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Castle Metuas Part II - Return of Steven the Great
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| Author |
File Description |
| Duke of York |
Posted on 06/28/02 @ 12:00 AM
| File Details |
|---|
| Map Size: |
400x400 (Large) |
| Difficulty: |
Normal |
| Made with version: |
1.1 |
Minimap:
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 Now that you have rebuilt Castle Metuas and restored it to it’s former glory, the Duke of York asks you to transform the small farming village of Wakefield into a thriving town with an abundance of industry. In fact, the Duke has requested 25 swords and 25 armor in preparation for the coming great crusade. Meanwhile, the Duke’s brother, Steven the Great is returning from an embassy from Lord Mobray (the Pig). While visiting Mobray, Sir Myles (the Pig’s son) vilely insulted and slandered the Duke of York. Sir Steven was forced into a duel to defend his brother’s honor. In a great contest of strength and valor, Myles was defeated and slain at the hand of Steven. Mobray’s grief turned to anger and his anger turned to rage. He swore vengeance upon the house of York and will stop at nothing to exact revenge on Steven, the Duke and anyone who stands in his way. Your Steward (Sir Longarm) has learned of a plot by Lord Mobray to assinate Steven on the Wakefield road. As a faithful friend to the Duke of York, you must foil this plot and protect Sir Steven (the mounted knight) at all costs!
Objective: Protect Sir Steven (the mounted knight), gain 25 armor, 25 swords, 25 ale, 30% blessed, a fear factor of +3 and population of 155. There are five major invasions to defend against. You must protect the hop farms in Wakefield because once destroyed, they can not be rebuilt.
Thank you for downloading my scenario, I hope you enjoy it. Please give me some feedback if you like or dislike the scenario. The only way to improve is through constructive critisism.
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| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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| arhanghel |
Posted on 07/01/02 @ 12:00 AM
The map design is very good, castle looks amazing, and the landscape is well created, the story fits very well with the scenario.
Balance is a 3 because at the small time u have between invasions to prepare a proper defence for the castle and to achieve the economic goals in the same time.I`ll say that more starting troops, or at least more weapons at the begging will rezolve this problem.Also it is a bug in the first invasion (the invaders refuse to atack and they just sit quitly near the signpost killing your enforcements :))
Playability - this scenario is pretty good, and i had much fun untill i finnaly win (i managed to get beat a couple of times untill i discover how to win).
Overall - a good map, with some elemnts of eyecandy in it combined with a proper scenario and the result is FUN,FUN! :) |
| Sulis |
Posted on 07/01/02 @ 12:00 AM
I have played this map a few times now and still don't tire of it. It's absorbing, challenging, sometimes frustrating but still I play, using different approaches and methods. Something that I will keep on the hard drive for a while, methinks.And therefore, you have something that only a very good map seems to have: longevity. Persevere with this, it is hard IMO, but very, very playable. Good use of events, pacey from the word go, it keeps you on your toes (largely due to the balance of it, see below) and thoroughly absorbing. Top rate stuff.
Balance: Probably the hardest part of map creation, certainly to me anyway. This is the only part of the design which holds this map back a little. Let's split it into three areas:
1) MILITARY: This map is tough, make no bones about it. You have a handful of troops to start off with and the invasions are of sufficient size to cause you real problems. Maybe just a little too large at times, maybe this is, again, a reflection of my inabilities. The invasions do get larger as time progresses, as you would expect. Initially I thought that, whilst you aren't swamped or completely outnumbered, the balance is very much against you. The more you play this, the better you will become at learning to defend what is yours. This map would play a little better if the invasions weren't quite as big (not that you need to reduce the numbers drastically) or if the invasions were a little less 'strong'. By that, I mean fewer steel troops to defend against. Or, maybe a few more troops to start off with, or a good supply of weapons.Balance is nearly there, it's a good attempt.
2) ECONOMIC: I feel that this, rather than military, is the weaker part of the map. I had great trouble logistically trying to reach the population goal of well over 100 people. In order to feed such a large amount you need careful planning in order to keep the granary full with at least two different types of food. I managed it by the skin of my teeth at times, but found it just a bit too much trying to maintain the economic requirement AND to defend the castle. I'm a bit of a plodder when playing games, and I suffered a bit here. It's not that what you have to achieve is bad, far from it. Maybe a little bit of tweaking? A slightly smaller population requirement would certainly address this in a full-on invasion map such as this.
3) LANDSCAPE: The above two issues link in to the landscape. How can landscape make a map unbalanced? The main concern here is that you have decent sized invasions. You have few troops to defend the wooden-walled town. You also have vast areas that the troops can attack. I sacrificed the town on every occasion, as I simply could not defend it, no matter how many troops I could generate. I opted to fortify the stone castle, expanding it a little to the North where the wheat farms are. It seemed to work, which is a shame though as the walled town is very well done and I wanted to 'play' with this area throughout the map. Maybe limiting attacking points would have helped this, by use of terrain to force the AI to choose other areas to attack your walls, and therefore areas that you can concentrate on defending.
I have spent as much time as I have on balance because this map is, to me, very close to being near perfect for an invasion. All this area needs is a few tweaks here and there (maybe? maybe not) and you could end up with an excellently balanced, yet still challenging map. It'd a little flawed, but it's also a very good attempt that should be praised. Very nearly a 4 score.
Creativity: Having played the first Castle Metuas invasion by this author, I was more than interested to check this out. There is a clear story emerging here and this follows on very well from the first map. It's a very well thought out idea, and I hope it progresses to other maps based on this castle. Original and believable.
Map Design: Another area done very well. The terrain is generally well landscaped and it looks very realistic, looking at the minimap. The castle is fine, the walled town well laid out and the author has presented this map as a natural progression from the first Castle Metuas map (definitely worth a download too). Nothing at fault here, maybe just a little bit more terrain modelling (stones, grass, dirt, rather than height, which is spot on) or maybe just a few tricks with the castle to boost the score.
Story/instructions: Top rate stuff. Not only do you get a minimap on the download descriptionpage, you get a thorough story, again well presented, to accompany the map and this really adds to the overall creativeness here. One point to bear in mind; you have to defend the mounted knight here from the word go. Whilst you won't lose the map if he dies, it's worth playing to the author's story. I chose to let the pikemen fight the small but significant band of troops that greeted me and moved the horse to the security of the castle. It's a little point to rememer and explains the invaders that did not attack per the previous review: it's not a bug. The story indicates this and i'm happy to do whatever the author says you can or can't do in order to stick to the criteria of the map.
This is a comprehensive review (my fingers hurt from typing!) but it's deserved. This is an excellent map overall and I recommend you play it. There's a lot of good design here! Great stuff, Duke of York, i'm looking forward to your next map! |
ericgolf
Staff |
Posted on 12/21/08 @ 04:58 PM |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
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| 4.1 | | Breakdown |
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| Playability | 4.5 | | Balance | 3.0 | | Creativity | 4.0 | | Map Design | 4.0 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 1,737 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 731.16 KB |
| Added: | 06/28/02 |
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