Dwarven doors

[Assasin]

Internet Explorer sucks, like almost anything Microsoft makes (minus Xbox )

turin: Well yeah, the problem is it fools you. Hmm...wonder who made that one My point is if you looked at the terrain, you'd see that you'd need fast units that could hold their own against Orcs. Just take a quick peep around, and you'll do better in any battle.

[energyman76c]

Hi,

well, that the Door is the wrong entrance, can destroy a perfect game - this even if I do not have problems myself, sucks.
You got with your last move the 'right' door and it is the wrong one - great.

And at least at easy it is not hard, to kill all enemy leaders *cough*[/img]

[Sea Elf]

With only 18 turns it seems like it would be really hard to kill all the leaders.

[Assasin]

It's not that hard, I've done it once.

[scott]

There used to be a lot more turns and weaker leaders.
As it is now I usually send a gryphon over to the real door just to trigger the event. If you randomized the door location without changing the scenario's turns or leader gold, this would still work. I don't think the "surprise" of the door not being the real objective is any worse than having the sea monsters appear at the Ford of Abez or Lionel's buddies pop out in The Lost General. Once you know about it you can plan for it. Shoot, that applies to general troop movements. I know exactly where the AI will send troops up and around Gryphon Mountain. It never changes.

[Elvish_Pillager]

I don't think the "surprise" of the door not being the real objective is any worse than having the sea monsters appear at the Ford of Abez

The sea monsters can't hurt you right away. In fact, if you just do what you're told, you'll use the same strategy regardless of whether you know of the sea monsters.

or Lionel's buddies pop out in The Lost General.

That's not even a surprise, because you are unlikely to even see those hexes anyway. It's just an extra defense to deal with.

Once you know about it you can plan for it. Shoot, that applies to general troop movements. I know exactly where the AI will send troops up and around Gryphon Mountain. It never changes.

Get to know the AI, and you can determine where it will send troops in a scenario. Get to know WML, and you can determine all the surprises in a scenario.

[Nicolas]

Oh!I remember...
too easy- but i had only 500 gold
i recruited only horsemens and I sent them all to the enemies to charge them.
I Defeated two- the third killed me an avenger
But don't try to do that!!!

[santi]

Turin is right on this one. The first time I played DD, a fighting strategy was good: You could, in fact you had to, fight your way through.
You could afford the luxury of going for the wrong door, even taking
out all enemies(almost).
Then at some point in the 0.8.x series this changed and the scenario is probably impossible to fight through:
There simply is not enough time to get Krad to the right door under heavy fighting, even if you are able to actually win that fight(or keep a corridir safe).
On the other hand, DD is THE easiest playing scenario ever
if you just recruit 4-5 horsemen, start running with everybody to the right door already on turn 1. The horsemen can just shield Krad, Delf and Kalenz from any attacks(they should not even retaliate) and you make it
in 9 turns, which earns you back almost all the money you spent in the 5 horsemen(better than griffons, cause they're cheaper)
This has been brought to the attention of Shade though, who is rebalancing HttT and everybody agreed to make DD a fighting scenario
(and Home of North Elves a running scenario)
So we should at some point get back the good old fighting DD we all love.

[khamul]

There used to be a lot more turns and weaker leaders.
As it is now I usually send a gryphon over to the real door just to trigger the event. If you randomized the door location without changing the scenario's turns or leader gold, this would still work. I don't think the "surprise" of the door not being the real objective is any worse than having the sea monsters appear at the Ford of Abez or Lionel's buddies pop out in The Lost General. Once you know about it you can plan for it. Shoot, that applies to general troop movements. I know exactly where the AI will send troops up and around Gryphon Mountain. It never changes.

I agree with EP on this. The difference between the surprise in Dwarven Doors and the surprise in Ford of Abez / Lost General / etc is that they give you time to respond to it.

If you don't know what's going to happen, you base your strategy on getting Konrad to the dwarven doors. If the doors don't open when you get there, you're probably already surrounded with little hope of getting to the tunnel. No time to respond. The only thing you can do is reload - this is WRONG. You should never NEED to replay a level to have a chance of success.

The solution is simple. At the start, have a dialog exchange along the lines of "What if the doors don't open?" "Then we'll just have to find another way in. Quickly". The player has now been warned, and if they have to reload because they based their strategy on the doors opening, it's their own fault.

The giant squid in the lake could be handled similarly, with a "I don't like the look of the lake" comment. Given that the whole map is a pretty blatant reference to the gates of Moria, an appropriate line from the book would be great.

It's been a while since I played the level, and I forget. There may be appropriate dialog in already.

[scott]

Ok, granted. Building on your idea a little, the player should be encouraged to send a scout to open the door so he doesn't think it's necessary to send Konrad. I also think the correct door should be random - people already disagreed with me on this, but it would be more interesting.