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Author |
File Description |
Adam the First |
Posted on 12/24/10 @ 05:58 AM (updated 02/03/11)
File Details |
Map Size: |
400x400 (Large) |
Difficulty: |
Impossible |
Made with version: |
1.1 |
Minimap:
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Earath Desert - The Quest of the Prince
„Why have you called me, father?” asked the prince.
„You should know, my son. Today you’ve reached your 21st. Today is the day for the Quest, which in you succed, you will deserve the throne of Bertheon.” said the king.
„What is my task, my king?” asked the prince again. The king then handed a scroll to his son, and said:
„Everything is written here. You shall go by noon, you can carry only a dagger and a flask of water with you, nothing else! You have seven days for the quest, if you don’t return after the days have passed, you will be banished from the kingdom forever.”
Win Conditions
-2000 golds
-175 breads
-75% blessed
-60% drinking ale
-No Enemies & Invasions left
-15 years to complete the mission
ZIP contains
-The Rest of the story
-Minimap
Author's Notes
I've made this map in a few hours and just for fun. I've designed the map to be very hard, so play it only, if you want a great challenge.
The map has very limited resources and hard-to-earn economic goals.
Update:4>
-Some changes in the map design |
Author | Comments ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Lord_of_Hell |
Posted on 12/28/10 @ 07:17 AM
Playability: 4
There are none, or very few maps like this. Sure, anyone can do a desert and set a couple of eco goals, but once you play this one, you realize that's by far not all. Simplicity is what makes this map special and the way the author achieved a concentrated eco-vasion in a poor map. Actually there are plenty of resources but a big lack of wood - which makes the mines to develop very slowly. Lions overwhelming, troops strike-ing when you really wouldn't want to and a long lose-time limit and still someone could say it needs a few years more - All of that bothers the player and a few troops in a constant matter. This is a map that keeps busy even a skilled player and certainly, after so many tries of replaying to win it, you're not going to play it too soon again.
Balance: 5
I have to congratulate the mapmaker for his achievement in difficulty. I see it has only a couple of downloads now, of course it's released a couple of days ago and honesly the minimap doesn't look spectacular. However if 1000 normal players would download it, I don't think more than 5% would actually win it. The author warned people it's a hard map, and it is. Crusader doesn't have the posibility to switch on multiple difficulty levels, here a map's difficulty relies on the player. One cannot try it on 'easy' to get used to events and invasions then rise the difficulty mode and a map is either possible or not.I believe that for a map made in just a day, achieving a balance that really makes trouble to skilled players is actually impressive; it's about that line which sits under imposibility and above possible. Ok, enough with theory, I think I made miself understood about the difficulty of the map. Some would say a map hard like this can't get a 5 even if they eventually won it, but when a map is hard but possible, that's the fair score. Now getting to the map, lions can produce by far more damage than the invasions. One can lose all his troops only in the first lions strike, and one may lose none. It's about how clever the player is. Archers are key against all the dangers, melee troops are also important but one can loose all his hand-to-hand combat troops just with the lions; the secret is to combine both the missile and melee troops. Lions are slow in the sand, but the strenght approaching is real. The first invasions more like bothers the player rather than consisting a real threat (that if the player has all the troops). However the player must not use with that, as after a while much larger invasions will come. Troops training is a must and so is the defending of the resource buildings. Nasty slaves comes often, luckily they're weak and just a swordsman can take all of them if he's in a good position (he's slow, remember). Also, trees are present in a very small number and woodcutters must not spam the oasis or all the trees will go in heavens before you realize. I could write a book about this but unfortunately I'm not going to become a writer. Awesome difficulty overall, there are aspects that can make it even harder, but it's hard enough as it is.
Creativity: 5
A 5 is well-deserved here as well. The author showed through this map that simplicity is a way of designing which not many mapmakers exploited it. Of course, simple terrain but in the same time as much natural-looking as possible. After finally winning the map I wished to study the so-many-years-long gameplay, and to my surprise I had nothing to study. Simple scripting, only a few events, conditions and invasions, anyone could do it, and still many people likes to do complex things, both in design and scriping. Most of the times they fail. The author didn't show a vast editor knowledge and creativity by watching what he did, but by watching what he achieved. An excellent map and outstanding creavity. The story is probably the last thing a mapmaker does and still the author showed interest into making it.
Map Design: 4
Would be useless to point the simple but nice design again so I'll point the things which I believe stands against a full mark on map design category.
The sands were fine, so was the oasis. Two things are not 'perfect'. The desert cactus were spread randomly. It's obvious. every cactus is equally distanced from another. That's not the course of nature. Some could be closer than others, some could be in larger or smaller groups and some areas would have a lack of cactus and instead, some bushes.
The other negative aspect was the iron and stone mines. They didn't look good. Stone was placed only near other stones, like they would grow from big in the middle to small at the edges. Wind causes small rocks to distance from bigger ones. Finally, the stone and iron resources looked a bit straight and were placed only on a side of the rocks. Here, using the smaller editor tool (one dot) and the iron or stone resource can be spread randomly around the rock and it will look far better.
Story/Instructions: 5
Not much to say here, the story was written with care and it reads very well. Another well-done job.
Thanks for this challenging map. |
Adam the First
File Author |
Posted on 12/28/10 @ 06:23 PM
WOW! I'm glad you enjoyed playing my map and thank you for your detailed review, Lord_of_Hell!
As for the design, I'm not so familiar with the Crusader map editor, but I felt I had to do there somehting, and now I see it was worth. I had never excepted such a high score for a map I made in a very short time, so thank you again, you've made my day! :D
Regards,
Adam the First[Edited on 12/28/10 @ 06:30 PM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 581 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 684.07 KB |
Added: | 12/24/10 |
Updated: | 02/03/11 |
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