Shattered Union Trailer

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This is the Shattered Union wiki's copy of Saint's Shattered Union FAQ. It is NOT available under the CC-BY-SA, it's license is shown under the 'About this FAQ' section.Shattered Union (XBOX) FAQ 1.3/Mar 2006Author: saintly@innocent.comThis FAQ is copyright 2006, but 'Shattered Union', 'Xbox' and othertrademarkable names are probably trademarked by people like'Take-Two Interactive' and 'Microsoft'. This FAQ is not officiallyendorsed or authorized by anyone.To send questions about things not contained in the FAQ, suggestionscomments, spelling corrections or death threats, send email to meat the above address. I'll be more likely to read your message ifyou include a subject line like'Shattered Union 1.2' (or whatever version of the FAQ this is)I still need help with:- Tips/strategies for Campaign Mode- Suggestions for more sections to add- The experience systemI'll credit anyone who helps make this FAQ better.Table of Contents QFCThere are 'Quick-Find' tags at the start of each major section tohelp you jump to them in your browser. To jump to the 'FactionPowers List', search for 'QFX'. It should only be found at itsentry in the table of contents and the start of its section.0.

About this FAQ1. What kind of game is Shattered Union? Where can I find more information?b. Is this game popular?2. Basic Game-play QFGa.

DragonKingSoup needs your help in picking a side in the 2nd American Civil War! Comment to vote on which side he should choose in this poor attempt at making a Civilization game. Shattered Union. All Discussions Screenshots Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews. Shattered Union General Discussions Topic Details. Mar 4, 2016 @ 9:32am Shattered union start up problem for windows 10 Anybody know how to correct this problem for windows 10.

Purchase/Repair/Replace unitsb. Deploy Unitsc. Battle phases3.

Multiplayer QFM4. Skirmish Strategy QFB5. Unit Comparison Table QFU6. Unit type discussions/Notes QFDa. Single-Use unitsb. Infantry unitsc.

Light Armord. Medium Armore. Heavy Armorf. Fighters and Bombersj. Special Units7. Game Mechanics QFMa.

Terrain Effects QFTb. Refuelling & Repairingc. Attack and Defensed.

Russian Aid8. Factions QFFa. New England Allianceb. The Confederacyc. Great Plains Federationd. Republic of Texase. California Commonwealthf.

European Unionh. Reputation level & Faction powers QFR10. Faction Powers List QFX11. Power summary & quick-ref QFS12. Full Powers Descriptions QFD13.

Campaign Mode QFCa. Territory Valuesb.

Controller tricksd. Campaign Mode Strategiese. Unit Experience14.

Campaign Mode Walkthrough QFWa. Beginning-Midgame (Turns 2-25 or so)c. Midgame-End (Turns 25-50 or so)d. Endgame (Turns 50+)15. Campaign strategiesa. Playing as EU on Hard difficulty16. 101 uses for a Partisan QFP17.

Cheat Codes18. Version History20. About this FAQThe latest version of this FAQ can be found at:If you found it somewhere else, make sure to get the latest version beforesending me any questions or comments. Other sites are free to post itwithout asking me so long as:1) It's posted in it's entirety2) You don't charge people to see it1. What kind of game is Shattered Union? QFAShattered Union is a turn-based strategic warfare game, similar tothe SNES game 'Super Conflict' or the GBA series 'Advance Wars'.If you haven't played those, you can think of it as being similarto board games like 'Battletech', 'Warhammer' or even 'Risk' orChess.

All these games enjoyed a modest success, mostly withstrategy game fans.In a turn-based strategy game you look down on a battlefield. Youcan see all your units and a certain distance away from them(called their 'Sight Radius'). The rest of the map is hidden fromyour view by the 'Fog of War'. All you can see of the rest of themap are basic terrain features.On your turn, you can move any of your units to anywhere withintheir movement range. If you move them within range of an enemyunit, you can attack it. The other player cannot take any actionsduring your turn, though their units will defend themselves ifattacked or perform other automatic tasks.After you've moved as many units as you like, you end your turnand can take no actions during your opponent's phase.a. Where can I find more information?The official site (with trailer, screenshots & game information) is:PopTop Software has it's own website for the game, with links toreviews from different magazines & websites:GameFAQs has discussion boards for both the PC and Xbox versions:(PC)(Xbox)Express World is a fan site dedicated to PopTop games, they have apage for Shattered Union and a discussion forum:(Forum)(Shattered Union webpage)b.

Is this game popular?Sadly, no. It was released for the PC and only one console; the Xbox.Console strategy games are rare, and most of them (and the people thatplay them) are with the PC and PS2. Furthermore, it was releasedwithout any advertising at the end of the Xbox's life cycle. To addinsult to injury, Poptop appears to have stopped all work on it, sothere won't be a PC demo, patches or a map editor unless diehard fanscreate them themselves.Reviewers generally liked it, calling it an above average game, butnot one of the outstanding best (it gots lots of 80% scores, 4 out of 5s,8 out of 10s, etc.).c. I really like it, what are similar games?The MOST similar games I can think of are the old NES game 'Conflict',and the SNES sequel 'Super Conflict'. In both of them you have a hexgrid & modern military units. The goal is to defeat your enemy's'Flag Tank' (or 'Flag Ship' in Super Conflict).The 'Advance Wars' series for the Game Boy are also similar, withmodern units on a square grid.There are plenty of other turn-based strategy games though.

For thePS2, 'Disgaea', 'La Pucelle Tactics' and 'Makai Kingdom' are allfantasy turn-based strategy games.2. Basic Game-play QFGWhether you're playing Campaign Mode or fighting a friend, theheart of the game is the tactical battle. In 'Skirmish' mode,this is the whole game.The tactical battle follows this game flow:a. Purchase/Repair/Replace unitsRepairing units is only done in Campaign mode (in Skirmish mode youwon't have any units to repair). It costs about 30% of the unit'sprice to completely repair it to full health.If you're the defending player in Campaign mode, you can only repairunits or buy Single-use units.If you accidentally buy something in Skirmish mode, hit 'Y' to go torepair/sell mode and sell it back for full price. This doesn't workin Campaign mode, so be careful what you buy.b. Deploy UnitsThe attacker goes first and can deploy units anywhere in thehighlighted yellow hexes.

You cannot attack or use any special powersin 'Deploy Units' mode. Press 'Back' to end your turn. After thedefender deploys their units, the tactical battle starts.c.

Battle phasesGenerally, the attacker has to capture a certain number of points worthof towns or structures. Each town has a different point rating, soattackers often want to prioritize and focus their attack on a few keycities. Attackers can also win by destroying all the defender's units.If the attacker fails to capture enough objectives within the allottedtime (15 turns), or all the attacking units are wiped out by thedefender, the attacker loses.If the attacker wins in campaign mode, they capture that territory andcan launch attacks against other territories touching it.3. Multiplayer QFMYou can play this game against a human opponent.

The simplestway to do this is the following:On Controller 1, Pick 'Skirmish', then 'New'Hit 'Start' on Controller 2Each select starting faction, cash and reputationHit 'A' on Controller 1 when both players are readyIf you have only one controller, use 'R' on it to switch over tothe 'CPU' side, then go up and change the CPU type 'Human'. Nowyou will need to hand off the controller to the person playing.This way is most like the 'Conflict' games, but some features ofthe game (the Fog of War, mines, choosing units, etc.) will losesome of their effectiveness since both players can see what theother does on their turn. It might be a good idea for each playerto step out of the room during the 'purchase' phase, at least.The other options are to play against someone with their ownXBOX, copy of the game and separate TV via 'System Link', or findan opponent on XBOX live.Note that multiplayer is available only for 'Skirmish' mode, notthe full campaign.You can select your starting reputation, or pick '?' Ifyou pick 'X' you'll get no powers for the battle. If you pick?,your reputation will be randomly selected (you don't get 5 randompowers, you get whatever powers you'd get normally for having thereputation you're randomly given).4. Skirmish Strategy QFBBoth attacker and defender strategies are very different in skirmishgames, as opposed to the single-player campaign mode. The defenderwill usually want to have a different strategy from the attacker.The attacker is focused on offense, attacking power and movingquickly across the map to capture towns.

It's usually better tokeep pressing your attack and try to win quickly. Otherstrategies are possible (especially if you know the defender isgoing to try a different strategy) but attackers usually aren'tgood at defending and occupying territory. It's often better toavoid the defender's heavy defensive positions and capture asmuch undefended area as you can, hoping to lure the defense outinto an offensive war they may not be equipped for.

Keep in mindthat defenders usually have a huge air advantage since theirairport can be placed well out of your reach.The defender, on the other hand, is usually going to want to stayfocused on high-defense and long-range attacks, not worrying aboutlack of mobility. For this reason, the single-use units are agreat value: they have high defense and offense scores and aredirt-cheap. They're great for supplementing your units and makingany attacks on the major objectives costly for the attacker. Theyshouldn't be ignored because it looks like they 'waste' money incampaign mode. It's far better to lose a bunker than a tank.Since fighters & bombers can move over the entire map, you can placeyour airport as far away as possible from the attackers and canafford to invest more in fighters and bombers.

Put it on top of aminor city to use it's 100HP to defend it.These are the 'classic' strategies, but defenders can also try tomix it up, perhaps trying to win by wiping out the attackers onoffense, or the attacker focusing on air strikes and air support.5.

All News Freedom Force, Sid Meier's Civilization® IV, BioShock™, Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization, Civilization IV®: Warlords, Freedom Force Demo, BioShock Demo, Railroad Tycoon II Platinum, Sid Meier's Civilization® III Complete, Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich Demo, Sid Meier's Pirates!, MLB® Front Office Manager, Jade Empire™: Special Edition, Prey, Railroad Tycoon 3, X-COM: Interceptor, X-COM: Enforcer, X-COM: UFO Defense, X-COM: Apocalypse, Sid Meier's Railroads!, X-COM: Terror From the Deep, Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization Trailer, CivCity: Rome, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword Demo, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword Trailer, Shattered Union, BioShock™ HD Trailer. Freelance artist and game designer Anjin Anhut shares some thoughts (and neat comparison charts) on what size means for video game's creatures great and small.Feeling And UnderstandingWhile 'make it big' seems to be the obvious approach, there is more to consider and to achieve by structuring the sizes of protagonists, enemies, items and environmental elements in a clever way.

The basic conventional concept of size representing power can be an awesome tool to help players instinctively understand a game situation and also trigger the desired emotional reaction. Let's check out some ways how this is achieved.The conventional idea of bigger=stronger is not manmade, it is based in nature. A common defense mechanism for many animals is to appear bigger. Some four-legged animals stand up and birds spread their feathers to provide a bigger silhouette and hopefully appear to be too dangerous to attack for their opponents and predators.

Also large horns, antlers, tusks, manes or overall physique often help establish the status of the dominate male in herds, packs and animal families.Man comes into play when tackling the idea from the physics side and cultural side. From a physics perspective, it is roughly understandable that large objects easily move small objects, but not vice versa. You know, like your body can easily be crushed by a tank.

But the tank can't be crushed by your body. (I would like to see the Myth Busters disprove that one.) Anyway, culturally the analogy of size and strength is commonly used in narration and language. For example: 'Why don't you pick on someone your own size?' , which basically means 'why don't you pick on someone as strong as yourself?' .Stacking Doll Food ChainTo start with the simplest and clearest form of the idea, let's have a look at stacking dolls.

Using the engulfing/swallowing as representation for all sorts of dominance, it helps to illustrate a simple concept. Whatever is bigger than me, is superior in strength, power to me. Everything smaller is inferior in those regards.

One could also extract that idea from the principle of food chains, where it is usually the bigger animal eating the smaller one. But there are so many exceptions to the principle there, that I rather came up with the very consistent stacking dolls analogy.The stacking doll model takes nothing into account, except size itself.

No weapons, no superpowers or other factors. Some factors, we will explore later.Organize By SizeThe stacking doll analogy can be applied in various forms to various games. Structuring entities by size to help the player instinctively understand strength relations is quite effective and already used well. In professional chess several conventions assign relative values to the pieces regarding their offensive qualities on the board. This represents the strength of the pieces in the imaginary combat situation depicted in a round of chess.

Various sources assign values like this: pawn=1/knight=3/bishop=3/rook=5/queen=9 (king not included, since he is not mend to join the battle). This hierarchy is roughly represented by the size relations of traditional chess pieces.In Gears of War 1+2 it becomes also quite obvious that relative size is used to hint at relative offensive power or level of threat. While most enemy creatures actual offensive power is determined by the weapon they are carrying, the physical appearance of the enemy is always matched. Except boss-like enemies, unarmed creatures are smaller than the Gears (human soldiers). Enemies with equal weapons to the Gears (sniper rifles, shotguns, assault rifles) are human-sized. Slightly more powerful weapons and special abilities (Torque-Bow, summoning Tickers) are used by enemies either slightly bigger than Gears (Kantors) or by enemies with the same size, that wear big hats to appear bigger (Theron Guards).

The really heavy weapons are held by so called Boomers, which are big in size and have a massive physical appearance.Please note that the difference in size of all those enemy creatures is not a logical consequence of the weight or usability of the weapons they are handling. Making the physique and weapon power of the Locusts match in size is just a visual cue for the player. Gears can pick up and use all of the weapons described above and do not need to vary in size to do so.Huge ThreatSo, keeping the stacking dolls in mind, let's have a look at how the player characters from Bioshock 1 and 2 are ranking amongst the other characters and creatures from the respective games. Please note, that the mannequin is just a stand-in for the faceless protagonist from Bioshock 1.

We can clearly see, that in both line-ups, the Little Sisters are way smaller than the player characters, which perfectly suits the concept of them being at the player's mercy. Also in Bioshock 1 the enemy creatures are either the same size or noticeably bigger than the player character, successfully providing a sense of threat.In Bioshock 2, the player is the biggest stacking doll, with maybe only the Brute Splicer or other Big Daddies equal in size. This made me feel very safe and comfortable while fighting the regular Splicers. Even the Big Sister was very spooky but did not appear to be equally matched with my powers. If we just take the stacking doll principle into account, the player in Bioshock 2 had very little to actually fear, while in Bioshock 1 he was under the constant threat of being swallowed by bigger matryoshkas.Maybe this issue is more tricky, than some game developers treat it.Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A BeeThere is something weird happening, when the difference in size passes a certain threshold. The payoff is satisfying.

Taking down a titan as big as a house is quite an accomplishment. But the fight itself can feel less physically tense and dangerous, than fighting enemies, closer to the protagonist's height. Simply put, when the enemy is too big, he can become less frightening and the player character suddenly becomes the palpable threat.I think, this impression is caused by several factors. One is the depiction of physical pain. Instant death is always looming, but normally there is little pain involved for the player. When the protagonists looses against the giant, he is getting completely crushed, swallowed whole or ripped to shreds. Total instant destruction.

The giant enemy, whenever critically hit, gets hurt pretty bad and it takes multiple painfully articulated hits to finally end him. The protagonist mutilates hands, rips out eyes, cuts of tounges and the giant enemy creature dies a slow painful death.Then there is giant enemies becoming so big, that they are treated as part of the environment. Fighting giants often feels like and is structured like a sequence of avoiding environmental hazards. All strategic elements of armed and hand-to-hand combat gameplay usually don't apply to taking down titans. There is no blocking, no quick kills, no juggling, no counter attacks, no splatting head shots. Climbing on titan creatures or crawling around in their innards, circling them on horseback and systematically damaging their weak spots often is more akin to toppling a tower, derailing a train or wrecking a building than to fighting.Lastly, to return to the narrative perspective, the giant enemy creatures are often engaged by the protagonist in games.

The giants are either hunted or are placed as bosses of their own realm. The player character usually moves thru an area to reach the giant, not the other way around. This also enhances the feeling of the insect-sized protagonist being the offensive force.SupersizedSize can also be used as a multiplier for emotional effects. In horror literature and films supersizing things and creatures has a long tradition. Think of King Kong, Tarantula, the US version of Godzilla, Attack Of The 50ft Woman. But the multiplier also works on a smaller scale. We do not need the sense of being physically overpowered here.

Know somebody who shudders at the sight of spiders? Have ever seen a camel spider or seen what it's bite can do? Use supersizing to multiply the dread and fear small terrors give us.On the other hand, making things supersized can also result in big comedic effects, when funny and harmless things get blown out of proportion.Size MattersNow let's have a look at dead things.

Props, weapons, armor, tools. I already mentioned large horns, antlers and so forth visually establishing the status of being strong. This can be directly translated into the size of manmade tools and weapons. Where it gets interesting, when you consider weapons and tools as extensions of your body.

This concept is already extensively explored by various writers (for example Steve Swink – Game Feel or Scott McCloud – Understanding Comics) and especially powerful in video games, where the tools we pick up in a game actually allow us to interact. The power of the weapon or tool is projected onto the character by making the weapon or tool an extension of the characters physique.This concept allows us to give great physical strength to a skinny boy, have a baby be a heavy force in hand-to-hand combat or apply the destructive power of a tank to a single person.ConclusionI know my observations are incomplete and subject to discussion and there is so much more to explore. There is a lot of depth to the ways size and size relations can work for gameplay, narration or emotionally. And I always enjoy, when I recognize game developers tackled this issue with consideration and concept.You can read more of Anhut's stuff (including ) over on his personal website,. In a remote Horde outpost in the Stonetalon Mountains of the newly-restructured World of Warcraft, a young Blood Elf girl named Clarissa begs passers-by to help bring her pal Mr.

D back to life. Sound familiar?Players that participated in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta and those players that have ventured into the Stonetalon Mountains since might have already run into Clarissa and her friend, a sizable Goblin mech called Large Daddy. There's also an Alliance version of the quest line that starts with a young girl named Alice, but no one plays Alliance so that hardly matters.Kotaku reader pointed us in their direction, so I dusted off an old level 24 shaman alt of mine and did a little exploring, nearly getting killed in the process.The quest wasn't open to me, which is probably for the best, considering my shaman had a respec waiting and hadn't repurchased any skills. In layman's terms, I was pretty gimped.Interested in finding them for yourself? Just check out the quest, or if you're Alliance and have somehow figured out how to read. You'll score for your trouble, and learn a little something about friendship in the process. PlayStation 3 owners may still feel the sting of the original BioShock being an Xbox 360 'exclusive,' then eventually getting a port of the game from another developer a year later.

Don't expect similar treatment for.Irrational Games' technical director Chris Kline took to the developer's forums this week to address concerns that PS3 owners might get less than first-class treatment for Infinite, explaining the team's approach.' We're serious about making sure the PS3 version is great,' Kline writes, noting that Irrational is 'doing simultaneous in-house development on the PS3, 360, and PC versions of the game,' which is expected in 2012.' So instead of declaring a 'lead platform' and porting the game to the others, we've instead changed the game engine so that all platforms look (to a programmer) more like a PS3,' Kline explains, touching on the unique architecture of Sony's home console. 'Writing code this way is more difficult for us, but has a key advantage: it's both optimal for the PS3.and. gives speed improvements on other platforms.'

So, yeah, win-win.For much more technical nitty-gritty from Kline, make sure to read the full post at the Irrational Games forums.Irrational. Exactly a year after rolling out Windows 7 with much fanfare, Microsoft seems to be finally remembering the gamers who help make their platform so popular.The Oct.

22, 2009 launch of Windows 7 happened with, or the people who use the system so prevalently to game.It was a massive shift in tone from 2006, when then Microsoft Vice President Peter Moore apologized for what he called a dereliction of duty to the company's number one gaming platform: The PC.While Vista's 2006 launch was touted as a renaissance for Windows gaming,Last week, though, the company unveiled their plans for for selling computer games digitally. Peter Orullian, group product manager for Windows PC and Mobile, told Kotaku that the idea is to 'bring some of the rigor thought and success we've had on console to bare in the PC space.' 'PC games,' he said. 'is a place where we are doubling down.' For now 'doubling down' on PC gaming means relaunching their web-based Games for Windows Marketplace next month with about 100 titles for sale.While it's nice to see Microsoft paying attention again to the PC as a gaming platform, I asked Orullian why Microsoft is spending time fixing a program that already has several very successful third-party solutions. Why reinvent the wheel, I asked, mentioning Valve's tremendously popular Steam service which currently has more than 1,200 games for sale.'

We have a different vision that runs parallel to what (Steam) is doing,' Orullian said.This is just the start of Microsoft's latest PC gaming push, he said. As the company builds up their store, they will also be tapping into the massive community they've built with the Xbox 360.Could that mean that gamers will see a second attempt at cross-platform gaming between the PC and the Xbox 360?' We have a healthy list of features we're going to start bringing out once the store launches,' Orullian said.One obvious place where Microsoft's new Games For Windows store may have the upper hand on Steam is how it handles digital rights management.Where Steam uses a single proprietary system, Games for Windows will have a much more flexible approach.The Marketplace will work with nearly all forms of digital rights management, Microsoft told Kotaku. Instead it will allow publishers to submit a pre-protected or unprotected build of their game with their choice of DRM. It’s surprisingly easy to play god in Civilization V. Creating a compelling and carefully balanced scenario can be almost as addictive as playing the game.

The good news is, thanks to the slick world editor, making maps in Civilization V is surprisingly easy as well. You don’t need to know how to code, and you won’t need to sacrifice your firstborn to the cyber gods to create your first map. Follow these six easy steps and you could be playing Civilization on a planet of your own creation in no time at all.1.

Tools of the tradeFirst of all you’ll need to download the Civilization V world builder itself. Open up Steam and head to the ‘Tools’ section of your games library, find Sid Meier’s Civilization V SDK and install it. Once the small download has finished you can launch the SDK at any time straight from this menu.On launching the SDK a pop up menu will offer you several options. Specialised editing tools for artists and modders can be found here, but the one we’re interested is the ‘WorldBuilder’.

Select this and, once it’s loaded up, select ‘New Map’.2. Brand new worldThis is the first screen you’ll be confronted with when booting up the SDK.

The two sliders at the top left represent the x and y axis of your map, use these to change the size of the world and then press the ‘Generate Blank Map’ button to see your resized map in the main view.Now you have two options. You can take your naked, oceanic world forward into the main editor, and lovingly hand place every tile, or have the editor randomly generate some terrain for you to work from. To do this, use the drop down menu at the bottom left of the screen and select the type of world you want the editor to create. You can choose anything from ‘Archipelago’ to ‘Ice Age’. The drop down menus below will let you edit other aspects of your world, such as how old it is, the amount of rainfall and the sea level.

Select the options you want and then press the grey ‘Generate with’ icon to see what the SDK spits out. Iron brigade images. Once you’re happy with what you’ve got, press ‘Accept Map’ to head into the editor proper.3.

Mould the earthThis is where the magic happens. On this screen you’ll be able to fine tune every aspect of your map. The first thing we need to do now is create some terrain.This part’s really fun. You can raise mountains, throw down jungles and sew rivers into the terrain by simply painting tiles onto the ocean. At the top right you’ll notice a series of tabs under the heading 'Map Editor Tools'. The fastest way to create your world is using the ‘paint’ tab. First, set the size and shape of your brush with the top two options, and then make sure the ‘Terrain’ pip is checked in the list of options below.

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In the drop down menu below ‘Terrain’ you’ll be able to select anything from grassland to mountains. Now simply paint your map into existence in the main view.If you want to add rivers, go to the ‘River’ tab. Clicking this will turn your map into a horrible mess of blue dots. Click on the dots and link them up to add bubbling brooks into your world. To add ruins for players to discover, head to the ‘Plopper’ tab and select the ‘Improvements’ pip.

The attached drop down menu will let you place special tiles such as encampments, ancient ruins and ready made mines in the world.4. And then there was manGood work. You’ve created a paradise. It’s a quiet and peaceful place that belongs to nature alone. There’s no war, or death, or squabbling politicians to trouble your idyllic new Eden. In other words, it’s boring.

Let’s add some civilizations to the mix!Look to the top of the screen and select the ‘Scenario Editor’ tab. This will let you set the general parameters of the game, including the speed of the game, the starting date and win conditions. At the bottom left of this window there’s a blank box with a ‘Players’ tab at the top. Hitting the small plus sign will add a nation to your scenario, and open up a series of options in the centre of the screen. These will let you tailor choose which nation you want to add, their policies, their starting relationship to other players on the map and even the technologies they start with.I have decided to create a small single player scenario that will sandwich the player between two warring states. The first nation I’ve added is America.

Here I’ve made sure that the ‘Playable’ tab is checked, and that the nation belongs to ‘Team 1’. Then I’ve added the two antagonists, the old foes England and France. To spice things up I’ve given them a series of military policies right off the bat, set them to belong to ‘Team 2’ and ‘Team 3’ respectively, and then made them hate each other using the diplomacy options on the right. To do this I selected ‘At war with’ from the diplomacy drop down menu, and then made sure ‘Team 2’ (England) was at war with ‘Team 3’ (France).To place cities belonging these nations into your map, select the ‘Cities’ tab from the now familiar ‘Map Editor Tools’ section at the top right of the screen.

Select the nationality of the city you want to place and then simply click a tile in the main view to plop down a city. Checking the ‘Edit’ pip in the ‘Cities’ tab will then let you rename the city, set its health, population and add additional buildings.5. There’s Uranium in them hillsWe’re nearly done, but there’s something very important missing from our map. Our civilizations won’t last long without resources. These are probably the most important element in creating a successful scenario.

You can manipulate the nations in your scenario by giving them technologies and policy tendencies that will cause them to want one type of resource, then you can stick that resource somewhere dangerous or hard to get to encourage conflict, and add some strategic depth to your map.If you want a straightforward, even scattering of resources to work from, select the ‘Misc’ tab in the Map Editor Tools, and then press ‘Scatter Resources’. You can press this a few times until you’re happy with the overall layout, and then customise the most precious resources from there.6.

Shattered Union Trailer

Play your mapThere's one final thing you need to do before you can dive into your creation. Exit WorldBuilder and start up the Civilization V SDK.

This time, instead of the WorldBuilder, select ModBuddy. Once in Modbuddy, select File New Project, then select 'Map Pack' from the two options and press 'OK'. Enter the title of your mod and a description, if you eventually publish your mod, this is the part that players will see before deciding whether they want to download it. Finally click 'Add Map' and add your creation from the list.

With this done, head to the taskbar at the top of the screen and select 'Build' and build your map pack. This should install your map in the Civ V directory. If you want to make any future alterations to your creation, be sure to rebuild it in ModBuddy.Phew, with all that done all that's left is to boot up Civilization V and actually play your map. Select 'Mods' from the main menu, head to 'Single Player' choose your scenario from the list of installed maps. Make sure the scenario box is ticked if you want to play according to the rules you set up and you're away.Congratulations, you have become a virtual deity! All that's left to do is play your map, fine tune your scenario and share your creation.

If you're inspired to create more complex mods for Civilization V then check out this superb guide, put together by Civilization Fanatic community member, Kael. Even without Kael's huge manual, it's perfectly possible to create a brilliant scenario in about half an hour, using nothing more than Worldbuilder's paint tool and a few drop down menu. Happy mapping! Does the game industry have a Hollywood complex?

BioShock designer Ken Levine seems to think so.' I think there's a sense in the entertainment fields that video games are seen as the junior varsity,' Levine tells Develop. 'There's this feeling of 'oh one day you can come up to our league'.'

Back in the late 1980s, Ken Levine hoped to break into the film industry as a screenwriter, but fell short. He instead went on to make video games and shook things up with his groundbreaking title BioShock.Levine points out that the game's industry doors are wide-open to film directors.

'Guillermo del Toro — who by the way is an amazing film director — recently signed a deal with THQ to make video games,' says Levine. 'And I'm thinking. He's never made a video game.' The game designer does concede that perhaps the film director could have a 'genius' for making games. 'But games are really, really hard to make well,' he adds. 'In our industry there's too many people star-struck of the movie world, jumping into deals with some big movie director just because they're big film directors.' Filmmakers are no stranger to video games.

Levine says he was even offered the chance to make a game with a big movie director, but turned the project down.' What's the point of having two creative leads together, and why would I want a film director to help me make a game, any more than they would want me to help out with their films?' They wouldn't, which makes it odd that they 'help out' on games. If they create, design or whatever, then that's a different story all together. And the skill sets, while different, do not have to be mutually exclusive.Develop.