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Author |
File Description |
Geniet |
Posted on 11/11/06 @ 06:55 PM
File Details |
Version: |
AoM: The Titans |
The Relic of Water
Single Player Scenario
This is a "puzzle" scenario containing different effects, triggers and puzzles I founded out and created by myself. Do you have enough patience to solve them?
- Plot summary: Cirrow and his men have sailed to a mysterious place to find the lost relic of water.
Features:
* New trigger ideas
* 5 different moments to complete. (both easy and hard ones)
* 3 of them are unic puzzles to solve.
* Button functions and sounds (step on/off sound)
* Detailed scenery
* Over 250 triggers
Credits:
Cirruis - tester
Mr_Kitty - tester
The Relic of Water, by Geniet |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Cirrow (id: Cirruis) |
Posted on 11/22/06 @ 12:10 AM
Playability: 5
Playability was one of the high points of this map. It had barely any bugs (except 1, as I'll explain later) and was incredibly fun to play. Surprisingly, I never got frustrated once on this map, simple because of the simplicity. Now, I'm not saying it was easy, I'm saying there’s not loads of factors that can mess with the puzzles. Doubts, if you will about what to do next, how the puzzle works, etc. There are some instances where part of the puzzle is finding out what the puzzle is itself, like making the ring of automations. I had no problems moving around and no establishments or trees got in the way. (As they often do in scenarios where you control one or a few men.)
Balance: 5
The puzzles started out easy, ended hard. Simple enough. You receive a set amount of men. In some parts, you must have at least 4, you receive enough to possibly lose some or have some access by then. Each puzzle became harder and harder as you progressed, like it should. Overall, I found the map completely fair in the difficulty, and I applaud you for making such balanced puzzles.
Creativity: 5
If I could give you a 6 for creativity, I would. I have never, never seen a map like this. The gameplay is original and incredible and the puzzles are so neat. I can really tell you put a LOT of effort into this map and making it special. (You even had a few bits of creative eyecandy)
Map Design: 5
Map design was very easy on the eyes and beautiful. You mixed terrains well, placed nature and establishment items perfectly, and blended it all together to create a mysterious and involving atmosphere. However, I do have some complaints. "Heaven" was a bit dull and the mountains of pure Cliff Type Greek were unsightly. But every other part of the map made up for that.
Story/Instructions: 4
The story was simple. You don't need much of a story to run a single player map, especially one as small as this, but you added one anyway. "Solve the puzzles to get off the island." Each puzzle worked farther along into the storyline. Now, Instruction-wise, you did everything perfectly until a certain point in the map. After you make the circle of automations, you complete your objective and don't replace it with a new one. After 10 minutes I went and looked at the triggers. I of course found the problem, but it was like being stopped after going 80 miles on a freeway, if you understand. I'm afraid this took a point off this section.
Additional Comments:
The bug I found was on the last puzzle. Arkantos was already through the gate when the "Start Over" message was sent.
All in all, this is one of my favorite singleplayer maps. I think you and this map are underrated and I urge you to demand some more attention. You are a great designer and this is an incredible map. Good Work!
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Fluttershy (id: Freaky2) |
Posted on 11/23/06 @ 09:27 PM
Playability: 4
Great. I loved the puzzles, all of them worked. But there was a part that stopped you. It was in the puzzle with 4 guys. It was an issue with the timer, after the timer ran out, if I tried to bring 4 guys in like I was supposed to, the trigger would fire even though 2 guys were in the gate. So 2 poeple would be stuck in the gate. It works, as long as you don't wait for the timer to run out.
Balance: 5
No problems here. The fighting was easy, but the riddles, and mysteries were hard.
Creativity: 5
Havn't seen many maps like this, with riddles and such. And nothing with this kind of storyline.
Map Design: 5
Nice eyecandy, terrain mixed nicly, plenty of effects. Again, no problems here.
Story/Instructions: 5
I always knew what to do, even if I couldn't figure out the riddle. There were good instructions, and good hints, but not too many hints, it was just the right amount of hints.
Additional Comments:
Overall a very nice map, no major bugs. You might want to make a sequal, possibly larger with even more problems to overcome. |
GreenLiquid (id: gummyWorm) |
Posted on 07/05/07 @ 12:28 PM
Playability: 4
The puzzles on the map were mostly fun to play, and there was some combat with various monsters to liven things up. There was only one bug that I noticed, which is that in the Automaton Maze, if you load a savegame the view won't be pitched at the right angle. Again, not a problem that is particularly significant (I'm not sure if it's even fixable). My only gripe here was the annoying black-region puzzle where, due to the angle of pitch, it's very hard to keep the characters on the path (on certain parts your click tends to register on the wall segments rather than the path). That was the only puzzle that was frustrating, the others were fun.
Balance: 3
In terms of a staircase-difficulty (that is, puzzles get harder as you go on), this scenario is excellent. The problem is that the earlier puzzles tend to be too easy and the latter ones tend to be too hard. The puzzle to get the catapult, for example, included strage things like a random button sequence in the first room (I'm not sure if there's a pattern, but it looked arbitrary to me). Then, later in that puzzle, the hints said I should search for another combination in that same room. Without the hint, I don't think I would have ever tried at. On the easy side of the spectrum, the first ones were simple because you just had to collect a number of automata. The priest puzzle and automata mazes were the ones I think worked best in terms of balance, although the hint to the priest puzzle threw me off for a while.
Creativity: 5
This is a richly different map than almost anything published for AOM in a long while, and is a refreshing change from the standard fare. Puzzles have been included in scenarios, don't get me wrong on that, but an entire scenario devoted to it is a fairly novel concept. As soon as I read the descriptor, I thought 'this will be interesting,' and I was most certainly right.
Map Design: 5
Eye candy was well developed and the map was full of it. The fortress area was probably the best in terms of eye candy, but the whole map had it, so good job all around. Meshing was done well, embellishments were used quite a bit, and the landscape itself made the map look good, so excellent work here.
Story/Instructions: 4
The story was good and the instructions were fine. I would say it's a mix of spelling/grammar errors and hint/instruction wording that got you here. Especially with puzzles, wording is everything, and if everything isn't worded right, it can send the solver on the wrong trail for a good long time. In the automaton maze, for example, I spent 30 minutes thinking I needed to get one of the automata to the flag. In the priest puzzle, the hint made me think I had to put the priest on one of the pads (I was missing an automaton but didn't realize it). Again, nothing significant, but enough to cause me some problems on the puzzles. The other problems were small grammar and spelling mistakes (not enough to ruin anything, just kind of unpleasant) and the story, which while good and a welcome addition to the scenario (so that we weren't just solving puzzles randomly for no reason), wasn't particularly fleshed out, and all we knew is that the relic would save the world in some way. However, the puzzle instructions for the most part were top notch, and I almost always knew where to go next (at the end I kept trying to take the relic to the shore you begin at, but I completely missed the torches in the water so that's just me being stupid). So overall, excellent.
Additional Comments:
An excellent scenario and a well designed game. To anyone who downloaded this, if you enjoyed this scenario, The Relic of Darkness is a must-download (even if you didn't like it, give RoD a shot). I hope you continue the series even further with new puzzle-filled maps. |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.7 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.3 | Balance | 4.7 | Creativity | 5.0 | Map Design | 5.0 | Story/Instructions | 4.3 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 3,072 |
Favorites: [] | 2 |
Size: | 184.44 KB |
Added: | 11/11/06 |
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