Posts from Memories of the Dead

Name: Memories of the Dead
Name: Nekr
Map Type: Scenario
Number of Players: 4
Author: Mr. Dash
Description: This story tells about Ron. A somewhat Necromancer who woke up from a dead sleep, not remembering anything except his name. In search of answers to his questions, he will meet a rather strange Lich, which will be the beginning of an equally strange chain of events.

 

From the author: The map was made a long time ago, in 2022-2023. When I was cleaning files on my computer, I didn't want to delete it, but maybe someone will like it.
This is the first map that I finished to a playable state (tests were even carried out!). I tried to make the quests diverse; almost every one has a branching storyline.
Regarding the text - it may be clumsy and, frankly, ungrammatical in places (I am not a native Russian speaker), but I tried.

The map was created with the intention of continuing it into a full campaign. But now I highly doubt that a continuation will happen. Partly because I simply don't have time now, and I have already forgotten what I wanted to implement.

BUT! If the map receives a positive response, I will try to find my original scenario on Google Drive and, perhaps, create a sequel. Not a campaign, but at least one scenario, I will try. And I hope not by the year 2030.

P.S. Those who will play, please go through the map as thoroughly as possible. I want to hear good criticism.

Good luck!😀

I’ll give it a try and let you know.

I played through your scenario. For a first attempt, it's "good enough." One of its strengths is the plot's premise – it's intriguing, as it resembles the plot of one of the games in the Amnesia series. However, the plot only exists at the beginning and end of the scenario, and there are only a few lines when visiting the Lich, which is weak for a story-driven scenario. And, of course, the text suffers from spelling errors, typos, and missing spaces. The gameplay isn't particularly outstanding either – there's one strong hero who doesn't really challenge us, and a large number of resources and monsters for creating vampires. The quests offer choices, which is a plus. The landscape isn't remarkable, but I liked the implementation of the waterfall with the water temple.

My rating is 5.5/10, as a preliminary score for the effort.

And what if I opened a box with holes from the Academy?

What if I opened a box with holes from the mages?

It's a quest fork. I won't spoil it, just in case you want to replay it later.

The map design is adequate; there are no oddities like straight, corridor-like paths or trees placed just for the sake of it. The waterfall with the Temple of Water is very beautifully done. However, the plot is only present at the beginning, a little in the middle, and at the end. The rest of the gameplay is just a typical game where most of the map is cleared by vampires. After defeating the active enemy heroes, it all boils down to clearing the map.
The quests themselves are simple and not multi-stage, but it's nice that there are choices to be made, and the texts are coherent, not just something like "kill...; bring...; <reward given without text>".
But there aren't as many quests as I expected. Resources and monsters are literally on almost every cell of the map, but there are... significantly fewer quests and plot elements. :(

I leveled up in the standard way: summoning, darkness, defense, education, and logistics, because there's a lot of running around, and I got tired of moving only two steps a day. Overall, the enemy balance is quite adequate, without any hardcore difficulty except for a couple of battles. The final boss was a very pleasant surprise. After the previous games, I thought it would be something standard, or something small like the demon in the dungeon, but I encountered a simple but unpleasant combat script, because of which a solo stack of 500 vampires couldn't really do anything here :D So I had to go back a couple of saves, remove a couple of skills from the mentor, and gather all the possible army.
Also, the guard of the dragon set near the Necropolis was a nice touch. It definitely shouldn't be weakened, otherwise it won't be unique.

And here are some things I wanted to highlight separately:
1) The "Delivery" quest. The text about Nazir's emotional state appears immediately after talking to the dying mage, and not after talking to Nazir himself.
2) In general, I think it would be better not to have two additional quests, "Demonology" and "Tear of Ashi," but instead, when the hero receives new information about the main quest, simply update the main quest - "Remember Everything" - as was done, for example, on the Mercenaries map, because it is impossible to complete the scenario without completing these two quests.
Similarly, with "Tomb" and "Dispel the Barrier." Because here there is only one meaning of the scenario - to find out who he is, how he ended up here, etc. Nothing else is done. That is, the solutions to the tasks that arise are reduced to "Remember Everything," and are not some separate, unrelated tasks.
This is just a suggestion, not a request. I don't see the point in rewriting the map code specifically for this scenario because of this quest system, as it would take a lot of time, and it's not critically important for the gameplay.
3) In the final cutscene, there are two moments with a large amount of text in one scene (S2C2T4.txt, S3C5T3.txt), because of which it doesn't fit completely. Overall, it remains readable, but if desired, something can be shortened so that it ends up being one line less.
4) There are really a lot of typos; it's better to check the texts in Word before release. There's no point in listing them all, so I decided to fix them myself ().
I didn't change the meaning of the texts anywhere, only fixed typos, missing spaces, commas, etc

4) There are really a lot of typos; it's better to check the texts in Word before release. It doesn't make sense to write about all of them, so I decided to fix them myself (Attachment 76928).
I didn't change the meaning of the texts anywhere; only fixed typos, missing spaces, commas, etc.

Thank you for the feedback!

I will take everything described above into account if I create a sequel or some other scenario.

Special thanks for the version with the corrected text. A little later, I will fix the mistake with the mage assignment and a couple of other issues.

Started playing. Using the version by PODstail (thanks to him for the text edits). Regarding the excessive number of "resources and monsters," it exists, but overall it's moderate (I've seen much worse mixes where even the cursor wouldn't fit between them). Mentor and Fortress could be combined, considering the map size. Neutrals could be "stronger and more numerous," as we're playing as the overpowered Necropolis (the standard difficulty makes the game too easy even on Hard). Necropolis in a light-aligned area? Well, that's fine. So far, I've noticed a couple of upgrade structures and one of the Fortresses standing without any guards. Continuing...

An overabundance of resources and unnecessary artifacts. I still don't understand why the main character needs light magic.

An overabundance of resources and unnecessary artifacts. I still don't understand why the main character needs light magic.

Why not?) Light magic buffs physical damage, defense, and initiative. It's quite a good magic type.

An excess of resources and unnecessary artifacts. I still don't understand why the main character needs Light magic.

A few words about Light magic: Light magic as a starting skill is narratively justified here.

SPOILER!!!

Ron, before becoming undead, was an archbishop.

And I also liked the idea of simply leveling up by focusing on defense and "Stone Skin" (I used to play through the campaign as Arantir that way). Plus, a hero's special ability to increase the HP of units.
Personally, I found the skeletons with a two-digit number in the "Hit Points" line very amusing.
However, everyone plays as they want, and the game allows you to create a wide variety of builds.

Regarding the excess of resources and artifacts, yes, that's true. I was shocked myself when I went into the editor after a three-year break. I won't redo it; let it remain an imperfect feature of the map (yes, I'm lazy).

I hope the scenario gave you at least some enjoyment. 😀

Where should I start? The map turned out quite good: without unnecessary annoyances and unpleasant moments. I liked the plot, and the map as a whole doesn't seem empty or overloaded.

I played using light, darkness, summoning, image, and defense spells, which was quite interesting. But at some point, I got tired of fighting every mob at every step, and I gave in to eternal slavery.

I would gladly play it again. I would also like to see a continuation of the story and new maps in general. Thank you for the map!

Hmm... I met Nazir before going to Sinithar. I delivered one package to him, received a level as a reward, and Nazir disappeared. What do you think of this quest variation? Was this planned? It happened to me! That is, Nazir took half, and now only killing Sinithar remains for experience, because there will be no reward for killing him due to Nazir disappearing. As an alternative, they should have added a block to prevent Nazir from accepting the quest without meeting Sinithar first, or Nazir should only spawn after the search is completed, instead of being permanently placed on the map.

Hmm... I met Nazir before going to Sinithar. I delivered 1 package to him and received a level as a reward, and Nazir disappeared. How do you like this quest option? Was this planned? I had the same thing happen! That is, Nazir took half, and now I can only kill Sinithar for experience, because there's no reward due to Nazir leaving. It would have been necessary to block accepting the quest without the second package. Or will he appear later?

 

From the very beginning, you can take the package from the mage and deliver it to Nazir – then the quest will be completed, and you will receive a reward. If you open the box, he will ask you to find the thief and return the "spare" one.

Regarding the entry in the tasks – I am aware of the error. I will work on improving the quest during the week. I will slightly adjust the dialogues to make the presence of two boxes more logical.

 

From the very beginning, you can take a package from the mage and deliver it to Nazir – then the quest will be completed, and you will receive a reward. If you open the box, he will ask you to find the thief and return the "spare" one.

Regarding the entry in the tasks – I am aware of the bug. I will work on improving the quest this week. I will slightly adjust the dialogues to make the presence of two boxes more logical.

The quest was completed (attachment in the previous post), but it turns out that the quest is half-cut (this is not good), I just ran along the road to the Necropolis Castle, and I didn't run around looking for a thug (which is logical, because I need a roof over my head as soon as possible, and not to scour the map and complete a secondary quest). It's good that you will improve it.

Added after 13 minutes

Why not?) Light buffs physical damage, defense, and initiative. It's quite a good magic =)

I immediately discarded Light as soon as I found the Mentor. In my opinion, Light is like a fifth leg for the Necromancer (it's just not canon). Moreover, I immediately got Darkness and Summoning – the choice immediately became obvious. If the main character had Haste or Retribution in his spellbook at the start, then you could play around with it, but as it is...