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Payday (The Circe Saga IV)
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Author |
File Description |
Felix Hermansson |
Posted on 07/03/05 @ 07:38 AM
File Details |
Version: |
AoM: The Titans |
The Circe Saga Part IV: Payday (July 2005)
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'Payday' is the fourth and final part of my Circe Saga. After her journeys to Erebus and the Norselands Circe returns to her home island of Aeaea to claim the price Hades has promised her for her help during the War of the Trident. But not everyone will approve of that – certainly not the young Greek General Melagius of Sikyos who has assumed power there. Circe will have to take back what is hers by force.
To play this scenario, first copy the file 'Payday.scx' into your 'scenarios' folder. Next the file 'circe04p3.xs' goes into the game folder '..Microsoft GamesAge of Mythologyai2' (and NOT into the folder named '..My GamesAge of MythologyAI2'!!). Finally the folder 'cdialog' goes into the game folder '..Microsoft GamesAge of Mythologysound'. (You have to copy the whole folder, not just the single files!)
Since the scenario makes heavy use of existing sound files, you need the English versions of AoM, the 'AoM: The Titans' expansion plus the free 'The Golden Gift' campaign for it to work properly. If you have other languages installed, or if you don't have 'The Golden Gift', you'll experience some problems with the spoken dialog. The scenario is still playable that way, though.
I would appreciate any honest feedback, good or bad. Please tell me what you liked, what you disliked, and especially, tell me why. If you have any ideas on how to improve it, all the better.
Please leave your comments here or send them via e-mail to hoodncloak@hotmail.com. Oh, and add 'AoM' to the subject and use proper language, otherwise your message will probably be deleted by the spam filter.
Some more comments from my side:
The scenario is optimized for a screen resolution of 1240x1028, but it should work with lower resolutions as well (it does with 1024x768 anyway.) It features more than 500 triggers, so slower machines may get some problems. There shouldn't be too much lag though, the map is not that big.
There are no difficulty levels in this scenario. Play it on easy, I have used the hints section of the objectives page for additional information. But don't let yourself be fooled: As in the other scenarios of the Circe Saga, you'd better not expect a pushover here! The difficulty level has been described by one of my playtesters as "not impossible, but damn close", which is exactly what I have been aiming at. You don't need to be some kind of ueber-gamer to beat it, but still - you have been warned...
In case you get stuck anywhere I have included the file 'Payday - Spoilers.pdf'. If you absolutely cannot figure out one of the puzzles or always get crushed by the AI in battle you can find some helpful hints there. Don't use it too early though, try to solve the puzzles yourself!
And a final note:
Thanks to fellow Tsunami Studios members King Jared and The Vandhaal for playtesting support.
Have fun!
Felix |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Gr�n (id: AoMPlayer000) |
Posted on 07/08/05 @ 02:16 PM
Playability: 5
Well, I nearly pulled off a point because of the sometimes too hard riddles (see the first two relics), although the enclosed walkthrough is a big plus. Moreover it took me literally hours to complete this, which was, well... fun and frustrating at the same time. Maybe I should have played only half of it today and the other half tomorrow or so. (It was the B&D part which took me so long.) The length isn't necessarily a bad thing though...
I also had to watch the intro a few times because it wasn't skippable and the ending was rather unsatisfying: I played hours just for a small message telling me I won. A nice ending cinematic would have been better.
Well, all in all it was a nice scenario though: The various riddles, the very good AI (I don't understand anything about AI, but I think the way the computer played was much fun to play against), the hidden easter eggs (like the wood piles and shipwrecks etc.), the walkthrough, the mix of game types etc. Very nice.
Best of all is the voice acting :-). Did you buy the sounds or record them on your own?
Balance: 5
VERY good. Very challenging but still beatable, even for a bad player like me. The AI was a challenge all the way through the scn, which is a big advantage to trigger-controlled enemies.
Although some riddles were too hard IMO, like the teleporter, this brainwork contributes to the scn.
Creativity: 4
Well, of course the game was very creative with those riddles, the recurring curse GP, the various characters, the storyline etc. I also think the use of AI is a plus here.
Still I can't give the full score here because Circe already occurred in the AoM main campaign, just like General Melagius. You even used the same map. This is actually very nice because it looks great and it reminds the AoM campaign, but it is certainly a minus in creativity...
All in all still very good.
Map Design: 4
Not much to say here: The nature looked great, the visual effects (like the desert dwellers' camp) were beautiful and I think the original map had been embellished a lot.
Still the whole eyecandy stuff was not that impressive like the work of the masters in this area, like Vandhaal, Oscar and Guardian.
Story/Instructions: 5
Very appealing story. Great objectives, hints and spotlight, as well as good-looking cinematics.
Nothing to add here.
Additional Comments:
To conclude, I think this is the work of a perfectionist. Everything seems to had been planned into detail. Also the AI and voice acting enforce this impression.
The only real flaw, if I may call it like this, is the play time... I don't really know how to express this, but afterwards I somehow felt like I wasted one hour or so because the scenario could have been shorter. This was due to the challenging AI though, which kept me busy for the whole time.
Keep up the great work :-)![Edited on 07/08/05 @ 02:19 PM]
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Shrink |
Posted on 07/10/05 @ 02:55 PM
Very good scenario, Felix! A fitting conclusion(?) to the Circe Saga, of which I have enjoyed every scenario.
Playability: 4
Playability was very fun. I enjoyed it immensly. I wanted to use the walkthrough as little as possible when playing, and so I found a few parts particularly hard (i'll get to that in balance). There was a nice variance in gameplay - the beginning RPG-esque area, where you have to collect four relics was expertly pulled off, each one using a unique and creative puzzle which the player had to solve. There were no bugs that I came across, thank god, and all in all, you pulled the scenario off very professionally. Small things like the gold chat appearing when you regain the Curse power are perfect! The B+D part, however, was not the greatest of scenario feats. I guess the AI was very well done, the attacks came at good point in the scenario, with a lot of soldiers at once which posed serious threats. However, when I attack, I found a complete and utter mass of soldiers who had been created near the uppermost fortress area. Small things like this detract from it, especially as such a force (which wasn't moving) took me completely by surprise and my army posed no threat to it. I also felt that all the work on getting the relics didn't amount to much. I spent a long time finding those relics, and god powers gained didn't particularly help me fight Melagius. Overrall, the playability was very good, fun and unique.
Balance: 4
Balance was very good. Some parts I found too hard. For example, getting the second relic took a very long time to get. This I consider a problem with the scenario, there was no hint whatsoever (I believe) that I should do certain things and as such, it took a while for me to work it out. Furthermore, I, for some reason, had to do something particularly.. strange (just before you meet Chiron). I love the idea, very creative, but hard for one to work out. I actually had to check the walkthrough here, it simply didn't guess that the solution was such. It could have (literally) been anything random, because there was no hint or reasoning for the puzzle. I may have had to make a roc spawn somehow to transport my heroes, for all I knew. Mostly, the balance was good. All the other relic-grabs were at a nice difficulty. I particularly liked the desert relic, the tricks there were very cool, and the surprises at each one were nicely difficult and surprising.
Creativity: 5
Very creative! The bonuses spread throughout the entire map when B+D'ing were very nice to find, certainly a fun addition to the game. I don't really want to go into detail about how the relics were creative - they simply were. I've never come across such puzzles and ideas in a scenario before, and thus it deserves mazimum points on creativity.
Map Design: 4
Map Design was good. Nothing special, though. Some parts of the island looked no better than a randomly generated map (which, according to the review guideines, is a 3), however, some parts were very well done, and realistically suited the setting. I took the points off not simply for the design I mentioned, but for the design of Melagius' fortress-city. This was boring and uninspiring to look at, with buildings dotted throughout the grass. To be frank, this is something I would expect to find in a normal game, where the player does not have the artistic abilities on the editor in order to design his city.
However, I do like the general realistic approach, and the rocks/rock sprites, along with grass and bushes were effectively used. If Melagius had a well design fortress-city, this would undoubtedly gain a 5.
Story/Instructions: 4
The story was good, the instructions were effectively displayed, particularly in the objectives menu. You used the sounds from ES well, as well as told people what to do succinctly and... well.
However, this loses a point because sometimes, the instructions were not good enough. Because (I believe) you used pre-ready sounds to mould your dialogue around, I felt at times that not enough information was given to me. Somethings things didn't seem to fit, and I wasn't given enough information at other times. Particularly at the beginning. The story also seemed a little lacklustre. I liked the general idea, of regaining the island from melagius (which again, I felt wasn't explained well enough with the sounds you sought to use.) As mentioned, I also thought the instructions for the second relic were lacking. It's one thing have a good and hard puzzle, but it's another when you don't even know how to approach the said puzzle.
Additional Comments:
Very good and fun scenario!
I don't think I will replay it, as is the way with difficult and time consuming things, but I very much like what you have accomplished here.
A better ending would be lovely, but I understand the campaign will produce this for me.
I think I have mainly concentrated on the negative things in the scenario, but obvious, the negatives do not overshadow all the brilliant parts to it (otherwise the rating would perhaps be lower.) Well done![Edited on 07/10/05 @ 03:56 PM]
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I Love Bananas |
Posted on 08/08/06 @ 04:29 AM
Playability: 4
Although the map was fun most of the time, but there were some very hard parts. The riddles and quests were hard to solve, except for the desert one. I'm not at the high level required for this map, so I had to look at the spoilers several times. I also used cheats sometimes, because I couldn't get through. In the start, I encountered many problems because I always got into LOS of the Colossus, but I managed it at least. But looking at the spoilers was worth it - I got to experience more of your triggerwork. It seems like you've put a lot of work into this map - and all those quests you placed out, it saves this category from a 3.
Balance: 4
The balance was fine, mostly, because the hard parts was solving the riddles - not the fighting. Still, the build-and-destroy part was a little at the hard side. It is not something the average player can manage, especially since the enemy armies kept getting stronger and stronger as I was weakened. It could have been better if heroes was enabled, cause there was a lot of myth units. I never got the time to build up a strong enough army before it got destroyed - kinda frustrating, eh? So this was the part where I used cheats.
Creativity: 4
You did one thing wrong with this map that I don't like at all - you used the ES map as a base for further work, including many of the base objects, elevations and such. You changed the map design many places, and you also edited all of the quests, but I still dislike it. You had added more islands, much more units and more interesting gameplay, which was pretty neat. The quests and riddles was very creative, if you ask me, and the bonuses at the build-and-destroy part was also nice.
I'll have to salute you for being the first person I've ever seen successfully using the game chats. In other scenarios and campaigns, people have once in a while added a sound from the campaign, but you used many of them - and they fit in perfectly. No need for recording own sounds when you can use the original ones just as well. ;)
Map Design: 5
This was another great part - you had changed the design from the original, and added some new islands (as I already have pointed out). You also used varied terrains. The map looked very good in my opinion, and you had marked paths clearly so that it was easy to find the way once the riddles were solved. You had no exceptional eyecandy anywhere, but it was good, and perfect for the map. And that's what counts. ;)
Story/Instructions: 5
An interesting storyline, that General Melagius takes control over the island, and that Circe has to take it back. Nice subquests, keeping gameplay interesting as well. The cinematics presented what was happening well, and the chats also gave smart 'hints'. I never got lost in the objectives anywhere, except the obvious places - where there were riddles. Smart thing to include the spoilers, or else it would be impossible to get anywhere for the most of us! Also, the hints were helpful. They supported the general objectives well.[Edited on 12/04/06 @ 01:32 PM]
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Archaeopterix |
Posted on 09/19/06 @ 04:29 PM
Playability: 5.0
The playability was great, smooth and polished. Although the instructions were lacking at some points (only affects the story/instructions rating), once you knew what to do it was a pleasure to actually do so. No lag, nearly no bugs whatsoever (I'll list the bugs in the additional comments, and even though it's quite a list I'm really being a nitpicker and they're all just really minor bugs), and triggers were high priority when they needed to be. Besides this polished-ness, the scenario was just very fun and that's what weighs equally heavy!
Balance: 3.0
Capturing the different relics I found generally easy, except for the portal one but I'll get back to that in the creativity part. Even on the heavily guarded desert-ish island, which - I think - was supposed to be hard, I was able just to go ashore quickly, then grab the relic and get back into the boat without losing a single hit point. The build and destroy part, however, was extremely hard to beat. I am pretty sure that people who don't play supremacy often will have some big trouble with this. I was beaten once by the invasion from the sea, and the second time I massed an soldiers and started to trade early but still barely breached through his defences. Even though I have no trouble with some more challenging scenarios, the first part was so much easier than the build and destroy part that I have to call this scenario not-so-very balanced - thus a 3.0!
Creativity: 4.0
Over all I think this scenario is quite creative. Even though you've used existing characters and built your scenario on an existing setting, you added some features that brought this mark up to a 4.0. The puzzles are naturally very creative and your use of the existing dialogue sounds really added to the atmosphere. Some things (the colussus puzzle, some dialogue sounds) were even a little bit far-fetched, as if you didn't know what to use all the weird features of existing AoM units for and thought "heck, let's just make a puzzle out of it", but even those far-fetched things I enjoyed! On the other hand, the objective to gather relics is decent but a bit dull and not very creative.
Map design: 3.0
The map design is boring but functional - conform the original campaigns. The map wasn't entirely made by you - you have recycled and embellished an existing map - but the embellishments you added are surely nice in some places. However, you really should've added more elevation here and there - although I understand you probably didn't want the map to differ too much from the original, no one would notice it if you had embellished it further. Next to that, I have to say that the city was very, very disappointing: here I really wished you would have taken more freedom to change the city to something better looking. There are certainly some ways around the problems the AI might have with a more eyecandied city. A 3.0 would normally be the mark for maps with map design like a random map. But I think that (unofficial?) rule is a bit old, and when I see all the great map design available in the downloads section I hesitate between giving a 2 and a 3. However, because the map design is so functional and because of the embellishments, I think a 3.0 is suited.
Story/Instructions: 4.0
Inventing a story that sort of continues the original ES campaign is very hard and even risky, but you've managed to invent one that fits to the original campaign very smoothely. However, because of the limitations of the original campaign - the characters are very shallow and apparently only think about fighting, revenge, and pleasing the gods - you sticked to this. I would have loved to see a campaign or scenario about "the people behind the soldiers", and it would've been only a small step from your current position. Your story, even though, as mentioned, brilliantly glued to the existing story and quite creative, lacked depth and I would give it a 3.5. The instructions, luckily, pull the mark up a bit to the 4.0 given. Your instructions were, although lacking here and there, clearly written with (just as the dialogues by the way) proper spelling and grammar. In addition, you provided such a great walkthrough that I have to give you a 4.0 here.
Additional Comments
That averages to a 3.8 for this scenario! But the playability is probably what counts the heaviest if you recommend a map to your friends, and you scored high in that so I recommend everyone to download and play this map! Now I will conclude with an uncut list of things I wrote down while playing. Some negative and positive points and some bugs. I haven't double-checked anything in this list and therefore you should take it lightly.
- Map very boring and flat.
- Town very standard, conform the original campaigns.
- Amazing intro. High paced.
- Amazing use of sounds throughout the entire scenario.
- Dialogues overwrote eachother. Use a "busy" quest var for that.
- Stuck in an ugly camera angle after the speech-of-melagius cinematic.
- The fact that, when detected, you suddenly get the speech-of-melagius cinematic, can be confusing. It had been better if you had sent a message "You've been detected!" and made the cinematic start 5 seconds later.
- The dog is cool, but it sort of spoils the ability to walk in a formation properly. But this is unavoidable so it doesn't affect the rating one bit :).
- Odd, the hoplites didn't notice me even while I was standing on their toes - in daylight.
- I felt a bit lost after capturing the first relic, didn't know where to go, having forgotten I still had the longboat to use.
- The northern island puzzle isn't very logical. You could've picked a sentinel statue instead of the manticore. But I wouldn't know an equivalent for the cyclops.
- The tree-eating colossus (although the carnivoras take quite long to do some damage) and the two pathways are cool though.
- Chiron's questions are nice, but it doesn't matter what I answer :P
- When all the statues came to life after the two pathways, I had a melagius guard tower on my side. It's too nearby!
- The fourth relic wasn't revealed. Inconsequent.
- Nice pirate attack :) and surprise attacks. Damn.
And here I stopped alt-tabbing to notepad because the battle was so intense. Over all a good scenario! |
Nymascot |
Posted on 04/19/07 @ 10:33 AM
Playability: 4
so my tale goes like this... spending 1st dusk to explore the island, colossus walks around temple just fine. on 2nd dusk, colossus stands shaking in front of the temple, damn bug?! since day and night cycle with longer daytime. i didn't wait another day to make the move. the rest is hard combat with pursuing enemy from both land and sea. all sequencial event notifications (ie relics' whereabout) are gone forever. on desert island, those nomad greet me "noble traveller". how can i rob them of their relic? seemingly hopeless, i take a peek at the walkthrough...
Balance: 5
only if you play by book :) but judging the record, i think the author will improve it over time.
Creativity: 5
no sign of infringement of other's copyright, so far. :)
Map Design: 5
not bad
Story/Instructions: 5
either instruction or playability is to blame. no wish to lower my rating any further.
Additional Comments:
this is actually part 4 of a series. below is a text file with filename "Circe.cpx", which should be put in AoM\data folder. search and download the rest scenarios by author and rename those files as hinted by the following text, then you can enjoy a fully fledged campaign.
Circe.cpx (use text editor to replace all "{" with "less than sign" and "}" with "greater than sign"
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{?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?}
{campaign name = "Circe's Venture" version = "1.1"}
{BackgroundSet name = "Greece"}
{Image pos = "1"}ui\campmap_greece1{/Image}
{Image pos = "2"}ui\campmap_greece2{/Image}
{Image pos = "3"}ui\campmap_greece3{/Image}
{Image pos = "4"}ui\campmap_greece4{/Image}
{Image pos = "5"}ui\campmap_greece5{/Image}
{Image pos = "6"}ui\campmap_greece6{/Image}
{Image pos = "7" textureReplace=""}ui\campmap_greece7{/Image}
{Image pos = "8" textureReplace=""}ui\campmap_greece8{/Image}
{Image pos = "9"}ui\campmap_greece9{/Image}
{Image pos = "10"}ui\campmap_greece10{/Image}
{Image pos = "11"}ui\campmap_greece11{/Image}
{Image pos = "12"}ui\campmap_greece12{/Image}
{/BackgroundSet}
{Scenario dispName = "The Reluctant Heroine" filename = "Circe\1c The Reluctant Heroine - AI version.scx" BackgroundSet = "Greece"}
{/Scenario}
{Scenario dispName = "Behind the Scenes" filename = "Circe\2 Behind the Scenes.scx" BackgroundSet = "Greece"}
{/Scenario}
{Scenario dispName = "Wrong Place Wrong Time" filename = "Circe\3 Wrong Place Wrong Time.scx" BackgroundSet = "Greece"}
{/Scenario}
{Scenario dispName = "Payday" filename = "Circe\4 Payday.scx" BackgroundSet = "Greece"}
{/Scenario}
{/campaign}
note:
this board has gone too far to ban all html markup. sorry for the wordy inconvenience.[Edited on 04/19/07 @ 10:58 AM]
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DBGT44 |
Posted on 06/08/07 @ 04:05 PM
Playability: 5
Most people would be stunned if i were to say 5 but from my point of view, this scenario had all the potential gameplay ever. I must admit that the map was a bit hard, maybe a bit confusing but mostly too hard to figure out even with the hints in the objectives. I liked the fact that you would use your units in a smart and sneaky way to run through the game. Noting that I like to play a more supremacy sort of map, I still certify my owe towards this map.
Balance: 5
All seems quite balanced unless you count the advantages of the difficulty to figure out both, how to continue your missions and other related hints. Although I would seem to be critisizing your map but, from my point of view these two elements made the map better and more settled. I would surely not take a single point for such things as difficulty. :)
Creativity: 5
I thought that the map was ingenious. Not only did you use perfect ancient historical/mythological assets on your side but you also showed great trigger works that wouldn't come up to many minds nowadays. The ideas you had of your map showed depth of thinking and a clear vision of what kind of map you were making.
Map Design: 4
This seems the only element which failed a little bit compared to the rest. I would say the map has good Greek eye-candy but yet, I figured out I saw the map used when Arkantos landed on Aeaea in the AoM campaign. That wasn't a wrong thing to do since you edited it more but it isn't made of scratch so it gets one less point from me.
Story/Instructions: 4
The usage of some SFX to feature changes in your diplomacy was a good thing. I thought the objectives were clear enough but the tasks being capable of being figured out. Though, the story is clear throughout the campaign as in what you are doing and what is your status in the game. I think you should have put a little clearer hints. It still goes back to you.
Additional Comments:
As succulent as honey was the map in my opinion. Even after taking 2 points from the rating, I still would real rate this as a totally professional map. First of all, it shows your greatness at using triggers depending on your own vision of the gameplay. Seconded by the fact that you came up with a great historical/mythological event which you transformed into a saga from your own imagination. Some people may say that you used the same names of units but I would have to disagree since when making such kinds of more historically based campaigns or scenarios, it is better to keep the borders of the map into a more certified area of knowledge.
I loved the map, My honest regards, DBGT44[Edited on 06/08/07 @ 04:10 PM]
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Milkman Matty (id: Khan And Steak) |
Posted on 06/23/07 @ 11:08 PM
I though I that I had submitted this review but obviously I had not. Btw nice review BDGT44 *wink*
Playability: 2
This game was a treasure to play, as there was a big variety of game play in the one scenario. I especially liked the start, where you start off with a set amount of units and you had to explore to find your way around. I also liked the first obstacle that you needed to surpass to obtain the first relic, I thought it was great that the Colossus only moved at night, and that you couldn't be seen by him; it was good but too easy. I didn't find the second riddle hard but it also wasn't easy. The way you did the carnivore part made it a stand out, but soon after that part this scenario turned sour. If you haven't played the three before it, you will struggle at the Chiron part as I did, and soon after it spiked up in difficulty (will get to that more in Balance).
What's more, I found some of bugs, or things that could be changed to improve on gameplay. With the Dessert Island I got through with out fighting any of the monsters, I achieved this by getting the Arcus to run to the relic, and then run back to the ship. Also, it took me one and a half hours trying to figure out how to get to the second island, when finally I found out that I still had a boat. Further more, I would expect that when you walk past an enemy hoplite in plan daylight that you would be found? Therefore I was able to explore the whole first island before I even made it too the second island.
Balance: 3
To cut it short this map was very jumpy, going from very easy to very hard in a really short amount of time. Then eventually ending up impossible as when you're given a small country town and expected to defend attacks from all sides every minute, let me tell you, this is not easy. While this might be alright for veterans who have been weathered and have lots of experienced it isn't exactly aimed at average players, even on easy. I had to reload previous saved games to get past the one point multiple times, which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't twelve times. That made my game experience very frustrating and boring. I would think that it could have been a bit easier if the heroes where a bit stronger, or if they could come back once the ground was once again regained.
Creativity: 4
In this area I thought you excelled at, after I completed a puzzle I could see the ingenious craftwork behind each riddle and its answer. Your trigger work combined with your storyline made quite a scenario. The only thing that kept you from a perfect five was that you use a campaign map for the basis of the map without doing much further work in terms of eyecandy with the main island. Ok, fair enough you did put random little islands around the main one, but even some of those were lacking, i.e. the small island with one torch in the middle of it.
Map Design: 3
This was a very average map, as there were parts of the map that were filled up with buildings, which in my opinion could have been better placed as they didn't look attractive at all it looked more as if they had been placed for a random map. Again the amount changed from the original map was next to minimal which in some cases this would be alright but this map does need some attention in those areas.
Story/Instructions: 4
The story was obviously meant to be the final installment in the Circe saga, yet anyone could figure out the story through the information given, this is a big plus since I have had no past interaction with this series. I also found next to zero grammar and spelling issues. Sadly, I think that the objectives could use some work, as the hints that you gave the player really should have been in the main objectives section, with further hints set. All players like hints for things that might go unnoticed unintentionally, like the boat for instance; for that brought me a lot of frustration once I found out that that was the way to get to the next island. I particularly loved what you did with the spotlight section, as most designers choose to ignore that section.
Additional Comments:
God job, keep up the good work! ~ Khan And Steak[Edited on 04/01/13 @ 04:22 AM]
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Godyssey (id: Two_ace_u) |
Posted on 07/02/07 @ 10:30 PM
Playability: 4
Alright straight to it, The missions had nice puzzle, mix of creativity, but some were really easy and a bit dull in creativity. But this isn't the case for all of them. Some missions were hard and challenging, and provided fun, But the huge letdown was the ending. I did tough puzzles watches good cinematic and all over in the end, I just saw a message come up saying I win. To me that just ruins the map, because Such a map with AI, loads of triggers and a challenge, could dissapoint because I was eager to see an ending. And after all this is the last episode of the circe saga and no ending kinda ruins it so. When I was doing the missions The AI was fully functional and working like a true AI. This provided me with much hours of fun whilst achieving goals to finish the map. What I also enjoy was the dialogs, you have grasp over sounds that made the original AOM campaigns and implemented them into your map, in a way to make this such a great story and atmosphere to play upon.
Honestly Great work and Congrats.
Balance: 3
Well to be honest, as an average player like I am, this map was defiantly not an easy one. Its just that the AI was pumping units way too fast and I had to guard and view everything in sight every single minute. But I don't see this as fair, I start with a lampade,circe,hersir, rag hero and a wolf. Whilst the enemy has an array of military at his disposal and ready to kill me instatly. I had to save multiple times, just to finish the map off, or to survive. The thing that was so hard about facing this horde was that the units had nothing special within them. No higer stats, nor the chance to revive. Although this map was fun, it was very annoying and to 1 point, exceptionally boring.
Creativity: 4
I liked how you could get a map made by ES and turn it into a mini RPG. It was just complety original in how the story goes along and the effects of dialogs creating the atmosphere. You have turned a achievement from ES, into a masterpiece wonder, with all little details and easter-eggsto play on. This moulded, one of the best single player map available. But with all this acheivements, I have marked you down on originality of property. You have used the voices and map of an ES created scenario map to create this. I'm not saying this is bad to use, but you don't need to mould the story just so it can create the story you have.
Map Design: 4
This map ovarall was fairly pleasing and charming to look through. The details of the map made the island greek villages, into island greek villages. Honestly the terrain mixing, the embellishments and Villages made this a fairly good map to the eye ;).
But Problem is, Some bits were left out, like just a little terrain and no nature nor embellishments at all. Also the fortresses were left in the dark because they were place in thoose dull, not to appealing areas. You could have done a little to spruce there visual apeal to make such a great looking scenario.
Story/Instructions: 5
This is an area you fulfilled with flying colors. Not only did you had an story, but you also had instructions that were clear, striaght to point and no spelling errors. whenever I was stuck, I knew I could always rely on the objectives to help me with passing my goals.
On story, this was completly original, all the characers and adventures that the group had to accomplice (spelling?).
This story had it all, kick ass gameplay, adventure, puzzles etc. What more could you ask for? This map kicks ass! :D
Additional Comments:
Can I just say that, This is one of my official best maps ever played, because of such works and achievements in this masterpiece. Congrats
[Edited on 07/02/07 @ 10:31 PM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.2 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.1 | Balance | 4.0 | Creativity | 4.4 | Map Design | 4.0 | Story/Instructions | 4.5 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 1,736 |
Favorites: [] | 2 |
Size: | 541.04 KB |
Added: | 07/03/05 |
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