Installation Instructions
Short Intro
The Rise of the Necromancer, or Necrociv for short, is a high fantasy scenario designed for play using Civilization II: Test of Time. Under the leadership of the Necromancer an army of Vampyres invades the mythical world of Minaria. Your task as ruler of one of the three human nations is to defend your kingdom, thwart the invasion, and, if you can, lead an army into the Abyss and lay siege to the Vampyre stronghold of Zards.
Invasion of the Vampyre's homeworld can be accomplished by casting the Astral spell and building an Astral Jammer, a magical craft that carries your warriors and magi to the Abyss. You have 300 turns to cast the Astral Spell before the scenario ends.
In the early game, the human kingdoms have little defense against the deadly Vampyres. Learning the arcane arts of olde and exploration of the World of Minaria are the keys to survival. Knowledge will allow you to train units that can fight toe to toe with the worst of the Abyssal spawn.
Powerful vampyres and undead legions are not the only weapons of the Necromancer has at his disposal. His dark wizardry also gives him the power to corrupt kings. Once a monarch has started down the dark path of corruption he is destine to become a minion of the Necromancer. Corrupt AI players are likely to ally with the Necromancer and turn on their Minarian brethren. A corrupted human player can take sides as he chooses, but can no longer win the scenario.
As one of the Minarian nations the process of defeating the Vampyres is difficult but possible. I suggest adopting a three-phase strategy; Survival, Development, Counter-Attack. The tech tree is large and complex so I've created a tech tree poster.
Scenario Objectives: WinningWinning the Game: Minarian Victory Conditions
Vampyre Victory Conditions
The Minarian nations are Muetar, Immer, and Rombune. Minaria refers to main map, map zero. Corruption refers to possession of the Corruption advance, advance number 93.
Creative GoalsThis scenario is an entry in the Third Scenario Design Contest hosted by the Scenario League.
Playability: Above all other things, I wanted this scenario to be fun to play, otherwise, what is the point? How can fun be guaranteed? IMHO, the best way to make a scenario fun to play is to incorporate the elements of game-play that make civ the fun addictive game that it is; exploration, research, diplomacy, empire building, and WARFARE.
Atmosphere: Game-play is the way the game is played and atmosphere is the way it feels to play the game. Give the scenario it's own atmosphere. Make the player feel like he is playing an entirely new game, Necrociv! From this point forward I will no longer refer to the game of Civilization, only Necrociv.
New Concepts/Scenario TricksLiving Wonders: When certain wonders are build a unique unit is created. When that unit dies the wonder expires.
Resurrection: Learning the spell resurrection returns one of your slain unique units to play. If the unit is a living wonder, the power of the wonder is restored.
Raging Hordes: IMHO civ just ain't civ with out hordes of barbarians! Really hard to work into a scenario, but hey, their worth it!
Occult Underworld: Should schism occur in a Minarian nation an occult cabal in league with the Vampyres will rise to power.
Conquest by Corruption: The Necromancer can lure human nations into the ways of evil. In all likelihood two of the three human nations will fall victim to this conquest from within.
Animated Terrain Fixed: Even after the animated terrain has been turned off some undesired static sprites still appear on the map. This problem was corrected in Necrociv by replacing the sprites images with transparent images by hex editing the resource.spr file.
Easy to See Units: Because Microprose removed the unit shield and replaced it with a fuzzy little colored dot it is hard to tell what units belong to what nation. Fortunately the ToT designers included two features that can be used to amend this oversite, the 'tribe can build mask' and a score of extra unit slots. Creating three or four versions of each unit type dressed in the colors of its kingdom corrects the visual identification problem.
Events and Event Flags: Alas that the count function does not work! None-the-less I think I have created an interesting series of events with the remaining tools.
Text Windows and the Necropedia: Significant editing was done to the games text files - advice, game, labels, pedia - to set the mood of the scenario and improve gameplay.
Technical Excellence: Much has been learned about the mechanics of the Civ engine and much has been added with Test of Time. Can all this information be assimilated and utilized in a scenario? With the creation of Necrociv I have attempted to answer this question. Why is it that the cities of corrupt nations demand slaves as a trade commodity while the others do not? Accident?
Art Credits
Unit art by: Erwan (EC), Gryphon (GRF), Alex Mor (Alex), Harlan Thompson (HT), John Crawley (JC), and Myself (HARRIS).
Alex Mor's unit art provided the basis for many of the units I developed. From extensive study of his work I learned much of what I know about unit making. From Harlan Thompson's ToT unit collection I took several units including the Adventurer, Catapult, and Lerphin. Erwan's graphics provided a basis for many of the units used in the scenario. His city styles are used for Muetar, Immer, Rombune and the Free Cities.
Captain Nemo provided the Barbarian city style. From Bernd Brosing's excellent "Cross and the Crescent" scenario I borrowed the small improvement icons I used for the armory, weapon smithy, plunder, fishermen's village and arcane tomes. I also borrowed his sword tech graphic and the triad of desert terrain.
Technical Credits
Allard Höfelt's his paper on text commands was very helpful. Allard Höfelt, Carl Fritz, Andrew Livings, and Xin Yu for their combined wisdom on hex editing.
Cam Hills for his papers on Flags and Tribe Colors and for his work on the Scenario League site, which provided much of the knowledge base used in building this scenario, and for his effort to keep the SDC#3 alive.
Kevin "DarthVeda" Chulski for his paper " Getting Civilize2 and Leaders2 to work for you."