Elemental Forums
Am I reading this wrong? Only a forced campaign?
It looks like you are indeed reading it wrong. There will definatly be sandbox, what would the random map generator be without it? 
Also, all the user added content they say will be avaialble makes for high replay value
What do you mean by "sandbox mode"? Do you refer to "skirmish" or "quick battle" where you set up pre-conditions against the AI/other players? I've just never heard of "sandbox" used in conjunction with a TBS or RTS.
Sandbox is actually the traditional gameplay type for turn-based strategy games. There is no set mission or storyline, just a world created from a player's options, inhabited by the number of AI opponents he/she desires (at any AI level), and then played however someone wants to play.
Will there be a way to implement kind of triggered events? And to change the victory conditions through scripting?
Why can't we have the story provided through the sandbox version? Help boost the story to all levels of epic feel.
How would a story in a sandbox mode even work. You have a randomly generated map, and though you could create a randomly generated story, sounds like a lot of work that would lead to some pretty meaningless, probably even weird, stories. I would think scenarios would be more of what you have in mind and maybe parts of those can have random elements.
The story doesn't have to be randomly generated. Just needs you to meet the right triggers to get the next story events/block of text/change in whatever/something spawned. Like in Civ, you can push a story through with events that will play out at a different pace with each player, some may even experience the story in a slightly different way.
Depends how consistent the story wants to be. Can have it tightly scripted with little variation.
The sand box mode will have tons of story in it because there are quests and such triggered by player actions.
Neat.
Addendum: Any chance those would be modable/player createable? That'd go a long way towards really-really-really longterm playability.
Awesome! Plus the modding options will also provide lots of gameplay fun I'm sure!
Actally, that would be kind-of fun to play if it was done ridiculously enough. Would make for a great mod.
Think like any of the Civilization games. You choose some parameters for the game such as map type, number of AI, difficulty level, how fast tech goes, is trading allowed, etc. and then the game randomly generates a game/map based on your choices.
Frogboy mentions quests and I take this to be a more advanced version of the quest/random event system found in Civ 4. In that you might get the "Master Blacksmith" quest in which you must build X number of forges in a certain amount of time and if you do it before anyone else does then you get a certain bonus and you might get a choice of bonus' depending on other part of your empire like if you have adopted a religion or if you own a certain great wonder.
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