Ice Age Fun and Japhel's Journey

[Mountain_King]

I found the new elephant birds the only scenario that was hard enough: all your units are overpowered (except saber tooth kittens and saber tooth tigers). I managed to beat the campaign up to the elephant bird scenario with a total of one loss. ( I couldn't go any further because of a bug).

Hunters seem decent, but they have great resists, especially to cold (not that you see cold damage much) but at lvl 2 they get 28 melee and 24 ranged, while swordsmen in comparison do 32 melee damage with no ranged and a javelineer gets 24 melee and 22 ranged. Javelineers have 48 hp, swordsmen get 55 and skilled hunters have 60. (and at lvl 3 they get poison and great damage in both melee and ranged. They also take a huge amount of xp to lvl up to 3.)

Spies cost 13 gold and do as much damage as an elf fighter without backstab. They also have both skirmish and backstab. The thief, which costs 13 gold, does 15 damage rather than 20 with just backstab and no skirmisher. The thief also doesn't get a ambush or nightstalk at higher levels. The thief also has bad resists while a spy has relatively good ones.

You healers at lvl 1 are decent except for resists. At lvl 2 they do more damage than a lvl 3 silver mage and they also have healing and good resists, and at lvl 3 they get teleport and skirmisher, and are stronger than pikemen in melee with a really strong ranged.

Also there's an error with the return of shadows scenario: it says unknown unit type: death baron.

Okie dokie, I've looked over your feedback and made the following changes:
reduced HP on the entire healer line, lvls 2 and 3 in the hunter line, and lvls 2 and 3 in the spy line.
reduced XP to get master hunter.
increased cost on healer, hunter, and spy.
nudged down ranged attack of poetess, melee attack on banfaith, and attacks on skilled and master hunters. Also working on weakening spy line, but that part hasn't been uploaded yet.
removed skirmisher from abilities of lvl 1 spy. (I didn't actually realize it had got in there. Go figure.)
reduced all resistances for the ice age race. btw, cold is high because its meant to be. These blokes wear mammoth-skin outfits; they're going to have high cold resists.
The "invisibility" factor with the spy line is going to stay. I purposely created that line for the purpose of having them be invisible, as seen in "Fox and Geese."
Just realized that the Death Baron isn't a mainline unit: sorry about that. I'll either change the unit or put the death baron as a custom unit in my campaign. Should be fixed in the next 24 hrs.
Thanks for the feedback wesfreak, that's the kind of feedback I like to hear. The kind that lays everything out, so I can see and compare, and fix. The above changes probably mean that the elephant bird scenario is going to be a lot harder though. Thanks again
Sincerely,
Mountain King

[wesfreak]

No problem. Those changes fix just about everything.

Elephant bird scenario probably will be harder: even as is they used skirmisher to get around my lines and attack my weak units and killed a few guys that way. Maybe you could just start the elephant birds further apart/away from the main keep? When I played it they all rushed at me and got themselves killed, but after that it was just a matter of searching the map until you found the leader.

Giving cook lower movement cost in snow will help a little too, since he tended to lag behind and I needed to send a few guys back to protect him.

Bird riders don't advance into bird knights, and bird paladins do 22-2 damage with charge compared to a grand knights 17-2 damage with charge. Knights have a sword, and their charge attack was weakened because of this, but the attack should still go down to about 20-2.

[Mountain_King]

No problem. Those changes fix just about everything.

Elephant bird scenario probably will be harder: even as is they used skirmisher to get around my lines and attack my weak units and killed a few guys that way. Maybe you could just start the elephant birds further apart/away from the main keep? When I played it they all rushed at me and got themselves killed, but after that it was just a matter of searching the map until you found the leader.

Giving cook lower movement cost in snow will help a little too, since he tended to lag behind and I needed to send a few guys back to protect him.

Bird riders don't advance into bird knights, and bird paladins do 22-2 damage with charge compared to a grand knights 17-2 damage with charge. Knights have a sword, and their charge attack was weakened because of this, but the attack should still go down to about 20-2.

Here's what I'm looking at here:
Elephant bird scenario: recoded the ai to avoid a massive chunk of land around your keep.
Lowered bird paladin's charge to be comparable to that of the Grand Knight, and gave him a secondary melee attack.
Renamed bird rider to "Feathered Warrior". (The level one are called "bird mounts" which is why you couldn't find them.)
Made the Death Baron a custom unit in my campaign, so the twelfth scenario will work for everybody.
Began work on scenario thirteen and had a massive brainstorm for scenario 18. (You'll just have to wait til I get there. But I do think there could end up being 20+ scenarios before I'm all done.)
Gave Ashkenaz and Yochyd the persistent trait in their side coding, so they can recall their own units and get early finish bonuses.
The stuff on the bird riders might not be uploaded yet, as I don't want to give away the story for scenario 13 until it's done. The death baron and ai parts have been uploaded, so no worries there. You should see the next piece in a day or two.
I'm still figuring out some aspects of giving units traits that they don't normally have (leadership, reduced snow movement, etc.), so it might be a little while before Cook's movement points are brought down. Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Mountain_King
(you're gonna love how powerful your enemy is come scene 12... )

EDIT: Forgot. I still need good sprites for the level two and three bird mounts all around. If anyone feels like donating a bit of time to the project that would be great. Thanks.

EDIT AGAIN: Got Scenarios 13 and 14 on the server and modified the look of the Saboteur so he's not identical to the rogue. I need someone who's played this on hard to tell me how many turns each scenario took them, so I know how far to shorten them. Thanks again.

EDIT AGAIN AGAIN: Haha, just felt like I had to gloat. 1000 downloads reached on July 6th! Coming release should contain death macros and a harder 14th scenario, as well as a completed 15th scenario.

EDIT AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN: (So help me I'm not going to double post) Scenario 16 is on the server, along with a developmental 17th. The eighteenth will be uploaded as soon as I finish the nineteenth, which should be in a day or two. Also weakened the bards in melee and ranged (they were more powerful than most lvl5 units). Weakened the overlord, and made it impossible to level up to him. (You have to be "crowned" now.) The time is near when they will leave this world.....

[shebillah]

Is the mammoth in the first scenario not supposed to attack? It didn't try attacking me once. I'm playing on the easiest mode. I find that most campaigns are too difficult for me at Normal but I do think the first scenario should be bit harder. Should I be playing this campaign at a harder level?

[Mountain_King]

Is the mammoth in the first scenario not supposed to attack? It didn't try attacking me once. I'm playing on the easiest mode. I find that most campaigns are too difficult for me at Normal but I do think the first scenario should be bit harder. Should I be playing this campaign at a harder level?

I see you are new. Welcome to the forums! Funny you should mention the first scenario, I was just thinking about it last night ( "The first scenario should be harder...but how?"). Seeing your post reminded me of this dilemma so I went back to the scenario. Here are the changes I made to scenario 1:
Shrunk your keep.
Limited recruit number to four hunters.
Gave you a loyal "hunting party" similar to the small army you get in a Tale of Two Brothers.
Gave the mammoth a keep and recruit list. (Don't worry, I didn't give him too much gold...I think.)
I was having trouble with the easy normal hard tags in the coding so for now the differences in difficulty are in your gold and the mammoth's gold. He probably still won't do a lot of attacking but it works for now.
(Don't sweat it if you play all the campaigns on easy, that's what I do. )

Also, clarified and modified some of the dialogue in scenarios 2,4,5, and 6.
I'm trying to decide whether or not to create an archer unit for the ice age people. They seem kind of incomplete without archers.

All of the above changes have been uploaded to the server, so you can now update the add-on. I wonder where Jobath and his men will go next...

UPDATE: Scenario 19 added to server, with number twenty in the works. Wow, two months, 2000 downloads. I am elated.

[norbert]

[...] The whole ice age thing is a nice idea, with the mammoth and all.

By the way, the campaign icon you picked is funny...
Now, whenever I see Footpads, I think about that mentally challenged guy.

[Mountain_King]

That was him slipping on ice. Footpads can't move fast on frozen like the ice age people. In other news...

Spoiler:

YES!!! I don't have to double POST!!!! OR edit my previous one!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!! .... ..... *rapidly shakes head* Okay, I got that out of my system. Phew!

As soon as I get the next couple scenarios debugged, I will have all the way through scenario 24 on the server. Only three more scenarios after this (including the epilogue), and we shall see the ending of this story. Then I can focus on balancing and dinosaurs.

EDIT: scenarios 22, 23, and 24 all now on the server. Beware using debug mode to skip levels through here.
*smirk* I'm currently the 2nd largest campaign on the server. Not sure wether that's good or bad.

[Mountain_King]

Well, it's been two months since my last post on this thread. I figured y'all deserved an update.

Upon reaching my 5000th download today, I am inspired to be uploading the latest version. Unfortunately, scenario 25 still isn't quite done. Oh well. This WIP is farther along now anyways. Once I get #25 done it will be all downhill with this campaign. (Read: I will be done very quickly from there)
New things for next release:
Got an all-new tracking map for the far, far, north made by our very own eliddell. (THANK YOU!!!)
Progress on the 25th scenario.
Strengthened the Orcish Necromancer to be more comparable to the ancient lich in power and hp.
So, that's about it for now. Keep an eye out for a coming 1.9/1.10 version!

Best Regards,
Mountain_King

[Dogdan17]

I really enjoyed this. Will you be working on it any more? or make an era with the awsome mamoths,spearman, ...ect?

[Mountain_King]

I really enjoyed this. Will you be working on it any more? or make an era with the awsome mamoths,spearman, ...ect?

Yes, I'm still working on it. It's been going a bit slow because scenario 25 is massive!!! I hope to have that scenario done within a day or so, but life rarely seems to work the way I want it to. As I said earlier, I only have to rework one scenario and then create another to be done. Then I can cheer!
I have thought about making an era, but I can't decide if I could make it any good.

Thanks for the feedback, yours is the first I've gotten since the end of July.
That said, I do need to update the campaign to make a bugfix/expansion release. Expect one within the next 48 hours.
Best Regards,
Mountain_King

[Sneezy]

Hi M_K-- I recently finished playing (IAF ver. 0.9.1, BfW 1.8.5). All in all, a good campaign, and quite enjoyable. Played it on Easy (as I do most first-time attempts). The flow (and connection) from scenario to scenario was very good; much better than usual. The objectives feel like they are somewhat different from scenario to scenario: it doesn't feel like the usual succession of: here's some gold, destroy the enemy boss; again and again and again. And it *is* fun to have units that are good in snow; quite a change from the usual situation.

Interesting story, and some interesting new units (birds?!). I look forward to finding out what happens to these characters. Keep up the good work!
--sneezy

[Mountain_King]

Hi M_K-- I recently finished playing (IAF ver. 0.9.1, BfW 1.8.5). All in all, a good campaign, and quite enjoyable. Played it on Easy (as I do most first-time attempts). The flow (and connection) from scenario to scenario was very good; much better than usual. The objectives feel like they are somewhat different from scenario to scenario: it doesn't feel like the usual succession of: here's some gold, destroy the enemy boss; again and again and again. And it *is* fun to have units that are good in snow; quite a change from the usual situation.

Interesting story, and some interesting new units (birds?!). I look forward to finding out what happens to these characters. Keep up the good work!
--sneezy

Thank you. I appreciate the feedback. In a couple of days you may want to update your addon, as I recently finished coding the 25th scenario (it's winnable!). I plan to upload early Christmas or late Christmas Eve. At that point, the entire campaign should be done!!!!!!!! About time too....

Slainte!
Mountain_King

EDIT: Grr, having more troubles with the 25th scenario, so it will take some time to fix it. Maybe before new years...

[Mountain_King]

I figured this deserved its own post even if it was a double post. The campaign is now officially scenario and storyline complete!!!!! Version 1.0 beta just went to the server. Now just some map reworking and balancing, etc. still left to do. I am happy as a clam, I am. Maybe now I can get some feedback, anyone?

Best Regards,
Mountain_King

[Mountain_King]

Justified triple post, anyone? Pah! Anyways, after spending the weekend debugging (and being very frustrated by the uploader), I managed to convert the campaign to 1.9.3. As a result, most support for the 1.8 version will be dropped, unless a bug is found in it. Future balancing issues will be relegated to the 1.9 version only. Thanks for playing, and don't drive drunk.

Mountain_King

[Twenty-four]

Trying to stop this "multi-poster"...
Thank you very much, it's a really great and funny campaign!
If you had said that you would convert it to 1.9.3, I would have waited with starting over the campaign. So now, I will have to play it on 1.8...
Speaking of bugs, I've found one, a very little one: In "The Gauntlet", your ally Ashkenaz can recruit a unit outside his keep, one the field 5,21. Do you need a savegame for that? It's very simple to reproduce, simply start this level and he will recruit a units in his keep and this one that is outside the keep.