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| Author |
File Description |
| ericgolf |
Posted on 04/16/04 @ 12:00 AM
| File Details |
|---|
| Map Size: |
400x400 (Large) |
| Difficulty: |
Hard |
| Made with version: |
1.1 |
 Banished from the land by the King following the unfortunate incident with the King's daughter, you have been wandering the Outlands for several years looking for somewhere quiet. Somewhere out of the way. Somewhere where no one will notice you settling down to the quiet life. Rumours of a lost world reach your ears. "Right then chaps!" you announce to your faithful band of not-too-bright followers. "Let's see if this Lost world really exists, shall we?" Your most stalwart old retainer, Stan, looks up from his sandwich. "Can't be bothered Boss". You decide to resort to subterfuge. You mention in an offhand way, "I hear there's gold there". Suddenly your faithful band of followers is wide-awake. "Good idea Boss", says Stan. "Yeah. Let's go", says Arthur the archer. And so, after many a long month threading your way through the mountain passes you reach the Lost World. This hidden place holds an abundant forest. It seems fertile and there is a small amount of game. But there is no sign of any successful settlement ever being established here. Perhaps danger and disease lurk beneath this land's placid surface. And alas you find no gold - just a few patches of iron.
Your long journey has left you short of food and supplies. You have barely enough wood to build a granary and a few woodcutters' huts. Still, you have to start somewhere and you set to carving out a homestead in the forest. Once established you will need to work hard to maintain your popularity. The people won't forget your unfulfilled promise of gold. But have others heard that rumour you carelessly started?........
Note:
I originally submitted this as Normal difficulty. Perhaps this was optimistic. It is Hard. There will be times when you struggle and have to try again with some new tactic. I've included the likelihood of many setbacks to balance the huge resource of trees which, once cleared uncover a vast expanse of valley floor. I've allowed every option except the Market. You will have to make everything from scratch including your armoury and barracks.
It is likely that various strategies may be successful. Although all options are available, I have found that it is not possible to pursue all my favourite weapons at the same time due to resource placement, invasions and other setbacks. I have tried to make it hard to build towers overlooking the signpost to bombard the invasion armies as they assemble.
Hints:
It turns out that it was wolves that have prevented settlements taking root in the Lost World. After building the granary and storing your meagre food supply, you have only ten wood and arms for seven men. You will need to get your armoury and barracks up fast and then take further steps to protect your settlement from the wolf packs. Once established food, weaponry, popularity, and fortifications are all needed yesterday. Good luck. (I was going to say "..and good hunting", but I found my hunters did not survive long out there! But I think they earned their keep)
Maps by ericgolf:- The New World series: 1. May your god go with you 2. Little Keep on the Prairie 3. La Muerte Negra 4. La Muerte Negra (Eco) 5. Mined Over Matter. Also: my first map: Lost World (This map)
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| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
|---|
| Lord Ako |
Posted on 04/18/04 @ 12:00 AM
Played at hard, needed 10 tries.
Playability 5
You should know that I like to earn my victories so I did't really bother me that I needed so many tries.
This is hard one, but not unwinnable.
It took quite a few tries to figure out the correct build order and getting the economy up and running.
There are lots of invasion and events that will keep you busy, if not stressed out all the time. I liked that but didn't have the gamespeed any higher than 40 as a result of it. The best strategy for me was to build a small wooden castle with a moat and stone gate and some towers and just build x-bows like mad. At the end I had 170 x-bows, but I needed them too! Overall the gameplay was highly challenging and addictive and I had a lot of options, really liked it.
Balance 4
Hard but not unwinnable, I think most people should at least be able to beat it at normal or easy difficulty.
The invasions were large and I needed to reload occasionaly and the economy was plagued by fires, wolves and bandits all the time. I think these could be toned down a little, especially the fires. Overall a good challenge, but perhaps a bit too hard.
Creativity 3
The author has written a good story and backed it up with a nice scenario. Because the map itself was nothing special and there was nothing really new creativity overall is average.
Map Design 3
A nice looking map, but nothing special. Some effort has been made, and big forests always look good so it's not bad to look at. I liked how you blocked the lower half of the map from keep placement by placing marsh tiles.
I also liked resource placement and the litlle lake at the left side of the map.
Story/Instructions 3 > 5
The dicription page is not good enough, but there is a good and lenghty story inside the map, with nice characters and settings.
The description page lacks the full story, a bit more on what to expect,(especially that is is so hard) and some tips. I would also advice to put up a minimap and also to change the difficulty indication from normal to hard.
[EDIT] After the update all my points on story instructions are moot and I have updated my score to reflect these great changes.
Concluding, I would recommend this map to anyone that likes a good challenge, you'll probably have a lot of fun.
To the author I would say: try to improve your map design skills especially, and your next map could be up in the 4+ score! Good luck, Lord Ako.
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ericgolf
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 04/19/04 @ 12:00 AM
You are right about the creativity (or lack of it) of the map. All the work I put into the ground was with a view to game play and scenario function rather than looks (apart from the spring at the stone pile which I added as, what I hoped would be, an atractive hint on where might be a good spot to place the keep). I remodelled several times to get the larger invasions arriving and forming up where the player should not be able to reach them with tower-borne missiles until they start to attack. I eventually found that the AI needed the only gap in the rocks to be at the cannion mouth if that's where I wanted the armies to arrive. So every map edge tile is a rock apart from those few near the signpost. |
| peter2008 |
Posted on 10/22/08 @ 08:52 AM
"Hard but not unwinnable" ... nice to know of it. Found out about timing (kill the wolves and bandits fast for the sake of popularity) and Stronghold 1 gold explosion (after having the wheat chain running). But need more tries in this absolutely dense scenario :). |
 
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 4.0 | | Breakdown |
|---|
| Playability | 5.0 | | Balance | 4.0 | | Creativity | 3.0 | | Map Design | 3.0 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 1,042 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 668.31 KB |
| Added: | 04/16/04 |
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