This build features a brand new special adventure: the Caverns of Chaos. This is a new kind of adventure with much more replayability than existing adventures. I'll let @Flaxative describe it more fully in a separate post. Caverns of Chaos is unlocked when you beat any level 15 or 16 adventure. Full change list: Adventures Caverns of Chaos User Editor Fix loading of user editor items. Mauve Manticore Victory point goal fix for MM9.2 Gravestorm. Cards Zombie Mob can deal with characters that aren't dead but also aren't on the board somehow.
Okay, so. Caverns of Chaos. There'll be a more complete and nice-looking explanation of the adventure in a future blog post. This post is aimed at folks who use the test server and want to help us out. It may be a bit disorganized but please read it carefully before asking questions. Caverns of Chaos is an infinitely replayable singleplayer dungeon with randomly generated battles of four varieties. Following is a list of the four different stages, by battle number (yes, CoC has 10 battles): 1. Entrance: you play with your constructed party against a randomly generated selection of enemies on a fixed map, the entrance to the caverns. (guaranteed rare+) 2-7. Entropic Cavern Node: you play with a randomly generated party against a randomly generated selection of enemies on a randomly selected map. (guaranteed rare+) anteed rare+) 8-9. Nightmarish Cavern Node: you play with a randomly generated party against a randomly generated selection of enemies on a randomly selected map. (guaranteed epic+) 10. Throne Room of Chaos: you play with a randomly generated party against a randomly generated selection of enemies on a fixed map, the heart of the caverns. (guaranteed epic+, first completion: unique legendary treasure) (I can go into more depth about how the 'random generation' works at a later date.) There are no retries. If you die, you have to start from the beginning. All the fluff for the adventure is in-game, in the module cover, battle prologues and victories, and some prompts. Caverns of Chaos should unlock toward the end of the basic campaign. It may be hard to beat the first map until you're higher level, depending on your item collection, skill, and luck (the first map is sometimes easier, sometimes harder). Because it is a level 21 adventure, your renown goes to 21 when you beat it. This is a way for singleplayer-only folks who don't buy Citadel to reach max renown. Note that despite it being a level 21 adventure, loot drops in the caverns are randomly selected from all 21 item levels. The Loot Fairy never visits Caverns. ## Now, for the real talk. Part of the design goal is to make something fun and replayable. Part of it is to make something horrifically difficult. Part of it is to make something rewarding. It's not easy to balance these three things. At the end of the day, though, the most important thing to 'balance' is to make sure that the adventure's average expected gold/hour isn't way better than that of ranked play. If you test this adventure—and please, test this adventure!—I ask that you keep track of the time it takes and your win rates. Don't bother recording your loot drops—we have the numbers for average gold value of the chests involved. What I'd like to see, should you choose to help us out, is a list of test runs. For each run, tell me the time in minutes that the run took, and how many battles you won in that time. e.g. "70 minutes, 6 battles". You can post your data in this thread. Thanks for helping us out with this. I hope testing it is as fun for you as it has been for me, which is incredibly fun. We're also obviously open to qualitative feedback beyond just these stats. Note, though, that if you're thinking something like, "I wish I could use my party!", well, I've got you covered with something different—yet related—that is still in the works.
More details about this would be nice. Random classes and races? Random cards or random items? This will be on the 'normal' server on next wednesday?
Did we say that somewhere? There's no official launch date for CoC. It'll be ready when it's ready. Right now it needs testing.
Sounds like a sweet addition. I 'd be more than happy to playtest, but I 've only unlocked up to lvl5 adventures in test server. If there is no circumvent, I won't play the whole campaign for the unteenth time just for one adventure. But if there is a bypass, please inform me.
First run: 23 minutes, 3 wins. Highlights: Destroyed by War Dogs, a battle with 4 Cameras and 2 Priests. Second run: 0 wins. Highlight: Surrounded by 2 Shark Bears and 3 Gnome Berserkers while Taunted by a Gnome Inciter 6 squares away. Third run: 22 minutes, 3 wins. Highlight: Security Robots in a wide open room. http://i.imgur.com/xJLs56o.png Not sure how to beat that one, Security Robot maps are never this open. As for a bypass, you can buy the EttSC expansion with Pizza (you can get infinite pizza) and use the EttSC starter pack, I think it's good enough to do the first map with.
sounds fun, hope to see it finalized and implented soon. (@Maniafig, u aware how much info you share with screenshots like that?)
How do I buy the EttSC expansion? I am just able to buy the bundle, but for that I am forwarded to Paypal.
Thank you very much! If this bug hasn't been squashed, it might fix you up. If you are up to that point in the campaign, you can just buy the components with pizza. If you aren't that far and need to buy the bundle, you'll need to create a paypal sandbox account. * * * I played about 50 minutes and died on node 4. (Drew a human priest and dwarf/elf wizards vs. Traps, Crossbowmen, and Lightning Sprites on an open map. Not as dramatic as @Maniafig 's scenario, but I was a goner.) The time listed includes the complete overhaul of my party after I saw (and had a brief go on) the first map. I noticed the cards are marked with the race and class of the characters they belong to. When I drew the same figures on different maps, the decks seemed to match. Are decks assigned to the figures, or are they randomly built from a larger collection of cards each time? Or are you saying? Part of the reason is I ask is because I wondered if CH has this capability. I puttered around a while longer, testing how well my party performed against different opponents, and looking at (but not playing) the map in the next node. If there was any question of your being a cruel *******, we now have documentation. I enjoyed it more than I thought I might, but I haven't been to the hell node yet. I'll need a heck of a lucky streak to win this lottery, but we have just the streaky RNG to do it!
Is there a limit to how many times you can attempt this in one day? Or rather, will there be once you bring it over to the main server?
Ok, I am officially bored. Cannot do the paypal thing even with a guide, SirVeza's bug doesn't seem to work, and I still won't do the whole friggin' campaign just to play one adventure on the test server. For the record, having to do anything more than typing a single command to unlock everything in a test server seems pretty ludicrous to me.
I don't think nice is what he was going for. This is Flaxative's distillation of a lot of ideas that have surfaced in the forums since beta. (Or he may have ignored the ideas and done this entirely on his own, but a lot of things match up to suggestions I remember.) A Rogue-Like mode is one that comes to mind, though I was hoping for ASCII skins to go with it. I've only tried one run, but I suspect just getting through the first node is going to require not getting any bad match-ups. (Think: 3 elf wizards in QD chess, except there is no possibility of your opponent also having 3 squishy whiz-bangs.) It's designed to be difficult, and replayable, and something even excellent players shouldn't be able to count on winning every time. It's designed to make lazy old men (like me) who happen to be collectors get out of their comfort zones to obtain a singular item in the only manner possible. Which I'm not sure I like, because I'm quite fond of my comfort zone. He's already making my hobby more difficult with this Aloyso stuff. But he is also giving us the first repeatable guaranteed epics in SP (something I've been requesting for a long time), as well as randomized dungeons (something else I've been requesting for a long time). Kidding aside: Thanks, Bro! You've done a great thing for PvE! I'm anxious to see the next one.
This is great news, thanks guys. As Sir Veza already said, this is a great thing for PvE and i have been waiting for something like this for a long time. I have to agree with Latheviosin though. I tried to play campaign and unlock the modules, but i only managed to clear the lvl 8 modules before i got bored. Not being able to use the saved parties like in a normal campaign run really hurts. Reequipping takes a really long time. Is it possible to add a new cheat in order to unlock at least all the free modules?
Yeah, you are right. Up to level 8 (with a few exceptions) a firestorm build, with minor adjustments along the way, can be used with great success and speed. I used one too for today's run in the test server. When i am doing my regular campaign runs though, i find that 1/1/1 party is better (faster and more reliable) for the majority of the modules, so i have saved specific 1/1/1 builds for most of them.
Thanks for making sure I won't be playing Cardhunter on the regular server for a few days If anyone's up for attempting a co-op run sometime, it'd be interesting to see if the people without it unlocked get the good stuff or not.
Data for runs: Spoiler Run 1 3 mins Round 1 finish 10 mins Round 2 finish 3 mins Round 3 finish (festering guts) 5 mins Round 4 finish 5 mins Round 5 finish 8 mins Round 6 finish 8 mins Dead - Flying monkeys+fire guys vs 3 wizards Run 2 3 mins - Dead (round 1) Run 3 4 mins Round 1 3 mins Round 2 5 mins Round 3 4 mins Round 4 5 mins Dead Run 4 4 mins Dead (round 1) Run 5 3 mins 1 5 mins 2 11 mins 3 6 mins 4 Round 5 - no enemies >< Edit: 5 mins 6 6 mins 7 - Dead Ran into a bug however, on round 5 of run 5 - namely, no enemies. Edit - I decided to kill one of my guys to see what would happen- it went to the next round Spoiler Killer74),RoomID=289,Participant=Killer74,PlayerID=801,User=39,Event=SelectCardRequired,ChoiceType=selCardDis,Selections=Surging Bolt|Teleport Self|Toughness BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Participant=Killer74,Event=SelectCard,Selection=Surging Bolt BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Group=COC PC7,Event=Discard,Card=Surging Bolt BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Msg=Turn Complete BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Msg=Starting round 7 BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Event=Attachment Phase Initiated BATTLE LOG: Player=Gary,Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Event=TriggerSucceed,Trigger=Dimensional Traveller,TriggeringActor=[Null],AffectedActors=,TriggerType=StartTurn,TriggerLocation=ActorAttachment BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Player=Killer74,Participant=Killer74,Actor=Rikagril,Event=Move,Origin=(6, 2),StartFacing=(0, 1),Destination=(6, 2),EndFacing=(0, 1) BATTLE LOG: Player=Gary,Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Event=TriggerSucceed,Trigger=Wall of Fire,TriggeringActor=[Null],AffectedActors=Khrumdrang,TriggerType=StartTurn,TriggerLocation=SquareAttachment BATTLE LOG: Player=Gary,Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Event=TriggerSucceed,Trigger=Mimetic Crown,TriggeringActor=Khrumdrang,AffectedActors=,TriggerType=PreDamage,TriggerLocation=Hand BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Msg=Khrumdrang took 7 damage BATTLE LOG: Player=Gary,Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Event=TriggerSucceed,Trigger=Wall of Fire,TriggeringActor=[Null],AffectedActors=Kalbor,TriggerType=StartTurn,TriggerLocation=SquareAttachment BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Msg=Kalbor took 8 damage BATTLE LOG: Player=Gary,Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Event=TriggerSucceed,Trigger=Superstitious,TriggeringActor=Khrumdrang,AffectedActors=,TriggerType=Death,TriggerLocation=ActorAttachment BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Group=COC PC16,Event=Discard,Card=Mimetic Crown BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Group=COC PC16,Event=Discard,Card=Unreliable Block BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Msg=Kalbor died BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Msg=Gary was defeated BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Group=COC PC5,Event=Discard,Card=Martyr Blessing BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Group=COC PC5,Event=Discard,Card=Impenetrable Nimbus BATTLE LOG: Scenario=COC Shallow Node2,Room=COFC (Killer74),RoomID=289,Event=GameOver Initializing deck builder
As regards CoC in general - It's awesome, and a decent challenge. Some of the maps are really interesting to play random characters on, the one where the three guys are separated, for instance (from ettsc map)
