Scores and comments sent!

Any news?

Sam moved to the barren northern wastes, so I'm afraid we won't hear from him for a while.

From what was posted by the judges here I belive we only wait for Leif

I'll be sending my updates by longship from now on

Sounds like you'll need a longship if the last judge is Leif Ericson!

I've finished my judging, so Sam can have the honors of announcing the results! Sorry for the delay everyone.

Quick bets anyone?

Bassi or Al_Kharn win, Hellknight or G_A take second.

1. Kharn
2. Bassi
3. Tanks

Results are in!


Lord Basse’s scores:

Hellknight61: 2 + 3 + 3 + 1 = 9/50
Alkhalim: 8 + 7 + 6 + 7 = 28/50
BF_Tanks: 6 + 10 + 6 + 4 = 26/50
Great_Artiste: 11 + 11 + 7 + 8 = 37/50
Al_Kharn the Great: 9 + 12 + 7 + 4 = 32/50
Bassi: 13 + 12 + 9 + 7 = 41/50


Leif Ericson’s Scores:

Hellknight61: 3 + 5 + 3 + 3 = 14/50
Alkhalim: 8 + 8 + 6 + 5 = 27/50
BF_Tanks: 8 + 11 + 6 + 5 = 30/50
Great_Artiste: 7 + 10 + 6 + 6 = 29/50
Al_Kharn the Great: 10 + 11 + 8 + 6 = 35/50
Bassi: 12 + 9 + 8 + 7 = 36/50


HockeySam18’s scores:

Hellknight61: 3 + 5 + 6 + 4 = 18/50
Alkhalim: 10 + 10 + 6 + 8 = 34/50
BF_Tanks: 12 + 14 + 8 + 6 = 40/50
Great_Artiste: 13 + 14 + 8 + 8 = 43/50
Al_Kharn the Great: 14 + 13 + 9 + 8 = 44/50
Bassi: 15 + 15 + 10 + 8 = 48/50


Total:

1^st Bassi: 41/50 + 36/50 + 48/50 = 125/150
2^nd Al_Kharn the Great: 32/50 + 35/50 + 44/50 = 111/150
3^rd Great_Artiste: 37/50 + 29/50 + 43/50 = 109/150
4^th BF_Tanks: 26/50 + 30/50 + 40/50 = 96/150
5^th Alkhalim: 28/50 + 27/50 + 34/50 = 89/150
6^th Hellknight61: 9/50 + 14/50 + 18/50 = 41/150

My comments:


Hellknight61 - Sniper - A Dead End

Playability: 3/15

The reason behind this low score is the nature of the scenario being too tedious and borderline impossible to complete, and frankly also not particularly entertaining. The gameplay consists of stages of enemy units approaching the player’s position, which the player must shoot through the use of a taunt system. Missing the target triggers defeat. However, the player has no idea where their shot will land, meaning that you essentially have to save and reload each time that it is necessary to fire a shot. This is extremely repetitive, not to mention quite arduous. After failing an untold number of times over the span of roughly an hour, this scenario was deemed impossible for anyone aside from its creator (or someone who spent tens of hours grinding through it) to complete.


Creativity and Story/Instructions: 5/15

The concept of the mission, to the author’s credit, was rather creative, and it is clear that he was trying to create his own game within the confines of AoK. However, it cannot be said that this represented an improvement over the vanilla gameplay or was enjoyable. The storyline and instructions, while clearly fabricated with much effort, were nevertheless riddled with mistakes and rather confusing. Some additional development would have gone a long way here.


Map Design: 6/10

The map design was an improvement over the author’s previous works, but still could go to use much improvement. While a great deal of terrain mixing was employed, the way it was used was less than optimal. Terrains were essentially distributed over an even spread of tiles, with the result that the map was somewhat monotonous and bizarre (e.g. isolated patches of snow or snow grass/dirt in the middle of otherwise dry dirt). Nevertheless, this was easily the best feature of the scenario, and the author should be commended for his continuous efforts towards improvement.


Balance: 4/10

As mentioned in the playability section, the difficulty was found to be unforgivingly harsh. While I am sure that victory is possible, it is unnecessarily elusive, and the foreign nature of the game mechanics contributed to this. It was difficult to assign a proper balance score here as the game can hardly even be called AoK anymore given its mechanics, but the above score was deemed as reasonable as could be conceived.

Total: 18/50


Alkhalim - Horns of Hattin

Playability: 10/15

This entry placed the player in the position of one of the Crusader factions at Hattin in 1191, with the task of defending the Crusader position from relentless Saracen attacks until the water supply in the camp runs out. This was rather straightforward, and consisted largely of a spamfest of trash and ranged units to counter the endless large enemy waves. The far-flung nature of the Crusader camp provided a great opportunity for additional strategic depth in being forced to assist in the defense of various regions of the camp (all of which produce additional troops for you); unfortunately, the enemy AI chose to concentrate its attacks solely on the eastern part of the camp, often running headlong through the rest of the allied camp and being picked to pieces on the way. The scenario also did not seem completable - I defended my position until all of the aqueducts expired and yet the mission did not seem to progress at all, leaving me at a loss as I could do little more but wait in confusion until I was gradually overwhelmed.


Creativity and Story/Instructions: 10/15

The author provides the player with a set of adequate instructions and a straightforward narrative that sufficed to complement the gameplay. Certain creative elements certainly shone, such as the modded technologies and the degree of interreliance between each Crusader camp as well as the ability to raid enemy caravans for supplies, but the core gameplay of the scenario was somewhat bland and generic, as aforementioned consisting of both sides endlessly feeding troops into the meatgrinder for the duration of the scenario with little variability or strategic depth beyond that.


Map Design: 6/10

The map design was a mixed bag, consisting of certain portions that legitimately looked quite good and others that were average or even below par. The saving grace of this category was the way the map was structured to be conducive to strong gameplay - a strength that unfortunately the nature of the AI assured that the scenario was unable to fully capitalize upon. The layout of the Crusader encampment in particular was a highlight, but much of the rest of the map left something to be desired.


Balance: 8/10

The strongest point of the scenario, the balance and pacing actually felt quite fair, challenging the player for certain but never being excessively overwhelming. The enemy employed a diverse army that required the player to answer it with one of their own, and there was a welcome feeling of gradually losing ground over time and being pushed up against the wall while waiting for victory. One point of contention would be that the allied players did very little on their own; another was the endless and disorganized nature of the enemy assaults which provided no breathing room. The last thing that left the player scratching his head was the unnecessarily buffed towers in their camp, which caused the final stage to force the player to prioritize micromanaging those over their actual army.

Total: 34/50


BF_Tanks - Reliquary

Playability: 12/15

This entry was actually quite an enjoyable mission owing to a uniquely eerie and ominous atmosphere and gameplay that matched it quite well. The player is cast in the role of desperate guardians defending their citadel against a mysterious army of fanatical cultists. While the gameplay was quite simple and essentially consisted of plugging a breach with the various reinforcements that spawned from time to time, there was enjoyment in the opportunity to multitask between defending the fortress and sallying forth with exploration parties to seek out enemy heroes and uncover a well-designed map. Although it could do with some polish, it remains a simple concept with some minor strategic nuances that were pulled off rather well for a fun experience.


Creativity and Story/Instructions: 14/15

The story, while admittedly not particularly fleshed out, excelled in the fact that it was sufficient to complement the gameplay while dousing the player with a sense of wonder and intrigue. Instructions were sufficient and useful, and the player will likely never feel particularly lost, albeit if somewhat confused. Commendable also is the designer’s use of UP-effect triggers combined with WololoKingdoms to create a quite customized experience. It is debatable whether some of these statistical changes were strictly necessary, and in some ways they led to a level of initial confusion, but the simple nature of the gameplay meant that these were not truly a detriment to the playing experience - in the end, the fundamental necessity of patching a breach with melee units and protecting your precious ranged units sufficed to allow the player to succeed.


Map Design: 8/10

One of the highlights of the scenario, the map design excelled in its diversity, with a citadel and surrounding town, sea, forests, fields, mine, and more that all represented the unique design style of the author. While some parts of the map could perhaps have benefited from an ounce of polish, the overall result was far above average and frankly quite impressive in the way that it balanced visuals with gameplay utility.


Balance: 6/10

While generally well balanced, even on Hard the scenario seemed a bit too easy. The player does not have to do much more than plug a gap with the very large numbers of units that they receive and assure that new trainees are deployed. Things become even easier if the player explores the surrounding area and kills the enemy heroes. One unit in particular contributes to the low level of difficulty - the chu ko nu whose projectiles spawn militia units. While this can initially be seen as a threat, in reality it makes it possible to achieve tons of easy kills towards the player’s goal, allowing victory to be largely achieved before the more difficult waves of enemy units begin to arrive.

Total: 40/50


Great_Artiste - Anageos (1494)

Playability: 13/15

This scenario was extremely fun in that it presented the player with a series of quite diverse and challenging defense stages after a short and effective opening cinematic. Each was refreshing and interesting to play: the defense of a ship against broadside boarding parties, delaying an enemy force in the field while defenses are prepared, and the final defense of the outer ring of a fort and later its bastion. Diverse enemy forces kept the player on his toes, requiring the maintenance of viable troop positioning, the use (but vigilant watch over the safety) of heroes, and focusing down dangerous enemy units and siege engines. Strong map design and balance efforts contributed to the overall level of enjoyment, and the scenario overall had a very polished feel, although it did feel somewhat linear and scripted, and lacking immersion at brief points.


Creativity and Story/Instructions: 14/15

Likely the strongest point of the entry, it is clear that this sphere was given special attention by the author. The intermingling of gameplay and cinematic portions culminated in an understandable and engaging storyline that was fed to the player in manageable doses. All non-vanilla gameplay mechanics were sufficiently explained, and the map design also demonstrated a commendable level of creativity (more on that later).

Map Design: 8/10

The author fearlessly negotiated a diverse array of settings - an enormously creative (if not particularly convincing) take on the decks of a pair of ships in a broadside battle, a beach defense, and a withering fortress (along with several minor cinematic areas that all looked the part). Each of these looked excellent, although admittedly the broadside stage is enormously difficult to pull off without modding, as the use of vanilla assets demand a level of suspension of disbelief that is perhaps too high. Nevertheless, for the most part the map was top notch work and incredibly pleasing to play and look at.


Balance: 8/10

Throughout the scenario, the gameplay felt extremely fair and was more than intuitive, requiring a combination of macromanagement and micromanagement that was manageable but nevertheless required skill. If a critique was to be made, it would be that the various stages of gameplay did not demand much variation in the player’s approach or strategy beyond plonking units in place on defensive stance and focusing down important targets, but overall this sphere of the design was quite well done.

Total: 43/50


Al_Kharn the Great - Last Stand at Orkney

Playability: 14/15

This entry casts the player in the role of Gaelic villagers mounting an ill-fated defense against Viking raids a la Mash’s ‘Wind of the North,’ albeit with a differing take in terms of gameplay. The player begins with a set of far-flung bases and must rush to build a town center and organize an effective defense of several monasteries against a militarily and technologically superior enemy. Owing to this setup, the player is forced to defend on multiple fronts, although the sense of urgency is lessened by the fact that the AI tends to make rather predictable sets of attacks on the same position until it is taken, allowing the player to put all of their eggs in one basket and even game the scenario somewhat.


Creativity and Story/Instructions: 13/15

The story and instructions, always a strength of the author, were no exception in this case. Brief but strong writing and atmospheric additions through sound effects contributed in a positive manner to this, as did the author’s focus on outside-the-box gameplay where there lies more than one path to victory. If there was to be a knock on the creativity, it would be that the author seems to have drawn a considerable amount of inspiration from Mash’s ‘Wind of the North’ in terms of concept, map layout, and several gameplay elements. It should nevertheless be noted that this scenario was by no means derivative from Mash’s work despite a noticeable set of parallels, and provided its own and quite enjoyable playing and viewing experience. One major strength was the degree of randomization that the author used in map generation to further augment replayability.


Map Design: 9/10

As always, the author brought his own unique and effective map design style to bear on a map that makes near-maximum use of the HD Edition scenario editor. The result was visually pleasing and fun to play, a double strength that the author prides himself on. The Orkney Islands were presented in a realistic and visually exciting manner that were fun to explore and defend. One weakness perhaps lay in that the design was generally missing that touch of final polish that could have resulted in a perfect score; another was that the AI bases seemed to contribute to less than effective behavior, although this is more of a technical point and did not seem to affect balance in a negative manner.


Balance: 8/10

Fast-paced but fair and manageable, the scenario demanded savvy tactics and the even distribution of effort between defense, growth, and exploration. Attacks arrive early and often, putting the player in a position where the desperation of the locals is palpable but victory is nevertheless never entirely out of sight. However, as the attacks mount in ferocity and strength, the player is forced to utilize gamey tactics such as luring enemy units in a circle around the town center, excessive walling, and utilizing the predictability of the enemy attack routes to pick transport ships off with galleys before they can reach the shore - a viable tactic of course, but somewhat cheesy due to the predictable and redundant nature of the enemy attacks.

Total: 44/50


Bassi - The Siege of Caffa

Playability: 15/15

Bassi’s entry to the 2018 DtS contest casts the player in the role of the Italian defenders of the town of Caffa in the Crimea, which is threatened by the Mongol and Tatar forces of the Golden Horde. However, the gameplay is by no means limited to holing up behind fortifications; a healthy balance exists between manning the walls, maintaining an economy, and devoting attention to the sea. While enemy hordes hurl themselves upon Caffa’s walls, the player must organize a fleet and clear the blockade set by the enemy navy so that a relief force can arrive and parry the final wave of elite enemy forces. One considerable strength of the gameplay was that it was crafted in a manner to showcase the strengths of the Italian civilization, from unique units to naval prowess, fortifications, and gunpowder units. Another was its pacing, which was nothing short of excellent.


Creativity and Story/Instructions: 15/15

The author is clearly at home with topics regarding the hordes of the Eurasian and Central Asian steppes, and the zeal of the storyline was matched only by the clarity and simple (but palatable) nature of the instructions and the high level of creativity. A major strength of this defense mission was manner in which sallies and counterattacks were interwoven and presented as options and, in some cases, imperatives. While the player must clear the naval blockade to advance the mission, they can also attack the Tatar camp and destroy their lumber facilities to hamstring the enemy production of siege engines. Additional creativity was showcased in the map design, to be further discussed.


Map Design: 10/10

Definitely the standout effort of the contest, the author’s prowess in map design once again came to the forefront here. The player’s city, the enemy siege camps, the sea, and the countryside--comprising mountainous, forested, and open regions--all exhibited the author’s characteristic balance between fundamentally solid map work, design tricks, and an environment that is thoroughly enjoyable to play. The map design is so beautiful that the player feels legitimate sorrow as they deforest the landscape and level enemy camps--or watch their own city deteriorate and fall.


Balance: 8/10

The only point of the scenario that left a little to be desired, the balance score suffered from the struggles that AI armies attacking by land face against mass ships--a viable tactic, of course, but nevertheless far and away the best option available. The player can fully defend all but one route to the city with a large fleet, thinning out enemy armies before they reach the walls. However, this by no means renders the scenario a cakewalk, as the scarcity of wood and the presence of enemy siege engines and naval forces mean that the player cannot afford to squander or mismanage their ships, and will always be fighting on multiple fronts. Additionally, the starting situation assures that considerable playing experience is required to reach that point where the player’s fleet is powerful enough to contribute to the defense of the city while simultaneously clearing the blockade. The pacing remained sound and the gameplay enjoyable despite this caveat, although in a future update the designer may want to address it somehow.

Total: 48/50

My comments:

THE HORNS OF HATTIN - Alkhalim

Playability: 8
Creativity, story & instructions: 7
Map design: 6
Balance: 7

= 28/50

This was quite a bit of fun with its two-front warfare and sneak attacks behind enemy lines, albeit a bit too conventional to warrant a very high score. The map looked pretty good and was well suited for the action, forcing both the enemy and you as a player into certain corridors for the attacks. A bit in the hard side, it would have been nice if the allied players had some form of AI, or if you had the option of taking control of their units. The occasional addition of elite Turcopole troops was a welcome addition to even out the challenge.

The pregame story was pretty barebones and contained a number of spelling and grammar issues. There were also a couple of potential bugs and mistakes. The caravan guards attacked my base before I ever tried to attack the caravans, and once I did attack the caravans the security was pretty lax. The case was even worse for Saladin’s resource caches, which were completely undefended. A few more tidbits: there were occasional random chats of “P9 – 1 stone” appearing, a remnant from the designing process that should have been cleaned out; the various big towers are still called “Sea Fortifications”, which seemed strange as we were in the middle of the desert.

Overall quite fun, but not a top contender.


THE SIEGE OF CAFFA - Bassi

Playability: 13
Creativity, story & instructions: 12
Map design: 9
Balance: 7

= 41/50


This was my favourite of the entries and the one with the most replay value. The map is both beautiful to look at and well laid out strategically for the gameplay, with multiple uncontrived bottlenecks. The author also adds in clear options for the player in the form of gold mines and a relic on neighbouring islands, just revealing them without drawing much attention to them, which is a nice touch.

The story is simple, but still developed enough that you can get into the setting easily. The pregame cut-scene, however short, adds a final touch of atmosphere. A few sound effects also add to the atmosphere, but it would have benefitted even more from a piece of music or two.

The first time I played I found the scenario to be a bit on the hard side, and I had to struggle furiously to win. The second time, however, it was almost a walk in the park. Once I knew what had to be done in the early game to secure the base (the best places to wall, researching galleon immediately and starting to pump them out, and training a few extra villagers), a lot of the challenge evaporated. While there were still obstacles to overcome, and I had to micromanage my troops a bit and repair and rebuild my defences, on the whole it was a tad too easy. I could easily have won the final battle even without the reinforcements.

Another issue was that the Mongols didn’t seem to stop making trebuchets at all after the lumbercamps were destroyed. If you wait until the mid- to late game to complete this mission, as I did the first time around, the whole expedition into the Tartar camp is for nothing.

Despite these issues I still liked the scenario a lot, and I might try it again on the highest difficulty level!


LAST STAND AT ORKNEY - Al_Kharn the Great

Playability: 9
Creativity, story & instructions: 12
Map design: 7
Balance: 4

= 32/50

While it doesn’t get the second highest score, this was my second favourite of the entries. I really liked the idea of such a small scale battle, hopping between islands, the locals scrambling to defend their simple homes from invaders.

First some of the highlights. The story is simple but effective, and the use of a pregame cut-scene and spoken dialogue were very nice touches. The map design is good, if a bit plain in places. The gameplay is good, particularly in the beginning as you make your way around the archipelago looking for relics and converting Viking soldiers. Once you figure out the winning strategy, however, any challenge goes out the window.

What I did was to hole up on the easternmost island, at first with just my monk and a couple soldiers. It was easy to corner the disembarking Vikings and kill them off with archers from atop the cliff, while my monk (and later the missionary) converted enemy soldiers and incrementally grew my forces. Because the Vikings never stopped attacking this part of the map, it became very easy to just keep this going, while a single villagers walled up the monastery. Once I had a couple towers up and barely a handful of galleys out, the transports didn’t even have time to land before they were sunk. Had the attacks been sporadic, spread out more among the monasteries, or if the enemy attacked with more varied units, or if the landing place had been wider, it would have added a lot to the challenge. As it stands, it is far too easy to just turtle up. I barely had to touch anything for the last 20 minutes or so of the game and I still won easily.

One final quibble: the “Nordic Swordsman” clearly wields an axe… (this might not be a fault of the author’s, though, I’ve played too little with the DLCs to know, so this doesn’t affect the score!)


ANAGEOS - Great Artiste

Playability: 11
Creativity, story & instructions: 11
Map design: 7
Balance: 8

= 37/50

The best part of this scenario is the battle on the ship. While not entirely unprecedented (Jatayu’s MGC winner from 2007, “Death on the Nile”, has a similar concept), this is the best rendition of the idea I have seen. This is also the most well balanced of the three battles in the scenario, requiring you to constantly be on your toes and restart a couple times, but never out of frustration.

The second battle, the one on the beach, is much, much easier, while the final battle is a tad on the hard side. Overall, though, it is a lot of fun. What brings it down is primarily the story. The pregame texts contain numerous spelling and grammar mistakes, enough to impact the enjoyableness of the scenario. It would also have been better to have the story here more clearly tied into the start of the scenario; as it stands it described the war in general, but doesn’t say much at all about the single ship we will be following in the actual gameplay. Likewise, the ending is very abrupt.

Overall, the story is the only major downside of an otherwise creative and enjoyable scenario.


RELIQUARY - BF_Tanks

Playability: 6
Creativity, story & instructions: 10
Map design: 6
Balance: 4

= 26/50

Full disclosure: I don’t think this scenario worked the way it was supposed to. Looking through the triggerwork I found several events that never fired for me while playing (such as the Baskerville Hound being respawned). This was despite me having tried the scenario with two different versions of the UserPatch and reinstalling WololoKingdoms after I updated the UP.

Nevertheless, the scenario was still fully playable, albeit devilishly hard.

First off, the story is very abrupt and you are thrown head first into battle even before you’ve had a chance to finish reading the starting dialogue. I quite like the concept, combining characters from a classic Arthur Conan Doyle story with Lovecraftian horror. The scenario doesn’t really capitalize in this potential however, due to the complete lack of sounds and music, which could have made this scenario really stand out. Simple things like monstrous growls from the shoggoths and some action/horror music playing would have gone a long way here.

The map design is so and so. The forest design is quite good, but the castle grounds are very plain. The town behind the castle is way to grid-like and looks like it received too little love.

The main selling point of this scenario is the gameplay mechanics, which take full advantage of the new UP effects. This allows the designer to create fantastical units, such as a Chu Ko Nu spawning militias with its missiles, without the use of data editing. From a designer's perspective it's impressive and enticing, all you want to do is experiment with the effects yourself!

Unfortunately, these effects are almost completely behind the scenes stuff, and they add little to the actual experience. The simplistic gameplay, with its constant flow of enemies towards your base, gets old pretty quickly. It’s a bit like a having a microwave powered by a tiny nuclear fusion reactor: it’s fantastic that it can be made, but it still just heats up your leftovers.

This would probably have worked better as an arcade style scenario, where the goal is to hold out as long as possible and earn as a high a kill count as possible. As it is, that finish line of a 1000 kills was constantly far in the distance. After many tries I managed to just get to 700 kills, but at that point my base was overwhelmed by speed-of-light wolves, samurais and shoggoths.

In the end, this is a powerful showcase of the new UP effects, but in terms of actual gameplay it’s pretty run of the mill.


SNIPER – THE DEAD END - HELLKNIGHT61

Playability: 2
Creativity, story & instructions: 3
Map design: 3
Balance: 1

= 9/50

At first glance my scores probably look very harsh. They are not. The author has put a lot of effort into this scenario, but it is unfortunately very, very frustrating to play, and constantly unfair to the player.

In short, you are a badass sniper trapped in a dead end (which for some reason doesn’t look like a dead end at all, but rather a pretty spacious and open forest). You hole up in a tiny base and then have to fight off anyone who comes at you.

To start with the positive. The designer has improved his map design skills from his previous work, and he clearly shows that he is capable of creating somewhat intricate trigger systems.

Unfortunately, each one of these systems is actively frustrating to play through. Over and over again you are supposed to take aim and judge whether you should fire at the enemies coming at you at close, medium or long range. The only problem is that you are never shown where say a “medium range” shot will land (which could have easily been marked with a flag or something), so you have to figure it out through trial and error. If you miss even a single shot, it’s game over. And even when a hit looks like its square in the middle of the enemy soldier, you will miss half of the time. (It literally took me 30+ tries to beat the second enemy just because of this). Repeat this a hundred times and you have the gameplay of this scenario.

The story is nearly incomprehensible. For some reason our hero hides right next to a weapons salesman, who never flinches despite the whole place being blasted to smithereens, and who, for some reason, has to explain to this badass sniper that he now has to defend himself. I literally gave up on trying to understand the story 2 minutes into the game, when both the main character and the salesman started repeating the same lines over and over: “This is a dead end, you are stuck here. Stuck in the dead end. This is a dead end that is dead because you are stuck. Here. In the dead end…”

Every single thing also has to be done instantaneously. If you stop for as much as a second to try to read the new instructions, you are doomed to fail your next task. At one point your outpost explodes out of freaking nowhere, and unless you taunt “1” the very next second, you die. Miss a single shot and you won’t have enough ammo later in the game, meaning that every single shot has to be a hit or you’re screwed.

Then there are a hundred smaller problems. There is far too much clutter on the map in the form of birds, boars and bushes. The main character is sometimes referred to as Hawkeye, and sometimes by another name. There is a soundtrack, which is a plus, but it sounds like a soundtrack from a crappy horror film, which doesn’t really fit the gameplay. The constant alarm sounds only adds more to the annoyance.

I did not finish this scenario. I gave up at the second wave of spawning enemies, when my ammo suddenly ran out with no end to the spawns in sight. Having restarted the scenario nearly 100 times by this point, I quit out of sheer frustration.

All that said, this scenario is not without quality. As I said in the beginning, the designer does show some skill when it comes to creating trigger systems. They are, however, not user-friendly, as you either have to know the scenario inside and out (i.e. you need to BE the designer), or get through it through trial and error, to have any chance of succeeding.

My advice to the author is to focus on trying to make the gameplay feel intuitive. Give the player hints, don’t expect them to either know the map already, or force them to restart a hundred times. I spent nearly an hour on this scenario. If I hadn’t been a judge, if I had just downloaded this from the Blacksmith expecting a fun experience, I would’ve given up on it in less than five minutes.

Thanks a lot for judging and hosting this contest, Leif, Basse, and Sam!

Thanks for hosting and judging and congratulations to Bassi!

The scenarios are now up on the Blacksmith. FYI for those planning to play these, it took a while for me to find Hellknight's entry because it was under the campaigns section, instead of the scenario section of the Blacksmith.

It is in the campaign section due to containing 2 different scenarios.

[This message has been edited by HELLKNIGHT61 (edited 09-07-2018 @ 02:45 AM).]

Thanks for the comments, LB and Sam. I hope Leif's comments come soon too and I'm surprised that I placed 4th, not somewhere lower.

My entry was somewhat rushed, as I joined the contest fairly late and I had some issues with the map that I simply didn't have time to fix (Such as the issue Lord Basse pointed out, and I also had issues with crashes caused by tributing resources to AIs that causes memory overflows, something Scripter had to help me with in order to resolve.).

I had some bigger plans for a more elaborate objective and better pacing, with the boss fights being more challenging than just "A buffed unit wanders in" -- Some of this is actually in place, loosely: You can trigger the first boss fight prematurely by rushing forward with your forces, as well as prematurely interupt the Chu-Ko-Nu boss' walk and cause that fight to begin prematurely. Essentially, I was going for a flexible pacing determined by how confident the player was, rewarding them for splitting their focus between exploration and defence, so that they could "rush ahead" in a way. I also intended to have an entire section following the destruction of the Reliquary where you had a final chanceat victory, with the enemy needing to physically transport the relic off-map with killable monks.

Fortunately, even with the thrown in "1000 kills" objectives and having to trim off some of the results from losing particular player characters (I had intended for each hero to have unique effects when they were killed, with the effects changing depending on how many kills had been gained so that if you lost a hero early, it was more punishing than if you lost them later, such as gaining buffs or accidentally causing premature Shoggoth spawns, with one character able to return repeatedly so long as the allied priest was alive), the map turned out alright. As a return to designing, I think I did well (If I do say so myself :P)

As for the map design, the Town behind the castle was given much less attention than the outer areas where I was trying to go for a balance of space to use and pretty looks that don't over-do it on detail.

Overall I'm quite happy with the comments so far, and I anticipate hearing from Leif.

Congratulations to Bassi and thank you to the hosts.

I'm somehow suprised I ended on the podium. After reading the comments I'm surely going to revisit a few spots before finally uploading the file to both Blacksmith and Workshop.

I'd ask for some aditional thoughts in terms of Sam's comment

although it did feel somewhat linear and scripted, and lacking immersion at brief points.

if you wouldn't mind

I'll also spellcheck all the text again :/


2nd contest in 2018 anyone?

[This message has been edited by Great_Artiste (edited 09-01-2018 @ 10:46 AM).]

Hockeysam's scores....what a softie I guess it could be excused as relative scoring though

One final quibble: the “Nordic Swordsman” clearly wields an axe…

Thats a unit added by HD Edition somewhere along the line;unless the player adds some looping rename triggers that axeman is indeed called a swordsman.

Looking forward to playing these entries today. I avoided reading comments on Bassi's to go in blind

Congratulations, Bassi!

Quoted from Great_Artiste:

I'd ask for some aditional thoughts in terms of Sam's comment

Admittedly, that comment references an inherent characteristic of the particular sector of the FF genre that the scenario falls into more so than the scenario itself. Scenarios that consist of a string of set-piece defense missions within a limited area tend to be rather linear and straightforward, and it is difficult to ensure that there is more than one optimal strategy to attain victory. (I know this from experience, having aborted a bygone project a while back that was in a similar vein.)

As an example, the portion on the ship (which was quite entertaining, creative, and overall well done, by the way) nevertheless had rather little strategic depth. Plonk ranged units on stand ground, melee units on defensive stance (and all out of range of enemy flamethrowers) and watch enemy units die while you focus your mortar (cannon galleon) on the enemy mast supports. There was an option to destroy an oil cache to end the flamethrower attacks, but by no means was this necessary, and it is arguably a detrimental course of action; the flamethrowers posed no threat anyway if you kept your units out of their range, while firing on the oil cache instead of the masts wasted precious time during which more waves of enemy soldiers would be whittling away at your limited forces.

The other stages followed a similar formula - plonk your units in place and set their stance so that they hold their position while micromanaging your most powerful units (bombard cannons) to fire on important enemy targets. Not that this is a bad thing, and it certainly represents a higher level of strategic depth than many other scenarios on the Blacksmith, but it nevertheless contributed to that feeling of being linear and streamlined. Some variation in the composition of the enemy forces to keep the player on their toes and require them to change their strategy up here and there would have gone a long way.

Don't get me wrong, it was definitely one of the better scenarios of this style that I've played, and certainly far better than my aforementioned abandoned project in the similar vein. When I said:

although it did feel somewhat linear and scripted, and lacking immersion at brief points

I meant that if I played it again, I would essentially expect the same playing experience that is already shared by each stage of the scenario, and see no reason at all to alter my strategy, barring the desire to deliberately make poorer choices to see if I could do so and still achieve victory. The linear nature of the gameplay is the main source of the lack of immersion that I mentioned, since the player begins to feel detached when they are essentially going through the same motions with little or no need for strategic variation.


Some more examples of ways to shake things up and provide additional strategic depth:

- The castle construction stage in 'Storm on the Steppe,' where a system randomizes the order of the attacks on your position from different directions. This is an extremely minor nuance, but nevertheless assures that the player has to remain vigilant and adaptive, as there are 24 (4 x 3 x 2 x 1) possible sequences of raids.

- Julius once gave an extremely simple example of a way to shake up a FF battle - at a certain (randomized for greater impact) point in the battle, enemy skirmishers attack from the rear and threaten your precious archers. This requires the player to be alert and do more than just sit an army in place ES-Agincourt style and watch enemy troops die.

- In a B&D, you can have the enemy AI change their troop composition based on what the player is producing. If you make pikes to counter enemy knights, they add swordsmen or archers. If you add ranged units of your own, they produce mangonels, skirmishers, or cavalry. Et cetera.

Thats a unit added by HD Edition somewhere along the line;unless the player adds some looping rename triggers that axeman is indeed called a swordsman.

The original unit graphic was Dave3377's Round Shield Longswordsman, which was a long swordsman with the elite skirmisher shield copy-pasted on it. Some time ago it was replaced by a graphic of a Norse axeman that one of our artists modeled. The language string entry indeed needs an update

[This message has been edited by HockeySam18 (edited 09-01-2018 @ 11:58 AM).]

(which was quite entertaining, creative, and overall well done, by the way)

Thank you

There was an option to destroy an oil cache to end the flamethrower attacks, but by no means was this necessary, and it is arguably a detrimental course of action; the flamethrowers posed no threat anyway if you kept your units out of their range, while firing on the oil cache instead of the masts wasted precious time during which more waves of enemy soldiers would be whittling away at your limited forces.

I might extend flamethrower's range to reach a bit further.

I had a plan to have extra units drop behind your lines (the ship battle), but the problems with chance triggers and a bit of laziness did their job and I focused on more important things

For my entry, the only really "interesting" aspect of the gameplay would be how all the unit spawns are randomized.

Hellknight61 - Sniper - A Dead End

Playability: 3
Creativity, story & instructions: 5
Map design: 3
Balance: 3
= 14/50

This scenario is essentially a sharpshooter game imported into AoK with sadly less than stellar results. It overall suffers from a high difficulty and lack of guidance to the player on how to beat the scenario. The player is expected to enter taunts to shoot at enemies when a unit walks over a certain tile. Any misses often spell immediate defeat. So, I found myself saving the game after I successfully killed each enemy that came by, because I would miss 3/4 times until I figured out exactly when to shoot. In addition, events such as the outpost randomly exploding with a 1 second warning means that you once again have to restart. This meant that I saved the game after almost every single incremental progress I made, totaling to probably over 50 save points. I believe this is the author's expectation, but it doesn't lead to fun gameplay.

I actually was able to complete this scenario but not without much frustration. At the beginning, the author tries to create an ambiance of suspense with sound effects and units walking to and fro, but it really just came off confusing because the player doesn't know if they're supposed to control any units. It took me a while to figure out it was just a cutscene. Then, in order to figure out the gameplay, I had to play one of the author's older scenarios with similar gameplay to learn the game mechanics, as the author suggests in the Hints section, just so that I felt like I could understand what was going on.

The map design is adequate but rather chaotic. It almost looks like a rough series of checkerboards of different terrains. Also, I found the sound effects annoying, mostly because of their high volume. I had the Sound volume in the game set to the lowest possible volume without muting the game just so that the sounds didn't bother me.

To improve the scenario, I'd suggest restructuring the scenario to allow a miss or two instead of immediately causing the player to be defeated. In addition, guiding the player smoothly through the mechanics of the game by starting off easy with a lot of instructions would help quite a bit. The idea has promise. The implementation just isn't fun.

Alkhalim - Horns of Hattin

Playability: 8
Creativity, story & instructions: 8
Map design: 6
Balance: 5
= 27/50

This scenario is a rather fun race against the clock although it's a bit straight forward. There's not too many true strategic decisions that can be made, which lowers the enjoyability.

This scenario covers the events from the 3rd Saladin scenario but from the Crusader's perspective. The basic objective is to outlast Saladin's forces until the water in your aqueducts run out. Presumably, the player wins once the water runs out, but as the other judges pointed out, this doesn't seem to happen.

To add to the gameplay, you get extra resources by raiding trade carts, and you're incentivized to keep the various Crusader camps alive by the fact that they stop giving you units and giving you resources when they're destroyed. You can also raid some trade workshops in Saladin's camp for extra gold. In the end, these additions didn't affect the gameplay very much. Saladin's forces attacked almost contantly after 1/4 of the game was through, making it reckless to raid the trade route, and the destruction of the different Crusader camps became inevitable after a certain point since the camps are between you and the Saracens.

Designing terrain for the desert is rather difficult, and the scenario does a decent job. The trade route is just a strip of broken road, and breaking it up a bit more might have worked well.

I found this scenario a bit harder than it should be. I had to switch to Standard difficulty to make it to the point when the aqueducts ran out. Also, the gameplay awkwardly changes once you're forced to retreat and hold out at your camp because your defensive towers (which gain increasing attack along with your surviving soldiers over time) have ridiculous amounts of attack. The final defense lasted for quite a while, almost making a retreat back to your final base and letting your allies turn into ruin a viable strategy. Making the scenario slightly easier and not increasing the attack of the towers over time would have probably made for a more balanced experience.

Great_Artiste - Anageos (1494)

Playability: 7
Creativity, story & instructions: 10
Map design: 6
Balance: 6
= 29/50

This scenario is a rather fun recreation of what seems like a historical sea and land battle. It includes a series of battles where your goal is to outlast the enemy for a certain period of time. Parts of the gameplay are unique, but each section is a little bit of "rinse and repeat" with a couple decent cutscenes, probably the most developed cutscenes out of all the entries.

The scenario starts off quite well with a satisfying depiction of a ship boarding party battle. It looked fantastic, and it was rather fun. Like other judges said, I found it easiest to just stay out of range of the flamethrowers and let my soldiers hold off the enemies.

The second battle is rather small and underwhelming where the player attempts to hold off soldiers landing at the beach. As long as your bombard cannon kills off the flamethrowers, you're good. The final two battles are a defense of a fortified base, first at the walls and then at the keep. Each of the battles on land felt mostly the same, and they felt broken up artificially by cutscenes. However, the battles themselves are well designed and engaging. They lack a bit in strategy, mostly using your cannons to fire down flamethrowers.

There wasn't much map to design with since it was mostly water and you never control ships, but the parts of the map that were visible were pretty well designed and pleasing to the eye.

BF_Tanks - Reliquary
Playability: 8
Creativity, story & instructions: 11
Map design: 6
Balance: 5
= 30/50

The scenario consists of defending a fort from hordes of enemies. What makes it unique is that the enemy has access to a spellbook that casts some unique enemies in your direction, such as speedy wolves and a chu ko nu hero whose projectiles are militia. It shows the possibilities of the Userpatch up-effects pretty well. Where the scenario falls is the high difficulty level and the bland gameplay. On the easiest difficulty the closest I came to beating the scenario was about 100 kills away. Since the unit generation is done for you automatically, the only things you have control over are the battle tactics of your soldiers and when you let your gate be overtaken. Killing the chu ko nu without being overrun by militia was pretty difficult.

That being said, the atmosphere was pretty good. The map design was lush and decently well designed, although the player never spends much time looking at the map. The hints suggest exploring the map, but I couldn't find any benefits to do so. Maybe I just didn't activate some triggers properly.

Overall, it's a pretty good entry that will probably stand out from others in the Blacksmith for its novelty.

Al_Kharn the Great - Last Stand at Orkney

Playability: 10
Creativity, story & instructions: 11
Map design: 8
Balance: 6
= 35/50

I liked this entry. I likely have a bias towards gameplay with limited populations and a Dark Age setting, perhaps out of nostalgia for the learning campaign.

Anyway, this scenario is a defense of the Orkney islanders (Celts) against Viking raiders. The goal is to gather all three relics as fast as possible and achieve a standard relic victory while keeping your monasteries alive.

I found that the level of difficulty will vary widely depending on how quickly you find and gather all the relics. After figuring out where the relics usually spawned, I learned to gather them up quickly because the strength of the enemy grows as the scenario goes on, increasing the number of raiders and constructing longboats. The scenario had a good mix of land combat and naval combat, requiring transporting units across several islands.

This scenario probably has the most replayability because the locations of the Viking attacks and the location of a hidden hero changes every game. The instructions said the location of relics changed each game, but I didn't find this to be the case.

The map design is quite good, matching the feel of the area. The design is open enough to allow for good B&D gameplay but usually not too bland. Some of the islands did feel rather flat without much on them at all. Props for making the islands rather geographically accurate.

Bassi - The Siege of Caffa

Playability: 12
Creativity, story & instructions: 9
Map design: 8
Balance: 7
= 36/50

This scenario sets the Italian defenders of Caffa against Mongol invaders. The player is attacked from land and sea from multiple enemies. This scenario felt the biggest in scope and immersion, and that definitely added to the enjoyment. The land attacks came from two different sides with large enough numbers that the player can't just camp a whole bunch of soldiers at both sides and let each wave of AI soldiers get slaughtered by arrows. The player is limited with resources, forcing the player to try to reach out into enemy territory to gather wood. In addition, the player is attacked by sea, forcing the player to devote some of their precious resources to maintaining a navy.

The player is also presented with options: first, clearing the sea of enemy Sea Towers to bring in reinforcements and second, destroying the blue player's lumber camps. The second objective is supposed to stop enemy trebuchets from coming, but this didn't seem to work. However, it helped eliminate an enemy and free up wood resources to gather. The reinforcements were definitely a good boost, but they didn't make your army invincible either.

The map design was excellent with good terrain mixing and pleasing the eye. One downside is that it looks like some objects such as trees and bushes were placed off-grid. This sometimes made it very difficult to use those objects in your walls which was a little frustrating.

Overall, an excellent scenario and a worthy winner.

Edited...

[This message has been edited by HELLKNIGHT61 (edited 09-08-2018 @ 09:41 AM).]

Thanks again holding this contest and for the chance to participate here.
It was a shame that I wasn’t able to work on my scenario for a longer time, since the mentioned bugs/lacking visual design/ai allies etc would have been easy to fix with a few more days of work. This was the first time I really tinkered around a lot with ai, so I was glad that it ran into roughly the right direction at least... 11 Also no wonky voiceacting this Time for me which was kinda sad, will probably do some for the reworked map.

The creativity of the other contendants is really astonishing, maybe I wasn‘t thinking broadly enough about what „Defend the Spot“ can potentially be..

Nonetheless this was an interesting experience to create a scenario kind of bootcamp-style with a fixed deadline and the result was at least halfway decent (and even playable), which makes me happy. Looking forward to the next contest, where I hopefully will be able to live up to my earlier works.

@Leif:

The benefits to exploring the map in Reliquary are to find some side "bosses" that, when killed, provide buffs in some form to your characters and soldiers -- Totally optional, but can make the game a lot easier. The armor buff from killing the boss in the mines for example is very useful. Sorry to hear you found it difficult! I actually worried it was too easy - But as the designer I guess I just knew exactly how to play it out.

[This message has been edited by BF_Tanks (edited 09-02-2018 @ 10:35 AM).]

Ah, cool. I'm also pretty sure I wasn't playing with the most optimal strategy. Next time I'd probably try to defend the area around the gate. I was allowing them to come within range of the castle, but that allowed them to flood inside the base.

Also, at some point was the player supposed to get access to stronger units? That's what I inferred by looking at the randomizer on the left side of the map.

Yes, but not implemented. There were going to be "Reliquary Guards" that I hadn't entirely decided what stage they'd show up, which were to be your best soldiers. However, for reasons I didn't put them into play;

I felt the map was already easy enough. I was kinda rushing to get it finished by the end, as the issues with crashes had really sapped some time off my hands, which meant I put way less time into balancing than I'd planned to. The "Reliquary Guards" were going to be your strongest units, which should be easy to see just from their unit types -- especially the Mangudai. The buffs provided by the side-bosses were enough to bump up your entire force to have "Reliquary Guard" levels of stats, too (and you can already easily cheese them once you find them)

[This message has been edited by BF_Tanks (edited 09-03-2018 @ 05:06 AM).]

Edited...

[This message has been edited by HELLKNIGHT61 (edited 09-08-2018 @ 09:40 AM).]

Congratulations to Bassi, Al Kharn, and G_A. As for the others, better luck next time.