Sceptre of Life, version 0.12.1

[docrock]

humm, i made a second attempt on "Alone Time", still i think that 3 hexes for crossing (current map +1 shallow water) would be better. yet i realized that by conseqently pushing and sacrificing forces you CAN reach the other river bank. just the turn limit is not enough, so i edited the save and gave me 50 turns instead of 40, and ... suddenly things worked out.

edit: through with it now. this was one great campaign and i am really looking forward to seeing your next scenarios.

[opensourcejunkie]

through with it now. this was one great campaign and i am really looking forward to seeing your next scenarios.

Thanks docrock, that means a lot. It's always a great motivation to move forward when people like what you're creating. :-)

You've brought up a lot of good issues, both in your last post, and in the one previous. I already knew about Burin's advancement difficulties, as well as Survak's refusal to relinquish experience points; I've just been too lazy to fix them so far. (Actually, Survak's not the only one, either. In the first few scenarios, all the victory code is placed within the die events instead of the victory events, so a bunch of leaders cheat you of exp.)

Concerning the ability to recruit 4 scouts per turn, yeah, that was intentional. Incidentally, you could recall 4 units per turn before Elrial arrives, if that many were still in your recall list. Mostly, I just designed the castle that way to provide an interesting terrain twist.

also played "Overprotective" through now. respect, that is one perfectly well balanced scenario.

thanks :-). Incidentally, a lot of the strategic quirks of that scenario came unintentionally, although some balancing was involved.

Concerning the ford at Tera's Clench, that is a very good suggestion, adding another hex. The ford always aggrivated me because it's so linear, without much tactical interest. (like you said, it's blatant sacrifice of units that gets you past) So yeah, I think I'll definitely add another column of shallow water, and perhaps a small island to spice things up.

Thanks for the feedback, and I'll make sure to implement this all in the upcoming bugfix version.
--OSJ

[Crushmaster]

Hi OSJ,
Crushmaster here. I checked out the first scenario, and the only thing I saw that I thought needed to be changed is the village in the top left corner - as it's out of the boundaries of the map. That's just my opinion, though.
I played around with scenarios four and five, and changed a few things. Here's scenario four, with a screenshot:

[Crushmaster]

Hi OSJ,
Here's scenario five, along with a screenshot:

[opensourcejunkie]

Dude - I really like what you've done with scenario 4! I especially appreciate the effect you achieved by adding spatterings of the desert terrain into the sand terrain - it adds a whole new dimension to the otherwise plain sands.

I edited the map a little, rounding out a few edges here, and un-rounding out a few edges there. I liked the effect of wrapping the desert with savanna, but at two places I replaced a hex or two of savanna with grassland. I did this to help retain the feeling of rapid desertification - that the desert is almost crawling faster than the savanna at some places, and the savanna is playing catchup.

But overall, I really like what you've done with the map, and I think it's close to the final product, if not already there.

[opensourcejunkie]

I also really enjoyed your revamp of Etheran's Crossing - you added a lot of neat subtleties, such as random patches of wild grassland, and more of that desert terrain variation that you did in Tera's Clench. I did make a few changes to the map, as delineated below:

1) Nice addition of the oasis hex in the desert. When I noticed it, I thought of an opportunity that having an oasis might provide Basically, the path through the desert turns, for no apparent reason. When I saw the oasis, however, I thought that if we move it northwest a bit, that might provide an adequate reason for an orcish path builder to turn the path northward.

2) I liked how you added patches of sand to the river delta, making it more like a real delta. inspired, I added some more sand :-)

3) The addition of forests was good - it spices up the otherwise plain grasslands (no pun intended), and it provides some tactical interest for the elves. However, I trimmed a lot of it back, for a couple of reasons.

First of all, I think it was a mistake on my part to place normal forest within the desert proper; it looks out of place. So, after trying to make it work with tropical forest terrain, I eventually just replaced it with savanna, and a little more desert.

Secondly, I wanted to eliminate a lot of the forest north of the river Glaaq, because I hope to correlate orcish activity with "dead" terrain. Too many trees work against that effect, so I removed a lot of them. Specifically, I removed the forests south of the desert (but north of glaaq), replacing them with standard grassland, and I replaced the forest to the northeast of the northeast keep with swampland.

Thirdly, I reverted the southwestern part of the map mostly to what it was before (sorry :-). My aim with that segment of the map is to portray a sort of "end" to the domain of Tera's Clench. The maps in and around the Clench depict a sort of order placed upon nature - symmetrical arrangements of villages, very linear farmland, etc., and I wanted this small section of the map to depict that - an end to the Clench's domain, and the beginning of unbridled nature.

Moreover, the area east of Tera's clench isn't very forested, so I think that any large amount of forest terrain in the southwest corner would contradict that.

All that being said, I did keep the area around the northern river very much forested; I think it works well to place a "haven of life" around a water source. I also liked your alterations to the saurian swampland; I think that the addition of more forest and more swampland will make it more tactically interesting between the elves and saurians.

Thanks again for all the help, CM. If you have any further alterations, I'll be eager to see them :-). Otherwise, I'll place these maps in the upcoming bugfix version.

--OSJ

Edit:

Hi OSJ,
Crushmaster here. I checked out the first scenario, and the only thing I saw that I thought needed to be changed is the village in the top left corner - as it's out of the boundaries of the map. That's just my opinion, though. :)

yeah :-) I left that there as a little teaser for anyone who wanted to capture it :-D

[Crushmaster]

Dude - I really like what you've done with scenario 4! I especially appreciate the effect you achieved by adding spatterings of the desert terrain into the sand terrain - it adds a whole new dimension to the otherwise plain sands.

I edited the map a little, rounding out a few edges here, and un-rounding out a few edges there. I liked the effect of wrapping the desert with savanna, but at two places I replaced a hex or two of savanna with grassland. I did this to help retain the feeling of rapid desertification - that the desert is almost crawling faster than the savanna at some places, and the savanna is playing catchup.

But overall, I really like what you've done with the map, and I think it's close to the final product, if not already there.

Thanks. I think, after you tweaked with it some, Tera's Clench is about finished.
God bless,
Crushmaster.

[Crushmaster]

Thanks again for all the help, CM. If you have any further alterations, I'll be eager to see them . Otherwise, I'll place these maps in the upcoming bugfix version.

--OSJ

Well, I looked at what you've done with Etheran's Crossing, and I think it looks pretty good.
I may want to play with it a bit, but, overall, I like it.
God bless,
Crushmaster.

[opensourcejunkie]

cool, feel free to! (the bugfix shouldn't be out for a little while anyway, so take your time)

--OSJ

[Crushmaster]

cool, feel free to! (the bugfix shouldn't be out for a little while anyway, so take your time)

--OSJ

OK. I'll probably also take a look at the second scenario's map and third scenario's map, as well.
God bless,
Crushmaster.

[Crushmaster]

Hi OSJ,
Crushmaster here. I tweaked around some with the second scenario's map today...and, I changed it a good bit. Here it is, along with a screenshot:

[Jim Goodridge]

Just wanted to let you know that I think this campaign is great - please keep it going - I need to see how it will end. Your character development and story line is very interesting and you've put in quite a few twists that keep things really interesting. Please keep up the good work.

Best Regards
Jim

[opensourcejunkie]

Just wanted to let you know that I think this campaign is great - please keep it going - I need to see how it will end. Your character development and story line is very interesting and you've put in quite a few twists that keep things really interesting.

Thanks! I'm glad you commented on the storyline; I get a lot of technical feedback. (personally, the storyline is my favorite part of a campaign)

you've put in quite a few twists

wait 'till you see the twist in scenario 6...

But first, I gotta finish that bugfix. Sorry everyone 4 going AWOL for so long, btw. I needed a break from SOL for a little while, but now I'm rejuvinated and ready to get back to work!

Crushmaster man, I gotta apologize; I really don't care for your revision of scenario 2 (sorry for the wasted effort :-/ ) It's too...busy, overall. Too much terrain variety jumping out at me when I see it. Also, there were a couple of terrain features that I needed to keep the same, specifically that island in the northwest lake.

SPOILER WARNING: (:-D) The island is shaped like it is because it matches the island in scenario 1. Basically, it has (will have) a secret on it that is unlocked by visiting a hex that corresponds to the secret in scenario 1. (As an aside, while the secret itself isn't coded yet, the magic ice-bridge that leads to the lake's isle is coded. Anyone found it yet?)

But anyway, back on track :-) I'm a bit reserved to change scenario 2's map, although I'm certainly open to it. Was there a particular deficiency in my map that you noticed? Let me know so we can best improve this map.

thanks for the compliments, the critiques, and the help everyone. I'm shooting to finish the bugfix version tonight so I can move on to scenario 6; may even get that done since it's a talking-only scenario.

I'll post soon,
--OSJ

[Crushmaster]

But first, I gotta finish that bugfix. Sorry everyone 4 going AWOL for so long, btw. I needed a break from SOL for a little while, but now I'm rejuvinated and ready to get back to work!

Crushmaster man, I gotta apologize; I really don't care for your revision of scenario 2 (sorry for the wasted effort :-/ ) It's too...busy, overall. Too much terrain variety jumping out at me when I see it. Also, there were a couple of terrain features that I needed to keep the same, specifically that island in the northwest lake.

SPOILER WARNING: (:-D) The island is shaped like it is because it matches the island in scenario 1. Basically, it has (will have) a secret on it that is unlocked by visiting a hex that corresponds to the secret in scenario 1. (As an aside, while the secret itself isn't coded yet, the magic ice-bridge that leads to the lake's isle is coded. Anyone found it yet?)

But anyway, back on track I'm a bit reserved to change scenario 2's map, although I'm certainly open to it. Was there a particular deficiency in my map that you noticed? Let me know so we can best improve this map.

thanks for the compliments, the critiques, and the help everyone. I'm shooting to finish the bugfix version tonight so I can move on to scenario 6; may even get that done since it's a talking-only scenario.

I'll post soon,
--OSJ

Well, that's alright. I definitely did probably put too much terrain.
As for how to improve...I think it would be good to add a bit more varied terrain; not just grassland.
Also, I think playing around with the desert some would be good, as well.
If you want, I could try playing around with it again. Or, if you want to do it, that's fine too.
God bless,
Crushmaster.

[opensourcejunkie]

okay, the bugfix is out (finally :), and while I was messing around with it, I found a rather large bug that's a bit embarrassing. As it turns out, you can't get to scenario 5 when you beat scenario 4; whoops, I guess version 1.5.0 should be renamed to 1.(not quite 5).0.

Anyway, I fixed that (you can now play scenario 5), along with the following other bugs/recommendations:

1) I fixed some dialogue in scenarios 2 & 4. Nothing huge :)

2) Burin should have only one path of advancement now. If anyone runs into a fork in his advancement tree, let me know (I didn't test it as well as it should be).

3) I went through each scenario and altered the objectives a bit. Basically, I standardized the wording and added objective summaries, making them look, overall, more professional.

4) I added in the revised maps that Crushmaster and I were working on (scenarios 3 && 4; scenario 2 is still in process)

5) I fixed the bug where various enemy leaders wouldn't give experience upon defeat.

6) I modified the ford at Tera's Clench (scenario 4) so that it would be easier to cross and more tactically interesting to do so.

7) The credits now work, and Crushmaster's now in them. I don't believe the credits worked in 1.5.0, but I could be wrong. They definitely work now.

I didn't get the chance to start scenario 6 yet; I have off sunday night, so I may get through it then. If not, it'll be a while before I have another day off.

As always, let me know of any bugs/recommendations y'all might have, especially on scenario 5 (now that it works :-)
--OSJ