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The Start - Episode1


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DEMIGOD CAMPAIGN: Chapter 1: The Winged Exiles, Episode 1 – The Start

RPG map, life of a peasant (LOAP). Its an map of adventure, consists a story that tells the beggining of an epic tale of an peasant living on a farm on an hidden Valley in the Kingdom of Stormwind.
The main character is the Hero, however there are quest interactions (A Chain of 7 main quests and 2 optional quests) and some lore telling along the map.


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The time consists 100 years before the opening of the Dark Portal and the First War. The location is in Elwynn Peak, an hidden valley on Elwynn Forest. The Main character is Arlon Gavinrad, grandfather of the famous paladin from the Silver Hand, Gavinrad the Dire (died at the Fall of Lordearon by the Scourge). Arlon was born in Goldshire with his parents. But his parents were killed when he was 2 years old and was rescued by his cousin Edward.
They both now live on a small farm for 20 years in Elwynn Peak until Arlon had an terrible nightmare about magic.


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Author - Kenshi1007
Terrainer - Kenshi1007
Triggerer - Kenshi1007
Cinemaics and Texting - Kenshi1007
Support and Growth - The Hiveworkshop
Voice Acting - Kenshi1007; Shadow Fury
Overall remastering - Kenshi1007; Shadow Fury

Special thanks to Shadow Fury ;)


MODELS:

Peasant Armor by Kitabatake - Kitabatake
Villager v2 - Kitabatake
Lordearon Soldier Sword by Sunchips - Sunchips
Goblin tent by Forgotten_Warlord - Forgotten Warlord
Tree(NewVariation) - eubz
TinyLeaves Tree2 - eubz
TinyLeaves Tree - eubz
Bush02 - stonneash
Bush03 - stonneash
Philoderon Devanseveanum - Sven
Fern - olofmoleman
Green Hedge - hellblazer-14
Grassie - HappyTauren
GrassAnimated - Sunchips
Farn - Verdun
RockGolem - Amdor


MUSIC

Youtube:
- Forest Meditation ~ Relax Music
- Relaxing Nature Sounds- Instrumental Cello Music- Tranquil Forest Bird Song-Emotional-Sad-Haunting
- World of Warcraft: Blade's Edge Mountains
- World of Warcraft: Elwynn Forest (Westfall)
- World of Warcraft: Iron Dwarf Music
- Dungeon Siege: The Besieged Town of Stonebridge
- Dungeon Siege: Path to the Crypts
- Skyrim Sound Effects - Civil War Battlecry


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Version 1.1 - Uploaded Red Map Description Template 1.0.
Gameplay map fixes.
Terrain and Trigger issues.

Version 1.2 - Bug fixes: Unit Status, Terrain, Unit Encounters, Quests, Items and Trigger issues.
Improvements: Better Quest warnings, Minimap flashes, more hints.

Version 1.3 - Pathing blockers fixes
More Screenshots

Version 1.4 - More Pathing blocker fixes, quest fixes, unit bug fixes, cinematic transmission corrections, and trigger fixes.

Version 1.5 - New Costume Template

Version 1.6 - New Logo, skins and fog changes.


Map Description Template Created by -Kobas-
Find more here: Kenshi


Keywords:
Warcraft, Dungeon Siege, Diablo2, Diablo3.
Contents

The Start - Episode1 (Map)

Reviews
19:13, 15th Mar 2014 Orcnet: Game is wonderful, tested it and it seems it has more episodes to come, keep it up I also added your map's category into RPG.

Moderator

M

Moderator

19:13, 15th Mar 2014
Orcnet: Game is wonderful, tested it and it seems it has more episodes to come, keep it up I also added your map's category into RPG.
 
Level 8
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
82
second map

Suggestions
How to add screenshot to your map description
Map Description - Templates

Here's my comment:
Well,you need to take a look at those tutorials. It will surely help you :)
Hope you have a better descriptions and add some screenies :)


My apologies, its my second map to update with description and i didnt know how to color it and to add some screenshots and i will update it, however the map will have some trigger and gameplay fixes. Thanks for comment ;)
 

Cokemonkey11

Code Reviewer
Level 29
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,516
Hello,

I've tested the latest version of your map. What can I say.. I'm impressed. The level of improvement between the previous version and this is both higher than I expected and even hoped for. There were some awkward moments in dialog and some bugs as well, but this is a great start to a series of games. Some points:

  • After you write the dialog for your cinematics and voice acting, have someone (preferably a native english speaker) check your grammar before you record your audio - right now you have many mistakes, but it would be a waste of time to re-record and overwrite every little conversation.
  • When you have a made up name like Gorsh, make a recording of how it should sound, that way all voice actors pronounce the name "correctly"
  • While out of cinematic mode, you at one point snapped and locked the camera to a point and then moved it back. Never do this out of cinematic mode, it feels like a bug (even if it was intentional)
  • Never use active icons for passive abilities.
  • When a region is unexplored and inaccessable (like in the early parts of the game), you should use line of sight pathing blockers to prevent for example, seeing over this wall http://i.imgur.com/1o8iZWH.jpg
  • You have some units lined up "training" with their lieutenant, or something similar. I lured some gnolls up to them to get help fighting, and the training units remained scattered and continued to defend/undefend. It looked pretty silly. http://i.imgur.com/nnP3YX8.jpg
  • At the end, I was blocked by terrain objects from reaching the "great cattail" - that's fine if the quest is not ready yet, but in that case you should give a warning in the game that the quest is not implemented, and the game is over (or at least something)

I think with these few small fixes you'll soon be finished with your map. I'll look forward to the next episode.
 
Level 4
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
15
I somehow bugged the map, in the first gnoll camp, I picked up the book, and cinematic started, and the gnolls showed up, all was fine to that point.

But after that, the character was invulnerable to all damage and gnolls couldn't attack me. (probably got stuck from cinematic or something?)

Okay: It keeps doing that even if I do it differently than earlier.
 
Level 11
Joined
Nov 24, 2010
Messages
203
I played the map and here is my review.

1. - You got spelling mistakes. Such as mabye, witch, and etc.
2. - Your custom sounds are kind of fancy. Not all the way fancy. I'd give it a 2/5. Leader Gorsh's sound had too much recording sounds from the back round. It made his voice sound like it's buzzing. Whoever voiced Korvanos, did an amazing job. No buzzing and he really did sound like an aged sea monster.
3. - The Gnoll Investigation Quest was confusing. The gnolls didn't even try to attack me, nor did they hurt me. Did you perhaps forget to disable the trigger where they treat me as allies? Because it seemed as if they did.
EDIT - It was a trigger bug. I was "INVULNERABLE". You probably forgot to disable it from the intro cinematic trigger.
4. - Terrain is perfect, over all, and the quests are quite neat.
5. - The Quest Tome from the first quest was still in my inventory after I completed it. The hell?
6. - During the cinematics. The given Bandit forces of mine weren't hidden. This could bug your cinematic. They should be hidden and then revealed after the cinematic ends.
7. - During the Korvanos Quest Cinematic. My bandits were trying to go across the river, along with the hero, to kill a pack of gnolls. This proves you should really hide them.
8. - Malkalite's voice is not bad, but could do better.
9. - I had 0/18 Food. The bandits didn't cost anything when I got them? Weird...
10. - The Lord of the Bandits asked Arlon to speak to the Historian and then Arlon asks Halvon if he is a Historian during the intro cinematic. It portrays Arlon somewhat as a quick-forgetting character who doesn't care. Make sure that is fixed.
11. - The River Elementals can cross across water and with this I can explore unexplored areas which are blocked and only opened later in the journey. I can even go down a waterfall, but not all the way down.
12. - The sound of the personal tent sounds like a shop. I think there is a better sound for that, you know?
13. - You should add "flash points" on your map to signal where the quest location is to acquire an item or to slay the foes. You should add some hints as well.
14. - Edward appears during the bandit battle charge on the gnoll camp. He just stands there and is invulnerable? What the heck is he doing there in the first place? He doesn't move and serves no purpose.
15. - The Unknown Spirit's voice rocks. I like it's echo. However, he talks a little bit too faster at the ending cinematic.
16. - The Bandits which attacked moved back and forward. They should always be ordered to attack the faction who are their enemies. No matter what. But objects could prevent them from this task and make them kiss the wall. So, yea... think about it.

I agree with Cokemonkey11's words as well.

That's all I have to say. Over all. You need a lot of work. Good luck.

EDIT 2 - Over all. Don't give up on the project. You have great ideas. You just need to finish them entirely. I will be looking forward to your updates.
 
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Level 21
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
2,017
Damn Pyraeus, I did Gorsh records which apparently you didn't really like. Kenshi just pitched them down. Anyway, I experienced the bug of invulnerability and I agree with all the points you said. What else can I say, if it wasn't for the invulnerability bug, I'd give this 4/5 but till now 3/5
Vote for APPROVAL anyway, it's a shame if it gets rejected.
 
Level 8
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
82
vocals and points of view

Well, if you did his records. Make sure to clear the back round sound. Clearing it off that buzz. That is, if you're looking for a clear sound pitch. What did you record with? Audacity?


I realy don't have more volunteer's but i did my best to make the characters voice distinct. However, all your criticism and point of view of my map are very helpfull, i believe the ivunerable was fixed after the update i made 1.1. The quest tome just disapears and cinematic apears.

Second this is my first serious map, i tried really hard to make great terrain, i really didn't wanted to make cinematic dialogs boring, so my idea was to add vocals. The map took me 1 month , i did with calm, i have been making maps for joy and not very seriusly. However this is my best map so far.

Your comment if precious, i will update mabye tomorow to fix the bugs and to remaster the map.

I hope you enjoyed the map. Little bugs are optional, my english is not perfect to be honest.
 
Level 8
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
82
I somehow bugged the map, in the first gnoll camp, I picked up the book, and cinematic started, and the gnolls showed up, all was fine to that point.

But after that, the character was invulnerable to all damage and gnolls couldn't attack me. (probably got stuck from cinematic or something?)

Okay: It keeps doing that even if I do it differently than earlier.

Thanks for your feedback, the bugs will be fixed tomorrow.
 
Level 4
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
15
The map is good and works very well.

But I found one problem.

When you train units from the tent, one of the trained units might get stuck inside the tent. (or corner of the tent)

Try using pathing blockers to fix it.

that's all, keep up the good work :D

Edit: Ah yes, screenshots are still missing, you should add some if you wish to boost the chance to get approved.
Edit2: Cheers screenshots added.
 
Last edited:
Level 8
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
82
The map is good and works very well.

But I found one problem.

When you train units from the tent, one of the trained units might get stuck inside the tent. (or corner of the tent)

Try using pathing blockers to fix it.

that's all, keep up the good work :D

Edit: Ah yes, screenshots are still missing, you should add some if you wish to boost the chance to get approved.
Edit2: Cheers screenshots added.

FIXED!
More screenshots and fixing that damn recruit tent :p
cheers ;)
 
Level 4
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
15
FIXED!
More screenshots and fixing that damn recruit tent :p
cheers ;)

Now that there's plenty of screenshots I would suggest that you use Hidden tags to be able to hide/show them.

[.HIDDEN="Screenshots"] <screenshots go here> [/HIDDEN.]

Remove those dots before sending it.

<screenshots go here>


Use it for all screenshots or make own hidden tags for each of the screenshot.

Edit: Cheers, looks good now!
 
Last edited:
Level 21
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
2,017
All right, here is my review:-

GOOD POINTS:-
- Terrain is just marvellous
- Voice acting
- An interesting plot which intrigued me
- The tome of lores. A very unique and original idea which I never saw in any other map
- Well done optional quests which have proper rewards
- Balanced difficulty. Not too easy and not too hard


BAD POINTS:-
- No cinematic was performed perfectly. Read the suggestions to find out what I mean with a "flawless cinematic"
- Many dialogue mistakes and some texts didn't match the voice
- Some voices played after 1 second, so the text appears and for a second I hear nothing. Example: when the clan axeman tells me "There's no time to talk peasant" he doesn't say that instantly. For the first second, there is silence
- When I train a unit from the Tent, there is a chance that it gets stuck inside Tent and so I waste my gold
- In the battle of Gnolls vs Clan Troops, why do my men go, ignore the gnolls and why the gnolls attack my troops only? Only when my men reach the outpost, they starting battling the gnolls but still the gnolls attack my units only
- A bug with Korvanos. When I got the orb, I returned to him with all my units. The cinematic started and when it finished, it started once again. I got for reward 8 elementals hahaha lol. Must be fixed!
- The terrain in the part of the leader of the gnolls is slightly bad and lacking of tile variation


SUGGESTIONS:-
- Rework the part of the leader of the gnolls. Add more skulls, remains scorched, skull on stick, trash... all doodads that makes the place look dirty
- Add pathing blockers to the training tent to avoid the bug I said above
- For Korvanos, you might have forgot to insert "Turn (this trigger) off" immediately when I got nearby him with the orb, otherwise I don't know how that occured and it will be up to you checking the triggers
- For the battle, use "Attack move-to" for all the soldiers to let them move and if they find an enemy on their way, they'll attack it. Plain and simple
- Have a look at all dialogues, there are some obvious mistakes like "thas", "truble" etc...
- For a flawless cinematic, you need to turn cinematic mode on AFTER fading, not before fading. Also, move Arlon to a specific region in every cinematic in front of the character he is going to speak with, not according to where he stopped. And for the cinematics with Gorsh, if there was a clan unit of mine behind him, it wouldn't be hidden. In addition, when a cinematic ends, use fade filter, don't let the cinematic end at once by surprise and my men appear from nothing. And you could also make the units I selected before the cinematic be reselected in the end so I don't have to select them again by myself
- Remove the 1 second silence from some of the records


That's all, I give this 4/5 +rep Good job! :thumbs_up:
 
Level 8
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
82
I have fixed that problem before and worked ok for the people until you. I don't know dude, after you kill the gnolls you kill the bush after arlon says something, the after destroying the bush you will face another wave of gnoll ambushers when returning to camp. So try to kill the 3 gnolls where you picked the book and wait till arlon says anything, and see if that works. Altough im full of school work and later i can remaster the trigger timing not to cause problems.
 

Chaosy

Tutorial Reviewer
Level 40
Joined
Jun 9, 2011
Messages
13,182
Sorry, the template seems broken or something because the center tags are not working. So it looks a little less neat that usual. :p


Map Name: The Start - Episode1
Version: 1.5
Author: kenshi1007


Terrain[r]
Somewhat Warcraft like and semi-simple.
However this is a god damn good example on how to make decent terrain without using many imports.
Personally I am against Warcraft like terrain, but man, your terrain is pretty charmy.
4/5


Gameplay[r]
Gameplay isn't badly made by any means, but it's very simple.
There are no (activate) abilities nor advanced mechanics to keep it interesting.
It's basically kill everything that moves and loot an item here and there.
3/5


Story[r]
This is so hard for me to judge, I both like and dislike it.
The voice acting was fine, the audio quality was about ok but due grammar mistakes it turned out somewhat bad.
But it's clearly better than removing it. The story is to be honest pretty dull and got many logical flaws, I will mention them later.
But you manage to keep it interesting in multiple ways and there are some not-so-common touches to the story.
3/5


Uniqueness[r]
Even if I find the story and gameplay somewhat genetic, I still feel that you've got something unique that will be shown in the later maps.
Even without that suspicion, I can see some unique touches here and there.
4/5


Overall[r]
Pretty entertaining, got plenty of potential.
Even though it felt somewhat short for a RPG.
The overall rating would be 3.5/5 which equals 4/5 by math rules.
4/5


Bugs[r]
*bugs*

-You're able to kill the Clan Axemen that surround Edward when you return from the gnoll camp.



*complains*

-Gorsh explains that he and his 'clan' are outlaws and bandits/barbarians. Yet Arlon is like "hell yeah, I'll join you matey." no complains, nor questions asked. I would be VERY critical if I were a farmer who were almost taken away from my home by force by such people.

-You're randomly asked to run back to the farm and get an item as a quest reward. Which is odd since it was 'too dangerous' to even live there just a little while ago. The explaination could be that the gnolls are keeping themselves to the camps now that you've oblitirated the closest one. However this should be explained in the dialogue.

-Once more I fail to see the logic behind a quest. The Sea Giant needs an orb.. and we're going to get it when it's just nearby, why can't he get it himself? there's nothing that keeps him from doing it. A reason needs to be given. Same goes for the very first quest with the mushroom. The quest giver somehow knows EXACTLY where it is, but can he get it? apparently not because he is super lazy or something.

-You're supposed to find the source of a random voice that you heard. How to you know where he is? logically speaking that is, he didn't tell you where he is, nor is it explained that 'he feel the presence' or something like that.


Reviewed by[r]
 
Last edited:
Level 6
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
Messages
243
When loading ep.3 , the game just got "stuck" (again) on the intro cinematic. It "freezes" when the troll says: What weaponary do you use or close to it.

Fix?
 
Level 20
Joined
Dec 19, 2013
Messages
1,083
Well i wont do a reviwe sinc other people did but i did notice a few bugs

-Plants that can be destroyed if clicked look like a barrel
-After we go check for gnolls and take the quest book and go back to ED...The quest book item even after the cinematic stays into inventory and cuz of it the player is invunerable if you drop it you are no more invunerable.
-During the raid on the main gnoll camp...Gnolls do not attack the Brown leather troops just my unites.
 
Level 8
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
82
Well i wont do a reviwe sinc other people did but i did notice a few bugs

-Plants that can be destroyed if clicked look like a barrel
-After we go check for gnolls and take the quest book and go back to ED...The quest book item even after the cinematic stays into inventory and cuz of it the player is invunerable if you drop it you are no more invunerable.
-During the raid on the main gnoll camp...Gnolls do not attack the Brown leather troops just my unites.

I'll look into my map whenever i can to fix those issues. Thank you. Enjoy map 2 and 3 if you feel hyped ;)
 
Level 3
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
33
Your terrain is f***ing awesome!!

Content wise I would expect a little bit more since this map is large in size but only has a few quests that mostly contain in "kill this and that and then return"

Still I liked it very much and I definetly will check out the other parts

Cheers :)
 
Level 8
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
82
Your terrain is f***ing awesome!!

Content wise I would expect a little bit more since this map is large in size but only has a few quests that mostly contain in "kill this and that and then return"

Still I liked it very much and I definetly will check out the other parts

Cheers :)


Thanks dude! On the next maps if you see something bad or that requires mastering, give a shout out so i can improve the maps even better!
 
Level 3
Joined
May 29, 2017
Messages
22
I lost interest in downloading the rest of the maps due to the monotony of the first one, just a lot of hack and slash on gnolls and boring optional quests in my opinion.
 

Deleted member 237964

D

Deleted member 237964

I can't grab an orb also the Gnolls ignore the attacking group durning the first charge.
 
Level 13
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
194
Short and easy map. A good start to a 4 maps campaign. It can also be played on 1.30.4 with no problems.
 
Last edited:
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