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Situation: Take the SR2010 storyline. Now remove the World Market from the picture.
Chaos insues for a generation or two before things finally start to get back on track. Old nations are non-existant, previous borders or nationalities are meaningless.
Old technologies are not completely forgotten, but no-one's made a stealth fighter in a while - there haven't been any nations with the resources to do so - so some re-engineering will be necessary, leaving technology somewhere around 2000 levels with quick progress ensured for a year or two as old designs are applied to the new world.
The planet itself remains mostly unchanged except for one thing: the Middle-East's oil production has dropped significantly, removing it from the stage as a major power. It still is a decent-sized source, but no longer can it influence world policy the way it used to, forcing it back to being little more than the crossroads between Africa, Europe and Asia once more.

Game Stuff:
The world map is based on the original included in the game but made significantly smaller to be more managable (480x262 hexes as opposed to 900x450).
Intended for medium- to long-term play: Since there isn't a World Market, you can't declare war on a major source of your oil unless you have a stockpile already made, and your neighbors won't appreciate you invading *their* major source of oil either. Because of the lack of an unlimited source to fall back on, using a blance of power theory (or a lot of planning and very large stockpiles) will be crucial for any player hoping to win.
Depending on how well recieved the project is and if I can find the time and resources, a custom tech tree and/or unit list could be made to let the game go on for longer than the current tree can handle.
No AI players.


The map is currently done from Africa and Europe to China, so I figured I might as well post this now to ask for advice on how to set everything up (having the economy and such work well in multiplayer especially) since it might take a while to get everyone's ideas in (and I don't want to redo consumer goods twenty times before the first release ).
When posting suggestions, keep in mind that I want this to work for three to sixteen players (the latter being foolish optimism on my part, I admit), without changing the map if possible. You can be as vague or as detailed as you want in your descriptions (ie, "Oil over here" or "So many units of oil over here"), but final numbers will be needed at some point.

As for getting three to sixteen players in a single map, I plan to make 31 subregions in the main map file and have a seperate gmc for every player config., grouping the sub-regions into however many it needs (group all of the regions into 3 players, 4 players, etc.). I don't know if this will run into any issues, but it doesn't seem like it from what I've read. I just want the file to be kind to people like me (a 56k does not like the word "megabytes" ).


Any suggestions? Thoughts? Questions? (...Donations? )

Oh, in two days I'll be leaving on a trip for a little over a week, although I'll try to check in on this during that. After that, if I'm ever inactive on this topic for more than a few days, just PM me and I'll get an email that will remind me about it (I'm not exactly known for remembering things ).

Sorry about the big gap - the trip was nice, but having to buy a new hard-drive when I got back wasn't. (Last time I let my friends use the internet on my computer. )

Anyways, is the lack of responses from a lack of interest, or a lack of ideas to contribute? I'm still interested in doing the project (even if I can't salvage the map from the HD - it didn't take that long to do), but I don't want to spend all the time for nothing.
The whole idea was partially inspired by this thread (a few posts down tkobo lists a few specific problems with the multiplayer). My own experiences with other strategy games caused more than a touch of empathy (haven't had a chance to do multiplayer yet, lousy modem and all).
I just thought that, since the game is coming out in Europe soon, it might be a good idea to make a scenario specifically made for multiplayer, the one aspect that makes people stay interested in a game (Starcraft/Counterstrike anyone?). Obviously more serious players will be needed to have any multiplayer game work out, but I think that having a map that discourages "cheap" tactics (having a WM border, AI nations, etc) would make the game a lot more fun. As long as the game has a second chance, I think this would be as good a chance as any to breathe some life into the multiplayer game.

There isn't much of a scene here with regards to short-term multiplayer games, so I kind of doubt that more involved/multi-session maps would be used...

Actually I'd be interested in this Victarus... You are gonna have to give me a month or two to complete some more learning curve. If I was a prospective Minister, you would slot me in the military. I read people speaking of completing the tech tree in 6 yrs etc. and racking up hundreds of TRILLIONS of dollars... Hell I'm lucky to complete a decently advanced ship or plane design before I run out of enemies to defeat. I guess I figure if I can pour the money into perfectly functional pre-existing units and mop the floor with those....then why do I need an infantry vehicle that costs 3X (or more) what my existing ones do? I am pretty decent at industry, and my economy usually does not suck, but I've got a long way to go past simply being able to kick the AI's arse.
In any case, don't delete your work, just give me some time to become more well rounded in my game so I don't embarrass myself too badly.

I'm sorry, I think you have this wrong: I'm not proposing that a game start, but that a scenario be made for players who want a long-term game. I still have the files if anyone's interested, but I haven't done any work on them since no-one seemed to be very interested.

My bad. Still sounds interesting to me.