New Quest: A Call For Heroes

[myrddin]

Here is a new order quest I have created, on a very detailed map, in sav format, turn one. Both the GS5 and unmodded versions are in the rar file to be posted. Here is a preview, the first two pages (of 18) of a book that sets the quest up.


I really think this is some of my better work, but let me know what you all think.

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[myrddin]

Here are the quests in two formats, and the first part of the quest book.

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[myrddin]

And here is the second part of the book. And a few hints here:

-In the long age of peace, the military buildings around your capital have fallen into disrepair, and the ignorant revelers in the capital and great temple are like to be plundered and slain by the ravaging marauders, emboldened by the return of darkness, before thou canst return home.
-In order that the brave warriors you seek shall join thee, it is meet that thou shouldst give mighty gifts unto the faiths with whom they dwell. Make speed, however, for even these great heroes may be lost.
-The great spell cast by your seer has drained his health. If you enter an encounter with him on turn 1, he will die. However, he will heal himself with time.
-You need a boat to get back to Archonia's Isle. You can either trade for one OR have one of the characters complete his quest to get one.
-If you are unsure of what to do, you may find guidance near the Order Great Temple.

All files are relatively small, but let me know if there are any issues with hosting them here.

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[Boaster]

Wow. I am impressed with the graphic there. That's very, very good.

[myrddin]

Well thanks. Plenty more where that came from though, if you wanna give the quest a spin sometime.

[myrddin]

Alright, here is a slightly improved version of both GS5 and unmodded quests after some playtesting:

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[myrddin]

(If you download the revised edition, be sure to download book 2 also)

And here are the victory files, including the quest map (but with all special quest encounters removed and suitable for multiplay). The password for the zip is the last name of the necromancer in Balkoth's army, all figures lowercase.

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[orzie]

Excellent. As I recall, I buffed Balkoth and his three champions insanely in that one, although some strong champions are available to the human player, and it's all over once you get the grail. How far in are you?

Well, at the moment I've got TONS of resources and plenty of experienced heroes, and now I'm up to get the Grail. (By the way, the Death Badass Castle has a niche to slip through for a flying unit, like Dragon - the thing is any flying unit will die) However, I consider Death Lords too powerful at the moment, because of their buffed magic resistance - whatever I tried, everything healed them. So I think I will find more cool artifacts and equip Galahad with them, buffing his attack to at least 50, I suppose.

It was a very long time to make it, but I consider this scenario as an advanced map, so when I have time and desire to play standard LOMSE, I load this quest. Adding some roleplays is sufficient too, just for fun.

[myrddin]

(By the way, the Death Badass Castle has a niche to slip through for a flying unit, like Dragon - the thing is any flying unit will die)

Do you mean in the front, or in some other area (there is supposed to be one in front, as the quest book says the fortress can be reached by flying units)? But yes, even the ice drake and 8 regular dragons probably wouldn't do much damage to Balkoth.

However, I consider Death Lords too powerful at the moment, because of their buffed magic resistance - whatever I tried, everything healed them.

I think the only one that is not completely magic resistant is the assassin, but that he has 75-ish% resistance.

If you haven't already done this, try to trade for the hero ranger unit (if he hasn't died), as thieves will be very useful in this quest.

Also, once you get the grail and bring it to Carbonek, you should be able to barter for another paladin who has very high death resistance (I think you can get him to 100% death resistance with the Shield of Vadalon's Brother, but it might only be 70-85%). He should be useful in the battles against Balkoth and the Lich (who both have tons of mana, I think).

[orzie]

Yeah, in the front. Well, if it was the plan, than okay
No, unfortunately I didn't even know about a hero Ranger, it's a big luck that I traded Galahad with his buffed Strength stat from Air forces (hehe, barter value didn't change, so it was rather cheap for that kind of champion).
I suppose that hero Ranger died miserably.

Also, Count Imnecharius was given to me automatically when I freed Water Temple. I thought than was the plan

[myrddin]

Yeah, in the front. Well, if it was the plan, than okay

I was originally planning to have Balkoth and an army of dragons that would periodically fly out and terrorize the country, then fly back when wounded (or just so the human player doesn't get destroyed too early ;D ), but that kind of editing goes beyond the scope of this quest attempt (if it's even possible).

I suppose that hero Ranger died miserably.

Maybe. With increased range, ranged attack and fire rate, he has a slightly above average chance of survival. I think he belongs to the life player: keep your eyes out for a ranger called Ansehhylm.

[orzie]

Life was the first faith to free its temple by me (it was on 7th or 8th turn). I think, he just disappeared.

Your plan is generally possible, but it can be realised only in in-game quests; scripts like these are used for Wyrm in Earth Quest and they are present in earth.gs, which is a scenario file. Pretty hard-coded, by the way.

[orzie]

I've acknowledged that you must rename your Sacred Knight to Sir Lancelot manually, otherwise you won't be allowed to enter Chapel of the Lances. This encounter has "Sir Lancelot" unit check, and GS5R3 default Legendary Knight name is inconsistent.

However, Arthur-Pridwen Shield is not an ultimate shield at all, so who cares

[myrddin]

True enough. I prenamed most of the units (Arthur, Galahad), such that their artifacts would work with them, but I forgot about Lancelot, who must be trained later in the game.

[icedwrath7]

A new original quest is a dream come true. While playing yours though, I have come across a problem. When a lord dies and the Balkoth movies play, there is no continue button to click to go on with the quest. I had to alt F4 out of it.

Would the blank .smk files fix this? If the movies do not play though, how will I know a lord has died? Through a dialogue box with a continue button, I hope.

Is there any other way (hotkey) to get the movie panel to close?

I was so into this quest, it is immersive and immensely enjoyable. I had just killed Fafnir and that traitor Regin.

I was using the GS5 version.

Thanks.

[orzie]

Hmm, that's very strange for Lord to die so early.
Which turn did the lord die? I may try to reproduce the situation.

[icedwrath7]

IIRC, it was only around Turn 35 - 40 - something like that.

[orzie]

Well, when other Lord dies, the standard window with OK button is shown for me and everything is okay. I really don't know why you have got a window without any buttons (and I never had it when I played this quest myself up to turn 200), but it is hardly explainable and fixable in savegame hexed quests (that's their disadvantage, as they are created by post-hexing already existing games instead of scripting from the beginning).

If you will place blank smk files, the window with the button will still appear, it just will contain nothing (black screen).

I'm sorry, but I do not know how to interrupt a window, there is no key (Quest Scroll which causes game crash in Malice Immortal can be closed by Esc button). The hotkey can be written into the game by direct scripting, but I'm not sure if it is a high priority thing for Boaster.

[myrddin]

A new original quest is a dream come true. While playing yours though, I have come across a problem. When a lord dies and the Balkoth movies play, there is no continue button to click to go on with the quest. I had to alt F4 out of it.

Would the blank .smk files fix this? If the movies do not play though, how will I know a lord has died? Through a dialogue box with a continue button, I hope.

Is there any other way (hotkey) to get the movie panel to close?

I was so into this quest, it is immersive and immensely enjoyable. I had just killed Fafnir and that traitor Regin.

I was using the GS5 version.

Thanks.

First off, thanks for playing the quest. And, to make a plug for my usual advertisement, stay tuned for some professional, polished, in depth quests that significantly outstrip the capabilities of these hex-quests (which are still fun, and I play them from time to time). Orzie has one to be completed probably fairly soon, and I have a large back-burner project that I believe you will find interesting when it is finished.

But on to the issue, with a quote from orzie and commentary by me to explain exactly what the deal is:

I really don't know why you have got a window without any buttons (and I never had it when I played this quest myself up to turn 200), but it is hardly explainable and fixable in savegame hexed quests (that's their disadvantage, as they are created by post-hexing already existing games instead of scripting from the beginning).

So as explained above, a hexed quest is merely a normal game with altered data. Hence, everything that has been altered can be "un-altered," or replaced back to the original, such that there is no persistent problem that cannot be fixed unless it is a symptom of problems within the larger game (i.e. unrelated to hex-editing or a specific quest). I acknowledge that the injection of certain quest material, such as the objectives scroll in Malice Immortal, has been known to cause minor issues, but this can of course be removed to fix them. I am willing to wager that the problem you are experiencing is not unique to the quest (hence is not caused by it), as I have not had this problem playing the unmodded version, nor has Orzie with the GS5 version.

However, I HAVE experienced, I think, such a problem as you refer to, in other situations. It happens occasionally that when a lord dies, the video appears, surrounded with black, and no buttons are visible. This is a graphical oddity that I believe can be solved by minimizing, reloading, and moving the mouse around in the area where the continue/restart/exit buttons should be. The surrounding black will clear up and reveal the buttons (odd, it's true), at least, if the problem, you mention is the same that I have experienced. If you find that this is not the case, I would be glad to look at the savegame file, and there is a decent possibility that I can hex this problem out of existence, inasmuch as it is not a problem of the game at large. I have sent you a PM with my email if you wish to send me the file.


And to respond to an older post, which I did not fully realize at the time:

Also, Count Imnecharius was given to me automatically when I freed Water Temple. I thought than was the plan

Given that I do not know how army portioning for faith liberation works, much less where this data would be in a savegame file, if it all, the original idea was to gain each of the three champions before any one of the faiths was killed or liberated. This, at least, is a sure-fire way to make sure that they are not lost by random selection of units assigned to the liberating human player upon capture of the temple (the remainder being discarded). However, you have shown that there is still a good chance that players may gain the heroes in this way. This was not intended by me, but it works out nicely all the same. My hunch is that units with higher barter values (especially units that have been buffed extensively) are more likely to be transferred, hence your experience, but I may be wrong. The life ranger, though powerful, was not buffed as extensively as Galahad or the Count.

[orzie]

Well, Ranger Lord was not given to me instead when I freed the Life Temple (turn 10-15 I suppose), I even did not know about his existence.
Generally, it is possible just to retake the temple again and again using reloading in order to get better "faith spoils", as they vary nicely.
Well, at least Icedwrath knows about bonus champions now