Twilight Imperium?

Intersting post... as I just downloaded Galaxy Forge today to start playing around with a TI3 map. I am starting out with the 4 player map layout. Deciding what planets to put down is hard as I want to keep the randomness that makes TI so great. Also, with just the standard 4 player layout I put in the phase lanes as if no special impassable tiles (supernovas) existed. That makes for a LOT of phase lanes and no choke points.

I have decided, for now, to keep the star at the center of the system named Mecatol Rex, but I may shift the whole map to make the star a special system so that I can give some real TI3 feel to the map.

I don't have much time for major modding, and not much skill. However, I would love a full conversion or at least a few races. I think the L1Z1X, Hacan, and Universities of Jol-Nar would be a great start!

Man, I need a live game fix bad... it has been MONTHS.

I think a map is a great start! I definitely think making the central star (Mecatol Rex) special is very important to capturing the feel of TI.

Yeah, TI is one of those things that few people play b/c it takes so long, and it's hard to convince others to learn.

Icen9ne,

I have a basic 4-player map setup. I decided to not randomize it so that I could manipulate some of the settings per planet, planet type and name. I have the same basic layout as the typical TI3 board. The outer ring has planets with no TI3 tech bonus, the inner two layers do have bonues. The inner most ring has the highest artifact upgrade setting and it goes down progressively from there. I am using the 7 Deadly Sins mod, so the map was made with Deadly Forge. More work to follow...

Thanks to all those folks working on 7 Deadly Sins and the associated mods!!!

Funny - just played a game the other day

It's interesting that you're putting all the highest artifact/tech bonuses in the inner rings. Whenever we play, we always put deadspace and hazard hexes next to Mecatol Rex. We've never tried a game actually putting three- or two-planet rich systems next to it.

Would love to see a mod like this - although personally I'd replace Hacan with Sol.

There are so many ways to do it. For bringing the TI3 universe to SINS though I wanted to include as many planets as possible. I may move some around but I wanted to find a way to add the tech bonuses. So far the best I can come up with is increasng the artifact level of those planets. I used the green and red numbers on the TI3 planet cards as the increase in Tactical or Civilian module slots for each respectively.

Can't wait to get home and try it later this week. Being on the road sucks.

I think you're right on about placing the artifacts near the center. A lot of the balanced TI3 maps do it that way.

Initial Test Results: Something didn't work causing crashes. I think I had the map description too big, but it may have also been the fact that some of the "home" worlds were not TerranHome or DesertHome but Military (for L1Z1X) with IsHomePlanet set to True. I only had three of six homeworlds as actual home worlds.

Second Test Result: OMFG! I knew resources would be in large supply, but after my scouts worked their way around so I could see everything... WOW. The map comes in a 1 star and 38 planets total. The giant amount of phase lanes makes the map look like a spider web when zoomed out. There is an obvious lack of choke points, but that should make artificial choke points all the more important. The default templates for each planets contain a number of rogue ships. In some cases I thought this amount excessive, but it ay be an increase based on the number of players (6).

A little more tweaking between now and this weekend and I think I'll be ready to share!

Awesome. I will actually play this map. Even though I've never played Twilight Imperium (in fact I had never heard of it before seeing this post), the map you are designing looks pretty sweet. And, no, I won't try and learn how to play it. Don't bother asking.

I finally got to play this map some more over the weekend and attempt a few tweaks.

Here are the issues I am trying to figure out now:

1. In Galaxy Forge I have renamed each of the 6 players to be TI3 races (both ingamename and designname). However, these names are not being used by the AI factions on the map.

2. I have used various planets and set IsHome to TRUE. However, the worlds are being changed to TerranHome or DesertHome upon loading the map. This is significant as it is where most of the TI3 flavor really comes out. I have the Military planet being used for L1Z1X, a Swamp as another, even Rock and Forest are used.

3. I need to choose a better map picture for the browse function. I am currently using Fire and Ice, but I want to create a custom one.

4. I am looking to make two versions: 1 with planets set up a certain way and with certain bonuses/tweaks. Another with everything but the homeworlds set to RANDOM. Thoughts?

If anyone else in the modding community knows how I can get some of these changes to stick I would greatly appreciate the help.

Either way I will try to upload the file before the weekend and provide a link for others to share and give their thoughts.

I've uploaded the map for you guys to test. It may not show up for a few days though.

Twlight is amazing. I think this would be a pretty neat idea, but it won't work too well with the Sins engine. :/