|
|
   |
Race To Death - Rise Of Evil
|
| Author |
File Description |
| King David |
Posted on 01/22/06 @ 11:51 PM (updated 07/11/07)
| File Details |
|---|
| Ruleset: |
AoW: SM - Unofficial Patch 1.4 |
| Map Size: |
L |
| Levels: |
3 |
| Single Player?: |
Yes |
| Co-Op vs. AI?: |
Yes |
| PBEM/Hotseat?: |
Yes |
| Multiplayer Online?: |
No |
| # of Wizards: |
6 |
| # of players: |
4 |
| Skill Level: |
Advanced |
| Password Protected: |
No |
Surface Minimap:
 |
Cavern Minimap:
 |
Shadow Minimap:
 |
LATEST UPDATE: JULY 2007
For those who are familiar with the R2D world, this map will be entirely new, though the surface retains a slight resemblance to the original layout in a few ways (it's all been completely altered, however). The underground bears no resemblance whatsoever to the underground in the original R2D games. The shadow layer is used only for independent, AOW1-style dungeon crawls. The teleporters you see on the map are only used as gateways to the dungeon crawls.
The AI on this map is not limited in movement like Walker was on the original R2D maps. In Single Play testing, play seems to be quite challenging. For PBEM, this map is ideal for experienced players who enjoy spending time on their turns. I don't think two games will be alike. I would suggest beginning a game in FFA (that actually goes with the base story line) and making diplomacy decisions according to the need to collaborate in defeating the AI. Story line follows :
----------
A long time ago. Long before volcanoes forced their way through the Land's crust and spit their lava like molten blood upon the forests and rivers below. Long before the Land's populace lived in submission of the sweet and mind numbing Opium produced and disbursed by he who would come to be called "Walker".
Long before all of this tragic history comes to pass, these Lands were covered over by a delicate blanket of clean snow and ice and inhabited by a people who had over time evolved to acquire genetic predisposition to their habitat, much superior beings to their distant and low-riding cousins, the Northerling Humans.
This race of people came to be known as the Frostlings, and though they kept to themselves, it was known that they had evolved a wholesome civilization in which no brother or sister hungered or wanted, for the Frostling mindset was built around the assumption that the strongest nation must be the one that demonstrates the highest value in the sum of its parts. And so did the Frostling Nation endure, and did no other race deem it worthwhile to venture too close for much of a look.
And then one day strange red flowers began to appear, surrounded by melted snow and receding ice. It was learned that these flowers were poppies, grown naturally only in much warmer climes. They began to appear more quickly, accompanied at increasing rate by other strange new grasses and vegetation, followed by creatures and peoples the likes of which had not been until then witnessed by Frostling eye.
As the snow melted and receded, the citizens of the Frostling Nation entered into panic, packing their valuables and scattering in a chase to pursue the rapidly diminishing winter habitat. Eventually, a lone hero by the name of Bytor emerged and organized the scattered remnants of the Frostling Nation. He herded them all to Cold Mountain, the only place left that offered the habitat necessary to the Frostling peoples. The Frostling Citizens banded together and, once organized, nominated Bytor as their official Leader.
And then Bytor learned the horrible secret upon which hung the remaining winterlands inhabitable by his people. He was visited by a ghost in a nightmare who showed him that the Snows had not melted naturally. The Ghost showed Bytor many other things that he had not known, and before the sun had arisen, the Ghost had proffered Bytor an option. Seeing it as the only means to preserving what little remained of the Frostling Nation, and with the hope of restoring at least a part of that which had been lost, Bytor accepted the offer and Sold His Soul.
How does it all turn out? Yawnnn....I can't recall.... Even as I type these words, the pen slips from my fingertips and my eyes close in exhaustion. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to finish the story, or perhaps by then you will have figured it out how it ends for yourself.
Enjoy,
KD |
| Pages: [1] 2 3 » Last » | | Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
|---|
| Fubarno |
Posted on 01/24/06 @ 05:20 AM
The 'dungeon' levels are a cool addition.
It doesn't look too easy with quite a few ai troops making their way towards me at the moment, my troops falling back after aggressivly advancing with some success. Made peace with the elves.
|
| takolin |
Posted on 01/27/06 @ 12:31 PM
I started as halfings. Gold was runningd low.
Within a few turns I was no more. AI attacked me at my tower while my wizard was there with a few troops.
I'll probalyy start again one of these days.
Do you have any tips? |
King David
File Author |
Posted on 01/27/06 @ 01:59 PM
The map is definately difficult, but I have been making good headway as the Elves. I've tested the first few days from each position (as well as all the later-game events by "jumping" to that point). Each position plays similarly, so I am confident that each of the four playable Wizards can win.
The map does NOT play like a simple RMG scenario, where a player can quickly build a tough army and overrun the incompetent AI. On this map, the AI is very powerful, but you can defeat it with good strategy.
Some tips:
1) Don't worry about building up your towns at the beginning. Use them to generate income and send your heros out to capture resources and other towns. Use troops with dominate, seduce and resurrect to recruit new help. This is a very important part of the game. I have resurrected a very tough AI hero, as well as a Cyclops. There is a penalty to recruiting those units - they will have terrible morale, so you'll have to keep them in a stack that can hold onto them. This is actually part of the design of the map. You have to choose between spreading out, or keeping many units together to hold onto rebelling power hitters.
2) Near each starting city, there is a fortress in which you can free a nice hero and stack of helpful troops. You may even be able to dominate, seduce or resurrect a couple of defenders. This extra stack is very important to your early game expansion.
3) Go on the offensive right away. Make sure that any resource capturing you do is compatible with larger goals of killing Bytor's first stacks. The earlier you take out his heros, the better, because they only get stronger as time goes on.
I guess those are the first things that come to mind. Like I say, this map is meant to provide a better challenge than what the RMG is capable of, and it requires a good bit of strategic thinking and use of unit abilities. I think that is something that is missing from many maps, and it is one of the things I tried to accomplish with this one.
|
Swolte
Staff |
Posted on 01/27/06 @ 02:02 PM
Already having great fun with the characters!
The only thing I would hope is that he would try something else for a change! It seems to be the same familiar concept with twists!
;p
Review will most definately end up in a well deserved 5 score! |
| Fubarno |
Posted on 01/27/06 @ 11:03 PM
Thanks for the hints KD.
I'm at turn 11 on my test as the dark Elves. I didn't clear the nearbye fortress, but managed to kill the northlings, leader with many items and his tough army.
Meanwhile a bunch of Bytor's stacks and leaders came up from the south recapturing all that I had captured. I than managed to get into position to kill this 5 stack force with 4 heroes, but I'm severely weakened.
Note: I used manual combat in some of the big defensive battles which would not have gone my way in auto combat in a pbem game. So, this is one tough map.
Again, I must reiterate, the scenery of this map is alive, lush and beautiful. I'd be depressed about my own rudimentary map making skills if I wasn't so inspired. :-} |
| takolin |
Posted on 01/28/06 @ 07:31 AM
I trew in 2stacks against to fortress.
DE archers are annoying behind a wall, especialy when combined with spiders and spiderqueen.
I got muself another hero.
a few turns and some battles later, Bytor lost a few heroes and I resurected one of them.
Bytor weakend a bit. I lost my dwarvencity.
Walker pops up from the underground and he has a hero with psysical immunity that was near my captital.
Too bad that satyrs are so damn weak. An archer can easily kill if you attack with them.
I also had some badluck with a battle against one of bytors hero's.
He had manageble stats but somehow he defeated me. My warlord shouldn't had any problems with him while my other troops were trying to kill his companions. but alas, it wasn't supposed to be.
I had to replat some turns, but my gold income is postive now.
Great map KD. |
King David
File Author |
Posted on 01/29/06 @ 11:01 PM
It's a good point about the FC battles, and I agree in some cases. However, in the cases where I surely would have lost in FC, I was able to keep Bytor's troops from attacking me. I think that a player in PBEM should be able to outwit Bytor's tough heros and set up an attack on his or her own terms. I am up to day 17 with the Elves, and have been progressing quite nicely. I've lost a couple of heros, but have hired others and made good advances, including capturing Bytor's northenmost Tower city. I have allied with Ormahck and Per Bro (mostly to see how they are doing). Both have also made good advances, and Per Bro made a bold attack on one of Bytor's buffed draco heros and killed him.
I am interested to see how the pbem games go. I am thinking that for newer players, it might be better to set the AI at a lower level. In any case, I am hoping the players are able to get the best of most of Bytor's heros. |
| takolin |
Posted on 01/30/06 @ 11:15 AM
If you can steal on of these, life is easier.
Dumb AI will attack the dominated/seduced/... unit and not the person who did it.
FC does has it advantes, while sieging vs archers theres only on wall and it's breached quite easily.
I killed quite a few of his heros.
I'm enjoying this map.
Capturing before turn 100 if I could make more units.
Building up is slow due to technophobe. The game would be a lot easier with faster acces to several level3's.
But I have patience.
Btw the elves were killed soon. |
| rat_peddler |
Posted on 02/03/06 @ 03:11 PM
A well designed map.
Balance: 5
Keeping the two allied AIs coupled with the event of one losing it's home city helped here.
Creativity: 5
I like the limits on diplomacy and cities as it forced one to come up with a different approach. The main event was somewhat unique and somewhere the dungeons even though I only explored one of them.
Map Design: 5
Nice mix of terrain even thought I have never quiet understood trees, etc that can grow underground ;-)
Story/Instructions: 5
More story then most. Instructions were fine esp the advice on how to approach. The diplomacy situation with Baytor was a little confusing after his "defeat".
Additional Comments:
I played as the Elves. I got Cold Mountain by about turn 35 or so. The other AIs were defeated and the Frostlings got Walker shortly after I retook Cold Mountain a second time. |
| The_Stranger |
Posted on 02/07/06 @ 01:35 AM
But prettiness ain't all this little number has going for it. The gameplay is hard, hurray! With all the complaints about the "stupid," "easy" ai, we should be thankful when a map comes along where the computer players poise a challenge, actually attacking when they should, moving to steal crucial resources, exploring the map with what seems like purpose rather than wandering around desultorily in coal-brained hordes. I haven't checked the events in the editor yet, but I imagine KD must have used events and specific ai settings for some computer units. Great work. I've managed to lose as three out of the four playable wizards so far :D
The writing is, as expected excellent. A homey, grandpappy sort of intro leads to nice individual instructions for each player. I expected that KD might have gotten carried away and was planning to defeat me with event messages rather than the dubious ai, but after turn one they are rare. And, as I mentioned, the quality of the writing is good and events provide useful information.
The map seems balanced in that each player encounters equal difficulty at the start. I haven't played long enough as each one to know what things will be like in the later game, nor have I had enough dealings with old Walker to know how much of a factor he will be. I suppose this means I'll have to play a bit more. Let that be my little cross, then....
|
| Pages: [1] 2 3 » Last » |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 4.8 | | Breakdown |
|---|
| Playability | 4.9 | | Balance | 4.5 | | Creativity | 4.9 | | Map Design | 4.9 | | Story/Instructions | 4.7 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 6,542 |
| Favorites: [] | 2 |
| Size: | 455.26 KB |
| Added: | 01/22/06 |
| Updated: | 07/11/07 |
|
