[MOD] 1984: Defcon the Orwellian Way

[shinygerbil]

This mod is based upon George Orwell's famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four; it is an attempt to model (with a view to keeping the map balanced-ish) the three superpowers present in the book. So far, I have added a fourth territory, comprising of all the land which is "disputed," and in the novel fought over.

Although the book is quite clear on the fact that the war should never be won, that's not what Defcon is all about, so here I present you with a chance to find out who wins for yourself ;P

I am tempted to split Oceania into two smaller territories, to make it more manageable; human players have a fairly hard time of it, although CPU players seem to wipe the floor. (Against other CPUs.)

I have also begun work on changing the look of the game to a vaguely retro-steampunk-ish look, which I feel is roughly in keeping with the style of the book. But of course this is down to interpretation. So far, all units have been remade, and the first version of the colour scheme is going well.

Get the mod in its simplest form (i.e. just the modified territories) at http://www.shinygerbil.co.uk/files/1984.rar and give it a go!

I will soon be uploading a version of the mod with the graphics you see below.

Any ideas welcome

Screenshots:





Edit4: Cleaned up this post a bit.

[Xan]

well what can i say go for it ) it could be a very nice mod that i would like 2 play.

[zach]

Take a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1984_fictious_world_map_2.png and tell me what you think.

Thank me for the proper spelling of Eastasia in that picture

Oh, and awesome idea for a mod ... get to it!

[jelco]

You can leave out the number of killed people in the message, but you can't put it like you said: either all or none of the messages are done that way. You can't change that per team.

Oh, and it is indeed an awesome idea. But yeah, it could be quite unbalanced...

Jelco

[shinygerbil]

No, I didn't think you could, I've had a good look through english.txt

It's a little messy, but here's a quick screenie:

[i've put it into the original post...]

Feedback welcome!

[Useful Dave]

I Think you should add abit more sea onto Eurasia, taking space from Oceania.

[VANGUARD]

Oh, that is COOL

[Daxx]

I Think you should add abit more sea onto Eurasia, taking space from Oceania.

I agree. Maybe off the coast of Portugal/North-West Africa.

Otherwise, very nice work.

[shinygerbil]

Check the updated screenshot!

[rawera]

Now to make a "floating fortress" image for the battleships.

[xander]

Check the updated screenshot!

Looks good. Oceania would be a real challenge to play -- resources spread across the globe and all. I would imagine that it gets hit hard. I think the strategy would be to give up on defending more than a small portion of it, and concentrate defensive forces in a very small area. Either that, or attempt massive preemptive attacks, before either Eastasia or Eurasia can get a shot off. It would be an interesting scenario.

xander

[zach]

Personally can't wait to play it.

This and LegendCON looks very promising, a real change of strategy indeed.

[tChr]

But in Orwell's 1984, it's pretty clearly stated that the war wasn't meant to be won, but just to be fought; wouldn't this defy the concept of DEFCON, which turns out into an all-out nuclear exchange in a matter of hours? And besides, were ICBMs even invented in Orwell's dystopia?

[zach]

But in Orwell's 1984, it's pretty clearly stated that the war wasn't meant to be won, but just to be fought; wouldn't this defy the concept of DEFCON, which turns out into an all-out nuclear exchange in a matter of hours?

No-one wins.

And besides, were ICBMs even invented in Orwell's dystopia?

... And the world will never know

~ Well thought, anyway. You're right, the war is meant to go on and on and on, to hog up the resources leaving every citizen extremely poor, making the repression of the people possible for those with power (if there ever were such ones).

[shinygerbil]

Ssshhhh.


xander, after a quick playtest, Oceania is pretty hard to defend indeed; it would make sense to add more units by default, as all the territories are bigger (with the possible exception of Eastasia.) Interestingly, the Eastasia, the smallest territory, lost heavily; that probably has more to do with AI than anything else, though.