Information and Comments from the Scenario Writer Writing a new Gemfire scenario is not as easy as most people think. The hardest thing is to minimize the possible deviations from the orginal story. I prefer using 'minimize' to using 'eliminate' because different people have different interpretations and beliefs in the original story. Besides, I have to ensure that the game, under the current AI design, will work and behave according to the scenario objective. I try to put the story as logical and as interesting as possible. The idea of this scenario comes from KOEI's Legend of the Three Kindoms, one of my favourite strategic games. I try to ensure that for a considerable period none of the three big families will stand out. The setup is achieved by over 20 trial runs by AI (non war-viewing mode). In these trials the three big families will have equal chances until at least year 15. Surprisingly, the test results are very different under different external conditions - a combination of PC/SNES and war-viewing mode/ non war-viewing mode. Let's first discuss the non-war-viewing mode. This mode is achieved by patching and is not possible in actual gameplay. In PC version, Blanche will destroy Lyle for sure. In SNES version, however, it's a vice versa. This is most likely resulted from different AI logic between the PC and the SNES version of the game. At the end, no matter whom is destroyed first, neither do Blanche nor Lyle can reunite the country before the total death of the rulers and heirs. (N.B. Lyle has won only once in 20 trials). Since the ages of rulers/heirs of both Blanche and Lyle are much older than Tudoria, the final winner is always Tudoria after both Blanche and Lyle break down into smaller families when they run out of heirs. Under war-viewing mode, in contrast, the result is more determined. Blanche has the edge in personnel to defeat its enemies in both PC and SNES versions. Due to much time is required to perform a thorough trial run under this mode, I have only performed two trials and both lead to the same result. Different external factors (PC/SNES; war-viewing/non-war-viewing) result in different outcomes even under exactly the same game data setup, so the setup can never be "fair". Meanwhile, my scenario parameters are based on the test results from SNES + non-war-viewing mode. Coz it's more likely what you will encounter when you play as Lankshire / Tudoria where Blanche/Lyle fight against each other. I'm pleased to leave the king of the hill open so that no easy conclusion can be drawn. Perhaps the only conclusion is that Elford makes himself the cannon fodder for the scenario. Back to Index