There's a super fun custom game called "Phantom mode" in starcraft 2 that I want to recreate in aoe2 with DE up and running. However, I'm pretty lost on where to start.

I play a lot of starcraft, and phantom mode is in my opinion, one of the best concepts for a custom game mode. Here's how it works:

It starts as an 8 player free for all with everyone allied, and everyone is immediately notified of their role, which is NOT visible to other plays. 2 players are randomly assigned to the "phantom" role. In starcraft, you can select what role you prefer before the game starts, which is a nice addition, but not necessary.

Phantoms receive extra free resources over time, in addition to having an increased population cap. The benefits are minimal in the early game (maybe 1-2 resources/second, 205 pop cap), but ramp up as the game progresses (40 mins in they might receive 5-10 of each resource/second with a 350 supply cap). When the game starts, the phantoms do not know who the other phantom is, but will be notified ~20ish minutes in. Typically, phantoms want to find out who the other is asap, and join forces when the opportune moment comes, but anyone can unally anyone else.

5 of the players are "slayers". Slayers receive no benefits, you're just playing the game like it's a ladder game.

1 of the player is a "paladin". Paladins also receive free resources, but unlike phantoms, their benefits do not increase as the game goes on, it stays at a flat rate. They are also capped at 200/200, same as the slayers.

The slayers + paladin's goal is to find out who the phantoms are, and defeat them before they get too strong (at 60+ minutes, the phantom income rate and supply cap gets pretty insane). The goal of the phantoms is to defeat the slayers + paladin. Again, no one knows each others roles. Typically, phantoms will try to shift suspicion to other players, hopefully have slayers killed, and remain inconspicuous until they can strike with their increased income and supply cap. Another strategy is to just attack early for maximum chaos, when no one has figured out anyone else's role.

It's a good idea for phantoms to stay under 200/200, and not build too much production to avoid suspicion. If anyone builds TOO much, it's a big red flag. Phantoms also typically need to not build too quickly with their increased income, you don't want to reveal yourself by hitting imperial age at 10 minutes.

The game cycles between day and night in increments of 5ish minutes, but given the slower pace of aoe2, 8-10 minutes might be better. During the day, the entire map is revealed with no fog of war. Night time, the fog of war comes back, and will obscure ALL players, even if you are allied. Phantoms will usually attack at night, as chaos and confusion benefit the phantoms.

There are also some additional mechanics in sc2 that would be great to implement, but aren't necessary for the game. For instance, phantoms have 1 chance to "smite" a player of their choosing. If that player is the paladin, their income bonus is removed. If the player isn't a paladin, it has no effect. This means you might not want to reveal yourself as the paladin immediately. This also can lead to slayers faking the paladin role (building a ton of production, towers everywhere, etc), just to draw a smite from the phantom. Again, cool concept, but not a big deal if I can't make that work in the aoe2 map editor.

So anyway, this leads me to my questions. I have minimal experience creating custom maps in aoe2, where can I go to learn triggers, win conditions, and all that good stuff? The concept seems easy enough to pull off for someone who knows their way around the map editor, but there are definitely some challenges that present themselves. Just a few off the top of my head, the score is a dead giveaway for roles, I don't know if random role selection is possible, increasing 1 players pop cap without affecting others, day/night cycles, etc. There are a lot of issues that I'm going to have to figure out.

Where can I find good information of creating scenarios? Are there a few community figures I can reach out to, who have a lot of knowledge about this sort of thing? It's a really fun map, and I'd love to be able to port it over to aoe2 if possible.

Thanks!