H4 The Reckoning campaigns

[Karmakeld]

Well as long as they Are combined I think u could allow testers to try it. Else om me and I might find time to help

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

Well as long as they Are combined I think u could allow testers to try it. Else om me and I might find time to help

The only reason I was thinking about not releasing it for testing is because when I finish the next map, I would basically be releasing the same first two maps + the next, and testers would have to go through the first two again, correct?

That's why I hesitate to put it out for testing

[Karmakeld]

No, If e.g. I were to test the first two maps now and you would send me the next in like three months, I would still have the same carried over hero in the third map. The thing you need to make sure is, that you DON'T change the map file name - like from v.0.98 to v.1.0 -before the last map has been tested. This can cause issues, other than that it should be no problem
You think that the problem is in series of maps, but if tester makes a save before completion of second map, you should be able to load and upon completion, gain access to the newly added map.
But to make sure you Can easily test this in a costom map. (i dont have time to Try this myself till saturday)

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

Oh nice, I was actually wondering if that worked. I'll give it a test once I finish the current map and before I create the third map in the campaign editor.

That would make me feel a lot better about getting this in the testing section !

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

Update:

Scripting for the second map is complete and the map can be completed. I'm currently working on balancing (which is a pain!) !

I do still have a small amount of story to write, but then I can release the first two maps for testing when I finish balancing!

I'm excited and hope it will be as enjoyable for others to play through these maps / get the story of The Reckoning as it is for me

[Taro]

So when can we play these two maps?

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

So when can we play these two maps?

I don't have a for sure date / number of days left, but it's certainly close I have some more balancing to do and a small amount of story left to write, and then it's ready to release.

I'll still want to go back and add some landscaping stuff, but I'm happy with it for the most part as it currently is

I've had a little writer's block for the part of the story I haven't written yet, but the last couple days I've managed to brainstorm some stuff that I like, so I just need to verify that it fits with other things going on at the same time, and then I'll have it hashed out.

During my writer's block for this specific part, however, I have been designing / writing for the next map

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

So, I was close to being done with the first two maps, until I stumbled upon an area in the second map that I told myself I would come back to later. I had left the scripting to be done later, as well as a re-write of the story / dialogue.

The scripting and the story are now done for the first two maps, and I would be doing a couple run throughs of the maps for editing, except I am now sort of re-writing the story. My plan was to write the story in a style similar to my favorite book series (A Song of Ice and Fire), but I hadn't actually read them in a while. So, rather than do a quick look over a few chapters of one of those books before I started writing, I just wrote everything for the first two maps.

Well, after checking a couple chapters from A Game of Thrones, I realized I was just slightly off on the point of view style that George R. R. Martin uses.

So. Now I'm basically converting the 90 pages of text in Microsoft Word to the point of view style I wanted to use for this story. It's not difficult, but it is tedious, and since there is so much writing, kind of a pain in the ass, but I'm making progress. Once it's all written, I can start updating the actual map with the new text.

Then I can do a couple run throughs to edit / check the flow of the story.

Then I'll get the campaign uploaded for anyone who is interested in helping me test.

I will warn you, this campaign is going to be heavy in story telling / dialogue. So if you don't want / like to read, these maps won't be for you.

[Namerutan]

What I'm trying to do with the elevation tool is something similar to what Kalah posted in this thread. Have a look at that fortress in the middle. Simply amazing idea and I want to use some of that for my maps, I just need to get a little more adept at using the elevation tool because I would like a plateau similar to that one for my cities

I know I come very late, but maybe somebody could find this useful.
To raise any size and shape, apply Water_Shallow terrain (or any terrain usually to be flat, like Swamp_Shallow) to the desired zone, then use the elevation tool to raise the whole area in just 1 click; later you can change the terrain again and rework partial elevations.


Note: It will not work if you leave the "Max effect distance" in the minimum value).

[Taro]

Namerutan, I checked this and it works in fact. That was pretty smart.

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

I know I come very late, but maybe somebody could find this useful.
To raise any size and shape, apply Water_Shallow terrain (or any terrain usually to be flat, like Swamp_Shallow) to the desired zone, then use the elevation tool to raise the whole area in just 1 click; later you can change the terrain again and rework partial elevations.

Note: It will not work if you leave the "Max effect distance" in the minimum value).

Better late than never Namerutan

I figured out how to do this, but the way I was doing it takes a lot more work than your way.

For my third map, I was planning to raise the entire map, but doing it the way I was would have taken a lot more time, so thanks for this solution!

[Vlad The Devil]

I will warn you, this campaign is going to be heavy in story telling / dialogue. So if you don't want / like to read, these maps won't be for you.

Haha the thing I love most Really looking forward to the campaign man. I will gladly help you with the testing part if you need it btw. Should be fun

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

Haha the thing I love most Really looking forward to the campaign man. I will gladly help you with the testing part if you need it btw. Should be fun

I'm glad man! Hope you enjoy it

I've edited / converted about 22 pages so far out of 90.. Going to take a little time, but I'll get there eventually!

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

So, I've almost finished with converting / editing the story text. I have about 3-4 more pages to go.

But.. I've had a bit of a setback. While trying to download a game with GOG's Galaxy client (I figured, I've got this thing, might as well test it out), the client crashed about midway through, gave me the blue screen of death, and basically wrecked my computer.

The day it happened I was able to restart my computer eventually, and I thought maybe something else had caused it (computer thinking there is no keyboard because the batteries in my wireless keyboard died).

Either way, my computer is no longer starting. As soon as I turn it on the CPU just spins and nothing happens. Luckily after I was able to restart, I saved off my folders containing all of my story stuff and the h4 file for my campaign (I would be able to get it off of the hard drive, but that would be a hassle compared to just saving it to a USB and transferring it).

I have a super old laptop (2004 thinkpad), which actually still works (except for the screen), so I'm going to see about installing h4 on it and go from there.

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

Alright, my old laptop runs H4 just fine, so I've been able to keep pushing forward.

I finished updating the story and getting all the text back into the map. I've run through and done a round of editing and caught most of the mistakes in my writing.

I believe I'm on my last round of map updates (working on fixing logic for stuff that should only happen when the main heroes are present and be ignored if the player is just scouting around). I have the logic in place, but just need to run through and test everything to be sure (as I'm writing this I just thought of something else that needs to be tweaked).

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

I'm a bit nervous, but here we go: The first two maps have been tested to the best of my ability and I just emailed my campaign to CH to post for testing!

That's not to say that you have to wait for CH to post it to their map test area. If anyone is interested in helping me test it, please feel free to shoot me a pm with your email

Also, if you do decide to test, please don't post any map spoilers in here (pm / email me instead )

The only thing I'm currently missing is adjustable difficulty. There is only one difficulty right now -> easy. I'll get to that though

[Taro]

Is this for standard or equilibris?

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

Is this for standard or equilibris?

It's Winds of War.

[Taro]

I sent ya my e-mail by pm. Send me these maps, I'm pretty interested how they look like

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

I sent ya my e-mail by pm. Send me these maps, I'm pretty interested how they look like

I still haven't gotten the pm, but I won't be able to send you the campaign until later tonight when I get home anyway