I recently delved into the world of modding. To be more specific, I started designing and coding a minor mod for the Civ IV mod, Fall from Heaven II. It is a small, simple mod whose only purpose is to check the terrain around a city when a unit is built. There is a small chance that the unit will receive a special, bonus promotion that increases their strength in that terrain.
A couple of interesting things I found out while trying to get my mod to work.
1) Hills and Peaks are not terrain in Civ IV. They are actually considered Plot Types, a distinction they share with water and flat land. Then, on top of that, you have the Terrain (grass, plains, etc), and on top of that you have Features such as Forest. And then Resources and Improvements fit in there somehow as well! It's a much more complex system than I had expected and it took me a while to track down the simple fact that Hills and Peaks are Plots, not Terrain!
2) Most of the art files are hidden, packed away in a special format that requires you to use a special extracting program to access them. And then some of the art files are packed even further, put into large sheets of graphic images with dozens or hundreds of other images!
Despite this weirdness, all in all, Civ IV is a very mod-friendly program. Most of the game is controlled via a system of exposed xml and python files. Easy to edit for even a novice programmer such as myself. And the community on the Civ Fanatics forums are very helpful about answering questions.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Clomp! League : Season One, Day Five
On the final day of the season, Azh's Bashas eagerly awaited the arrival of the elven team, Errandir's Earthweavers.
And waited.
And waited some more.
The Orcs, not overly known for their patience, began to get restless as the minutes ticked by and no sign of the elven team was seen. Coach Azhog tried to keep them focused on the upcoming game, but the Bashas began to brawl with each other. After a while, Azhog gave up and with a loud WAAAGH!, the entire team charged off to find some stunties to bash.
Battered and tired, the Bashas returned to the stadium to surprisingly find the elven team waiting for them. After some quick preparation on both sides, the game begins!
First Half:
Kickoff goes to the Bashas. Things look good at the start. Not only was the elven captain forced to pay several mercenary players to join his team, but in the opening minutes, Earguff the Troll lashes out and injures an elven lineman, sending him to the sidelines for the rest of the game.
Gugfak grabs the loose ball and dodging a pair of aggressive Wardancers, makes a beautiful throw to the goblin Ishtam.
But then a bad block by Badhag that results in him lying stunned on the turf, leaving a wide gap in the line that the elves quickly exploit. As their lineman converge on the goblin, Ulviir'nor, their star Wardancer, leaps over a defender and kicks Ishtam in the back, jarring the ball loose. The Wardancer smoothly snags the ball, dodges a tackle and sprints for the center of the field! The orcs quickly respond, taking the ball from Ulviir'nor and passing it to the Blitzer Galth. Leaving a swath of elven bodies on the turf, the Bashas push straight up the middle and score the first touchdown of the match.
On the ensuing kickoff, a riot in the stands spills over onto the field. By the time things get sorted out the half is over.
Second Half:
An even bigger riot breaks out at the start of the second half. This time, Marfak is sent to the turf, which leaves a wide-open lane down the sideline that the mercenary Wardancer takes advantage of, thanks in no small part to a short kick. In a burst of speed, he nearly reaches the endzone but a desperation charge by the Orc thrower Gugfak, breaks his jaw and sends the ball flying off the side of the field. Unfortunately, the throwback lands on the goal line and Ulviir'nor quickly scoops it up and scores, tying the game.
The Bashas are never able to recover from that bad luck, and as they try and push upfield for the winning score after the final kickoff, Badhag is knocked out and Ishtam badly hurt. Unable to get a solid advantage on the speedy elves, Gugfak makes a risky burst for the goal. But again the Wardancers respond, stunning him with a solid blow and covering the ball for the remainder of the half, content to leave the field with a tie game and most of their players intact.
Final Score: Bashas 1, Earthweavers 1
Around the League:
Season One closes out with a bang as three teams finish without a loss, garnering three wins and two draws each. The final match of the season turns out to be the deciding factor, as the Blood Fang Boyz chalk up their fourth win against the Facesmashaz to walk away with the trophy, despite having lost to the dwarves of Ground Round on day two (wins are worth three points while draws are only worth one)!
And waited.
And waited some more.
The Orcs, not overly known for their patience, began to get restless as the minutes ticked by and no sign of the elven team was seen. Coach Azhog tried to keep them focused on the upcoming game, but the Bashas began to brawl with each other. After a while, Azhog gave up and with a loud WAAAGH!, the entire team charged off to find some stunties to bash.
Battered and tired, the Bashas returned to the stadium to surprisingly find the elven team waiting for them. After some quick preparation on both sides, the game begins!
First Half:
Kickoff goes to the Bashas. Things look good at the start. Not only was the elven captain forced to pay several mercenary players to join his team, but in the opening minutes, Earguff the Troll lashes out and injures an elven lineman, sending him to the sidelines for the rest of the game.
Gugfak grabs the loose ball and dodging a pair of aggressive Wardancers, makes a beautiful throw to the goblin Ishtam.
But then a bad block by Badhag that results in him lying stunned on the turf, leaving a wide gap in the line that the elves quickly exploit. As their lineman converge on the goblin, Ulviir'nor, their star Wardancer, leaps over a defender and kicks Ishtam in the back, jarring the ball loose. The Wardancer smoothly snags the ball, dodges a tackle and sprints for the center of the field! The orcs quickly respond, taking the ball from Ulviir'nor and passing it to the Blitzer Galth. Leaving a swath of elven bodies on the turf, the Bashas push straight up the middle and score the first touchdown of the match.
On the ensuing kickoff, a riot in the stands spills over onto the field. By the time things get sorted out the half is over.
Second Half:
An even bigger riot breaks out at the start of the second half. This time, Marfak is sent to the turf, which leaves a wide-open lane down the sideline that the mercenary Wardancer takes advantage of, thanks in no small part to a short kick. In a burst of speed, he nearly reaches the endzone but a desperation charge by the Orc thrower Gugfak, breaks his jaw and sends the ball flying off the side of the field. Unfortunately, the throwback lands on the goal line and Ulviir'nor quickly scoops it up and scores, tying the game.
The Bashas are never able to recover from that bad luck, and as they try and push upfield for the winning score after the final kickoff, Badhag is knocked out and Ishtam badly hurt. Unable to get a solid advantage on the speedy elves, Gugfak makes a risky burst for the goal. But again the Wardancers respond, stunning him with a solid blow and covering the ball for the remainder of the half, content to leave the field with a tie game and most of their players intact.
Final Score: Bashas 1, Earthweavers 1
Around the League:
Season One closes out with a bang as three teams finish without a loss, garnering three wins and two draws each. The final match of the season turns out to be the deciding factor, as the Blood Fang Boyz chalk up their fourth win against the Facesmashaz to walk away with the trophy, despite having lost to the dwarves of Ground Round on day two (wins are worth three points while draws are only worth one)!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Clomp! League : Season One, Day Four
In a clash of titans, two undefeated teams meet in what is sure to be a battle royale as Azh's Bashas take on the Stormvald Horde led by Anar the Terrible!
Pre-game:
In a deep rugged canyon, covered in effigies of Gork and Mork, the two undefeated teams of Division Two squared off. The Chaos Warriors and Beastman of the Stormvald Horde gestured across the field at the Orcs of Azh's Bashas, who spurred the home crowd to newfound heights of enthusiasm, noise and carnage!
But the homefield advantage backfired when coach Azhog got distracted signing autographs before the game, resulting in the Bashas assuming a defensive formation when they were on the receiving end of the kickoff!
First Half:
With many players in less-than-ideal positions, Marfak the Blizter dashes over to grab the ball, only to have it taken from him by the orc thrower Gugfak. This initial confusion led to a quick push and blitz up the middle by the Chaos Warriors of Stormvald. One plucky young lineman by the name of Hysh not only gets the sack, but recovers the fumble and rumbles downfield towards the endzone, sure that he is going to score the first touchdown of what is sure to be an illustrious career. The orc blitzers double-time it back upfield, Badhag shadowing Hysh and catching one foot of the runner just before he crosses the goal line. It looks like things might be turning in the other direction, but as bodies fly and everyone scrambles for the ball, Gnar'nogor the Beastman, leading scorer for the Horde, easily snags it from the turf and slips into the endzone for the first score of the game!
The Bashas get the ball back with only a few minutes left in the half. This time they have the right formation in place, and as the lineman Gramnast clears the way, Badhag streaks down the field, catching a pass from Gugfak and sprinting into the endzone to tie things up. There is only enough time on the clock for the ensuing kickoff, so the Chaos Warriors take out some of their aggression on Gorfang, knocking the Black Orc out cold as the whistle blows to end the first half.
Second Half
The second half sees the Stormvald beastman fielding a short kick and forming a tight wedge on the left side of the field. The Bashas move to block, though an untimely knockout on the Black Orc Varag allows the Horde to move upfield and threaten to score again. But once again the blizters rally, laying several hard hits on the lead blockers, pushing the entire box backwards several yards. Marfak in particular earns his paycheck, seriously injuring one Beastman and killing another who was only saved by the timely (and successful) intervention of the team Apothecary!
The battle goes back and forth, injuries mounting on both sides as the Horde tries to surge forward and the Bashas repeatedly throw both themselves, and their unconcious opponents, in the way of the ball carrier. Even the Warriors and Black orcs get in on the action, leaving a befuddled Earguff standing in the middle of the field by himself. The ball switches hands several times, but for the most part, the beastman keep a tight grip on the squig-skin, frustrating the orc's attempts to recover it and clear a ball carrier from the scrum.
As the end of the game draws nigh, the beatings take their toll and the Stormvald Horde can only keep five men on the pitch to the Bashas eight. But nonetheless, they still have a chance to score up until the final moments, but an inspired tackle by one of the orc lineman again saves the day.
Exhausted and battered, both teams hobble to their respective locker rooms, feeling blessed to have come out of the meat grinder with a tie score without any permanent injuries.
Final Score: Bashas 1, Stormvald 1
Around the League:
Lord Malal's Marauders again have trouble holding onto the ball as the Orc Blizters from the Blood Fang Boyz rumble over them for a final score of 3-0.
The Avenger Ogre Borgrut again has an outstanding day, accumulating three casualties and two deaths against the battered Earthweavers. Final score is 3-1, with the lone elven touchdown coming courtesy of their star Wardancer, Ulviir'nor.
The Horned Herd battle the Plaguebringaz to a 1-1 tie game, while Ground Round and the Facesmashaz game ends with the same score.
The other elven team, the Timberland Treehuggers, also contending with numerous injuries, fight tooth and nail but lose to Bufo Draconis despite a last second touchdown run. Final Score: 2-1
In the final match of the season, the Bashas do battle with Errandir's Earthweavers.
Pre-game:
In a deep rugged canyon, covered in effigies of Gork and Mork, the two undefeated teams of Division Two squared off. The Chaos Warriors and Beastman of the Stormvald Horde gestured across the field at the Orcs of Azh's Bashas, who spurred the home crowd to newfound heights of enthusiasm, noise and carnage!
But the homefield advantage backfired when coach Azhog got distracted signing autographs before the game, resulting in the Bashas assuming a defensive formation when they were on the receiving end of the kickoff!
First Half:
With many players in less-than-ideal positions, Marfak the Blizter dashes over to grab the ball, only to have it taken from him by the orc thrower Gugfak. This initial confusion led to a quick push and blitz up the middle by the Chaos Warriors of Stormvald. One plucky young lineman by the name of Hysh not only gets the sack, but recovers the fumble and rumbles downfield towards the endzone, sure that he is going to score the first touchdown of what is sure to be an illustrious career. The orc blitzers double-time it back upfield, Badhag shadowing Hysh and catching one foot of the runner just before he crosses the goal line. It looks like things might be turning in the other direction, but as bodies fly and everyone scrambles for the ball, Gnar'nogor the Beastman, leading scorer for the Horde, easily snags it from the turf and slips into the endzone for the first score of the game!
The Bashas get the ball back with only a few minutes left in the half. This time they have the right formation in place, and as the lineman Gramnast clears the way, Badhag streaks down the field, catching a pass from Gugfak and sprinting into the endzone to tie things up. There is only enough time on the clock for the ensuing kickoff, so the Chaos Warriors take out some of their aggression on Gorfang, knocking the Black Orc out cold as the whistle blows to end the first half.
Second Half
The second half sees the Stormvald beastman fielding a short kick and forming a tight wedge on the left side of the field. The Bashas move to block, though an untimely knockout on the Black Orc Varag allows the Horde to move upfield and threaten to score again. But once again the blizters rally, laying several hard hits on the lead blockers, pushing the entire box backwards several yards. Marfak in particular earns his paycheck, seriously injuring one Beastman and killing another who was only saved by the timely (and successful) intervention of the team Apothecary!
The battle goes back and forth, injuries mounting on both sides as the Horde tries to surge forward and the Bashas repeatedly throw both themselves, and their unconcious opponents, in the way of the ball carrier. Even the Warriors and Black orcs get in on the action, leaving a befuddled Earguff standing in the middle of the field by himself. The ball switches hands several times, but for the most part, the beastman keep a tight grip on the squig-skin, frustrating the orc's attempts to recover it and clear a ball carrier from the scrum.
As the end of the game draws nigh, the beatings take their toll and the Stormvald Horde can only keep five men on the pitch to the Bashas eight. But nonetheless, they still have a chance to score up until the final moments, but an inspired tackle by one of the orc lineman again saves the day.
Exhausted and battered, both teams hobble to their respective locker rooms, feeling blessed to have come out of the meat grinder with a tie score without any permanent injuries.
Final Score: Bashas 1, Stormvald 1
Around the League:
Lord Malal's Marauders again have trouble holding onto the ball as the Orc Blizters from the Blood Fang Boyz rumble over them for a final score of 3-0.
The Avenger Ogre Borgrut again has an outstanding day, accumulating three casualties and two deaths against the battered Earthweavers. Final score is 3-1, with the lone elven touchdown coming courtesy of their star Wardancer, Ulviir'nor.
The Horned Herd battle the Plaguebringaz to a 1-1 tie game, while Ground Round and the Facesmashaz game ends with the same score.
The other elven team, the Timberland Treehuggers, also contending with numerous injuries, fight tooth and nail but lose to Bufo Draconis despite a last second touchdown run. Final Score: 2-1
In the final match of the season, the Bashas do battle with Errandir's Earthweavers.
Clomp! League : Season One, Day Three
In Day Three of Season One, the undefeated Bashas face off against the lizardmen of Bufo Draconis.
First Half:
The Bashas get the ball to begin the game. Their thrower, Gugfak, grabs the ball off the turf and moves up the center of the field, looking to the left side where the Black Orc Galnak Break'zom is busy knocking a little Skink to the ground. The Orcs rumble forward and with a sharp, angry hiss, the Lizards of Bufo Draconis move to meet them, swinging the bulk of their team towards the left. One lone Sauros charges the Orc Blizter Marfak who has slipped downfield on the right and is looking back over his shoulder for a pass. Spotting the charging Saurus, Badhag stiffarms the lizardman, just as Gugfak sees him open and makes a risky throw. But the gamble pays off, and Marfak catches the ball in stride, scoring the first touchdown of the game before either team has even begun to warm up.
The Orcs kick off and the Skinks grab the ball and make a move up the right sideline, with the beastly Kroxigor Krokquetli leading the way. The Bashas charge in, expecting to bulldoze over the defenders as they had against their previous opponents this season. But the Saurus are as tough and mean as the Black Orcs, and the Bashas find themselves on the losing end of a vicious melee. Falling back a bit to recover, the Orcs try and block all the open lanes to the endzone. But the Skinks slip through, dodging the arms and legs of the orcs. And with a quick handoff along the way, the Draconis waltz into the endzone, scoring a touchdown of their own to tie up the game!
The third kickoff of the first half sees the lizards in a defensive holding pattern. But the Bashas rip up their standard playbook, opting for some razzle-dazzle. Gugfak runs to midfield and makes a short toss to the goblin Itsham, who dashes farther upfield before handing the ball to Marfak, who streaks down the sideline, scoring a touchdown!
The first half closes out as a little Skink by the name of Uazshix slips on the blood-stained turf and knocks himself out. Score at halftime is 2-1 in the Bashas favor.
Second Half
Receiving the kickoff to begin the second half, the Draconis team opts for a different strategy, giving the ball to the brute, Krokquetli, as the Skinks and Saurus form a protective perimeter. Again an ugly brawl starts on the sideline, with several players from both sides hitting the turf.
Darting through the confusion, the sneaky Skinks repeatedly stab the legs and other exposed bodyparts of the Basha team in an attempt to distract them from the ball carrier! Fortunately for the Orcs, the Krokigor gets overly confused and spends several minutes staring at the ball in his hands.
Damage is dealt out to both teams. Both Sorruk and Gorfang from the Bashas are KOed. A Skink is thrown out of bounds into the waiting arms of the fans. Blood and sweat flies through the air as each team attempts to find some leverage in the chaos. Krokquetli finally wakes up and makes a cut back to the other side of the field while still holding the ball. The Orc Blitzers and Black Orcs swarm the beast and make a tackle as Badhag fractures the skull of a nearby Skink. Marfak slips in past the geat Krokigor, snags the ball, dodges the fleshy tail as it swipes at his head, and finds his way the endzone for his second score of the evening!
At this point, the game was decided. There was no time for Bufo Draconis to score two touchdowns. So what had been a very thinly disguised fight became all out war as the lizards swarmed over the Black Orcs and Troll, trying their best to find a weak point for their slender shivs and claws. Galnast Eat'Ch'Ya suffers a broken neck as he tries to throw the Skinks off his back, but despite several more stuns and knockouts, no other major injuries occur as the referee calls an end to the game.
Final Score: Bashas 3, Draconis 1
Around the League:
Borgrut Lucky continues his reign of terror, seriously injuring a Treeman and killing an elvish Thrower as the Altdorf Avengers end the game tied 2-2 against the Timberland Treehuggers.
Thanks to the fumble-fingered Chaos Warriors, the Facesmashaz pull off a 1-0 victory over Lord Malal's Marauders.
In a matchup of wounded teams, the Blood Fang Boyz recover from their beating of the previous day and win 2-0 versus the Horned Herd despite a groin injury to their troll in the latter part of the game.
Ground Round defeats the Plaguebringaz 3-1 and Stormvald Horde pummels the Earthweavers 2-0.
On Day Four, the Bashas collide with the Stormvald Horde.
First Half:
The Bashas get the ball to begin the game. Their thrower, Gugfak, grabs the ball off the turf and moves up the center of the field, looking to the left side where the Black Orc Galnak Break'zom is busy knocking a little Skink to the ground. The Orcs rumble forward and with a sharp, angry hiss, the Lizards of Bufo Draconis move to meet them, swinging the bulk of their team towards the left. One lone Sauros charges the Orc Blizter Marfak who has slipped downfield on the right and is looking back over his shoulder for a pass. Spotting the charging Saurus, Badhag stiffarms the lizardman, just as Gugfak sees him open and makes a risky throw. But the gamble pays off, and Marfak catches the ball in stride, scoring the first touchdown of the game before either team has even begun to warm up.
The Orcs kick off and the Skinks grab the ball and make a move up the right sideline, with the beastly Kroxigor Krokquetli leading the way. The Bashas charge in, expecting to bulldoze over the defenders as they had against their previous opponents this season. But the Saurus are as tough and mean as the Black Orcs, and the Bashas find themselves on the losing end of a vicious melee. Falling back a bit to recover, the Orcs try and block all the open lanes to the endzone. But the Skinks slip through, dodging the arms and legs of the orcs. And with a quick handoff along the way, the Draconis waltz into the endzone, scoring a touchdown of their own to tie up the game!
The third kickoff of the first half sees the lizards in a defensive holding pattern. But the Bashas rip up their standard playbook, opting for some razzle-dazzle. Gugfak runs to midfield and makes a short toss to the goblin Itsham, who dashes farther upfield before handing the ball to Marfak, who streaks down the sideline, scoring a touchdown!
The first half closes out as a little Skink by the name of Uazshix slips on the blood-stained turf and knocks himself out. Score at halftime is 2-1 in the Bashas favor.
Second Half
Receiving the kickoff to begin the second half, the Draconis team opts for a different strategy, giving the ball to the brute, Krokquetli, as the Skinks and Saurus form a protective perimeter. Again an ugly brawl starts on the sideline, with several players from both sides hitting the turf.
Darting through the confusion, the sneaky Skinks repeatedly stab the legs and other exposed bodyparts of the Basha team in an attempt to distract them from the ball carrier! Fortunately for the Orcs, the Krokigor gets overly confused and spends several minutes staring at the ball in his hands.
Damage is dealt out to both teams. Both Sorruk and Gorfang from the Bashas are KOed. A Skink is thrown out of bounds into the waiting arms of the fans. Blood and sweat flies through the air as each team attempts to find some leverage in the chaos. Krokquetli finally wakes up and makes a cut back to the other side of the field while still holding the ball. The Orc Blitzers and Black Orcs swarm the beast and make a tackle as Badhag fractures the skull of a nearby Skink. Marfak slips in past the geat Krokigor, snags the ball, dodges the fleshy tail as it swipes at his head, and finds his way the endzone for his second score of the evening!
At this point, the game was decided. There was no time for Bufo Draconis to score two touchdowns. So what had been a very thinly disguised fight became all out war as the lizards swarmed over the Black Orcs and Troll, trying their best to find a weak point for their slender shivs and claws. Galnast Eat'Ch'Ya suffers a broken neck as he tries to throw the Skinks off his back, but despite several more stuns and knockouts, no other major injuries occur as the referee calls an end to the game.
Final Score: Bashas 3, Draconis 1
Around the League:
Borgrut Lucky continues his reign of terror, seriously injuring a Treeman and killing an elvish Thrower as the Altdorf Avengers end the game tied 2-2 against the Timberland Treehuggers.
Thanks to the fumble-fingered Chaos Warriors, the Facesmashaz pull off a 1-0 victory over Lord Malal's Marauders.
In a matchup of wounded teams, the Blood Fang Boyz recover from their beating of the previous day and win 2-0 versus the Horned Herd despite a groin injury to their troll in the latter part of the game.
Ground Round defeats the Plaguebringaz 3-1 and Stormvald Horde pummels the Earthweavers 2-0.
On Day Four, the Bashas collide with the Stormvald Horde.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Clomp! League : Season One, Day Two
Matchup: Azh's Bashas (Orc) vs the Timerbland Treehuggers (Wood Elf)
In a suspicious set of coincidences, both an Orc Blizter and the sole Thrower for the elven team suffer training mishaps right before the start of the match. The Bashas calls heads (of course), but the Treehuggers win the toss, electing to receive the opening kickoff.
1st Half:
In a move that was to set the tone for the entire game, right as the whistle blew to start the game, Mightybud, the Treeant lineman for the Treehuggers, misunderstood his orders and attempted to make an ill-advised dodge through the line of scrimmage. This did not turn out well, as Eargruff, the Basha Troll, threw him to the ground, where he would remain for the entire first half.
Deprived of any sort of heavy defense in the middle, the Treehugger pocket, with Wardancer Mahtalyth carrying the ball, decided to move up the left side in a tight formation. They quickly found themselves beset by the Black Orcs and blocked by lineman and blitzers, but their cage held strong against the first assault. And with a nifty pass back to Heven, their up and coming catcher prodigy, they made a sudden and decisive strike for the endzone. Heven cut back across the field, passing several startled orcs along the way. Two teammates followed close behind him as the quickest orcs bolted down the field to try and prevent the score. One lone Orc lineman by the name of Surrock, playing a deep defense, sprints between the goal line and Heven, delivering a solid shoulder tackle at the speedy elf, which Heven neatly dodges. However, that dodge puts him in reach of several other orcs. One of the quicker elves shifts to the outside, sliding into the endzone behind the defense as Heven makes a desperation throw. Surrok, however, is not to be denied, and he reaches out and plucks the ball from the air before it has hardly left the elf's hand.
What proceeds after that is a running melee up the right sideline, with players on both sides going down left and right, and the ball switching hands several times, but steadily moving towards the Treehugger's goal. Earguff delivers the first casualty of the game, as he brings his oversized paws down on the head of the unfortunate lineman, Al 'Anur, who dies instantly as the Mighty Blow cracks his helmet apart in a burst of splinters!
But elvish hardiness is little match for orcish strength, and as the injuries mount for the Treehuggers, the ball bounces out of bounds and is thrown back to the other side of the scrum. The goblin Itsham, in his debut appearance, emerges from the chaos, ball in hand as he cuts across to the opposite side of the field, sprinting for the touchdown in the final seconds of the half.
2nd Half:
The elves had fought a tough and hard battle to try and stop the lone touchdown of the first half, and their team had paid the price. The Treehuggers already seemed defeated, for they could only field seven players. And even worse, they had to kickoff to the Bashas to get the half started.
The elves played a defensive setup, with five players deep. Gugfak picked up the ball and moved forward while the blitzers charged downfield and the Black Orcs surrounded Mightybud after knocking out the other linemen. But despite being outnumbered, alone and surrounded, the Treeant stood firm against several poundings. Perhaps his extended rest in the first half had given him renewed strength for the second.
Gugfak weaves back and forth for a few seconds, unsure of what the elves are planning. He knows that they are both sneaky and swift. He finally spots a sure opening and sprints forward, shoving the ball into the waiting hands of Ishtam who has an open lane at the goal and an assured second touchdown for the game. But the goblin fumbles the ball, allowing one of the Treehugger Wardancers to move forward and pick it up. He then tosses it back towards the other defenders, hoping for a little razzle-dazzle, but the catch is botched, leaving the ball sitting in the Treehugger endzone. With the help of a teammate, one of the Basha Blizters pushes the other Wardancer out of the way, and pounces on the ball, making the score 2 to 0 in favor of the Bashas with only a little time left on the clock.
In the waning moments of the game, the elf catcher Elvanhanfel makes a bold run up the middle, sprinting past several blockers, only to trip on his own shoelaces and break a collarbone. Gugfak makes a quick grab and a terrific downfield throw to one of the Blitzers, but time expires before he can score another touchdown for the Bashas.
Final Score: Bashas 2, Treehuggers 0
Around the League:
Strength prevails over quickness this week, as both Wood Elf teams and the lone Skaven team of the league suffer lost games and numerous injuries. Errandir's Earthweavers are only able to field four conscious players by the end of their game against the lizardmen of Bufo Draconis.
In a battle between the followers of Chaos, Lord Malals' Marauders bested the Horned Herd by a score of 1-0 and left one of the Herd's Beastmen lying broken on the pitch.
The Dwarven juggernaut of Ground Round rolls over the Blood Fang Boyz, winning by a score of 2-1 and leaving no less than four orcs out of action for their next game.
Borgrut Lucky, the oft-confused Ogre Lineman for the Altdorf Avengers, has a short moment of glory where he actually picks up the ball and hands it to a teammate, but such heroics were not enough as the Avengers lost to the Stormvald Horde with a final score of 1-0.
On Day Three, the Bashas meet up with the lizardmen of Bufo Draconis
In a suspicious set of coincidences, both an Orc Blizter and the sole Thrower for the elven team suffer training mishaps right before the start of the match. The Bashas calls heads (of course), but the Treehuggers win the toss, electing to receive the opening kickoff.
1st Half:
In a move that was to set the tone for the entire game, right as the whistle blew to start the game, Mightybud, the Treeant lineman for the Treehuggers, misunderstood his orders and attempted to make an ill-advised dodge through the line of scrimmage. This did not turn out well, as Eargruff, the Basha Troll, threw him to the ground, where he would remain for the entire first half.
Deprived of any sort of heavy defense in the middle, the Treehugger pocket, with Wardancer Mahtalyth carrying the ball, decided to move up the left side in a tight formation. They quickly found themselves beset by the Black Orcs and blocked by lineman and blitzers, but their cage held strong against the first assault. And with a nifty pass back to Heven, their up and coming catcher prodigy, they made a sudden and decisive strike for the endzone. Heven cut back across the field, passing several startled orcs along the way. Two teammates followed close behind him as the quickest orcs bolted down the field to try and prevent the score. One lone Orc lineman by the name of Surrock, playing a deep defense, sprints between the goal line and Heven, delivering a solid shoulder tackle at the speedy elf, which Heven neatly dodges. However, that dodge puts him in reach of several other orcs. One of the quicker elves shifts to the outside, sliding into the endzone behind the defense as Heven makes a desperation throw. Surrok, however, is not to be denied, and he reaches out and plucks the ball from the air before it has hardly left the elf's hand.
What proceeds after that is a running melee up the right sideline, with players on both sides going down left and right, and the ball switching hands several times, but steadily moving towards the Treehugger's goal. Earguff delivers the first casualty of the game, as he brings his oversized paws down on the head of the unfortunate lineman, Al 'Anur, who dies instantly as the Mighty Blow cracks his helmet apart in a burst of splinters!
But elvish hardiness is little match for orcish strength, and as the injuries mount for the Treehuggers, the ball bounces out of bounds and is thrown back to the other side of the scrum. The goblin Itsham, in his debut appearance, emerges from the chaos, ball in hand as he cuts across to the opposite side of the field, sprinting for the touchdown in the final seconds of the half.
2nd Half:
The elves had fought a tough and hard battle to try and stop the lone touchdown of the first half, and their team had paid the price. The Treehuggers already seemed defeated, for they could only field seven players. And even worse, they had to kickoff to the Bashas to get the half started.
The elves played a defensive setup, with five players deep. Gugfak picked up the ball and moved forward while the blitzers charged downfield and the Black Orcs surrounded Mightybud after knocking out the other linemen. But despite being outnumbered, alone and surrounded, the Treeant stood firm against several poundings. Perhaps his extended rest in the first half had given him renewed strength for the second.
Gugfak weaves back and forth for a few seconds, unsure of what the elves are planning. He knows that they are both sneaky and swift. He finally spots a sure opening and sprints forward, shoving the ball into the waiting hands of Ishtam who has an open lane at the goal and an assured second touchdown for the game. But the goblin fumbles the ball, allowing one of the Treehugger Wardancers to move forward and pick it up. He then tosses it back towards the other defenders, hoping for a little razzle-dazzle, but the catch is botched, leaving the ball sitting in the Treehugger endzone. With the help of a teammate, one of the Basha Blizters pushes the other Wardancer out of the way, and pounces on the ball, making the score 2 to 0 in favor of the Bashas with only a little time left on the clock.
In the waning moments of the game, the elf catcher Elvanhanfel makes a bold run up the middle, sprinting past several blockers, only to trip on his own shoelaces and break a collarbone. Gugfak makes a quick grab and a terrific downfield throw to one of the Blitzers, but time expires before he can score another touchdown for the Bashas.
Final Score: Bashas 2, Treehuggers 0
Around the League:
Strength prevails over quickness this week, as both Wood Elf teams and the lone Skaven team of the league suffer lost games and numerous injuries. Errandir's Earthweavers are only able to field four conscious players by the end of their game against the lizardmen of Bufo Draconis.
In a battle between the followers of Chaos, Lord Malals' Marauders bested the Horned Herd by a score of 1-0 and left one of the Herd's Beastmen lying broken on the pitch.
The Dwarven juggernaut of Ground Round rolls over the Blood Fang Boyz, winning by a score of 2-1 and leaving no less than four orcs out of action for their next game.
Borgrut Lucky, the oft-confused Ogre Lineman for the Altdorf Avengers, has a short moment of glory where he actually picks up the ball and hands it to a teammate, but such heroics were not enough as the Avengers lost to the Stormvald Horde with a final score of 1-0.
On Day Three, the Bashas meet up with the lizardmen of Bufo Draconis
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Clomp! League : Season One, Day One
Here is a recounting of the first game of rookie coach Azhog's career as he takes Azh's Bashas into a game against the human team of the Altdorf Avengers!
The night sweated with excitement as the crowd awaited the start of one of the most anticipated matches of the day.
Azh, coach of the Bashas, knew more about smashing stuntie heads than he did about the game of Blood Bowl, but he figured some of his bashing skills would come in handy. His team consisted of Earguff the Troll, four hulking Black Orcs, four swift and deadly Blitzers, one Orc with an oversized arm, Ishtam the Goblin, and several Orc Grunts to fill out the roster.
The human team marched into the converted dwarf fortress as the sound of the Greenskin drums filled the air. Their square jaws set tight, the torchlight glinting from their beady eyes, the humans were here for business. The humans themselves were hard to tell apart, but there was no mistaking the sight of the hulking Ogre brute in an Avengers uniform. He would make it tough for the Bashas to dominate the center.
The Bashas got to pick the coin flip, and Azh chose heads (heads are always good), winning the toss and choosing to receive.
First Half:
The Bashas set up a strong front line, bringing the Gugfak the Thrower up to handle the ball duties. But the humans were fast and wily. Several slipped through the line, easily sacking the hapless orc thrower and retrieving the ball. But the quarters were tight. There was an immediate fight for the ball as bodies flew in and out of the pile, the ball tumbling across the stone floor. Suddenly, one lineman bolted out of the scrum, ball in hand, preparing a throw to a lone blitzer who waited downfield, sure of the imminent touchdown. But in his excitement, he failed to hold on to the ball, and it slipped from the back of his hand, hitting the turf with a solid thud. But he quickly turned around as a Black Orc clotheslined a human blitzer who was rushing for the ball, scooped the ball from the ground, swung around to the blitzer and shoved the ball into his hands. The touchdown came moments later as the Greenskins burst into frenized cheers.
With a little less than half of the first half to play, the human team prepared to try and get a score of their own. After the kickoff, the humans gathered into a tight knot and pushed at the right side of the field.
The Bashas formed a protective pocket, seeking to prevent any sudden runs for the endzone while knocking down anyone they could. Taking a gamble, a lone orc blitzer swooped from the sidelines around the back of the human's formation, knocking the ball carrier to the ground. The ball popped loose, squirted between the tackler's legs and further backfield. Another blitzer rounded the corner and snagged up the ball, but there was not enough time to run for a score. The halftime whistle blew just as the Ogre and Troll headbutted each other and both fell unconscious to the turf.
Second Half:
Again a kickoff to the human team. This time they elected to charge up the left side. The ball carrier moving quickly to knock defenders out of the way as his entourage provided cover. But again, it was the Orc Blitzers who made the difference, putting on full steam to come around the front and put a solid shoulder into the carrier, knocking him to the ground and sending the ball into the stands. Unfortunately, an overzealous gobo in the crowd overthrew the nearby Orc Blitzer, the ball tumbling into the Bashas endzone! Letting out a Waaagh!, a lineman, the only Orc near the ball, ran as fast as his legs would carry him, reaching the ball after several agonizing seconds and turning back upfield, looking to dump the ball off to a speedy Blitzer as soon as he could.
Meanwhile, the Black Orcs, with support from Earguff the Troll, turned from the center of the field, hitting the knot of human players and driving them towards the sidelines. The fighting was brutal, with several KOs on both sides and more than one player thrown out of bounds to the not-so-tender mercies of the fans. But the Orcs held, preventing the humans from breaking free.
The Avenger Ogre, usually a stalwart in the center of the field, had first forgot what he was doing for a while, then proceeded to take on a lone Black Orc and perform a repeat of the finale of the first half, leaving both players stunned as the Basha ball carrier trotted unimpeded up the sideline. The Ogre somehow pulled his bulk off the gound and even started to make a dash for the surprised and alarmed orc! But, as players and coaches alike screamed curses and instructions, he stopped suddenly, picking at his belly to extract some bit of unidentifiable gunk, and then happily eat it as he looked around to see what all the noise was about.
The Bashas continued down the sideline, rejoicing in their second touchdown of the evening. Some time remained on the clock, but the the game was effectively over by that point. Though one of the goblin shaman did cast a last-minute curse during the kickoff, causing a fumble by the normally sure-handed human thrower. The Orc Blitzers salivated in anticipation of another quick score, but in the excitement of the moment, the little shaman forgot to remove the spell, and a series of fumbles by the orc players closed out the game.
Final Score: Bashas 2, Avengers 0
Around the League
In other non-Basha news, this week saw the two Wood Elf teams meet in a head-to-head match. The result was an embarrassing 3-0 loss by the Treehuggers as the wardancers of Errandir's Earthweavers ran around, through and over the more pass-oriented teams.
A beastman of the Stormvald Horde was killed in their match against the lizards of Bufo Draconis.
On Day Two, Azh's Bashas square off against the Wood Elves of the Timberland Treehuggers.
The night sweated with excitement as the crowd awaited the start of one of the most anticipated matches of the day.
Azh, coach of the Bashas, knew more about smashing stuntie heads than he did about the game of Blood Bowl, but he figured some of his bashing skills would come in handy. His team consisted of Earguff the Troll, four hulking Black Orcs, four swift and deadly Blitzers, one Orc with an oversized arm, Ishtam the Goblin, and several Orc Grunts to fill out the roster.
The human team marched into the converted dwarf fortress as the sound of the Greenskin drums filled the air. Their square jaws set tight, the torchlight glinting from their beady eyes, the humans were here for business. The humans themselves were hard to tell apart, but there was no mistaking the sight of the hulking Ogre brute in an Avengers uniform. He would make it tough for the Bashas to dominate the center.
The Bashas got to pick the coin flip, and Azh chose heads (heads are always good), winning the toss and choosing to receive.
First Half:
The Bashas set up a strong front line, bringing the Gugfak the Thrower up to handle the ball duties. But the humans were fast and wily. Several slipped through the line, easily sacking the hapless orc thrower and retrieving the ball. But the quarters were tight. There was an immediate fight for the ball as bodies flew in and out of the pile, the ball tumbling across the stone floor. Suddenly, one lineman bolted out of the scrum, ball in hand, preparing a throw to a lone blitzer who waited downfield, sure of the imminent touchdown. But in his excitement, he failed to hold on to the ball, and it slipped from the back of his hand, hitting the turf with a solid thud. But he quickly turned around as a Black Orc clotheslined a human blitzer who was rushing for the ball, scooped the ball from the ground, swung around to the blitzer and shoved the ball into his hands. The touchdown came moments later as the Greenskins burst into frenized cheers.
With a little less than half of the first half to play, the human team prepared to try and get a score of their own. After the kickoff, the humans gathered into a tight knot and pushed at the right side of the field.
The Bashas formed a protective pocket, seeking to prevent any sudden runs for the endzone while knocking down anyone they could. Taking a gamble, a lone orc blitzer swooped from the sidelines around the back of the human's formation, knocking the ball carrier to the ground. The ball popped loose, squirted between the tackler's legs and further backfield. Another blitzer rounded the corner and snagged up the ball, but there was not enough time to run for a score. The halftime whistle blew just as the Ogre and Troll headbutted each other and both fell unconscious to the turf.
Second Half:
Again a kickoff to the human team. This time they elected to charge up the left side. The ball carrier moving quickly to knock defenders out of the way as his entourage provided cover. But again, it was the Orc Blitzers who made the difference, putting on full steam to come around the front and put a solid shoulder into the carrier, knocking him to the ground and sending the ball into the stands. Unfortunately, an overzealous gobo in the crowd overthrew the nearby Orc Blitzer, the ball tumbling into the Bashas endzone! Letting out a Waaagh!, a lineman, the only Orc near the ball, ran as fast as his legs would carry him, reaching the ball after several agonizing seconds and turning back upfield, looking to dump the ball off to a speedy Blitzer as soon as he could.
Meanwhile, the Black Orcs, with support from Earguff the Troll, turned from the center of the field, hitting the knot of human players and driving them towards the sidelines. The fighting was brutal, with several KOs on both sides and more than one player thrown out of bounds to the not-so-tender mercies of the fans. But the Orcs held, preventing the humans from breaking free.
The Avenger Ogre, usually a stalwart in the center of the field, had first forgot what he was doing for a while, then proceeded to take on a lone Black Orc and perform a repeat of the finale of the first half, leaving both players stunned as the Basha ball carrier trotted unimpeded up the sideline. The Ogre somehow pulled his bulk off the gound and even started to make a dash for the surprised and alarmed orc! But, as players and coaches alike screamed curses and instructions, he stopped suddenly, picking at his belly to extract some bit of unidentifiable gunk, and then happily eat it as he looked around to see what all the noise was about.
The Bashas continued down the sideline, rejoicing in their second touchdown of the evening. Some time remained on the clock, but the the game was effectively over by that point. Though one of the goblin shaman did cast a last-minute curse during the kickoff, causing a fumble by the normally sure-handed human thrower. The Orc Blitzers salivated in anticipation of another quick score, but in the excitement of the moment, the little shaman forgot to remove the spell, and a series of fumbles by the orc players closed out the game.
Final Score: Bashas 2, Avengers 0
Around the League
In other non-Basha news, this week saw the two Wood Elf teams meet in a head-to-head match. The result was an embarrassing 3-0 loss by the Treehuggers as the wardancers of Errandir's Earthweavers ran around, through and over the more pass-oriented teams.
A beastman of the Stormvald Horde was killed in their match against the lizards of Bufo Draconis.
On Day Two, Azh's Bashas square off against the Wood Elves of the Timberland Treehuggers.
Clomp! Blood Bowl League - Inaugural Season
Shadowclan has been hosting a small Blood Bowl League for the past few weeks. The name of the league is Clomp! and I will be recounting the exploits of my team, Azh's Bashas with some additional commentary on results from the other teams in the league.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Fallen Earth Beta - Initial Impressions: Part II
Follow the link below for my further thoughts and experiences in the Fallen Earth beta.
My Kingdom for a Horse
So here I was, still at Embry Crossroads. I had completed a good portion of the quests in the area, but my main focus was on crafting, and that semi-confusing, overly-complex system had taken most of my time and all of my chips (which is the currency used in Fallen Earth). But it was time to move on, and there was no way I was going to cross the barren, scarred wasteland on foot. I needed one of them horses that it seemed everyone else already owned. But the various parts needed to 'craft' a horse, as well as acquire the necessary training manual, would cost me several of the larger size chips.
Well I didn't have much cash, but I did have a ton of crafting materials in my various bank vaults. I figured that I would just see what I could make, and then sell the resulting product to an NPC vendor for a nice profit. What proceeded from there was an odd little dance I had with myself and the various merchants. I would look for items I could craft where I already had most of the ingredients, purchasing the missing parts, then selling the resulting end-product. Sometimes I netted a few chips, other times I lost some. I didn't seem to be getting anywhere closer to acquiring a horse. So I opened up my vault with all my food-type resources and took everything out. With only a few minor purchases, I soon had a good dozen items queued up for cooking. As these foodstuffs were busy percolating in my pack, I poked around to see if I could secure some other parts I needed. Luck was with me that day, for I found a rusty car outside of town that yielded no less than eight scarp fasteners (which are used often and are also relatively expensive to purchase from the NPC vendors).
While on these excursions, I was also trying to fill out some gaps in my crafting knowledge, namely ammo for my revolver! I finally located the ballistics trainer, and also figured out what skill book I needed to purchase. Aha! It turned out that actually crafting the ammo was an easy task, using fairly common materials, so I soon had enough ammo to last me for a while, especially since I had begun using a sword as my main weapon.
After much brewing, grilling and preserving, I managed to sell enough cooked goods to gather the necessary cash to purchase the horse materials. I completed the horse-training recipe, and voila, there she was! I hopped on and took her out for a spin. It was a sweet ride, one that I wish I had gotten much earlier. And even better, the horse comes with its own pack slots! My mission completed, it was time to move on. I had a couple of quests directing me to Oilville, which was just a short jaunt to the north, and so to Oilville I went!
The Bustling Metropolis of Oilville
I thought that Embry Crossroads was a happening place, but Oilville was even more active. More players, more quests, and a token system for acquiring gear. A number of quests around town gave out special 'gears' as reward. These gears could then be turned into an NPC just outside of town for various armor and weapons. I took a glance at what was offered and realized that what I already had was equivalent or slightly better than what they offered. I guess all of that time spent on crafting had paid off after all!
So I begun the great quest project, cleaning out sandworms, assaulting raider camps, and various other odd jobs around town. Not far from town I ran across a few foes on the road, so I jumped off my horse and waded into the slaughter, patting myself on the back for a job well done. But then I turned around and witnessed a horrifying sight! My horse lay dead on the ground!! I'm not sure what happened, but a CoG (one of the enemy factions) was wandering around nearby, whistling innocently. My vengeance was both swift and deadly. I took a look at my preciously acquired horse, hoping that there was some way to revive it but I quickly realized that I had no veterinary skills. Luckily, by this time, I had more than enough chips from completing quests. So I hoofed it back into town and went over to the stables area to see what my options were and to train a new horse if need be. But I noticed that the stable master had an option for 'towing' my horse. It only cost a single chip, so I gave it a shot. It seemed to work as I then had the option of removing the horse from the stable. Would it be whole and healthy? Unforunately not. Instead I was suddenly presented with the corpse of my equine companion being tossed at my feet. Hmmm... that wasn't quite what I had expected. On to the trainer, where I picked up a vet book. Sure enough, the repair skill worked and my faithful mount was soon back in action!
So I booked around the Oilville area for a while, completing numerous quests and shooting up through levels 7 and 8 very quickly. Focusing on the quests also rewarded me with lots of money as well as the experience gains. I was well on my way to level 10 when the closed beta ended, having gained 2 & 1/2 levels with only a few hours of gameplay after leaving Embry Crossroads.
At one point I had a number of fedex-type missions to a nearby town of Kingman, so I hopped on my trusty steed and rode over there, encountering a large camp of bandits who had taken over the main highway along the way, and spotting an imposing structure on a hill in the distance. As it turned out, this was the infamous Kingman Prison, and the local townspeople had plenty of killing that wanted me to take care of for them inside. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much more beyond riding around the outside, but it is a very impressive structure that can be seen from miles away. I believe this is the first major instance/dungeon in the game and it's domination of the local skyline really drew my attention and fostered a desire to see what was inside.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
Horses are great! I like that they have a 'fuel' meter that needs to be replenished. But it seems to be a large enough pool that it wont be a constant maintenance chore. Their extra pack space is a nice addition, and the fact that they can be killed adds another point for realism (though it's absurdly easy to 'tow' and revive them afterwords). One side effect of the fuel meter for horses, is that players tend to park them in town rather than riding them everywhere, including inside buildings. This little touch of seeing several horses lined up outside of various buildings really helps to give Fallen Earth that feeling that it is something special. But of course, once the teeming masses hit the game, I suspect that people will be more than happy to ride their horses up and down the stairs rather than leaving them outside.
I am a little worried about buffs. It seems that there are quite a lot. Even with my newbie self I can eat, drink and take painkillers, all of which provide a 30-60 minute buff, and then on top of that, I have two mutation powers that provide more temporary buffs. I've heard that following a mutation path in character development will open up even more buff options. One player on the forums said that he generally has 17 buffs going at the same time! This is a bad trend for several reasons. 1) Reapplying multiple buffs is a pain, 2) When you start stacking buffs on buffs, at some point they become required in order to compete with other players, 3) its just confusing and hard to keep track of when you have a dozen little buff icons with various effects.
I've also heard rumor (though it should be taken with a grain of salt as I haven't experienced the clan or faction systems yet), that player clans have no faction restrictions. If true, this is a huge blow to the PvP potential of the game and kind of destroys the point of even having factions in the first place, especially if players can teach the faction-specific recipes to other players.
The game does have an auction house, but there was almost nothing for sale. But that's pretty typical for test/beta servers, so I not worried about the lack of auction activity. But given the crafting-oriented nature of the game it will be interesting to see how the economy develops once it goes live.
I never had a chance to experience any PvP in my time in the Fallen Earth world. At one point during my wanderings, I did have a message flash on my screen that I was entering a PvP area, but there was noone else around, and I wasn't even sure what it was that made this a PvP area, as there didn't seem to be anything interesting or useful in sight. But, from what I understand, there is no open PvP in the game. There are 'conflict' towns, but apparently not a whole lot of PvP actually happens there, though that might be due to the beta mentality. It sounds like this part of the game hasn't really been fleshed out. Hopefully that is something the devs will work on in the near future.
Summary
And that's pretty much it for my gametime in beta. Though I found the game difficult to get involved in initially, once I passed that first invisible hurdle, I began to enjoy it a lot more. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'll make the purchase for launch. I have several other games awaiting my attention, including a Blood Bowl league and guild leadership in Warhammer Online.
I suspect that this is one of those games that will have a rocky launch and a lot of mediocre reviews, but given the chance, it has enough potential to develop into an engaging MMO with a unique niche. There does seem to be plenty to do in the starting zone, but those who prefer racing to the endgame will probably end up bitter and disappointed.
So, if you enjoy crafting and are willing to deal with various UI issues and a semi-clutzy combat system, then this is probably a game that you will enjoy. If you're a PvE-raider type, or someone looking for fun, meaningful PvP, then you probably won't find enough entertainment in Fallen Earth. If you're just looking for something different from the saturated fantasy market, then I recommend giving the beta a whirl to see if the game catches your attention, though I do suggest that you give it enough time to get out of the starter towns and into the wider world before passing judgment.
My Kingdom for a Horse
So here I was, still at Embry Crossroads. I had completed a good portion of the quests in the area, but my main focus was on crafting, and that semi-confusing, overly-complex system had taken most of my time and all of my chips (which is the currency used in Fallen Earth). But it was time to move on, and there was no way I was going to cross the barren, scarred wasteland on foot. I needed one of them horses that it seemed everyone else already owned. But the various parts needed to 'craft' a horse, as well as acquire the necessary training manual, would cost me several of the larger size chips.
Well I didn't have much cash, but I did have a ton of crafting materials in my various bank vaults. I figured that I would just see what I could make, and then sell the resulting product to an NPC vendor for a nice profit. What proceeded from there was an odd little dance I had with myself and the various merchants. I would look for items I could craft where I already had most of the ingredients, purchasing the missing parts, then selling the resulting end-product. Sometimes I netted a few chips, other times I lost some. I didn't seem to be getting anywhere closer to acquiring a horse. So I opened up my vault with all my food-type resources and took everything out. With only a few minor purchases, I soon had a good dozen items queued up for cooking. As these foodstuffs were busy percolating in my pack, I poked around to see if I could secure some other parts I needed. Luck was with me that day, for I found a rusty car outside of town that yielded no less than eight scarp fasteners (which are used often and are also relatively expensive to purchase from the NPC vendors).
While on these excursions, I was also trying to fill out some gaps in my crafting knowledge, namely ammo for my revolver! I finally located the ballistics trainer, and also figured out what skill book I needed to purchase. Aha! It turned out that actually crafting the ammo was an easy task, using fairly common materials, so I soon had enough ammo to last me for a while, especially since I had begun using a sword as my main weapon.
After much brewing, grilling and preserving, I managed to sell enough cooked goods to gather the necessary cash to purchase the horse materials. I completed the horse-training recipe, and voila, there she was! I hopped on and took her out for a spin. It was a sweet ride, one that I wish I had gotten much earlier. And even better, the horse comes with its own pack slots! My mission completed, it was time to move on. I had a couple of quests directing me to Oilville, which was just a short jaunt to the north, and so to Oilville I went!
The Bustling Metropolis of Oilville
I thought that Embry Crossroads was a happening place, but Oilville was even more active. More players, more quests, and a token system for acquiring gear. A number of quests around town gave out special 'gears' as reward. These gears could then be turned into an NPC just outside of town for various armor and weapons. I took a glance at what was offered and realized that what I already had was equivalent or slightly better than what they offered. I guess all of that time spent on crafting had paid off after all!
So I begun the great quest project, cleaning out sandworms, assaulting raider camps, and various other odd jobs around town. Not far from town I ran across a few foes on the road, so I jumped off my horse and waded into the slaughter, patting myself on the back for a job well done. But then I turned around and witnessed a horrifying sight! My horse lay dead on the ground!! I'm not sure what happened, but a CoG (one of the enemy factions) was wandering around nearby, whistling innocently. My vengeance was both swift and deadly. I took a look at my preciously acquired horse, hoping that there was some way to revive it but I quickly realized that I had no veterinary skills. Luckily, by this time, I had more than enough chips from completing quests. So I hoofed it back into town and went over to the stables area to see what my options were and to train a new horse if need be. But I noticed that the stable master had an option for 'towing' my horse. It only cost a single chip, so I gave it a shot. It seemed to work as I then had the option of removing the horse from the stable. Would it be whole and healthy? Unforunately not. Instead I was suddenly presented with the corpse of my equine companion being tossed at my feet. Hmmm... that wasn't quite what I had expected. On to the trainer, where I picked up a vet book. Sure enough, the repair skill worked and my faithful mount was soon back in action!
So I booked around the Oilville area for a while, completing numerous quests and shooting up through levels 7 and 8 very quickly. Focusing on the quests also rewarded me with lots of money as well as the experience gains. I was well on my way to level 10 when the closed beta ended, having gained 2 & 1/2 levels with only a few hours of gameplay after leaving Embry Crossroads.
At one point I had a number of fedex-type missions to a nearby town of Kingman, so I hopped on my trusty steed and rode over there, encountering a large camp of bandits who had taken over the main highway along the way, and spotting an imposing structure on a hill in the distance. As it turned out, this was the infamous Kingman Prison, and the local townspeople had plenty of killing that wanted me to take care of for them inside. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much more beyond riding around the outside, but it is a very impressive structure that can be seen from miles away. I believe this is the first major instance/dungeon in the game and it's domination of the local skyline really drew my attention and fostered a desire to see what was inside.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
Horses are great! I like that they have a 'fuel' meter that needs to be replenished. But it seems to be a large enough pool that it wont be a constant maintenance chore. Their extra pack space is a nice addition, and the fact that they can be killed adds another point for realism (though it's absurdly easy to 'tow' and revive them afterwords). One side effect of the fuel meter for horses, is that players tend to park them in town rather than riding them everywhere, including inside buildings. This little touch of seeing several horses lined up outside of various buildings really helps to give Fallen Earth that feeling that it is something special. But of course, once the teeming masses hit the game, I suspect that people will be more than happy to ride their horses up and down the stairs rather than leaving them outside.
I am a little worried about buffs. It seems that there are quite a lot. Even with my newbie self I can eat, drink and take painkillers, all of which provide a 30-60 minute buff, and then on top of that, I have two mutation powers that provide more temporary buffs. I've heard that following a mutation path in character development will open up even more buff options. One player on the forums said that he generally has 17 buffs going at the same time! This is a bad trend for several reasons. 1) Reapplying multiple buffs is a pain, 2) When you start stacking buffs on buffs, at some point they become required in order to compete with other players, 3) its just confusing and hard to keep track of when you have a dozen little buff icons with various effects.
I've also heard rumor (though it should be taken with a grain of salt as I haven't experienced the clan or faction systems yet), that player clans have no faction restrictions. If true, this is a huge blow to the PvP potential of the game and kind of destroys the point of even having factions in the first place, especially if players can teach the faction-specific recipes to other players.
The game does have an auction house, but there was almost nothing for sale. But that's pretty typical for test/beta servers, so I not worried about the lack of auction activity. But given the crafting-oriented nature of the game it will be interesting to see how the economy develops once it goes live.
I never had a chance to experience any PvP in my time in the Fallen Earth world. At one point during my wanderings, I did have a message flash on my screen that I was entering a PvP area, but there was noone else around, and I wasn't even sure what it was that made this a PvP area, as there didn't seem to be anything interesting or useful in sight. But, from what I understand, there is no open PvP in the game. There are 'conflict' towns, but apparently not a whole lot of PvP actually happens there, though that might be due to the beta mentality. It sounds like this part of the game hasn't really been fleshed out. Hopefully that is something the devs will work on in the near future.
Summary
And that's pretty much it for my gametime in beta. Though I found the game difficult to get involved in initially, once I passed that first invisible hurdle, I began to enjoy it a lot more. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'll make the purchase for launch. I have several other games awaiting my attention, including a Blood Bowl league and guild leadership in Warhammer Online.
I suspect that this is one of those games that will have a rocky launch and a lot of mediocre reviews, but given the chance, it has enough potential to develop into an engaging MMO with a unique niche. There does seem to be plenty to do in the starting zone, but those who prefer racing to the endgame will probably end up bitter and disappointed.
So, if you enjoy crafting and are willing to deal with various UI issues and a semi-clutzy combat system, then this is probably a game that you will enjoy. If you're a PvE-raider type, or someone looking for fun, meaningful PvP, then you probably won't find enough entertainment in Fallen Earth. If you're just looking for something different from the saturated fantasy market, then I recommend giving the beta a whirl to see if the game catches your attention, though I do suggest that you give it enough time to get out of the starter towns and into the wider world before passing judgment.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Fallen Earth Beta - Initial Impressions: Part I
I have been in the Fallen Earth beta for about a month. Unfortunately, due to other distractions, my time in game was relatively limited. However, I have written up my initial impressions about the game, which you can find below. This is Part I, which covers levels 1-7. I'll have a 2nd post about my time after that (levels 7 - almost 10), as well as a general summary that will go up within a day or so.
Click the link to see my commentary and thoughts.
I decided to approach this game as a complete newbie (aside from my 10 years of general MMO experience). I knew it was a sci-fi post-apocalyptic setting. I knew that it was supposed to have factions that affected gameplay as well as an extensive crafting system. Other than that, it was a blank slate for me. I hadn't read any forums or guides or previews. I had been playing Fallout 3, however, so I figured I was in the right mood for this sort of fare. Commentary and direct recountings of my experiences from levels 1 to 7 are below.
Initial Experience
Right off the bat I ran into lots of issues with logging in and the weird, confusing NDA acceptance scheme (which has hopefully been fixed. Finally, I was able to create a character and enter the world, but alas, my first experiences in-game were not positive ones.
First off, the User Interface is very clunky. I had hoped that we were past the days of static, graphic-fluff heavy UIs that take up lots of screenspace. But apparently not. It's nice that the inventory and crafting windows are movable, but oddly, some of the basic UI elements are not only stuck in place, but also can't be resized. *sigh* Please don't rely on third-party mods to make your UI malleable.
Moving past that, I then found the opening tutorial to be extremely uninteresting. So much so, that I basically had to force myself to play the game. I can't really pinpoint what it was about the tutorial that left me with such a feeling of ennui, but I suggest that the devs take a long hard look at revamping it, because if its the first thing that players encounter, you will likely lose a lot before they even taste what this game is about. Of course, this was several months ago. I don't know if the newbie tutorial experience has been changed at all since I went through it, but this is a vital part of the game experience. Especially if you want to attract more than a niche, experienced MMO veteran crowd.
So I let my beta account languish for a couple of weeks, and the next time I logged in, my character was gone. I assumed that there had been a server wipe and I quickly threw together a new character, opting out of the tuorial this time around. Instead I went straight to the starter town of Mumford. I was going to try my hand at crafting! So I wandered into town and found a few quests waiting for me, including a crafting quest! But I ran into a roadblock as I was trying to make the two Ragged Black T-shirts to fulfill the job requirements. I didn't have enough cotton! (at the time, I wasn't aware that there were fields of it scattered around the countryside). So I spent a lot of time scavenging through garbage, hoping to find that random bit of fabric that would help me craft the shirt.
Scavenging is an interesting skill. You can get almost any item from scavenging. And there seems to be all sorts of rubbish lying around just waiting for me to come along and comb through it. I even dug through the pockets of an unburied corpse in the much too tiny graveyard right outside of town. Noone seemed to mind.
Finally, as I was searching through yet another rubbish pile, what did I see? It was a Ragged Black t-shirt! Sure it may have had a few soup stains on it, but it was still usable. Glancing around to make sure no one saw me, I quickly dusted it off and placed it in my pack. Hopefully they wouldn't be able to tell that I had just picked this one up from the garbage rather than making it myself? Sure enough, they didn't.
While that was a fun adventure, the thrill of collecting wore off and I wasn't really learning much in the ways of crafting. And then one day, I ran up against a quest that I just couldn't seem to complete. A fellow on a rooftop wanted me to deliver a bottle of booze to someone. After I spent 10 minutes running around (several different times), unable to find the person in question (and yes, I did have quest tracking turned on for this quest), I just said screw it, and left the starter town to head out for parts unknown, figuring I could at least see some scenery before I put this game down for good. I wandered the countryside, gathering resources and avoiding mobs until I stumbled across the town of Embry Crossroads. Suddenly, the entire game changed for me. There were lots of quests, crafting trainers and suppliers of all kinds, abundant resources around the town, a bank, an auction house and other players! NOW, I feel like I'm in an MMO. This was the turning point for me. I suddenly became interested and enamored of the game. If I hadn't forced myself to play to this point, and then made a sudden decision to wander away from the starter town without prompting, I probably would have put this game away and never looked at it again.
Crafting
Anyway, finally out into the world, and feeling rejuvenated and more interested in the game overall, it was time for some serious work. I had wanted to focus on the crafting system first, and so I did. I made many trips around the outskirts of town, gathering anything and everything I could find. I picked up a couple of crafting quests from the locals, the first couple focusing on food preparation. I ended up learning the intricacies of grilling, stewing, preserving, as well as how to make butter and jars of grease. Armed with cheap booze and grilled chicken (prarie chicken that is), I set off for further adventures, finishing up a couple of nearby kill quests while pursuing scrap metals and fasteners (and I heard many a folk cursing about the lack of fasteners in global chat) so that I could make armor, knives, and eventually, my own zip gun.
I really like the detailed and complex crafting system, though it would definitely be nice to clean it up a bit. For one, why do we even have extra sections for additional tiers (IE Shoes 1, Shoes 2, Shoes 3). Can't we just put them all under one category: 'Shoes'? And then within the sections, the order that items are listed in makes little sense. Having the skill books clog up my Shoe list also detracts from the crafting experience.
I would suggest moving ALL the skill books into their own tab. That way if I want to create a skill book, I can go to the book section. If I want to craft an item, I can go to the appropriate section and not have it cluttered with books. It would also be nice to have subcategories of the same type merge together. So instead of having separate sections for Shoes 1, Shoes 2, Shoes 3, etc section, there would simply be Shoes, and as I learned more Shoe recipes, they would all fall under that same section, ordered by skill level (though a couple of different sort options would also be helpful). Makes for a much more streamlined, intuitive and easy-to-use system.
I do appreciate that part of the reason for all the crafting complexity is to force people to specialize. In my time focused on crafting I learned the arts of harvesting copper, plants, animals and mutants, crafting melee weapons (knives, tools, etc), ballistics (including guns, gun parts and ammo), armor (shoes, shirts, pants, hats, boots, jackets and more!), scientific items (acids, dyes and gunpowder), medical supplies (bandages and anti-venoms), food and drink, and finally, horse-taming. And within each of those categories, are six+ sub-categories (that I've learned. No telling how many more there are overall), each with 3-10 items. It's enough to make anyone's head spin! And I quickly discovered that it is nearly impossible to try and focus on that many crafting skills all alone (perhaps with a guild pooling their resources), so I haven't followed the Medical or Mutation paths, and have given up on cooking as well, except to make use of all the various food components I find as loot.
I like the fact that your crafting times can be decreased by standing in an appropriate workshop, and I love that you are still considered to be actively crafting while offline. Combine the two for easy crafting while you sleep! But you can also just go wander around and do whatever else you want in the game, and your crafting counter will still be ticking away.
Everytime I login I see someone complaining about having to wait in real-time for crafting to complete. But please ignore these folks. The real-time aspect is an important part of a functioning economy, and the fact that your crafting timer is ALWAYS counting down, even while you're adventuring, standing around or offline more than makes up for the inconvenience experienced when you feel that you need that new item RIGHT NOW (which has the added bonus of forcing players to think ahead!) The components for an item will sometimes be made by a different specialty, which helps to keep the economic system flowing while making it useful (though not required) for crafters to work together.
My main disappointment with crafting in Fallen Earth is that it's recipe-based rather than component based. So FE crafting falls a bit short of what I would consider the ultimate MMO crafting system. However, there are a plethora of different items, many of which seem to have functionally similar stats, leaving it up to the player to decide which one they want based on personal preferences or item appearance, which is simply wonderful.
I find it very awkward that I can't tell what I will learn from purchasing or creating a new skill book. This has led to some guesswork and a few wrong choices, which can be expensive. If I'm writing a book for myself to learn new patterns, you would think I would know what those patterns are ahead of time!
Combat
Coming straight off of playing Fallout 3, I was hoping for a similar sort of combat experience (without the VATS system of course), though I wasn't sure how well it would work in an MMO. It mostly works, but combat does feel a little clunky. Especially going in and out of combat mode. Sometimes I'll hit tab, and see my guy hunker down as if he's ready for combat, but I wont have a targeting reticule.
I also find it very difficult to hit a moving mob, particularly in 3rd person mode, which forces me to 1st person mode when shooting (though this can still be difficult due to mobs tendency to make sudden, jerky movements). This would be fine and dandy except that I have lots of issues trying to engage in melee combat while in 1st person (my secondary swing attack just doesnt seem to work at all in 1st person mode). So, combat becomes the following multi-step dance. Move within range of my target, switch to 1st person, switch to attack mode, pull out my gun, make sure its reloaded, fire 2-4 shots at my target who rushes at me with the first hit, pull out a melee weapon, switch back to 3rd person mode, swing until my target is dead. Whew! And then, I have to tab out of combat so I can loot my kill. Rinse and repeat for the next victim!
This has resulted in a switch in focus to melee weapons. Perhaps things will change at later levels, but at the moment, I mainly have a sidearm just for show (and also because I made it myself). I've gotten better at the weapon-switching dance, but it's still a pain in the butt and kind of awkward. I find it much easier to just wade in with the sword and chop my opponents up. I don't really have any suggestions here, but having your combat feel fluid is an important design element.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
I like that items tell you in their mouseover text when they're used for tradeskills, but I don't understand why we still have 'useless' items around. Why on earth is the ballistics merchant buying gooey chitinous legs from me?! Can't we just remove this crap from the game entirely?
We can sit! And crouch! And lay down! This may seem like a very minor feature for many players, but for roleplayers and those who enjoy being immersed into the game world, this sort of 'fluff' is invaluable!
A better explanation of combat skills and mutations is definitely needed early on. These seem to be the standard attacks, buff and debuff type skills that you find in any other MMO, but it feels a little strange in Fallen Earth since the combat aspect is quite different from the standard WoW model. I still haven't really looked into these skills yet.
Summary
Overall, I've found Fallen Earth to be different and interesting enough to keep my attention so far, though it came VERY close to losing me entirely in the beginning. Perhaps my expectations were set too high after playing Fallout 3 right before being accepted into the beta?
This post ends with my character at level 7. I have a sword and a set of clothes that I created myself. I have a revolver with no ammo and two vaults full of various resources of all kinds. It's time to see some more of the world, so I plan to gather enough chips to buy a horse and head out on the open range!
Click the link to see my commentary and thoughts.
I decided to approach this game as a complete newbie (aside from my 10 years of general MMO experience). I knew it was a sci-fi post-apocalyptic setting. I knew that it was supposed to have factions that affected gameplay as well as an extensive crafting system. Other than that, it was a blank slate for me. I hadn't read any forums or guides or previews. I had been playing Fallout 3, however, so I figured I was in the right mood for this sort of fare. Commentary and direct recountings of my experiences from levels 1 to 7 are below.
Initial Experience
Right off the bat I ran into lots of issues with logging in and the weird, confusing NDA acceptance scheme (which has hopefully been fixed. Finally, I was able to create a character and enter the world, but alas, my first experiences in-game were not positive ones.
First off, the User Interface is very clunky. I had hoped that we were past the days of static, graphic-fluff heavy UIs that take up lots of screenspace. But apparently not. It's nice that the inventory and crafting windows are movable, but oddly, some of the basic UI elements are not only stuck in place, but also can't be resized. *sigh* Please don't rely on third-party mods to make your UI malleable.
Moving past that, I then found the opening tutorial to be extremely uninteresting. So much so, that I basically had to force myself to play the game. I can't really pinpoint what it was about the tutorial that left me with such a feeling of ennui, but I suggest that the devs take a long hard look at revamping it, because if its the first thing that players encounter, you will likely lose a lot before they even taste what this game is about. Of course, this was several months ago. I don't know if the newbie tutorial experience has been changed at all since I went through it, but this is a vital part of the game experience. Especially if you want to attract more than a niche, experienced MMO veteran crowd.
So I let my beta account languish for a couple of weeks, and the next time I logged in, my character was gone. I assumed that there had been a server wipe and I quickly threw together a new character, opting out of the tuorial this time around. Instead I went straight to the starter town of Mumford. I was going to try my hand at crafting! So I wandered into town and found a few quests waiting for me, including a crafting quest! But I ran into a roadblock as I was trying to make the two Ragged Black T-shirts to fulfill the job requirements. I didn't have enough cotton! (at the time, I wasn't aware that there were fields of it scattered around the countryside). So I spent a lot of time scavenging through garbage, hoping to find that random bit of fabric that would help me craft the shirt.
Scavenging is an interesting skill. You can get almost any item from scavenging. And there seems to be all sorts of rubbish lying around just waiting for me to come along and comb through it. I even dug through the pockets of an unburied corpse in the much too tiny graveyard right outside of town. Noone seemed to mind.
Finally, as I was searching through yet another rubbish pile, what did I see? It was a Ragged Black t-shirt! Sure it may have had a few soup stains on it, but it was still usable. Glancing around to make sure no one saw me, I quickly dusted it off and placed it in my pack. Hopefully they wouldn't be able to tell that I had just picked this one up from the garbage rather than making it myself? Sure enough, they didn't.
While that was a fun adventure, the thrill of collecting wore off and I wasn't really learning much in the ways of crafting. And then one day, I ran up against a quest that I just couldn't seem to complete. A fellow on a rooftop wanted me to deliver a bottle of booze to someone. After I spent 10 minutes running around (several different times), unable to find the person in question (and yes, I did have quest tracking turned on for this quest), I just said screw it, and left the starter town to head out for parts unknown, figuring I could at least see some scenery before I put this game down for good. I wandered the countryside, gathering resources and avoiding mobs until I stumbled across the town of Embry Crossroads. Suddenly, the entire game changed for me. There were lots of quests, crafting trainers and suppliers of all kinds, abundant resources around the town, a bank, an auction house and other players! NOW, I feel like I'm in an MMO. This was the turning point for me. I suddenly became interested and enamored of the game. If I hadn't forced myself to play to this point, and then made a sudden decision to wander away from the starter town without prompting, I probably would have put this game away and never looked at it again.
Crafting
Anyway, finally out into the world, and feeling rejuvenated and more interested in the game overall, it was time for some serious work. I had wanted to focus on the crafting system first, and so I did. I made many trips around the outskirts of town, gathering anything and everything I could find. I picked up a couple of crafting quests from the locals, the first couple focusing on food preparation. I ended up learning the intricacies of grilling, stewing, preserving, as well as how to make butter and jars of grease. Armed with cheap booze and grilled chicken (prarie chicken that is), I set off for further adventures, finishing up a couple of nearby kill quests while pursuing scrap metals and fasteners (and I heard many a folk cursing about the lack of fasteners in global chat) so that I could make armor, knives, and eventually, my own zip gun.
I really like the detailed and complex crafting system, though it would definitely be nice to clean it up a bit. For one, why do we even have extra sections for additional tiers (IE Shoes 1, Shoes 2, Shoes 3). Can't we just put them all under one category: 'Shoes'? And then within the sections, the order that items are listed in makes little sense. Having the skill books clog up my Shoe list also detracts from the crafting experience.
I would suggest moving ALL the skill books into their own tab. That way if I want to create a skill book, I can go to the book section. If I want to craft an item, I can go to the appropriate section and not have it cluttered with books. It would also be nice to have subcategories of the same type merge together. So instead of having separate sections for Shoes 1, Shoes 2, Shoes 3, etc section, there would simply be Shoes, and as I learned more Shoe recipes, they would all fall under that same section, ordered by skill level (though a couple of different sort options would also be helpful). Makes for a much more streamlined, intuitive and easy-to-use system.
I do appreciate that part of the reason for all the crafting complexity is to force people to specialize. In my time focused on crafting I learned the arts of harvesting copper, plants, animals and mutants, crafting melee weapons (knives, tools, etc), ballistics (including guns, gun parts and ammo), armor (shoes, shirts, pants, hats, boots, jackets and more!), scientific items (acids, dyes and gunpowder), medical supplies (bandages and anti-venoms), food and drink, and finally, horse-taming. And within each of those categories, are six+ sub-categories (that I've learned. No telling how many more there are overall), each with 3-10 items. It's enough to make anyone's head spin! And I quickly discovered that it is nearly impossible to try and focus on that many crafting skills all alone (perhaps with a guild pooling their resources), so I haven't followed the Medical or Mutation paths, and have given up on cooking as well, except to make use of all the various food components I find as loot.
I like the fact that your crafting times can be decreased by standing in an appropriate workshop, and I love that you are still considered to be actively crafting while offline. Combine the two for easy crafting while you sleep! But you can also just go wander around and do whatever else you want in the game, and your crafting counter will still be ticking away.
Everytime I login I see someone complaining about having to wait in real-time for crafting to complete. But please ignore these folks. The real-time aspect is an important part of a functioning economy, and the fact that your crafting timer is ALWAYS counting down, even while you're adventuring, standing around or offline more than makes up for the inconvenience experienced when you feel that you need that new item RIGHT NOW (which has the added bonus of forcing players to think ahead!) The components for an item will sometimes be made by a different specialty, which helps to keep the economic system flowing while making it useful (though not required) for crafters to work together.
My main disappointment with crafting in Fallen Earth is that it's recipe-based rather than component based. So FE crafting falls a bit short of what I would consider the ultimate MMO crafting system. However, there are a plethora of different items, many of which seem to have functionally similar stats, leaving it up to the player to decide which one they want based on personal preferences or item appearance, which is simply wonderful.
I find it very awkward that I can't tell what I will learn from purchasing or creating a new skill book. This has led to some guesswork and a few wrong choices, which can be expensive. If I'm writing a book for myself to learn new patterns, you would think I would know what those patterns are ahead of time!
Combat
Coming straight off of playing Fallout 3, I was hoping for a similar sort of combat experience (without the VATS system of course), though I wasn't sure how well it would work in an MMO. It mostly works, but combat does feel a little clunky. Especially going in and out of combat mode. Sometimes I'll hit tab, and see my guy hunker down as if he's ready for combat, but I wont have a targeting reticule.
I also find it very difficult to hit a moving mob, particularly in 3rd person mode, which forces me to 1st person mode when shooting (though this can still be difficult due to mobs tendency to make sudden, jerky movements). This would be fine and dandy except that I have lots of issues trying to engage in melee combat while in 1st person (my secondary swing attack just doesnt seem to work at all in 1st person mode). So, combat becomes the following multi-step dance. Move within range of my target, switch to 1st person, switch to attack mode, pull out my gun, make sure its reloaded, fire 2-4 shots at my target who rushes at me with the first hit, pull out a melee weapon, switch back to 3rd person mode, swing until my target is dead. Whew! And then, I have to tab out of combat so I can loot my kill. Rinse and repeat for the next victim!
This has resulted in a switch in focus to melee weapons. Perhaps things will change at later levels, but at the moment, I mainly have a sidearm just for show (and also because I made it myself). I've gotten better at the weapon-switching dance, but it's still a pain in the butt and kind of awkward. I find it much easier to just wade in with the sword and chop my opponents up. I don't really have any suggestions here, but having your combat feel fluid is an important design element.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
I like that items tell you in their mouseover text when they're used for tradeskills, but I don't understand why we still have 'useless' items around. Why on earth is the ballistics merchant buying gooey chitinous legs from me?! Can't we just remove this crap from the game entirely?
We can sit! And crouch! And lay down! This may seem like a very minor feature for many players, but for roleplayers and those who enjoy being immersed into the game world, this sort of 'fluff' is invaluable!
A better explanation of combat skills and mutations is definitely needed early on. These seem to be the standard attacks, buff and debuff type skills that you find in any other MMO, but it feels a little strange in Fallen Earth since the combat aspect is quite different from the standard WoW model. I still haven't really looked into these skills yet.
Summary
Overall, I've found Fallen Earth to be different and interesting enough to keep my attention so far, though it came VERY close to losing me entirely in the beginning. Perhaps my expectations were set too high after playing Fallout 3 right before being accepted into the beta?
This post ends with my character at level 7. I have a sword and a set of clothes that I created myself. I have a revolver with no ammo and two vaults full of various resources of all kinds. It's time to see some more of the world, so I plan to gather enough chips to buy a horse and head out on the open range!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Isolation and Industry: Take Two - A Civ IV Roleplaying Story
As a followup to my attempt to roleplay the Khazad civilization in Fall from Heaven II as a reclusive people focused and acquiring and maintaining enough gold to fill their vaults (the story of which can be read here), I decided to try it again, only this time I was going to use Fall Further, a mod of the Fall from Heaven mod (so a modmod, I guess).
Fall Further is interesting. He basically took Fall from Heaven II, and threw everything he could think of, as well as a number of concepts from other mods, into the game to see what would stick. This mod features expanded mana types, several new civilizations, new terrain types and a host of other features, game mechanics and tweaks. Having some experience at playing the Khazad civilization, I thought I would give it a try with this mod and see how things would turn out.
Follow the link for the rest of the tale!
The Setup:
Fall Further (patch N). Khazad civilization. Objective: gather gold until the vaults are overflowing and then never let them dip below that threshold.
I decided to use the Perfect World 2 map script which created interesting setups, including large sections of hills and mountains. However, I discovered in my first game, that this script generates large maps. With Large as the selection for map size, I was probably a good 20+ turns away from my nearest neighbor with a scout. I had also chosen the End of Winter option, but it had the side effect of also altering resources,
so by the time I had finished researching hunting (since there were no less than 4 deer near my starting city), the world had warmed and the deer were gone. Interesting idea, but it seems to warm up too quickly. Perhaps there should be a much longer cold period in the beginning before the warming actually starts? Otherwise it just seems kind of pointless.
I also noticed in this game that I was near no less four unique features, each of which had their very own barbarian town! I don't know if this was an accident, part of the map script or part of the mod, but I thought it was brilliant. If this is not coded as part of the game, it should be! After all, it makes perfect sense that people would tend to settle near these features, especially if they give a harvesting bonus of some sort.
But, it turned out that this world was just too large for me to deal with, and the barbarians were out of control (with so much elbow room to start with, they were everywhere!). So I restarted with a standard-sized map. And then again. Finally I turned off the option for Orcish Swarms, which seemed to solve my barbarian problem.
The Setup, Redux:
Fall Further (patch N). Khazad civilization. Objective: gather gold until the vaults are overflowing and then never let them dip below that threshold.
I ended up settling on the following settings: Advanced Start, No Tech Brokering, Barbarian World, Living World, Wildlands, Aggressive AI, Epic speed, Perfect World 2 mapscript (Start Anywhere and Allow Panageas), Standard size.
Year 0 AG (Above Ground): Our first city was founded on a hill by the sea overlooking a marshy area between two small rivers and fields of poppies (reagents). A line of tall, strong mountains hugged the coast the south. More rugged mountains and hills swept northward. Fish and crabs were abundant in the nearby waters.
The Early Years:
As we explored our lands, we discovered that we had pierced the roof on a wide peninsula near the northern, icebound regions. To the north lay pine forests amongst a set of ruined, jumbled mountains. Not much there to interest anyone. To the south lay a wide valley with a small river running though it. And south of that, a thick line of hills formed a pass through an imposing mountain range, with a small pass to the east.
Atop one of the northernmost hills sat an Ancient Tower, built by unknown peoples. Aye, this looked to be a good spot to make our own. Some of the more adventurous dwarves fashioned small boats and learned the secrets of harvesting food from the bountiful coastal waters, becoming knowledgeable fisherman, and even building the Heron Throne to gaze out over the waves into the distance.
Development and expansion of the Great Halls of Khazad continues. In the year 77 AG, The Runes of Klimorph is founded and regiments of Soldiers of Kilmorph are prepared for our inevitable expansion which comes in the year 131 when Halowell, our second city is founded on a hill overlooking a river just to the south of Khazad.
In the ensuing years as we explored the lands, we discovered that we were not alone. Through the mountains to the south and on the western coast of the peninsula lay the Austrin peoples. Hailing from some unknown land to the far south were a strange lizard-folk. We didn't have much contact with the reptiles, but the Austrin quickly spread along our southern border, building cities in a lush valley just beyond the barrier hills.
The First Great War:
In the year 141 AG, the Austrin foolishly declare war on us for reasons we were never able to understand. Perhaps they coveted our renowned Dwarven Ale! An army of Austrin Hunters and Assassins occupy the Ancient Tower which lies just to the south of Halowell. However, they seem content to simply stay there, occasionally sending out a unit or two to try and hit exposed workers.
The Austrin had a significant stack of hunters and assassins who did nothing the whole war except sit in this Ancient Tower. I simply went around them and destroyed all their towns!
Year 152 - A third volcano bursts forth near Khazak. Clearly we have been blessed by Kilmorph, for this abundance of magma will surely help with our extraction and smelting of precious metals!
Year 155 - Mines of Gal-dur are completed, the greatest single mining operation ever created, tapping into no less than three extensive veins of iron ore.
Year 159 - A Dwarven Hero by the name of Bambur emerges from the shops. His skill at repairing machinery is unmatched
Year 174 - A Great Engineer is born
Year 176- Though it took a while to get the dwarves properly equipped for a war, once they were ready, there was no stopping the onslaught. An Austrin settlement by the name of Matanuska is captured, providing us with a seaport on the west coast of our spit of land.
Year 201 - Kolsehvahn of the Cualli declares war on the Khazad
Years 238 - 286: Three more settlements are founded, known by the names of Riylod, Kadar and Glulynn. Two occupy the now empty valley where the Austrin once frolicked, and the third was placed on the hills in a mountain pass on our eastern border to guard against Cualli incursions.
Year 287 AG: The Austrin capitol of Telynohn is taken and claimed as a dwarven settlement, consigning the Austrin to a mere footnote in the history books.
The Austrin proved to be little match. While they did have lots of troops, they were mostly hunters and scouts, great for skirmishing, but not able to stand up to a phalanx of stout dwarven axes! As I demolished the Austrin peoples, my empire expanded as rapidly as I could manage it, running no more than 20% science. I started losing money and had lower my science to 0% and eventually use the Motherlode worldspell, but by this time I had 8 cities, a nice size chunk of land, a defensible border with the lizards and the spell gave me a much needed infusion of gold (plus the extra hills are always nice for us dwarves). And now since I could more easily contain and control enemy incursions, my hard-working dwarves could get back to improving the land. Miraculously, despite the fact that the Austrin were heavily invested in recon troops, including numerous Assassins, none of my trebuchets were killed. Tragically however, the great Dwarven Hero Bambur did fall to the blades of one of those sneaky bastards!
Over the next forty years we dutifully pushed our Trebuchets back across the continent in the other direction while our armies trained and re-equipped for a push into Cualli lands. Beyond the mountains, across a stretch of desert we came upon the city of Aucheauthli. Our scouts waited atop a nearby hill as the first the trebuchets, then a sizable force of sturdy Axedwarves arrived. The city fell soon after and was claimed as a Khazad outpost in the year 331.
Another Cualli city, just a short distance to the east fell also and was burned to the ground at which point an emissary from the brutes offered us a kingly ransom for the simple signing of a peace treaty. They crawled into the throne room, debasing themselves as they planted their scaled bellies face-down on the floor. Would the great Dwarven Empire kindly accept two new technologies, all their gold, plus a small
city near our lands that was conveniently built on top of a hill? Of course we would.
By the year 348 AG, peace had fallen across the lands. Thus began the time of the Great Building. Rivers were tamed, hills tapped, every possible resource harvested and markets built to facilitate the delivery of said goods. Our coffers filled rapidly with gold and two more settlements were founded, one in a scenic mountain region and the other on the edge of the marshes to the east as a deterrent to Cualli expansionism.
The dwarves grew strong and prosperous, branching out to found other settlements. Our engineering skills were unmatched and we were regularly blessed with dwarves of genius who led us to the founding of a Master Fletcher and Smith who were able to equip our troops with quality weapons, though the price was steep.
I've played a few partial games of FF, but I had never set up a 'Master' building. I knew they were founded by Great Engineers, so I figured the Khazad would be a good choice. With Agrarianism and the bountiful fields of reagents, I was able to pile on the Engineer specialists (especially once I built the Mines of Gal Dur), and I had no lack of Great People to do my bidding. I ended up setting up a Master Fletcher and a Master Smith. The Mater Fletcher allowed me to upgrade my archers with 'Fine Bows' which gave them +1 defense strength (though we never were able to figure out how to throw our rocks with these things) for 15 gold each. A reasonable price, and I was already using the Dwarven Slingers as my main defense, giving them promotions that increased their strength on hills. The Master Smith provided no less than 3 equipment upgrade options for my melee troops. Unfortunately, they were all quite expensive. But what was probably the biggest bonus from establishing these Master buildings was the ability to build them in all my cities after that. Seeing as how they not only allowed equipment purchase but also gave a bonus to hammers, gold and culture, I spread them to every city that I could.
Then to our horror we met yet another peoples (these blasted non-dwarves seemed to be everywhere). These called themselves the Bannor and had the audacity to found a settlement on our doorstep in the former Austrin lands. This was completely unacceptable. War was declared and the city was burned. The Bannor empire lay across a rocky, shallow sea but they chose to stay on their side rather than tempt our wrath again. At around this same time, we received word that one named Buboes, the second horseman had appeared. But seeing as how no dwarf ever saw hide nor hair of
him or of Stephanos, these tales of evil juggernauts invading the lands were discounted as Old Maids' Tales, designed to keep the soft-brained people of the Sun Dwelling nations in check. There's no such thing as true evil, lad, only choices.
The Second Great War:
In year 398 AG: The blasted Cualli again declared war. At that point it became apparent that all of the "barbarian" hunters and assassins that had been haunting the Untamed Hills to the north were actually agents of our neighbors. Well if it was war these beasts wanted, then it was war they would have. Patrols were called back and sent to the front, as well as a reserve army from the capitol and an assortment of Stonewardens who had been scattered throughout the empire.
Year 404 AG: Rangers, Priests and Blowpipe-wielding lizardmen boil forth from the marshes and swamps near Stoville. The defensive trebuchets fling rocks endlessly, though several fall to assassins. And the stalwart Dwarven Slingers slaughter them by the hundreds as the Cualli try to storm the hill. But our folly was revealed. We had not yet built proper fortifications in this town, believing that it was safe from attack for a while. Our army was but a few miles out when the city finally fell and they quickly closed the distance, retaking the settlement before too much damage could be done. Three of the great beasts we called Greytrunks were sent to refortify the hilltop. They had been found wandering the deserts after the first Great War, and some of our more industrious hunters had tamed the great beasts, thinking they could be used in open field battles. But alas, we had not the skill to properly teach them in the ways of offense. Our industrious smiths discovered the secrets of the working of Iron, and so began the gathering of our first Champion level units, but it would be a while before any of them were battle ready and at the front lines.
And yet still more lizards poured out of the marshes. Their numbers were astounding. It took years for the Greytrunks to arrive due to the poor quality of the roads in the area. Our workers had not yet reached this newest outpost, and the only trails were horrid, narrow affairs left by the lizard people. Completely unusable for any sort of real commerce! The losses mounted on both sides.
"Twas a terrible siege, lad. One I wish I could fergit. Regular assaults on the town admist a hail of poison darts designed to wear us down. And wear us down it did. They surrounded the city and could be seen up on the hills and bluffs around the town in addition to swarming through the marshes. Ye could hear their strange hissing speech and croaking laughter echoing up from the swamps at all hours of the day and the night. They even began to move inta' tha hills bordering tha desert to the west. Day after day we gazed into that bleak expanse, lad, holding out hope for some sign from our kin. One of tha Greytrunks broke into a thrashing, uncontrollable rage one night. She killed two dozen dwarves and tore up a section of recently constructed palisade before we were able to put 'er down for good. We figured one of them Assassins had put something inta her food. We always tested the Greytrunks' meals on dogs after that. Aye lad, them assassins were what kept anyone from sleeping at night. No dwarf wanted to wake up dead in these stinkin' marshes. Our cold-blooded foes were masters of tha poisons. Some of them killed instantly. Others left a dwarf paralyzed, rigid and unmoving until they starved to death, or caused their victims to puke up blood and guts for three days straight until they finally passed on in a frenzied fit! Our boys tried their best, but there were no true healers with us. A Stonewarden was due with the reinforcements... if they ever arrived."
When help did come it was from an unexpected direction. The relief troops had been forced to divert north through the hills where they were able to dash through the marshes and take advantage of a gap in the blockade. Their arrival couldn't have been better timed, for another army of the cold-blooded bastards appeared in the wetlands to the east. Again the wave of green scaled bodies crashed against our earthen ramparts, and again many a soul was lost on both sides. Though the lizard casualties were too numerous to even begin to count, the sheer numbers of attackers still wore us down. The lone Stonewarden from the relief force was lost to an Assassin's dart. Tame bears and painted Greytunks outfitted for war thundered up the slopes alongside the Cualli Hunters and Blowpipes. Another group of dwarven reinforcements struggled through the desert to reach the city. The Axemen and Soldiers gave their lives to clear a path, allowing several Stonewardens and two Adepts skilled in the magics of Earth and Enchantment to arrive. One of the Stonewardens brought with him a trunk full of gold that was used to expedite construction of more solid walls and fortifications. Perhaps this would turn the battle! But the assault was relentless. The last remaining Khazad Greytrunk was slain, as were several units of Slingers. An Adept fell, then a Stonewarden. Things were looking grim. In addition to the diversion of troops to the south, the reinforcements that were designated for the siege relief were slowed in their arrival by the numerous Cualli raiders to the west of Stoville.
Every able-bodied dwarf that could be found was sent to the siege. Paramanders, Champions, Stonewardens, it didn't matter. We even grudgingly shelled out gold to draft a couple of units of Slingers in an attempt to hold back the tide. Those young lads fought bravely, but they were no match for the battle-hardened swamp-dwellers. The third wave of reinforcements finally made it through to the town, just when things were at their bleakest. The fresh troops were astonished to find that only a lone Stonewarden remained of all the military that had been dispatched to aid in the battle.
This was a truly epic siege. It would be 70 years before I was finally able to successfully secure the area. I lost the city early on, recaptured it the next year, and then fought tooth and nail to hold on to it as a seemingly unending wave of lizards poured over the surrounding countryside. Everytime a group of reinforcements would arrive, they would clear out some lizard troops west of the city, lose a few of their own to assassins and other attacks, make it into the city just in time to bolster the defenses, and then slowly be whittled away by the unceasing assaults. My army of doom that had annihilated the Austrin were all heavily-promoted axemen. And to a dwarf, they were slaughtered during the siege of Stoville. Slingers, Stonewardens, Hunters, Elephants, basically any troop that I could find was sent to defend Stoville. Combat occurred nearly every turn, though most of it was defensive on my part. Even killing the patrols that moved into my territory was tough going. The Cualli had a city of their own nearby and Stoville was soon surrounded by their culture borders.
I had my cities churning out Champions, Stonewardens and more Slingers, but my original lands were a good 10 turns away from the front, so it seemed like an eternity before the first ones arrived. Stoville was being assaulted every turn, the Cualli culture had expanded and completely surrounded the city, and experienced troops roamed the desert between this outpost and the nearest town, which happened to be Aucheauthli, captured from the Cualli in the first war. It was a fine town, situated on a low line of hills in the bend of a river with lots of floodplains. I ordered up buildings to make this into a forward training and outfitting post, but it would be many years before anything substantial was completed.
As the siege of Stoville continued, far back in the capitol, a young strapping lad came to the notice of the Elders. This one went by the name of Maros, and people claimed he couldn't be knocked down. and indeed, he won every tournament that he entered. He was quickly drafted into service, given the best armor and weapons that could be supplied and sent down to the front in a hurried manner. But he was not sent to the still-besieged city of Stoville. Instead he was sent farther south along the coast, were an expedition army was testing the resolve of these Cualli by marching several trebuchets through the jungle to chunk rocks at a city of theirs. Maros arrived with yet more trebuchets, but despite the constant rain of large stones, the lizards remained steadfastly entrenched in their city. Maros absorbed countless arrows and darts as the town was besieged for several years. But the Cualli were not easily broken. Those beasts will eat their own young before giving in! So Maros began a 10-year long hike through the hills to join up with the forces at Stoville.
Year 439 - 3rd horseman. Decius declares war, allowing me to remove their settlement they again planted on the southern coast (damn self-righteous surface dwellers don't know how to take a hint!). Lizards attack Citalamina, swarming the area and tearing up improvements.
Year 447 - A second plague hits. Though equally as devastating as the first, this one seems to pass quickly.
That same year a strange event occurred. "Tha' heavens shook and shimmered that day lad. I have ne'er seen a sky like that before, an hope tha I ne'er do again! A great disembodied voice cried out some nonsense about a fella named Basium with various words tattooed on him. None of us was sure what all this surface dweller foolishness was about, but so long as they left us dwarves well enough alone, it was none of our concern."
Only a few years after this strange event, some odd, thin folks calling themselves the Sidar send an envoy to inform us that they've bent their knees to Pentapach, ruler of the 'Free Imperial Balseraph Estates'! Who came up with that pompous mouthful of idiocy? Well, they could call themselves the Feathered Ostrich Fire Brigade for all we cared. As for the Sidar, why they felt the need to inform us of whose toes they were currently licking I have no idea, but inform us they did, only to depart soon after and never be heard from again.
Again rumors of these mysterious horsemen hit our shores. This time they claim that the one who goes by the name of Yersinia, has been slain. Whoop-de-do ya sky-huggin' pansies!
Maros, leading the newly merged army, sallies forth from Stoville, crushing the main Cualli encampment nearby and driving those that survived the assault back to their city. But next year, yet another sizable army of scaly foes moved on Stoville (how fast do these damn things hatch?!). But things had changed. No longer were the Cualli able to sit outside the town and attack whenever it was convenient. Any who hung around too long or attempted to regain the heights were summarily destroyed.
It seemed that after seventy long, blood-filled years, the siege of Stoville had finally been lifted! But moving on to offense would not be so simple. The lizards were smart enough to realize that the wetlands were their advantage where my dwarves were unable to make much headway (you try wading through a swamp when you're only 4 feet high!)
At some point around this time, every single other civilization in the known world declared a state of war with the Khazad. Seeing as how we had almost no contact with any of them, it must have been pure jealousy that was driving them. Perhaps they coveted our glorious mines? Or the secrets of our religion (it was interesting to note that everyone else claimed to be a staunch believer in Tree-Huggin'!)
Year 497 AG - Heralds began spouting off some nonsense about yet another Horseman of Doom (can't these surface dwellers come up with something new?) This one has the ridiculous name of Ars Morendi. And while our Elders scoff into their ale about these tales, a strange, penetrating fear falls across the hearts of the dwarven nation. The Elders react quickly to keep this fear from hindering our growth. Gambling Houses are
ordered built in many of the larger communities. Nothing can distract a dwarf faster than the thought of easy gold.
With this latest crisis taken care of, attention is turned back to the front. Maros and his weary army still haunt the hills in Cualli territory near Stoville. The marsh-sunk town proves to be impenetrable as its trails teem with lizardman units of all types.
Meanwhile, to the west, a surprise attack bears fruit for the dwarven forces, and an expansive Cualli settlement is captured and razed, its dead inhabitants consigned back to the marshes from whence they came.
End Game:
And there I called it quits, mainly due to the several minute wait between each turn. It is currently turn 500, with ~190 turns left in the game. The Khazad lie near the bottom of the score list, though we are 3rd in power and the magnificent Runes of Kilmorph religion is the one most widely followed with 13%. I have very little of the rest of the world mapped, and don't even know what lies beyond the border areas in Cualli territory.
Currently, the Armageddon Counter sits at 73. Ashen Veil has been founded, and surprisingly, is the 2nd most followed religion behind Runes of Kilmorph, despite the fact that no civilization acknowledges it as their state religion. The Infernals haven't been summoned, and there is no hell terrain. Most of the civilizations are evil. The only good one is Basium, and his summoner, the Lsjolfar, are neutral, tending towards the evil side. The Khazad are a little above true neutral, balancing out their penchant for city burning with the creation of a number of Paramanders.
We've finally begun bloodying the nose of the blasted Cualli, destroying two towns, one small, one large, within the last 20 years. We have 22 years until Machinery research is completed and have just received a new Great Engineer, who, with the Great Merchant I've had stashed, can start a Golden Age.
Post-game thoughts:
This turned out to be quite a fun game. I think a large part of that was due to the Perfect World 2 mapscript. This is now my preferred map type. Not only does it create interesting terrain features such as long mountain ranges and sizable deserts, it also has a lot of minor tweaks such as placing Ancient Towers on hills or next to the shoreline for maximum visual range. Combined this with the flavor start option in Fall
Further for unique starts in every game.
One problem I found consistently was the inability to effectively control territory with culture borders. Well, I guess inability is the wrong word. But it was definitely more difficult when I had a self-imposed limit on when I could build new cities. For example, the Bannor twice came and occupied the site of a former Austrin city which was just outside my cultural borders. I had already booted barbarians from the same spot more than once and had little option for preventing further incursions aside from planting my own city, which was not really a viable choice.
Once you get going, the Dwarven economy seems to take care of itself, especially once I started spreading the Stonefire Guild and the various Master's buildings (each of which give +3 gold). Is there any reason not to spread a guild to all your cities? The gold cost seemed minimal.
I found the Cualli cities to be tough eggs to crack. Their Blowpipe units, with a base of 2-4 first strikes, provide some hefty defense. Then on top of that you have Marshes all over their lands which they get a significant bonus for fighting in, and which slows down any opponents trying to push into their land. And for the icing on the cake, the jungles infesting their areas hinder the view, even from hilltop!
I hadn't realized this when I founded Stoville, but it was a mere three tiles away from the nearest Cualli city. And in-between the cities lay two tiles of marshland. This was a perfect setup for my opponent. They could take their trails through the marsh and attack me directly from their city, then easily fall back if things got rough. Their additional +40% strength in marshes made driving them out difficult. And Kilmorph help me if I tried to move my own troops through the marshes! I found myself sending my armies around the long way where they could stay in the hills. It also didn't help that I had no mounted troops.
I found it very odd to see the Armageddon Counter climb so high without the introduction of Hyborem. And it turned out that the Khazad were the 2nd highest contributors to the AC, behind only Pentapach, who founded Ashen Veil. Razing all those cities, while effective in winning the First Great War, could have potentially been disastrous if the Hell terrain had started spreading. As it was, nothing much happened in my part of the world. I never saw any of the Horsemen, and apparently thr computer AI had little trouble taking care of that threat.
Next up:
I plan to try this same roleplaying angle in Orbis. The fort ownership concept they have there really intrigues me and seems to be a logical solution to the culture problem I had with this last game. I don't know much else about the mod, though I understand that it has some pretty significant differences from Fall from Heaven. I figure my Khazad experience will help to balance out the unknown in regards to new or changed game mechanics.
Fall Further is interesting. He basically took Fall from Heaven II, and threw everything he could think of, as well as a number of concepts from other mods, into the game to see what would stick. This mod features expanded mana types, several new civilizations, new terrain types and a host of other features, game mechanics and tweaks. Having some experience at playing the Khazad civilization, I thought I would give it a try with this mod and see how things would turn out.
Follow the link for the rest of the tale!
The Setup:
Fall Further (patch N). Khazad civilization. Objective: gather gold until the vaults are overflowing and then never let them dip below that threshold.
I decided to use the Perfect World 2 map script which created interesting setups, including large sections of hills and mountains. However, I discovered in my first game, that this script generates large maps. With Large as the selection for map size, I was probably a good 20+ turns away from my nearest neighbor with a scout. I had also chosen the End of Winter option, but it had the side effect of also altering resources,
so by the time I had finished researching hunting (since there were no less than 4 deer near my starting city), the world had warmed and the deer were gone. Interesting idea, but it seems to warm up too quickly. Perhaps there should be a much longer cold period in the beginning before the warming actually starts? Otherwise it just seems kind of pointless.
I also noticed in this game that I was near no less four unique features, each of which had their very own barbarian town! I don't know if this was an accident, part of the map script or part of the mod, but I thought it was brilliant. If this is not coded as part of the game, it should be! After all, it makes perfect sense that people would tend to settle near these features, especially if they give a harvesting bonus of some sort.
But, it turned out that this world was just too large for me to deal with, and the barbarians were out of control (with so much elbow room to start with, they were everywhere!). So I restarted with a standard-sized map. And then again. Finally I turned off the option for Orcish Swarms, which seemed to solve my barbarian problem.
The Setup, Redux:
Fall Further (patch N). Khazad civilization. Objective: gather gold until the vaults are overflowing and then never let them dip below that threshold.
I ended up settling on the following settings: Advanced Start, No Tech Brokering, Barbarian World, Living World, Wildlands, Aggressive AI, Epic speed, Perfect World 2 mapscript (Start Anywhere and Allow Panageas), Standard size.
Year 0 AG (Above Ground): Our first city was founded on a hill by the sea overlooking a marshy area between two small rivers and fields of poppies (reagents). A line of tall, strong mountains hugged the coast the south. More rugged mountains and hills swept northward. Fish and crabs were abundant in the nearby waters.
The Early Years:
As we explored our lands, we discovered that we had pierced the roof on a wide peninsula near the northern, icebound regions. To the north lay pine forests amongst a set of ruined, jumbled mountains. Not much there to interest anyone. To the south lay a wide valley with a small river running though it. And south of that, a thick line of hills formed a pass through an imposing mountain range, with a small pass to the east.
Atop one of the northernmost hills sat an Ancient Tower, built by unknown peoples. Aye, this looked to be a good spot to make our own. Some of the more adventurous dwarves fashioned small boats and learned the secrets of harvesting food from the bountiful coastal waters, becoming knowledgeable fisherman, and even building the Heron Throne to gaze out over the waves into the distance.
Development and expansion of the Great Halls of Khazad continues. In the year 77 AG, The Runes of Klimorph is founded and regiments of Soldiers of Kilmorph are prepared for our inevitable expansion which comes in the year 131 when Halowell, our second city is founded on a hill overlooking a river just to the south of Khazad.
In the ensuing years as we explored the lands, we discovered that we were not alone. Through the mountains to the south and on the western coast of the peninsula lay the Austrin peoples. Hailing from some unknown land to the far south were a strange lizard-folk. We didn't have much contact with the reptiles, but the Austrin quickly spread along our southern border, building cities in a lush valley just beyond the barrier hills.
The First Great War:
In the year 141 AG, the Austrin foolishly declare war on us for reasons we were never able to understand. Perhaps they coveted our renowned Dwarven Ale! An army of Austrin Hunters and Assassins occupy the Ancient Tower which lies just to the south of Halowell. However, they seem content to simply stay there, occasionally sending out a unit or two to try and hit exposed workers.
The Austrin had a significant stack of hunters and assassins who did nothing the whole war except sit in this Ancient Tower. I simply went around them and destroyed all their towns!
Year 152 - A third volcano bursts forth near Khazak. Clearly we have been blessed by Kilmorph, for this abundance of magma will surely help with our extraction and smelting of precious metals!
Year 155 - Mines of Gal-dur are completed, the greatest single mining operation ever created, tapping into no less than three extensive veins of iron ore.
Year 159 - A Dwarven Hero by the name of Bambur emerges from the shops. His skill at repairing machinery is unmatched
Year 174 - A Great Engineer is born
Year 176- Though it took a while to get the dwarves properly equipped for a war, once they were ready, there was no stopping the onslaught. An Austrin settlement by the name of Matanuska is captured, providing us with a seaport on the west coast of our spit of land.
Year 201 - Kolsehvahn of the Cualli declares war on the Khazad
Years 238 - 286: Three more settlements are founded, known by the names of Riylod, Kadar and Glulynn. Two occupy the now empty valley where the Austrin once frolicked, and the third was placed on the hills in a mountain pass on our eastern border to guard against Cualli incursions.
Year 287 AG: The Austrin capitol of Telynohn is taken and claimed as a dwarven settlement, consigning the Austrin to a mere footnote in the history books.
The Austrin proved to be little match. While they did have lots of troops, they were mostly hunters and scouts, great for skirmishing, but not able to stand up to a phalanx of stout dwarven axes! As I demolished the Austrin peoples, my empire expanded as rapidly as I could manage it, running no more than 20% science. I started losing money and had lower my science to 0% and eventually use the Motherlode worldspell, but by this time I had 8 cities, a nice size chunk of land, a defensible border with the lizards and the spell gave me a much needed infusion of gold (plus the extra hills are always nice for us dwarves). And now since I could more easily contain and control enemy incursions, my hard-working dwarves could get back to improving the land. Miraculously, despite the fact that the Austrin were heavily invested in recon troops, including numerous Assassins, none of my trebuchets were killed. Tragically however, the great Dwarven Hero Bambur did fall to the blades of one of those sneaky bastards!
Over the next forty years we dutifully pushed our Trebuchets back across the continent in the other direction while our armies trained and re-equipped for a push into Cualli lands. Beyond the mountains, across a stretch of desert we came upon the city of Aucheauthli. Our scouts waited atop a nearby hill as the first the trebuchets, then a sizable force of sturdy Axedwarves arrived. The city fell soon after and was claimed as a Khazad outpost in the year 331.
Another Cualli city, just a short distance to the east fell also and was burned to the ground at which point an emissary from the brutes offered us a kingly ransom for the simple signing of a peace treaty. They crawled into the throne room, debasing themselves as they planted their scaled bellies face-down on the floor. Would the great Dwarven Empire kindly accept two new technologies, all their gold, plus a small
city near our lands that was conveniently built on top of a hill? Of course we would.
By the year 348 AG, peace had fallen across the lands. Thus began the time of the Great Building. Rivers were tamed, hills tapped, every possible resource harvested and markets built to facilitate the delivery of said goods. Our coffers filled rapidly with gold and two more settlements were founded, one in a scenic mountain region and the other on the edge of the marshes to the east as a deterrent to Cualli expansionism.
The dwarves grew strong and prosperous, branching out to found other settlements. Our engineering skills were unmatched and we were regularly blessed with dwarves of genius who led us to the founding of a Master Fletcher and Smith who were able to equip our troops with quality weapons, though the price was steep.
I've played a few partial games of FF, but I had never set up a 'Master' building. I knew they were founded by Great Engineers, so I figured the Khazad would be a good choice. With Agrarianism and the bountiful fields of reagents, I was able to pile on the Engineer specialists (especially once I built the Mines of Gal Dur), and I had no lack of Great People to do my bidding. I ended up setting up a Master Fletcher and a Master Smith. The Mater Fletcher allowed me to upgrade my archers with 'Fine Bows' which gave them +1 defense strength (though we never were able to figure out how to throw our rocks with these things) for 15 gold each. A reasonable price, and I was already using the Dwarven Slingers as my main defense, giving them promotions that increased their strength on hills. The Master Smith provided no less than 3 equipment upgrade options for my melee troops. Unfortunately, they were all quite expensive. But what was probably the biggest bonus from establishing these Master buildings was the ability to build them in all my cities after that. Seeing as how they not only allowed equipment purchase but also gave a bonus to hammers, gold and culture, I spread them to every city that I could.
Then to our horror we met yet another peoples (these blasted non-dwarves seemed to be everywhere). These called themselves the Bannor and had the audacity to found a settlement on our doorstep in the former Austrin lands. This was completely unacceptable. War was declared and the city was burned. The Bannor empire lay across a rocky, shallow sea but they chose to stay on their side rather than tempt our wrath again. At around this same time, we received word that one named Buboes, the second horseman had appeared. But seeing as how no dwarf ever saw hide nor hair of
him or of Stephanos, these tales of evil juggernauts invading the lands were discounted as Old Maids' Tales, designed to keep the soft-brained people of the Sun Dwelling nations in check. There's no such thing as true evil, lad, only choices.
The Second Great War:
In year 398 AG: The blasted Cualli again declared war. At that point it became apparent that all of the "barbarian" hunters and assassins that had been haunting the Untamed Hills to the north were actually agents of our neighbors. Well if it was war these beasts wanted, then it was war they would have. Patrols were called back and sent to the front, as well as a reserve army from the capitol and an assortment of Stonewardens who had been scattered throughout the empire.
Year 404 AG: Rangers, Priests and Blowpipe-wielding lizardmen boil forth from the marshes and swamps near Stoville. The defensive trebuchets fling rocks endlessly, though several fall to assassins. And the stalwart Dwarven Slingers slaughter them by the hundreds as the Cualli try to storm the hill. But our folly was revealed. We had not yet built proper fortifications in this town, believing that it was safe from attack for a while. Our army was but a few miles out when the city finally fell and they quickly closed the distance, retaking the settlement before too much damage could be done. Three of the great beasts we called Greytrunks were sent to refortify the hilltop. They had been found wandering the deserts after the first Great War, and some of our more industrious hunters had tamed the great beasts, thinking they could be used in open field battles. But alas, we had not the skill to properly teach them in the ways of offense. Our industrious smiths discovered the secrets of the working of Iron, and so began the gathering of our first Champion level units, but it would be a while before any of them were battle ready and at the front lines.
And yet still more lizards poured out of the marshes. Their numbers were astounding. It took years for the Greytrunks to arrive due to the poor quality of the roads in the area. Our workers had not yet reached this newest outpost, and the only trails were horrid, narrow affairs left by the lizard people. Completely unusable for any sort of real commerce! The losses mounted on both sides.
"Twas a terrible siege, lad. One I wish I could fergit. Regular assaults on the town admist a hail of poison darts designed to wear us down. And wear us down it did. They surrounded the city and could be seen up on the hills and bluffs around the town in addition to swarming through the marshes. Ye could hear their strange hissing speech and croaking laughter echoing up from the swamps at all hours of the day and the night. They even began to move inta' tha hills bordering tha desert to the west. Day after day we gazed into that bleak expanse, lad, holding out hope for some sign from our kin. One of tha Greytrunks broke into a thrashing, uncontrollable rage one night. She killed two dozen dwarves and tore up a section of recently constructed palisade before we were able to put 'er down for good. We figured one of them Assassins had put something inta her food. We always tested the Greytrunks' meals on dogs after that. Aye lad, them assassins were what kept anyone from sleeping at night. No dwarf wanted to wake up dead in these stinkin' marshes. Our cold-blooded foes were masters of tha poisons. Some of them killed instantly. Others left a dwarf paralyzed, rigid and unmoving until they starved to death, or caused their victims to puke up blood and guts for three days straight until they finally passed on in a frenzied fit! Our boys tried their best, but there were no true healers with us. A Stonewarden was due with the reinforcements... if they ever arrived."
When help did come it was from an unexpected direction. The relief troops had been forced to divert north through the hills where they were able to dash through the marshes and take advantage of a gap in the blockade. Their arrival couldn't have been better timed, for another army of the cold-blooded bastards appeared in the wetlands to the east. Again the wave of green scaled bodies crashed against our earthen ramparts, and again many a soul was lost on both sides. Though the lizard casualties were too numerous to even begin to count, the sheer numbers of attackers still wore us down. The lone Stonewarden from the relief force was lost to an Assassin's dart. Tame bears and painted Greytunks outfitted for war thundered up the slopes alongside the Cualli Hunters and Blowpipes. Another group of dwarven reinforcements struggled through the desert to reach the city. The Axemen and Soldiers gave their lives to clear a path, allowing several Stonewardens and two Adepts skilled in the magics of Earth and Enchantment to arrive. One of the Stonewardens brought with him a trunk full of gold that was used to expedite construction of more solid walls and fortifications. Perhaps this would turn the battle! But the assault was relentless. The last remaining Khazad Greytrunk was slain, as were several units of Slingers. An Adept fell, then a Stonewarden. Things were looking grim. In addition to the diversion of troops to the south, the reinforcements that were designated for the siege relief were slowed in their arrival by the numerous Cualli raiders to the west of Stoville.
Every able-bodied dwarf that could be found was sent to the siege. Paramanders, Champions, Stonewardens, it didn't matter. We even grudgingly shelled out gold to draft a couple of units of Slingers in an attempt to hold back the tide. Those young lads fought bravely, but they were no match for the battle-hardened swamp-dwellers. The third wave of reinforcements finally made it through to the town, just when things were at their bleakest. The fresh troops were astonished to find that only a lone Stonewarden remained of all the military that had been dispatched to aid in the battle.
This was a truly epic siege. It would be 70 years before I was finally able to successfully secure the area. I lost the city early on, recaptured it the next year, and then fought tooth and nail to hold on to it as a seemingly unending wave of lizards poured over the surrounding countryside. Everytime a group of reinforcements would arrive, they would clear out some lizard troops west of the city, lose a few of their own to assassins and other attacks, make it into the city just in time to bolster the defenses, and then slowly be whittled away by the unceasing assaults. My army of doom that had annihilated the Austrin were all heavily-promoted axemen. And to a dwarf, they were slaughtered during the siege of Stoville. Slingers, Stonewardens, Hunters, Elephants, basically any troop that I could find was sent to defend Stoville. Combat occurred nearly every turn, though most of it was defensive on my part. Even killing the patrols that moved into my territory was tough going. The Cualli had a city of their own nearby and Stoville was soon surrounded by their culture borders.
I had my cities churning out Champions, Stonewardens and more Slingers, but my original lands were a good 10 turns away from the front, so it seemed like an eternity before the first ones arrived. Stoville was being assaulted every turn, the Cualli culture had expanded and completely surrounded the city, and experienced troops roamed the desert between this outpost and the nearest town, which happened to be Aucheauthli, captured from the Cualli in the first war. It was a fine town, situated on a low line of hills in the bend of a river with lots of floodplains. I ordered up buildings to make this into a forward training and outfitting post, but it would be many years before anything substantial was completed.
As the siege of Stoville continued, far back in the capitol, a young strapping lad came to the notice of the Elders. This one went by the name of Maros, and people claimed he couldn't be knocked down. and indeed, he won every tournament that he entered. He was quickly drafted into service, given the best armor and weapons that could be supplied and sent down to the front in a hurried manner. But he was not sent to the still-besieged city of Stoville. Instead he was sent farther south along the coast, were an expedition army was testing the resolve of these Cualli by marching several trebuchets through the jungle to chunk rocks at a city of theirs. Maros arrived with yet more trebuchets, but despite the constant rain of large stones, the lizards remained steadfastly entrenched in their city. Maros absorbed countless arrows and darts as the town was besieged for several years. But the Cualli were not easily broken. Those beasts will eat their own young before giving in! So Maros began a 10-year long hike through the hills to join up with the forces at Stoville.
Year 439 - 3rd horseman. Decius declares war, allowing me to remove their settlement they again planted on the southern coast (damn self-righteous surface dwellers don't know how to take a hint!). Lizards attack Citalamina, swarming the area and tearing up improvements.
Year 447 - A second plague hits. Though equally as devastating as the first, this one seems to pass quickly.
That same year a strange event occurred. "Tha' heavens shook and shimmered that day lad. I have ne'er seen a sky like that before, an hope tha I ne'er do again! A great disembodied voice cried out some nonsense about a fella named Basium with various words tattooed on him. None of us was sure what all this surface dweller foolishness was about, but so long as they left us dwarves well enough alone, it was none of our concern."
Only a few years after this strange event, some odd, thin folks calling themselves the Sidar send an envoy to inform us that they've bent their knees to Pentapach, ruler of the 'Free Imperial Balseraph Estates'! Who came up with that pompous mouthful of idiocy? Well, they could call themselves the Feathered Ostrich Fire Brigade for all we cared. As for the Sidar, why they felt the need to inform us of whose toes they were currently licking I have no idea, but inform us they did, only to depart soon after and never be heard from again.
Again rumors of these mysterious horsemen hit our shores. This time they claim that the one who goes by the name of Yersinia, has been slain. Whoop-de-do ya sky-huggin' pansies!
Maros, leading the newly merged army, sallies forth from Stoville, crushing the main Cualli encampment nearby and driving those that survived the assault back to their city. But next year, yet another sizable army of scaly foes moved on Stoville (how fast do these damn things hatch?!). But things had changed. No longer were the Cualli able to sit outside the town and attack whenever it was convenient. Any who hung around too long or attempted to regain the heights were summarily destroyed.
It seemed that after seventy long, blood-filled years, the siege of Stoville had finally been lifted! But moving on to offense would not be so simple. The lizards were smart enough to realize that the wetlands were their advantage where my dwarves were unable to make much headway (you try wading through a swamp when you're only 4 feet high!)
At some point around this time, every single other civilization in the known world declared a state of war with the Khazad. Seeing as how we had almost no contact with any of them, it must have been pure jealousy that was driving them. Perhaps they coveted our glorious mines? Or the secrets of our religion (it was interesting to note that everyone else claimed to be a staunch believer in Tree-Huggin'!)
Year 497 AG - Heralds began spouting off some nonsense about yet another Horseman of Doom (can't these surface dwellers come up with something new?) This one has the ridiculous name of Ars Morendi. And while our Elders scoff into their ale about these tales, a strange, penetrating fear falls across the hearts of the dwarven nation. The Elders react quickly to keep this fear from hindering our growth. Gambling Houses are
ordered built in many of the larger communities. Nothing can distract a dwarf faster than the thought of easy gold.
With this latest crisis taken care of, attention is turned back to the front. Maros and his weary army still haunt the hills in Cualli territory near Stoville. The marsh-sunk town proves to be impenetrable as its trails teem with lizardman units of all types.
Meanwhile, to the west, a surprise attack bears fruit for the dwarven forces, and an expansive Cualli settlement is captured and razed, its dead inhabitants consigned back to the marshes from whence they came.
End Game:
And there I called it quits, mainly due to the several minute wait between each turn. It is currently turn 500, with ~190 turns left in the game. The Khazad lie near the bottom of the score list, though we are 3rd in power and the magnificent Runes of Kilmorph religion is the one most widely followed with 13%. I have very little of the rest of the world mapped, and don't even know what lies beyond the border areas in Cualli territory.
Currently, the Armageddon Counter sits at 73. Ashen Veil has been founded, and surprisingly, is the 2nd most followed religion behind Runes of Kilmorph, despite the fact that no civilization acknowledges it as their state religion. The Infernals haven't been summoned, and there is no hell terrain. Most of the civilizations are evil. The only good one is Basium, and his summoner, the Lsjolfar, are neutral, tending towards the evil side. The Khazad are a little above true neutral, balancing out their penchant for city burning with the creation of a number of Paramanders.
We've finally begun bloodying the nose of the blasted Cualli, destroying two towns, one small, one large, within the last 20 years. We have 22 years until Machinery research is completed and have just received a new Great Engineer, who, with the Great Merchant I've had stashed, can start a Golden Age.
Post-game thoughts:
This turned out to be quite a fun game. I think a large part of that was due to the Perfect World 2 mapscript. This is now my preferred map type. Not only does it create interesting terrain features such as long mountain ranges and sizable deserts, it also has a lot of minor tweaks such as placing Ancient Towers on hills or next to the shoreline for maximum visual range. Combined this with the flavor start option in Fall
Further for unique starts in every game.
One problem I found consistently was the inability to effectively control territory with culture borders. Well, I guess inability is the wrong word. But it was definitely more difficult when I had a self-imposed limit on when I could build new cities. For example, the Bannor twice came and occupied the site of a former Austrin city which was just outside my cultural borders. I had already booted barbarians from the same spot more than once and had little option for preventing further incursions aside from planting my own city, which was not really a viable choice.
Once you get going, the Dwarven economy seems to take care of itself, especially once I started spreading the Stonefire Guild and the various Master's buildings (each of which give +3 gold). Is there any reason not to spread a guild to all your cities? The gold cost seemed minimal.
I found the Cualli cities to be tough eggs to crack. Their Blowpipe units, with a base of 2-4 first strikes, provide some hefty defense. Then on top of that you have Marshes all over their lands which they get a significant bonus for fighting in, and which slows down any opponents trying to push into their land. And for the icing on the cake, the jungles infesting their areas hinder the view, even from hilltop!
I hadn't realized this when I founded Stoville, but it was a mere three tiles away from the nearest Cualli city. And in-between the cities lay two tiles of marshland. This was a perfect setup for my opponent. They could take their trails through the marsh and attack me directly from their city, then easily fall back if things got rough. Their additional +40% strength in marshes made driving them out difficult. And Kilmorph help me if I tried to move my own troops through the marshes! I found myself sending my armies around the long way where they could stay in the hills. It also didn't help that I had no mounted troops.
I found it very odd to see the Armageddon Counter climb so high without the introduction of Hyborem. And it turned out that the Khazad were the 2nd highest contributors to the AC, behind only Pentapach, who founded Ashen Veil. Razing all those cities, while effective in winning the First Great War, could have potentially been disastrous if the Hell terrain had started spreading. As it was, nothing much happened in my part of the world. I never saw any of the Horsemen, and apparently thr computer AI had little trouble taking care of that threat.
Next up:
I plan to try this same roleplaying angle in Orbis. The fort ownership concept they have there really intrigues me and seems to be a logical solution to the culture problem I had with this last game. I don't know much else about the mod, though I understand that it has some pretty significant differences from Fall from Heaven. I figure my Khazad experience will help to balance out the unknown in regards to new or changed game mechanics.
Isolation and Industry - A Civ IV Roleplaying Story
I've blogged before about a mod for Civilization IV called Fall from Heaven II. In short, it's a major overhaul to the game, focused on a fantasy-oriented game with demons, elves, magic and of course, dwarves!
It's a very fun mod, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in a fantasy-based strategic game.
Anyway, on the Civfanatic forums, one player by the name of Shatner posted a story about a game where he decided to roleplay the Khazad (the dwarven civilization in Fall from Heaven), as isolationists focused on making money, and challenged everyone else to give it a try as well. In Fall from Heaven, the Khazad have a unique game mechanic called the Dwarven Vault. Basically, it provides happiness (or unhappiness) based upon how much gold you have on hand divided by the number of cities. To get the biggest benefit from the vault, you need to have 500+ gold per city. So, the rules for this game were as follows:
* You are not allowed to place a 2nd city until your gold reserves reach 1000 gold. And you must never let the Dwarven Vault drop below Overflowing (500+ gold per city)
* You must refuse any and all trades with other players, as well as Open Border agreements
The story of his adventure can be seen here, and below, you can find a summary of my attempts at this type of game!
Game setup: Advanced Start, Panagea, Barbarian World and No Tech Brokering
Khazak was founded in what would be later called 0 A.G. (Above Ground) on a hillside next to a quiet river overlooking the ocean. Layers of valuable marble lay nearby as well as a cows and cotton. This mission to the Sky-gazers world had been funded with great reluctance, and we had strict orders to show that it could turn a profit before expansion would even be considered.
As it turned out, we were actually in a backwater corner of the world, with three narrow land bridges connecting our section of the world to everyone else. The northernmost path was blocked by a mountain, and the southern two were firmly in control of the Bannor people. Isolation it seemed, would not be hard to achieve.
Small dwarven war parties were sent out to scout the lands. They found a number of suitable sites for future settlements, and also kept the barbarians in check, repeatedly raiding and burning a village near a small lake that the orcs stubbornly kept rebuilding.
Starting early on, the Bannor people found themselves constantly at odds with two of their neighbors, the Balseraphs and the Sheaim. The Bannor people were caught in-between these powers and knew only war for their entire lives. But unfortunately for them, they weren't particularly good at it, and their borders steadily shrank.
Acquiring the funds to prove to our sponsors that this expedition was worthwhile proved to be a long and arduous task. But Kilmorph smiled on our efforts, and we found valuable ores in a rock that fell from the sky (which some sages claimed was proof that there is a ceiling above the sky after all). But something clearly wasn't quite right with some of the dwarves. Perhaps that had stood in the sun for too long. Or perhaps this was an initial sign of the coming evil. Whatever the case, we had to deal with no less than four instances of troops who were caught torturing prisoners for fun. The first two times, the troops were summarily dissolved, by the third time, it seemed there was little we could do to halt the process entirely, so only a reprimand was issued, and the fourth time, well... the fourth time was none other than Bambur himself, and the old grayhairs simply muttered into their beards and suddenly found reasons to check the tallies on their gold reserves.
As we waited patiently in our splendidly walled city for the vaults to fill, the Runes of Kilmorph religion was founded in Khazad and skilled dwarven soldier-builders were drawn up into regiments, ready and capable of whatever tasks might be given to them. Not long after, we met our financial goals that had been set, and quickly founded a second settlement nearby called Halowell. Many troops of loyal Soldiers of Kilmorph marched to the new town and quickly erected palisades, walls, a monument and a temple. Within a short few years, our new settlement had all the amenities and its rapid development was a source of pride amongst the architects.
Due to our remote location and adamant refusal to open our borders to anyone, news of the outside was scarce. Oblivious to most of the happenings in the rest of the world, the Dwarven people celebrated their success and wealth, founding a third and then a fourth settlement. It seemed as if everything was going according to plan. We had almost yearly requests from one side or another to join them in their wars against other civilizations that we had barely even heard of, but every envoy was sent away empty-handed. Over the years, the attitudes of the other leaders became increasingly hostile, but none ever went so far as to declare war.
While my dwarves were slowly expanding their territory, things were getting a little wacky in the rest of the world. Keelyn founded Ashen Veil, which was immediately adopted by his Sheaim neighbors the next year, and the Hippus the year after that. It was not long before the Infernals also arrived on the scene (~turn 200, which is the earliest I've ever seen that happen on Epic speed). Evil was quickly encompassing the world.
The dismantling of the Bannor empire proceeded apace, and I quickly found myself with a new neighbor, the oddly strange Balseraph. The only reason the Bannor remained an individual nation at all was because his final two towns were locked behind my securely shut borders and he obviously had a strong moral compunction against swearing fealty to a king who openly sacrifices at the Altar of the Veils. With the Balserpahs came the Broken Lands and Burning Sands. In fact, as I would later discover, about half of the world had been converted to hell terrain by this point. Falamar had also converted to Ashen Veil
The Ljosalfar had (of course) founded and adopted Fellowship of the Leaves, and it turned out that they had a sizeable empire on the other side on the world-encompassing continent. But the only other good civ, the Malakim, foolishly declared war on Hyborem and found themselves also beset by Keelyn, the Lanun and the Clan (who were locked behind the Malakim and with whom we never even had contact). This eventually proved to be too much, and the Malakim bent their necks to the yoke of the Lanun. But interestingly enough, they were allowed to keep their tree-hugging religion and remained known as a Good civilization.
Surprisingly, during all this time, none of the AI players ever declared war on me. Most of them were hostile (except for the Lanun for some reason), and they continued to make various demands, but none seemed willing to rouse the legendary dwarven ire. But I knew it would happen eventually, and my small empire, now encompassing 5 cities would not last long against their combined might. The first gauntlet was thrown down by the Hippus as a stack of horsemen and Diseased Corpses attacked me through my new border with Keelyn.
They were resoundingly beaten and destroyed. Ditto for the next army that was sent my way. But now everyone wanted in on the fun, and I soon had war declarations from Os-Gabella, Keelyn and the Infernals as well. I pushed across the borders and found three nearby Balseraph cities, two of which were on hills. Unfortunately, the coffers were not full enough for acquisition of another settlement. And I didn't want to start razing a bunch of cities and drive up the Armageddon Counter (I was already advantage of every opportunity that I could to lower it), but something had to be done to keep the battles from ravaging the developed parts of my lands.
The dwarven elders gathered together in their deep halls for some serious discussion and finally agreed that something drastic would need to be done. In the dead of night, secret envoys were sent out to the beleaguered Bannor people. The Khazad borders were opened to select foreigners for the first time ever. Thankfully the Bannor population was pitifully small and they showed little willingness to venture into Dwarven lands. Another promise was made to the Bannor by the dwarves. We would strike at the Balseraphs and attempt to free the enslaved towns, bestowing any on flat land back to the Bannor, keeping only two settlements for ourselves, both of which happened to sit atop a lovely set of hills (well maybe not so lovely with demons, disembodied screams and other such nightmares stalking their hell-scarred slopes, but that would be dealt with later). To try and help bolster the pitiful humans, we also sent them free shipments of Iron from the famous Mines of Gal-Dur.
And so it began, Bambur led the main Dwarven assault force, consisting of Trebuchets, Stonewardens and Axemen. The dwarves had taken riding lessons, but alas, it turned out that there were no pigs to be found anywhere and the early experiments into cow-riding ended only in disaster. So this would be it. Solid dwarven muscle tramping off to battle on their own two feet. That's how it should be anyway. By Stone and Hammer and Rock and Thew we would prove our worth!
The first flatland Balseraph town fell easily and was returned to Bannor control. Unfortunately, their army had apparently not gotten the memo, so it fell to the dwarves to defend the town from retaliatory strikes. This sudden switch from attacking force to occupying policemen brought my progress to a grinding crawl before it even started. Eventually some Bannor defense forces arrive and I was able to move away from that town and approach the first target. But as the war machines slowly slogged through the scarred landscape, assassins and taskmasters jumped out from behind every rock, destroying many Trebuchets before they could even get in range of the city walls. So again my attacking armies ground to a halt, fortifying on nearby hills as more siege engines were ordered to the front lines. Unfortunately, it turned out that only one settlement had the know-how to create these magnificent rock-slingers, so production was slow.
And then, not two turns before I was about to launch a full-out assault, a Royal Guard moved into the town I was about to siege. Royal Guard, fortified, in a city, on a hill, and I only have a handful of trebuchets. This isn't good. I obviously needed more firepower. So more troops were called up, research into better weapons was ordered, but it was already too late. As my forces gathered in the hills, enemy armies from all the evil nations began marching into my lands. Every 10 years or so, a new army would approach. Sometimes it was the Infernals, their Imps driving the demons and undead forward. Other times it would be the Hippus, with armies of catapults, flanked by horsemen. But they always followed the same path than brought them right between the hills were my armies were gathering. These were destroyed every time, but my losses were just enough to keep me static. And the opposing forces began to field meaner and nastier troops. Ritualists, Berserkers, Arbequeses, and finally even a Phalanx. Things were not looking favorable for the dwarves...
And that's were I ended. Keelyn is the dominant evil power, with the Sheaim and the Hippus as his vassals. On the opposite side of the world, the Ljosalfar have the highest score and they, along with their angelic allies, are at war with the evil empires as well, but no cities have fallen for either side on that front.
I probably could keep playing and just hunker down, fortify the hills near my borders and snipe at any armies that try to pass by as I play tech catch-up, but seeing as how I'm fighting with Axeman, Soldiers of Kilmorph and Stonewardens and my enemies are now sending Phalanxes my way, that sounds a bit too tedious and frustrating for me.
Post-game Thoughts
Despite my imminent doom, this was a pretty fun game and I'll likely try it again. Being limited to one city for so long allowed me to build up plenty of soldiers so that any subsequent cities were quickly filled with whatever buildings they needed, which is a very nice way to expand. But I'm not sure what to do about the tech gap. I can see where disabling tech trading could help, since that will be limiting the AI to some of the same self-imposed player restrictions for playing as Isolationists. Despite having seen such an early founding and adoption of Ashen Veil, and also an early entry by Hyborem (who for once wasn't consigned to the icy wastes), the Armageddon Counter only stands at 22. I know I happened to get a couple of events that allowed me to lower it a bit, but I am a bit surprised that it's not much higher. Perhaps the elves had also been working to keep it low.
My attempts to bring the Bannor into it and break the Pact of Isolation were purely self-serving, and ended up having little effect in the long run. Having only five cities for production, I had hoped that the Bannor could at least contribute some warm bodies to the fray. Which they did, but it was not enough. And since my coffers were not full enough to support another town, I wanted some way to push control back towards the Balseraph lands without leaving a big empty area with a razed city were anyone could come along and plop down a new one. And ultimately, the city limit is what hurt me. I was forced to delay my attack of the hillside town for many turns while my funds built up, and by the time I could attack, the defensive forces were too much for me to overcome.
It's a very fun mod, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in a fantasy-based strategic game.
Anyway, on the Civfanatic forums, one player by the name of Shatner posted a story about a game where he decided to roleplay the Khazad (the dwarven civilization in Fall from Heaven), as isolationists focused on making money, and challenged everyone else to give it a try as well. In Fall from Heaven, the Khazad have a unique game mechanic called the Dwarven Vault. Basically, it provides happiness (or unhappiness) based upon how much gold you have on hand divided by the number of cities. To get the biggest benefit from the vault, you need to have 500+ gold per city. So, the rules for this game were as follows:
* You are not allowed to place a 2nd city until your gold reserves reach 1000 gold. And you must never let the Dwarven Vault drop below Overflowing (500+ gold per city)
* You must refuse any and all trades with other players, as well as Open Border agreements
The story of his adventure can be seen here, and below, you can find a summary of my attempts at this type of game!
Game setup: Advanced Start, Panagea, Barbarian World and No Tech Brokering
Khazak was founded in what would be later called 0 A.G. (Above Ground) on a hillside next to a quiet river overlooking the ocean. Layers of valuable marble lay nearby as well as a cows and cotton. This mission to the Sky-gazers world had been funded with great reluctance, and we had strict orders to show that it could turn a profit before expansion would even be considered.
As it turned out, we were actually in a backwater corner of the world, with three narrow land bridges connecting our section of the world to everyone else. The northernmost path was blocked by a mountain, and the southern two were firmly in control of the Bannor people. Isolation it seemed, would not be hard to achieve.
Small dwarven war parties were sent out to scout the lands. They found a number of suitable sites for future settlements, and also kept the barbarians in check, repeatedly raiding and burning a village near a small lake that the orcs stubbornly kept rebuilding.
Starting early on, the Bannor people found themselves constantly at odds with two of their neighbors, the Balseraphs and the Sheaim. The Bannor people were caught in-between these powers and knew only war for their entire lives. But unfortunately for them, they weren't particularly good at it, and their borders steadily shrank.
Acquiring the funds to prove to our sponsors that this expedition was worthwhile proved to be a long and arduous task. But Kilmorph smiled on our efforts, and we found valuable ores in a rock that fell from the sky (which some sages claimed was proof that there is a ceiling above the sky after all). But something clearly wasn't quite right with some of the dwarves. Perhaps that had stood in the sun for too long. Or perhaps this was an initial sign of the coming evil. Whatever the case, we had to deal with no less than four instances of troops who were caught torturing prisoners for fun. The first two times, the troops were summarily dissolved, by the third time, it seemed there was little we could do to halt the process entirely, so only a reprimand was issued, and the fourth time, well... the fourth time was none other than Bambur himself, and the old grayhairs simply muttered into their beards and suddenly found reasons to check the tallies on their gold reserves.
As we waited patiently in our splendidly walled city for the vaults to fill, the Runes of Kilmorph religion was founded in Khazad and skilled dwarven soldier-builders were drawn up into regiments, ready and capable of whatever tasks might be given to them. Not long after, we met our financial goals that had been set, and quickly founded a second settlement nearby called Halowell. Many troops of loyal Soldiers of Kilmorph marched to the new town and quickly erected palisades, walls, a monument and a temple. Within a short few years, our new settlement had all the amenities and its rapid development was a source of pride amongst the architects.
Due to our remote location and adamant refusal to open our borders to anyone, news of the outside was scarce. Oblivious to most of the happenings in the rest of the world, the Dwarven people celebrated their success and wealth, founding a third and then a fourth settlement. It seemed as if everything was going according to plan. We had almost yearly requests from one side or another to join them in their wars against other civilizations that we had barely even heard of, but every envoy was sent away empty-handed. Over the years, the attitudes of the other leaders became increasingly hostile, but none ever went so far as to declare war.
While my dwarves were slowly expanding their territory, things were getting a little wacky in the rest of the world. Keelyn founded Ashen Veil, which was immediately adopted by his Sheaim neighbors the next year, and the Hippus the year after that. It was not long before the Infernals also arrived on the scene (~turn 200, which is the earliest I've ever seen that happen on Epic speed). Evil was quickly encompassing the world.
The dismantling of the Bannor empire proceeded apace, and I quickly found myself with a new neighbor, the oddly strange Balseraph. The only reason the Bannor remained an individual nation at all was because his final two towns were locked behind my securely shut borders and he obviously had a strong moral compunction against swearing fealty to a king who openly sacrifices at the Altar of the Veils. With the Balserpahs came the Broken Lands and Burning Sands. In fact, as I would later discover, about half of the world had been converted to hell terrain by this point. Falamar had also converted to Ashen Veil
The Ljosalfar had (of course) founded and adopted Fellowship of the Leaves, and it turned out that they had a sizeable empire on the other side on the world-encompassing continent. But the only other good civ, the Malakim, foolishly declared war on Hyborem and found themselves also beset by Keelyn, the Lanun and the Clan (who were locked behind the Malakim and with whom we never even had contact). This eventually proved to be too much, and the Malakim bent their necks to the yoke of the Lanun. But interestingly enough, they were allowed to keep their tree-hugging religion and remained known as a Good civilization.
Surprisingly, during all this time, none of the AI players ever declared war on me. Most of them were hostile (except for the Lanun for some reason), and they continued to make various demands, but none seemed willing to rouse the legendary dwarven ire. But I knew it would happen eventually, and my small empire, now encompassing 5 cities would not last long against their combined might. The first gauntlet was thrown down by the Hippus as a stack of horsemen and Diseased Corpses attacked me through my new border with Keelyn.
They were resoundingly beaten and destroyed. Ditto for the next army that was sent my way. But now everyone wanted in on the fun, and I soon had war declarations from Os-Gabella, Keelyn and the Infernals as well. I pushed across the borders and found three nearby Balseraph cities, two of which were on hills. Unfortunately, the coffers were not full enough for acquisition of another settlement. And I didn't want to start razing a bunch of cities and drive up the Armageddon Counter (I was already advantage of every opportunity that I could to lower it), but something had to be done to keep the battles from ravaging the developed parts of my lands.
The dwarven elders gathered together in their deep halls for some serious discussion and finally agreed that something drastic would need to be done. In the dead of night, secret envoys were sent out to the beleaguered Bannor people. The Khazad borders were opened to select foreigners for the first time ever. Thankfully the Bannor population was pitifully small and they showed little willingness to venture into Dwarven lands. Another promise was made to the Bannor by the dwarves. We would strike at the Balseraphs and attempt to free the enslaved towns, bestowing any on flat land back to the Bannor, keeping only two settlements for ourselves, both of which happened to sit atop a lovely set of hills (well maybe not so lovely with demons, disembodied screams and other such nightmares stalking their hell-scarred slopes, but that would be dealt with later). To try and help bolster the pitiful humans, we also sent them free shipments of Iron from the famous Mines of Gal-Dur.
And so it began, Bambur led the main Dwarven assault force, consisting of Trebuchets, Stonewardens and Axemen. The dwarves had taken riding lessons, but alas, it turned out that there were no pigs to be found anywhere and the early experiments into cow-riding ended only in disaster. So this would be it. Solid dwarven muscle tramping off to battle on their own two feet. That's how it should be anyway. By Stone and Hammer and Rock and Thew we would prove our worth!
The first flatland Balseraph town fell easily and was returned to Bannor control. Unfortunately, their army had apparently not gotten the memo, so it fell to the dwarves to defend the town from retaliatory strikes. This sudden switch from attacking force to occupying policemen brought my progress to a grinding crawl before it even started. Eventually some Bannor defense forces arrive and I was able to move away from that town and approach the first target. But as the war machines slowly slogged through the scarred landscape, assassins and taskmasters jumped out from behind every rock, destroying many Trebuchets before they could even get in range of the city walls. So again my attacking armies ground to a halt, fortifying on nearby hills as more siege engines were ordered to the front lines. Unfortunately, it turned out that only one settlement had the know-how to create these magnificent rock-slingers, so production was slow.
And then, not two turns before I was about to launch a full-out assault, a Royal Guard moved into the town I was about to siege. Royal Guard, fortified, in a city, on a hill, and I only have a handful of trebuchets. This isn't good. I obviously needed more firepower. So more troops were called up, research into better weapons was ordered, but it was already too late. As my forces gathered in the hills, enemy armies from all the evil nations began marching into my lands. Every 10 years or so, a new army would approach. Sometimes it was the Infernals, their Imps driving the demons and undead forward. Other times it would be the Hippus, with armies of catapults, flanked by horsemen. But they always followed the same path than brought them right between the hills were my armies were gathering. These were destroyed every time, but my losses were just enough to keep me static. And the opposing forces began to field meaner and nastier troops. Ritualists, Berserkers, Arbequeses, and finally even a Phalanx. Things were not looking favorable for the dwarves...
And that's were I ended. Keelyn is the dominant evil power, with the Sheaim and the Hippus as his vassals. On the opposite side of the world, the Ljosalfar have the highest score and they, along with their angelic allies, are at war with the evil empires as well, but no cities have fallen for either side on that front.
I probably could keep playing and just hunker down, fortify the hills near my borders and snipe at any armies that try to pass by as I play tech catch-up, but seeing as how I'm fighting with Axeman, Soldiers of Kilmorph and Stonewardens and my enemies are now sending Phalanxes my way, that sounds a bit too tedious and frustrating for me.
Post-game Thoughts
Despite my imminent doom, this was a pretty fun game and I'll likely try it again. Being limited to one city for so long allowed me to build up plenty of soldiers so that any subsequent cities were quickly filled with whatever buildings they needed, which is a very nice way to expand. But I'm not sure what to do about the tech gap. I can see where disabling tech trading could help, since that will be limiting the AI to some of the same self-imposed player restrictions for playing as Isolationists. Despite having seen such an early founding and adoption of Ashen Veil, and also an early entry by Hyborem (who for once wasn't consigned to the icy wastes), the Armageddon Counter only stands at 22. I know I happened to get a couple of events that allowed me to lower it a bit, but I am a bit surprised that it's not much higher. Perhaps the elves had also been working to keep it low.
My attempts to bring the Bannor into it and break the Pact of Isolation were purely self-serving, and ended up having little effect in the long run. Having only five cities for production, I had hoped that the Bannor could at least contribute some warm bodies to the fray. Which they did, but it was not enough. And since my coffers were not full enough to support another town, I wanted some way to push control back towards the Balseraph lands without leaving a big empty area with a razed city were anyone could come along and plop down a new one. And ultimately, the city limit is what hurt me. I was forced to delay my attack of the hillside town for many turns while my funds built up, and by the time I could attack, the defensive forces were too much for me to overcome.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Steam Customer Service Sucks
Title pretty much says it all. Avoid any dealings with them if you can! If anyone is interested in hearing the details of my experience, follow the link below...
So I've used Steam for years, though only recently have I ever made a purchase through their system. Over the holidays, I bought several games during their New Years's sale. One of them, Mosby's Confederacy, never would work. It always locked up when I tried to go into a mission. I finally gave up, uninstalled it, and decided to ask Steam for a refund for that game (though I wanted to keep the other 4 games I had purchased at the same time since they worked splendidly).
1) First, I had to create a completely new account just to enter a ticket for customer service. Despite having this built-in cart/game launcher and updater/community service in one hand-dandy application, they couldn't add any customer support to it?!
2) Several days later I got the following response.
Note: Emphasis is mine. The spelling error with the word 'unfortunately' is theirs. Oh, the irony!
You have got to be joking me! They can't do line-item refunds? I can go to any store in the country, including McDonald's, and get a refund for a single item that was broken or non-functional or simply unacceptable. I worked for a number of retail shops in the mid-90s, including ones that used a computer system to track transactions and we could give line-item refunds. The company I work for now has a crappy shopping cart from the year 2000 that barely communicates with our other back-end server software, and we can give line-item refunds.
Yet here it is, 2009, and an online tech company that is hoping to position itself as a leader of downloadable games is unable to handle such a simple request?!! Utterly, friggin' ridiculous.
So I've used Steam for years, though only recently have I ever made a purchase through their system. Over the holidays, I bought several games during their New Years's sale. One of them, Mosby's Confederacy, never would work. It always locked up when I tried to go into a mission. I finally gave up, uninstalled it, and decided to ask Steam for a refund for that game (though I wanted to keep the other 4 games I had purchased at the same time since they worked splendidly).
1) First, I had to create a completely new account just to enter a ticket for customer service. Despite having this built-in cart/game launcher and updater/community service in one hand-dandy application, they couldn't add any customer support to it?!
2) Several days later I got the following response.
Thank you for contacting Steam Customer Support.
Unfortuately, refunds issued are based on the transaction itself and not the individual items within the purchase.
This means if you have requested a refund for a cart purchase, once the refund is issued, it will be for the entire cart purchase.
Note: Emphasis is mine. The spelling error with the word 'unfortunately' is theirs. Oh, the irony!
You have got to be joking me! They can't do line-item refunds? I can go to any store in the country, including McDonald's, and get a refund for a single item that was broken or non-functional or simply unacceptable. I worked for a number of retail shops in the mid-90s, including ones that used a computer system to track transactions and we could give line-item refunds. The company I work for now has a crappy shopping cart from the year 2000 that barely communicates with our other back-end server software, and we can give line-item refunds.
Yet here it is, 2009, and an online tech company that is hoping to position itself as a leader of downloadable games is unable to handle such a simple request?!! Utterly, friggin' ridiculous.
Improving RvR in Warhammer Online Part II: Keeps
My first post about improving RvR in Warhammer Online dealt with Battlefield Objectives and suggestions to make them worth taking and defending beyond the simple desire for free bonus renown and influence. In this post, I'll delve into the keeps and my suggestions for improving keep battles, both for offense and defense. Though some of this applies to fortresses as well, I think that Fortress attacks should be truly spectacular rather than simply a larger, laggier keep, so I'll have a more detailed Fortress post later on.
I originally started writing this several months back, and since then, there have been some changes to keep defense that I would like to touch on before we get to my ideas about improving keep combat.
First off, and the change with the most impact, was the fix/addition of the ability for melee DPS to enter keeps via the postern doors. This has added a welcome facet to keep sieges. No longer are you always safe while pouring the oil or manning the walls. You have to always keep an eye out for that Witch Hunter or Choppa sneaking in through the side door and charging into the defenders. Single-player defenses are much less effective than they were before.
Another new feature is the addition of Ordnance. Ordnance can be found as drops from players, and in random locations around Battlefield Objectives and Keeps. Players can use these items to purchase upgraded, ranged siege equipment that does more damage. Sounds great on paper, but the exorbitant cost makes this addition completely useless. It costs 900 Ordinance to purchase one of these siege engines. After several weeks of play, picking up Ordnance everytime I see it and grabbing a dozen or so from our Guild Vault, I have a grand total of 50. So, at that rate, I can look forward to trying out one of these new siege engines in October of 2010!
And finally, we have the new keep upgrade system. This allows guilds who have claimed keeps to spend more gold to upgrade the keep. Again, this system looks great on paper, but the charges are ridiculous, resulting in players upgrading keeps when they come under attack, and then downgrading them once the attack is repelled. Basic cost is 3.6 gold per hour. Each upgrade after that adds anywhere from 1.2 gold per hour to 6 gold per hour. So with just two upgrades, you're already looking at paying at least 10 gold per hour, which adds up very quickly. (note: and apparently, the upgrade costs are being taken from the guild vault every 3 1/2 minutes instead of every 5, which further compounds the issue). I understand that there needs to be a noticeable cost for owning a keep, but this is a little much. I think that increasing the base cost of keep ownership and lowering the cost on most upgrades would be a step in the right direction.
So there we have the recent changes. And though I like them, and they have altered keep battles a little bit, it's still not enough. Follow the link below to continue reading and see my suggestions for further improving keep combat in WAR.
Currently in WAR, keeps are very simple affairs. Bash down the door, bash down the second door, kill the keep lord. This has been slightly improved recently with the change to allow melee DPS to enter enemy keeps via the postern door, but it's still basically the same assault and defense, modified only by the number of defenders and attackers.
Keep sieges should be epic events. Siege engines firing on both sides. Tanks cursing as they swing the ram against the door and do their best to avoid being boiled alive. Attackers trying to scramble up siege ladders and gain a foothold on the wall while the defenders throw them back. Battles swirling across the entire keep area and surrounding environs. Something to be remembered and where different tactics can come into play on a siege by siege basis.
One of the main problems with keep defense is the sheer speed that a warband can tear apart an undefended keep. A full warband can destroy both doors and the keep lord in under 5 minutes. Simply receiving a message that a keep is under attack, running or recalling to the nearest flight master, flying /loading to the correct zone, and then running to the keep can often take several minutes. And that's just for a single individual. Trying to actually organize a group to defend the keep takes much longer. Generally, significant keep defenses only occur after there has already been some activity from both sides in a zone. This has changed a bit with the ability to upgrade the amount of hitpoints on keep doors, but they are still very flimsy when focus-fired by a significant number of players.
On the other side, taking a heavily defended keep is extremely difficult. So often, the general strategy when hitting a zone is to take both keeps first, as you'll hopefully be able to secure them before any sizable defensive force arrives.
Improving on these issues requires a careful balance. We want to make keeps hard enough to get into that it gives potential defenders a time to respond once they hear that the keep is under attack, but we also don't want to make it overly difficult to assault a keep.
So there are several things I hope to accomplish with this proposal:
* Provide more time and easier methods of responding to keep attacks
* Make it easier for attackers to stop stragglers from entering the keep
* Provide more assault options to reduce the issue of single, monotonous bottlenecks
* Spread the combat out in and around the keeps
* Provide more decision points for both attackers and defenders during a siege
I'll break this down into specific sections, though of course, since this is all about keep battles, there will be overlap between the concepts.
Front doors. Currently, keep doors are ridiculously fragile when hit by a full warband. I've seen them destroyed in as little as 60 seconds. Front doors should mitigate 90% of all non-ram damage. This puts the door focus back on the ram crew, which is where it should be. Everyone else should be guarding posterns, manning siege engines or trying to lay down suppressing fire on the walls to help keep the ram crew safe.
Oil. Oil should do more damage, making it nearly impossible for anyone to go beat on the door while the oil is being poured. It does decent support damage currently, but any group with decent healers can easily outheal the oil damage. Oil currently relies on other AoE attacks at the ram in order to kill anyone who isn't overly squishy and/or missing a healer.
Patrolling guard groups should have a champion to lead them. The leashing range on patrols should be heavily increased. It would be nice if they would chase all over the keep, only stopping if they lose line of sight for a few seconds. To avoid someone kiting an entire patrol on their own, ranged guards should have a snare attack.
Ranged guards on walls. Regular guard-types, except they are rooted. Also, the biggest problem with rooted, ranged AI in MMOs is their inability to switch targets. If their current target runs out of LOS, they should look for and acquire a new target. They should also be killable and respawn at the same rate as other guards.
Portcullis. Every keep should have a portcullis (gate) on the inside part of the main entryway through the outer wall. This cannot be destroyed, and must be opened via a lever in the tower above the gate. Bashing down the front gate is just one step of the attack. There should be a lever in the tower above the gate that controls the portcullis, allowing the defenders to drop it down in the middle of a charge, cutting the attacking force into two parts. This creates a strong incentive for the attackers to grab and maintain control of the gate tower.
Keep recall scrolls. At some point, this was listed as a reward for high-level guilds, but either its been removed, or its much too far up the guild progression meter. These should be relatively expensive (lets say 50 silver), and when used, should send you directly to the keep that your guild has claimed. If your guild doesn't have a keep claimed, then the scroll is unusable.
Rams. Rams should be more interactive. Hitting it near the sweet spot should have a major effect. Currently, its hardly noticeable. Whats more important is having warm bodies on the ram. As long as the controller is swinging, it really doesn't matter much what the other players on the ram do. I often take the opportunity to grab a drink or go to the bathroom when I have a secondary spot on the ram. If everyone hits the ram meter at 50%, the ram should do 50% of normal damage. Make hitting that 90-100% section more important than it currently is. Rams are already difficult to set up due to AoE, oil and the extremely low health of the ram pad. But getting one into place should be the primary focus of a frontal attack. Rams should also mitigate 75% of the incoming damage to those using the ram. Manning a ram is already a boring and thankless task. At least make it easier to survive while staring at the door and the ram-o-meter.
Postern attacks. Postern doors should be attackable and destroyable. The doors should be tough, and the area just inside the door should be a narrow, cramped, killing zone. Attacking through the postern should not be the best nor the easiest choice, but it should be an option.
Opening the gate from the inside - A lever in the room above the outer door that allows an enemy player to open the door. Casting time should be long (15 seconds maybe?), and should be completely interrupted when receiving any damage. Add a couple of champion guards.
Siege ladders. 5-second casting time, completely interrupted on damage. Once in place, it takes a defender 5 seconds casting time to throw them down, at which point the ladder is destroyed. Climbing up the ladder also takes a 5 second, interruptable cast. On completion, you're transported to the top of the wall where the ladder is anchored. These are only usable on the outer wall (and if it helps, you can even add in 'pads' for them). They should also have a cooldown, maybe 30 seconds or so (and only triggered after successful usage) to prevent insta-invasion via siege ladder.
Doors - Postern doors AND front doors cant be used while you are in combat. ALTERNATIVELY, make them actual doors that open and close so that if you want to open the doors to allow your friends inside you can, but, if there are enemy players nearby, they might be able to dash inside as well. At the moment, it is much to easy to run through the sieging force and jump in the front door, which is completely ridiculous. You should have to fight your way inside. Or, if that's impossible, harass the sieging force from the outside, picking away at their numbers while causing a distraction and forcing them to turn some of their forces to deal with you. Even if you can't get in the door, it's still possible to be ressed to inside the keep as long as you have a friendly healer on the walls. But the dash through the middle of an enemy warband to be insta-ported to safety inside needs to be thrown out entirely. Excursions from inside against attacking forces should almost always come from the posterns. Hopping in and out the front door to harass the ram crew is another annoyance that needs to be removed from the game. If you're coming out the front door in the middle of a siege, it should be because you have an army behind you that is charging out as well.
The main issue with this suggestion, is that once you're in combat, it's hard to get reflagged as being out of combat during a siege. I'm not exactly sure how to resolve that. One option would be to allow exit door usage during combat, while disabling the ability to enter a door during combat. That way, if you want to go out and make a suicide run, you're welcome to do so. But getting back inside safely is not as simple as frantically clicking on the door.
Ranged Siege. Ranged Siege is almost useless in most keep battles. Their damage output is too low, and the speed with which the front door usually falls makes their setup time. Increase siege engine damage. Add a short knockback to ballista attacks and a short-duration snare to catapult attacks. It also doesn't help that a number of siege pads, both inside and outside of keep, have poorly planned placement and/or LOS issues. Someone should take the time and carefully go through each and every siege pad, trying out various siege engines to make sure that every option is viable.
Another big problem I have with the current WAR keep design, is the fact that 90% the space inside of the outer walls goes unused. And some of the keeps have a number of buildings and other such things that would make battles in and around them interesting, but there is no reason to hang out away from the main keep unless you're trying to hide.
So, I propose that there be a number of important capture points within the walls that if owned by the defenders provide from defensive advantage. Unfortunately, a lot of the Tier 4 keeps aren't designed with this feature in mind, so you have places like Bloodfist Rock, which is nothing but barren ground inside the walls, and XX, which has almost no space to place any points of interest, so there would need to be a pretty significant overhaul of the keep layouts in order to make this idea work.
Here are a couple of suggestions for possible Points of Interest that would be worth fighting over within the keep walls.
Barracks - This will be the spawn point for all patrols in and around the keep. There will be a flag here, guarded by the guard captain (hero level NPC). Once the captain is killed, the attackers can take control of the flag (which would be presence-controlled, like many of the flags in scenarios). If the attackers control this point, guard respawns stop completely.
Respawn point - For the defenders. That's right, a respawn point within the keep! This would make it much easier to defend the outer walls (which will be needed with the alternate methods of getting past the walls mentioned earlier in this post), and also give those who can get in via the postern something to focus on besides the oil cauldron.
Teleport-in pad - To go along with my suggestion above about allowing guilds to recall to their owned keeps, there should be a certain, controllable spot within the keep walls that the attackers can take to prevent the Keep Recall scrolls from working for that keep.
So there are some ideas. Even though a lot of details are glossed over, I'm going to cut it off at this point to avoid writing a novel on the subject.
In short, I would love for keep sieges to be larger, more varied and more interesting affairs all around. A lot of these concepts won't stand alone, and some may be hindered by current game mechanics, but no armchair design doc should ever be implemented as-is. But I do think that some tweaking and brainstorming around these ideas could lead to some exciting and innovative changes to siege combat in WAR.
I originally started writing this several months back, and since then, there have been some changes to keep defense that I would like to touch on before we get to my ideas about improving keep combat.
First off, and the change with the most impact, was the fix/addition of the ability for melee DPS to enter keeps via the postern doors. This has added a welcome facet to keep sieges. No longer are you always safe while pouring the oil or manning the walls. You have to always keep an eye out for that Witch Hunter or Choppa sneaking in through the side door and charging into the defenders. Single-player defenses are much less effective than they were before.
Another new feature is the addition of Ordnance. Ordnance can be found as drops from players, and in random locations around Battlefield Objectives and Keeps. Players can use these items to purchase upgraded, ranged siege equipment that does more damage. Sounds great on paper, but the exorbitant cost makes this addition completely useless. It costs 900 Ordinance to purchase one of these siege engines. After several weeks of play, picking up Ordnance everytime I see it and grabbing a dozen or so from our Guild Vault, I have a grand total of 50. So, at that rate, I can look forward to trying out one of these new siege engines in October of 2010!
And finally, we have the new keep upgrade system. This allows guilds who have claimed keeps to spend more gold to upgrade the keep. Again, this system looks great on paper, but the charges are ridiculous, resulting in players upgrading keeps when they come under attack, and then downgrading them once the attack is repelled. Basic cost is 3.6 gold per hour. Each upgrade after that adds anywhere from 1.2 gold per hour to 6 gold per hour. So with just two upgrades, you're already looking at paying at least 10 gold per hour, which adds up very quickly. (note: and apparently, the upgrade costs are being taken from the guild vault every 3 1/2 minutes instead of every 5, which further compounds the issue). I understand that there needs to be a noticeable cost for owning a keep, but this is a little much. I think that increasing the base cost of keep ownership and lowering the cost on most upgrades would be a step in the right direction.
So there we have the recent changes. And though I like them, and they have altered keep battles a little bit, it's still not enough. Follow the link below to continue reading and see my suggestions for further improving keep combat in WAR.
Currently in WAR, keeps are very simple affairs. Bash down the door, bash down the second door, kill the keep lord. This has been slightly improved recently with the change to allow melee DPS to enter enemy keeps via the postern door, but it's still basically the same assault and defense, modified only by the number of defenders and attackers.
Keep sieges should be epic events. Siege engines firing on both sides. Tanks cursing as they swing the ram against the door and do their best to avoid being boiled alive. Attackers trying to scramble up siege ladders and gain a foothold on the wall while the defenders throw them back. Battles swirling across the entire keep area and surrounding environs. Something to be remembered and where different tactics can come into play on a siege by siege basis.
One of the main problems with keep defense is the sheer speed that a warband can tear apart an undefended keep. A full warband can destroy both doors and the keep lord in under 5 minutes. Simply receiving a message that a keep is under attack, running or recalling to the nearest flight master, flying /loading to the correct zone, and then running to the keep can often take several minutes. And that's just for a single individual. Trying to actually organize a group to defend the keep takes much longer. Generally, significant keep defenses only occur after there has already been some activity from both sides in a zone. This has changed a bit with the ability to upgrade the amount of hitpoints on keep doors, but they are still very flimsy when focus-fired by a significant number of players.
On the other side, taking a heavily defended keep is extremely difficult. So often, the general strategy when hitting a zone is to take both keeps first, as you'll hopefully be able to secure them before any sizable defensive force arrives.
Improving on these issues requires a careful balance. We want to make keeps hard enough to get into that it gives potential defenders a time to respond once they hear that the keep is under attack, but we also don't want to make it overly difficult to assault a keep.
So there are several things I hope to accomplish with this proposal:
* Provide more time and easier methods of responding to keep attacks
* Make it easier for attackers to stop stragglers from entering the keep
* Provide more assault options to reduce the issue of single, monotonous bottlenecks
* Spread the combat out in and around the keeps
* Provide more decision points for both attackers and defenders during a siege
I'll break this down into specific sections, though of course, since this is all about keep battles, there will be overlap between the concepts.
Defense Improvements
Front doors. Currently, keep doors are ridiculously fragile when hit by a full warband. I've seen them destroyed in as little as 60 seconds. Front doors should mitigate 90% of all non-ram damage. This puts the door focus back on the ram crew, which is where it should be. Everyone else should be guarding posterns, manning siege engines or trying to lay down suppressing fire on the walls to help keep the ram crew safe.
Oil. Oil should do more damage, making it nearly impossible for anyone to go beat on the door while the oil is being poured. It does decent support damage currently, but any group with decent healers can easily outheal the oil damage. Oil currently relies on other AoE attacks at the ram in order to kill anyone who isn't overly squishy and/or missing a healer.
Patrolling guard groups should have a champion to lead them. The leashing range on patrols should be heavily increased. It would be nice if they would chase all over the keep, only stopping if they lose line of sight for a few seconds. To avoid someone kiting an entire patrol on their own, ranged guards should have a snare attack.
Ranged guards on walls. Regular guard-types, except they are rooted. Also, the biggest problem with rooted, ranged AI in MMOs is their inability to switch targets. If their current target runs out of LOS, they should look for and acquire a new target. They should also be killable and respawn at the same rate as other guards.
Portcullis. Every keep should have a portcullis (gate) on the inside part of the main entryway through the outer wall. This cannot be destroyed, and must be opened via a lever in the tower above the gate. Bashing down the front gate is just one step of the attack. There should be a lever in the tower above the gate that controls the portcullis, allowing the defenders to drop it down in the middle of a charge, cutting the attacking force into two parts. This creates a strong incentive for the attackers to grab and maintain control of the gate tower.
Keep recall scrolls. At some point, this was listed as a reward for high-level guilds, but either its been removed, or its much too far up the guild progression meter. These should be relatively expensive (lets say 50 silver), and when used, should send you directly to the keep that your guild has claimed. If your guild doesn't have a keep claimed, then the scroll is unusable.
Offense Improvements
Rams. Rams should be more interactive. Hitting it near the sweet spot should have a major effect. Currently, its hardly noticeable. Whats more important is having warm bodies on the ram. As long as the controller is swinging, it really doesn't matter much what the other players on the ram do. I often take the opportunity to grab a drink or go to the bathroom when I have a secondary spot on the ram. If everyone hits the ram meter at 50%, the ram should do 50% of normal damage. Make hitting that 90-100% section more important than it currently is. Rams are already difficult to set up due to AoE, oil and the extremely low health of the ram pad. But getting one into place should be the primary focus of a frontal attack. Rams should also mitigate 75% of the incoming damage to those using the ram. Manning a ram is already a boring and thankless task. At least make it easier to survive while staring at the door and the ram-o-meter.
Postern attacks. Postern doors should be attackable and destroyable. The doors should be tough, and the area just inside the door should be a narrow, cramped, killing zone. Attacking through the postern should not be the best nor the easiest choice, but it should be an option.
Opening the gate from the inside - A lever in the room above the outer door that allows an enemy player to open the door. Casting time should be long (15 seconds maybe?), and should be completely interrupted when receiving any damage. Add a couple of champion guards.
Siege ladders. 5-second casting time, completely interrupted on damage. Once in place, it takes a defender 5 seconds casting time to throw them down, at which point the ladder is destroyed. Climbing up the ladder also takes a 5 second, interruptable cast. On completion, you're transported to the top of the wall where the ladder is anchored. These are only usable on the outer wall (and if it helps, you can even add in 'pads' for them). They should also have a cooldown, maybe 30 seconds or so (and only triggered after successful usage) to prevent insta-invasion via siege ladder.
General Improvements
Doors - Postern doors AND front doors cant be used while you are in combat. ALTERNATIVELY, make them actual doors that open and close so that if you want to open the doors to allow your friends inside you can, but, if there are enemy players nearby, they might be able to dash inside as well. At the moment, it is much to easy to run through the sieging force and jump in the front door, which is completely ridiculous. You should have to fight your way inside. Or, if that's impossible, harass the sieging force from the outside, picking away at their numbers while causing a distraction and forcing them to turn some of their forces to deal with you. Even if you can't get in the door, it's still possible to be ressed to inside the keep as long as you have a friendly healer on the walls. But the dash through the middle of an enemy warband to be insta-ported to safety inside needs to be thrown out entirely. Excursions from inside against attacking forces should almost always come from the posterns. Hopping in and out the front door to harass the ram crew is another annoyance that needs to be removed from the game. If you're coming out the front door in the middle of a siege, it should be because you have an army behind you that is charging out as well.
The main issue with this suggestion, is that once you're in combat, it's hard to get reflagged as being out of combat during a siege. I'm not exactly sure how to resolve that. One option would be to allow exit door usage during combat, while disabling the ability to enter a door during combat. That way, if you want to go out and make a suicide run, you're welcome to do so. But getting back inside safely is not as simple as frantically clicking on the door.
Ranged Siege. Ranged Siege is almost useless in most keep battles. Their damage output is too low, and the speed with which the front door usually falls makes their setup time. Increase siege engine damage. Add a short knockback to ballista attacks and a short-duration snare to catapult attacks. It also doesn't help that a number of siege pads, both inside and outside of keep, have poorly planned placement and/or LOS issues. Someone should take the time and carefully go through each and every siege pad, trying out various siege engines to make sure that every option is viable.
Multiple Points of Interest Inside Keeps
Another big problem I have with the current WAR keep design, is the fact that 90% the space inside of the outer walls goes unused. And some of the keeps have a number of buildings and other such things that would make battles in and around them interesting, but there is no reason to hang out away from the main keep unless you're trying to hide.
So, I propose that there be a number of important capture points within the walls that if owned by the defenders provide from defensive advantage. Unfortunately, a lot of the Tier 4 keeps aren't designed with this feature in mind, so you have places like Bloodfist Rock, which is nothing but barren ground inside the walls, and XX, which has almost no space to place any points of interest, so there would need to be a pretty significant overhaul of the keep layouts in order to make this idea work.
Here are a couple of suggestions for possible Points of Interest that would be worth fighting over within the keep walls.
Barracks - This will be the spawn point for all patrols in and around the keep. There will be a flag here, guarded by the guard captain (hero level NPC). Once the captain is killed, the attackers can take control of the flag (which would be presence-controlled, like many of the flags in scenarios). If the attackers control this point, guard respawns stop completely.
Respawn point - For the defenders. That's right, a respawn point within the keep! This would make it much easier to defend the outer walls (which will be needed with the alternate methods of getting past the walls mentioned earlier in this post), and also give those who can get in via the postern something to focus on besides the oil cauldron.
Teleport-in pad - To go along with my suggestion above about allowing guilds to recall to their owned keeps, there should be a certain, controllable spot within the keep walls that the attackers can take to prevent the Keep Recall scrolls from working for that keep.
Final Thoughts
So there are some ideas. Even though a lot of details are glossed over, I'm going to cut it off at this point to avoid writing a novel on the subject.
In short, I would love for keep sieges to be larger, more varied and more interesting affairs all around. A lot of these concepts won't stand alone, and some may be hindered by current game mechanics, but no armchair design doc should ever be implemented as-is. But I do think that some tweaking and brainstorming around these ideas could lead to some exciting and innovative changes to siege combat in WAR.
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