Sobere's Adventures: The Campaign [War and Time Trilogy]

[shadowhog]

ooh new story lets go

 

[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin]

The update speed is fast,

It looks fun

 

[sergei 23]

Nice new story but this is the beginning, only two chapters, we will wait impatiently for a continuation of this company

 

[Resyak]

Nice new story but this is the beginning, only two chapters, we will wait impatiently for a continuation of this company

Thanks, as far as expanding this campaign is concerned, this time I won't say anything about future updates because every time I do that something happens and in the end it can't be done. So time will tell, we'll see how the community receives it and if they like this style of play or not. Honestly, we have pretty low expectations for this content right now.

Regards.

 

[VanAndro]

I love the first 20 minutes of this campaign:
1. I stop the morning coffee and replace it with Sobere's Fall (that's how I decided to name the first track on the map). It does a much better job than coffee.
2. A beautiful poison green mass destruction spell
3. 1+2= A devastating morning

I wonder why you didn't cast our friend the Zombie? I miss his humor.

I love the combination of "simplicity", efficiency, beauty, originality and compelling gameplay in this series of 3 campaigns. I would of course be happy to see Sobere Adventure develop. The foundation you laid with version 1.0 predisposes to this in all aspects.

I still can't find any errors, big or small which are worthy of attention.

 

[sergei 23]

Okay, but I didn't tell you to do it now lol when you have free time and when everyone gets frustrated with it and plays it and looks at it and feels it the story and this and so on and then you continue in your free time

 

[deepstrasz]

Does this campaign contain this map?

Sobere's Adventure - Playable Demo

Sobere's Adventure - Playable Demo - Sobere's Adventures: The Campaign RELEASED - Hello everyone, we have decided to take up an old project (from 2014) that was never published and redo it, adapting it to current standards. This map, although it's fully playable, is just a demo that will not...

www.hiveworkshop.com

If yes, the threads should be merged (via a moderator/administrator).

 

[Resyak]

Does this campaign contain this map?

Sobere's Adventure - Playable Demo

Sobere's Adventure - Playable Demo - Sobere's Adventures: The Campaign RELEASED - Hello everyone, we have decided to take up an old project (from 2014) that was never published and redo it, adapting it to current standards. This map, although it's fully playable, is just a demo that will not...

www.hiveworkshop.com

If yes, the threads should be merged (via a moderator/administrator).

No, it doesn't contain that map, that was just a test demo.

 

[LISBOAH]

I started playing this campaign yesterday, but I was having so much fun that I stopped focusing on reviewing it
While I was still not able to complete the first chapter, here is what I have managed to do until now:

Pros:
-I love how large and intricate the map is;
-I love the leveling system, of both our heroes and their abilities;
-I love how the enemies respawn, which allows us to keep leveling up our heroes with apparently no limit.

Cons:
-The "Demon Lover" (I don't recall her name right now) Leveling System: "Frenezy" --> "Frenzy";
-The first part of the map is the hardest:
--We have a time limit;
--We face multiple foes, and it doesn't help that the enemy forces tend to have a Priest that can heal them. Even if I focus on the Priest first, I will still take a lot of damage;
--I had to rely a lot on Healing Items, because the Demon Lover's regeneration rate is not fast enough for the time limit;
-While I loved to have access to a lot of items on the second part, the high number of them made it difficult. I had to constantly go back to the Item Boxes because there were so many of them;
-Is it intentional that we can't grab the Gems that we are supposed to collect?

 

[Resyak]

I started playing this campaign yesterday, but I was having so much fun that I stopped focusing on reviewing it
While I was still not able to complete the first chapter, here is what I have managed to do until now:

Pros:
-I love how large and intricate the map is;
-I love the leveling system, of both our heroes and their abilities;
-I love how the enemies respawn, which allows us to keep leveling up our heroes with apparently no limit.

Cons:
-The "Demon Lover" (I don't recall her name right now) Leveling System: "Frenezy" --> "Frenzy";
-The first part of the map is the hardest:
--We have a time limit;
--We face multiple foes, and it doesn't help that the enemy forces tend to have a Priest that can heal them. Even if I focus on the Priest first, I will still take a lot of damage;
--I had to rely a lot on Healing Items, because the Demon Lover's regeneration rate is not fast enough for the time limit;
-While I loved to have access to a lot of items on the second part, the high number of them made it difficult. I had to constantly go back to the Item Boxes because there were so many of them;
-Is it intentional that we can't grab the Gems that we are supposed to collect?

Due to the large number of items we put so many resources to save them quickly, either with the mercenaries or the boxes by teleport or through the caves to move quickly around the map, although in the end they combine and if you explore enough everything ends fitting quite.

The gems are from an optional quest and cannot be picked up by the player, they are picked up by an npc in an optional escort quest. Don't confuse the "Gem" item with the "Blood Runes" from the optional quest in order to hire better mercenaries.

Regarding the difficulty of the first part, well, I guess that depends a bit on the game style of each one.

Thanks for commenting and I hope you can enjoy the rest of the map.

 

[LISBOAH]

Grammar:
Opening cinematic:
"... Aelon. Together..."
"... before he could be corrupted..."
"... her countless undead armies."

Main Quest "Rescue": "... weeks ago, and since then..."

Cinematic with the Emperor
"... all of your intrisic qualities."
"... if either of them make it to the Source."

Optional Quest "Sabotage": "... goblins. It will be..."

Lore:
-Ok, I wasn't aware that these campaigns were the result of someone disrupting time. I only played High Death so...
-Wait, did you just spoil the end of Act Three of The High Death campaign?
-So the Eastern Empire a future version of the Horde and the Western of the Alliance?
-Is the Emperor based on the Great Goblin from The Hobbit?

Problem:
-I am stuck after completing the north-west part of the temple. There are two iron gates I can't break and a force field I can't pass through.

 

[Resyak]

Grammar:
Opening cinematic:
"... Aelon. Together..."
"... before he could be corrupted..."
"... her countless undead armies."

Main Quest "Rescue": "... weeks ago, and since then..."

Cinematic with the Emperor
"... all of your intrisic qualities."
"... if either of them make it to the Source."

Optional Quest "Sabotage": "... goblins. It will be..."

Lore:
-Ok, I wasn't aware that these campaigns were the result of someone disrupting time. I only played High Death so...
-Wait, did you just spoil the end of Act Three of The High Death campaign?
-So the Eastern Empire a future version of the Horde and the Western of the Alliance?
-Is the Emperor based on the Great Goblin from The Hobbit?

Problem:
-I am stuck after completing the north-west part of the temple. There are two iron gates I can't break and a force field I can't pass through.

Thank you very much for the corrections, and well, if you want I can tell you the solution in the temple, but I assure you that it's super simple. There are no codes or combinations, it's simply looking at what happens when you hit a lever or press a switch.

Spoiler: Temple Resolution Video

 

[LISBOAH]

Thank you very much for the corrections, and well, if you want I can tell you the solution in the temple, but I assure you that it's super simple. There are no codes or combinations, it's simply looking at what happens when you hit a lever or press a switch.

Spoiler: Temple Resolution Video

Thanks, now I managed to complete.

The continuation of my review

Gameplay:
-The final boss is somewhat easy, except for one thing. That phase where he starts meditating, is surrounded by a golden circle and starts raining down holy beams at us. We can't attack him and each of our heroes get hit at least three times per turn. My heroes died three times due to this. And he gets to full health after each of these phases. Oh, and before you ask, yes, I did level all of the heroes' skills before going into that fight!

Lore:
-I wonder if those undead and the lich we face are either remnants of the High Death or of the Scourge.
-After seeing the final cinematic, all I can say is: I am now somewhat sad that Zarah'Shar ends up not winning. Because these damn mortals never learn! The Western Empire wants all that water for themselves, and they want to wipe out the Eastern Empire; the Goblins are a bunch of greedy backstabbers that used Sobere; and I am sure the Eastern Empire is no better. In Azeroth, it seems that the only way for mortals to truly get along is by killing them all and raising them as undead!
-Sobere is too gullible. He apparently has been used for the past 10,000 years and never learnt.
-I have now the suspicion that the goblins murdered that goblin that was friend with Sobere.

 

[muaddib]

a chunky rpg campaign. i enjoyed the new system implanted there. well done! bit struggled with the final puzzle as well, but finally beaten it. well done. looking foward to what ever else in store.

 

[Resyak]

Thanks, now I managed to complete.

The continuation of my review

Gameplay:
-The final boss is somewhat easy, except for one thing. That phase where he starts meditating, is surrounded by a golden circle and starts raining down holy beams at us. We can't attack him and each of our heroes get hit at least three times per turn. My heroes died three times due to this. And he gets to full health after each of these phases. Oh, and before you ask, yes, I did level all of the heroes' skills before going into that fight!

Lore:
-I wonder if those undead and the lich we face are either remnants of the High Death or of the Scourge.
-After seeing the final cinematic, all I can say is: I am now somewhat sad that Zarah'Shar ends up not winning. Because these damn mortals never learn! The Western Empire wants all that water for themselves, and they want to wipe out the Eastern Empire; the Goblins are a bunch of greedy backstabbers that used Sobere; and I am sure the Eastern Empire is no better. In Azeroth, it seems that the only way for mortals to truly get along is by killing them all and raising them as undead!
-Sobere is too gullible. He apparently has been used for the past 10,000 years and never learnt.
-I have now the suspicion that the goblins murdered that goblin that was friend with Sobere.

Thank you very much for the review, the final battle is easy if you have farmed enough, it is unavoidable in this type of game unless an adaptive leveling system is implemented. I hope you have been able to enjoy this adventure, we always appreciate your comments, thank you.

a chunky rpg campaign. i enjoyed the new system implanted there. well done! bit struggled with the final puzzle as well, but finally beaten it. well done. looking foward to what ever else in store.

I am very glad that you liked the campaign, thanks for commenting and rating.

Regards.

 

[LISBOAH]

Thank you very much for the review, the final battle is easy if you have farmed enough, it is unavoidable in this type of game unless an adaptive leveling system is implemented.

My heroes were level 50, their abilities were maxed out, and their items were fully upgraded. Fighting the actual boss and the units he occasionally summons is pretty easy.
The only problem is when he suddenly goes to the middle of the room, gets surrounded by a golden ring that has an eastern dragon flying around, and our heroes start getting hit by those beams. There's no way to avoid being hit, as I even placed my heroes in a corner, and both of my heroes get hit three times each. And then, once the fight resumes, the boss has already replenished his health and both of our heroes lost at least a third of their health.

I hope you have been able to enjoy this adventure, we always appreciate your comments, thank you.

I loved this campaign, though it's a shame it's only comprised of a single chapter.
One of these days, I will give my review of The Legend of Mikokoro, and then I would have already played all of your three campaigns.

I actually preferred the leveling system in this campaign. In High Death, we had to make our Heroes' stat reach certain levels in order for the ablities to level up, which required a lot of planning and farming.

 

[Resyak]

My heroes were level 50, their abilities were maxed out, and their items were fully upgraded. Fighting the actual boss and the units he occasionally summons is pretty easy.
The only problem is when he suddenly goes to the middle of the room, gets surrounded by a golden ring that has an eastern dragon flying around, and our heroes start getting hit by those beams. There's no way to avoid being hit, as I even placed my heroes in a corner, and both of my heroes get hit three times each. And then, once the fight resumes, the boss has already replenished his health and both of our heroes lost at least a third of their health.


I loved this campaign, though it's a shame it's only comprised of a single chapter.
One of these days, I will give my review of The Legend of Mikokoro, and then I would have already played all of your three campaigns.

I actually preferred the leveling system in this campaign. In High Death, we had to make our Heroes' stat reach certain levels in order for the ablities to level up, which required a lot of planning and farming.

I'm glad you liked it, we really didn't have many expectations with this project but it seems to be liking it. We improved the leveling system based on all of you who helped us with your reviews, thanks to that I think we were able to do better, so it's your merit.

Regards.

 

[Wind Rose]

The only problem is when he suddenly goes to the middle of the room, gets surrounded by a golden ring that has an eastern dragon flying around, and our heroes start getting hit by those beams. There's no way to avoid being hit, as I even placed my heroes in a corner, and both of my heroes get hit three times each. And then, once the fight resumes, the boss has already replenished his health and both of our heroes lost at least a third of their health.

The way to dodge the attacks is to keep your heroes moving without stopping, but if you stop, it will hit you anywhere.

 

[hassanbob]

i cant fint the rings of life and intellignce anywhere , can u guys help me :C

 

[Resyak]

i cant fint the rings of life and intellignce anywhere , can u guys help me :C

It is given by these creeps, they appear after placing the 3 hearts and deactivating the first barrier. Most skip it because it teleports and not back through that place.

 

[hassanbob]

It is given by these creeps, they appear after placing the 3 hearts and deactivating the first barrier. Most skip it because it teleports and not back through that place.

thank u <3 i was searching for 2 hours :V

 

[nv4]

Well, not much to say about the story yet since it's only 1 chapter + interlude. But so far I'm interested. I like how items here use icons of rings from DS and the story of High Death's unreleased chapter is left for player interpretations and assumptions, with only a few certain details, similar to how lore in DS is presented.
But regarding the gameplay, I don't like your approach to difficulty here. Inflating EHP and damage is the most dull, bland, insipid way to increase the difficulty. Oh wow, now a 10 seconds fight takes 10 times longer and boils down to silencing and stunlocking every enemy. That's like the opposite of entertaining.
Felt very repetitive, kind of like Act 5 (Flooded Void) in Mikokoro, but now with mercenaries instead of just heroes. If anything, the hardest part was to force myself to buy mercenaries (which I usually don't do in RPG-styled hero-centric maps) instead of trying to make it with just heroes, and realise that it's not really a difficult map, but it's just balanced around mercenaries being as overpowered as enemies.
I feel like this could take me 1-1.5 hour less to complete if it wasn't for such approach to difficulty. And it would probably feel even more enjoyable overall, measuring by amount of entertainment per unit of time.
You know, considering how you made upgrading hero stats and skills, I feel like the logical continuation of this system would be to tie it with items kind of like it was in When the Freedom Slips Away and This Wreckage. And then balance everything around that, again similar like it was it RDZ's campaign.

Spoiler: Thoughts

1) Lyadna's kit is... It could be better.

Spoiler: Analysis

Fel Blood is utterly useless. Piercing and Magic damage types already deal 50% reduced damage vs hero armor, and after saving Sobere there are only 2 types of enemies with these attack types. By the time you reach those with magic attacks, Lyadna will be strong enough to not care about those attacks at all. So that leaves only possibly meaningful difference vs piercing. And even that difference is negligible.
I mean, for 10% reduction to reduce incoming damage by a measly 1 damage, incoming damage must be 1/0.5/0.1/(1-X), where X is damage reduction from armor. So let's take Lyadna's starting 45% DR, then we need 1/0.5/0.1/(1-0.45)=36 damage (maybe less if 0.5...0.9(9) is rounded to 1). So in the first part of the mission it gives a very marginal benefit.
Revenant has 148-162 or 155 on average, and factoring even base armor and armor type reductions that's 155*(1-0.45)*0.5=50.375 damage per attack. 10% of that is only 5 damage. And the more armor Lyadna has, the less absolute value provided by Fel Blood's reduction is. I really couldn't care less about a couple damage points when every encounter with revenants without silence or stun is going to be death coil nuke fiesta.
And don't forget - it's not just about the skill being useful on its own. It's a choice of alternatives, so the question here is "Is it better (or least comparable) than other alternatives?", and so what are the other alternatives? Damage. I could choose to reduce damage from just 2 attack types by marginally low values with diminishing effectiveness... Or I could choose other skills that allow me to kill enemies linearly or even exponentially faster, and without diminishing effectiveness.
Also, it doesn't fit thematicaly - how exactly does demon blood affect susceptibility to piercing damage? I could understand if it was Fel Skin, but blood? Yeah, no.
So with all that in mind, I suggest to change Fel Blood to give reduction to spell damage (and might leave magic attacks, why not) and give hp regen. This way it would fit thematicaly and be actually useful.

Venom faces the same problem - move speed reduction is pointless (nobody is running from me, why would I ever need it?) and attack speed reduction gives marginally low enemy DPS decrease, which again I couldn't care less about because coil + nova is the main damage source of enemies. Also no point to upgrade it because duration is pointless (I'm going to be hitting the same target multiple times in a row, not 1 hit for every enemy around) and 1 damage per second is as good as nothing.

Fel Storm is your main spell in the first part and is to never be used beyond that. Its damage output may be decent for some time, but the more levels Lyadna gains, the more efficient her basic attacks will be, especially with crits. And with Steel Seal giving pure damage AOE basic attacks will eventually absolutely outdamage Fel Storm. And besides damage, basic attacks provide heal via vampirism and bashes.

Steal Mana - I think it should have instant cast time and longer cooldown. 2 seconds cooldown with ~1 second cast time feels rather pace breaking for such agressive agility hero.

Blast - should have 30 more base damage and 90 mana cost.

2) Might be a good idea to add healing salve to Goblin Merchant.
3) Always nice to know exact values of everything. Like, Ring of Energy tooltip says "Greatly increase the hero's mana point regeneration" - how much is "greatly"? Maybe it's 1, or 2, or 3, or whatever? When there are more items than slots on my heroes, I like to know exact values of bonuses so I can univocaly decide which are better.
4) Another issue is tooltip being unclear. For example, Steel Seal - what exactly is "area damage"? Is it just a fixed amount like orb of fire? Or is it like pit lord's cleave? Will it stack with actual pit lord's cleave? And how much it provides exactly?
5) Another example - Doom Warrior gets stronger with skill level, but what exactly is "stronger"? Maybe it's worth it, maybe not, I don't want to waste a lvl up to be disappointed. At some point he gains chaos damage, which is a pretty major change, but it's not mentioned anywhere, so no way to know this beforehand.
Although to be fair, chaos damage is not a major change. In fact, it changes absolutely nothing, because literally all enemies have heavy armor type and boss has hero armor type, and both receive 100% from both chaos and normal attacks. So if the intention was to make Doom Warrior stronger, his attack type should become magic. Also, might as well give him bash or crit, or both even.
6) I initially thought it's a bug, but apparently it's the way enemy spawn works, and it's done intentionally. Spawning enemies when any player unit steps on some border doesn't seem like a good idea, at least not with the current spawn placement. In some places revenants can spawn almost right after I killed them, on the very same spot. And ignoring them can lead to some drastic consequenses.
Both heroes died 3 times here simply trying to pass and getting absolutely nuked into oblivion. Without stuns and silence they are very likely to deal a shit ton of damage with coil nova. At one point, during night time, they even killed a bunch of my units from behind the trees where I couldn't even see them - they were spawning and right away nuking me before I could spot them.
And why do these fuckers even have evasion?! It's ridiculous.
7) Fucking hell, was it tedious to protect Makele. Fucking revenants with nova and coil arising right beneath my feet, bodyblocking my units, slowing and nuking. I lost all my non-magic-immune units making this fucking quest. Not because I couldn't kill enemies, but because I had to always run up to fucking Makele and aggro everyone on my units while also not having enough time for a proper fight, losing everyone to coil nova.
In retrospective, I should've just kept a bunch of units around Makele to bodyblock him whenever enemis spawned. Or perhaps this quest later, although I was ~22 lvl with 12 ranged tier 2 and 2 melee tier 3 mercenaries.
8) Ledendary items have the same icons as non-legendary, but blurred and with higher contrast - doesn't look good. Would be better to just keep the icons unchanged. Or maybe add a colored border, if the icons need to be different.
9) Should give some hint or something about the caves - I thought they were purely for visuals until one unit accidentaly went through.
10) Weird decision to spawn dragons and frost guards in the area which is likely to be missed by the player opting to just use scroll of teleportation., and therefore missing lots of shards and even items.

Spoiler: Bugs

1) It seems loading screen doesn't fit all the text?
2) Bad tree placement near Hearthstone, possible to block units after teleporting.
3) Killing Monkey while his mirror images are still there can result in this.

 

[Resyak]

Well, not much to say about the story yet since it's only 1 chapter + interlude. But so far I'm interested. I like how items here use icons of rings from DS and the story of High Death's unreleased chapter is left for player interpretations and assumptions, with only a few certain details, similar to how lore in DS is presented.
But regarding the gameplay, I don't like your approach to difficulty here. Inflating EHP and damage is the most dull, bland, insipid way to increase the difficulty. Oh wow, now a 10 seconds fight takes 10 times longer and boils down to silencing and stunlocking every enemy. That's like the opposite of entertaining.
Felt very repetitive, kind of like Act 5 (Flooded Void) in Mikokoro, but now with mercenaries instead of just heroes. If anything, the hardest part was to force myself to buy mercenaries (which I usually don't do in RPG-styled hero-centric maps) instead of trying to make it with just heroes, and realise that it's not really a difficult map, but it's just balanced around mercenaries being as overpowered as enemies.
I feel like this could take me 1-1.5 hour less to complete if it wasn't for such approach to difficulty. And it would probably feel even more enjoyable overall, measuring by amount of entertainment per unit of time.
You know, considering how you made upgrading hero stats and skills, I feel like the logical continuation of this system would be to tie it with items kind of like it was in When the Freedom Slips Away and This Wreckage. And then balance everything around that, again similar like it was it RDZ's campaign.

Spoiler: Thoughts

1) Lyadna's kit is... It could be better.

Spoiler: Analysis

Fel Blood is utterly useless. Piercing and Magic damage types already deal 50% reduced damage vs hero armor, and after saving Sobere there are only 2 types of enemies with these attack types. By the time you reach those with magic attacks, Lyadna will be strong enough to not care about those attacks at all. So that leaves only possibly meaningful difference vs piercing. And even that difference is negligible.
I mean, for 10% reduction to reduce incoming damage by a measly 1 damage, incoming damage must be 1/0.5/0.1/(1-X), where X is damage reduction from armor. So let's take Lyadna's starting 45% DR, then we need 1/0.5/0.1/(1-0.45)=36 damage (maybe less if 0.5...0.9(9) is rounded to 1). So in the first part of the mission it gives a very marginal benefit.
Revenant has 148-162 or 155 on average, and factoring even base armor and armor type reductions that's 155*(1-0.45)*0.5=50.375 damage per attack. 10% of that is only 5 damage. And the more armor Lyadna has, the less absolute value provided by Fel Blood's reduction is. I really couldn't care less about a couple damage points when every encounter with revenants without silence or stun is going to be death coil nuke fiesta.
And don't forget - it's not just about the skill being useful on its own. It's a choice of alternatives, so the question here is "Is it better (or least comparable) than other alternatives?", and so what are the other alternatives? Damage. I could choose to reduce damage from just 2 attack types by marginally low values with diminishing effectiveness... Or I could choose other skills that allow me to kill enemies linearly or even exponentially faster, and without diminishing effectiveness.
Also, it doesn't fit thematicaly - how exactly does demon blood affect susceptibility to piercing damage? I could understand if it was Fel Skin, but blood? Yeah, no.
So with all that in mind, I suggest to change Fel Blood to give reduction to spell damage (and might leave magic attacks, why not) and give hp regen. This way it would fit thematicaly and be actually useful.

Venom faces the same problem - move speed reduction is pointless (nobody is running from me, why would I ever need it?) and attack speed reduction gives marginally low enemy DPS decrease, which again I couldn't care less about because coil + nova is the main damage source of enemies. Also no point to upgrade it because duration is pointless (I'm going to be hitting the same target multiple times in a row, not 1 hit for every enemy around) and 1 damage per second is as good as nothing.

Fel Storm is your main spell in the first part and is to never be used beyond that. Its damage output may be decent for some time, but the more levels Lyadna gains, the more efficient her basic attacks will be, especially with crits. And with Steel Seal giving pure damage AOE basic attacks will eventually absolutely outdamage Fel Storm. And besides damage, basic attacks provide heal via vampirism and bashes.

Steal Mana - I think it should have instant cast time and longer cooldown. 2 seconds cooldown with ~1 second cast time feels rather pace breaking for such agressive agility hero.

Blast - should have 30 more base damage and 90 mana cost.

2) Might be a good idea to add healing salve to Goblin Merchant.
3) Always nice to know exact values of everything. Like, Ring of Energy tooltip says "Greatly increase the hero's mana point regeneration" - how much is "greatly"? Maybe it's 1, or 2, or 3, or whatever? When there are more items than slots on my heroes, I like to know exact values of bonuses so I can univocaly decide which are better.
4) Another issue is tooltip being unclear. For example, Steel Seal - what exactly is "area damage"? Is it just a fixed amount like orb of fire? Or is it like pit lord's cleave? Will it stack with actual pit lord's cleave? And how much it provides exactly?
5) Another example - Doom Warrior gets stronger with skill level, but what exactly is "stronger"? Maybe it's worth it, maybe not, I don't want to waste a lvl up to be disappointed. At some point he gains chaos damage, which is a pretty major change, but it's not mentioned anywhere, so no way to know this beforehand.
Although to be fair, chaos damage is not a major change. In fact, it changes absolutely nothing, because literally all enemies have heavy armor type and boss has hero armor type, and both receive 100% from both chaos and normal attacks. So if the intention was to make Doom Warrior stronger, his attack type should become magic. Also, might as well give him bash or crit, or both even.
6) I initially thought it's a bug, but apparently it's the way enemy spawn works, and it's done intentionally. Spawning enemies when any player unit steps on some border doesn't seem like a good idea, at least not with the current spawn placement. In some places revenants can spawn almost right after I killed them, on the very same spot. And ignoring them can lead to some drastic consequenses. View attachment 437338
Both heroes died 3 times here simply trying to pass and getting absolutely nuked into oblivion. Without stuns and silence they are very likely to deal a shit ton of damage with coil nova. At one point, during night time, they even killed a bunch of my units from behind the trees where I couldn't even see them - they were spawning and right away nuking me before I could spot them.
And why do these fuckers even have evasion?! It's ridiculous.
7) Fucking hell, was it tedious to protect Makele. Fucking revenants with nova and coil arising right beneath my feet, bodyblocking my units, slowing and nuking. I lost all my non-magic-immune units making this fucking quest. Not because I couldn't kill enemies, but because I had to always run up to fucking Makele and aggro everyone on my units while also not having enough time for a proper fight, losing everyone to coil nova.
In retrospective, I should've just kept a bunch of units around Makele to bodyblock him whenever enemis spawned. Or perhaps this quest later, although I was ~22 lvl with 12 ranged tier 2 and 2 melee tier 3 mercenaries.
8) Ledendary items have the same icons as non-legendary, but blurred and with higher contrast - doesn't look good. Would be better to just keep the icons unchanged. Or maybe add a colored border, if the icons need to be different.
9) Should give some hint or something about the caves - I thought they were purely for visuals until one unit accidentaly went through.
10) Weird decision to spawn dragons and frost guards in the area which is likely to be missed by the player opting to just use scroll of teleportation., and therefore missing lots of shards and even items.

Spoiler: Bugs

1) It seems loading screen doesn't fit all the text? View attachment 437337
2) Bad tree placement near Hearthstone, possible to block units after teleporting. View attachment 437336
3) Killing Monkey while his mirror images are still there can result in this. View attachment 437335

Once again, thank you for such a detailed analysis. On this occasion I am going to comment on some things that I think are worth mentioning.

First of all, the increased statistics of the enemies, we have always been aware that it is artificially lengthening the fights, it is obvious. But we wanted to give a greater range of levels to the heroes and as much as we tried to adjust them the options we had were quite complex, on the other hand, we wanted to include mercenaries as something mandatory (I understand that it is something that some do not like) and of course they had to be able to counteract the enemies so their statistics are also very high. We were aware that the resulting gameplay could be tedious or boring for some players (as it happened in Mikokoro as you have pointed out), in fact, one of the map testers already told us so. Personally, as a player, I'm not too enthusiastic about this style (that's why I commented before that my expectations with this content were quite low) so I largely agree with you, but we're trying things and sometimes they turn out better and others worse, it's something that we have assumed and accept. Not all steps are forward.

Other points, the icons, abilities and so on, it was very complicated and at first we wanted to customize everything a lot more, but the volume of work involved was not feasible for us. At the end of the day we are amateurs and we lack not only the time but, on many occasions, the knowledge to do according to what things.

The point of respaw the enemies is also important, the idea was precisely to force the player to fight, penalizing a lot for ignoring the enemies, it is another thing that I perfectly understand that many do not like but it was done that way on purpose.

The thing about the caves, if I remember correctly, is mentioned in a cinematic but yes, we should have added some extra clue, just like in the temple, which apparently has been difficult for many people to find the solution.
Regarding the bugs, I can't believe we forgot to delete the copies when the boss dies

Overall, I think you've done an amazing review of all the content we've uploaded and we really appreciate it. The time you have spent, not only playing the game but detailing each point and arguing it so precisely, is simply magnificent, thanks a million and we hope you enjoyed most of the content.

Regards.

PS: The text on the loading screen is something that we will have to look at because it had never happened that it cut it off, we will review it.

 

[VanAndro]

Well, not much to say about the story yet since it's only 1 chapter + interlude. But so far I'm interested. I like how items here use icons of rings from DS and the story of High Death's unreleased chapter is left for player interpretations and assumptions, with only a few certain details, similar to how lore in DS is presented.
But regarding the gameplay, I don't like your approach to difficulty here. Inflating EHP and damage is the most dull, bland, insipid way to increase the difficulty. Oh wow, now a 10 seconds fight takes 10 times longer and boils down to silencing and stunlocking every enemy. That's like the opposite of entertaining.
Felt very repetitive, kind of like Act 5 (Flooded Void) in Mikokoro, but now with mercenaries instead of just heroes. If anything, the hardest part was to force myself to buy mercenaries (which I usually don't do in RPG-styled hero-centric maps) instead of trying to make it with just heroes, and realise that it's not really a difficult map, but it's just balanced around mercenaries being as overpowered as enemies.
I feel like this could take me 1-1.5 hour less to complete if it wasn't for such approach to difficulty. And it would probably feel even more enjoyable overall, measuring by amount of entertainment per unit of time.
You know, considering how you made upgrading hero stats and skills, I feel like the logical continuation of this system would be to tie it with items kind of like it was in When the Freedom Slips Away and This Wreckage. And then balance everything around that, again similar like it was it RDZ's campaign.

Spoiler: Thoughts

1) Lyadna's kit is... It could be better.

Spoiler: Analysis

Fel Blood is utterly useless. Piercing and Magic damage types already deal 50% reduced damage vs hero armor, and after saving Sobere there are only 2 types of enemies with these attack types. By the time you reach those with magic attacks, Lyadna will be strong enough to not care about those attacks at all. So that leaves only possibly meaningful difference vs piercing. And even that difference is negligible.
I mean, for 10% reduction to reduce incoming damage by a measly 1 damage, incoming damage must be 1/0.5/0.1/(1-X), where X is damage reduction from armor. So let's take Lyadna's starting 45% DR, then we need 1/0.5/0.1/(1-0.45)=36 damage (maybe less if 0.5...0.9(9) is rounded to 1). So in the first part of the mission it gives a very marginal benefit.
Revenant has 148-162 or 155 on average, and factoring even base armor and armor type reductions that's 155*(1-0.45)*0.5=50.375 damage per attack. 10% of that is only 5 damage. And the more armor Lyadna has, the less absolute value provided by Fel Blood's reduction is. I really couldn't care less about a couple damage points when every encounter with revenants without silence or stun is going to be death coil nuke fiesta.
And don't forget - it's not just about the skill being useful on its own. It's a choice of alternatives, so the question here is "Is it better (or least comparable) than other alternatives?", and so what are the other alternatives? Damage. I could choose to reduce damage from just 2 attack types by marginally low values with diminishing effectiveness... Or I could choose other skills that allow me to kill enemies linearly or even exponentially faster, and without diminishing effectiveness.
Also, it doesn't fit thematicaly - how exactly does demon blood affect susceptibility to piercing damage? I could understand if it was Fel Skin, but blood? Yeah, no.
So with all that in mind, I suggest to change Fel Blood to give reduction to spell damage (and might leave magic attacks, why not) and give hp regen. This way it would fit thematicaly and be actually useful.

Venom faces the same problem - move speed reduction is pointless (nobody is running from me, why would I ever need it?) and attack speed reduction gives marginally low enemy DPS decrease, which again I couldn't care less about because coil + nova is the main damage source of enemies. Also no point to upgrade it because duration is pointless (I'm going to be hitting the same target multiple times in a row, not 1 hit for every enemy around) and 1 damage per second is as good as nothing.

Fel Storm is your main spell in the first part and is to never be used beyond that. Its damage output may be decent for some time, but the more levels Lyadna gains, the more efficient her basic attacks will be, especially with crits. And with Steel Seal giving pure damage AOE basic attacks will eventually absolutely outdamage Fel Storm. And besides damage, basic attacks provide heal via vampirism and bashes.

Steal Mana - I think it should have instant cast time and longer cooldown. 2 seconds cooldown with ~1 second cast time feels rather pace breaking for such agressive agility hero.

Blast - should have 30 more base damage and 90 mana cost.

2) Might be a good idea to add healing salve to Goblin Merchant.
3) Always nice to know exact values of everything. Like, Ring of Energy tooltip says "Greatly increase the hero's mana point regeneration" - how much is "greatly"? Maybe it's 1, or 2, or 3, or whatever? When there are more items than slots on my heroes, I like to know exact values of bonuses so I can univocaly decide which are better.
4) Another issue is tooltip being unclear. For example, Steel Seal - what exactly is "area damage"? Is it just a fixed amount like orb of fire? Or is it like pit lord's cleave? Will it stack with actual pit lord's cleave? And how much it provides exactly?
5) Another example - Doom Warrior gets stronger with skill level, but what exactly is "stronger"? Maybe it's worth it, maybe not, I don't want to waste a lvl up to be disappointed. At some point he gains chaos damage, which is a pretty major change, but it's not mentioned anywhere, so no way to know this beforehand.
Although to be fair, chaos damage is not a major change. In fact, it changes absolutely nothing, because literally all enemies have heavy armor type and boss has hero armor type, and both receive 100% from both chaos and normal attacks. So if the intention was to make Doom Warrior stronger, his attack type should become magic. Also, might as well give him bash or crit, or both even.
6) I initially thought it's a bug, but apparently it's the way enemy spawn works, and it's done intentionally. Spawning enemies when any player unit steps on some border doesn't seem like a good idea, at least not with the current spawn placement. In some places revenants can spawn almost right after I killed them, on the very same spot. And ignoring them can lead to some drastic consequenses. View attachment 437338
Both heroes died 3 times here simply trying to pass and getting absolutely nuked into oblivion. Without stuns and silence they are very likely to deal a shit ton of damage with coil nova. At one point, during night time, they even killed a bunch of my units from behind the trees where I couldn't even see them - they were spawning and right away nuking me before I could spot them.
And why do these fuckers even have evasion?! It's ridiculous.
7) Fucking hell, was it tedious to protect Makele. Fucking revenants with nova and coil arising right beneath my feet, bodyblocking my units, slowing and nuking. I lost all my non-magic-immune units making this fucking quest. Not because I couldn't kill enemies, but because I had to always run up to fucking Makele and aggro everyone on my units while also not having enough time for a proper fight, losing everyone to coil nova.
In retrospective, I should've just kept a bunch of units around Makele to bodyblock him whenever enemis spawned. Or perhaps this quest later, although I was ~22 lvl with 12 ranged tier 2 and 2 melee tier 3 mercenaries.
8) Ledendary items have the same icons as non-legendary, but blurred and with higher contrast - doesn't look good. Would be better to just keep the icons unchanged. Or maybe add a colored border, if the icons need to be different.
9) Should give some hint or something about the caves - I thought they were purely for visuals until one unit accidentaly went through.
10) Weird decision to spawn dragons and frost guards in the area which is likely to be missed by the player opting to just use scroll of teleportation., and therefore missing lots of shards and even items.

Spoiler: Bugs

1) It seems loading screen doesn't fit all the text? View attachment 437337
2) Bad tree placement near Hearthstone, possible to block units after teleporting. View attachment 437336
3) Killing Monkey while his mirror images are still there can result in this. View attachment 437335

Once again, thank you for such a detailed analysis. On this occasion I am going to comment on some things that I think are worth mentioning.

First of all, the increased statistics of the enemies, we have always been aware that it is artificially lengthening the fights, it is obvious. But we wanted to give a greater range of levels to the heroes and as much as we tried to adjust them the options we had were quite complex, on the other hand, we wanted to include mercenaries as something mandatory (I understand that it is something that some do not like) and of course they had to be able to counteract the enemies so their statistics are also very high. We were aware that the resulting gameplay could be tedious or boring for some players (as it happened in Mikokoro as you have pointed out), in fact, one of the map testers already told us so. Personally, as a player, I'm not too enthusiastic about this style (that's why I commented before that my expectations with this content were quite low) so I largely agree with you, but we're trying things and sometimes they turn out better and others worse, it's something that we have assumed and accept. Not all steps are forward.

Other points, the icons, abilities and so on, it was very complicated and at first we wanted to customize everything a lot more, but the volume of work involved was not feasible for us. At the end of the day we are amateurs and we lack not only the time but, on many occasions, the knowledge to do according to what things.

The point of respaw the enemies is also important, the idea was precisely to force the player to fight, penalizing a lot for ignoring the enemies, it is another thing that I perfectly understand that many do not like but it was done that way on purpose.

The thing about the caves, if I remember correctly, is mentioned in a cinematic but yes, we should have added some extra clue, just like in the temple, which apparently has been difficult for many people to find the solution.
Regarding the bugs, I can't believe we forgot to delete the copies when the boss dies

Overall, I think you've done an amazing review of all the content we've uploaded and we really appreciate it. The time you have spent, not only playing the game but detailing each point and arguing it so precisely, is simply magnificent, thanks a million and we hope you enjoyed most of the content.

Regards.

PS: The text on the loading screen is something that we will have to look at because it had never happened that it cut it off, we will review it.

Regarding the possibility of someone getting locked in the tree when teleporting: I always carried a few "teleporters" with me (in the mercenaries) because I didn't want to go all that way over and over again. My idea was to save at least 20-30% of walking to move to a point on the map that is relatively close to the Stone, provided there is no suitable cave around. I've teleported at least 5 to 8 times and no one has ever been locked out + the max number of units I've teleported at once is 24. This bug, in my opinion, is more of an accident than a practice.

The monkey: I have no recollection of this happening to me, but even if it did, what of it. This is a minor departure from the norm since the fight with the Monkey went without any critical or battle hindering bugs. I've encountered similar bugs in other campaigns with cutscenes missing on replay. These are mistakes that happen rarely rather than often.

Now look at the screenshot I just took from 1.31:

In your screenshot, there is 1 line more text in the first paragraph and 1 line less text in the second paragraph.



nv4 I didn't see you mention which Wc version you are using - 1.31 or Reforged? In such comprehensive reviews and especially when you are dealing with issues related to bugs in the game, it is good to know which Wc version you are using because if you are playing on Reforged instead of the recommended 1.31: 1- you have wasted time writing about bugs that do not exist; 2- you give wrong and misleading information (you have already managed to mislead Resyak's Shade for the missing text on the screenshot and MAYBE for the Monkey copy and ?locked when teleporting?); 3- a part of review you made becomes one big "?" ; 4- if you know about the Recommended Version Wc3 requirement but still play Reforged......aren't you being unwise by choosing a gameplay with a lot of "????" instead of gameplay that is almost or completely seamless? Even worse: Reforged may have failed you in all those calculations = 100% time damage + x75-100% other damage + 100% mana burn ; 5- if you don't know where to get a free copy of 1.31 - ask.

 

[nv4]

nv4 I didn't see you mention which Wc version you are using - 1.31 or Reforged?

Not the first time I use Hiveworkshop and I can read, alright. Played on 1.31, as is recommended.
Regarding the text on loading screen - apparently the text on my screen uses bigger font for some reason, hard to tell like that, but maybe 1 pt bigger. And I noticed your screenshot is 1920x1080, so maybe that's a monitor dependant issue, due to how Warcraft adjusts resolution? I even tried changing resolution, but the text appears cut no matter what I pick. My monitor is 19" 1440x900.

 

[VanAndro]

Not the first time I use Hiveworkshop and I can read, alright. Played on 1.31, as is recommended.
Regarding the text on loading screen - apparently the text on my screen uses bigger font for some reason, hard to tell like that, but maybe 1 pt bigger. And I noticed your screenshot is 1920x1080, so maybe that's a monitor dependant issue, due to how Warcraft adjusts resolution? I even tried changing resolution, but the text appears cut no matter what I pick. My monitor is 19" 1440x900.

Yes, but I'm not psychic.
Check in Display settings (on your system) Scale and layout - Change the size of text, applications and other elements = 100% (recommended) but it can change according to the case or the situation depending on how it affects the programs you use. If the system recommends, for example, 125%, reduce it to 100%. Not always the recommended one is the best one. Advanced scaling settings below: turn on the automatic correction that the system makes. Optional zoom below: completely off. Then check Ease of Access - Display - Text Enlargement has to be Off. And also those settings of your graphics card.

The resolution of the display should be kept at the maximum possible usually listed as recommended. And also those settings of your graphics card.

Warcraft III.exe It must be in compatibility mode Windows 8 or the latest version in the list of the operating system you use.

Wc Video settings: Fullscreen, Vsync Off, resolution like the display you are using, other settings On and High.

 

[nv4]

Yes, but I'm not psychic.
Check in Display settings (on your system) Scale and layout - Change the size of text, applications and other elements = 100% (recommended) but it can change according to the case or the situation depending on how it affects the programs you use. If the system recommends, for example, 125%, reduce it to 100%. Not always the recommended one is the best one. Advanced scaling settings below: turn on the automatic correction that the system makes. Optional zoom below: completely off. Then check Ease of Access - Display - Text Enlargement has to be Off. And also those settings of your graphics card.

The resolution of the display should be kept at the maximum possible usually listed as recommended. And also those settings of your graphics card.

Warcraft III.exe It must be in compatibility mode Windows 8 or the latest version in the list of the operating system you use.

Wc Video settings: Fullscreen, Vsync Off, resolution like the display you are using, other settings On and High.

I'm not using display scaling, text scaling or anything like that. Changing compatibility mode does nothing.
Actually, changing scaling doesn't even affect Warcraft, unless it's in windowed mode and I change scaling during mission loading - then text cuts 2 words earlier on "who lives in", and changing scaling back to 100% doesn't "place back" those 2 words.
And in fullscreen mode Warcraft overrides system display settings, so even if I have wrong display resolution set in the system, it wouldn't affect Warcraft.
However, setting Warcraft to windowed mode and stretching its window actually realigns the text on loading screen. Although it only changes the word wrap, while the total amount of text (words) stays the same.
I also tried to change system resolution with Warcraft in windowed mode and the only effect it had on some resolutions - text cuts 1 word earlier, on "who lives in his".
Also tried using -nativefullscr flag - does nothing.

So my guess is that text is displayed according to maximum monitor resolution and Warcraft has botched resolution adjustment for loading screens.

 

[Resyak]

. June 20, 2023 - v1.0.1
_ Minor grammatical corrections made
_ Added hint in the temple area to make it more intuitive
_ Removed doodads in the Hearthstone area to prevent units from getting stuck when teleporting
_ Boss copies are now removed on death

. June 24, 2023 - v1.0.2
_ Remodeling of the enemy spawn system, enemies will no longer spawn by zones and an aggro active has been added to them
_ Level balance of enemies in relation to the level of your heroes adjusted
_ Modified enemy armor types, adds variety and gives more utility to the different types of mercenary attacks
_ Death Coil of the Revenants replaced by Immolation
_ Added cave usage hint

 

[deepstrasz]

A bit annoying that items combine out of the inventory rather than inside.
Found a blue gem. Can't take it, can't attack it. OK, had to talk to Makele.
Enemy attacks are a bit tiresome. One after another and so on.
Fully upgraded abilities could be totally removed from the dialog buttons lists.
Sobere was selected during the scene when Lyadna asked the goblin about the origin of the Source.

A nice little adventure with some creative gameplay implementations.
Approved.

---

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Description Guide - Maps
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How to Add a Screenshot to your Map Description

ADDITIONAL NECESSARY INFORMATION

• A credits list in the map thread description is required where the names of the resource (models, skins, icons, spells, sound etc.) authors are mentioned along with the specific resource. It would be a luxury to have links leading to the used resources. Credits in the Quest Log would be appreciated too.
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If you're not satisfied with the review and wish another opinion, contact the other reviewers or use the staff contact:
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[Resyak]

A bit annoying that items combine out of the inventory rather than inside.
Found a blue gem. Can't take it, can't attack it. OK, had to talk to Makele.
Enemy attacks are a bit tiresome. One after another and so on.
Fully upgraded abilities could be totally removed from the dialog buttons lists.
Sobere was selected during the scene when Lyadna asked the goblin about the origin of the Source.

A nice little adventure with some creative gameplay implementations.
Approved.

---

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Details

BB CODES
BB Codes | HIVE

MELEE MAPS
Description Guide - Melee Maps
Describing Your Melee Map
Melee Map Description Generator v1.3

MAPS IN GENERAL
The importance of a Description
Description Guide - Maps
Map Thread Guide
Map Description Making: Good & Bad
Map Description - Templates
Map Description Generator [1.2]

How to Add a Screenshot to your Map Description

ADDITIONAL NECESSARY INFORMATION

• A credits list in the map thread description is required where the names of the resource (models, skins, icons, spells, sound etc.) authors are mentioned along with the specific resource. It would be a luxury to have links leading to the used resources. Credits in the Quest Log would be appreciated too.
• A detailed changelog in the first post would be helpful to reviewers and notify fans about the newest implementations to your map.
• Map thread tags are important. Please use those that fit and not more or none.

M A P - C R E A T I O N - G U I D E S

Details

GENERAL MAPPING
A Beginner's Guide to Map Making
The Ultimate Beginners Terrain Tutorial
Advanced Terraining Tutorial
A Guideline to Terraining and the Hive's Terraining Section
Various Terraining Tips!
Basic Mapping Video Tutorial
WE Map Editor for Newbies!
The Path Of Proper Map Making - What to do and what should be avoided

MELEE MAPPING
How to create Melee Maps
General - Melee Maps like the Professionals
Competitive Melee Map
Melee mapping - The reasons behind common aspects of competitive 1v1 maps
Melee Do's and Dont's

PATHING
Pathing - Everything about it
[Terraining] Alternative Pathing Technique

LEAKS
Triggers - Memory Leaks and Custom Scripts

If you're not satisfied with the review and wish another opinion, contact the other reviewers or use the staff contact:
https://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/staff-contact.692/

Thank you very much for the review, we will revise the cinematic to deselect Sobere during the cinematic.

On the other hand, regarding the combination of the items, at first we wanted it to be done in the inventory but it began to give us problems and in the end the easiest solution was to do it like this, we will look at it again to see if we can change it. And more or less the same thing happened to us with the abilities at the maximum level, we wanted them not to be shown, but it got complicated and we left it as it is now.

As for the attacks, yes, I understand what you're saying, there comes a point where it becomes quite monotonous, next time we'll try to improve them, let's see what we can come up with.

Regards.

PS: I don't know if you played version 1.0.2 but if so, I'm glad that the update didn't produce any new bugs

 

[VanAndro]

So far I've been trying to play v1.0.2 - no luck. The game has become for masters of the buttons and not only.

• Sobere can't attack Dragons, Liadna can. Why? They are both so weak. The mercenaries too.
• Dragons are immune to spells except Fel Storm. Mercenaries useless.
• Upgrades eventually turn out to be useless because sooner or later you end up in a situation where the enemies are constantly flocking to you, surrounding you from all sides and until they have completely drained your accumulated status, they will not leave you. After they let you escape in peace the tendency to come from all sides and not let you go remains.
• Mercenaries - useless again. Dragons are strong and numerous enough to handle anyone + ground reinforcements
• Item use - useless.
• You can't escape because of everyone's Freeze attack unless they are willing to leave you. If you still manage to feint one or two groups of opponents, 20 opponents will catch up with you.
• And in the previous version, Sobere was weak, but now it feels 10 times weaker. It cannot protect anyone or anything. My game only went better with Liadna and the mercenaries and Sobere stayed safe with Sulphur.
• The only option I haven't tried is to leave all the fashion items in the boxes and load the heroes with only Healing Ward, Restoration Potion and Scroll of Restoration with the idea that both heroes and mercs will stay alive.

And all this before you can find the nine runes for the mercenaries.

EDIT: In the end the system Healing Ward, Restoration Potion, Scroll of Restoration, Fell Storm works, but I got to the monkey so drained that I couldn't beat him. In addition, Sobere in 95% of the blows failed to hit the monkey and actually only Liadna fought him. No chance. This option was not in the first version. Both running and not running the Light Blast still hits you but if you run it takes 50% less damage.
Version "Nimble Fingers"

 

[Resyak]

So far I've been trying to play v1.0.2 - no luck. The game has become for masters of the buttons and not only.

• Sobere can't attack Dragons, Liadna can. Why? They are both so weak. The mercenaries too.
• Dragons are immune to spells except Fel Storm. Mercenaries useless.
• Upgrades eventually turn out to be useless because sooner or later you end up in a situation where the enemies are constantly flocking to you, surrounding you from all sides and until they have completely drained your accumulated status, they will not leave you. After they let you escape in peace the tendency to come from all sides and not let you go remains.
• Mercenaries - useless again. Dragons are strong and numerous enough to handle anyone + ground reinforcements
• Item use - useless.
• You can't escape because of everyone's Freeze attack unless they are willing to leave you. If you still manage to feint one or two groups of opponents, 20 opponents will catch up with you.
• And in the previous version, Sobere was weak, but now it feels 10 times weaker. It cannot protect anyone or anything. My game only went better with Liadna and the mercenaries and Sobere stayed safe with Sulphur.
• The only option I haven't tried is to leave all the fashion items in the boxes and load the heroes with only Healing Ward, Restoration Potion and Scroll of Restoration with the idea that both heroes and mercs will stay alive.

And all this before you can find the nine runes for the mercenaries.

EDIT: In the end the system Healing Ward, Restoration Potion, Scroll of Restoration, Fell Storm works, but I got to the monkey so drained that I couldn't beat him. In addition, Sobere in 95% of the blows failed to hit the monkey and actually only Liadna fought him. No chance. This option was not in the first version. Both running and not running the Light Blast still hits you but if you run it takes 50% less damage.
Version "Nimble Fingers"

The respawn system is different and so are the waves, in this version they are more constant but weaker and don't attack or respawn unless you're on the tundra. As usual with this type of system, it is best to eliminate the enemies as they appear.

And well, as always, the perception of difficulty goes with each one, this version for me is extremely easy. The power of the enemies is less than before (some skills that did a lot of damage have been removed) and the mercenaries have plenty of power to fight them, in fact it is quite simple with the change of armor, you just have to hire the mercenaries that have the right attack type and the enemies will drop like flies.

Regards and I'm sorry you didn't like the system change.

 

[VanAndro]

The respawn system is different and so are the waves, in this version they are more constant but weaker and don't attack or respawn unless you're on the tundra. As usual with this type of system, it is best to eliminate the enemies as they appear.

And well, as always, the perception of difficulty goes with each one, this version for me is extremely easy. The power of the enemies is less than before (some skills that did a lot of damage have been removed) and the mercenaries have plenty of power to fight them, in fact it is quite simple with the change of armor, you just have to hire the mercenaries that have the right attack type and the enemies will drop like flies.

Regards and I'm sorry you didn't like the system change.

Spoiler: The game of an inexperienced player

The new respawn system isn't bad, but I liked the old one more. Disadvantage/advantage of the new system is that you can complete the Gems collection quest with absolutely no resistance. You just tell him to go collect his stones and wait for him at the base to upgrade your items. In the old system, at worst you had to unlock the 4th mercenary level to be able to protect the Goblin while he collects the stones.

Level 2 Mercenaries cannot use their magic on Dragons due to the immunity they have. They can only rely on a standard attack. I didn't get the impression that I could rely on their standard attack to effectively fight Dragons. Separating Sobere and tier 1 mercs to fight ground units from Liadna and tier 2 mercs to fight the incoming dragons remains a difficult task. In general, it is a difficult task to have the money to buy enough mercs and keep them alive long enough to unlock levels 3 and 4. Heroes cannot be relied upon.

Stun and Evasion mercs lv.1 but mainly Stun - only those I bought in the beginning. The money went down the drain. Later + lv.2 mercs again with no sensitive positive result provided you move with 6 lv.1 and 6 lv.2.

The biggest advantage of the old system is that there was almost always an opportunity to escape from a difficult situation and thus avoid "resetting" the status. Death Coil took a lot of HP off and killed but you could get away. Sobere still died easily but not so easily. I don't remember Sobere had an air attack on the Dragons though, but they were counted on the fingers of one hand anyway.

Now Sobere falls even with a gust of wind.

Items: I honestly didn't get to feel the benefit of Legendary items. In my game, Healing Wards and Recovery Potions took center stage + Fell Storm. It was the only way to keep as many mercenaries alive as possible. But not Sobere. He was consuming Recovery Potions and capital respectively as an Intergalactic Serpent. In the second part of the game, there are now mercenaries level 3 and 4, and the opponents become significantly easier. But there are no more Dragons, Revenants and Ghouls.

Magic Immune Dragons: In the previous respawn system, there were so few of them I'd say they were almost off the map. Now there are many and they are strong and at level 1 mercenaries the only one who fights them is Liadna. It is not possible to sneak around the map unnoticed to collect enough runes for at least level 2 mercenaries. Liadna can handle 2-3 dragons max. by herself. During this time, Sobere and the other level 1st have to fight the ground units away from her or they die like flies because the dragons attack them too. Picking off Sobere and the others in such a situation is almost impossible at best because the enemy is coming by both land and air. If you fall once there is no running and all your status until now will be reduced to the original minimum because the enemy keeps rotating around the place where you died and basically nothing else happens except you respawn every 15 seconds until your status drops to the standard values to leave you alone. Dragons can chase you even from the other side of the cave. The enemy doesn't constantly rotate in the Goblin base, so if they follow you there and kill you, you will save yourself the "reset" of the status.

Sobere falls even with a gust of wind. That's why I said it's better to stay with the goblins and gain status on someone else's back.

The mercs lv.1 need to be a lot of 5-6 at least to have a chance of dealing with a small number of ground units for Liadna to live long enough to deal with the dragons. A difficult task because Revenants and Ghouls are attacking everyone. Even more difficult because the enemy keeps coming + all have Freeze attack.
It is important to note that what I have not done is reveal the map in a straight line, and I mean the straightest possible. Perhaps in this case the enemy will come at you in numbers that heroes and mercenaries level 1 could handle. What I encountered is that in many places on the map and exactly where the enemy can come from more than one side, he doesn't just come, it literally comes in quantities you can't handle and can't escape. Therefore, a "reset" follows. Fell Storm + a few Healing Wards + a few Recovery Potions especially for Sobere is the only way most stay alive.

These are the reasons why I used the word Useless so many times in my previous post and version for masters of the buttons and not only.

For now, my impression is that this version is for the more experienced players in every way. For you, things seem even easier, but on the other side, we take a soul . Despite all that, it's still a nice upgrade to the game, at least because this time I was the one who didn't stand a chance against the Monkey.

It remains a mystery to me why only Liadna fought with the Monkey, i.e. only she did damage to him. Sobere (8-9 out of 10 "Miss" shots) had hundreds of damage! Other than dying and swinging in vain Sobere had no other role in this fight. Well - yes the occasional War Stomp but if a hero died the Monkey would fully restore HP and mana.

EDIT:

Spoiler: Final Bug

- Muukal just forgot to get out of this state. After 3-4 minutes of waiting I restarted the battle and there were no problems.

Spoiler: Final words

• v1.0.2 definitely demands more from the player. It took me exactly 9 tries to find the easiest, fastest and safest way to get to the Boss with almost untouched character status (for v1.0.1 it only took me one try). From this point of view, I can say that the new version of the game is as easy/difficult as the old one. But from the point of view of a new inexperienced player, this version is much more difficult and therefore brings more pleasure to fans of Hard. It definitely offers a whole new experience + one major disadvantage/advantage is the Gems collection quest which I wrote about above.
• It is not difficult to reach lv. 2 mercenaries (perhaps). It's hard after that. With the right tactics, getting to lv.2-3 and 4 mercenaries becomes a piece of cake. And from here on everything becomes easy.
• The new system does not allow much recovery of completely lost status: ie if your initial Intelligence is for example 15 you manage to raise it to 60 and then lose it again to 15 or less even after entering the second part of the game you cannot raise it by more than 10-15 units.
• This time, for the first time, I was able to find all the items and make them Legendary. The second part of the Ring of Live and Ring of Inteligens cannot be found before entering the castle. It's quite annoying to look for them without knowing where they are and whether to look for them at all when you know that you have already uncovered every millimeter of the map and they are gone! Some cryptic marker when they become available to discover would make the process easier and save a lot of time and wandering. But even without them, the situation is not bad at all. Still, why give up this advantage?
• Significant involvement of the Healing tools that the game offers in the store and also of the Scroll of Town Portal.
• The mystery revealed: If the opponent manages to "reset" the status of one of the Heroes, it might be better not to waste time getting to the Boss and start from the beginning.
• The fight with Muukal: without deliberately accumulating character status and abilities what can I say.....

I think his behavior in battle is much more interesting if you can get him to the point of desperation. Until now, I didn't think he was capable of the kind of things he does when he's desperate.

 

[Resyak]

Spoiler: The game of an inexperienced player

The new respawn system isn't bad, but I liked the old one more. Disadvantage/advantage of the new system is that you can complete the Gems collection quest with absolutely no resistance. You just tell him to go collect his stones and wait for him at the base to upgrade your items. In the old system, at worst you had to unlock the 4th mercenary level to be able to protect the Goblin while he collects the stones.

Level 2 Mercenaries cannot use their magic on Dragons due to the immunity they have. They can only rely on a standard attack. I didn't get the impression that I could rely on their standard attack to effectively fight Dragons. Separating Sobere and tier 1 mercs to fight ground units from Liadna and tier 2 mercs to fight the incoming dragons remains a difficult task. In general, it is a difficult task to have the money to buy enough mercs and keep them alive long enough to unlock levels 3 and 4. Heroes cannot be relied upon.

Stun and Evasion mercs lv.1 but mainly Stun - only those I bought in the beginning. The money went down the drain. Later + lv.2 mercs again with no sensitive positive result provided you move with 6 lv.1 and 6 lv.2.

The biggest advantage of the old system is that there was almost always an opportunity to escape from a difficult situation and thus avoid "resetting" the status. Death Coil took a lot of HP off and killed but you could get away. Sobere still died easily but not so easily. I don't remember Sobere had an air attack on the Dragons though, but they were counted on the fingers of one hand anyway.

Now Sobere falls even with a gust of wind.

Items: I honestly didn't get to feel the benefit of Legendary items. In my game, Healing Wards and Recovery Potions took center stage + Fell Storm. It was the only way to keep as many mercenaries alive as possible. But not Sobere. He was consuming Recovery Potions and capital respectively as an Intergalactic Serpent. In the second part of the game, there are now mercenaries level 3 and 4, and the opponents become significantly easier. But there are no more Dragons, Revenants and Ghouls.

Magic Immune Dragons: In the previous respawn system, there were so few of them I'd say they were almost off the map. Now there are many and they are strong and at level 1 mercenaries the only one who fights them is Liadna. It is not possible to sneak around the map unnoticed to collect enough runes for at least level 2 mercenaries. Liadna can handle 2-3 dragons max. by herself. During this time, Sobere and the other level 1st have to fight the ground units away from her or they die like flies because the dragons attack them too. Picking off Sobere and the others in such a situation is almost impossible at best because the enemy is coming by both land and air. If you fall once there is no running and all your status until now will be reduced to the original minimum because the enemy keeps rotating around the place where you died and basically nothing else happens except you respawn every 15 seconds until your status drops to the standard values to leave you alone. Dragons can chase you even from the other side of the cave. The enemy doesn't constantly rotate in the Goblin base, so if they follow you there and kill you, you will save yourself the "reset" of the status.

Sobere falls even with a gust of wind. That's why I said it's better to stay with the goblins and gain status on someone else's back.

The mercs lv.1 need to be a lot of 5-6 at least to have a chance of dealing with a small number of ground units for Liadna to live long enough to deal with the dragons. A difficult task because Revenants and Ghouls are attacking everyone. Even more difficult because the enemy keeps coming + all have Freeze attack.
It is important to note that what I have not done is reveal the map in a straight line, and I mean the straightest possible. Perhaps in this case the enemy will come at you in numbers that heroes and mercenaries level 1 could handle. What I encountered is that in many places on the map and exactly where the enemy can come from more than one side, he doesn't just come, it literally comes in quantities you can't handle and can't escape. Therefore, a "reset" follows. Fell Storm + a few Healing Wards + a few Recovery Potions especially for Sobere is the only way most stay alive.

These are the reasons why I used the word Useless so many times in my previous post and version for masters of the buttons and not only.

For now, my impression is that this version is for the more experienced players in every way. For you, things seem even easier, but on the other side, we take a soul . Despite all that, it's still a nice upgrade to the game, at least because this time I was the one who didn't stand a chance against the Monkey.

It remains a mystery to me why only Liadna fought with the Monkey, i.e. only she did damage to him. Sobere (8-9 out of 10 "Miss" shots) had hundreds of damage! Other than dying and swinging in vain Sobere had no other role in this fight. Well - yes the occasional War Stomp but if a hero died the Monkey would fully restore HP and mana.

EDIT:

Spoiler: Final Bug

- Muukal just forgot to get out of this state. After 3-4 minutes of waiting I restarted the battle and there were no problems.

View attachment 445507

Spoiler: Final words

• v1.0.2 definitely demands more from the player. It took me exactly 9 tries to find the easiest, fastest and safest way to get to the Boss with almost untouched character status (for v1.0.1 it only took me one try). From this point of view, I can say that the new version of the game is as easy/difficult as the old one. But from the point of view of a new inexperienced player, this version is much more difficult and therefore brings more pleasure to fans of Hard. It definitely offers a whole new experience + one major disadvantage/advantage is the Gems collection quest which I wrote about above.
• It is not difficult to reach lv. 2 mercenaries (perhaps). It's hard after that. With the right tactics, getting to lv.2-3 and 4 mercenaries becomes a piece of cake. And from here on everything becomes easy.
• The new system does not allow much recovery of completely lost status: ie if your initial Intelligence is for example 15 you manage to raise it to 60 and then lose it again to 15 or less even after entering the second part of the game you cannot raise it by more than 10-15 units.
• This time, for the first time, I was able to find all the items and make them Legendary. The second part of the Ring of Live and Ring of Inteligens cannot be found before entering the castle. It's quite annoying to look for them without knowing where they are and whether to look for them at all when you know that you have already uncovered every millimeter of the map and they are gone! Some cryptic marker when they become available to discover would make the process easier and save a lot of time and wandering. But even without them, the situation is not bad at all. Still, why give up this advantage?
• Significant involvement of the Healing tools that the game offers in the store and also of the Scroll of Town Portal.
• The mystery revealed: If the opponent manages to "reset" the status of one of the Heroes, it might be better not to waste time getting to the Boss and start from the beginning.
• The fight with Muukal: without deliberately accumulating character status and abilities what can I say.....

View attachment 445517

I think his behavior in battle is much more interesting if you can get him to the point of desperation. Until now, I didn't think he was capable of the kind of things he does when he's desperate.

Truly impressive review, I'm amazed at how deep you've gone into the game, I really appreciate your time and patience here. I assure you that we will keep this review in mind for future updates.

While I can't break down point point right now, I do want to note a recurring comment about the boss battle.

In this type of maps (RPG) it is inevitable (for us) that what you say happens, if you do everything and reach the maximum level of the boss, it is normal that it is easy. Think of it this way, if all in all the battle was challenging, what would it be like for the one who arrives with half the items and at a lower level? And that without taking into account that the ability of each player is different. For this reason, unless an adaptive difficulty is programmed (which we are not capable of doing correctly), it is impossible for it to be otherwise.

That being said, regarding the respawn system, I don't have much to comment on. We felt that it would be more "dynamic" like this and that it would compensate for the increased attack frequency with the armor changes and the removal of the coil. I suppose that as Blasterixx told me at the time, this system is obsolete and no matter how much we think about it, the only solution is to do something completely different. It's something we've been working on for a long time but we still haven't found a system that we and the rest of the players like.

Finally, I don't know what could have happened for the boss to be blocked, when we return to this project we will review it before updating and adding more content.

Once again, thank you very much for your time and dedication.

Regards.

 

[The_Messenger]

An epic map where you play as Sobere, the nicest Pit Lord ever, and his girlfriend in a quest for love (more or less). The story is rather funny, Sobere is a nice guy overall who doesn't like violence while his girlfriend is rather mean but hides a soft side to herself. I actually chuckled a little hearing a helpless Sobere call her out "little bear" while getting bullied by an Orc. And I will wholeheartedly admit that the morbidly obese Goblin Emperor made me laugh a little bit.

I liked the fact that items could be combined to form greater ones, and even upgraded into even stronger versions of themselves with noticeable custom icon changes.
What I like the most out of everything is Sobere's girlfriend's model, the mounted demon hunter wielding dual scythes. Very high-quality model with lots of passion going into its design.
I also like the RPG-ish element where you get to choose where your stats go into once you level up enabling you to fully customize a hero to be either super resistant, or hit like a truck.

I lost the map twice on my first go since I ran out of time, but I finally managed to reach Sobere within the time limit. Not to mention that I stumbled into the temple by accident where I got devastated by incredibly powerful mobs.
Although the idea of reviving on the spot, but weakened over repeated deaths, is a good one that prevents a sudden end to your adventure, it is also your worst enemy since it is rather easy to die from the fairly strong (early on at least) mobs that dash around the wasteland.
I found the constant roaming undead to be rather annoying the way they just harassed me all the time while I was exploring the wastelands trying to find the Blood Runes, but the effort was worth it since this enabled me to "farm" soul shards and improve the characters.
There's also a bug where if you click on an already explored area to go there, the units you control will likely deviate from the path and get lost; either clustering in a cliff or getting stuck on something while trying to get to their destination.

In the end, it's a fairly fun map that took me 3 hours to finish. I was stunned to see how much time I spent on it, but the end boss fight made it worth the effort of becoming that strong. I would have finished it earlier if the map wasn't so enormous, I didn't die repeatedly, characters got lost, and got ambushed by unexpected enemies.

 

[Resyak]

An epic map where you play as Sobere, the nicest Pit Lord ever, and his girlfriend in a quest for love (more or less). The story is rather funny, Sobere is a nice guy overall who doesn't like violence while his girlfriend is rather mean but hides a soft side to herself. I actually chuckled a little hearing a helpless Sobere call her out "little bear" while getting bullied by an Orc. And I will wholeheartedly admit that the morbidly obese Goblin Emperor made me laugh a little bit.

I liked the fact that items could be combined to form greater ones, and even upgraded into even stronger versions of themselves with noticeable custom icon changes.
What I like the most out of everything is Sobere's girlfriend's model, the mounted demon hunter wielding dual scythes. Very high-quality model with lots of passion going into its design.
I also like the RPG-ish element where you get to choose where your stats go into once you level up enabling you to fully customize a hero to be either super resistant, or hit like a truck.

I lost the map twice on my first go since I ran out of time, but I finally managed to reach Sobere within the time limit. Not to mention that I stumbled into the temple by accident where I got devastated by incredibly powerful mobs.
Although the idea of reviving on the spot, but weakened over repeated deaths, is a good one that prevents a sudden end to your adventure, it is also your worst enemy since it is rather easy to die from the fairly strong (early on at least) mobs that dash around the wasteland.
I found the constant roaming undead to be rather annoying the way they just harassed me all the time while I was exploring the wastelands trying to find the Blood Runes, but the effort was worth it since this enabled me to "farm" soul shards and improve the characters.
There's also a bug where if you click on an already explored area to go there, the units you control will likely deviate from the path and get lost; either clustering in a cliff or getting stuck on something while trying to get to their destination.

In the end, it's a fairly fun map that took me 3 hours to finish. I was stunned to see how much time I spent on it, but the end boss fight made it worth the effort of becoming that strong. I would have finished it earlier if the map wasn't so enormous, I didn't die repeatedly, characters got lost, and got ambushed by unexpected enemies.

Thank you very much for your comment, I'm glad that you were able to enjoy the content despite the errors. I'm not currently creating any type of content due to lack of time and, honestly, lack of motivation, so it's always good to see comments like yours. I hope one day I'll regain the desire to reopen the world editor and bring new content or expand/improve the current one.

Regards.

 

[VanAndro]

Reading the changes made in version 1.0.3 I have one question and one suggestion:

1. Bug in Makele's opt. quest? Am I correct in assuming that it's now impossible to send him......?

2. Since version 1.0.2 is in my opinion very pleasantly challenging as I was constantly gnawing inside "what's the way?" my suggestion is to have both versions of the game available for download as in the description you can only add a note that v.1.0.2 is more challenging or with a higher level of difficulty. Thus, new players will have the opportunity to choose the version that is most suitable for them.
If necessary, I can provide a free download link for v.1.0.2, which you can give in the description so that only v.1.0.3 remains here.

 

[Resyak]

Reading the changes made in version 1.0.3 I have one question and one suggestion:

1. Bug in Makele's opt. quest? Am I correct in assuming that it's now impossible to send him......?

2. Since version 1.0.2 is in my opinion very pleasantly challenging as I was constantly gnawing inside "what's the way?" my suggestion is to have both versions of the game available for download as in the description you can only add a note that v.1.0.2 is more challenging or with a higher level of difficulty. Thus, new players will have the opportunity to choose the version that is most suitable for them.
If necessary, I can provide a free download link for v.1.0.2, which you can give in the description so that only v.1.0.3 remains here.

With the new respawn system, as you pointed out, you could just send him out to get the gems alone and they wouldn't attack him, that should never have been the case.

Regarding the difficulty, we have reflected, in everything we upload the same comment is always repeated: "it is very difficult" or "it is unfair." That can only mean two things, or we are not managing to adjust the difficulty correctly so that it represents a challenge without being unfair or tedious, or most players don't want challenges. Whatever it is, this will be the new line of this project and of possible future projects, playable cinematics with small peaks of difficulty at very specific moments.

Regards.

 

[EdgarSIP]

Very good campaign custom story etc

 

[Resyak]

Very good campaign custom story etc

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.

Regards.