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| Author |
File Description |
| nyarlathotep |
Posted on 12/26/09 @ 11:20 AM (updated 04/21/13)
| File Details |
|---|
| Ruleset: |
AoW: SM - Unofficial Patch 1.4 |
| Map Size: |
L |
| Levels: |
2 |
| Single Player?: |
No |
| Co-Op vs. AI?: |
Yes |
| PBEM/Hotseat?: |
Yes |
| Multiplayer Online?: |
Yes |
| # of Wizards: |
5 |
| # of players: |
4 |
| Skill Level: |
Any (depends on AI difficulty setting) |
| Password Protected: |
No |
Surface Minimap:
 |
Cavern Minimap:
 |
Exodus, invasion, colonisation, lust to conquer... Every nation knows it. Now it is time again for you to procure yourself a place in this archipelago.
But not everything goes as planned. Your first colony doesn't grow, your troops are patheticly weak, and to top things up, the elves are trying to protect their homelands. And if that wouldn't be enough, your sworn enemy has been spotted at the other side!
Play as Undead, Archon, Draconian or Shadow Demon. Form alliances with other mages. Conquer better looking cities. Sail the seven seas and reap their wonders. Explore the underground. But don't let yourself be transformed into one of the critters their next lunch!
A dedicated SP version might follow, but that will take some more time. It is playable in SP, but only the central AI might be making your life a bit difficult, so multiplay is dearly recommended.
18/01/10 update contains more boats, a special - but expensive- trainingcamp, a few more events and some event corrections.
25/01/10 update contains some balancing corrections and a bit of cosmetic surgery.
02/02/10 update contains balancing corrections, event corrections, a few more messages and a tiny bit of extra painting.
31/10/10 update contains a few more events and 3 more recruitmentsites on the Elven lands.
10/11/10 update contains more event corrections.
11/02/11 update contains balance & terrain corrections
16/03/11 update contains balance corrections and ancestral grounds for every player
04/05/11 update contains win-condition reminder (as a sign near your base) & balance corrections.
21/04/13 update contains now 2 maps, one where you win because of scripted win-condition events, the other has no scripted win-condition events.
That one is called All out War (Ye_of_Little_Faith_1_8_AoW.ahm) and on this map you battle it out until the bitter end. One does still get a certain bonus if you would fulfill the original scenario's win condition.
The original scenario also has received some balance fixes:
1) Less available Saints for the Archons
2) Every side has to bring its proof to its capital, so that every side has the same difficulty (and giving the other side a chance to backstab their enemy) |
| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
|---|
RogerRabid
(id: Roger the Rampant) |
Posted on 01/09/10 @ 12:34 PM
This plays very differently to maps that I have played before. Whereas many maps restrict some buildings in some towns, this one has a blanket ban on Builders Hall, Siege Workshop, War Hall, Champions Hall, Racial Buildings and Teleportation Gates, as well as saying no to Build Outposts, City Growth and Item Teleportation. Your capital is an outpost, so essentially you can’t build any units in your capital, nor can you build any shrines. This takes away a lot of micro-management, which some people might like and some might not.
You can’t build units in your capital, nor can you build boats, you can’t build a wall or a tower guard, and you are on a series of islands. There is one boat available to recruit but this will probably die fairly quickly, as there are various water-borne units that are set to guard area. I decided to keep my undead wiz at home alone, and send everyone else out claiming resources. I would probably have died to an aggressive stack of lizards and crocodiles that came over the water to attack my capital but, even though I was undead, all the stack except for the turtle ballistas and turtle catapults offered to join me. A lucky escape!
I played it single-player and of course this map is not designed to be played that way, but I didn’t contact any other wizards until about day 60, and the attack on my capital was the only scary moment in all that time.
Balance: I can’t really comment, as I played it single-player.
Creativity:
This is a very intelligent map, it is quite different to other maps that I have played, it has been made with a good sense of humour and it has clearly been properly play-tested. Custom wizards and custom heroes are nice, and a few custom items, although it would have been nice if we had custom wizard messages, too. I would have liked my initial hero to be combined in the wizard stack, but again that is just a minor detail.
Map Design:
I really like the style on the surface, but the painting of the caverns I found quite boring, especially bearing in mind what an enormous range of tiles are available to use in the caverns. Fortunately the playability of the caverns was much more interesting than the artwork underground, with some special UPatch 1.4 units being used, and plenty of structures to explore. This map definitely needs more boats available, either in recruitment structures or by putting shipyards into some outposts that are adjacent to water (by using SEM). I would also like to see even more UPatch 1.4 units used.
Story/Instructions:
Apart from the minor annoyance of having always with two Ls, and it being a word that seems very popular with this mapmaker, overall the story served a purpose. Story is not generally considered to be overly important in multiplayer games, anyway.
Additional Comments:
Whereas I tend to make maps where the town structures are not restricted but the gold and mana tend to be in fairly short supply, this map works completely differently. There is an abundance of income structures, but nothing to spend it on! So when I saw a furnace with strong defenders in the caverns, I left it because I had so much income already that I just didn’t need it, and it wasn’t worth risking my heroes. Heroes and summoned units become much more important when you can’t build units, and very sensibly the mapmaker has restricted the maximum number of heroes per player to 3. Obviously when I am playing SP and one of my heroes dies from a lucky shot, I can simply reload autosave. People playing email games won’t have that same luxury, and that might become a little frustrating for them.
This is a very unusual map, so I would be interested to know what other people think of it. |
| rat_peddler |
Posted on 01/21/10 @ 10:17 PM
The map plays fine as a treasure hunt and the layout and apporach is unique.
Balance: 4
Main Elf AI is fine as it has advantage of more advanced units.
Creativity: 4
Interesting approach to constraining units and development.
Map Design: 4
Surface is varied and interesting. Underground is a litte less developed.
Story/Instructions: 4
More then many.
Additional Comments:
Even though not marked a single player map it is still interesting because it is rather unique. The other AI play holders aren't much of an issue, but the Elfs do take some time to conquer. |
| TravisII |
Posted on 05/04/11 @ 08:08 PM
Playability: 5
Hmm well the map is very playable :-P. I played a multiplayer game (as Khonzar Barhi) with 3 others (mapmaker included). I think each of us had our ups and downs throughout the game, but always managed to find a way. There are tons of ways to accumulate gold, and with the event-scripted-recruit-site near home, you always have something good to spend your money on if regular recruit sites don't contain what you want. I was at a point where I must have had about 10 units left after some major losses against Lady Indigo. Still I managed to make a huge comeback, ultimately winning the game.
Balance: 4.5
In the version I played, I wouldn't say it was balanced. Lady Indigo was a Peace Keeper who could get Saints easily. With no restrictions on who/what you can resurrect, Lady Indigo could become insanely powerful. With the closest player to her (Khonzar Barhi, Anarchist) it made it quite hard to overcome her. I wouldn't have, had I not gotten lucky by using ships to run straight to her Wizard's Tower and assassinate her. This is of course all changed in the latest version, where Lady Indigo will be an Anarchist. As for the Undead and Draconians, I can't say much as I didn't get to have too much interaction with them. With the changes that have been made, or will be made, I give Balance a 4/5. *With recent changes, I would give it a 4.5/5 and since I can't do that, I'll round it up to 5 ;-)*
Creativity: 5
Map is creative, for sure. To do good, you must do good in combat as you will see a lot of that. This makes it very fun as each turn you can expect at least 1 nail-biting battle. Of course, this wouldn't be ideal to every player, but for me, I enjoyed it. 5/5.
Map Design: 5
I think there are some great looking areas in the map. Basically there are many islands, each with their own look and feel. But this was the goal I believe, to keep everything balanced/similar. So I think 5/5 is just fine!
Story/Instructions: 4
It was unclear to me about a win condition until nyarlathotep said something in our PBEM about winning soon, when he wasn't even attacking me (we were last 2 human players left). I looked into the editor and sure enough. He's planning to make it a recurring event, so I give this a 4/5. Story isn't all too important in a multiplayer map.
Additional Comments:
If you're interested in reading about our PBEM, check it out here http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=25,4225,0,60[Edited on 05/04/11 @ 09:26 PM]
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nyarlathotep
File Author |
Posted on 05/02/12 @ 07:49 PM
Thank you all for playing and (maybe) enjoying this map, and a big hurray for those who took the time for rating and giving comments - they really helped :) |
 
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 4.5 | | Breakdown |
|---|
| Playability | 5.0 | | Balance | 4.5 | | Creativity | 4.5 | | Map Design | 4.5 | | Story/Instructions | 4.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 852 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 391.33 KB |
| Added: | 12/26/09 |
| Updated: | 04/21/13 |
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