Tilesets will most likely be employed for use in the game. Some thoughts of CTG & MO?:
I would be interesting to see a wide variety of types displayed... Maybe include all regions within a broad time per tileset? Like, early medieval for houston tileset, high medieval for new york, etc. And then, certain people could go for a certain rgion when they started BATting?
That way different periods could be accomodated without creating too much chaos.
A first idea of classification:
1) early medieval; anglo-saxon and roman (french) influenced
2) high medieval; anglo-saxon and roman (french) influenced
3) iberian peninsular, eastern mediterranean; arab (moorish) influenced
4) renaissance
- So both these suggestions are for tilesets for different periods whereas I am more in favour of an urban rural split (at least). The differences between rural manor & village life contrasts very heavily with that of the cities and tilesets seem the most logical way of keeping fancy HW urban residentials from sprouting amongst villages.
However this still leaves two tilesets free.... I am attracted to the idea of including the renaissance, at a later date, as it would introduce so many aspects to the game. If only it could be made that a third and fourth tileset would only become available after success at the first two. Then I'd be inclined to leave the third and fourth ones open for future renaissance and industrial ages expansions.
So at this point there are three options available. Urban, rural, or urban & rural.
thoughts?
(but then there is the suggestion of CTG's to use density as the separator. One clear benefit of this would be being able to build a city and villages easily in the same city, but would require discipline on the part of the player. There are probably other downsides to such an approach that I can't think of right now. But if density controlled it, what would/could the tilesets be used for...? They are clearly valuable things, it's just trying to figure out what will best serve the game...)
-- Edited by thingfishs on Friday 11th of June 2010 02:21:57 PM
I would suggest to limit the amount of styles that you would like to develop. Making enough bats to cover all RCI development from stage 1 to 8 or even stage 15 is a massive task.
I would suggest North Western Europe as the starting point for SM and leave the rest. This would include Benelux, Germany, Scandinavia, Northern France, Great Britain, Poland and Czechia. There is always the possibility to expand to different countries later.
I would still say that the tilesets should be used for development over time. I have seen the time frame here set from 900 until 1400 and if we are talking NW Europe the medieval period did not end until 1500. This is 600 years. The style of building changed quite a lot from the start of the period until the end. The four tilesets that are available should be enough to achieve this. This does not however limit the possibility to add Italian or Spanish influenced buildings at a later stage. There are other options for this, like a pick and choose menu when installing SM.
I have to say that, slightly contrary to my initial thoughts, the division of the tiles in periods/styles instead of purely geographical areas seems much more useful to the gameplay. That way each tile would be more coherent in its content and each tileset would be much easier to complete and enlarge as far as lots go.
Would only leave the question of individuating where to make the split...
