their unit stats.Even if their troops are considered weak by the AI, they should at least build cities.

Me thinks it is the ice terrain surrounding Doomridden.
Limits AI expansion.

Quote:

It's the Celestial Sight wonder that reveals the map, I will consider removing it...But it doesn't appear for ages anyway...

Well the Bursar built it around turn 250.

And there was just a nuclear meltdown.Changed half of the terrain to "enchanted".I don't think i'll ever clean up polution again!

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 13:28

LOL!

That's a wild result!

That was because a mage tower blew up!
Spreading enchanted material over the area!

I will change the message, that accompanies that meltdown!

I like the idea of a mage tower exploding not being a negative event!

I also think the type of terrian is holding back the AI...
I think I might give the forests and Ice 2 food, but nowt else...

Palaiologos · October 12, 2003, 13:37

Good thinking!

But err.... when i said meltdown i meant a holocaust that happens when there is too much polution on the
map.

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 13:47

I thought you meant the anarchy-caused meltdown.

Oh, well.

Should remove the pollution?
Is it really a big factor do you think?

Palaiologos · October 12, 2003, 14:00

The anarchy meltdown has actually happened four times thus far(i.e in every witch city i took).

I don't think you should remove the pollution alltogether though.

Oh and i have been thinkng about the roads.If you want a discreet gfx for them, why don't you make a sign post gfx instead?

Put it in 3-4 of the road slots(a map filled with signs would look weird) and draw it so it points to the direction of the road.

fairline · October 12, 2003, 14:00

This is fantastic - I love explore and build scenarios. The graphics are magnificent Curt

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 14:07

@Fairline:

Cheers, mate!

That is high kudos, coming from the graphics ace!

@Pericles:
The signpost concept totally rules!

I will give it a try...

Another worry I had was that the invisible RR might be pillaged by the enemy sitting on walls, etc.

Arthedain · October 12, 2003, 16:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
2. The text messages that popup everytime a village is destroyed is giving me a tendancy to close a popup everytime it comes up. I've nearly missed a few of the storyline events.

I second that, thoose pop-ups are really annoying!

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 17:27

Well, If you wish, I can make those messages a once only event...

curtsibling · October 12, 2003, 19:52

A new zip has been uploaded, I have made changes based on the points raised by y'all so far!

Palaiologos · October 12, 2003, 20:04

Curt don't ever do that again!.Since i downloaded your scen i've doing nothing else all day but playing Bitterfrost!

Here goes:

The Hero units Lich and ancient queen are extremely easy to kill.A shot by a vet cannon and the lich is no more(cheated to test it).

Here is my save game thus far.Something peculiar has happened:Cheat and see the units of the Coven and Bursar.The first only build Shrineguards,settlers and Wayfarers,despite having Countesses etc available, making it extremely easy to conquer them, while the Bursars have no military at all!!.
It puzzled me that while the WitchKin researched 3(three) Level increases PER TURN(tech paradigm?) they never fielded any advanced units.So i cheated and viewed their map.

The Bursars on the other hand only build caravans.Okay they are merchants, but shouldn't at least have a defence of sorts?Was that meant to be? If so how did you do it?

The Zartans only field trebuchets and the undead and Harpies as usual just sit doing nothing.

Moreover i think i found why the undead stand idle.You see they send their settlers across the nonfertile iceland but once out they are eliminated by either Barbarians or Witchkin.I guess that as you said, increasing the food yield of iceland should fix it.

I have played about 453 turns in the scenario and the AI nations have researched all techs more than 40 turns ago.

Palaiologos · October 12, 2003, 20:05

Bollicks! You've upgraded the scen as i was writing these.....

BTW did you create these sounds yourself?

I recognise some from other scens, but most are new to me.You wouldn't per chance happen to have a wav converter, would you?

Harry Tuttle · October 12, 2003, 22:58

Downloaded the update. It seems that the Bursars are knocked out of the game by the 44th turn everytime I play it. The "Ancients" always seem to drive straight south and wipe out their very first settlement.

Edit: Ah, ok, you want them to travel south... Thing is I don't think the Bursars can take an attack so soon...

curtsibling · October 13, 2003, 02:45

The AI is being naughty.

At the moment I found that making iceland and forests, etc into 2 food made a difference.

The undead are a real pain in the arse, during my current game.

They and the Coven are both vying for dominance in the North.

I think the fact that the harpies are flyers is making the AI restrict them from builidng more cities.

But making them ground dwellers sort of defeats their purpose...

The Ancients tend to attack the Crusaders or Bursars...Every time.

I was toying with the idea of removing the Undead ability to make cities, and make them a solely military force...
Would this be wise?

@Harry:
Actually, I have no control over where the Ancients are going, I wish I did!

@Pericles:
The sounds are taken and edited from a mix of Caesar III, old fantasic worlds scens and ToT...

Asmodean · October 13, 2003, 02:57

What version of CivII would I need to download and play this MGE? regular?, ToT?

Asmodean