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Lone Piper Hill Stand-off
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Author |
File Description |
cooltempoze |
Posted on 08/04/06 @ 06:25 AM
File Details |
Map Size: |
300x300 (Medium) |
Difficulty: |
Normal |
Minimap:
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Ok the story goes like this. Many many decades ago a great castle stood atop the very hill the Stronghold is located now. It was the site for a massive battle that lasted 30 days! Hundreds of thousands of men died over those 30 days! Finally all but 1 man were slaughtered or had died from exhaustion. This lone man happened to be a piper and he stood alone atop the smouldering ruins of the stronghold he once called home and played his pipes whilst the sun set on the 30th day of the battle. It was written that that days sunset was a deep blood red all round the region. It was rumoured that the cause was the blood from the many thousands that died in battle. The hill was affectionatly named Lone Piper Hill after a local from the nearby village found the piper atop the ruins at sunset, surrounded by a mass of decomposing bodies and lots of blood 'n' guts 'n' gore.
This starts off with a relatively small band of the Wolfs troops. Then some wolves and then anothe slightly larger army of troops then some more wolves and then the mother of all armies. 500 enemy troops trying to destroy you. Build up resources and weapons quickly. The surrounding terrain was designed to give you some advantage but I have been beaten a few times in testing so I think it will be a challenge for you. Good luck and have fun. |
Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Sempi_Warrior |
Posted on 08/04/06 @ 05:57 PM
Edited: Adjusted to reflect I won map on Normal Level.
Hi cooltempoze. I have been a lurker of this site and the occasional downloader for quite awhile now. I just downloaded your map to see what it was like. I must say that this is a great map.
Playing Level: 5000
Troops Lost: 13%
Score: 13700
I know this isn't an actual review, but I used the same format to make sure I hit all the points.
Playability: I liked playing this map alot. Strategic placement of defenses is a must. The first couple of invasions happen before you have any real defenses up and leads to a couple of nail biting conflicts. They are winnable but one of them had my missile troops killing the last man in the stronghold, eeks!
I had to play this 5 times to win it on Normal which I didn't mind because it was easy to see how to adjust my tactics to survive the next time.
To note there is a long gap between the 2nd to last and last invasion. At first, this seemed a little boring until I realized you put this in to plan your defenses for the last invasion.
I would note a minor thing. I hear that bandits are operating around the castle, but the three times I've played I never saw or fought any of them.
Balance: I played all the games on normal. So far it is well balanced for a normal game. The armies get progressively bigger and you definately have to plan to survive the last battle. It is big and definately the crux of the map. Everything you do will be to survive that battle.
It seems like you have everything available in the market, this may not be a wise move. I know there are a couple of tricks where the player can use this their advantage, but considering I had to use it profusely I didn't think it detracted from the overall game.
Creativity: At first it seemed kind of simplistic, but as I played it and replayed it, it became apparant you put alot of time and effort into the overall tactical construction. I think you pulled it of rather well.
Map Design: The map is a tool for tactics. You used it to balance how the player gets resources, and makes sure that not everything is easily available. The way you built the map you force the player to defend multiple points so there won't be any bottlenecking.
The map does look a little simple. From the minmap it looks great, but it lacks on the detail side. All the stone is in one area, the iron in another, and the pitch in another. The river has a couple of bumps in it which seems a little odd. If you broke up the resources a little, put them in various spots and not gave quite so much, it could have definately improved the map.
I do have a pet peeve to point out. I do not like maps where the stronghold is placed on the edge of the map. Its hard to see the whole thing, and makes me feel slightly claustrophobic. I'm not trying to get you to change its position on this map but on your next design you might want to consider moving it a little more towards the center. I also wanted to let you know I needed a large number of woodcutters to clear the 2 plains that led towards the waterfall. You might have planned that on purpose or it might have been me.
Story/Instructions: There doesn't seem to be any story, just a few lines. Instructions also seem to be minimal, but I think the basic plot of the map doesn't lead to needing complex instruction.
Additional Comments: Overall this was a rather enjoyable map that required a bit of technical thought.
I believe for your first effort it is a great start, a nice solid foundation to build on. Based on the outcome of this I would definately download another one of your maps.
If you would like a numbered review, ask and I will put one up.[Edited on 08/05/06 @ 05:20 PM]
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cooltempoze
File Author |
Posted on 08/08/06 @ 07:58 AM
Well Thank-you Sempi-Warrior for your very kind review. That indeed was my very first attempt. I shall look into that bandit thing. And yes I must agree with you the castle's position is annoying. This game was designed just for one thing...
BLOODY MERCILESS OUTRIGHT WAR!!! and heaps of bodies!It was as the title says a stand-off against the Wolf's most biggest army. I wanted a game where I had the ability to grow abundant food with abundant wood and iron and stone set a bit further apart and seperate. Then to get to slaughter massive armies of men with my massive army...hehehe. The idea was to start off with a small group, easily taken care of with a few archers and a couple of macemen. At the same time you want to have at least 5 woodcutters on each of the two nearby plains. Fill the valley floor with cows and apples and have 3 wheat and 2 oats. Get iron early and every now and again sell of your excess wood and bread for some iron. Set up at least 2 defence towers with catapult and or that huge arrow thingy and a few archers with a burning thingy whizz-bang next to 'em. Slowly build up your weapons production and armours. Lay at least 2 granaries together and 6 hunters, 2 weapons storage.Fill all your towers and stronghold with macemen and archers and knights and have a standby army of another 50 plus men waiting to fill in halfway through the last battle, because the last battle, you gonna need every man and weapon you got and then some! You have been warned. Then thats it! If you win it's over , if you lose it's over. It took me 3 attempts and on the last attempt I still lost 50% of my men, and most of my buildings and farms were destroyed and the population had fled. LOL. Well I enjoyed making it. I must figure out that bandit thing and I might adjust the map and castle so look out for
"Lone Piper Hill Stand-off v1.1" hehehe
Ok well thanks anyway and you can give me a numerical rating if you like. i'll take whatever you give me. If you like my game so much why don't you all check out my music I remix for other artists on my other site I visit often is www.acidplanet.com. Just do a search on artists name 'cooltempoze' and check out my songs. You can listen to them or download the MP3 files if you register, it's free to register. Some famous artists like Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, De La Soul, Gene Simmons even, New Order, Depeche Mode as well as heaps of other artists you may never have heard of let you download the parts of a song they allow you to remix and away you go and make your own remix and then you submit it to this website and your peers listen and review your song and if it's good enough you win prizes! So go check my music out too. You won't be dissapointed...Cheerz...Cooltempoze |
ericgolf
Staff |
Posted on 08/20/06 @ 01:17 PM
I really enjoyed this map. I had fun figuring out where the choke points and attack routes were. It was great to cream the final invasion. It is a VERY big invasion on VHard setting :-) Early on I was lulled into a false sense of security. It is quite a sneaky bit of terrain ;-)
Thanks for putting it up for us to DL :-)
Eric McGolf |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 304 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 512.45 KB |
Added: | 08/04/06 |
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