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A Giant Once Walked Here - Ver 2
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| Author |
File Description |
| Bismuth |
Posted on 11/21/04 @ 12:00 AM (updated 12/05/04)
| File Details |
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| Map Size: |
400x400 (Large) |
| Difficulty: |
Normal |
Minimap:
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THEY SAY A GIANT ONCE WALKED HERE
They say a giant once walked here. (As for myself, I don’t believe it. A GIANT?)
They say it happened a long time ago. He came out of the mountains one day - a great huge creature. And very hungry too! He demanded food and said he wouldn’t leave until they fed him. (But this is just an old story, it can’t be true.)
When the people refused to give him food he got angry; he began to crush houses and kill people. There was a terrible fight and most of the town was destroyed. (There are some old ruins across the valley, I don’t know where they came from. Perhaps that was once a town?)
Though he was enormous and powerful, the arrows and spears of the townspeople finally prevailed and they killed the giant. (But then what would you do with the giant's body? How could you bury something so big? Where would you put it?)
But just before he died, he warned them that another giant would come who was hungrier and bigger than he, and then they’d be sorry. (What if another giant DOES come? What would we feed him? How could we defend ourselves against a giant?)
Perhaps we should get ready. (Just in case the story is true.) The soil that washes down from the hills behind our settlement is unusually fertile. Wheat should grow well here. Perhaps we could make flour and bake bread. (But how many loaves would it take to feed a giant?) We can quarry fine white stone from the hills - stone to fortify and protect ourselves from the giant. (Such odd stone too, with a strange texture. But it would make strong walls and gates.) Yes, perhaps we should prepare. (Just in case.)
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And you, my dear friend, have until January 1184 to store up 900 loaves of bread to satisfy a giant hunger. Along the way you will encounter various natural calamities. The prosperity of your settlement will also attract your greedy neighbor in the next valley – the Pig and his cohorts. Prepare to defend yourself against his attacks.
If you fail to reach the 900 loaf goal, you must assume that a giant who delays his coming will be even hungrier – you will be given a second chance for victory with a new goal to store up 1200 loaves by January 1189. But beware of the Pig.
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The player of average skill should attempt this game on NORMAL.
Hope you enjoy the humor and challenge of the game. Your comments and reviews are always welcome. BISMUTH (johnregstuff@hotmail.com)
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UPDATE 24 Nov 2004: The download file now contains a series of hints to help the player having difficulty. The first 90 downloads did not get these hints.
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Thankyou Colosseum and Duc de Noisiel for the detailed reviews. So now I am not sure if the map is too easy or too hard! (smile) but I am glad you both found it fun to play.
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Thank you NAT for your very positive review. So you won on VERY HARD eh? Excellent work but I think this means it is time to tweak the scenario a bit....
And thank you JuBuOrangie for your kind review! Yes, you discovered some of the "barriers" to victory. The hint files in the download zip may help. Regarding the buried giant - I would say it is a very shallow grave!
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UPDATE 5 December 04: Map Version 2 - This version includes a stone block win requirement and some events and invasions have been adjusted to increase the challenge. The first 228 downloads got earlier versions. |
| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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| Colosseum |
Posted on 11/24/04 @ 12:00 AM
PLAYABILITY: 4 out of 5
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This map could have gotten a 5 out of 5 on this. The small starting amount of wood makes it nearly impossible to build anytyhing, and when I did get something built, I had to wait for 2 (game) months before the woodcutters brought in any wood. I had lots of troule fighting off the Pig's attacks, mainly because I didn't have any wood to make weapons with! Other than those few shortcomings, the playability is great!
BALANCE: 3 out of 5
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Once again, I have to stress the fact that a new player might not be able to make it through the first few years of game play. The Pig's attacks are a little on the strong side, but they are beatable. I was really mad when I noticed that bears were killing my lumberjacks!! And then wolves attacked! The disasters are few and far between, but they do nail you whenever they occur. I would tone these down a little bit.
CREATIVITY: 5 out of 5
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From what I've heard, you are a very creative designer, and this map certainyl shows that. I mean, come on, it's a skeleton made out of land elevation with quarries on the thigh bones, what's cooler than that?!!
MAP DESIGN: 5 out of 5
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The map design was excellent! The mini map picture was really what convinced me to download this map. Also, the use of elevation in conjunction with sparse trees/rocks/bushes gives a neat and interesting effect. The rock outcrops looked excellent as well, as did the small streams that ran the length of the map.
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: 5 out of 5
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You wrote quite an interesting backstory. The map was also never without warnings of fires, with a scribe even telling me to make wells! All in all, great story!
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CONCLUSION:
This was one great map! I really enjoyed playing it, and just looking at it! Although it frustrated me at times, I kept playing because it was a hard goal to make, and I usually don't turn back in Invasion games. I must say though, this map was fantastic! It had a good story, good map design and was extremely creative.
Kudos to Bismuth for a great map!!! |
| Duc de Noisiel |
Posted on 11/25/04 @ 12:00 AM
Once the wolves, the bears and the pig invasions are managed, it's not too difficult to get the wood needed. I did not enclose the keep neither built any walls and set the buildings in a way it would not do too much damage when there would be fires. I faced two fires but had enough wood to immediatly keep the economy runing. I ended up with 3 windmills, 20 bakeries and 8 or 9 wheat farms. I even paused the woodcutters to keep some place for wheat and flour on the stock pile. I did not like too much not to be able to build stockpile as I never keep it along the dungeon.
Balance: 3
A bit touch and go to get started, but after trying different things, I ended up with an economy running quite smoothly. A plague or two and/or some bandits could do.
Creativity: 5
Pretty nice idea of a giant killed in an ancient time.... Did you just think "Gulliver"...?
Map design: 5
I say: Yeah!
Story: 5
A fear of another hungry giant coming to diner.... What if he wants some meat?
The rumour, the legend, the myth all squeezed together in the peasant's mind....
What's hidden under those strange knolls... Should I say hillocks?
Better run to prevent his hunger if the man does come....
And not think about it....
Try not to...
Try...
I always play in hard. Well, almost. Sometimes the severity of the too numerous forces attacking are way too strong to be able to play the game at this level to a point where some chances to finish the mission can remain. Regarding this map, which I played in very hard, I had a good time. After restarting a few times because of not being able to get weapons in enough quantity to face the pig's attacks, I got able to get wood and no bears nor wolves before the pig's invasion, and it was not so difficult to keep my popularity over 50 and to produce the bread. I ended up finishing with a score of 36400: Game level 15000, 120 month before end of time, 6% military loss. Great map![Edited on 06/24/06 @ 08:54 PM]
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| NAT |
Posted on 11/29/04 @ 12:00 AM
I have played the map twice, the first to check it out and find some appropiate strategies. This done I went for it - my first tactic was to build the barracks and armoury at the beginning and spend the rest of the wood of lumberjacks. I then delted a few of the hovels and the happy places, recruited the archers and went hunting the bears and wolves. That all cleared up I could get in a lot of wood very fast and I soon got my economy going (lots of wheat farms, two mills and loads of bakeries). Weapon production and wooden walls quickly followed. For my army I recruited archers, spearmen and crossbowmen, and held off all the invasions I had to, although my lord had to get involved on an occasion or two! My wheat and then bread production was all too effective and although the herendous fires that ravaged my village I produced the 900 bread with loads of time left. My key to victory was establishing a large wood production early on by wiping out all troublesome animalia! So after my preliminaty test of the map I was prepared and therefore did find the map quite easy after I had got comfortable. More invasions later on in the map would have made it a closer finish. Still the gameplay is very convicning - I loved the whole settlement in the valley and the map still easily deserves the impressive 9/10 for playability and balance. Good work!
The map design is wonderfull, I really liked the open feel to the map and the giant insribed in the mountian is unbelievbale. I have to say Bismuth that this really is an incredible achivement, a perfect copy of a real skeleton. A five in both creativity and balance is the only answer! I liked the river and odd bits of marsh around it as well, all good! I think there could have been maybe a few little groups of trees around the map instead of the big blocks of trees at the edges. Of course these would need to be guarded by groups of wolves ;). Overall the map design is very good indeed and you cannot recieve enough praise for the artwork!
For the storyline and instructions Bismuth shows the prefect way for a 5. Really interesting storyline, plenty of tips on the map and a really nice site description (love the picture of the fallen giant!). Overall this is a very good map in all fields. Keep up the amazing work! |
| JuBuOrangie |
Posted on 12/07/04 @ 12:00 AM
creativity:5 The story very creative and of course the buried giant well If it is buried!!!
Map design:5 I liked everything except a few things but still a five hera are the things I didnt like the little spots of marsh I tried planting farms and there would be a bit of marsh there also how the wood is so far away you may have dont that so the player dosnt get a lot of wood but of course you should of put a few patches close to the stronghold.
Story:very creative and funny like the picture of the dead giant too.
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
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| 4.4 | | Breakdown |
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| Playability | 4.0 | | Balance | 3.0 | | Creativity | 5.0 | | Map Design | 5.0 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 1,440 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 723.13 KB |
| Added: | 11/21/04 |
| Updated: | 12/05/04 |
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