Oath of Allegiance [SP Desert People Campaign for 1.18.3]

[ahmannar]

Your ideas for the AMLA's make them easier to understand and having them reflect the story of the character is indeed a good move. I think the revised AMLA's for those two achieve that and continue to be interesting abilities.
Along with the double strike or just instead of it, you could try some sort of ability that reflected his mastery on using two swords: something like "parry", which reduces his chance to be hit by X % (do to having two weapons to block attacks); other idea could be acquiring first strike and/or marksman to reflect the advantage in attacking with 2 swords.
Regarding the leadership effect of Ridwan, would it be the normal leadership or do you have some modification in mind? At that point of the campaign, it´s easy to have at least 1 level 4 drake with leadership and that is already a powerful ability.

Ideas for the third AMLA of Ridwan with possible history connection:

Spoiler:

-> Give charge to ally units near him (his rage for kesh inspires others to attack recklessly);

-> Gains a less powerful berserk attack than his normal one in terms of damage and/or number of strikes (the people he lost is making him lose his grip on battle);

Could a variation of the two suggestions i gave about the third AMLA potentially work?

[Kwandulin]

Right, something like "parry" or "overwhelm", where the defender can't retaliate might be more interesting than the double strike. That would also open up a niche for Ridwan, as he then can attack Hurasch without getting impaled.

Give charge to ally units near him (his rage for kesh inspires others to attack recklessly);

Gains a less powerful berserk attack than his normal one in terms of damage and/or number of strikes (the people he lost is making him lose his grip on battle)

The first one would be too insane, I guess (beside that, I don't know how to do the WML side of that). Imagine a nearby Mufariq with charge, that would be 110 damage at daylight. The second one sounds interesting, though. I am thinking about the ravage ability that those Eskiya and Calik have. I'll tinker around a bit whether ravage or berserk works out on him. Thanks!

[ahmannar]

Anything that makes attacking hurasch not a giant pain is always welcomed .
The first one is indeed a bit too much, didn´t give too much thought on the implications it had with the cavalry. Whatever you come up, it surely will be interesting to play with.

EDIT: I forgot to talk about one thing in my previous posts. Having a special menu that would let the player see the item that each unit has equipped (like, right-clicking on a unit and having an option to open a menu to see this) could be useful as sometimes it can be messy to know exactly what each one has. However i think this would only be justified if you gave the option to remove and equip items, otherwise it would be a good amount of work for little benefit. Anyway i think the fact that items can´t be dropped for others is an intentional feature (maybe due to balancing) and this can be also tricky to implement.

[Kwandulin]

That's a good idea. I'll try to insert the item info into the unit's description which should be theoretically possible according to the wiki entries. Practically, it doesn't seem to work. I'll ask around and see if I'm just being dumb

[ahmannar]

I think that Dugi (the creator of LoTI) is the guy that probably has the most knowledge around here regarding making things like these. He could probably help you achieve this feature .

[Kwandulin]

I can't get it to work with the unit descriptions. Instead, I applied a dummy ability that displays the item and its descriptions. It does its job, although it doesn't look too nice. What's your opinion on that?

[ahmannar]

I think that, if it manages to show up even with units that have more abilities, it's good enough. You could use it for now and, in the future, try to ask for some help in the forums to see if anyone can help you improve it.
Anyway, i think it´s good enough for you to publish it in that way.

[Kwandulin]

Managed to get it to show when hovering above the unit type. Unfortunately this doesn't show when rightclicking and displaying the unit in the help menu. I guess the unit description shown there is derived from the unit type and not from the individual unit, so there is probably nothing I can do about. But the current behaviour looks pretty good, I guess:

[ahmannar]

Personally i find that method to be the best one, it occupies less space related to the unit's abilities and the information is still there for people who wants to see it. It's pretty good in my opinion .

EDIT: Probably pointing this feature when the sword appears on the first scenario would be good so that players know about it without having to "guess" it. I hope that my suggestions are not burning you out.

[Kwandulin]

EDIT: Probably pointing this feature when the sword appears on the first scenario would be good so that players know about it without having to "guess" it. I hope that my suggestions are not burning you out.

Sounds good, I've applied the change. And don't worry about burning me out, I always welcome suggestions to improve my campaigns

[ahmannar]

That´s good to hear xD Have you written the ending of the campaign with a possible sequel/ follow up in mind? It seems like it at least.

[Kwandulin]

Yes, I wanted an open ending so there is the possibility to make a sequel. It'd be fun to have the heroes unite once again later. But other than that, I have neither made a script nor do I have the intention to start a sequel soon.

[ahmannar]

Having made such a detailed and large campaign (as well as Ashen heart, which i have not passed yet cause the first level totally beat me on my first try) must be quite time consuming also.
In the future, if you eventually write a walk-trough of the campaign featuring the secrets and loyals spread trough it as you said you wanted, i would be willing to help you in whatever way i can.

EDIT: By the way, do you need any help with making descriptions for some of the units? I could try to come up with something if you need it.

[Kwandulin]

EDIT: By the way, do you need any help with making descriptions for some of the units? I could try to come up with something if you need it.

Sure, that would be really helpful!

[ahmannar]

I'll get a look at the files and see what i can come up with.

EDIT: I wrote suggestions for the possible descriptions of each unit, as well as reasoning's behind those descriptions. I'm not really much of a writer but maybe this can give you some ideas:

Kahin:

Spoiler:

"An advisor with great political power, the Kahin prefer to use luxurious garments and poisonous words as his weapons against foes in place of brute force. Being armed with great respect and authority among its peers, seeing one of them on the battlefield inspires terror on their foes, as this symbolizes how much a nation wants to get rid of them.

-> My goal here was to portrait the vizier as a person that can "poison" others with words and that only goes to the battlefield when important battles are to be fought, as he has the authority to perform and conduct important orders. Maybe and ability like "Terror" (where he reduces the damage by an X % to units near him) could symbolize this? Seeing as he's not really a combat unit this could be thematically interesting for the unit.

Maji:

Spoiler:

"Power is something that always has been a deep desire in most people's heart. The hate and denial for the imposed dichotomy's of the Atvhari reached a breaking point, making people like the Maji dangerous for their knowledge of magic among populations that have little contact with these forbidden arts."

-> My goal here was to convey the fact that these people appeared cause they were tired of being restricted by the athavari and that the fact that most people people in the desert have no knowledge of magic, makes them dangerous.

Waghad-al-lahab:

Spoiler:

"The study and dedication that the Waghad-al-lahab have given to the mysterious and ever lasting nature of fire gave them the tools to successfully maintain and use it as devastating weapon in close quarter combat. Only caring now with the spreading and witnessing of the beauty of their doings, they have no compassion for human lives neither their homes, making them hated by enemies and sometimes even their comrades."

->My goal here was to portray these people has someone that loves fire so much that they only care about using it as much as they can and seeing it spread all over the place, making even their comrades horrified with their nature.

Qismat:

Spoiler:

"In a land of honorable fighting, where the strength of armies is mostly measured by their bravery and strength, the Qismat are feared for their ability to quickly dispatch a person with the speed of a lightning bolt. Their proficiency in assassinating their targets makes sure that the people that hire them for mischievous deeds are the ones with most knowledge of their techniques, which increases the horror on common soldiers of someday facing one"

-> My goal here was to shown that the Qismat are proficient in their job in a land that is mostly used to frontal combat and that their efficiency in killing their targets makes them not usually seen by their enemies, which in turn increases the fear of eventually being faced with one of them.

Rakib

Spoiler:

"Leaders that face their foes heads-on among their own people can obtain great levels of admiration and respect. The Rakib are fealess individuals that are eager to make others feel their cold steel and overwhelming force, inspiring others to achieve comparable feats alongside these warriors."

-> My goal here was to show that seeing a person riding against enemies with such determination makes others eager with following and aiding them.

Djinn-Altawir/Djinn-wahash:

Spoiler:

-> Seeing as the description for the race "half-djinn" applies in the same way to these 2 units, the Djinn-wahash could probably be under the race "half-djinn".

Wahash:

Spoiler:

"Wahash have disregarded the use of any kind of weapons, believing that only their own strength can truly shown them as warriors. Years of sustaining a greater number of injuries, as a result of this, as made them able to block their pain and unleash a barrage of relentless attacks on whoever stands in their way."

-> My goal here was to explain the reason behind being weaponless and trying to give context to their ability.

Dwarvish Hammerdin:

Spoiler:

"Eager to explore the world in search of ancient and forgotten artifacts, the dwarvish hammerdin are mostly lone survivors who will, nevertheless, embrace the company of people when that helps their cause. Their travels and artifacts collected during their lives has made them tough adversaries for any being that is an obstacle to their ever lasting quest, which leads to different paths followed by the dwarvish people. "

-> My goal here was to describe the amount of desire that they have for their quest and how much that means to them.

High Athvari:

Spoiler:

""High Athvari are the leaders of the Athvari people. Their knowledge and power assures their status as individuals worthy of respect and fear among all people of the deserts."

-> With so many Athvari already described, i think that assuring that these are the epitome of respect and fear on the land is the way to go (something that i don't have really achieved to be honest).

Lost Athvari:

Spoiler:

"The athvari have always been destined to rule over men and be a force of guidance through their lives. The Lost Athvari have become disappointed with the lack of influence that their race has because of their increasingly low numbers, which has led them to conspire directly against their order. They stand as a living testament to the need of enforcing the Law and that even good men can follow the wrong path."

-> These athvari are the ones with probably the most interesting backstory to tell. I tried to show that the increasingly lack of influence over the years has led them to commit grave crimes against the people they swore to protect.

Unforgotten Athvari:

Spoiler:

"The amount of time the Three Kings of K'thar have spent on the sphere has only increased their desire and need for power, as well as ruling over all of their previous subjects and beyond them. The corruption of magic has made them completely unable to be reasonable with and made them formidable adversaries to anyone who dares to stop their nefarious plans."

-> A description of the objective of the Three kings, as well as stating the "power-up" they have with the use of the sphere, can be a good description for them.

There's still the description of the two genies missing from here(from what i've seen, the rest of the units have descriptions) and i gave more thought to some descriptions when compared to others, but i don´t have much more time right now and wanted to give you something to work with at least. At the end of today i can try to write those two and see if you want me to work more on these ones.