Antar, Son of Rheor [Development Thread]

[Adamant14]

I believe that you should write into the description that your campaign is far from complete.

Once this was noted in the descriptions -
but now I think there are eight very well balanced scenarios, ready to play.
So this is not a *unbalanced* and *unplayable* beginner campaign attempt.
It is temporary a short (8 scenarios) campaign.

Those eight scenarios are finished, well balanced and playable, and in my opinion worth and fun to play.

Have you played it, or already started to play?

And it's just about halfway done. I wouldn't say "far from done"...

Thank you.

[Kanzil]

”With enemies pressing on all sides, Lord Rheor is called away to relieve his neighbour, Othar.
His son, Lord Antar is left in command of the peaceful kingdom.
But evil strikes in the form of Baron Malbeth, and soon, realising the hordes of Orcs and Undead cannot be defeated with what forces he has,
Antar seeks an alliance with the elves and the dwarves.
Yet the enemy is dark and well-versed in the lore of necromancy, and even with their new allies it will be a long battle.
For behind all the evil is a single, sinister power….Mal-Kazur."

You've changed the description.. is that mine?

[Adamant14]

@Kanzil:
Yes, it is.
And if you look at the version from the 1.11 server, you find more of your text.

[TheScribe]

I updated ASoR, and the fifth scenario disappeared. So I deleted it and reinstalled, and now all the scenarios are gone...

[Adamant14]

Can you tell me what version of ASoR you have installed?

[TheScribe]

0.8.22a

[Adamant14]

@Dugi
@TheScribe

I am really ashamed. You were right, my last upload didn't include the scenarios folder.
Thanks for the report.

Version 0.8.25a is on the 1.10 server.
Please update.

[TheScribe]

No problem, we're all human after all.

At least, I'm pretty sure you're not a spambot...

[Dugi]

In my opinion, if the description promises that you're gonna face a dark necromancer Mal Kazur, and all you face are his armies. I would not call this anything else than incomplete campaign. It is playable, yes, but the story ends in the middle of the war. The little a after the version number does not mean too much. Write openly that it's not complete, just something like '8 out of 16 scenarios complete and balanced'. Or just that 'some scenarios are not yet in the degree of polishedness and quality to be shown publicly'.

And your add-on's description on the server looks odd, better don't separate the lines, it looks almost as if it was an attempt to write a poem.

[KnightCommander]

I think it was Great and should be continued

[TheScribe]

It is being continued. The dialouge should be done soon. (I hope)

[AxalaraFlame]

Ok bro, now lets move on. We can now go further for operation on the scenerio3.
The Third Scenerio
Scenerio3 doesn’t really have many problems to improve on the gaming style or balance. The problem is that this scenerio itself is a bug in the whole campaign. The story is presented poorly in the end, which comes up just in all peculiarity (characters had useless discussions about whether they shall meet dwarves or elves), and the unclear statements of Lord Othar’s fall. Let us see these below:

1.Lord Rheor
Lord Othar did not really give me any clues about my father; however, he is the last man who knows what happens to him. He said nothing? Okok. Name a reasonable excuse, and persuade the players to move on and play and dig it out some day later would be fine. However, THAT is called a reasonable one1? :

Othar_"Indeed, young fool. He told me that you will come. I have expected you. I have to stop you."
Antar_"You are in league with the dark forces? Where is my father?"
Othar_"Your father is lost to the Dark Lord!"
Antar_"You betrayed him! Why Othar, why? Once you fought by my father's side. He told me once that you saved each others lives."
Othar_"Because there is no other way, young fool!"
Antar_"There is always another way, Othar."
Othar_"*Mad* <i><b>Hahahah!</b></i>"
Antar_"*Full of hate* You’ll pay for this, Othar. This I swear, you will pay with your life."

This is obviously not a good reason for your father’s “lost”. Under that worrying conditions, Antar has much stronger reasons to draw back all his forces to his territory and regrounp, instead of taking great risks march through wild lands under even harsher weather to the lands of elves or dwarves. He comes here to reinforce his dad, and right now he GOTTA save his dad’s ass, not to hesitate, bro.

So in my opinion, Lord Othar should tell Antar that Lord Rheor is lost because he is captured by the force of Undead, and these fiends went due north after the battle. He has no idea which way they go, so Antar has to decide their way of pursuit, which is more rational.

2.Deceiving settings indicate “Choosing Elves & Dwareves line”
I have to say I am totally shocked when the first time I played it. The big map with two different ways to pick on the north which takes half area of the map finally turns out to mean nothing; all dialogues implying you “choose our way wise” are but decorations!!!

Obviously, you went lazy making two lines for the story when you reached this step, bro… If you want to make it a uniline, just don’t…use that way.

i.Uniline Version
I will never suggest you to do that. Here is a map without any useless part—hehehe, I simply cut off the top half of it.
And here is the dialugue file without murmuring about anything related to way-options.

03_Lord_Othar.map

(17.49 KiB) Downloaded 154 times

ii.Twinline Version
I suppose that you gave it up due to the considerations of building more scenerios to suffice two lines is too hard. Well, under the current condition, I can suggest a much simpler way: reorder the rest scenerios.
Dwarves way: (meet dwarves first, then the elves)
scenerio3—scenerio8（all troopers will appear from the south）—scenerio6(from east to west, not west to east anymore)—scenerio5(all troopers will appear from the north, instead of south)—scenerio7

Elves way: (meet elves first, then the dwarves)
Scenerio3—scenerio4(march scenerio)—scenerio5—scenerio6(march scenerio)—scenerio7—scenerio8
The same as before.

[AxalaraFlame]

The Fourth Sceneio
*Don't merge*
This scenerio is just a run&kill scenerio. No big problems, or bugs are spotted.

These are the defects I found:
1.Modified map
Uploaded here. Repaired some hexes’ irrational climate terrian details.

04_Through_The_Goblin_Hills.map

(22.88 KiB) Downloaded 140 times

2.Antar could move pretty fast, while he has to wait a whole day’s turn until all other slow units catch him up, say, HIs and Dwarves.
Recruting HI ain’t be a necessary thing until this far, but they really draw down the speed. Dwarves are just fine, because they don’t take more time pass through hills and forests. So I suggest to remove His from recall lists, for the campaign balance’s sake.

[Adamant14]

So in my opinion, Lord Othar should tell Antar that Lord Rheor is lost because he is captured by the force of Undead, and these fiends went due north after the battle. He has no idea which way they go, so Antar has to decide their way of pursuit, which is more rational.

Yes, this is really a weak point in the whole campaign, and I knew about that.
Your suggestion/solution sounds right.
Ill try to implement it.

Deceiving settings indicate “Choosing Elves & Dwareves line”
I have to say I am totally shocked when the first time I played it. The big map with two different ways to pick on the north which takes half area of the map finally turns out to mean nothing; all dialogues implying you “choose our way wise” are but decorations!!!

This is a relict from a former beta version. Once I planned to let the player chose whitch way to go first,
but I discarded the idea for story reasons.
But you are right, I should remove these remains, they are unnecessary and redundant.

Antar could move pretty fast, while he has to wait a whole day’s turn until all other slow units catch him up, say, HIs and Dwarves.
Recruting HI ain’t be a necessary thing until this far, but they really draw down the speed. Dwarves are just fine, because they don’t take more time pass through hills and forests. So I suggest to remove His from recall lists, for the campaign balance’s sake.

HI's are very good Bonecrushers, you will be glad to have them in later scenarios.

[TheScribe]

So in my opinion, Lord Othar should tell Antar that Lord Rheor is lost because he is captured by the force of Undead, and these fiends went due north after the battle. He has no idea which way they go, so Antar has to decide their way of pursuit, which is more rational.

Uh, that conflicts with the following storyline. (it's not in the campaign yet, so you haven't seen it)

EDIT: Adamant seems to be on now... I'll work around that in the storyline. I would personally say it'd be better if Othar doesn't know or won't say which way they took Rheor. (If you do that, I can keep the storyline I've been working on)