Hi everybody!
In 2011 year the Megom Chronicles campaign was realesed (H4WOW). After that time I decided to made a continuation of the story. This thread is focused on information about new works around this project and new campaigns in that series.
Please share with your opinions about all my campaigns especially Megom Chronicles campaign series.
I encourage everyone who liked my campaigns to post here. Such support will surely help me in the work on new campaign. And many new players will hear about this great project!
You can download all my creations from:
here
For more information please read the official site of this project:
Megom Chronicles Project Site
Megom Chronicles Project
Megom Chronicles Project
Last edited by Anonymous on 02 Jun 2013, 10:24, edited 2 times in total.
Three of the map-testers wrote about this campaign following words:
"[...] Finally, the most important thing about this campaign - while playing it you can feel that you are affected by the 'one more turn syndrome'. It won't be easy to turn your computer off, because you constantly want to know what will happen next. So if you feel like discovering the interesting plot and play many strategic battles, Megom's Chronicles is just what you need."
Taro
"This campaign is worth it, to be played by as many H4 fans as possible."
Koni
"I was eager to know how it ends. The longer, the better :-)"
Standa
I think that this campaign is number one for all H4 fans. You will find there a wide variety of maps and challenges. Please write down your opinions which will help me what change in the future.
"[...] Finally, the most important thing about this campaign - while playing it you can feel that you are affected by the 'one more turn syndrome'. It won't be easy to turn your computer off, because you constantly want to know what will happen next. So if you feel like discovering the interesting plot and play many strategic battles, Megom's Chronicles is just what you need."
Taro
"This campaign is worth it, to be played by as many H4 fans as possible."
Koni
"I was eager to know how it ends. The longer, the better :-)"
Standa
I think that this campaign is number one for all H4 fans. You will find there a wide variety of maps and challenges. Please write down your opinions which will help me what change in the future.
For everyone who liked the campaign Megom Chronicles: ToS I have good news! 
I started working on the continuation of the story in brand new campaign.
The things I can say right away is that:
1. It will be made in Equilibris 3.51 because in the mod scripts works better.
2. I have already made 2 maps (M and L).
3. There is quite amount of story so anyone who likes to track the plot won't be disappointed!
4. Campaign will be made in way that if you didn't played the MC:ToS you will surely like it.
5. The campaign will have more interesting scripts, quests and stories.
I hope you will like my future child
. For now I encourage to play Megom Chronicles: Tales of Souls anyone who didn't played it yet!
(PS: Sorry for my english. I'm not a native speaker.)
I started working on the continuation of the story in brand new campaign.
The things I can say right away is that:
1. It will be made in Equilibris 3.51 because in the mod scripts works better.
2. I have already made 2 maps (M and L).
3. There is quite amount of story so anyone who likes to track the plot won't be disappointed!
4. Campaign will be made in way that if you didn't played the MC:ToS you will surely like it.
5. The campaign will have more interesting scripts, quests and stories.
I hope you will like my future child
. For now I encourage to play Megom Chronicles: Tales of Souls anyone who didn't played it yet!(PS: Sorry for my english. I'm not a native speaker.)
Hello everyone!
I made recently a third map and I reached the point where I need to make a dicision. Planned story is rather long so I have two options: make one big campaign (bigger than MC:ToS) or devide it in smaller campaigns (aproximetaly 5-6 maps). Since MC:Tos isn't so popular after all I rather lean to the second option. But it makes creating harder and need from players playing the campaigns in special order. I wonder what is your opinion on that?
Michal Krajewski
I made recently a third map and I reached the point where I need to make a dicision. Planned story is rather long so I have two options: make one big campaign (bigger than MC:ToS) or devide it in smaller campaigns (aproximetaly 5-6 maps). Since MC:Tos isn't so popular after all I rather lean to the second option. But it makes creating harder and need from players playing the campaigns in special order. I wonder what is your opinion on that?
Michal Krajewski
I think it could easyli work, if it's splitted up. I'm not yet done with the first campaign, but I'm working on one myself, where you follow both the good and evil side of the story, but I chose to make it cronologic (one long campaign), so you wouldn't have to play 2 good maps, then 1 evil, 3 goods ect (in seperate campaigns), in order to for the story to be told in the right order. I think that's basically the biggest isue. Pros and cons. what would work best?
1. Do you know that you can choose the side which player will play throught whole campaign? It is in campaign properties. You could make 2 heroes - one good and other one evil. Player would choose a hero and side with him.
2. In MC:ToS I made somthing like you said (if I understood corectly). Some maps where played by one side and others the 'evil' side (but not exactly evil cause it depends of believes of a player).
The problem occours when you try to do a huge campaign. I don't spend a lot of time on making a campaigns (I have other duties). Making such big campaign will take me almost 2-3 years (MC:ToS took me 2 years with breaks). I make campaigns for my own satisfaction, but I am content when it is popular. One huge campaign will be certainly less popular than bunch of smaller (in number of downloads). So to sum up:
One campaign:
Pros:
- Easy to play for players (I talk about the simplicity in installing and starting playing rather than campaign difficulty).
- Simplicity in making such campaign.
Cons:
- Long time of realising the campaign.
- Less popular.
Few campaings:
Pros:
- More popular.
- Smaller time between the realises.
Cons:
- Demands from players to play campaigns in chronological order and to not deleting the previous campaigns (in order to make heroes' carryovers between the campaigns). Sometimes this wish cannot be fulfilled (due to eg. format C
).
I decided to make few smaller campaigns but each of them will be made in two version. First will handle the heroes' carryovers and will be for the players who will keep their campaigns on the disk. Second one will be made like every campaign is the first campaign so that any player can start playing from the middle. This will favor the players who play the whole story from the beginning to the end because in the second version there won't be carryovers so heroes will be less powerfull.
2. In MC:ToS I made somthing like you said (if I understood corectly). Some maps where played by one side and others the 'evil' side (but not exactly evil cause it depends of believes of a player).
The problem occours when you try to do a huge campaign. I don't spend a lot of time on making a campaigns (I have other duties). Making such big campaign will take me almost 2-3 years (MC:ToS took me 2 years with breaks). I make campaigns for my own satisfaction, but I am content when it is popular. One huge campaign will be certainly less popular than bunch of smaller (in number of downloads). So to sum up:
One campaign:
Pros:
- Easy to play for players (I talk about the simplicity in installing and starting playing rather than campaign difficulty).
- Simplicity in making such campaign.
Cons:
- Long time of realising the campaign.
- Less popular.
Few campaings:
Pros:
- More popular.
- Smaller time between the realises.
Cons:
- Demands from players to play campaigns in chronological order and to not deleting the previous campaigns (in order to make heroes' carryovers between the campaigns). Sometimes this wish cannot be fulfilled (due to eg. format C
). I decided to make few smaller campaigns but each of them will be made in two version. First will handle the heroes' carryovers and will be for the players who will keep their campaigns on the disk. Second one will be made like every campaign is the first campaign so that any player can start playing from the middle. This will favor the players who play the whole story from the beginning to the end because in the second version there won't be carryovers so heroes will be less powerfull.
yes I am aware of the possibility to choose side. Problem with my campaign is the story. I felt it was important to tell the whole story, both sides of it, as it happens (in chronological order.) I did also consider splitting mine up in good/evil and then make one final map like WOW (which I'll end up doing anyhow). Mine has also taken waaaay too long to make (years). What I like about campaigns is the possiblity to build up your hero. But I have also considered the possibility to make each map a single campaign and then just transfer the hero to the next campaign. This would also ensure that each map would be played in the right order, but would still allow the player to jump from the good side of the story to the evil. But then the campaign highscore could become an issue (if someone cares about that) 
guess there's just no easy answer for huge campaigns
guess there's just no easy answer for huge campaignsrecently finished the first map, and I very much like the start, where I get Megom. Gave me a bit of trouble with all the groups around Megom, nicely placed, took some attempts to figure out how to get past them, 'coz once I've won the first battle with Megom, he'd die during the second one. I also found the map rather challenging (surprised to see that there were no scripts on enemy towns). The consol was a nice idea, even if I didn't quite get it at first 
(but once I found it, it seemed obvious if one had only paid attention to the ground) I very much like the ending where you emplementet the design of the Chaos Shrine in the story.
(but once I found it, it seemed obvious if one had only paid attention to the ground) I very much like the ending where you emplementet the design of the Chaos Shrine in the story.Thanks Karmakeld for playing the campaign. The first map is rather hard and I tried to maintain the challanging difficulty for the rest of maps. Even if Megom hasn't any mana - develop chaos magic. It won't help you out in the 1st map but it will make it more 'climatic' afterwards 
. Every map has a different victory condition so please read messages to figure it out (or read map informations). The enemies' towns in 1st map has a grail structure that's why the computer is rather hard. Feel free to write me your opinions and read readme when you're stuck.
. Every map has a different victory condition so please read messages to figure it out (or read map informations). The enemies' towns in 1st map has a grail structure that's why the computer is rather hard. Feel free to write me your opinions and read readme when you're stuck. forgot about the sandstorm, also a nice way to add more "story/realism" to the story. Now I don't remember if you acctually lose troops when the text occours.. In my campaign, I've also tried to use a lot of the adventure objects in new ways. e.g. In one map you have to poison the Magic Wells and the Trees of Knowledge is used as quests in another. Will give more feedback as I get along the campaign.
The 2nd map was nicely designed with pretty landscapes. Due to troubles in the beginning of map 1, I chose to play as normal difficulty instead of advanced, which I kinda regret, as my opponents has been a bit absent in the past maps (up till map 4). Not much to put my finger on at map2. Worked fine. AI reclaimed towns several times, and I encounterd a hero with a nice combo of spells, celestial armour, giant strengt, heal ect. (lots of boosts and continous healing). Was quite low on damage, but was still a strugle to kill. Great with 5 enemy town located near eacher other. Gave enemy good oppertunity to use caravans and reclaim towns often.
Map 3 I found quite easy, dispite the expert setting, but again I chose regret choosing normal/intermediate. Encountered one rather big enemy, which conquered the underground town. But once I managed to kill their starting hero and slowly capture the two undergroun towns, I was more or less left alone (always a nice idea to block enemy town, to prevent player from capturing all towns. Exicted to find out what Halard and Anna has to do with all this. The part where the vampires discuss the "being a vampire vs. being human" was interesting. Even though it might not bring so much newinfo on vampires, it still worked very well and add more to the story.
Map 4: Simple but effective idea of placing 3 trees of knowledge as the Three Trees. Again only compliments to the landscape. Enemy was rarther absent on this map, and didn't appear untill all Alchemist Labs were under my control. I liked the facts that the quest gates were blocked if orange owned at one Lab. Locked my army up at one time, while the enemy was heading for the middle town of mine (guess that'll teach you not to build up ONE huge army and leave your towns poorly defended). I like how you got the other side of the story, which gave sympati for the organization instead of Shana and Megom. Neutral monsters was in general well balanced. I did however find at the end of the map, that I would suffer less casualties by attacking Shana with just my three heroes and leaving any monster behind. Corona could even go for a one-man army at some points.
Map5 looks astounding at first, haven't begun playing that one yet. Overall the maps seems well tested, and I can't really put a finger on any flaw, which is only good. Please ask for for more feedback if needed.
Map 3 I found quite easy, dispite the expert setting, but again I chose regret choosing normal/intermediate. Encountered one rather big enemy, which conquered the underground town. But once I managed to kill their starting hero and slowly capture the two undergroun towns, I was more or less left alone (always a nice idea to block enemy town, to prevent player from capturing all towns. Exicted to find out what Halard and Anna has to do with all this. The part where the vampires discuss the "being a vampire vs. being human" was interesting. Even though it might not bring so much newinfo on vampires, it still worked very well and add more to the story.
Map 4: Simple but effective idea of placing 3 trees of knowledge as the Three Trees. Again only compliments to the landscape. Enemy was rarther absent on this map, and didn't appear untill all Alchemist Labs were under my control. I liked the facts that the quest gates were blocked if orange owned at one Lab. Locked my army up at one time, while the enemy was heading for the middle town of mine (guess that'll teach you not to build up ONE huge army and leave your towns poorly defended). I like how you got the other side of the story, which gave sympati for the organization instead of Shana and Megom. Neutral monsters was in general well balanced. I did however find at the end of the map, that I would suffer less casualties by attacking Shana with just my three heroes and leaving any monster behind. Corona could even go for a one-man army at some points.
Map5 looks astounding at first, haven't begun playing that one yet. Overall the maps seems well tested, and I can't really put a finger on any flaw, which is only good. Please ask for for more feedback if needed.
The Halard's story is slightly connected with the my previous campaign "Astral Romance". If you didn't played it - i recommend it.Karmakeld wrote: [...] Exicted to find out what Halard and Anna has to do with all this. The part where the vampires discuss the "being a vampire vs. being human" was interesting. Even though it might not bring so much newinfo on vampires, it still worked very well and add more to the story.
Story of Halard and Anna will be continued in the next campaigns - but there's now too little to say.
Maps were heavily tested for errors and balance so there should be no errors.
Do you say it about my campaign or the whole H4?Variol wrote:I really didn't play H4 that much. I found the colours were too washed out and and everything seems to blend.
The campaigns were down right idiotic. I could not figure out where to go, or what to do in any of them.
Update on 5.04
I have already finished the fourth map in the new campaign. It is XL map, but actual space to play is smaller. It is rather three times M sized map rather than one XL. you will know what it is about after plaing it
Further informations I can reveal:
- Human controls mainly Asylum.
- The main character has special skill which can be leveled up through whole campaign.
- The name of the new campain will be Megom Chronicles: Memory Crystal (MC:MC in short).
Some new info I will say after I make next map which will be S or M. In the next map there will be huge pressure on plot and rpg style of playing.
For now I present an image from the fourth map.
Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
I have already finished the fourth map in the new campaign. It is XL map, but actual space to play is smaller. It is rather three times M sized map rather than one XL. you will know what it is about after plaing it
Further informations I can reveal:
- Human controls mainly Asylum.
- The main character has special skill which can be leveled up through whole campaign.
- The name of the new campain will be Megom Chronicles: Memory Crystal (MC:MC in short).
Some new info I will say after I make next map which will be S or M. In the next map there will be huge pressure on plot and rpg style of playing.
For now I present an image from the fourth map.
Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
Update on 27.07
Hello everyone!
I bet you are worried about the MC:MC project. I must admit I had lot of work with my master's degree project, that's why so slow progress since the last entry. But I almost finished the 5th map. It needs more polishing and testing. The map was really annoying to make, since it has tons of placed events, which greatly slowed me down, but I hope playing it will be really engaging. I must add more text and make them nicer and interesting, but whole mechanics of the map is already made.
After I finish it, which will be long after a september (because of my master's degree), I must adjust some changes in the all previous map. I made a system where a variable PATH was propagating from the first map to every next one. With such variable I could change a story or quests in the maps, according to the choice of the player in the first map. But I noticed that this system is unnecessary, because the story is usually linear. It only confuses a player rather than making the campaign more interesting (lot of choices). Maybe I will use this system in the next campaign, but for now, I will resign from it.
Soon after realising the campaign, I will be describing interesting issues about the scripts and editor's complexities, which I discovered during the process of making the campaign.
For now I am searching for a kind-hearted souls, native english people who could help me in the translation and correcting the mistakes in the texts. The messages are written in english, but since I'm not a native speaker they are rather sloppy. It would be great if someone wanted to help me out in re-writing it in a fine fantasy style.
Secondly I search for a graphic/artist, it is rather small stuff to do, but I am not skilled enough to do it myself. If you want to help me please write here or in PM.
For now I will put a screenshot from 5th map, named "Penumbra".
Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
Hello everyone!
I bet you are worried about the MC:MC project. I must admit I had lot of work with my master's degree project, that's why so slow progress since the last entry. But I almost finished the 5th map. It needs more polishing and testing. The map was really annoying to make, since it has tons of placed events, which greatly slowed me down, but I hope playing it will be really engaging. I must add more text and make them nicer and interesting, but whole mechanics of the map is already made.
After I finish it, which will be long after a september (because of my master's degree), I must adjust some changes in the all previous map. I made a system where a variable PATH was propagating from the first map to every next one. With such variable I could change a story or quests in the maps, according to the choice of the player in the first map. But I noticed that this system is unnecessary, because the story is usually linear. It only confuses a player rather than making the campaign more interesting (lot of choices). Maybe I will use this system in the next campaign, but for now, I will resign from it.
Soon after realising the campaign, I will be describing interesting issues about the scripts and editor's complexities, which I discovered during the process of making the campaign.
For now I am searching for a kind-hearted souls, native english people who could help me in the translation and correcting the mistakes in the texts. The messages are written in english, but since I'm not a native speaker they are rather sloppy. It would be great if someone wanted to help me out in re-writing it in a fine fantasy style.
Secondly I search for a graphic/artist, it is rather small stuff to do, but I am not skilled enough to do it myself. If you want to help me please write here or in PM.
For now I will put a screenshot from 5th map, named "Penumbra".
Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
New version of Megom Chronicles: Tales of Souls has been updated. New version is v1.11 and has minor changes in the game. The one greater change is that, Megom doesn't have nobility at a startup. Rest of changes were applied thanks to Karmaked who lately tested the campaign. List of changes you can find in a readme file.
Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
Megom Chronicles: Tales of Souls
Author: Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
Game Version: h4wow
Size: 9 map campaign
Difficulty: Advanced
Human Players: 1
Singleplayer
Graphics: 8
Design: 7
Story/Concept: 8
Overall: 8
Pros: Beautiful landscapes, great story and interesting use of adventure objects which is used in new ways in the story.
Cons: The 1st map is by far the hardest, compared to the rest of the campaign.
In Short: well worth playing if you're looking for a Single-player experience with a great story, that evolves. Several plot twists makes you anxious to find out how it ends. At first the story about Megom - half robot, half golem who tries to find his origin and place where he belongs, was a bit strange compared to the 'normal' fantasy universe, but it turns out the story works quite well. Espcially the use of certain adventure object, map design and text helped setting the surrounding for this campaign.
Comments: Overall I enjoyed this campaign alot. The only downside is the first map being so hard, that I chose to play on intermediate, and this caused some of the later maps, to be less of a challenge. Througout the campaign you get several sides of the same story, and halfway through it became very interesting to find out, if the bad guys weren't bad at all and vice versa. Also alot of great ideas during the campaign. Both concerning design and gameplay.
Map 1: The start gave me a bit of trouble with all the groups around Megom, which were nicely placed by the way. It took me some attempts to figure out how to get past them, 'coz once I've won the first battle with Megom, he'd die during the second one. I also found the map rather challenging enemy vise once it opened up. The victory conditions changed several times, making you think that you're near your goal, but no. The consol was a nice idea, even if I didn't quite get it at first But once I found it, it seemed obvious if one had only paid attention to the surface. Also nice detail around the orbs, simple design, but it add a bit more life to the story. I very much like the ending where he emplementet the design of the Chaos Shrine in the story. Certain text events, like sandstorms also added more life to the map.
Map 2: The 2nd map was nicely designed with pretty landscapes, especially the jungle. Due to troubles in the beginning of map 1, I chose to play with normal difficulty instead of advanced, which I kinda regreted in the second map, as my opponents were a bit absent in this map as well as map 3. The AI reclaimed towns several times, and I encounterd a hero with a nice combo of spells, celestial armour, giant strengt, heal ect. (lots of boosts and continous healing). The hero didn't give much damage, but was still a strugle to kill. Also great with 5 enemy town located near eacher other. That gave the enemy a good oppertunity to use caravans and reclaim towns often. And again a very nice ending of the map, simple design and some text which just gives more dept to the story. As the possibilities available in the map editor can be limited at times, this show how you can add more life to a map with some creative thinking.
Map 3: I found this map to be quite easy, dispite being set as hard, but again I regret choosing normal/intermediate difficulty. I encountered one rather big enemy, who conquered the underground town. But once I managed to kill their starting hero and slowly capture the two undergroun towns, I was more or less left alone. Btw. it's always a nice idea to block an enemy town, in order to prevent player from capturing all towns, allowing th AI to stay in game. You play as a new part of the story in this map. There were interesting part of the issue of "being a vampire vs. being human", even though it might not bring so much new info about vampires, it still worked very well and added more to the story.
Map 4: In the starting point, there was a simple but effective idea of placing 3 trees of knowledge as the Three Trees (Organazition). Again only compliments to the landscape. This time you play yet another side of the story. Elven organization who seeks to kill Megom. The enemy (Shana Rock) was rarther absent on this map, and didn't appear untill all Alchemist Labs were under my control. I liked the facts that the quest gates were blocked if orange owned at least one Lab. That locked up my army at one time, while the enemy was heading for one of my towns (I guess that'll teach you not to build up ONE huge army and leave your towns poorly defended). That way the map design works very well in certain areas. Playing as the elves, you get the other side of the story, which suddenly gives sympati for the organization instead of Shana and Megom. Neutral monsters was in general well balanced. I did however find at the end of the map, that I would suffer less casualties by attacking Shana with just my three heroes and leaving any monster behind. Corona could even go for a one-man army at some points. But again higher difficulty levels might offer more challenge.
Map 5: Very nice landscaping around the starting area was my first thought. Most of the map was a snowy landscape and I find that snowy landscapes often are hard to keep interesting, but it worked out nicely. It didn't become boring to wander through. Likes how the dunes made passages at certain points. Again a great idea to use the magic plane surface around shrines that gives Megom mana. Simple but effective. The idea with the shrines, and how they work differently, encourages the player to plan his/hers route, as Megom are quite voulnerable at times. Tactics skill were needed in order to defeat +50 monks, +250 squires, +50 crusaders, 25 champions and +250 crossbow men. The enemys offered a good challenge in this map. Also a nice new use of pandora box's as treasure chests. The display unit mentioned in the ending, I found to be cool. Again a great way to work with the adventure objects in the game to give the illusion of a display unit. I also like the letters between Megom and Shana, little things that add more life to the story and the switches between maps. Only con would be that the map is huge and there's alot of walking. A deffinit need to split armies.
Map 6: Once more a cool staring point. This time again with Halard the vampire. You soon encounter Xeon, as a starting opponent, who's just a bit too strong for Halard to beat. During my playing of this map, I found a tactic which wasn't entirely intented by the mapmaker, and this has been changed. But it made the map quite easy as both Xeon and Halard would stay in place allowing me to build up an army strong enough to beat Xeon, as the enemy town hadn't yet been opened. Now Xeon turned out to be a opposition to Megon, thus explaining Halard part in this story. The portals made it easy to collect the Ice Demons without having to spend ages on doing so. I enjoyed the couple of hours it took me, and found it fairly challenging. I asume that after the changes have been implemented it will be alot more challenging.
Map 7: I stared on a small island thinking I had to rush through this map, but eventually found that time wasn't that big an issue. This map contained several humorous texts. However far from the rest of the story this map might seem at first, it makes sense in the end. The undergroun contains a chessboard battlefield. The idea and design was great but unfortuantly I didn't quite understand wheter I was to avoid the "pieces/monsters" on the board or only kill certain of them, so I had to seek aid in the read me file. A bit of a shame, really as it was an otherwise great idea with some metaphorically references to your enemy.
Map 8: One of the longest maps of the campaign. This time you again play as the Three Tree Orginazation against the other heroes, whos part of the story, you've played during the previous maps. More plot twist occours as the story evolves, and as a player you really can't help wonder about who is really the good/bad part in this story. Or perhaps it's more complicated than just good vs. evil.
Map 9: The final map. The culmination of all of the previous ones. Simpy explaing that this is below the Three Trees and the terrain is meant to look like the roots of the trees, that suddenly made it more awsome and cool, again simple but effective. Again more twists and a great map design. You'll have to hold a certain town for 120 days, with no chance of taking over enemy towns. You simply get bombarded from time to time. Again a higher level might offer more challenge, but the idea worked very well.
Conclusion: This campaign contained some great and very interesting map designs, beautiful landscapes and a story which goes well with both the landscapes and the design of the maps. It's not hard for the player to be caught by the mood of the campaign and the many 'illusions' that was added, which the editor itself lacked. Highly recomandable.
Errors: All errors have been corrected in v. 1.11 But during my game play I encountered minor spelling mistakes, a few text not translated and some minor unintended gameplay issues occoured, which helped make gameplay a bit easier than intended.
Review Date: Dec. 2012
Author: Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
Game Version: h4wow
Size: 9 map campaign
Difficulty: Advanced
Human Players: 1
Singleplayer
Graphics: 8
Design: 7
Story/Concept: 8
Overall: 8
Pros: Beautiful landscapes, great story and interesting use of adventure objects which is used in new ways in the story.
Cons: The 1st map is by far the hardest, compared to the rest of the campaign.
In Short: well worth playing if you're looking for a Single-player experience with a great story, that evolves. Several plot twists makes you anxious to find out how it ends. At first the story about Megom - half robot, half golem who tries to find his origin and place where he belongs, was a bit strange compared to the 'normal' fantasy universe, but it turns out the story works quite well. Espcially the use of certain adventure object, map design and text helped setting the surrounding for this campaign.
Comments: Overall I enjoyed this campaign alot. The only downside is the first map being so hard, that I chose to play on intermediate, and this caused some of the later maps, to be less of a challenge. Througout the campaign you get several sides of the same story, and halfway through it became very interesting to find out, if the bad guys weren't bad at all and vice versa. Also alot of great ideas during the campaign. Both concerning design and gameplay.
Map 1: The start gave me a bit of trouble with all the groups around Megom, which were nicely placed by the way. It took me some attempts to figure out how to get past them, 'coz once I've won the first battle with Megom, he'd die during the second one. I also found the map rather challenging enemy vise once it opened up. The victory conditions changed several times, making you think that you're near your goal, but no. The consol was a nice idea, even if I didn't quite get it at first But once I found it, it seemed obvious if one had only paid attention to the surface. Also nice detail around the orbs, simple design, but it add a bit more life to the story. I very much like the ending where he emplementet the design of the Chaos Shrine in the story. Certain text events, like sandstorms also added more life to the map.
Map 2: The 2nd map was nicely designed with pretty landscapes, especially the jungle. Due to troubles in the beginning of map 1, I chose to play with normal difficulty instead of advanced, which I kinda regreted in the second map, as my opponents were a bit absent in this map as well as map 3. The AI reclaimed towns several times, and I encounterd a hero with a nice combo of spells, celestial armour, giant strengt, heal ect. (lots of boosts and continous healing). The hero didn't give much damage, but was still a strugle to kill. Also great with 5 enemy town located near eacher other. That gave the enemy a good oppertunity to use caravans and reclaim towns often. And again a very nice ending of the map, simple design and some text which just gives more dept to the story. As the possibilities available in the map editor can be limited at times, this show how you can add more life to a map with some creative thinking.
Map 3: I found this map to be quite easy, dispite being set as hard, but again I regret choosing normal/intermediate difficulty. I encountered one rather big enemy, who conquered the underground town. But once I managed to kill their starting hero and slowly capture the two undergroun towns, I was more or less left alone. Btw. it's always a nice idea to block an enemy town, in order to prevent player from capturing all towns, allowing th AI to stay in game. You play as a new part of the story in this map. There were interesting part of the issue of "being a vampire vs. being human", even though it might not bring so much new info about vampires, it still worked very well and added more to the story.
Map 4: In the starting point, there was a simple but effective idea of placing 3 trees of knowledge as the Three Trees (Organazition). Again only compliments to the landscape. This time you play yet another side of the story. Elven organization who seeks to kill Megom. The enemy (Shana Rock) was rarther absent on this map, and didn't appear untill all Alchemist Labs were under my control. I liked the facts that the quest gates were blocked if orange owned at least one Lab. That locked up my army at one time, while the enemy was heading for one of my towns (I guess that'll teach you not to build up ONE huge army and leave your towns poorly defended). That way the map design works very well in certain areas. Playing as the elves, you get the other side of the story, which suddenly gives sympati for the organization instead of Shana and Megom. Neutral monsters was in general well balanced. I did however find at the end of the map, that I would suffer less casualties by attacking Shana with just my three heroes and leaving any monster behind. Corona could even go for a one-man army at some points. But again higher difficulty levels might offer more challenge.
Map 5: Very nice landscaping around the starting area was my first thought. Most of the map was a snowy landscape and I find that snowy landscapes often are hard to keep interesting, but it worked out nicely. It didn't become boring to wander through. Likes how the dunes made passages at certain points. Again a great idea to use the magic plane surface around shrines that gives Megom mana. Simple but effective. The idea with the shrines, and how they work differently, encourages the player to plan his/hers route, as Megom are quite voulnerable at times. Tactics skill were needed in order to defeat +50 monks, +250 squires, +50 crusaders, 25 champions and +250 crossbow men. The enemys offered a good challenge in this map. Also a nice new use of pandora box's as treasure chests. The display unit mentioned in the ending, I found to be cool. Again a great way to work with the adventure objects in the game to give the illusion of a display unit. I also like the letters between Megom and Shana, little things that add more life to the story and the switches between maps. Only con would be that the map is huge and there's alot of walking. A deffinit need to split armies.
Map 6: Once more a cool staring point. This time again with Halard the vampire. You soon encounter Xeon, as a starting opponent, who's just a bit too strong for Halard to beat. During my playing of this map, I found a tactic which wasn't entirely intented by the mapmaker, and this has been changed. But it made the map quite easy as both Xeon and Halard would stay in place allowing me to build up an army strong enough to beat Xeon, as the enemy town hadn't yet been opened. Now Xeon turned out to be a opposition to Megon, thus explaining Halard part in this story. The portals made it easy to collect the Ice Demons without having to spend ages on doing so. I enjoyed the couple of hours it took me, and found it fairly challenging. I asume that after the changes have been implemented it will be alot more challenging.
Map 7: I stared on a small island thinking I had to rush through this map, but eventually found that time wasn't that big an issue. This map contained several humorous texts. However far from the rest of the story this map might seem at first, it makes sense in the end. The undergroun contains a chessboard battlefield. The idea and design was great but unfortuantly I didn't quite understand wheter I was to avoid the "pieces/monsters" on the board or only kill certain of them, so I had to seek aid in the read me file. A bit of a shame, really as it was an otherwise great idea with some metaphorically references to your enemy.
Map 8: One of the longest maps of the campaign. This time you again play as the Three Tree Orginazation against the other heroes, whos part of the story, you've played during the previous maps. More plot twist occours as the story evolves, and as a player you really can't help wonder about who is really the good/bad part in this story. Or perhaps it's more complicated than just good vs. evil.
Map 9: The final map. The culmination of all of the previous ones. Simpy explaing that this is below the Three Trees and the terrain is meant to look like the roots of the trees, that suddenly made it more awsome and cool, again simple but effective. Again more twists and a great map design. You'll have to hold a certain town for 120 days, with no chance of taking over enemy towns. You simply get bombarded from time to time. Again a higher level might offer more challenge, but the idea worked very well.
Conclusion: This campaign contained some great and very interesting map designs, beautiful landscapes and a story which goes well with both the landscapes and the design of the maps. It's not hard for the player to be caught by the mood of the campaign and the many 'illusions' that was added, which the editor itself lacked. Highly recomandable.
Errors: All errors have been corrected in v. 1.11 But during my game play I encountered minor spelling mistakes, a few text not translated and some minor unintended gameplay issues occoured, which helped make gameplay a bit easier than intended.
Review Date: Dec. 2012
Update on 28.12.12
Thanks Karmakeld for this great review. I am so much pleased that you liked the campain and for you Assryn that you ask for the news. The project is slowly but continually developing. I recently finished the 6th map, it needs some polishing, but i will do it when I will be testing the campaign. I made already some sketches of the 7th map. The most difficult part of this campaign is still ahead of me. According the tradition I post a screenshot of the 6th map.
Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
Thanks Karmakeld for this great review. I am so much pleased that you liked the campain and for you Assryn that you ask for the news. The project is slowly but continually developing. I recently finished the 6th map, it needs some polishing, but i will do it when I will be testing the campaign. I made already some sketches of the 7th map. The most difficult part of this campaign is still ahead of me. According the tradition I post a screenshot of the 6th map.
Michal Krajewski aka Duzeom
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