AntiJebus (a)Since everyone really missed Jebus Cross and its variations, here's another one for you.
The goal was to solve several problems with this template (including secondary ones that have been requested):
- Create a serious template with zones where all guards are native joinable monsters (since the editor allows it)
- Make a "basement" with a unique mechanic, rather than one more fkn' zone
- Address complaints that Jebus games are about who gets more Griffin Conservatories, Hives, Angels, Behemoths
- Do this without cutting the gameplay down to "only external dwellings and Karabas"
- Address complaints that Jebus has little town building and economy
- Address complaints that Jebus has no underground, making the template lack certain game content and be somewhat incomplete
- Make a "Cross-like" template competitive with Outcast in terms of PvP ratings
- Create something between Outcast and Cross: with the same clear and familiar map geometry and gameplay principles; without an overabundance of Conservatories / Zealot Hives / Faerie Hives / Behemoth Pens and overused starters; with 8 heroes; while preserving roughly understandable game logic; preserving randomness, various development paths, the potential to turn the tables 180 degrees, etc.; without 311; without a pull-timer; without (fanatical) removal of magic/heroes, etc. [well, except maybe the starters that got boring on JC and the ones that are absolutely dominant on this meaty template :3];
- Create something offering an alternative to Outcast and Cross, so the template has distinctive features not found in other variations, giving a reason and motivation to play: gameplay based on joins in a special zone of native meat, complemented by external dwellings for building up the hometown, and Karabas that can serve as a starting point for assembling a strike stack, not just a stripped-down Cross;
- Include non-standard content like cut objects, campaign heroes, etc. (within reason)
In short, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to your attention the peculiar AntiJebus (a).
Screenshots
Why Anti? Well, usually Jebus is about: look for how many Hives, Zealot spires at the respawn, maybe a Conservatory, abuse Behemoth pens, if none - 111.
On this template, such an approach is a priori impossible - the number of creature banks per zone is limited to 1, like the Red Tower. You should play by all means transporting native power stacks from the basement and from day one collecting money for joining/town building/splitting/transporting, wisely distributing resources, planning the economy, etc. (well, in theory, this is only alpha) - fortunately, the freed-up space is now taken by various treasure banks, mines, loose resources in the basement, a boosted town, and other leveling in the basement, etc.
Because of this, the template is both very similar and at the same time very unlike regular Jebus, although it is Jebus. Hence the name was born.
Why α? Because who knows how it works and if it works at all, but it probably should (since I tinkered with it for 2 months, tweaking it). If anyone has reasoned ideas on how to improve it or super-skills for taming the GSK's bucking - welcome.
!!!The goal of the template is game diversity and fun, there is no talk of any better balancing whatsoever; balancing here is achieved the same way as on any other Jebus - by increasing the sample size of games, not in each individual game. Chances are also roughly equalized by the bidding.
The bidding rating is deliberately different from other templates.
---------------------------------------
!Although I managed to achieve generation stability, to be safe on alpha it's better to write right after generation which side you generated on: top/bot left/right. That is, for example, if players write "BL" and "TR" - it's ok, but if "BL" and "BR" - tech rest, if you don't want to play like that. By the way, respawns generate neatly in the corners, this makes generation more stable. Overall, not a drawback, maybe even a plus. Although maybe I'll still manage to conjure something with zone sizes and sparseness to make it more traditionally random for Jebus.
!Rarely, GSK throws a monolith in the center instead of gates (although it shouldn't, but GSK is finicky), which generally doesn't affect anything and is easily accepted as is, just the transition down won't be cell-to-cell, but slightly offset. Purely aesthetically not as cool as gates, but it even adds variety. I'm thinking of making the transition random monolith/elevator, but that's a bit ugly, at least in the current paradigm of central basements (4 pieces on each player's side).
!Very rarely, the respawn basement might be connected to the center respawn - flying there is unplanned and is supposedly treated as a rules violation and disqualification, i.e. tech loss (though I don't call for choking people for not knowing/accidentally). However, it happened once [when I was messing with zone sizes, it seems not since then] that there was a passage there without a partition. In short, don't go where the monsters are already different and a different zone is geographically visible, to be safe.
---------------------------------------
Description:
Description
●under each respawn there is a basement; in the center - 4, one on each player's side (in theory, but not in practice with GSK Kappa )
-●in the respawn basements the terrain is underground (but for Inferno - lava), in the central ones - randomly underground/lava
-●the monsters in them are completely joinable, to get to the objects you either need to join (they will offer, if you have enough money), or chase them away (if you have no money/refused the join), or catch up (leveling up with Gnolls/Zombies)
--●joining works 50% according to recommended HotA rules
--●values of joining units (in all basements, guard level is enhanced):
----●respawn:
------●7500 [prepare 7±3k gold]: mine
------●5334/5639 [prepare 5±3k gold]: visitable objects, underground gates
------●500: loose resources, small objects - unguarded
----●basement:
------●20750 [prepare 30±10k gold]: Dragon Utopias (2 per zone), gates, underground gates
---------●top targets for joining and strengthening in the center, can house t4...t7 (+Sea Wolves)
------●7500 [prepare 7±3k gold]: mine (same as respawn)
------●5561 [prepare 5±3k gold]: everything else (same as respawn)
-●the value of objects is selected so that approx. t2...t4 monsters are generated, calculators are useless, except to find out what can be generated
-●the native town is duplicated in the basement for dynamics of transporting and for external dwellings
-●in the basement there is a mage hut that will reveal the central basements; a fire pillar to reveal the entire basement area at once for planning transportation
-●in the basement there are gates for transportation dynamics; if found quickly, you can transport the first joins to the starting zone on day one
-●there is a road connection to the underground through the Underground Gates, i.e. via elevator, but ranged guards love to sit up top (while the guard is joinable only from the basement side, and from above - normal clearing), so gates are more skillful (to any town, but one-way and could be 3 days away off-road in a winding spot, whereas the transition could be 3 steps away)
-●in the basement there are tons of loose resources that will quickly go towards joins/town building, but collecting them requires heroes and the most profitable logistics/skipping of various riffraff
-●in the basement there is a lot of leveling, scholars, a well
-●in the basement there is a level 5 prison, level 1 might also generate, refugee camp
●ultimate starters are replaced/removed (including some freaks with navigation to make life not so sweet, and freaks with eagle eye so they don't feel the most useless)
●what I've been itching to do for a long time - BAN ANIME; necros will have tons of Vampires here, with anime their decomposed rear end will stick together
●uber creature banks are limited (1 per zone like the red tower)
--●their role here is purely supportive (unless the faction is not native), although, if max stacks appear, it may match a weak Cross distribution (but even 4 angels is never weak, and if found in every zone as 4, it's quite fat (and if playing Castle with portals and Archers, it's totally imba))
--●cut ones may appear: wizard tower on snow/sand, lamp in sand, pirate cave on rock
●instead of creature banks, treasure banks are more frequent
--●the Hovel is back on swamp
●instead of creature banks, external dwellings are more frequent
--●in the basement t2...t5
--●above ground t5...t7
●additional gold mine at respawns and in basements (for economy + better joins generate on it)
●artifacts are slightly adjusted, relics are spaced out a bit more with artifacts, low-tier artifacts cleaned of trash:
--●some sets are already assembled into relics:
----●Diplomat's Cloak, Legion, Cloak of the Undead King
--●some sets are assembled in addition to allowed individual components:
----●Horn of Plenty, Goose, Ring of Magi
--●minor: eagle eye artifacts removed until skill rebalance fix + Pendant of Death
--●the rest of the junk is designed to maintain the thermal regime below the belt as usual
Tips (in general, you'll see for yourselves when you play, but for those interested in specifics):
● now you need to split up on 2 levels
---above ground look for money objects, loose resources, mines, external dwellings, Karabas, creature banks scattered one each
---the basement is content-rich, but needs to be transported: gates, basement scouting with view/eyes in the center, searching for strike stacks t1...t5, loose resources, scrolls, low-tier artifacts (but sometimes very fat ones), one level 5 prison, the rest only level 1, external dwellings
● aim for guards in the central undergrounds costing 30±10k gold, which can be either a pack of weaklings or overrated units like 36 Zealots/20 Dendroids/7 Hydras/15 Nagas, or a few good t6, t7, like 3 Archangels/3 Titans/5 Black Knights/5 Devils/14 Efreet Sultans/20 Nixes, etc., so scouting is very useful
● joins will run away if you don't have enough money, which is where part of the control goes - sometimes desired stacks will block passages/objects or there are simply so many that you don't have enough money to join, causing a skip
• Visions is top, allows you to know exactly how much money is needed so the meat doesn't flee
● plan your town building from day 1 - the mid-game will likely rely on high-level dwelling growth from 2 towns, which are needed at least to cover shooters
• in general, the start has become fatter and faster, which is probably good, since incredibly fast games are not expected on this template anyway, and finding the game's thread is much easier
● in the basement there is a mage hut that will reveal the central basements, location, faction, possibly directly fat join stacks
• exiting on week 2 is not bad, but good; here you won't suck up all the Zealot spires and Hives in 5 days, rushing to break the opponent's control
• joining is tied to unit cost, so the best join is the best meat in terms of price/performance
• the dilemma of what to invest in/skip will be the main scourge and focus for tempo here, because this stuff is literally around every corner - you need cash for joins, for external dwellings, for town building, for splitting, which, however, is easily replenished by treasure banks and loose resources; find the balance, find the Geese, the cash flow will be very large
• external market is ultra-top
• for Dungeon, land only boosts guards, if someone wants to level up on them
• roads now also lead to basements, so reading will be a bit harder, although "reading" tools have also increased in number
• ultra MLG strategy: reveal a fat ungraded stack in the center basement, build the matching dwelling for the upgrade, and transport it back and forth via gates; though, this is only in theory
Strategies:
●Castle: Orrin - substitute for Valeska; ez suck up a ton of Archers and go break anything; anything = look for portals (Griffin Conservatories) and breed Angels, maybe build Archangels, and burn cash on all this to the max (in this respect, the game here is much more stable and clear than on Jebus, allowing the old good strong sides of Castle to shine); you can also collect combo artifacts, since there are 3 specialists for them in the game, all unlocked.
----actually imba, needs testing in a revert and review if necessary
●Rampart: Mephala is not banned; Elves take longer to level up than Archers, but afterward, my respects; collecting Pepegs is top: speed and handling - excellent; but dragons are ultra-pain, in the first week they are only buildable without Grands with tons of cash invested and mediocre impact, otherwise feed logs, bind the enemy, and blind with horns.
----Grands with Pepegs eat up the respawn perfectly, but further on you need to see what to exit with and when
●Tower: heroes are standard; breeding Gremlins would be totally imba, there are quite a few of them from external dwellings, town building and external dwelling guards in the basement, so they are under-rolled on regular objects, Genies on the contrary are over-rolled, they also spawn from dwellings and are built instead of wild sucking from the respawn; it's clear that the meat between them is not as imba, but try playing from magic, kiting with Golems, if there are many Masters you can collect, though the basement will probably be flooded with hordes of Golems; up top there is 1 Lamp, 1 Workshop, and 1 Wizard Tower (and they are also in the center); but building Titans is not so easy, though without them, it's probably hard to get a good power spike.
----due to the high cost, a revert is required, and the Gremlin-Billy Genie tandem ends up nerfed; if it gets too tough, like on JC before, you can add more Lamps, though with dwellings and banks it should be fine
●Inferno: Fiona/Nymus/Marius are available; Gogs are valued, Dogs are expensive, while Pit Lords might be at the mine on 111, seasoned with a bunch of Demons around; ungraded ones are more flexible for Demon farming; Efreet Sultans and Devils are b/k, just top, just find the money.
----I hope at least here Demon farming will work, though even without it, it will be strong here
●Necropolis: necro specialists are available; Bones don't animate, only transform, joining Zombies is overpriced for processing, Skeletons are simply useless, but upgrading Vampires and rolling shit is a nice thing, curing/ghosting under Vampiring is not bad, but knighting is overpriced
----it would seem without Animate Dead and necro-cheese Necros are noticeably weaker, but I might have to cut something else because of the Vampires
●♂Dungeon♂: Lorelei/Jeddite/Lamar; Harpying is in place, you can collect Medusas, doubling up on Dragon dwellings, taken by upgraded Harpies, combined with town building is quite good (Mutare/Tazar on Dragons might work).
----looks just as powerful and strong, so bidding is fairly standard
●Stronghold: Crag Hack/Gundula/Dessa are in place, the specialist for Behemoths is unlocked; the focus on Wolfing remains, Orcs are still weak, Ogres similarly; priority - dwelling spawning and building up Behemoths (finding a Zealot Hive is nice) and Cyclopes
----essentially the same, so bidding is fairly standard
●Fortress: Alkin/Tazar/Bron looks good; Wystaning is available, maybe there's a point in saving up suits for Bron, but in general - breed Basilisks and Wyverns to break through various control
----considering there's now plenty of native meat and no need to drag anyone else around the swamp, quite strong
●Conflux: Solmyr/Luna and others; micring with Sprites, kiting is very pleasant, especially since they are cheap, playing with Storms under Bless is even more pleasant, and then it's all about building up Phoenixes/Faerie Dragons (maybe find the Red Tower)
----without Luna, of course, a completely different town, but it has its advantages
●Cove: Bidley here takes Pirates to a new level, but I really wanted to unlock him, but I didn't dare to unlock Tarka - Nixes under his specialty, with Offense and Defense from 111 are just wild; and there will already be plenty of Nixes anyway, probably the game will revolve around them; going for Sea Worms/Nix Warriors will also make sense, Whirlpools will help apply debuffs; having Pirates, Penetrators will probably not be particularly needed and are too expensive, and Nixes will come from town building too.
----I really wanted to add gameplay based on Bidleys, allowing you to scrape together a decent stack that flushes anyone from a distance and throws them without retaliation without penalty, but I see positive sides even in the rating change from anti-top to top; a revert should keep things somewhat in check and diversify the gameplay
