Testers needed. — Mapmaking

RedHeavenHero

12 years ago

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In the new version, banishing phoenixes will only require a ring of banishment and a sphere of light. A secondary quest from a witch will also appear, involving collecting monazite and finding the mask of justice to curse Dominic (reducing his stats, morale, and luck). Therefore, by the time the quests are completed, you can stop accumulating troops for the castle siege and start attacking immediately. I removed the dwarven artifacts from Dominic that grant immunity to dark magic spells.

In reply to RedHeavenHero

13га

12 years ago

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RedHeavenHero

In the new version, to banish phoenixes, you will only need the Ring of Banishment and the Sphere of Light.

Thank you very much.

A secondary quest will appear from the witch, involving collecting monazite and finding the Mask of Justice for the curse of Dominick (reducing characteristics, morale, and luck). So, by the time the quests are completed, you won't need to accumulate troops for a castle siege, but can attack immediately. I removed the dwarven artifacts from Dominick that grant immunity to dark spells.

This seems a bit redundant. If "darkness" is available, the number of troops and Dominick's parameters are not so important. Although, I forgot about the witch; I haven't visited her. In the new situation, there will be a reason to meet her. (According to the plot, they know each other well and perform a ritual together at the end). Everything is for the better. To make the battle interesting, it's good to have heroes with different schools of magic. Varens has more "darkness," and Dominick, accordingly, has all "light." Based on my experience playing as Varens, I can say that the best spell against him is "Divine Vengeance." If Dominick gains skilled spellcasting (I really hope the computer will use its abilities correctly), the battle will be unpredictable. The accumulation of troops is largely hindered by a lack of money. In the castle, after capturing dwellings, there are troops (the price of upgraded units, excluding peasants) worth 40.6k, in 4 castles - 161.2k. The player's income: capital - 2000, town hall - 4 * 2000 = 8000, 2 gold mines, artifact - 1000, skills - 500, peasants (Elaina, closer to the end of the game) - 6000. Total: 19.5k/day, 136.5k per week. Without taking into account the purchase of troops in dwellings (and there are quite a few), the deficit is 24.7k/week. That is, there is not enough money, at least, for 3 gold mines. If you plan on training, then 4, but, in my opinion, it's too much for the player. It's better to have a shortage of money. I am saddened that the discussion of the map has turned into a dialogue. Beauty lies in the diversity of opinions.

In reply to 13га

13га

12 years ago

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I tried playing the 5th map ("Hero" difficulty, version 0.9). I captured the Mage city. It disappeared, my experience was removed, I went through a portal, and ended up near a Castle. After that, I hit a dead end. An orange Mage appears with a huge army (9 Thunderbirds, 12 Rakshasa, and hordes of weaker units), or a purple Mage with a dozen Black Dragons – there's no way to defeat them. Sometimes, they both arrive at the same time, waiting in line to attack Andrias. The Forestburg city can sometimes be captured by a neutral faction, and sometimes it's already under the purple flag. But opponents appear literally on the same day, and there's no significant increase in my army. The archers and one cavalry unit that join don't make much of a difference. Question: what should I do? The orange and purple armies are equally impenetrable at different difficulty levels. I couldn't defeat a single one on "Recruit" difficulty. Defeating two of them is a fantasy. Andrias's army is the same as at the start, with only a few peasants lost. You can only run for a limited time; you'll definitely be caught when approaching the Prophet.
Sometimes, a random reset of Andrias's stats turns him into a completely weak character. At the same time, the situation is more difficult on easier difficulty levels. There are few neutral creatures guarding resources, they give almost no experience, and it's difficult to recover what's lost. On "Hero" difficulty, I can gain 2-3 levels before encountering the opponents, which helps somewhat.

In reply to 13га

RedHeavenHero

12 years ago

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13ga

Thank you very much.

It seems a bit redundant. If "darkness" is unlocked, the number of troops and Dominic's parameters are not so important. Although I forgot about the witch; I haven't visited her. The new situation will provide an opportunity to meet. (According to the plot, they know each other well and perform a ritual together at the end). Everything is for the better. To make the battle interesting, it is good to have heroes with different schools of magic. Varens has more "darkness," and Dominic, accordingly, has all the "light." Based on my experience playing as Varens, I can say that the best spell against him is "divine vengeance." If Dominic gains skillful spellcasting (I really hope the computer will use its abilities correctly), the battle will be unpredictable.
The accumulation of troops is largely hindered by the lack of money. In the castle, after capturing the dwellings, there are troops (the cost of upgraded units, excluding peasants) worth 40.6k, in 4 castles - 161.2k. The player's income: capital - 2000, town hall - 4*2000 = 8000, 2 gold mines, art - 1000, skills - 500, peasants (Elaina, closer to the end of the game) - 6000. Total: 19.5k/day, 136.5k per week. Without taking into account the purchase of troops in the dwellings (and there are quite a few), the deficit is 24.7k/week. That is, at least 3 gold mines are missing. If you plan for training, then 4, but, in my opinion, it is too much for the player. It is better to have a shortage of money.
I am saddened that the discussion of the map is now a dialogue. Beauty lies in the diversity of opinions.

Dominic is currently controlled by a script; otherwise, he doesn't want to cast mass spells. I will give him more freedom so that he can cast whatever he wants, in addition to mass spells. Regarding Dominic's army: due to one minor error, his army does not increase at the beginning of the game depending on the difficulty (except for recruits); I recently fixed it, so perhaps the ritual and vulnerability to darkness will not be superfluous.
Due to some reworkings, some areas of the map will be different; for example, a secluded area with resources, a gold sack, and a gold mine will appear.

Added 30 minutes ago

13ga

I tried playing the 5th map ("hero," version 0.9). I captured the city of mages. It disappeared, the experience was removed, I went through the portal, and came out to a human castle. Then there is a dead end. An orange mage appears with a huge army (9 thunderbirds, 12 rakshasa, and a lot of minor units), or a purple one with ten black dragons - there is no way to defeat them. Sometimes, they both come at the same time, stand in line, and wait for their turn to fight Andreas. The city of Forstburg is sometimes taken by a neutral force, sometimes it is already under a purple flag. But opponents appear literally on the same day, and there is no significant increase in the army. Joining archers and one cavalryman do not make a difference. Question: what to do? The armies of the orange and purple are equally invincible at different difficulty levels. I could not defeat a single one on "recruit." Defeating two is a fantasy. Andreas' army is the same as at the start; he has only lost a few peasants. You can run for a limited time; when approaching the prophet, you will definitely be caught.
The random reset of Andreas' parameters sometimes turns him into a completely toothless creature. At the same time, the situation at lower levels is more difficult. The number of neutral guards protecting resources is small, they give almost no experience, and it is difficult to recover the lost. On "hero," it is possible to gain 2-3 levels before meeting the opponents, which helps somewhat.

Did the mage appear before or after completing the prophet's quest? Before completing the quest, mages should not go beyond the garrison.
The size of their armies is also strange; they could not have gathered 10 dragons and 9 thunderbirds in 1 week anywhere; I did not give them that.
Andreas' characteristics are reduced only if his level after losing experience was less than 8. The amount of experience gained should be approximately the same at all difficulty levels, because by default the number of monsters is multiplied by 0.5, 1, 1.3, 1.5, and the amount of experience gained in battles is multiplied by 2, 1, 0.77, 0.67, depending on the difficulty.

In reply to RedHeavenHero

13га

12 years ago

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RedHeavenHero

Did the mage appear before or after completing the prophet's quest? Mages shouldn't leave the garrison before the quest is completed.
The size of their armies is also strange; they couldn't have gathered 10 dragons and 9 thunderbirds in a week, and I didn't give them any.

The mage (orange) appears almost immediately after Andreas on the field in front of the castle. (The event depends on how quickly Andreas appears near Fortress. The mage might intercept Andreas on his approach, somewhere near the fort on the hill). Usually, this happens towards the end of the second week. You can't approach the hut; the mage blocks the road – the quest hasn't been taken yet. Different mages appear, and their armies differ slightly, but are generally the same. The purple mage behaves strangely: when moving towards the castle, he lets Andreas pass; the main thing is to find a place where they can diverge. Then he returns and chases him until the end, until he corners him. For clarity, I'm attaching the latest save of the map and a replay of the battle with the purple mage (I attacked him myself, to assess his army; it's been 1 week and 1 day).

In reply to 13га

13га

12 years ago

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Uploaded a new version. The colors of the "green" army have been changed. On the one hand, I liked the change – the poisonous color has disappeared. But when deploying troops on the battlefield, you feel that the units are wearing camouflage – the visibility of the units is poor. The monks are the best at camouflaging themselves. The clothing lacks light elements for contrast. Perhaps it would be worth lightening the metallic parts of the equipment so that they don't look like black metal (use a light, silver shade), and maybe use a green and white pattern. The griffons look best in dark colors. Only the pattern on their faces creates the impression that their beaks are tied with seaweed. The monks have had their mana reserves reduced. This is logical, but it's a pity. Now, impressions directly from the map. The guard at the human Castle has become more ferocious – this is good. The development of the plot suggests that the inevitable end of Andrias is approaching. The Warlocks come twice a week. Vaishan appears after a day or two after capturing the Castle, and Agbeth appears two days later. Three difficult battles in one week deplete almost all of Andrias's army; he has nowhere to get reinforcements, the Castle is empty, with zero development. The following week, the Warlocks come again, although their army is small this time, but their magic power has not weakened. By the end of the third week, my entire army consisted of 2 monks. There is nothing to buy in the Castle or the dwelling. The enemy has all 7 stacks occupied by troops. The frequency of Warlock visits is such that Andrias cannot reach the library (and if he does, he cannot return). The situation only gets worse with each week. The Warlocks have a fully developed Castle, while the human Castle cannot be properly developed due to resource limitations. Something needs to be changed. Either the Warlocks of this type (level 28) will be disposable (I'm in favor of this version), or more opportunities should be given to develop Forstburg (stone mine, money), or reinforcements should be sent to Andrias. Also, it would be good to add a feature to save the game after a multiplayer session during the siege of the mages' Castle, which disappears. The battle is replayed many times, and it gets tedious to constantly rewind the video. Is there a "Hottabych" on the map? (or are there plans to add him). Randomly resetting parameters seriously ruins Andrias.

Eleondor

12 years ago

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Hmm, I agree with 13ga, and I'll add that it would be good to add 3 gold mines, 1 horn of plenty, and 1 dwarf mine. Regarding the troops, maybe it would be better to only remove certain parameters from Andrias?

Heroist

12 years ago

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Overall, I managed to successfully complete the Walkthrough of the Campaign, or rather, test it for the second time from the very beginning, the newest version. I will tell you briefly and in order, but I will try not to miss anything.
First mission. Everything is very good, no flaws or bugs were noticed. It has become a little easier, but the Necromancer still practically leaves no warriors from Andrias' army, and therefore it is not possible to immediately swim to the Orcs after meeting him. The mission is on the verge of "interesting difficulties" and "boring impossibilities," personally for me. However, it's okay if you pump up the ballista in time, of course ;)
Second mission. There is a small bug. I killed ALL the Rune Priests on the map, but I still received a level and increased characteristics in subsequent missions. The mission itself is no longer as difficult as the first time, there were no huge armies of Elves and Dwarves, there were a couple of difficult battles, especially with the Dwarf cities, but in general, it is quite comfortable to play, as long as you don't delay and don't let the neutrals grow too much.
Third mission. As in the first, it is extremely important in the second map; I would even call it the MOST IMPORTANT mission in the entire Campaign, to properly develop the hero and run around all sorts of characteristic-boosting places. Then you can go with almost no losses and quite comfortably. No bugs or flaws were noticed.
Fourth mission. Extremely difficult due to the increased aggressiveness of the green player, and in general. Nevertheless, good hero development and the right strategy also play a big role here. I went west from the very beginning, knowing that the help of the human garrison solves the problems with -7 defense, so it wasn't very difficult for me to play. The final battle, thanks to the completed quest of the Witch, turned out to be very easy.
Fifth mission. As in the first, it is incredibly difficult. Nevertheless, I did not encounter any completely invincible enemy heroes, and after a fierce battle for the second Dark Elf city, it even became too easy. Of the bugs, the final video plays twice, and also, completing the prophet's tasks to protect the mind from demons turned out to be not necessary at all: I didn't even find this library and scroll, and still won.
Overall, the Campaign left extremely positive emotions; many thanks to the author!

How I developed the heroes. If very briefly, then Varens has general light spells, defense + preparation, attack. It turns out that his specialization ability, "stun," in the case of preparation, also works on the counterattack, which means you can go without any losses at all, because opponents, trying to attack you, fly to the very end of the initiative scale, and mass evasion generally reduces all damage by 70%).
Andrias has machines with a catapult and a rapid-fire ballista, attack with shooting and strengthening ballista arrows (forgot the name, in general), luck and light magic also turned out to be useful, since resurrection again allows you to play without losses.

Questions about the editor:
1) How did you manage to rotate mines and garrisons on the map by less than ninety degrees without leaving unpleasant black squares around them?
2) How was it possible to implement the appearance of a letter from Dominic's assistant in the dialogue video in the last mission? I'm surprised.
3) A separate plus for changing the weather - I myself wanted to use this feature in one of my maps, but it never made it to official publication.

In reply to Heroist

RedHeavenHero

12 years ago

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Excellent! Thank you very much. 1. The strengthening of the Necromancer and Orc is a consequence of the player's strengthening (increased duration, number of resources). But yes, leveling up is a very important factor, I don't argue, and you might not be lucky with it. 2. Are these the rune priests who arrived on ships? 4. I simplified the phoenix quest because it is the main one, and the witch's quest is a good help for those who are not in a hurry. 5. You cannot access the garrison until the mage's quest is completed, but I forgot about the portal at the Dark Elves. I will fix it. Thank you for such a good review. :) I am finishing the last improvements and will release it while the number of players is still small. :( Answers about the editor: 1) Not all objects leave these black holes, for example, garrisons. As for the rest, I tried different options. 2) I made a texture with a letter, gave a link in Haze (one of the lighting properties), and turned on this lighting in one of the dialogues. 3) I hope for their resurrection.

Heroist

12 years ago

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2. Yes, one or two of them showed up, I don't remember exactly, and I killed them. There are no more Rune Priests on the map, so I think something is wrong with the quest. 5. And I thought it was done on purpose, like I have to go to their lands through a portal.

Answers regarding the editor:
1) Not all objects leave these black holes, for example, garrisons. As for the rest, I tried different options.
2) I made a texture with writing, gave a link in Haze (one of the lighting properties), and I enabled this lighting in one of the dialogues.
3) I hope they will be resurrected.

Yeah, thanks, I would never have come up with such interesting solutions.

RedHeavenHero

12 years ago

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2. Yes. One or two arrived, I don't remember exactly, and I killed them. There are no more Rune Priests left on the map, so I think something is wrong with the quest.

Three Rune Priests were supposed to arrive, and their appearance is impossible to miss, as the fog of war lifts above them and a message pops up.

Heroist

12 years ago

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That’s strange. But I’m sure that didn’t happen. Or maybe I have memory problems… No, that can’t be.

In reply to Heroist

RedHeavenHero

12 years ago

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Heroist

That's strange. I'm sure that didn't happen. Or maybe I'm having memory problems... No, that can't be.

So, they didn't come (they need to conquer all the Dwarf or Elf cities to appear), which is why the quest wasn't failed. Everything is working as intended.