Duzeom_ wrote:Masters of Sogishoara have topic here too
"Sogishoara"??
Megom Chronicles Project
-
Yurian Stonebow
- Archmage
- Posts: 961
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
- Location: Vantaa, Finland
Re: Thank you
Hi! I am very happy that you liked it. Did you manage even with fire and water puzzle? This was really hard. Maybe you will try the previous campaign?Tal rasha wrote:Hi,
just want to thank you for your time and effort in making this great campaign.
I really enjoyed it, and appreciated the puzzles you made alond the way (all solved :-) )
Best regards
yes, did Water and fire puzzles, all of them! really impressed how you managed to create those puzzles to be honest. I have already played the previous campaign, then I made my daughter play it because I so liked the story line :-) Those are by far those of the most challenging campaigns I have played. I tried to play in champion mode, that was just impossible.. being unable to take combats skills, really required all my skills to survive the battles.
Again, thanks for such a great effort, you really deserve praises for your Work.
Best Regards
Again, thanks for such a great effort, you really deserve praises for your Work.
Best Regards
Memory Crystal campaign hit 1000 downloads! Wow 
For the ones who don't know - in that campaign is new menu music (wandering theme) and new image. You can see it below! So if You hate H4:WOW menu theme (as I do) download this campaign and install new file (equilibris needed). Maybe You will also check out the campaign?
For the ones who don't know - in that campaign is new menu music (wandering theme) and new image. You can see it below! So if You hate H4:WOW menu theme (as I do) download this campaign and install new file (equilibris needed). Maybe You will also check out the campaign?
I've played MC:ToS some time ago. Version 1.0 once and version 1.11 once. Both times in WoW, since the campaign wasn't designed for Equilibris. Here are some comments:
my subjective scores, in no particular order (the scales start at 0):
balance: 1/2 (carryover heroes' strength gets out of hand at times)
robustness: 2/2 (no way to get stuck or totally break the game, intentionally or not)
character introductions: 1/1 (always 1-3 characters introduced simultaneously)
characters: 1/1 (interesting characters)
story: 1/1 (never gets boring)
special gameplay effects: 1/1 (Megom's special skill)
special artistic effects: 1/1 (synergy between landscape and story)
overall: 8/9
Synergy between interesting story and beautiful landscape, diverse map design, stylish intros are definitely high points of the campaign. But the best element is Megom's special ability and the ways it's activated and deactivated. I don't think I've seen something like that in any other map or campaign.
Balance gets a little out of hand at some points if the carryover heroes are well developed. However, most of the time the heroes are presented with adequate challenges.
All in all, the game was enjoyable. I find that the low point was the chess puzzle in map 7. Because of Megom's strength, there was simply no need to avoid fighting.
Also, AI in the last map was quite passive in my second playthrough (I only got attacked once), but that's somewhat understandable, since on that try, I was trying break the game in every map. Still, the fact that it attacked at all means that despite my tries, I didn't manage to totally break the campaign. Good job, Duzeom_.
Below, I comment mainly on gameplay.
MAP 1
Opening story and starting area work very well together. I also liked the in-battle mana regeneration very much.
I actually played this map 3 times: Champion 1.0, Champion 1.11 and... Novice 1.11. Why would I play on Novice? I'll talk about that later.
In every try, when Shana got to the point where I get control of Megom, she was out of movement points, so Megom always released himself without her help (despite what story says). That was funny.
In 1st playthrough, I followed a structure that kind of looked like a road. I knew that it wasn't a road, but it suggested a direction to go. After getting to the Volcano and not finding any enemies, I decided to look for them south of my first town (to avoid getting backstabbed later). In the end, It took me over a month to find the first enemy. Later, I got my whole army destroyed at least once in a town assault and sometimes relied on Immortality Potions on main heroes and castle tower bonuses to keep advancing. Also caught AI off guard a few times and managed to snatch a poorly defended town here and there. One time, AI almost did that to me, but it missed a few steps and a my newly hired Barbarian with a small army (<1 week), some basic equipment and many Immo Potions managed to hold off the invading high level heroes with a comparatively large army. By the end of month 3 all enemies have been eliminated and I could focus on hitting the level cap and taking the bonus skills in right order.
In 2nd playthrough, I already knew where the enemies were, so they were all dead by the end of month 2, but most of them were eliminated in month 1. This time, I had some fun with hit&run Archery squads (some Immo Potions improved their potential).
Now, the Novice playthrough. I noticed that on Novice, I don't have to go north after 'rescuing' Megom. Instead, I turned back south, defeating everything in sight with Megom (his Armageddon was still active). He soon became strong enough to break through the Thunderbirds. He then proceeded to Armageddonize all the coloured opponents, which he finished on 2-1-1. At that point, I quit the Novice playthrough. The opponents did offer some resistance, especially the ones that Megom met last (because they had the most time to prepare).
On Novice, Megom did lose some Golems while fighting the Nature creatures, while on Champion he won with all Golems intact. Strange AI behavior.
MAP 2
At first, I was a little concerned with the time limit, but turned out the limit was very generous. In 1st playthrough, AI was destroyed in 2 weeks. In 2nd, it only took 6 days. After that, I could leisurely pick skills in correct order and never felt pressed by time.
In 2nd playthrough, I also trained Paladins named Corona and Halard, but later on discovered that the correct characters were transferred to the later maps anyway. That means I failed to break the campaign here.
Early on, I had to hurry to secure some skill altars before AI picks them, which is good.
Shana was primarily a Pathfinder, so she wasn't much of a threat in combat when AI controlled her in later maps.
MAP 3
The Ice Demons were an easy early source of experience, which allowed Halard to get GM Necromancy quite early. In 2nd playthrough, he actually got it on day 3 or 4 or something like that. Vampire armies grew fast. However, some neutrals were really nasty, so I had to be very careful not to lose Vampires. I was very surprised when I later learned that most of the neutrals were totally random. Because it means that most of the map had essentially random difficulty.
In 1st playthrough, I was gathering Vampires much slower than on 2nd and noticed the second AI town quite late. Still, neutrals were generally a bigger threat than AI. Both heroes failed to hit the level cap.
On 2nd playthrough, I knew what would Halard face in his next map, so I prepared him as well as I could for that. Halard even hit the level cap, but I didn't focus as much on leveling Anna.
Also made Anna a Crusader. Just because I like doing that to Vampires. (In 1st playthrough, she happened to turn into an Illusionist)
MAP 4
My starting heroes were quite strong, but so were the neutrals. In 1st playthrough, I didn't bother hiring sidekicks and was much less aggressive. Still, the moving coloured enemies were less of a threat than neutrals/Thunderbirds.
Imo, AI lacked some way of effectively backstabbing me. Such as for example hidden one-way portals opening when I cross the boarder.
On 1st try, I haven't noticed that there is a hidden way to the 3 Trees, so my heroes failed to hit the level cap.
MAP 5
Due to extremely high stats, Megom was already strong enough to beat anything alone. I have very few saves from the 1st playthrough, but I did notice that at the begining of this map, Megom somehow still had no Melee or Archery and at the end he still had no Melee. In fact, he never got any Melee in the 1st playthrough of the campaign.
In 2nd playthrough, I decided to let Inuaz with Dragon Golems take out some enemies, too. (to speed things up a little and check how would the Dragon Golems do) He took 2 Order towns and destroyed a significant part of the enemy Order army without losing a single Dragon Golem. Still, I think that preserving them was noticeably harder than preserving Titans would've been. I also noticed a loophole: the +mana events can be triggered by any hero named Megom. So, naturally, almost all of my secondary heroes were named Megom.
MAP 6
On 1st try, Halard was no match for Xeon in the initial battle. After that, GM Necromancy worked well, but in the end, Xeon and his army still put up a good fight. He also made upgrading my heroes harder, because the 1st encounter after the initial battle had to end the map one way or another and Xeon fairly fast gathered enough army to give him confidence.
On 2nd try, I dismissed Anna and won the initial battle, although it wasn't easy. I've also tried to dismiss Halard and win, but in the end failed to do that.
MAP 7
In 1st try, at one point I thought I was stuck (Megom had no healing and no Melee), but then I gave Megom some single Dwarfs to shield him and split the enemy Waspsworts and Mantises into more stacks. Boosted Inferno's and Armageddon's effectiveness was enough to turn the tide and progress further.
On 2nd try, Megom was much stronger and the enemies weren't. Still, mana every other day was a nice touch.
In a way, I think the 'chess puzzle' was a failure. My 'solution' was to go in a straight line, destroying everything that got in the way. The problem was, that since Megom was so strong, I could see no reason to avoid fights. After rescuing Hexa, I actually found some of the 'attacked' tiles to be a good source of experience for her.
MAP 8
AI had a bad habit of getting stuck in a boat under the bridges' edge. That happened to Shana and a part of her army on my first playthrough. It also happened to Shana, Megom and virtually all of their army on my second try, but then I decided not to bother them on their ship. Other than that, the enemies were challenging. Another hard part was trying to get to the permanent bonuses before my ally.
On 2nd try, I dismissed Root and Trunk right before ending the map.
MAP 9
On 1st try, I explored the map and AI did send some large armies, so I had something to fight. I never felt the need to hire any creatures, except for logistic purposes.
On 2nd try, I had a Sprite gather enough resources to build up the first town a little, but never bothered leaving it until the very end and never bothered building any creature dwells or Blacksmith. I got attacked a total of 1 time and that was the only time an enemy came within my sight. Maybe because of the 6 enemy starting heroes 3 had been dismissed earlier and 2 were only level 20?
I think the attacker was some secondary hero with a fairly large army and level 20+. He put up a good fight, but surrendered in the end.
So, in my 2nd playthrough of this map, my 5 heroes fought a total of 4 battles (Titans, Druids, Town, 1 invader) over 4.5 month. Must be some kind of record. Make that 5 battles if we count the final text
I also kind of started MC:MC. Checked what Wands I can get in map 1, how to get them and checked in map 2 which Wand do I want to get and why. Also verified that it's impossible to get 2 Wands (:thumbs up:) and that Grail and Breeze don't carry over. Also noticed that in map 2 there are 4 characters introduced at once. Imo, that's too many characters introduced at once, especially for such an early map.
my subjective scores, in no particular order (the scales start at 0):
balance: 1/2 (carryover heroes' strength gets out of hand at times)
robustness: 2/2 (no way to get stuck or totally break the game, intentionally or not)
character introductions: 1/1 (always 1-3 characters introduced simultaneously)
characters: 1/1 (interesting characters)
story: 1/1 (never gets boring)
special gameplay effects: 1/1 (Megom's special skill)
special artistic effects: 1/1 (synergy between landscape and story)
overall: 8/9
Synergy between interesting story and beautiful landscape, diverse map design, stylish intros are definitely high points of the campaign. But the best element is Megom's special ability and the ways it's activated and deactivated. I don't think I've seen something like that in any other map or campaign.
Balance gets a little out of hand at some points if the carryover heroes are well developed. However, most of the time the heroes are presented with adequate challenges.
All in all, the game was enjoyable. I find that the low point was the chess puzzle in map 7. Because of Megom's strength, there was simply no need to avoid fighting.
Also, AI in the last map was quite passive in my second playthrough (I only got attacked once), but that's somewhat understandable, since on that try, I was trying break the game in every map. Still, the fact that it attacked at all means that despite my tries, I didn't manage to totally break the campaign. Good job, Duzeom_.
Below, I comment mainly on gameplay.
MAP 1
Opening story and starting area work very well together. I also liked the in-battle mana regeneration very much.
I actually played this map 3 times: Champion 1.0, Champion 1.11 and... Novice 1.11. Why would I play on Novice? I'll talk about that later.
In every try, when Shana got to the point where I get control of Megom, she was out of movement points, so Megom always released himself without her help (despite what story says). That was funny.
In 1st playthrough, I followed a structure that kind of looked like a road. I knew that it wasn't a road, but it suggested a direction to go. After getting to the Volcano and not finding any enemies, I decided to look for them south of my first town (to avoid getting backstabbed later). In the end, It took me over a month to find the first enemy. Later, I got my whole army destroyed at least once in a town assault and sometimes relied on Immortality Potions on main heroes and castle tower bonuses to keep advancing. Also caught AI off guard a few times and managed to snatch a poorly defended town here and there. One time, AI almost did that to me, but it missed a few steps and a my newly hired Barbarian with a small army (<1 week), some basic equipment and many Immo Potions managed to hold off the invading high level heroes with a comparatively large army. By the end of month 3 all enemies have been eliminated and I could focus on hitting the level cap and taking the bonus skills in right order.
In 2nd playthrough, I already knew where the enemies were, so they were all dead by the end of month 2, but most of them were eliminated in month 1. This time, I had some fun with hit&run Archery squads (some Immo Potions improved their potential).
Now, the Novice playthrough. I noticed that on Novice, I don't have to go north after 'rescuing' Megom. Instead, I turned back south, defeating everything in sight with Megom (his Armageddon was still active). He soon became strong enough to break through the Thunderbirds. He then proceeded to Armageddonize all the coloured opponents, which he finished on 2-1-1. At that point, I quit the Novice playthrough. The opponents did offer some resistance, especially the ones that Megom met last (because they had the most time to prepare).
On Novice, Megom did lose some Golems while fighting the Nature creatures, while on Champion he won with all Golems intact. Strange AI behavior.
MAP 2
At first, I was a little concerned with the time limit, but turned out the limit was very generous. In 1st playthrough, AI was destroyed in 2 weeks. In 2nd, it only took 6 days. After that, I could leisurely pick skills in correct order and never felt pressed by time.
In 2nd playthrough, I also trained Paladins named Corona and Halard, but later on discovered that the correct characters were transferred to the later maps anyway. That means I failed to break the campaign here.
Early on, I had to hurry to secure some skill altars before AI picks them, which is good.
Shana was primarily a Pathfinder, so she wasn't much of a threat in combat when AI controlled her in later maps.
MAP 3
The Ice Demons were an easy early source of experience, which allowed Halard to get GM Necromancy quite early. In 2nd playthrough, he actually got it on day 3 or 4 or something like that. Vampire armies grew fast. However, some neutrals were really nasty, so I had to be very careful not to lose Vampires. I was very surprised when I later learned that most of the neutrals were totally random. Because it means that most of the map had essentially random difficulty.
In 1st playthrough, I was gathering Vampires much slower than on 2nd and noticed the second AI town quite late. Still, neutrals were generally a bigger threat than AI. Both heroes failed to hit the level cap.
On 2nd playthrough, I knew what would Halard face in his next map, so I prepared him as well as I could for that. Halard even hit the level cap, but I didn't focus as much on leveling Anna.
Also made Anna a Crusader. Just because I like doing that to Vampires. (In 1st playthrough, she happened to turn into an Illusionist)
MAP 4
My starting heroes were quite strong, but so were the neutrals. In 1st playthrough, I didn't bother hiring sidekicks and was much less aggressive. Still, the moving coloured enemies were less of a threat than neutrals/Thunderbirds.
Imo, AI lacked some way of effectively backstabbing me. Such as for example hidden one-way portals opening when I cross the boarder.
On 1st try, I haven't noticed that there is a hidden way to the 3 Trees, so my heroes failed to hit the level cap.
MAP 5
Due to extremely high stats, Megom was already strong enough to beat anything alone. I have very few saves from the 1st playthrough, but I did notice that at the begining of this map, Megom somehow still had no Melee or Archery and at the end he still had no Melee. In fact, he never got any Melee in the 1st playthrough of the campaign.
In 2nd playthrough, I decided to let Inuaz with Dragon Golems take out some enemies, too. (to speed things up a little and check how would the Dragon Golems do) He took 2 Order towns and destroyed a significant part of the enemy Order army without losing a single Dragon Golem. Still, I think that preserving them was noticeably harder than preserving Titans would've been. I also noticed a loophole: the +mana events can be triggered by any hero named Megom. So, naturally, almost all of my secondary heroes were named Megom.
MAP 6
On 1st try, Halard was no match for Xeon in the initial battle. After that, GM Necromancy worked well, but in the end, Xeon and his army still put up a good fight. He also made upgrading my heroes harder, because the 1st encounter after the initial battle had to end the map one way or another and Xeon fairly fast gathered enough army to give him confidence.
On 2nd try, I dismissed Anna and won the initial battle, although it wasn't easy. I've also tried to dismiss Halard and win, but in the end failed to do that.
MAP 7
In 1st try, at one point I thought I was stuck (Megom had no healing and no Melee), but then I gave Megom some single Dwarfs to shield him and split the enemy Waspsworts and Mantises into more stacks. Boosted Inferno's and Armageddon's effectiveness was enough to turn the tide and progress further.
On 2nd try, Megom was much stronger and the enemies weren't. Still, mana every other day was a nice touch.
In a way, I think the 'chess puzzle' was a failure. My 'solution' was to go in a straight line, destroying everything that got in the way. The problem was, that since Megom was so strong, I could see no reason to avoid fights. After rescuing Hexa, I actually found some of the 'attacked' tiles to be a good source of experience for her.
MAP 8
AI had a bad habit of getting stuck in a boat under the bridges' edge. That happened to Shana and a part of her army on my first playthrough. It also happened to Shana, Megom and virtually all of their army on my second try, but then I decided not to bother them on their ship. Other than that, the enemies were challenging. Another hard part was trying to get to the permanent bonuses before my ally.
On 2nd try, I dismissed Root and Trunk right before ending the map.
MAP 9
On 1st try, I explored the map and AI did send some large armies, so I had something to fight. I never felt the need to hire any creatures, except for logistic purposes.
On 2nd try, I had a Sprite gather enough resources to build up the first town a little, but never bothered leaving it until the very end and never bothered building any creature dwells or Blacksmith. I got attacked a total of 1 time and that was the only time an enemy came within my sight. Maybe because of the 6 enemy starting heroes 3 had been dismissed earlier and 2 were only level 20?
I think the attacker was some secondary hero with a fairly large army and level 20+. He put up a good fight, but surrendered in the end.
So, in my 2nd playthrough of this map, my 5 heroes fought a total of 4 battles (Titans, Druids, Town, 1 invader) over 4.5 month. Must be some kind of record. Make that 5 battles if we count the final text
I also kind of started MC:MC. Checked what Wands I can get in map 1, how to get them and checked in map 2 which Wand do I want to get and why. Also verified that it's impossible to get 2 Wands (:thumbs up:) and that Grail and Breeze don't carry over. Also noticed that in map 2 there are 4 characters introduced at once. Imo, that's too many characters introduced at once, especially for such an early map.
Yup. It's that simple. Maciek send me a map where you have a hero who starts next to a tavern and has to cross a border guard who Will only allow you to pass if u have hero named xx. Only way to get pass is to hire a hero and rename that hero to xx 
I'm silent in seven languages - and I got all my familys fear.
Everytime you throw dirt, you loose a little ground
Everytime you throw dirt, you loose a little ground
Okay, I'm past map 1. Tried it with both stationary and mobile guards. I liked it better with mobile guards (despite the daily message reminding me the I shouldn't be doing that), because the Air Elementals seemed more eager to move around rather than stand for a few days right next to the exact spot I wanted to reach. But that may have very well been a random difference in behaviour. With some luck (such as a corner with some obstacles), my Efreet could take on up to 4 Elementals, so I could sometimes win a fight or 2. Too bad mobile guards would've probably broken some later map.
I guess mobile guards would've been fun for a while in map 2, but in the long run, they're too abusable. (they sometimes forget to go back after attacking)
Anyways, onto map 2, stationary guards. After breaking through the garrison with Beholders as soon as I got there (Wand of Illusion is very much abusable), I realized that the nearby way underground doesn't lead to Gloves and Boots. Those require the Blue Key (or alternatively perhaps Summon Ship spell), which also opens a way to the enemy that's just as good if not better than the way through the garrison. So, I don't really need to take the garrison early on. Still, Wand of Illusion was probably a good choice. At least better than Wand of Healing, which I get from a quest early on anyway.
I noticed that there seems to be a chance to be offered Archery, Melee or Resistance in enemy towns while Combat is banned. Strange.
Also noticed that I can't kill the enemy heroes with my armies. But accidents happen. Such as running into a trap event while a lone Orc tries to attack you. I wonder if I can lure the enemy heroes close enough to some battle events?
I guess mobile guards would've been fun for a while in map 2, but in the long run, they're too abusable. (they sometimes forget to go back after attacking)
Anyways, onto map 2, stationary guards. After breaking through the garrison with Beholders as soon as I got there (Wand of Illusion is very much abusable), I realized that the nearby way underground doesn't lead to Gloves and Boots. Those require the Blue Key (or alternatively perhaps Summon Ship spell), which also opens a way to the enemy that's just as good if not better than the way through the garrison. So, I don't really need to take the garrison early on. Still, Wand of Illusion was probably a good choice. At least better than Wand of Healing, which I get from a quest early on anyway.
I noticed that there seems to be a chance to be offered Archery, Melee or Resistance in enemy towns while Combat is banned. Strange.
Also noticed that I can't kill the enemy heroes with my armies. But accidents happen. Such as running into a trap event while a lone Orc tries to attack you. I wonder if I can lure the enemy heroes close enough to some battle events?
Regarding hero naming, you're right it can easily be abused, and the only work around is additional conditions we know the real hero xx will fulfill.
The biggest cheat as I see it, is quest completions, where Player might save some time, being able to use 2 heroes. Regarding Questgates, I don't see that as a big issue, as initial hero often is stronger than the newly hired hero (esp. when it comes to campaigns). So cheating with this might backfire.
Anyway we can't prevent ppl. from cheating
The biggest cheat as I see it, is quest completions, where Player might save some time, being able to use 2 heroes. Regarding Questgates, I don't see that as a big issue, as initial hero often is stronger than the newly hired hero (esp. when it comes to campaigns). So cheating with this might backfire.
Anyway we can't prevent ppl. from cheating
I'm silent in seven languages - and I got all my familys fear.
Everytime you throw dirt, you loose a little ground
Everytime you throw dirt, you loose a little ground
I see this possibility that you buy one hero - name it for example Megom and you stand near quest gate/hut etc, where your real Megom hero can unlock something so that the fake hero can gain reward immediately. This way you don't have to travel back with real Megom hero.
On second hand game gives that possibility that you can change the name - so it is not strictly cheating. It is only not behaving as an author told so. If campaign had a bug which you could exploit would you use it? It basically always brings down to one question - do player want to spoil the experience of the campaign or not.
On second hand game gives that possibility that you can change the name - so it is not strictly cheating. It is only not behaving as an author told so. If campaign had a bug which you could exploit would you use it? It basically always brings down to one question - do player want to spoil the experience of the campaign or not.
There is the downside of your example, at least with campaigns that the reward is wasted regarding carryover heroes, as the fake hero won't be carried over, and in many cases you'd be giving the reward to a much weaker hero, which isn't always in the players favour in the end.
Ofcourse players will try to find loopholes and take advantage of it, but you're right, in the end it's their choice regarding the map experience they want to get.
Ofcourse players will try to find loopholes and take advantage of it, but you're right, in the end it's their choice regarding the map experience they want to get.
I'm silent in seven languages - and I got all my familys fear.
Everytime you throw dirt, you loose a little ground
Everytime you throw dirt, you loose a little ground
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