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Interview with Michael Daumen
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Q) Thank you for granting us an interview, Michael. Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am an attorney with a solo practice in North Carolina, but originally from
Buffalo. My mom is from an Italian family, dad is a lot of things (the
Daumens IIRC come from Prussia but I did have an ancestor on the Mayflower).
In addition to a law degree I have BAs in Russian and Mathematics, and a
Graduate certifiate in Russian & E. European studies. I am married with two
daughters.
Q) Some of our readers might not be immediately familiar with your scenarios. Would you mind giving us a brief summary of the ones you've published?
The Roman Empire in Britain, c. 1997
Flashpoint Eurasia, late 1997
Habsburg Bid for Mastery, early 1998
Moscow: the Third Rome, summer 1998
The Great Game, early 99 (?)
Birth of America, late 1999
Libertad O Muerte, 2000
You may want to check the History of Civ2 thread on the Apolyton forums - I
was more scientific there.
Q) What were some of your earliest attempts at a scenario? How did you first learn of Civilization II's scenario-making capabilities?
My father got into Civ2 before I did, and showed me the WW2 scenario among
the other improvements over the original game. Having seen some early
scenarios on Glyphweb in 1997, I tried my hand with The Roman Empire in
Britian. It used the map of England from the 1066 conquest scenario. At
that time I didn't have a paint program or the FW scenario editor, so art
was a difficult problem -- I think I just used some other scenario's
units.gif!
Q) Your Habsburg Bid For Mastery scenario was made in collaboration with Harlan Thompson. Collaborations being as rare as they in the Civ2 community, how did you make yours work? Was there an agreed-upon division of labour? Would you ever try something similar again?
I had released a first version on my own, and Harlan approached me with some
changes to the map. As we implemented them it became apparent that it would
be worth overhauling the tech tree and filling out the wonders of the world.
Further along the way we made a dedicated effort to balance each possible
civ for human play, which involved more new units, techs, and events. I
recall our biggest disagreement was deciding which wonders to include, since
we wanted not only existing wonders but buildable ones for all nations.
Also, at that time I had a terrible email provider that couldn't send
attachments. For a while I cut and pasted txt changes and relied on Harlan
to make game changes.
For a long while Stefan Hartel and I tried to make a Rise of Islam scenario.
It grew from pretty ambitious to too ambitious. Don't know what happened to
it (Sorry, Stefan).
The hardest part of collaboration was waiting to make more changes without
hearing input on the last batch of files sent. Sort of like talking on a
radio with a long delay - sometimes you fire off several messages before
hearing from the other party. It can work as long as neither person is too
attached to specific things for compromise.
Q) Your scenarios deal with a wide variety of themes (unification of Russia, South American independence, Russo-British competition, etc.). Where do you get your ideas?
Obviously I had interest in Russia from the outset. While designing one
scenario I tended to save interesting ideas I came across for research for
the future. I specifically recall trying to add Ivan the Terrible to the
Habsburg scenario and realizing that it would do better on its own. And
from there I thought about Central Asian expansion, which became the Great
Game. For a long time now, any time I read history I find myself thinking
about how I could represent something in Civ terms.
The South America scenario was done because I had played a very early one
with basically just a map. I remember being excited when Jesús Balsinde's
"Bolivar's Dream" came out, but being disappointed to see that it was more
modpack than scenario. So I decided to make one. That and I am a big fan
of the South American liberators. My wife is Puerto Rican so my Spanish is
coming along - I speak real well with my five-year-old.
The one which came totally out of the blue was Birth of America. I can't
really say why the idea came to me, other than I didn't think there was a
scenario covering pre-Revolutionary America.
In addition to thinking of setting, it's important to portray a period where
there is definite territorial conflict. I know that sounds painfully
obvious, but that's why real Cold War scenarios will never work. If I can
have single nations doing the conquering, that's even better. Ceasar, Ivan
the Terrible, Queen Victoria and Jose de San Martin all had specific
objectives, which makes for compelling scenarios.
I have also tried to implement unique features of Civ2 when I can. AFAICT
the Moscow scenario was the first to use changing terrain, to represent the
"battle on the ice" of Alexander Nevsky. Moscow also put a stronger
emphasis on changing governments than most other scenarios.
I put a lot of importance into wonders and city improvements. They are good
ways to add background color and distinguish nations. I also try to come up
with colorful unit names rather than using the first initial of the nation
followed by a generic unit type -- Fusilier, Grenadier, Cazador vs. F.
Infantry, E. Infantry, S. Infantry. It took me a while to try my hand at
making units, and I still try to modify rather than start from scratch. I
have never gotten the hang of sounds - I usually turned them off to avoid
waking people.
Q) Do all of your ideas eventually make it into a scenario? What are some
that you've tossed around in your head without ever finishing?
Many have gotten to the paper stage. If a certain idea or trick doesn't
work I tend to scrap the whole project. I have given up on Operation Sea
Lion, Peter -and- Alexander the Great, and England vs Holland in the Spice
Islands. I had some good stuff for a Russia modpack which never got past my
crappy art. My current Bay of Pigs alternate history is on hiatus while I
consider other ideas for the scenario contest....
I appreciate your doing this.
It's fun. Thanks!
Q) How long does it take you to finish a scenario? Have you ever returned
to a work-in-progress and finished it? Did you ever work on more than one
scenario at the same time?
From conception to finished product, maybe 3 months of off-on work. I've
never deliberately set a project aside and finished it later; it just sort
of happens. I had been working on a Russian Civil War scenario that any
side could play for a long time, only to stop. Techumseh urged me to
revisit it in early September, 2001 - which lasted about a week. Only
during contests have I ever had projects at various stages of completion.
Q) What are some of the other computer games that you've played? Have you
tried making any mods or scenarios for them?
Lots of turn-based games: both Imperialisms and Masters of Orion, Alpha
Centauri, Fallout 1 & 2. Tropico and Sim Golf are my favorite real-times.
I have tried the old version of Magic The Gathering but not the online
version. Still, I've tinkered done more with Civ2 than all these combined
if you count time spent making scenarios.
Q) From your point of view as a scenario designer, what capabilities would
a Civ sequel need to have? What should it definetly not have?
I'd like the ability to restrict cities to building certain units and
wonders - Civ2 does this with hydro plants and coastal improvments already.
Have it so only GIs or the Manhattan project can be built in American cities
in an Allied civ, for example. I would also like to see features from
SMAC - in particular a more neutral way to rule (i.e. not biased towards
Western-style governance), and combat mechanics like bombardment and
retreating units. The one change I couldn't see happening is units losing
combat but surviving. That would make it harder to phase out catapults and
phalanxes, and make Civ2 more of a wargame - I accept that after a certain
point it can't be.
Q) Do you have a sign-off message for Scenario League readers?
It's amazing that a computer game can thrive as long as Civ2 has. That's
because so many people invigorate it through scenarios. Thanks to all who
have explored the length and breadth of what this game could do.
~ Leons Petrazickis
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