Seeking Playtesters for Dungeon 3.0

November 9, 1999, 16:27

The new version of my Dungeon scenario features some new heroes, a complete sounds directory, a bit of new art, and some new quests and events to thwart your heroes. It runs under Fantastic Worlds.

I am seeking reliable, speedy playtesters to search for bugs and suggest improvements. I have already implemented most of the suggestions from the various reviews of version 2.0, and much more.

Ideas for new events/quests you'd like to see are also welcomed (here in this thread).

William Keenan · November 9, 1999, 17:14

I think that Beckthron would be an excellent canidate for upgrade to ToT.

mrtemba · November 9, 1999, 19:21

ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME

November 10, 1999, 02:57

Well, William, I'm thinking about doing a sequel in ToT, but it would be pretty far down my priority list.

My next scenario project after version 3.0 of Dungeon will be to finish "Heaven and Hell" in ToT. After that, I want to return to my Martin Luther King scenario and try to get it ready.

Saint Marcus · November 10, 1999, 03:58

Blackclove, could you please send it to me? I really loved the first Heroes...

Miner · November 10, 1999, 08:50

Please Please Please Please Please
Please Please Please Pretty Please with a massive cherry on top

I know I've not reveiwed anything before but I will give it my best shot, I LOVED the earlier version!

I hope Nuclear Fission is enabled so Armaggedon Spells can be built and no units have a HP/FP of 0 (this caused Civ to GPF on me last time until I scanned rules.txt)

November 10, 1999, 17:16

I fixed all of the FP/HP 0 bugs I think, and I also removed armageddon because of the problem with global warming (it creates lots of buildings everywhere). I replaced it with the firestorm spell. Essentially all the problems noted by the reviewers have been fixed, and some that weren't spotted.

This is not a for-review scenario yet. I'm just seeking people to test it out and look for problems, make suggestions, and so on. It'll probably go up for official review in December, after the playtesting period is over.

I'll add you to the playtester list.

Miner · November 11, 1999, 07:11

I cannot say thankyou enough!
I thought that pollution could be disabled in a scenario?

November 11, 1999, 14:21

Well, Miner, hopefully soon I'll be thanking you for your helpful comments! Expect it some time this weekend. It's huge, so I may set up a download link and just email the secret URL.

As for pollution, you can turn it off but nukes still produce it. That means you can get a lot of global warming if you start casting loads of Armageddons.

I'm trying to decide now how to use airbases. I thought of two ideas:

a) "Wizard Towers" that extend the range of your wizards by allowing spells to be shuttled to them; add a house rule that spells can't be used to strike unless launched from a wizard.

b) Treasure Chests. Two units - chest (has defense of 2-3 for the "trap"), and treasure (has defense of 1). On an airbase square, you could kill the chest and it would leave the gold unit visible

Both units would have a move of 0, so they could be stacked and the chest would always be on top (I think). I'd just make the airbase a transparent thing so you can't see it, and it would have no real effect except on spells. The reason you need the airbase here is that it functions like a fortress, preventing units from all dying after an attack. If I don't do this, I may make a "treasure civilization" that is allied with the monsters. It would have cities that look like treasure chests, and units that look like gold. Killing their units (which are always in cities) would result in a gold bonus.

Any opinions?

Saint Marcus · November 11, 1999, 15:21

If you build a sloar plant in every (or most) city then global warming will never occur no matter how much pollutio there is. Just make a houserule never to sell the solar plant improvement.

Miner · November 12, 1999, 08:28

I prefer the Treasure Chest idea, as I dislike 'house rules'. In fact I think this is a great idea. The only drawback is after the units have been killed the icon, being transparent, would be obviously hard to spot. (you would have to have View mode on and scan for them, checking each square individually) So there you are, moving your fireballs to a Wizard in distress and
"hey! my (insert swearword here) spells have stopped moving!!!" 'cos you've moved them accidentally onto a treasure chest. But thats a minor quibble.

Marks' suggestion about Solar Plants is one I was going to suggest (rats! beaten again!). All cities could start with them, to encourage building them in any new cities the build cost would have to be really low - this would also discourage selling as you would get less money for them.
Renaming them to something like "Infernal Heat Sink" or "Cooling Waters" or something equally Fantasy-like.
[This message has been edited by Miner (edited November 12, 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Miner (edited November 12, 1999).]

Miner · November 12, 1999, 08:33

On second thoughts, using the extra Civ for Treasure would probably be best. I suggest the Barbarians, as I think you used all the available Civs.

Miner · November 12, 1999, 08:40

Actually, for the Treasure Chest idea, to avoid them cluttering up the dungeon, does CHANGETERRAIN destroy improvements? If so, when the Treasure is 'destroyed' a simple unitkilled trigger and change the terrain under that square to something else, removing the airbase. In fact changing the terrain to itself might work. Hmmm.

On a roll here.

mrtemba · November 12, 1999, 15:21

i don't think barbarians are appropriate for the treasure, an extra civ would be better because you could then set it allied to all the monsters, know what i'm sayin? or if all the monsters are allied just make them monster units.

November 12, 1999, 15:56

Yeah, I think I'm going to use the extra civ ("chinese") for the treasure and captives. The only units they can build are treasures. They need to be allied with the monsters to avoid the monsters killing all the treasures, as Temba noted.

Alright, then, airbases are wizard towers. I think the wizards need some kind of help to make them useful adventurers anyway. Right now it's simply too hard to get your spells in play. I end up relying exclusively on fighter units.

November 15, 1999, 22:38

I ended up having to redo the scenario layout from scratch (and made one mistake that would be super time-consuming to fix, but hopefully no one will notice it too much). I also had less time this weekend to work on it than I'd hoped.

It should be sent out some time tomorrow. I have a few minor graphics things to do and a few more events to quietly add in to the scenario, but the civilizations are all set up properly now and "know" the right amount about different areas.