I have made this thread due to some of the custom scenario's I have seen made .In this thread I hope to be able help people able to make custom scenario games in Warlight that are both fun and people will easily join.

The First thing I want to address is way too many slots. I will attach a map with a custom scenario showing such a thing.https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=822564. This map might be done to an extreme but this have done to serve a point. with this game 30+ slots it will take ages just for people to join and as we all know games will stop being advertised after a certain time. Once your game is stopped being advertised with your game not being full it will be likely that you won't be able to fill the rest of the seats or fill them in with AI(which is not fun).

My second point to help with the first point is small nations. I will attach a map with a custom scenario to show this https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=822578. The reason why some games take forever to fill is because of small nations. These small nations can be crushed by other players or make them as useless allies. These small nations are undesirable by most players because they are not fun to play as and hard to find a way for them to increase their income. Since no one wants to play a game where they are a small nation it makes it hard then to fill those spots.

My third point is Huge OP nations. In this map the slot A is OP as you can probably easily tell https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=822574. There may be one or two or three of these nations you may even give special rules to these super powers but at the end of day who is going to stop these super powers from allying with each other or destroying 3 people at once. These huge nations make it unfair to the other players as they have no ability to stop these players. This just make scenarios where people surrender because they realize they can't defeat a certain player or are getting destroyed by them.

A final point is that you don't have to create historically accurate maps. Many of these previous sometimes arrive simply from trying to be historically accurate. You know what just have fun in trying to create a scenario with a bit of fiction in them. For example combine Croatia Bosnia and Serbia into one just to have a nation people want to play more. You can Even explain to people in the description why you have done certain actions and it's always fun to create a back story for each scenario.

IF you have any suggestions or comments leave them below

Hmmm, to fill slots you probably need to advertise them in diplo clans as well. Maybe you can give special objectives to small nations or give them protectors to make them fun to play as well.

Great scenarios don't need to be balanced to be fun.

I've got a few great games in those templates, back when I played scenario/diplomacy games:


5 kings ASOIAF scenario
https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=587041


Westeros diplo:
https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=658923


Rome quick diplo:
https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=586217

I agree with all points above, and I feel like too many slots is definitely the biggest issue with CS Diplomacies. That said, lots of slots can work very well if you are purposefully creating a historically accurate scenario, or if you are creating a very in-depth scenario, more for role play and realism than fictional alliances etc, for example a realistic 2016 diplo I'm currently working on-using Issander's Huge World.

A thumb rule I use:

Never make the strongest country more than 3x incomeful than the weakest.

It all depends on the type of game, and type of players, and whether it's RT or MD.

It's not easy to make a good scenario, but I generally find you either need a well balanced and robust scenario that helps players survive and deal with PEs (good for open games and RT) or you have a really good bunch of players (either through a clan/clans or by getting to know a good bunch of friends)

Tips for a robust template:
High base income or starting troop count for all players.
Relatively equal starting troops/incomes among all players.
Good connectivity (all players bordering several different players to reduce isolation)

Examples (these are some of my best and most successful templates):
Middle East RT: https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=708554
Shogun MD: https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=764706
Post-WW3 MD: https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=716227

Also a more tongue-in-cheek Middle East RT: https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TemplateID=709881