Devlog

Campaigns, a misread array, and ten missions in the wrong game

Reading mission lists out of engines rather than walkthroughs produced something no guide has — and caught two errors, one of them mine.

A compilation of walkthroughs was offered as source material and declined for the pages themselves: each section had a named author and its own terms, and one said plainly that it may not be placed on any web site. The rule that came out of it is simple, and it is now the site's rule for anything handed over as content — facts can be sourced, prose cannot be copied.

So Pharaoh's campaign was read out of Akhenaten's per-mission configuration instead, which yields something no walkthrough has: the win criteria the engine actually tests. Caesar III and Emperor had to come from the community, because their mission names are not in any engine, and the pages say which is which rather than presenting both as equally grounded.

The second error survived longer. Ten missions belonging to Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile were being presented as part of the base Pharaoh campaign. A supplied mission list disagreed with the site, and it was right — but rather than take its word, the fix walked the engine's own chains: every Akhenaten mission names the mission it hands off to, and a campaign ends where that pointer reads -1. Those terminators land at 40, 44, 47 and 52, which reproduces Cleopatra's four short campaigns exactly. The engine's own comments back it up, annotating mission 45 as the first Ancient Conquerors mission and 52 as the campaign end.

The right split is 38 base missions and 15 Cleopatra ones. Two independent sources agreeing is good; a source agreeing with something you can walk yourself is better.