Era of Magic (EoMa) 4.8.1 - now on Ko-fi!

[bvanevery]

The Mercurial repository now has a new URL. https://bitbucket.org/tolandsunknown/eraofmagic . You will need to change your Mercurial configurations appropriately.

Inferno8 and I have agreed that we want more publicity and exposure for the campaign, including promotion and review on indie gaming websites. This means developing a website so that people can easily view the work. Bitbucket's capabilities in this regard are clunky: they go by the username, not the project name. Consequently, the most rational, expedient, and cheap way to do this, is to change my Bitbucket username to "tolandsunknown". In the future, this will allow us to serve static webpages from a URL of http://tolandsunknown.bitbucket.org . We don't have any such presently; this is just preparation. Also, I personally was uncomfortable having my name so strongly associated with the "To Lands Unknown" campaign. As large as my ego is, and as much as I like to take bows, it really didn't sit well with me that the URL made it look like it's my personal work. I think we can all agree that "tolandsunknown" is a much better branding and web presence for all of our efforts than "bvanevery".

[Alarantalara]

Is there a reason you picked tolandsunknown instead of eraofmagic? The second seems like it might become more relevant whenever a second campaign appears.

[bvanevery]

Is there a reason you picked tolandsunknown instead of eraofmagic? The second seems like it might become more relevant whenever a second campaign appears.

Yes. The main thing that inferno8 and I desire, is showcasing the campaign on indie gaming sites. For that, we need a brand identity. It should be one identity, not two. Three obvious choices presented themselves: To Lands Unknown, Era of Magic, or some overarching identity we hadn't thought of yet. I dismissed "Era of Magic" as a brand identity because it's generic. What kind of magic? Harry Potter magic? Magician's magic? Swords and Sorcery magic, ala "Heroes of Might and Magic?" It is not particularly memorable or Googleable. Whereas, "To Lands Unknown" is somewhat catchy, and I bet it's Googleable. It's also easy to spell when run together, always a good quality in a URL. So, I didn't waste time thinking up "something better" and went with the clearly better option we already had.

To be honest the identity I'd like to have is something more Arabic themed. So that when someone hears about the game, they have some expectations of what kind of game it is. "To Lands Unknown" isn't bad, as it sounds like some kind of "high adventure" with "fairytale" connotations. Ideally I'd like something that sounds Arabian flavored, but doesn't sound like a "Prince of Persia" ripoff. I am a fan of the old Harry Hausen movies such as "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad." But I will leave that kind of branding for someone else to contemplate. "To Lands Unknown" is good enough for now.

I think when we do a sequel to "To Lands Unknown," it's perfectly ok to shove it into the "To Lands Unknown" brand identity. The first "Star Wars" movie was called "Star Wars." Nobody's worried that subsequent movies had different titles. Purists might get a little miffed that the original "Star Wars" was renamed, and eventually renumbered, but we all got the message for long enough that it was the "Star Wars" franchise. The "To Lands Unknown" franchise would be acceptable to me, although I wonder if we can do better on the naming.

It is theoretically possible that someone will take the "Era of Magic" era and make a campaign that has nothing to do with the "To Lands Unknown" story canon. However, because at this point I don't see it as likely, I am not terribly worried about what some future person may do. Maybe they want to do "Dangerous Damsels of Arabia" or some such, that has nothing to do with Mehir and cohorts. They could set up their own Mercurial repository and website for that. Or, if the writing quality and art assets are particularly good, at the level that "To Lands Unknown" is currently doing, maybe we'd agree to have it all under one roof, even though the stories have nothing to do with each other. Depends on what we are each happy or unhappy with. Maybe they really want to be http://damselsofarabia.bitbucket.org ; I know I personally would think twice about being the "subtitle" of someone else's project!

[bvanevery]

For units that didn't had a sane cost put on them, Level 3 units now cost 50, and Level 4 units now cost 100.

This can change overall balance in some scenarios in TLU. I think we should increase the amount of gold owned by Reficul in the 13th scenario "The Great Desert" (he is capable of recruiting lvl3 units).

"The Great Desert" isn't gonna need it. On Hard, Reficul has got 1000 gold at his disposal! Also it comes right after Mag-Magar, which is a nutcracker. It's ok to give the player a slight breather after that one. Ordinarily I would say that giving Reficul so much gold makes it too hard, but

Spoiler:

I've proven that you can kill Reficul with only 2 units, by running all the way around the horde while Mehir waits at the keep. The favorable terrain makes the scenario much easier than it otherwise would be.

.

[WindEnchanter]

I haven't got time to play wesnoth or a while, just tried the campaign , the opening is so stunning. Good job! I like the map design and animation~

[inferno8]

I haven't got time to play wesnoth or a while, just tried the campaign , the opening is so stunning. Good job! I like the map design and animation~

Hello, my old friend, it's nice to "see" you again. I am very happy that you like the campaign. I hope you won't get bored too soon

A small report about Tharis graphical update:
I have finished 15 out of 23 units. 8 left. This means the new version will be released soon. Here are some animations I made a few days ago:



A note about the Master of Darkness:
This unit has 2 images now. During the day he hides his face behind his cloak, but when the night comes, he reveals it, exposing his real appearance.

[bvanevery]

I like the "dissolve to bats."

A note about the Master of Darkness:
This unit has 2 images now. During the day he hides his face behind his cloak, but when the night comes, he reveals it, exposing his real appearance.

Interesting subtlety. Only downside is now I don't imagine his despotic persona. He is clearly spelled out; does he have the gravitas to be the arch-villain?

[StDrake]

ech żebym ja tak koty potrafił..

wow that's a tricky way to make use use wesnoth sliding attack animation, took me a while to understand why he's doing the flip after attack, but now I can already imagine it ingame - great!

[sur.nhm]

I can't see the images - it just says something about "unregistered domains". Can anybody fix this?

[inferno8]

Interesting subtlety. Only downside is now I don't imagine his despotic persona. He is clearly spelled out; does he have the gravitas to be the arch-villain?

I need to redesign his pose. I heard opinions that he is too exposed and in consequence his new look is not as dangerous as it was before.

ech żebym ja tak koty potrafił..

Trzeba ćwiczyć, ćwiczyć i jeszcze raz ćwiczyć. To klucz do sukcesu.

Translation:
StDrake: I wish I could draw my cats like that..
Me: You need to practise a lot. This is the key to success.

I can't see the images - it just says something about "unregistered domains". Can anybody fix this?

I have attached them to this post. Can you see them now?

[sur.nhm]

Yes, thanks. The MoD is really cool, but the Hunter's attack seems to delete a part of his torso.

[WindEnchanter]

So far so good. I posted the link to the chinese wesnoth forum and hopefully someone will be interested in translating. A lot of people liked it~
Personally I'd love to do this if I have the time. I like the custom made map with a lot of eye catching elements on it~

[inferno8]

Era of Magic 0.11 is now available!


This is a long-awaited release. It contains new images and animations for Tharis faction, fixes many bugs and balances gameplay.

Code: Select all

-23 new images of Tharis units with animations;
-many balancing changes (thanks to barowei);
-Dark Elves are now called Tharis;
-minor bugfixes;
-code cleanup and translation compatibility (thanks to Espreon);
-new description of the Swamp Mage (thanks to sur.nhm).

Enjoy!

[Espreon]

If you are having trouble downloading the Era of Magic from the addons server, you can download it from SourceForge.

If you encounter any bugs, would like to file a feature request, or would like to submit a patch, please click here.

[wesfreak]

Most of the lvl 2 enlightened ones are underpowered: The sorcerer only does 9-3 damage, the same as the white mage, and the white mage does lower damage than normal to compensate for healing. Only one of the lvl 2 elemental mages does more ranged damage than the lvl 1, (but not nearly as much damage as a lvl 2). Also, most of the mages have very good melee at lvl 2: the sorcerer does as much damage as an orc grunt in melee. We should probably up the ranged damage for most of them. (either that or give them something else to compensate)