Test Season Of War

Maps and the art of mapmaking.
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ScarlettP
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Test Season Of War

Unread postby ScarlettP » 06 Mar 2006, 13:43

Yes! This is a shameless Plug!

If you've been missing me on the boards lately, it's because I've been working very hard to finish my H4WoW campaign, Season of War before H5 comes out. I know when the new game arrives, everyone will forget about H4, at least for a long time.

Who knows, you might even find yourself in a battle WITH yourself as almost all of the Heroes are named for board members. Although, many of the names used have left the CH - they will never be forgotten.

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DaemianLucifer
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Re: Test Season Of War

Unread postby DaemianLucifer » 06 Mar 2006, 14:59

ScarlettP wrote:I know when the new game arrives, everyone will forget about H4, at least for a long time.
Not me.Ill still be all over HIV for a long time.

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Kalah
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Unread postby Kalah » 06 Mar 2006, 15:05

@Scarlett:

Give it to me.
In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Goodwill.

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Unread postby Robenhagen » 06 Mar 2006, 16:14


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ScarlettP
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Unread postby ScarlettP » 07 Mar 2006, 01:08

The down load is available from the Front Page of CH. Just to tempt a few more people into looking at it... here are the four Mini Maps and a screen shot for each.

(These were taken from the Editor, that's what the little square in the top left corners are. I also deleted events and random objects that wouldn't look the same in the game.)

Map 1: Summer Threat

Image

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Map 2: Fall Quest

Image

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Map 3: Winter Revenge

Image

Image

Map 4: Spring Homecoming

Image

Image

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Kalah
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Unread postby Kalah » 07 Mar 2006, 02:56

Looks very nice... I'm quite busy this week, so I won't have time for it until the weekend, though.

By the way, is there a watchmaker in the building? Somebody screwed up my internal clock..
In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Goodwill.

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Caradoc
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Unread postby Caradoc » 07 Mar 2006, 08:10

Kalah wrote:Looks very nice... I'm quite busy this week, so I won't have time for it until the weekend, though.

By the way, is there a watchmaker in the building? Somebody screwed up my internal clock..
To reset your internal clock, take a hormone called Melatonin. Get it at the health food store.

(I used to travel a lot and found it is the best way to beat jet lag.)
Before you criticize someone, first walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you'll be a mile away. And you'll have their shoes.

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Unread postby Veldrynus » 07 Mar 2006, 09:02

I like the last picture. It looks like my style.
Veldryn 15:15 And Vel found a dirty old jawbone of a walrus and put forth his hand, and took it, and in his unholy rage, he slew thirty four thousand men and children therewith.

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Unread postby ScarlettP » 07 Mar 2006, 13:26

Thanks Vel! You know I'm heavily influenced by your decorating style. I LOVE IT! Didn't want to exactly COPY your style, that wouldn't be 'right'... but I just can't help sneaking a few of your tricks into places now and then. Wait until you see the 'Twin Cities' in each corner of the 4th map. *giggle* Not NEARLY as heavily decorated as yours, but there is a notable imitation going on. I hope you take it as I ment it - as the most sincere form of flattery.

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Unread postby ScarlettP » 07 Mar 2006, 13:30

If you look at Maps 1 and 4, you will also see where I used the H4Utility to copy the Small Map #1 into the approximent center of Map #4 and then re-worked it. The right (Eastern) side of Map #4 is supposed to mirror the landscape of Map #2. This is SUPPOSED to give you the feel that you are actually moving around in a 'semi-real' world where you actually move across the same places more than once.

ImageImage

It makes the 4th mini map sort of ugly and funny looking, but it wasn't what I had originally planned to do. I WANTED to copy Map1 on the left and Map2 on the right, but couldn't get the Utility to combine two maps into one. I had to work around what I could get, because I REALLY wanted the return to your 'hometown' to be familiar territory. I think the computer sort of FORSED me into making it a better game to play - or at least a LONGER game because this was the only way to make it work.

(Are you guys starting to understand why it took me over 2 years to do this???)
Last edited by ScarlettP on 07 Mar 2006, 13:38, edited 1 time in total.

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Akul
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Re: Test Season Of War

Unread postby Akul » 07 Mar 2006, 13:33

ScarlettP wrote:Yes! This is a shameless Plug!

If you've been missing me on the boards lately, it's because I've been working very hard to finish my H4WoW campaign, Season of War before H5 comes out. I know when the new game arrives, everyone will forget about H4, at least for a long time.

Who knows, you might even find yourself in a battle WITH yourself as almost all of the Heroes are named for board members. Although, many of the names used have left the CH - they will never be forgotten.
No, it won't. H3 will be forgotten for very, very long, if not forever as those two games are similiar. H4 may be forgotten for some time, but because it is different game, it will not be forgotten for very long. At least I won't.
I am back and ready to... ready to... post things.

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Unread postby theLuckyDragon » 07 Mar 2006, 14:06

This looks wonderful!!! Congratulations! :tsup:
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Unread postby Kalah » 07 Mar 2006, 14:25

Darn, I might have to finish my campaign some day as well...
In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Goodwill.

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Unread postby ScarlettP » 08 Mar 2006, 01:14

LOL! Need some help Kalah? I might find some time on my hands. ;)

And THANKS Lucky! I appreciate it.

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Unread postby Kalah » 08 Mar 2006, 01:31

Of course I'd be happy to receive any help you can provide - especially when it comes to the merging of the two stories. As I've said before (looong time ago), I plan on skipping the whole part where I meet you etc., skip forward a couple of hundred years and instead sum up rather quickly what happened. Before that I'll have my showdown with Veldrynus. What happens after the second encounter with him will be told at the beginning of the next map.

Now, I know you've got kids, so there's where your expertise comes in: I need you to explain to me, as you would to a six-year-old, how to use the H4util. :x I have never bothered to learn, and I don't want to spend lots of time doing it.

All this, of course, can wait until I have time and what we Norwegians call "ork". To "ork" to do something is to have the energy. I need some sort of firecracker up my @$$, I think, to get started...
In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Goodwill.

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Unread postby ScarlettP » 08 Mar 2006, 03:43

I'm really lousy at the H4Utility. Haven't even figured out how to do a picture map. However, the guys over on the Map Making Guild have recently posted links to download the Utility and the Runner again and more directions on how to do the pictures. I really want to try that. I've got this beautiful Celtic Knot that I want to make into a map. Believe it or not, I even have an idea for the game. :D

I was enjoying your campaign, as far as it went. I'd be more than happy to help you figure out the rest of it... But you better play MINE before you ask me to do much on yours - you may find that you HATE my style of story writing. ;|

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Unread postby theGryphon » 08 Mar 2006, 05:11

The maps are really intriguing :victory:, if only I had some time to play :(

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Unread postby wimfrits » 08 Mar 2006, 07:08

I'm giving it a try.

Don't have much time to play and write, so I won't get very far. I'm a nitpick as well, so you might not even like my comments ;)

Impressions so far are very good btw.
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

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Unread postby ScarlettP » 08 Mar 2006, 12:14

Thanks Wimfrits! Actually, I don't mind the nit picking if it is for stuff like "That is misspelled." "This Quest Hut's messages aren't firing correctly, try doing it THIS way." That sort of thing. An occational "This is nice." or "That was fun." helps quite a lot. It's that old "Spoonfull of Sugar" kind of thing.

On my Alpha round of testing, I got quite a lot of "The battles are TO easy" and the "Win Scenerio (Gathering Peasants) is annoying." Well... sounds to me like the players were not 'getting' the point of the first map. #1 It was a FIRST map, those are supposed to be easy and #2 How can all the battle be to easy if you can't spare a hero to guard the peasant huts? Image

What I REALLY need to know from Testers is "Can you figure out how to run the Quests???" One of my alpha testers got pretty angry because he couldn't figure out how to get from the South side of the Lake to the North side in Map 2. If he had DONE THE QUESTS and READ THE TEXT he should have known. Or, at least I THINK I made it all clear. That's what I need to know. Did I give enough clues? You can't play this campaign by skipping over all the dialog boxes.

In the defence of that tester, I DID re-write the quest gate passage to the North to try to make it more clear to someone who finds it before fininshing their tasks to meet the requirements. Map 2 is Fall Quest after all, and you have to finish the quest before you can go fight.

Map 3 doesn't have any tricky Win Scenerios or Quests. It's a straight foreward maze and slugfest. Just find your way through and kill everything in sight. Doesn't even have much story to it and very few dialog boxes. Not actually my kind of map, but I tossed it in just for the boys who like to kill things. I didn't get many comments one way or the other on that map, so I can only guess that it was OK.

(BTW- Map 3 is the one that gave me so many headaches with the 'guard' creatures teaming up and coming at the player with HORDES of creatures. I need to know if any of those stacks still get TO strong, or still not strong enough on the higher 'expert' and 'champion' levels.)

Now, the TRICKY part is map 4. NO ONE has played that one except me and I knew what I was doing. I'm afraid most of the players from this board may find the first half rather dull as all you have to do is gather your forces and resistance is nominal... but there is ALOT of story! When you get to the 2nd half of the map, it SHOULD get harder. Again, I need to know if players can find thier way through and are the battles at all interesting (to hard? to easy?) for people who play on the higher levels. (I'm not talking about people who can Fight like Pepak & Wimfrits! I mean the normal players.) It should get more difficult as you progress, but I'm not trying to make this thing "Draconic" or "Angels are Back" difficult either. I was hoping to make a campaign that people could actually find entertaining and be able to WIN!

Who knows, if Kalah and I get our heads together, we might write a sequel that lets you carry over your heroes!

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Unread postby wimfrits » 08 Mar 2006, 12:36

ScarlettP wrote:Thanks Wimfrits! Actually, I don't mind the nit picking if it is for stuff like "That is misspelled." "This Quest Hut's messages aren't firing correctly, try doing it THIS way." That sort of thing. An occational "This is nice." or "That was fun." helps quite a lot. It's that old "Spoonfull of Sugar" kind of thing.
Well... if the tester means it when he says that, sure, I agree.

But what I want a tester most of all is to give his honest thoughts. It won't help me any bit if every tester says 'Ooh this looks nice' when they actually think the graphics are pretty boring. Or 'Maybe you could consider changing the position of these mountains' when they actually think all mountains in the entire map should be removed ;)

I want to get an idea about how the public will feel about things. My testers are the only ones who can give me that idea. Asking a tester to hold their tongues means the eventual map will be of less quality.

For me:
Honesty >> sugar

Anyway, I'm a nitpick about practically everything :D
Didn't read the rest of your post because that could influence the way I play.
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?


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