Attack on the Cyber Castle A three-part adventure by adajon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 1 - 'Uplink' Pre-Battle Text: Three years is a long time, yet she remembers as if it all happened yesterday. The raid on Darius' cyber sanctum. It started well, but ultimately the AI was just too powerful for them. She managed to escape the realm of virtual reality, but her adventuring partners did not. She hasn't seen them since. Well, that's going to change today. She's finally built the terminal from scavenged parts, and is ready for a second attempt at destroying the rogue computer, hoping to rescue her friends in the process. It's uplink time. Post-Battle Text: The brutes are dead. They dissolve into streams of code and merge into the walls of the castle. She grips her weapons tighter before continuing, determination filling her heart and banishing her fear. No custom tags ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 2 - 'Rescue' Pre-Battle Text: She enters a new chamber. A single prison cell squats in the centre of the room, streams of code forming prison bars. Through them, she sees a figure. It sits up and turns to face her with a look of astonishment - it's her friend, Case! "Marie-France! Don't come any closer! It's a trap!", Case shouts. But it's too late. She's already running towards him. But her excitement and joy soon makes way for dread as three gunners spawn at the other end of the room. Post-Battle Text: Victorious, Marie-France frees Case from his cell. But there's no time for talk - the alarm has been raised, and the duo must continue onward to Darius' inner sanctum. Custom tags: noMinionKillPoints respawnPeriodTwo forceWinWhenAllDead ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 3 - 'Finale' Pre-Battle Text Darius' core is nearby - just one more room remains. As the duo enters, Marie-France spots a blue figure at the other end of the chamber, standing next to two more cyber minions. Could it be...? "Molly!", Marie-France shouts in delight. But as Molly turns towards them, she senses something wrong about her. She seems... emotionless. "Intruders detected.", Molly intones in a flat, mechanical voice. "Prepare to die." The team have no choice but to fight their friend... Post-Battle Text The shell which was once Molly disintegrates into code. What had happened to her? Darius must be behind it. With rage in their hearts, Case and Marie-France charge into Darius' core processor room. The AI, represented as a red wireframe figure, floats in the middle of the chamber. "I must congratulate you. You've progressed so far since your last visit. But there's one thing you've forgotten." With a cruel smile, Darius snaps his fingers and lines of code stream towards the pair. "You're not the only one to have progressed. Technology is improving constantly, and three years is a long time." The lines of code latch themselves around Marie-France's head. Before she can react, her consciousness is drained away into cyberspace, leaving nothing but code, doomed to serve Darius for eternity. Custom tags: noMinionKillPoints -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's a nice concept and story, now I almost feel sorry for these adventurers from Sanctum of the Cyber Tyrant... though Molly is missing. It took me at least 2 tries to complete each map; while mutants can (and sometimes will) self destruct with radiation the overall difficulty seems a bit high, mostly due to the randomness of laser attacks and a lack of ways to deal with Adaptable and Invisibility. Random thoughts: - Adding a weak critter to the team will of course make the levels easier and provide a use for Reanimate, as right now it's a dead card. - Some carefully placed columns on map 2 would help Case not getting shoot by all 3 gunners in one round. - On map 2 the red tiles aren't properly linked. That said, great job!
I like the idea of the modules, giving some more backstory to the fallen cyber characters, though it does seem odd that Molly doens't appear. The cyber maps do look a bit plain, I think the second and third map could use some more detail as currenly they're a bit basic. The second map has some improper wall tiles while the third map has no border walls at all which seems inconsistent with the first two maps. I'd also personally suggest adding Citadel music to the maps as playing Citadel-like maps without music just feels odd to me. The first map took me three tries, but that did give me enough time to try and come up with a strategy. Generally it's best to avoid getting surrounded by the brutes and maintaining movement in case of a Meltdown and trying to make up for any damage with cleverly placed Healing Beacons. Ideally after enough turns you can draw Cushioning Armor which really helps out, especially if you also get a Mimetic. From then on it's just a game of patience until you can whittle every Mutant down one by one. First try on the second map and I lost in a ridiculous way. I managed to defeat every Cyber Gunner but in the process Case got a Panic! and ran off the victory square. I don't think that's meant to happen and it can cause the map to be unwinnable. I suggest adding an alternate win condition where you win if you defeat all Cyber Gunners at once. The map also seems very random since it's pretty much just Lasers and Hypnobeacon is very random as well. I won after a few tries but only because I got a Force Field on my first turn. I think this map is too luck-based currently and don't think the enemies really need to respawn. I'm also curious why it shifts from SP to MP Marie-France between the first and second map, since the second has stuff like Reanimate that doesn't really come in handy. Third map took me two tries, first time I drew poor cards overall and was quickly overwhelmed. Second try I drew better cards and won. Overall I think this map doesn't really stand out enough, I think the showdown needs to be more epic, like the characters finding Molly and being assailed by AI copies sent by Darius alongside the Boss Gunner, that could work since you can just give one side the SP Cyber trio and the other side the MP Cyber Trio and it is more intense than just fighting another wave of regular cyber enemies. As it stands it's not really much of a finale.
@Rohndil @Maniafig Thanks to both of you for all the feedback! I've made quite a few changes to my scenarios in response to your suggestions: In the second battle, you now control the single player Cyber Priest instead of the multiplayer one. I added some pillars in the second scenario to make it harder for the mutants to hit Case. I also increased your victory point goal to 4 instead of 3. You can now win the second battle by having all three opponents dead at the same time, as well as by gaining 4 victory points from the victory square. I made the last battle more exciting by changing the opponents to Molly (the single-player cyber warrior) and two Cyber Bosses in a minion group. Also, I tried to improve the aesthetics of the boards. I've updated my original post.
I just played the new versions, I think they're definite improvements both aesthetically and gameplay-wise! I tried the second and third map twice each and was able to win all matches though I had some close calls. There's definitely more strategy involved in the second map now there's pillars and the way you place Marie-France affects the locations the Cyber Gunners run to. Drawing more Genetic Engineering also means more chances of getting lucky draws such as Invisibility or Troll Regen which are fun to play around with. The third map also feels more climactic with Molly as an opponent, she can be a tricky opponent since she can get a lot of Laser Blocks and even a Cushioning Armor, while the Cyber Bosses are interesting since you can get funny situations like them copying your Laser Spray and hitting each other. I really like this set of maps and could see them being a MM supplement which we've not had in a while.
Nicely done, I just replayed the maps and I don't see any real problem. Molly as the final boss is a great idea, works perfectly with the theme and the tank + shooters enemy team is an interesting challenge. Just remember to specify in the description that the gunners on map 2 will respawn if this get picked for MM (I surely hope so)!
