deepstrasz
Map Reviewer
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2009
- Messages
- 20,241
You're quite active on your thread. I don't remember asking you how long did it take to finish this work (hours per day and so on).
(77 ratings)
You're quite active on your thread. I don't remember asking you how long did it take to finish this work (hours per day and so on).
Yeah, I keep an eye on the thread so I can answer peoples' questions. I'm happy to hear from people who are playing the campaign.
I'm not actually sure how long it took overall. I've got a wife and a full time job, so I have a lot of other commitments. I typically set myself the goal of working on it an hour every day, but there were plenty of times I couldn't work on it at all, and other times where I would work on it every spare moment I had.
Overall, it took over six years to finish, so a lot of work went into it!
Wow,that's a long timeYeah, I keep an eye on the thread so I can answer peoples' questions. I'm happy to hear from people who are playing the campaign.
I'm not actually sure how long it took overall. I've got a wife and a full time job, so I have a lot of other commitments. I typically set myself the goal of working on it an hour every day, but there were plenty of times I couldn't work on it at all, and other times where I would work on it every spare moment I had.
Overall, it took over six years to finish, so a lot of work went into it!
Almost forgot about these.
You guess from what level they areThey're all from the same mission.
No, Mr. Reave'. It's the level where I just saw/realized of the artistic value of the fog of war. Other missions might have that too, but this one's FoW caught my attention very fast.I'm guessing you're demonstrating how you can view the terrain layout through the "fog of war" in some missions?
is this a re-realse ?
i remember playing this already
Did you just add some stuff and then re-release it ?
i haven't play it yet i just want to see what you have to say
I don't think I've played something this good in a long while. I'm in mission 4 at the moment, and I'm already loving it.
The gameplay is nothing out of the ordinary... or so it would seem at first. It isn't particularly fancy, but it is done wonderfully, and plays extremely well. Besides, you can't hate a game with something as awesome as the Sphere of Annihilation in it.
(It is a little unforgiving, though, but there's no fun if there's no challenge, huh?)
The story isn't pretentious in its premise, but it works remarkably well and now I want to see its ending as soon as possible.
The music is something to be noted. I love all the tracks I've heard so far, and I have no reason to think the rest will be any different.
I honestly have yet to find a thing I dislike about this.
Indeed. I could only try a bit of Chapter IV before I had to leave home for a few days, and it gave me a lot of trouble. I recklessly sent Kitharsis to fight and ended up with him losing mote than half his health in the second enemy encounter.
What is the song played in chapter VIII during Slayer's commune spell? Thanks!
What is the song played in chapter VIII during Slayer's commune spell? Thanks!
Hi guys im a new guy though i joined months ago... So anyway, Soul Reaver, your campaign is so epic! "heavy breathing" so haha i downloaded the new version and finally have no problems about the victory screen not appearing. so umm i got to say how can i put voices in the characters? i just want to try if my voice and others can speak for the characters while having dialogues so um great map and its easily 5/5 dont let others pull you down haha oh and also did you get the characters when you were writing the story?
08-24-2011, 10:53 PM
Hi Perkyguy,
Saw your message on Chapter VII... I'm happy to report that To the Bitter End is now complete. It's not just Chapter VIII, it also includes a Prologue and Epilogue cinematic, as well as enhancements, fixes, and some rebalancing. It'll be slightly easier than before (which I'm sure you'll be glad to hear), though it's still going to be very tough.
I'm already feeling your pain in trying to finish Chapter VIII with no saves...
Enjoy! Let me know what you think!
Well after finding myself with more spare time these last weeks, I happened to remember WC3 used to be a thing, and by association, TTBE.
Its been 5 years since I last attempted it.
Remember me SR?
Let me dig up a hint for you from my PM box:
Thats right. Im the nutjob that finished chapters 1 through 7 without the use of saves back when they were individual custom maps. (and provided the replays for it).
(Hindsight: they also felt harder back then - I dont recall Fei's passive granting magic damage reduction back then, and it feels like the overal campaign difficulty was toned down from what i remember.)
Well make that 1-through-8 now.
My summary? @#$%ing hell. I feel like this map we personally tailored for my torment.
There is no fantasy setting in which these 5 would have stood a realistic chance of actually succeding with this endeavor ( since we are going with a scenario where they dont get any mulligans - they get one shot at it and death is final). This final map in particular is so heavily slanted in favor of the bad guys, i had an easier time going through chapters 1-7 (no saves) in a single sitting than finishing just 8 (same condition).
At the end of the chapter 8 no save run, I felt no elation. No sense of victory. Only an indignant outrage, born out of the frustration of going through a battle where you went out of your way to make enemies as cheap as cheap gets, along with every advantage imaginable in order to slant everything in their favor so much it feels like trying to climb a flat-surface 90 degree wall.
More than once or ten-ce(i made that up). I imagined a scenario where you would be imprisoned, to be released only after you accomplish what I have, so that you can gain the faintest idea of the amount of frustration this endeavor entailed.
I have this eerie paranoid suspicion that you went cuckoo for cocoa pufs on the difficulty for the final chapter purely because you knew i would try and finish it in one go (as your PM suggests), and you wanted to have at least one chapter undefeated with my unique limitation
Many of you might (and most will) question why bother doing this in first place, with such a handicap. Well, its a state of mind - Ive long since come to consider that using saves in any game (for any purpose other than continuing where you left of last time), voids any sense of accomplishment, since infinite re-dos mean you will finish the game sooner or later, regardless of how bad you are, turning the game into an interactive story for which you simply tag along. I realise this is an unusual PoV, but it is what it is.
You guys know what my best hint to in completing the campaign is? Let all cutscenes run their length - your characters still regenerate and their cooldowns refresh without ticking the chapter's timer.
Anyway...
Replays available
[Screenshot]
Hey, I dont know if this was posted, but I found a bug in Act II cinematic. The face of Soul Reaver face...somewhere
Would love to get the replays from you - could you email them to me? Or send me a link to a dropbox type thing?
I promise you that the final chapter's difficulty was not designed to torment you - it was actually designed to torment ME. When, in the last stages of the battle, I felt my heart hammering in my chest, I knew I'd got it about right.
That said, I never designed it with the intent of saves not being available - if that had been my intent, I would have added some sort of revive mechanic or the like. It's not supposed to be a roguelike! Your suffering is as much your own doing as it is mine.![]()
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Ugh...So here's the thing...
Now that the the separate chapters are bundled into 1 whole campaign, i can no longer save replays the usual way, since clicking continue at mission end immediately start next chapter, and clicking quit exists to campaign screen.
Playing the first chapter, I got it recorded as the "Last Replay" option from the replays menu. And so I proceeded to copy and save under new name all "Last Replay" 's after every chapter, but this workaround apparently only works for the first mission for some reason.
So now i have multiple copies of me going through Dark Dawn...
If i want working replays, ill have to re-do the whole thing on your older, separate files, where Cameron the elemental is also known as Clutchfiend the space marine.
The problem with that (apart from the glaring flaw of starting chapter 7 with preset skills - Soul Reaver has NO points in SoA as level 46) is that you never released Chap 8 as its own file, but rather as the apex of the campaign.
Worst part of it is that I actually have nothing and no way to prove my claim now - I dont keep the 5-year old replays (i doubt you do too) and unless you release chapter 8 as a separate file, It will stay that way.
Cherry on the top being that I'll have to go through the harrowing experience of doing that all over again.
I feel like that guy who climbed mt Everest alone and forgot to take pictures.
Anyway - do you happen to have a standalone version of chapter 8?
I hunted down the standalone version of TTBE:chap 7 today, and after getting re-used to the old hotkey bindings, I made it through without saving or loading.
Here's the link to the replay: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xg4h7k80grsatyj/Chapter7 noreload.w3g?dl=0
In order to view it, you will also need the standalone chapter 7 version the replay was made on
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y7lgtmha2w541qo/TTBE07 Grim Harvest.w3x?dl=0
Ill have to gather the other standalones, and re-do the noreloads on them, but chap 7 is all i have time for tonight.
And i wont be able to do the chap 8 one again, unless you have a single map version of that one.
Replaying this on stream, and holy shit, mission 5 when you attack the camp requires the best micro Ive ever needed. Shit dies left right center
Hardest part from chap 5 for me is trying to keep the king and his son alive during the mid-game clash of forces. If im going to fail that mission, thats the most likely point it will happen.
You'd think they'd have sense to hang back.
What works for me is send katharsis in, activate the rage ultimate which serves to both lower damage pressure and slow enemies, while i line up the big booms.
Problem is king&son sometimes inch a little bit forward into the edge of the blastzone just before catclysm and the spirit bomb land
Hi Soul Reaver! I am currently making videos for TTBE on YouTube and what a challenge it is! The first map was very strange to me since I've never played anything like it, but have grown to quite enjoy the campaign as a whole. Anyway, later this week, I'll be putting out my playthrough of map 4 and wanted to point out that, during the boss fight, Fei got stuck near the boss - you'll be able to see better in the video, but it wasn't clear what he was stuck on as there were no tentacles around him. I can link you a timestamp here once I release the video on Saturday.
I completed the 6th map yesterday (making us fight the bosses from Reunion was not pleasant) and I feel that after completing that I should be able to finish anything the last two maps throw at me, albeit taking time to learn the encounters. Anyway, just wanted to let you know how cool your work is!
Thanks, just found it myself as well.Here it is: JayborinoPlays
This Campaign is totally EPIC! Everything about this is great, I love the story line, all the things the heroes did. The terrain is nice, spells are great, use of custom models and skins are perfect!
Campaign screen music... ROCKSI love that song from e.p. Gameplay and scenario amazing. 6/5 +rep