So, this is my first attempt at scenario creation. It's the first part of what's eventually expected to be a trilogy detailing the daring exploits of the greatest adventurers ever to grace the plane of Cardhuntria. Backstory: Boppsy, Cuddlepie, and Mr. Jingles are three of the most embarrassingly named individuals ever to become adventurers. Partly in an effort to overcome this handicap, they've become collectively known as The Greatest Adventurers in all of Cardhuntria, seeking greatness and validation of their greatness at every opportunity. In this first chapter, The Greatest Adventurers in all of Cardhuntria hear rumors that a man living near a local cave has been complaining of unsettling moans emanating from its normally serene depths lately. Sensing the exposition of an adventure, they quickly ready their loot-wagon and depart for the cave posthaste. As they begin preparing their equipment however, they hear not only the dreaded moans, but the rattling laughter of skeletons as well. Brave the depths, slay the necromancer, and rescue the unmentioned maiden in: The Greatest Adventurers in all of Cardhuntria: Chapter One: The Greatest Necromancer in all of Cardhuntria: End of Title!
Let me know what you guys think. Personally, I've run through it a few times, and the zombies in particular felt a bit annoying/gimmicky. If anyone else has any feedback or suggestions for improvement, I'd love to hear it!
Interesting Map, Good points: Its quite a unique idea and i like the storyline and detail, another thing is that i drew Teleport other on my first round which let me put one of the Tverious's into a cage Bad points: The door that cuddlepie is guarding needs some tweaking - if you dont attack and destroy the door then the skeletons cannot reach you - so as long as he stays there you dont have trouble from behind, another thing is that the map takes too long and i couldnt finish because i had to go somewhere, lastly if Mr. Jingles dies then you cant win.
The map is a little confusing because the arena gates have a heavy black border on one side and not the other, so it's hard to tell if they're supposed to be Blocking terrain or not. Since you want them Impassable, I suggest using some decals to cover that black line (check these palettes: Melvin, Icy, Water) and change the wall tiles so there's a black line between the wall and gate. If the tile with the book was changed to Open, then Idris could teleport allies next to the necromancer. Oh wait, Teleport Other pushes 3, so she can do that now if you're really careful.
Like i said i didnt get to that point because i had to leave, and anyway its almost impossible to get past the zombies not to say that if you lose one then you die and that there are x2 Tveriouses ready to finish you off when you get close to them and even if you get CLOSE to Alet then he makes you stay back with cave in and he has some good damage too, for example Powerful Bash - all i am saying is that the map is TOO hard, the last part is for both of you.
This is working as intended. Only one of your adventurers has crushing attacks, so three respawning skeletons reaching your party would make for a very bad time. Taken into consideration and implemented with the least out-of-place looking decals I could find. Thanks for the advice! Also, for anyone having trouble completing the scenario: Spoiler Consider the uses of Teleport Other here. The clever may realize you can reach the caged servant with it, allowing Cuddlepie some relief from his post at the door, and leaving a second cell open for who knows what!
A couple of comments, hopefully constructive. Fun generally seems to come from a balance between challenges and success. There's a really long stretch of wading through the zombies, who just get back up, and then down the stairs, and then down the hallway, where there's not really a lot for the player to do. Move one or two people, maybe hit a zombie, click pass repeatedly until Gary stops moving everything. The difficult terrain around the zombies adds to this, especially on the stairs. You get through to the stairs, and then don't even have a chance to sprint ahead of the zombies, since it's all difficult terrain. Then, even with Tvericusii locked up, you only have one square to teleport from to get across to Alet Zhav. I got the dwarf there, Mr. Jingles died to the zombies, but he took too much damage from the respawning skeleton and the lightning bolts, so even with armor, he died before he could kill Alet Zhav. I think the length ties in to the second flaw, it's too easy to lose because of the nearly scripted puzzle nature of the map. If you move Cuddlepie, you lose. If Alet Zhav decides to keep casting rockfall often enough and kills the mage, you lose. And if you lose near the end, or, at least when I lost near the end, I didn't want to go back and have to wade through the zombies for ten minutes or longer to try again. The length also makes it feel kind of like the map isn't sure what it wants to be, is it a rote puzzle map, like Melvelous and the Maze? It feels that way, because there's a lot of points where there's only one right move. But again, the slog through the zombies takes away from that, because it's long, and random, and doesn't have any opportunities for clever moves, especially since the zombies respawn every. single. turn. Is this here for a purpose besides making sure you have time to draw all the teleport others from the wizard? So, thoughts on improvements. Pick which way you want it to work, Isee two paths. First path: Make it into more of a puzzle based map. The zombies don't add anything much, especially with the difficult terrain, so maybe reduce their numbers or the respawn time. You could also enhance the puzzle aspects by moving Cuddlepie to not be next to the door, I think the player always goes first, so then the player could realize on their own that if they sit with his (or whoever's) zone of control by the door, the skeletons can't get out. That sort of thing Second path: Open up some more options. Reducing the repsawn time would allow for a little more freedom, since a desperate party could try and do something like kill one or both Tvericus, then dash to the finish before they respawn. On the same note, like Kalin said, some tweaks to allow teleporting over to Alet Zhav from more than one square would probably help. A few other tweaks to blocked and difficult terrain, which currently only allow one path, so there's at least a little bit of room to maneuver. Leave it so the player doesn't have to choreograph exactly one specific set of moves to win, but has some more options. Anyway, this got way too long, but hopefully it's helpful?
Yeah, those three characters don't have many cards to get over the difficult terrain, and the spot by the boulder with the zombies is a headache. It's a good-looking map, I'm looking forwards to see what else you can cook up.
I actually loved this! Very well-thought-out. Some of Bluemage's advice is good (I think not putting Cuddlepie next to the door at the beginning is a good idea—let the player figure that out). Dealing Tvericus is really cool, too—I whittled them both down with Idris so that when I was ready to go for the necromancer I could kill them that turn. And, given the difficult terrain created by Zone of Control, I do think you should drop the difficult terrain tiles around the zombies (but leave the stairs difficult - that's sweet). The map is a bit on the large side but honestly it's great. Thanks for the enjoyable scenario, @Xayrn!
Well, it took me long enough, but here it is. I updated the map with many of @Bluemage's suggestions in mind, and I'm quite happy with the results. The difficult terrain surrounding the zombies has been removed, and the previously empty cell now contains additional zombie spawn-points. Spoiler While this may at first seem like a difficulty increase, the new spawn points actually allow you to 'push' the zombies out of the way by killing them and having them respawn inside the cell. It also makes using it as a holding cell for Tvericus less trivial. Let me know what you guys think of the new version. As always, constructive feedback is greatly appreciated.
Honestly, that was more a side-effect of making the zombies more manageable than a calculated addition. I like the extra depth it brought to the level, though. It may take a little extra effort to get Tvericus in there now (you might need to wait a turn for a zombie to shuffle out), but once you do, he effectively stops the zombies from spawning down there. It also means that if you just shove him in there immediately, you'll have a harder time with the zombies upstairs.
Sorry it took so long, just got a chance to sit down and play this. Overall, I think it's much improved. No wading through the zombies as badly this time, I could usually actually make a move after I killed one. I managed to beat it, too, thanks to Cuddlepie topdecking an Almighty Hack and a chained Teleport Other to get him past the Tvericus that didn't move. Still hard, but getting rid of the zombie slog helped a lot, at least for me. Plus it gave the wizard in the cell more to do, instead of just pass and hold teleport other for the Tvericii.
Just played through it - I very much agree. I was quite challenged, and I enjoyed the feeling of mounting tension as I was forced to make interesting tactical decisions, especially later on in the match.
