New Campaign: Mage Republic
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ILikeProgramming
- Posts: 837
- Joined: April 14th, 2005, 4:17 am
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ILikeProgramming
- Posts: 837
- Joined: April 14th, 2005, 4:17 am
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DavidByron
- Posts: 72
- Joined: July 10th, 2005, 6:30 am
Played all scenarios on "normal". I don't see an option in your poll that represents my view of it. Is this an early version of the campaign as yet? The maps seem crude and the time allowed is way WAY over the top and is probably too easy even for "Easy" by a long way. I disagree about the scenarios feeling the same but perhaps that's because you breeze through them so easily. It does seem as if some of the scenarios are bringing out aspects of the mage vs undead or mage vs elves tactics. In fact the campaign feels a little like a mage tutorial. That's ok if it was tightened up all over the place although some would prefer more role playing themes -- the main leader never levels up.
Scenario 1 ("Last Hope")
I realised after playing it first time around that the mages could easily eliminate the two Liches within time. Since the villages are all up the East end you don't lose much cash by doing this. By using the terrain you can destroy the undead instead of running. Unless you intended to demonstrate that mages do well by hiding out in mountains this needs changing. I killed the 2nd Lich on turn 21 out of 36 and I was doing things like waiting for my entire force to heal first and waiting for daylight. I also didn't have to use my teleport ability. Map was nice except for the size of the huge castle you start off with... and why have desert and snow on the same island?
I think forget about the running away part of the plot and make these undead an advance attack which you have to kill. Increase the size of the forces or decrease the initial money. Maybe make your leader a normal mage and have the silver mage as a loyal unit so that your lead character can rise throught the ranks. Increase the aggression of the Liches so they attack when they are out of cash? Obviously far lower time limit. The simplicity of facing only skeletons is kind of cute.
Scenario 2 ("Surrounded")
You're not surrounded. At first it looks like more defending skellies in mountains but then you realise despite having a vast castle the Lich has no troops to speak of. So instead you assault the Lich and easily kill him. This might be a better place for an escape / chase scenario than episode 1. The map needs work. Mountains aren't so common right next to water, but certainly they don't ring the coast like that with a flat interior. I'm not sure why you limit the size of the initial castle and then give away a bigger one in the interior. There are no villages which provides an interesting decision as to how many units to recall - or would do if you were not awash with cash by this time. No healing either. Maybe add an oasis but to add to the "mage tutorial" feel you might want to add a dialogue saying "there's no place to heal so some white mages would be useful". OTOH against undead they're useful anyway of course. Most of the island is wasted space. One problem with maps with no villages is that there's almost no incentive to finish early. Might want to simply disable the early reward which makes sense for a chase more than a battle. Or else place villages around the less used area of the map. Here's an idea for a chase that would utilise the silvermage well: a lich with ghosts behind you - they eat up mages but have a hard time with a silvermage forcing him to be on back guard while your main force takes out the castle you have to defeat to escape. Another force at your back spits out walking dead since they're good for a laugh and will force the silvermage to teleport to cathc up with the main force. Dialog ("the undead have destroyed the villages in this area: we have to flee west")
Scenario 3 ("Rescue the Humans")
I thought mages were humans? Anyway this is the first time I've tried to NOT kill the enemy - and failed. That Lich has a death wish. Figured I'd get a ton of experience by ignoring him and he ran out into the thick of battle. You need to adjust his aggression down. The idea of the human needed rescuing is good if you can get the troop balance right. Currently it's the Lich who needs rescuing! I won on turn 4 (out of 25 - giving me more unneeded cash) and I was trying not to win. Sometime making assassination the key to victory works but not here. Map is again a little silly looking. The chasm is over done. Less is more! Make it look more natural with some mountains or desert or a river or something other than plain plains. The way the leader you are rescuing has a fall-back base is good except he doesn't need it. Need to fine tune that balance of forces so the undead will kill him after X turns. That might be easier if there are two undead leaders. Recruiting thugs (the theif types with a blunt attack - what are they called?) might be more appropriate than heavy infantry if they represent ad-hoc peasants picking up hammers. Heavy infantry don't come easy - it's the armor not the hammers. I think if you can get the attack on the humans balanced so they really need rescuing this scenario could work well. Other map issues: you can get straight to the fall-back castle of your ally. The castle's are too damn big still. Way too big. You do this a lot in your scenarios. Make them smaller. Tiny castles are more interesting unless you're going for a laugh as per the scenario "Crenalu's book" in the undead campaign. Maybe beef up the undead more with 2nd level units since they still only have skellies and zombies.
Scenario 4 ("Furious Battle")
This is the scenario most likely to suffer from "yet another kill everyone" syndrome. I think it would be cute to have a Lich in an island off-shore through deep water pumping out bats every now and then. This would mean you have to guard your base villages while you travel inland. This shows off the advantage of the silvermage's teleport. Clearly with the current imbalance this scenario is not so much a furious battle as a walk over. The objectives hinted about an ally turning up but I didn't see one. At least the undead had more variety of troops. The map is obviously a work in progress. I guess I don't see what's up with the way you teleport to the island in the SW -- there's no dialogue to explain it. You appear to get stuck there. The vast number of villages there combined with the huge amount of time mean you get an obscene amount of cash going into the next scenario - thousands. Consequently that scenario is unplayable too. Map issues: again the chasm looks silly - just use deep water to split things up. There's a lot of hexes to fill up and the map's very dull and unnatural looking.
Scenario 5 ("Dwarves and Elves" / "The Dwarven Fort")
I didn't try refusing the Dwarf's offer which leads to the other 2 scenarios. Why doesn't the campaign continue if you say, "yes"? Anyway despite low amount of villages the obscene amount of cash means you can beat up the Elf easily enough with your choice of troops. The beserkers work well enough. I think a fight against the Elves has good potential as a scenario though.
Ideas for more scenarios: have the undead create a miasma/cloud which alters the day/night cycle in their favour to become dusk/dusk/night/night/night/night and have a scenario to go fetch some mystical thingamajig or go to some sacred circle in order to lift the miasma.
Scenario 1 ("Last Hope")
I realised after playing it first time around that the mages could easily eliminate the two Liches within time. Since the villages are all up the East end you don't lose much cash by doing this. By using the terrain you can destroy the undead instead of running. Unless you intended to demonstrate that mages do well by hiding out in mountains this needs changing. I killed the 2nd Lich on turn 21 out of 36 and I was doing things like waiting for my entire force to heal first and waiting for daylight. I also didn't have to use my teleport ability. Map was nice except for the size of the huge castle you start off with... and why have desert and snow on the same island?
I think forget about the running away part of the plot and make these undead an advance attack which you have to kill. Increase the size of the forces or decrease the initial money. Maybe make your leader a normal mage and have the silver mage as a loyal unit so that your lead character can rise throught the ranks. Increase the aggression of the Liches so they attack when they are out of cash? Obviously far lower time limit. The simplicity of facing only skeletons is kind of cute.
Scenario 2 ("Surrounded")
You're not surrounded. At first it looks like more defending skellies in mountains but then you realise despite having a vast castle the Lich has no troops to speak of. So instead you assault the Lich and easily kill him. This might be a better place for an escape / chase scenario than episode 1. The map needs work. Mountains aren't so common right next to water, but certainly they don't ring the coast like that with a flat interior. I'm not sure why you limit the size of the initial castle and then give away a bigger one in the interior. There are no villages which provides an interesting decision as to how many units to recall - or would do if you were not awash with cash by this time. No healing either. Maybe add an oasis but to add to the "mage tutorial" feel you might want to add a dialogue saying "there's no place to heal so some white mages would be useful". OTOH against undead they're useful anyway of course. Most of the island is wasted space. One problem with maps with no villages is that there's almost no incentive to finish early. Might want to simply disable the early reward which makes sense for a chase more than a battle. Or else place villages around the less used area of the map. Here's an idea for a chase that would utilise the silvermage well: a lich with ghosts behind you - they eat up mages but have a hard time with a silvermage forcing him to be on back guard while your main force takes out the castle you have to defeat to escape. Another force at your back spits out walking dead since they're good for a laugh and will force the silvermage to teleport to cathc up with the main force. Dialog ("the undead have destroyed the villages in this area: we have to flee west")
Scenario 3 ("Rescue the Humans")
I thought mages were humans? Anyway this is the first time I've tried to NOT kill the enemy - and failed. That Lich has a death wish. Figured I'd get a ton of experience by ignoring him and he ran out into the thick of battle. You need to adjust his aggression down. The idea of the human needed rescuing is good if you can get the troop balance right. Currently it's the Lich who needs rescuing! I won on turn 4 (out of 25 - giving me more unneeded cash) and I was trying not to win. Sometime making assassination the key to victory works but not here. Map is again a little silly looking. The chasm is over done. Less is more! Make it look more natural with some mountains or desert or a river or something other than plain plains. The way the leader you are rescuing has a fall-back base is good except he doesn't need it. Need to fine tune that balance of forces so the undead will kill him after X turns. That might be easier if there are two undead leaders. Recruiting thugs (the theif types with a blunt attack - what are they called?) might be more appropriate than heavy infantry if they represent ad-hoc peasants picking up hammers. Heavy infantry don't come easy - it's the armor not the hammers. I think if you can get the attack on the humans balanced so they really need rescuing this scenario could work well. Other map issues: you can get straight to the fall-back castle of your ally. The castle's are too damn big still. Way too big. You do this a lot in your scenarios. Make them smaller. Tiny castles are more interesting unless you're going for a laugh as per the scenario "Crenalu's book" in the undead campaign. Maybe beef up the undead more with 2nd level units since they still only have skellies and zombies.
Scenario 4 ("Furious Battle")
This is the scenario most likely to suffer from "yet another kill everyone" syndrome. I think it would be cute to have a Lich in an island off-shore through deep water pumping out bats every now and then. This would mean you have to guard your base villages while you travel inland. This shows off the advantage of the silvermage's teleport. Clearly with the current imbalance this scenario is not so much a furious battle as a walk over. The objectives hinted about an ally turning up but I didn't see one. At least the undead had more variety of troops. The map is obviously a work in progress. I guess I don't see what's up with the way you teleport to the island in the SW -- there's no dialogue to explain it. You appear to get stuck there. The vast number of villages there combined with the huge amount of time mean you get an obscene amount of cash going into the next scenario - thousands. Consequently that scenario is unplayable too. Map issues: again the chasm looks silly - just use deep water to split things up. There's a lot of hexes to fill up and the map's very dull and unnatural looking.
Scenario 5 ("Dwarves and Elves" / "The Dwarven Fort")
I didn't try refusing the Dwarf's offer which leads to the other 2 scenarios. Why doesn't the campaign continue if you say, "yes"? Anyway despite low amount of villages the obscene amount of cash means you can beat up the Elf easily enough with your choice of troops. The beserkers work well enough. I think a fight against the Elves has good potential as a scenario though.
Ideas for more scenarios: have the undead create a miasma/cloud which alters the day/night cycle in their favour to become dusk/dusk/night/night/night/night and have a scenario to go fetch some mystical thingamajig or go to some sacred circle in order to lift the miasma.