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Ocean Blue - I - The Beginning
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Author |
File Description |
Hawk_DaghT |
Posted on 01/25/09 @ 02:34 AM (updated 02/10/09)
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Mix |
Number of scenarios: |
2 |
Screenshot:
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Four years, it comes. Beginning in August, 2004, even earlier than another work of mine, Robin Hood, which got a 4.4 here, this work was finally completed in September, 2007. And now, at last, it is here, translated.
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Arrows rained, swords broken, steeds crying and blood running into rivers, there is a fierce fight between a powerful empire and three small kingdoms. Who will be the winners? And why do they taste the tears?
Now, it is time to begin the first page of Plato¡¯s scroll, which tells a tale of a great age and great heroes...
Version:2.0 (English 1.1)
Features:
- Three years' hard work, containing 1200 triggers.
- The game is totally different between any two Difficulty Levels. Three levels, three games.
- Various tasks. You will hardly get bored.
- Fierce battles. Hit Points of units are heightened so that fighting can last longer.
- Survival soldiers of almost every task will go into latter battles.
- You are able to skip past some cut-scenes. It's a favor for the players who replay.
- Targets are marked on the Mini-map.
- Specialized AI files.
- Picked and splendid music.
- Experienced map designing. BTW, some of the pictures which won prizes in the 2007 Annual Screenshots Competition were from this campaign. :)
- ...
ATTENTION: Only Age of Empires II: the Conquerors 1.0 and 1.0c version prove available. Please do NOT use any custom Mod to play this game, or you might not be able to pass a certain point.
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THANKS TO:
Tanneur99, in his review on Robin Hood, another work of mine, he gave me a lot of constructive suggestions. Especially those about difficulty level really helped me a lot. And that's why you will find out obvious differences everywhere in the game between any two difficulty levels.
Anastasia, she helps me solve a castle eyesight problem.
San Mao, he found a sound for me.
Minifox, he recommended a piece of AOE 3 music to me.
Haowan, Sisijiyi, Jiangnanhuanzu and others who gave me useful suggestions for the update of this game.
My team, Hawk Studio, without their support, this work will never be completed.
At last, thanks to all the players of my game. Your support and expectation give me motivity.
PLAYTESTERS:
Chinese Version 2.0: Jiangnanhuanzu
English Version 1.0:Hawk_Xiaozhi, Hawk_Tout
TRANSLATING:
Though most translating is done by myself, some of my friends did help me a lot. And they are:
Julius999, as a native speaker, he helped me improve the translation of Hints, Scenario Instructions, the aftermath section, Objectives and so on, so that the update of English version 1.1 is now done.
Hawk_FengXiaoyao, whom I consulted day and night, and who went over lots of translation.
Scenario_t_c, my teammate, who helped me with some most difficult sentences for me.
Jiuwangsun, our vice-leader, who gave me wonderful suggestions about translating the name of this game.
qs, our team leader, who also gave me a lot of help, especially when I translated the Prologue.
Hawk_Nick, who helped me go over the translation of Victory information.
Bunny, my classmate, who helped me translate the scenario instructions and inspired me translating.
Danyang Li, my schoolmate, who helped me with the Victory information.
Betty, my aunt, to whom I turned a lot.
Many many thanks to them!
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Though I do have tried my best to do the translation, you know I¡¯m not a native speaker nor a student of English, so there tends to be confusing sentences or translating errors. Tell me if you find some anyway.;J
I really treasure views from you players. Comments and reviews are welcome - Feel free to tell me what you think!
And if you have any problem or suggestion about this game or the translation, just let me know. Thanks!:)
Besides this website, you may also contact me through E-mail: Daght@126.com
And if you can understand Chinese, welcome to our website: www.HawkAoC.net
And at last¡
Enjoy!
Hawk_Daght from Hawk Studio
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Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Jatayu (id: Sword_of_STORM)
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 02/14/09 @ 04:39 AM
'Ocean Blue 1' is a mixed style campaign in which you play on the side of three kingdoms who must work together to defeat a powerful enemy. In this campaign you control different factions in a strategic manner to defeat the enemy.
Playability: 5+
A great campaign, one of very few in which I felt that I was using military strategies that were tactically sound, eg. not engaging in battle when unnecessary, crossing over from the riverside camp, attacking from various different fronts etc. The battles were great and just enough difficult to be challenging and not frustrating. Unlike many other campaigns I always knew where my heroes were and what they were doing. All the battles felt that they were accomplishing a mission goal, rather than just killing enemies for the sake of it.
The cutscenes were good too and there was a good soundtrack always playing in the background. I didn't encounter any bugs whatsoever. A definite 5 here, it was really enjoyable.
Balance: 5
I played this game on 'moderate' difficulty level and it was just hard enough to be challenging yet not frustrating. For each battle I had to reload a few times to conserve soldiers, for example in the seige of Atle I was finally left with only the general, 2 teutonic knights and a scorpion ( and it was funny to see this group attacking in the end and King Lynchard calling it an attack by the Atlians ). Units had increased HP and attack but only a little, so that battles lasted longer and heroes had balanced HP/attack. The relic sidequest was rather hard though, I couldn't do it without marco-polo. In every battle you had to think about counter units and strategies and not simply rush into the battle.
Creativity: 5
The campaign was quite creative, there were many new tricks like the attackable rock and capturing the castle when it was damaged enough. But what I found the most original was the military strategy of both sides- the Olican 'capture the warships and beseige Atle by land and sea' to defeat the kingdoms one by one in their lighting attack taking advantage of the mountains between the 2 kingdoms- genious! And the 3 kings plans- bringing reinforcements by sea and then staying behind to guard the camp from scouts- equally genious! The style of this campaign is quite unique and the selection of background music is great. Full marks here too.
Map Design: 5
A great map, with strategic mountain ranges, cliffs, bridges, etc. which all had an important effect on the gameplay. The terrain blending and placement of units were very well done, especially with the units patrolling in formation many times. There was good eye candy and no overuse of it. Much better than a random map and certainly merits a 5. However there could have been a few more fields and villagers to talk to, you did not get to speak to almost any civilians.
Story/Instructions: 4
The instructions were all very clear and detailed and there was a hints and history section too. The story was very good - a familiar tale of kings uniting to defeat the outsider - but it wasn't that moving ( we didn't get to know any of the characters ) and had too many loose ends that were not explained. For example the Socrates and Plato thing- where did it fit in? The sacred relic quest thing- what was the point of that, it wasn't mentioned later and just seemed like a pointless mission for a player to do something. Maybe it could have had a magical power ? Then the Olican swords which were supposed to be very strong or something.. but we never saw that either after the cutscene. Assassination of the King- after the battle ?? Would it not make more sense to assassinate him during the battle, or have him die fighting? Maybe these could be answered in a sequel campaign but the story on its own doesn't stand all that well, so I am giving it a 4.
Additional Comments:
A great campaign, don't miss this. I highly recommend downloading.
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Ilmarinen (id: Cilibinarii) |
Posted on 11/28/09 @ 01:00 PM
PLAYABILITY: 5
The greatest work I have played since Ulio. This game was one of constant action, challenge and all set in a vivid environment. Throughout the intro and the actual fighting scenario there was no moment of boredom, everything was good about this map. The design, the story, the tricks and various, quite novel challenges, the battles... no bugs, in short deserving a big fat 5.
BALANCE: 5
Nuff said. Everything was perfectly balanced for me and I got exactly what I wanted at every difficulty level.
CREATIVITY: 5
Where shall I start..? First of all, the missions were all very novel and even if they'd been done before they were presented in a new way at least. I liked the way you controlled various storylines at a certain points, where you for example one moment were taking out the riverside Olican camp, the other moment defending the city and next to that the distraction of catching scouts... just loved it, I've never seen anything like this before!
MAP DESIGN: 5
The map design was great and gave a natural feeling. It had everything - terrain mixing that deserves the highest praise, realistic design of cities and rivers and the countryside and good use of eyecandy while not overdoing it. In short, it resembles nature in a very... natural way, it's just so realistic...! I am speechless.
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: 5
The story was great. I am not quite sure how to bring this - it combined fantasy with real elements by using an all-overshadowing story set in Athens which could be true easy enough, while the main story is set in a fantastic land somewhere far beyond our recollection. The twists in the story were quite pleasant too, and apart from that I actually don't know what else to say...? Oh, the instructions, they were adequate, if not OVERadequate at times ;) They were more than sufficient.
Additional Comments:
Good work, too bad it is not generally recognised as being the epic it is. Recommended download- DEFINATELY. |
WildCardDoW |
Posted on 02/07/13 @ 08:33 PM
Ocean Blue is a fantasy epic, we are told the story by Plato, the introduction cutscene is well done, a clever use of units to tell the story. The story involves a number of kingdoms, Olican the aggressor in the tale has conquered much of the known world, they move upon the remaining kingdoms, Atle and Lantis. The player takes the role of Poyton who is tasked with warning Lantis of the coming invasion. The style of the game is mostly FF, though the start of the game mixes in some RPG elements.
Playability: 4
The escape from Atle to Lantis is a great moment, with some clever trigger work. From there we must “capture” a relic, bring the royal Lantisian Knights to raid a riverside camp. During this part of the game the player must be concerned with enemies who will warn the main camp of your involvement. The defense of Atle is a well-designed moment with more units added during the battle, the player is required to defend three points and moving from point to point can be tricky! Each moment of the game is well designed and very enjoyable, we move quickly from moment to moment! To say there’s never a dull moment would be an understatement, we are constantly adjusting out play style to the game. Certain parts of the game are less challenging more of a case where the player must learn an optimum tactic to win, this hurts the enjoyment, even if these scenes are done quite well.
Balance: 5
Each section of the game is well balanced and requires the player to test a number of different strategies to find the one the best suits, on standard a nice scene plays out involving an assassination attempt which greatly helps the raid. I found myself a number of times due to poor tactic choices or lazy micromanagement which is good to see in this style of a game. The defense of Atle is a real challenge and requires the player to think on their feet (or is that fingers?) to adjust to the enemy attacks. The final defense took me a number of turns to complete as I kept losing too many units to make it worthwhile to continue, I've never micromanaged so much in my life!
Map Design: 5
Lovely map design, from sea cliffs to destroyed towns and on. There’s a great use of elevation and terrain mixture to keep the map fresh and pleasing, everything feels populated and alive! The standout areas are the path to one of the camps (including the cliffs) and the enemy encampment. The designer has managed to evoke a sense around Atle that it is under siege.
Creativity: 5
Easily the strongest part of the design, from destroying rocks to clear a path to the very objectives themselves the whole design is very creative, we have to admire some of the effort that has gone intro the trigger work to make everything work so well. We are presented with some well-designed moments including a horse stampede which the player can be involved in and the use of optional cut-scenes. Another nice touch was the use of the cliffs to increase the player’s view of the area.
Story / Instructions: 5
The story itself is straightforward, and there are some translation issues but the presentation and the way the story is handled is done well, we move from scene to scene and the events are pieced together by the designer that make it all quite entertaining. The opening cut-scene scenario sets the scene and presents some interesting commentary from Socrates et al. In terms of instructions the player is clearly indicated on the mini map as to where they are supposed to go and there are plenty of hints for those that need them. In one moment when we march from Lantis a bell rings and we see the villagers stop their work and move to grab their weapons, it’s nicely done and set’s the mood for the player.
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.9 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.7 | Balance | 5.0 | Creativity | 5.0 | Map Design | 5.0 | Story/Instructions | 4.7 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 8,129 |
Favorites: [] | 14 |
Size: | 6.54 MB |
Added: | 01/25/09 |
Updated: | 02/10/09 |
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