What is it about?
A hero must free prisoners out of a labyrinth.
The 2 main challenges:
Both of these are practically the core of the game, or rather, the overall design came out of these ideas in the first place.
- in a desert a meteor is periodically but irregularly hurled at the hero. However, he can dodge it and let it hit enemies in close quarter combat. You always have to watch out and keep moving.
- The prisoners are in cages in a maze, here 11 elves archers distributed on 24 cages. The time is limited (timer), but increases with each new run in case of a fail. Only when all have been freed, it is possible to leave the prison maze. Challenge: Every single release generates a guard with a certain probability.
The number of prisoners, and which type it is, is flexibly controllable via variables: Are they villagers or soldiers? In the worldeditor a number of cages can be positioned arbitrarily, but they have to be in the corresponding region.
Landscape:
A desert, a palace, a sea and a coastline. But the coast in the east with the peninsula in front is just an example of how it could be.
Triggering:
The essential and presumably always correctly working triggers are about the Hero Selection, Meteor Strike and Prisoner Release. Some triggers or trigger parts are unused.
Development status of the game:
Playable, but also i would consider that a ressource. As it is presented here, it is not really as complete, as i would like it to be. The game has been intended as a rescue mission within my larger campaign about Jaina Proudmoore and it started several years ago. But now i dont know what to do with it furthermore. The important balancing with the many enemies s also not fully developed here but only an approximation. What could be done? I once had a complicated triggered test version where a group of heroes arrive (via gamecache) by ship, and after freeing the prisoners sailed back across the river through a portal to freedom (i.e. another game). As a solo game, on the other hand, I could imagine a high score. I'm almost certainly not going to realize that, though.
Start:
The game starts with my version of a hero selection.
(Which heroes should be available is defined in the worldeditor: Just put any heroes on the corresponding region "start" at the beginning (east) in front of the cave entrance and start the game). Here it is one per race.
The game consists of 4 sections.
- crossing a desert to the palace.
- entering the palace
- freeing the prisoners
- end of the game (not really finished)
Desert:
Small temples are worshipped by priests. The temples provide mana. There is a tapestry store. A larger bandit camp allows you to capture gold.
(But the balance here is not exactly worked out: How much gold, what's in the store, etc., lots of open questions).
Palace entrance:
One of the priests in the desert has the key to the entrance. You can't get in without it.
Palace, Water Maze:
Behind the entrance is a first maze with strong enemies. (The balance is not worked out, especially: What kind of items do the dead drop?)
Palace:
In the palace itself lives a kind of boss enemy, who appears at a regular time for a certain period of time and then disappears. If he is killed, however, he will reappear at the next time. He can chase you anywhere in the palace, but will teleport back to the main hall if he wants to leave the palace to chase you. Escape is sometimes advised. The trick is to time reaching the prison maze so that this enemy doesn't show up. A few other enemies will also appear in the main hall. A corridor leads to the prison and is also guarded.
Prison maze:
As soon as you enter it, a timer turns on. The prisoners are distributed in cages. If you don't succeed in freeing them within the time limit, the maze restarts and you get some more time. Leaving without completing the quest is not possible. The position of the prisoners is randomly determined at each restart, only the cages stay in the same place. Not all prisoners will survive the escape, maybe none. (Whether or not the game goal is then achieved is an open question).
Dying:
If the hero dies he will be resurrected at the cave entrance in the south-west.
Getting out of the palace again:
(This part of the game is basically not really finished - especially the story line) When all the prisoners have been freed, you can go out through a back exit - or back through the main entrance (plus new enemies). There are also ships in the northeastern harbor, a coast in the east, and an island with treasures. On the river in the south you can take the ships back to the desert.
Test game:
There are four game stages directly accessible via chat command. Important: Type the command AFTER you have selected a hero and BEFORE you have moved him from the starting region!
- "Go to stage 2" This will save you about 30 minutes of game time. The enemies in the desert are dead. You can now play in the water maze and on.
- "Go to stage 3" This will save you about 50 (30+20) minutes of game time. The enemies in the desert and the water maze are dead. You can now enter the main hall and continue playing.
- "Go to stage 4" This will save you about 60 (30+20+10) minutes of game time. The enemies in the desert, water maze and palace are dead. You can now play the prisoner maze. The first run through the maze is limited to 5 minutes.
- "Go to stage 5" This will save you about 65 (30+20+10+5) minutes of play time. The enemies in the desert, water maze and palace are dead. You have freed all the prisoners.