Planning: Alien Invasion MP Game?

[Chaingun]

If you ever read this AAR you maybe see what I have in mind (actually, I did not read it in detail but I saw the possibilites a while ago ):

Link To 'WAAR of the Worlds'

My idea is basically to play a 1419 MP game through the mod dir command, and let one player be the maxed 60/60/10/10 teched aliens starting out on some remote island with cores all over the world. The other players would then form then start in the usual countries and cooperate to contain the alien invasion.

There is an obvious problem with the player selection. A very good player would have to play the aliens to be able to cope with all micromangement in order to fight the world and the combined forces of other players. It might be very lonely and ultimately boring for most players to have such a role of world conqueror, so it would take a certain mindset for the person to lead the aliens to victory. He would also need to be able to invest a lot of time in AAR writing since the alien commander's view is undoubtly the most interesting one.

Furthermore there are some issues with the game engine. The aliens' cutting-edge technology is doomed to spread to whatever tech group they're in. Thus I propose that they start out in the exotic tech group to minimize impact. The second problem is that of inflation since the aliens would not be able to do invest in anything else but treasury for about 400 years of gameplay. Eventually the inflation would be horrendous unless edited out. The question here of course is whether inflation should be let to achieve these high levels; it could simulate the aliens weakening over time and giving them an incentive to crush the other humans as quickly as possible.

Who would win? I believe this must be answered before any signficant planning was done for this game. If the aliens' starting position allows them to rampage across the word at a great pace leaving little time for the humans to defend then there is little point of playing except to have one's sadistic pleasures acted out upon. On the other hand, if the alien invasion is stopped dead in its tracks it will definately kill off the point of the game.

Of course, the modification would include the scenario changes. Additionally, I imagine that the alien graphics set could be adopted for the U00 tag. Someone would have to do that since I'm not that familiar with graphics editing in EU2 to a great extent. Everything else I could handle.

What do you say, do you think this would be a fun game? :rofl:

Excuse any spelling mistakes, I'm tired while writing this.

 

[unmerged(11216)]

This sounds like a....CRAZY idea

 

[Barca]

Sounds like fun, but could be frustrating for whoever the aliens target first .

 

[kurtbrian]

just remember that the aliens if you put them on hawaii or someplace like that won't have any significant manpower.

 

[Veilwalker]

I would suggest sticking them on Australia and New Zealand. That should put them far enough away and give them a decent chunk of land to start with. Probably some editing to pimp out their settlements a little bit so they have a decent manpower pool. Would also need to decide on what their most efficient DP sliders would be especially with the purpose of their taking over the entire world, lol. I suppose giving them a perm Causi Belli on everyone and after the attack a civilization that civilization should also get a perm in return but I am not sure how much of a fight this will really be. LT60 against LT9 wouldn't even be a fight would it?

Does the world know the aliens have landed or will it be a surprise when they show up and lay waste to every army that can be reasonably thrown at them?

 

[Chaingun]

just remember that the aliens if you put them on hawaii or someplace like that won't have any significant manpower.

True. Remember I did not spend a very long time thinking this over yeasterday before I posted it; the idea is to think about the setup in this thread which you indeed do. Remember the aliens will have access to conscription centers and weapon manufactories to improve their manpower, as well as any grain provinces they capture. I really need to go through the manpower FAQ again since I feel my memory about it is a fuzzy.

Another option is to either let the aliens move their capital to anyone of their provinces between sessions, or to set up specific events for a few provinces of the type "if this province is conquered, move capital here".

I suppose giving them a perm Causi Belli on everyone and after the attack a civilization that civilization should also get a perm in return but I am not sure how much of a fight this will really be. LT60 against LT9 wouldn't even be a fight would it?

I think the only way to test this is to actually play it for a bit first in SP and see at how a quick peace the advance can be made. It must be remembered that humans will put up much more stiff resistance from the AI, so the aliens should be able to win in SP but with certain difficulties.

There may be a huge problem in the number of revolts. I don't know about most WC games, but I do believe they are often paused to deal with excessive numbers of rebels. The rebels will be an annoying distraction for anyone facing 6-12 human enemies; thus we should try to optimize the situation as much as possible. One strategy could be to give the aliens the all the cultures in the world. This combined with the cores all over the world should keep revolts down to a manageable level.

This sounds like a....CRAZY idea

You volunteer to play the aliens then? No seriously, we should have a time for this first provided it's even possible...

 

[unmerged(27108)]

Really interesting. Hope i can play it!

 

[unmerged(10915)]

Sounds like real fun . Would be even kewler if the players were allowed to scheme, european-like in the face of danger, maybe taking the opportunity to swat France into a blue mess.

 

[Wyvern]

If you're going to do this I suggest considering spreading the players around the globe rather than having them all bunched in Europe. It will both give everyone a chance to expand a bit before meeting the aliens and also mean the aliens won't have a free ride against the AI by simply avoiding Europe. Of course it MAY mean the aliens can then simply pick the players off one by one but them are the breaks .

 

[Chaingun]

If you're going to do this I suggest considering spreading the players around the globe rather than having them all bunched in Europe. It will both give everyone a chance to expand a bit before meeting the aliens and also mean the aliens won't have a free ride against the AI by simply avoiding Europe. Of course it MAY mean the aliens can then simply pick the players off one by one but them are the breaks .

Indeed. I was thinking of letting quite a few rule Asia (most notably China and probably the Timurids/Mughal Empire as well). On the other hand, if the aliens start somewhere in Oceania (the 'continent' in EU2), they are very likely to pick off China early on. Other possible starting locations I have in mind except Tahiti or Australia are St.Helena or the Bermudas (now Bermuda would be a good spot).

Sounds like real fun . Would be even kewler if the players were allowed to scheme, european-like in the face of danger, maybe taking the opportunity to swat France into a blue mess.

It might be. However, I'm afraid that if only 33% of the humans or more decided to ally with the aliens the remaining defenders of Earth will stand no chance (especially if the aliens start funding the remaining humans). Like already established I expect the natural restrictions for the aliens to be the manpower issue, inflation and revolts; these can be overcome with allies.

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One thing which could greatly change the balance of the game would be a later starting date than 1419. Essentially, technology will have more time to develop in favour of more even battles for the humans.

 

[unmerged(15764)]

cool idea.

 

[RedPhoenix]

Yeah could be fun to try out Would have to find the right starting locations and possible tweaks and whatever. As said even with big landtech Oceania would give no manpower and no mercs. Cavalry is pretty good even at lowtech against high tech troops in open terrain, and euros could merc.

On the other hand if you give the alien player a good starting position with possibilities to gain much manpower then he might be unstoppable.

Alternatives are ofcourse don't give aliens max tech, or start in a later say 1492 so euros have more tech and can cope a bit better. Or give euros more starting techs by edits.

Ofcourse could just rise the manpower of Hawaii and put aliens to start there Max manpower and population to both hawaii provinces :wacko:

Ohh no the hawaiian aliens are invading us! ALOHA!

 

[Chaingun]

The problem I have with delaying the starting date is that before the aliens are able to do anything whatsoever, they must explore their surroundings which undoubtly takes some time, and establish some basic outposts (colonies) to prevent massive attrition in case they start in Occeania. I'm just afraid that once they've picked up steam they will expand very fast - careful balancing needs to be done here.

I also repeat that Bermuda may be an interesting select for their starting spot, considering that this will allow them to draw considerable manpower from North America. This is a much better starting position though (just think of how close to Azteks), and therefore I think it should be accompanied with a 1492 start.

 

[PJL]

The problem I have with delaying the starting date is that before the aliens are able to do anything whatsoever, they must explore their surroundings which undoubtly takes some time, and establish some basic outposts (colonies) to prevent massive attrition in case they start in Occeania. I'm just afraid that once they've picked up steam they will expand very fast - careful balancing needs to be done here.

I also repeat that Bermuda may be an interesting select for their starting spot, considering that this will allow them to draw considerable manpower from North America. This is a much better starting position though (just think of how close to Azteks), and therefore I think it should be accompanied with a 1492 start.

Actually, the Aleuts or Falklands would probably be a 'better' position -more remote, but still has the American manpower.

 

[PJL]

BTW, the aliens would have to be pagan of course.....

 

[Chaingun]

I was thinking of perhaps making some kind of "victory events" as well. The aliens would lose if they do not control their capital any time (with an exclusion of rebels). They would win if all major capital provinces in the world had been conquered. These are just ideas of course, I'm not sure how they'd play out.

 

[unmerged(6147)]

I also repeat that Bermuda may be an interesting select for their starting spot, considering that this will allow them to draw considerable manpower from North America. This is a much better starting position though (just think of how close to Azteks), and therefore I think it should be accompanied with a 1492 start.

IMO, if they start in Bermuda (Plains) in 1492 any capable Spanish or Portuguese player will kill them within a couple of years. Just go over and kill them with cavalry. If nothing else attrition will kill the few Aliens there is (their manpower must be very small if they only own Bermuda).

But of course, if you gave them a respectable level 60 fleet to protect their shore, then it's another question.

 

[Wyvern]

If as can be assumed the Aliens set off with land/naval tech level 60 then their island home (wherever it may be) will be amply protected for the first couple of centuries even by a relatively small fleet, however once the 18th century rolls around the admirals that certain european countries get would easily sweep away a leaderless alien fleet without too much trouble even if the aliens were still somewhat numerically superior. Admirals make a massive difference in naval combat. Still - upto that time period anything that is island based should be fully in Alien hands (America/England/SE Asian Islands etc) so very few could probably afford to build a rival fleet.

I expect Alien downfall to occur in the 18th century more from the players inability to multi-task quickly enough to take on a massive multi-front player alliance rather than because the Alien position by that time isn't powerful enough still to win. I think it could still be an interesting experiment though especially if as is likely the Aliens try a land invasion of Europe or Asia.

A 1419 start virtually guarantees an Alien walkover. A 1492 start could prove interesting though. Having them start down in the Falklands rather than Bermuda will also slow them down just a little bit and so is probably a wise idea, because if they get moving too quickly tech level 60 armies are going to be very difficult to stop during the first century or so of play.

 

[Chaingun]

About the leaders - why shouldn't the aliens have leaders? It's just a question of whether we want them to have an additional advantage in the form of an ever-living 10-10-10-5 leader or something similar.

About the micromanagement issue: I think it might just work, if 1) the alien player is not disturbed by events in his regular life, 2) has a stable connection, and 3) has the number of monotonous gameplay issues cut down to a minimum (this means decreasing number of revolts by all means possible because they tend to prove a serious distraction for any global empire).

 

[King John]

Heh, the aliens are going to own the world in the first 20 years .

For a number of reasons. 1.) Their naval tech will allow them to explore the world very quickly, not only because of speed and free exploration, but because their ships won't suffer attrition. 2.) Every cot will give them an income about equal to the richest European nation they find, in fact more because the competition will be so pathetic. Trade 10 will give a good trader a few hundred income easily once enough cots are discovered. 3.) European armies aren't big at this time, and have no fire phase power. We all know how much even land 9 can affect a war. The aliens are going to be annhilating armies with artillary before Europeans can even get to their shock phase. And even if they did, it would be inferior to alien infantry's shock. Basicly, one 50k alien army will be able to defeat all of Europe handily. And with good income and any manpower, heck one european prov(mercenaries), their will be no stopping them.

I would suggest picking a save from another game, set in maybe 1600 or so, when Europeans have some money and could possibly muster a defence. And place the aliens on some uncharted island, like tahiti or something. They'll still develope quite nice income from trade right off the bat, and explore quickly, and have infinite spare cach from minting, but would at least have some able competitors at this time.