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Author |
File Description |
Storm Saxon |
Posted on 06/09/11 @ 08:39 PM (updated 06/13/11)
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Mix |
Number of players: |
4 |
Screenshot:
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The Hour of Teridar
"Should the world stand to fall, who will answer the clarion's call? Let shields be locked, let weapons ring, let spears be thrown and longbows sing. When the borders burn at the end of it all, who will answer the clarion's call?" -Extract from 'The Clarion's Call', an old Imperix war hymn.
The Hour of Teridar is a four player custom scenario, that takes advantage of the EEE mod by BF_Tanks. The four kingdoms of Teridar are under threat from hordes from the North. The four factions must work together to fight against these invaders, least Teridar be thrown in darkness.
FEATURES:
-an expertly designed map, with lots of eye candy.
-the EEE mod (required download provided below) by Tanks_fst
http://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/showfile.php?fileid=9994
-re-spawning resources, making control over gold and ore sites that much more important!
-four factions each with their own unique unites, story and play style. (see below)
- a challenging fight that will keep you on your toes
-the ultimate co-operative game, play with friends of AI
-custom music for atmosphere and fun!
The World Of Teridar
Teridar was once host to the all encompassing Empire of Imperix. The Imperix once held the entire world before the great fall known as the Cataclysm. It still largely unknown as the nature of this fall, as all records have been erased. Yet to this day, ruins of the Imperix can be seen scattered across the landscape, testament to the old Empire's glory.
The Peace Of Teridar
Teridar is home to many different cultures and creeds. In the early years, there was great fighting between The Holy Empire and the Sultanate. After the first great war which saw both sides devastated, a treaty was created known as "The Peace Of Teridar". This saw a unity between the two Kingdoms towards a peaceful future. The Tsurugi and the Republic would later join this, strengthening the pact.
The Holy Empire Of Britannia
The Holy Empire of Britannia is the major super power in the Teridar. The Empire rules from the city of Pendragon, built over an ancient Imperix city. The ruling family are the Britannians, who maintain the values of Chivalry and Knighthood.
The Holy Empire of Britannia relies on Cavalry and Heavy Infantry to fight it's battles.
FACTION BONUS: Taxes. The Empire periodically gains resources from taxes.
The Republic Of Calgaria
Despite only recently having ceded itself peacefully from the Britannian Empire, the Republic is expanding quickly under President Hightower. The Republic advocates democracy and technology, maintaining the first and only handgun units in Teridar.
The Republic rely on handcannons and guns to fight it's battles.
FACTION BONUS: Medicine. Units across the map gain periodic health boosts (Stacks)
The Kingdom Of Tsurugi
The ancient Kingdom of Tsurugi is only a small bastion of a once great sea-faring nation The Empire Of The Rising Star. Once controlling the entire far East of the world, the Empire was struck suddenly by a horrific plauge. Millions died and with them the Empire died too. The last remnants fled over the sea under Shogun Onakawa and founded the Kingdom of Tsurugi off the Teridan coast, seeking to rebuild thier lost society.
The Tsurugi rely on naval power and heavy infantry.
FACTION BONUS: Trade. The Tsurugi periodically gain gold and in adition have sight across the sea.
The Sultanate Of the South
The Sultanate is one of the oldest civilizations in the world with borders stretching far south into the Aridian desert. It includes many barbaric tribes and races which make up the Sultanate. From this, they still maintain an anceint military, boasting one of the largest armies in the known world. Under the leadership of Sultan Judan, they pursue peace through power.
The Southrons rely on cavalry.
FACTION BONUS: Superior Training. Units gain periodic attack bonuses. (Stacks)
General Notes.
-All heroes gain a periodic health or attack bonus.
Set four four players, fight against hordes of enemies. Player 5 and 6 to Huns diffculty between moderate and hard. Together you stand, divided you fall. Credit to Tanks_fst for EEE mod.
Reviews/criticism is/welcome and appreciated! |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Mash (id: Mashek)
Staff
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 06/20/11 @ 01:45 AM
'The Hour of Teridar' is a four player multiplayer scenario, and as one of four kingdoms of the fictitious land of Teridar you must hold out from the northern onslaught soon to trample across your country's borders. Team work and quick-thinking is mandatory here and you can expect to be over-run if you fail to take hold of some of the game's complimentary mechanics.
Despite presenting an overall unique experience and loads of potential fun, I felt the multiplayer scenario is still in need of a few adjustments in game play and further balancing to be fully realised, which I will explain more on below.
The file utilises the EEE mod by Tanks_FST to function properly, which you can download separately by a quick search through the Blacksmith search function.
PLAYABILITY: For the most, this multiplayer scenario offers some unique gaming experience, and it's a rare change from all those Blood maps you see so often these days. Playing as one of the four kingdoms of Teridar you have just a few minutes spare under your belt, and one way or another you must hasten your country's defence, in preparation for the looming conflict. There are few strategic choke points along the rivers present in the design's features and further north a series of mountain passes into the wasteland the enemy horde known only as 'the Dark Raiders' are surely to advance through. Will you choose to defend from the rivers few but strategically important crossings and withdraw your economy south into the shadow of your capital's walls? Or will you make your stand at the mouth of hell and fortify your kingdom's borders in a dubious attempt to halt what numbers come your way? After a little while, the enemy horde comes as a series of mobile waves, comprising mainly of tarkans and horse archers (and later other units), seeking to devour everything in their path. As an experienced player, I invested heavily in spearmen, supported by the heavier troops given to me at the start of the game. Out-manned and out-manoeuvred, the defence of Teridar's northern borders thus becomes a series of rear-guard actions as I looked to defending the main part of my kingdom. What is initially challenging however becomes lack-lustre as the enemy AI side-steps my military force and becomes concerned more with poorly-planned raids on abandoned houses and farms, only to be cut-up from behind by my troops. On a few occasions, the enemy actually breached my lines and started raiding some of my more important farming communities, but after some quick mopping up realised by this time the enemy was all but spent. At about this time, my allies recovered from a slow start and I begin to receive help as over a hundred troops join my ranks. We up the ante and take the fight to the enemy, who has recently settled in the northern wasteland and called it home. Time is only a barrier and the game is won after some fighting. I couldn't help thinking that a number of underlying issues led my experience from being such a potentially but anti-climactic game. Still I fail to see the purpose of employing Tansk_FST's EEE mod, if only to include a few non-selectable buildings here and there, but which could be achieved with little problem from the vanilla editor. 4.0-
BALANCE: Multiplayer scenarios are rated rather differently to single player scenarios and we rate according to the balance in the set-up of human player starting positions than in actual personal experience. To be fair, I felt most starting positions fluctuated, with some players containing good starting strong points as well as plenty of troops, while others with less. While you could certainly argue that the more well-manned teams begin in the forefront where the fighting is likely to take place first and that the less well off teams in the background will have time on their side to build up and come to their allies' aid. I still feel this needs further thought and there is much here the author of the file can do to balance the scenario more but also in a way that is exciting for players to work with. 3.0
CREATIVITY: With unique game play the scenario features some nice individual touches, such as the various bonuses each kingdom receives throughout the game. The 'Empire of Britannia' receives regular taxes during play, such as food, wood and gold, while the 'Sultanate of the South' benefits from an attack point bonus for its fighting men. While there was an abundance of renaming, I could have sworn the author of the file just wrote down what sound or word came to his head in most cases, but on the whole the file maintains a nice atmosphere with the background story, and the idea is as far as I know unique to a multiplayer scenario. There is enough here to satisfy gamers but overall lacking in that extra mile of detail to really set it apart from other multiplayer scenarios. 4.0
MAP DESIGN: It's nice to see a large map of this calibre for a change, especially for a multiplayer scenario where designers seem to be less willing to fill in all that open space, but the author of this file manages this well. I didn't find the map expertly-designed as described above but the map design works well and for the most looks good. There is plenty here to look at and the design's technical qualities, such as rivers and mountain passes that act as 'choke-points', enhance game play notably. With that said, I could still see a little more detail being worked around the map, particularly with the players' cities. 4.0
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: It's not every time sifting through a multiplayer map that you find such attention to detail in this part of a design, but when you do it's usually well thought of and interesting, such as this. There is much here such as the background history to each kingdom to set the players up but also a few things occurring in-game to keep things moving, as well as plenty of details on the game mechanics. There were a few parts however where I thought a little overall polishing would have benefited this category even more, and names like 'the Empire of Britannia' and 'Charles Zi Britannia' need rethinking, as well as many other units besides. Don't just name a unit for the sake of naming it, but give each individual unit a well thought out name that not only suits the country they belong to but that also compliments the look and feel of the game. 5.0-
SUGGESTIONS: The difficulty, or rather lack thereof, presented in this scenario is the file's definite weak point and I could see the problem remedied after a final update. Below are just a few of my thoughts that I would like you to consider:
1. Give each player a population limit of somewhere around 100, if not less. This will not only force the player to really ponder on what to use valuable population points on but also to work together with other players to stand against the enemy horde. Currently, it's four players with the capacity of fielding 800 men against a force of only 400. At 100 per human player, that's 400 versus 400, making for an evenly-matched and far more challenging game.
2. It's a hassle having to set up modified data files as it is and as I see very little reason why the EEE mod is needed at all in a multiplayer scenario; might it be possible to ditch it? I see you have used towers that cannot be selected from the mod, but simply using those same towers from another player and using the change ownership effect to GAIA will work just as well. Extending the maximum hit points of those buildings will prevent them from being demolished.
3. As someone said before me, the Spanish are perhaps too strong to feature as a civilisation in this game, if played correctly. It might be better if you changed them to another non-gun powder civilisation to make it harder on the players to hold off the enemy.
4. Why not make a few countries start off in Feudal Age? The distance red, yellow and green players each have from the enemy's starting location, with exceptions to the blue player, is considerable and the time they each have here should allow those teams some time to upgrade and support their allies. This not only gives the players a precarious starting position but also means each player must learn to work with the different strengths and weaknesses present in the game if they are to win the game.
5. Search through the Blacksmith for another custom AI. There are plenty of good, challenging AIs, many of them submitted in the last year or so. This might help the enemy to become a little more challenging than what it already is.
CONCLUSION: While lacking in a few areas that fail to make a more complete experience for players, 'the Hour of Teridar' is undoubtedly a fun and unique gaming experience, and I will be looking forward to any future update that may come.
In a sentence - A potentially challenging and fun multiplayer experience.
In closing - Interests you? Then I highly-recommend this download.[Edited on 09/29/16 @ 04:33 AM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.0 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.0 | Balance | 3.0 | Creativity | 4.0 | Map Design | 4.0 | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 723 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 8.66 MB |
Added: | 06/09/11 |
Updated: | 06/13/11 |
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