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Fathers' Sins, Chapter 3; The Apogee of Evil
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| Author |
File Description |
| AZ ViTrAzhAs |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 10:32 AM (updated 08/27/08)
| File Details |
|---|
| Map Size: |
400x400 (Large) |
| Difficulty: |
Hard |
| Made with version: |
1.1 |
And the sins of the fathers shall be visited
upon the heads of the children,
even unto the third and fourth,
generation of them that hate me.
Stephen Crane
Preamble:
Time has witnessed many events, when young ones had to suffer from their own fathers' faults and misdeeds; sons and daughters needed to correct the old mistakes, glorify their families once more and expunge the old sins from everybody's memory, what was often too hard to do.
This is the last chapter of the series, previous two had a lot of drawbacks, but I hope the final project will be much better. The map contains interesting design and scripting features, which might catch your attention.
Chapter 3
The Apogee of Evil
Version: 1.2
Map size: 400x400
Map type: Stronghold Crusader invasion
Level: Very hard
Playing type:Siege-economic-invasion
Starting date: January, 1144
The giant, mountain tearing towers started faintly glinting in the cold, lifeless Sun rays, telling about the start of a new day. Perishing gusts of wind were torturing even the smallest living creatures, small sprinkles of snow told about the ferocious overnight blizzard, which left the land snow-capped, but now was finally over. A resounding, unearthly scream reverberates somewhere in the distance, making the swarm of armed warriors shiver. Darius woke up. Although the people surrounding him were already getting ready to move forward, he was lying on the thick fur (a trophy, which he had won after killing a blood thirsty beast) and gazing upon the sharp, snowy mountaintops. The view was oddly scary and hypnotizing, but Darius smiled.[...]
This is a short extract of the story, the full version can be read here and in the main .zip archive.
First of all, I want to warn every player that this is not just a simple invasion. The whole mission has four parts: Siege, economic part, invasion and the rebuilding part;
1. The siege.
Since you are playing in the role of Darius, your first mission is to recapture the Elysium, which is well guarded by your father's troops. You control a big swarm of macemen, a handful of archers and pikemen. You may use the lord as well but be careful as he might die.
Main objective: kill a precise number of enemies during 6 years. Survivors will join your army.
2. Obtaining food.
If you have read the story attentively, you will know that Darius must collect enough food in order to negotiate with the soldiers of your father's army. If you give them food, they will not attack and a small force will even help you to defend the Elysium. This part, in my opinion, is the trickiest of all, as the player can choose the food type, but this will affect the playability; every chosen food type to collect has its own scenario.
Main objective: keep the population above 200, fear factor +5 and collect one food type: meat (1000), bread (500), cheese (100), fruit (80), before the enemy invasion.
Don't be fooled by such floating numbers, collecting every type of food has its drawbacks.
3. Invasion.
After the reinforcements come to the Elysium, and food has been shared, your father marches towards the city with an enormous army of Sirions. This is the hardest part of all.
Main objective: kill all enemy units during 6 years.
4. Rebuilding
Main objective: rebuild the Elysium, keep the population above 200, fear factor +5. Duration - 1 year.
Win conditions:
No enemy and invasions left
No lions on map
Population higher than 200
Fear factor +5
Keep enclosed
These are the main win conditions in the scenario, however you have no chance to win without passing the first three parts, the rebuilding may not be needed if after the enemy invasions all of these objectives are completed.
Lose conditions:
Lord killed
No people left
Cathedral destroyed
Any enemy on map during 6 years.
As you see, everything is related to the story: Darius must defend the cathedral, where the citizens are hiding, he must also stop the invaders as fast as possible due to the empty food supplies. Please note that if any of these events are triggered at any time, you lose.
TIPS:
Always remember, speed is the most important aspect in this mission.
When you're attacking the city, try finding the best strategy, which should be the fastest and the most effective; every type of troops have their strong sides, use them.
When playing the economic part, spend the gold wisely, buy starting goods.
Make the other world suitable for food maintaining as best possible.
You can still give the food to the enemy when the Sirions attack, but you will receive no help, only a chance of winning.
Always keep your eyes on the popularity.
During the enemy attacks, be ready for both defending and attacking to clear the whole map from foes in time.
When rebuilding the city, some thinking must be used, too.
When you've recaptured Elysium, check on the lord, he might not come to the new keep, you will have to control him manually.
Save often
Playability features:
As you might have understood, this mission has a very complex scenario with logical operations "lower than", use of the win and lose timers, cede and "destroy cathedral" events, a possibility to choose one's playing style and etc. With the help of scripting, this mission tests every aspect of the player's skills - attacking a castle, defending it, running an economy, and completing everything fast enough.
The timers
The mission contains two types of lose timers: the first lose timer is the "any enemy on map" - if there's even a single enemy unit on the map during 6 years - you lose. Don't be fooled, as it actually says "time until victory", but the win event has been replaced with the lose event. The second timer will always be visible and it will let you know how much time do you have to complete the whole mission; view image As some of you might noticed the win (or should I say lose timer) is set for 72 months, when the maximum is only 60 months. With the help of the hexademical editor, I've managed to add a longer one.
The portal
As mentioned in the story, the portal leads to another world. You have to use it to obtain food, but be careful as unearthly creatures might come to your city. However you can kill them to collect meat. Rare diseases spread through the portal, luckily the Elysium has healers, however people are scared.
The impression of conquering the another world is created with the necessity to use those lands, cut trees, hunt animals, keep your soldiers there, etc.
Troop colors
The troop colors are set according to the story. You control a blue army, your father's army is green, and Sirions are deformed, strangely colored beasts (this has also been achieved with the help of the hex editor). Please notice, that if you don't share your food with your father's human army, they will also attack (green soldiers) and you will have no chance of winning.
Time
The whole mission lasts about 22 years, which isn't that long actually, but believe me you will be plenty busy.
Economy
Every aspect of running the Elysium has been tested and thought about. You have very few features you can buy/sell, not to mention constructing buildings. Since collecting the food might become rather boring, you will be plenty busy while keeping your eyes on the popularity, defending your workers from the deadly beasts, getting ready for the invasion, etc. According to the story, after Elysium has been recaptured Darius has to shelter people from other castles, when playing this aspect is the unsleeping the workers (please note, you have to press the unsleep button twice)
No cheating
Tricks like destroying the path to the main keep won't work, as you have the rebuilding part, which if can't be done will result in a loss. Aspects like destroying the walls and selling stone, destroying too many good things, cathedral, buildings are not allowed due to the complex script (you can't have a high enough population if you destroy buildings, you will lose if the cathedral is destroyed, you can't win if the fear factor is lower than +5, etc. You can't just try to kill as much troops as possible using your archers, due to time limit, the same goes for the invasion, you can't sit and wait for Sirions hiding in the city since you'll lose.
AI behaviour
Months of playtesting resulted in very interesting and thrilling actions of the enemy. During the siege, soldiers will defend the city rather than go out and try to kill you (like knights and macemen usually do). The patrolling enemies can be a problem as well. Sometimes the castle defenders will come to the place you're striking.
The invasion part is even better. Every Sirion has a different role in attacking, they don't just stand near the signpost, but try to circle the Elysium, hiding behind the mountains, rushing. If some of the enemies are left near the signpost it's your objective to eliminate them.
Remember, that this map has elements of fantasy (some workers and peasants aren't human)!
Map design features
The Elysium
The main aspect of the map is the enormous city. This time I went to realistic and at the same time beautiful construction of the fortress. As you might already see, a lot of dynamic shapes have been used in the outer walls and, what is more, these walls have the inner section which is used by troops. The Elysium has a secret entrance, as mentioned in the story, be very attentive. Custom towers and buildings can be seen throughout the city as well as the interesting layout of all the buildings, streets, pathways, squares. A lot of water is inside the castle: channels, fountains, water supplies, etc. The Elysium has its industrial, religious, living areas, also the main square, entrances and much more other features.
Tricks and eyecandy
As I already mentioned there are lots of small features and tricks: attaching flags to anything, creating foundations for gatehouses, lowered keep door, multiply marketplaces, armouries, granaries, attaching drawbridge to anything, custom buildings, placing horse troops and fire ballistae on walls, and lots more.
Interesting features: a block of flats, a luxurious house, water reservoir, a water heating tower, saunas, water windmills, a theatre, army training ground, the main cathedral, cemetery, the second floor in the castle, gold mines, custom stockpiles, stairs, arrow slits, etc.
Here are some pictures from the map:
Gold and iron mines
The main cathedral and the north east part of the castle
The main entrance
The water reservoir and the main armory
The main square
The theatre
The Barracks and the training ground
The landscape is very severe: high, sharp mountains snow, cold, rocks, however in these rigorous lands of Magnavane lies Elysium - the beautiful city. I worked hard to achieve this contrast, the landscape took me lots of time, as placing snow on the mountains is extremely hard in Crusader.
Please note, that main physical laws can be seen in this map: there's a lot of snow outside the Elysium, but almost none of it inside because of the central heating, however the stream, the small lake are frozen.
This is, perhaps, the last chapter of the series, and I really hope the map will catch your attention. I've been working on this project from last year's November until now, but I'm quite sure the map will need updates even after such a long time. Playtesting took me about two months, trying to achieve the best AI behavior as possible.
I was thinking about designing a huge city, which would be the centre of the whole mission, but usually some new ideas kept me from creating such a map. My work started near the drawing paper, where I was experimenting with the wall shapes. Lowering the walls took me a lot of patience and nerves, luckily I've found a way to lower them twice as fast as usual. In the beginning I thought about a single custom tower, but then I realized the castle wouldn't look good with simple ones, but yet again it would be too weak without them so I had to work with towers as well. The main gates have foundations, and I haven't seen this trick on Crusader, as well as the lowered keep door or the flags attached to buildings. It's the first time I use these tricks, and I'm thinking of posting a tutorial related to them.
Another good support to continue this work was the portal: I was keeping that idea for a long time as well, and thus I realized that this map just has to have elements of fantasy and magic, as all of my previous maps were rather too close to reality.
Scripting the map is one of my favorite parts, as you actually control the whole playability, so creating this complex scenario was entertaining, besides with the use of the hexademical editor I achieved good results, in my opinion, as now no file replacement is needed.
The landscape isn't perfect in my opinion, but somehow I stick to it; the lack of realism can be seen in those paths or mountains, however I think it doesn't look that bad.
I enjoy writing quite a lot, so the story was more like a hobby work. I know, maybe it's too long, but I'm counting on your tolerance.
In the end, after this project, I'm going to have longer pauses in mapmaking due to my personal life, so I would really want to hear your opinions.
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| Pages: [1] 2 3 4 » Last » | | Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
|---|
| The Hitman |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 12:43 PM |
AZ ViTrAzhAs
File Author |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 12:55 PM |
| peter2008 |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 01:47 PM
Have a problem: the extraction of this zip file does not work - I use IZArc and the extraction of your former works was allright. What can I do????? |
AZ ViTrAzhAs
File Author |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 02:03 PM |
| Alien Lord92 |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 02:35 PM
How you get reinforcements instead of invasion if you get the food?
No i haven't downloaded the map becuase i don't jave crusader for now but im just asking. |
AZ ViTrAzhAs
File Author |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 04:21 PM
Scripting the possibilities of the economic part's playability was easy, basically there's too little time to collect a few food types, you have to choose one, and obtain only it. The same event is set to trigger whenever one of the food types has been collected.[Edited on 07/13/08 @ 05:42 PM]
|
ericgolf
Staff |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 05:26 PM |
| Sokrates |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 07:11 PM |
| peter2008 |
Posted on 07/13/08 @ 11:47 PM
Az, you created a masterpiece. So many tricks of castle building applied side by side and simultaneously. What an effort it demanded from you I could imagine when I tried to occupy the jutting-out south eastern tower. If one flattens the wall one gets fully confused of the paths possible to be taken.
A few first impressions (up to now I solved the first task). The outline of the town looks somehow bizarre, like a mystic animal or an alien starship landed in a inhospitable area. - But inside it's an aesthetic whole, rising elements and joining ones yield a even, harmonic athmosphere. I especially liked those complex defending towers you designed and the "water plays". So this town is a real Elysion, isle of the blessed. When "my" (Darius') troops entered it they appeared to be unlawful, dirty barbarian invaders, I felt some hesitation to kill the enemies (but then even slaughtered both the audience of the theater and the players including the funny climbing spearman).
There's lines from Schiller's ode To Joy. Let me use them to express my pleasure about you sharing this map.
Gods one cannot repay.
Beautiful it is, to be like them.[Edited on 07/14/08 @ 12:04 AM]
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| Dragol |
Posted on 07/14/08 @ 01:15 AM |
| Pages: [1] 2 3 4 » Last » |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 4.9 | | Breakdown |
|---|
| Playability | 4.5 | | Balance | 5.0 | | Creativity | 5.0 | | Map Design | 5.0 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 4,260 |
| Favorites: [] | 1 |
| Size: | 1.23 MB |
| Added: | 07/13/08 |
| Updated: | 08/27/08 |
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