Pharaoh-style Career Path? Or Zeus-style Campaigns?

[Afterburner]

One of the things I'm hoping for with CotN is a return to the "career-path" format of Caesar 3 and Pharaoh. I just never got the same sense of "inexorable progression of centuries of history" from the campaign format of Zeus and Emperor that I did from starting at the dawn of time in Pre-Dynastic Egypt and then working my way up to Rowarty in Pharaoh.

The campaign format always seemed too disconnected for me, more like I was witnessing a standalone story and less like I was witnessing history. The career path format, on the other hand, seem to really convey a sense of the passage of time.

Just a thought. :D

[Pecunia]

Maybe it will be a mixture of both? 'Career path' in the sense that you slowly move from predynastic to the new kingdom; 'campaign format' in the sense that one period (or however you call it), like the Old Kingdom, is one 'campaign' where you continue to expand and enhance the same city or group of cities.

[Afterburner]

Maybe it will be a mixture of both? 'Career path' in the sense that you slowly move from predynastic to the new kingdom; 'campaign format' in the sense that one period (or however you call it), like the Old Kingdom, is one 'campaign' where you continue to expand and enhance the same city or group of cities.

Well.

I confess to having mixed feelings about the ability to go back time and again to the same city.

On the one hand, I liked the colony city aspects, and I liked the fact (for some value of "liked" :D ) that a design decision you may have made in the 2nd chapter of campaign might come back to bite you in the butt during the 7th chapter. Say, you have a requirement to build a big monument in Chapter 7, but there's no space to put one down because of the stuff you've done in previous chapters. It made things more of a challenge.

But I also felt kinda short-changed by the missions in Zeus. There were 45 missions in Zeus, spread out over 7 campaigns. But out of those 45 missions, there were really only 19 distinct cities to build. (Emperor improved the ratio, with 35 cities spread over 48 missions and 7 campaigns. Caesar 3 had 20 distinct cities, and Pharaoh had 38.)

I don't mind going back to an older city, picking up where I left off in order to develop it further. But I also like having lots of different, distinct cities, each with its own terrain map, that I can build from scratch (or almost scratch, depending on if there's any pre-built elements there already).

So if they keep the "return to a previously developed city" aspect (which I hope they do, even if they otherwise stick to a career-path sort of approach), I also hope they give us lots of brand spanking new terrain. The original Pharaoh, with its 38 distinct cities, had it about right, I think. :D

[EmperorJay]

Now, let's just say something wild.

What if you're not bound to one city? What if you're just presented a goal and then you can chose whatever you want to build in which city? You need wood in City A, go and set up a wood industry in City B. City B needs clay? Go look for a good location and start building City C from scratch. When done, return to B, return to A.

Perhaps it would be confusing, perhaps it takes too much space on the HD, but that would certainly be nice.

[Keith]

Now, let's just say something wild.

What if you're not bound to one city? What if you're just presented a goal and then you can chose whatever you want to build in which city? You need wood in City A, go and set up a wood industry in City B. City B needs clay? Go look for a good location and start building City C from scratch. When done, return to B, return to A.

Perhaps it would be confusing, perhaps it takes too much space on the HD, but that would certainly be nice.Perhaps they would not be so much of a "city" as they would be more of a "village" for such specialized functions. Having smaller villages to build in order to obtain some needed raw materials, finished products and goods, or food might be an interesting way to do things. These "villages" would be responsible for producing the items you need to build your main or capital cities.

http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/horus2.gif
Keith Heitmann
http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/my-cartouche.gif
dheitm8612@aol.com (http://mailto:dheitm8612@aol.com/)
Pharaoh Music Jukebox (http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/java/pharaoh.htm)

[Pecunia]

Perhaps they would not be so much of a "city" as they would be more of a "village" for such specialized functions. Having smaller villages to build in order to obtain some needed raw materials, finished products and goods, or food might be an interesting way to do things. These "villages" would be responsible for producing the items you need to build your main or capital cities.
Judging from this screenshot (http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/gallery/screenshots.php?ssNum=11&ssDate=05042004), it seems it's going to be like that: little (and not much developed) villages for gathering raw materials outside your city :)