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View Full Version : The Kasabian Campaign - Episode 1



Skarok
June 22nd, 2013, 22:13
I've worked quite a few months on these maps, and now I can finally release it; The Kasabian Campaign! Utilizing brand new patch values this fully fledged campaign let's you take on dozens of deadly and actually competent AI's as the Keeper Kasabian. These maps can get quite hard and most Keepers are above anything you'll have faced before, even the strongest AI's in the vanilla campaign, so I'd advise you to play a few of those as warm-up first before attempting this campaign. Furthermore, these maps are strictly for version 1.3 - 1.51 and its competent AI, I won't port this to 1.7, simply because it is pointless with the current state of the Keeper AI there. Also, it would be an advantage if you would set the game speed to 150% in the Skirmish menu before playing these maps. They were all tested with this game speed and the pacing in general will be a lot better.



The Kasabian Campaign - Episode One


General Information

These maps use a new, different Balancing system compared to the one you're used to. Furthermore all of these maps need to be run by the commando line, no exceptions. I'll include a tutorial for that as soon as I can if someone doesn't know how to do that. Currently this campaign has 22 full levels plus 1 Secret Realm, though mind you, this is only Episode One of the story. They're supposed to be played in order, so you don't get a drastically increase in difficulty all of the sudden, but in the end it is up to you I guess. Each level has its own description and some images included. I'll put the Thumbnails in Spoiler tags too, because I'd advise you to play these levels without looking at them. It'd take some mystery away from the realms when you know the general layout beforehand, but feel free to look if you want to do so.

Aside from that I'd advise you to actually read the descriptions of the maps below, the story messages there will often give you hints to what you're up against and should be taken into consideration when playing the maps. This campaign follows a Spin-Off from the normal DKII story; Here Lord Pureheart actually managed to defeat Keeper Malice (aka, you in the official campaign) in Stonekeep, and Nemesis has supposedly been killed by the three Princes. You'll delve into parts of Harmonia at times, but most of the time you will fight behind or at the borders of the Kingdom since as Keeper Kasabian you'll fight with a few different goals. Aside from that, have fun! :D

Also, I'm always open to criticism and suggestions. ; )

The Download Link is further down, btw.


Campaign Overview

Story Arch:

So Keeper, you've finally returned? It seems like in the end, you defied the Dark Gods to follow your rightful path of destruction once more! So be it. A lot has changed in the last few years and I'm sure you'd like to get a detailed report of what events have recently taken place. The nearby Kingdom of the Heroes, Harmonia, became the target of a few lesser Keepers, as well as two powerful ones - Malice and Nemesis. Even though word has reached the rest of us that their attempts at taking the kingdom for their own were fruitless, it has caused a major uprising. Keepers from all around the underworld suddenly became interested in making their ways to the overworld and all come forth to invade Harmonia now. We even got word that Grand Keepers like Hades, Prometheus or Leviathan are leaving their imperturbable empires to claim Harmonia for their own. I am sure you still remember them from your last encounter.

It is kind of ironic, this massive wave of Keepers heading for the same place at the same time, something that almost never happened in history, marks the moment of your return. I'd say it was the will of the Dark Gods, but since you challenged them personally and defied their wills that thought is almost laughable. Still, you escaped their wrath so it looks like maybe someone has your back and your soul isn't as lost as it would have seemed. Either way, the time has come for the Butcher to return; for the slaughtering to continue, for the Keeper population to drop drastically once again! May every Keeper tremble in fear again because their merciless slaughterer, Keeper Kasabian has revealed himself again!



Your Rivals



Grand Keepers:

These mighty Keepers rose above anything else in the Underworld, only the Dark Gods and their chosen Champions rival them. They can slaughter entire kingdoms on their own and fear no threat from ordinary Keepers. Aside from you there are only the Keepers Leviathan, Charon, Prometheus and Hades that have reached this status.

Master Keepers:

Master Keepers are ruthless overlords that have proven their strength in countless battles against formidable opponents. Do not underestimate them, for they stand way above their incompetent brethren. As off now several Master Keepers are heading for Harmonia.

Greater Keepers:

Even though Greater Keepers might not be as capable as Master Keepers, they can be a serious threat, especially if they're allowed to form alliances. Lots of these fools are heading for Harmonia, hoping to achieve in what Malice and Nemesis failed. The amount of these Keepers is really massive, but I'm sure that'll change once your work is done here...

Stalwart Keepers:

Stalwart Keepers are no fools. They know what they are doing but are no more than an annoyance to their superior brethren.

Lesser Keepers:

Almost not worth mentioning these upstarters will offer the least amount of resistance out of any foe you'll encounter. Them heading for Harmonia is more or less begging to be crushed. Only a few of these fools have been sighted as off now.



Mission One - SUPREMACY

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Story Arch:

Keeper Dagon has finally been located. Like we assumed he was fortifying himself somewhere in the Origo Realms. Typical, it had to be somewhere with water dripping from every crack. So be it, it'll be a cold grave for him once you're done here! Dagon is most likely not suspecting an attack, seeing as no one has challenged him for these desolate realms, so use this to your advantage. He may have a headstart on you for now, but he should be no big threat to someone with your prowess. May Dagon be your first victim, tonight the rivers and lakes in all of the Origo realms shall be tainted by Keeper blood!

Objectives:

- Slay Keeper Dagon on his own home ground!

Sub-Objectives:

- N/A

General Information:

This will be the start of your campaign and will introduce the first few creatures, spells, traps and rooms alongside with your first enemy Keeper. He will be relatively easy to defeat compared to your later enemies, but do not underestimate him! Dagon won't allow his creatures to be slaughtered and if he is left alive for too long he will strike at your dungeon mercilessly. There are generally a few tactics on how to defeat him, play a bit around and remember well what you learn from your fights against him for it might come in handy later, when you face more powerful opponents.


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Mission Two - MADNESS

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Story Arch:

It seems like we have found our next foe, Keeper Olisha. She is well known to corrupt the mind of her enemies to make them her puppets. As far as we know she does so without using any kind of torture. How boring. Furthermore this tactic is a cheap knockoff of what the Greater Keeper Damballa does. Originality seems to be a difficult concept to grasp for this bungler. Anyways, since she prefers to use this strategy, she camps to the east of a smaller Observation Outpost from the Heroes now. Thus she has not made a move for the Portal in this realm; instead she built her dungeon next to larger Gold deposits. Even though her little trick and her location might give her a little advantage in the beginning, a true Keeper can make more out of less if forced to do so. And he can use it to crush opponents seemingly more powerful. Show her the error of her ways by slaughtering her targets and her pets! Then stomp her heart into the ground and we can call it a day!

Objectives:

- Breach the Heroes defences
- Crush Keeper Olisha

Sub-Objectives:

- Claim the Prison to strengthen your ranks with the Undead
- Keep Olisha from claiming any Hero Gates to prevent her from getting reinforcements
- Write a nice, little poem


General Information:

This will be your first contact with the new Hero forces. Use your knowledge from Supremacy to bring them down before you have a standoff with Olisha. She uses Heroes too, but she has no Portals. All she has are the Heroes she starts with, whatever reinforcements she can get from Hero Gates and a Graveyard to strengthen her ranks with Vampires. Still, don't think she is harmless just because she has no access to a Portal. If she catches you unprepared, you'll most likely fall under her wrath in a matter of minutes. Be prepared, and when you are sure that the major fights are over, move in and kill her mercilessly. Also, Rogues will come in very handy if you manage to train them up to high levels.

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Mission Three - PANIC STATION

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Story Arch:

Here in the realm of Mandtum the Heroes from Harmonia created a big fort to keep evil forces from entering the Kingdom through the east. However, this structure was never properly finished before Keeper Nemesis passed through here. Even though they tried to rebuild it after he was gone, it is still an unorganized and messy place. Their current leader, Lord Tiberius, has made no effort to change that situation. On top of that, the Greater Keepers Abaddon and Apollyen have their own plans of tearing this fortress down again. It was actually believed that both these names were synonyms for the same powerful Master Keeper, but it seems like this assumption turned out to be wrong. So they undoubtedly don't possess the status of a Master Keeper on their own, and exactly this should give us a big advantage over them. As threatening as they might appear together, seperated they will fall easily. Furthermore, now that we have relocated into Nemesis' old dungeon we made a surprising discovery; The Horned Reapers seem to be heading for Harmonia as well! Them appearing here is quite unusual, considering they weren't even anywhere close to the kingdom a few months ago. Still, these few Reapers here seem to be offering their service to us if we help them against the surrounding hero forces. Now that's an offer we won't turn down, will we? Use these powerful beasts to wipe the Hero Fortress of the face of the realm, and then destroy the pathetic Keeper Duo that has challenged them!

Objectives:

- Bring havoc to the Hero forces
- Defeat the Keeper Duo Abaddon and Apollyen

Sub-Objectives:

- Free all Horned Reapers for maximal carnage
- Steal the hidden treasures of the Heroes

General Information:

Ahhh, here you will finally get to see the fury of the Horned Reapers! Even though your enemies have vastly bigger armies, your Reapers can defeat them all if you micromanage the fights. Just make sure to free the Reapers and to keep your treasury filled; these guys take a lot of cash. And be careful in case the Heroes might try anything!


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Mission Four - PRELUDE

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Story Arch:

Look who revealed himself; it is the good old Keeper Mephistopheles! And it seems like he hasn't changed for all the time you were gone. Like always he is aiding another Keeper, but this time he has chosen a rather weird ally; namely Keeper Nemesis. Yes, the one who died in Harmonia. Mephistopheles claims to be one of the higher ranking Keepers in a newly created alliance called 'The Covenant', that appointed Nemesis as their leader. Neither have we come across any other members of this weird association yet, nor is there any proof for Nemesis being alive. All we can think of is that Mephistopheles finally went insane after being without company for such a long time. Either way, he is a well-known Keeper and killing him might finally make a Grand Keeper notice us. Should we achieve that, you could finally be able to wrap up your vendetta against them, as well as dethroning them and taking their titles for your own! However, we are not the only ones to challenge him. The lesser Keepers Erebus and Flauros have allied to take Mephistopheles down, a rather futile move to be honest. Slaughter them and then get back to the real fight!

Objectives:

- Kill the Greater Keeper Mephistopheles
- Annihilate the pathetic alliance of the Keepers Erebus and Flauros

Sub-Objectives:

- Drive the Heroes out of this realm

Riddle:

- Worth half as much it'll prove to be twice as useful. Be hotheaded.

(Note, solving riddles will always give you a certain extra, so make sure to give 'em a try)

General Information:

Everyone aside from Mephistopheles relies on the Gold here, so make sure to get as much as possible and protect it from the other Keepers. Assault one of your weaker rivals to get a Portal, but don't just rely on that to strengthen your ranks.


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Mission Five - SURVIVAL

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Story Arch:

We just received word of a Prince making a trip into a realm not too far from us in the South. This should be the perfect spot for our rivals to gather, so this is where we shall head as well. But wait! Is this is another Keeper I sense? ... Oh by the Dark Gods, how the hell is this possible? Not only were Mephistopheles' ramblings about this 'Covenant' apparently true, no, some of them were actually waiting nearby and managed to trap you in this desolate wasteland! The lesser Keepers Hecate and Verin are blocking our ways to the West and East while their commander Ceberus prevents us from leaving through the South. Well, if they think trapping you is a wise move we shall show them the error of their ways. Take them down one by one and end this pointless 'Covenant' before it starts to spread to all the other Morons heading for Harmonia! Verin is easily the worst foe you'll have to face; he is hotheaded and has no sense for proper tactics. Hecate on the other hand will be much more disciplined; however, she is rather hesitant and will probably shy away from attacking you before it is too late. Ceberus is an arrogant but rather wise tactician; however, he will most likely not bother with us until it is clear that his sidekicks can't defeat us. Fool, this is something that should have been clear to him from the beginning!

Objectives:

- Push of your ambushers Ceberus, Hecate and Verin

Sub-Objectives:

- N/A

General Information:

Make sure your defenses are set and your creatures well trained. You should get attacked quite soon and you have to beat each of these Keepers off to win. Also, rushing them is really, really hard. I wouldn’t suggest a true rushing tactic, but rather an attack on green or Yellow after your somewhat prepared if you want to play offensively.


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Mission Six - BUTTERFLIES & HURRICANES

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Story Arch:

It seems like a big fight ensured not too far away from here. Multiple Keepers got stranded in this insignificant realm due to the Master Keeper Nexus challenging the Heroes close to the southeastern border of their kingdom. It seems like almost all of them immediately changed their plan, aside from one madman who thinks he stands a chance against the combined force of Nexus and the Heroes. We'll see how that turns out soon enough. Today we will show this group of pathetic wretches that a true Keeper doesn't run from battle! Keeper Azazel easily stands as your strongest enemy here, but luckily Aguares challenged him as soon as he got word from his presence. While they are occupied we will most likely have to engage in a three way battle with Keeper Euryale and Decarabia. The former one thinks she can hide her presence from her enemies for long enough to build up her strength while the latter believes herself to be in an unimpeachable position. Deal with them in an appropriate manner and then go after whoever is still alive.

Objectives:

- Defeat your rivals Azazel, Euryale, Decarabia and Aguares

Sub-Objectives:

- Gain Control of the Gems

General Information:

This is a Free-for-All map and it is actually rather easy compared to the ones you'll see later due to more restrictions regarding high end creatures. You’re also not under as much pressure as in Survival, even though your opponents should not be underestimated. Take them down before they do so with you, that is pretty much all there is to it.

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Mission Seven - FOLLOW ME

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Story Arch:

So it seems like Nexus laid waste to the Hero fort in a grand scale. Most of their forces lie dying in the remains of what once was their proud castle. The survivors have mostly fled into the upper levels of their structure and cower in hiding while only leaving a few guards behind to warn them from another attack by Nexus. They are cut off from reinforcements and desperate while Nexus prepares for another final invasion to wipe them out in a grand battle. Lord William and his followers won't go down easily, that much is for sure, but eventually they will. Meanwhile the nameless Keeper who challenged Nexus got first repelled by the Heroes, and then wrecked by Nexus forces. It seems like he didn't take the lack of a portal into account or generally lacked the concept of planning. However, we can work with this situation. The remains of Nexus' pitiful rival, as well as whatever remained intact in the Hero keep will be of good use to us, while the remaining hero forces could easily be provoked into staging desperate attacks on Nexus. Or maybe we could cut off their limbs and throw them into prison? The choice is yours Keeper, if you should find a way to lure them out of their hiding spots... Wreck Nexus and kill any Hero left alive in this realm, victory can and will only be yours!

Objectives:

- Bypass Keeper Nexus' defenses and beat his heart into oblivion
- Exterminate all Hero forces

Sub-Objectives:

- Dig down the pillars in the main chambers of the Hero keep to collapse the ceiling and force these bunglers out of hiding
- Deal with Nexus scouts who might roam around. Properly

General Information:

Now this realm is quite different to the one before. Here you will win by careful resource management, efficient exploration and creativity. Use Sight of Evil to plan your first steps and then take over the Hero fortress. By digging down the fortified walls around the Impenetrable Rock - Pillars in the big main chambers of the Hero Fort, you'll release Hero Parties from the ceiling that will either attack you or Nexus, or might wander around aimlessly. Use this to get an advantage over your rival.

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Mission Eight - ANIMALS

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Story Arch:

The rumor about a prince venturing out here did not only prove to be wrong, there are in fact no Hero forces at all in this realm! It was all a trap, set up by the Grand Keeper Hades who most likely wanted to eliminate all opposition before attacking Harmonia itself. Finally, after fighting so many lower class enemies one of our main targets didn't just reveal himself, he basically invited us over! So be it, his slaughter shall let every Keeper know of your return and it will finally let you arise as a Grand Keeper yourself again! But be wary, Hades will have amassed a tremendous Legion to slay his opponents. And their minions will most likely end up as his Undead Shock Troops. Furthermore, he is known for his great strategic mind on the battlefield and the complexity of his dungeons that he riddles with countless of death traps. Taking him down will be your biggest challenge yet, and without a big disposal of resources it will be nigh impossible to defeat him. So take what you can from your weaker rivals! Keeper Andromalius cowers in a defensive position to the west and holds onto a couple of Gems. He is probably the second strongest foe you'll have to face in this realm. Keeper Mania and Keeper Gremory allied once they noticed that they fell for a trap, but the latter broke this alliance after a short time for no apparent reason. But she is known to be insane and of a short temper, so this comes less of a surprise. At the end of the food chain comes Gremory. She may be preparing for an Invasion by Hades right now, but she will not expect you to fall into her back. And you better kill all of these Keepers before Hades does and turns their dungeons into his own barracks. Stay strong Keeper!

Objectives:

- Take down the Grand Keeper Hades
- Destroy Andromallius keep
- Kill the Keepers Gremory and Mania

Sub-Objectives:

- Make contact with the neutral group of Salamanders
- Find the Ancient Specials used to slay enemy creatures with your Hand of Evil

General Information:

Your first Grand Keeper, and a quite challenging one indeed. To defeat him you need the Portals of your other Rivals, and you need to train your minions up as high as possible! Hades Legion will annihilate everyone he chooses to attack, to withstand this attack you need a huge army yourself. Plus you need to push down into his dungeon to take his heart out. It might be a better idea to fight him at different fronts at the same time, instead of going toe to toe with him. The method is yours for the choosing.

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Mission Nine - EXPLORERS

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Story Arch:

In this yet unexplored realm the Heroes are currently looking for riches to afford repairs for lands where evil forces have recently wreaked havoc. Our rival, the Greater Keeper Malphas however, has challenged them for these resources and is preparing for their forces right now. They will most likely stage counter attacks soon, but it is doubtful that they will get far. Malphas is not known for giving in that easily. Another, lesser known Keeper, Kimaris, tried to slip into this realm undetected too. And even though Malphas and the Heroes are unaware of his presence, we know well where he is hiding. Both, he and Malphas must die. But be careful though, they own all the Portals in this realm, a reason why we put Hades Prison-Complex to a good use before we left. Use your Undead Minions to inflict terror on the Heroes and then let them march forth against your rivals!

Objectives:

- Slay your Rivals Malphas and Kimaris

Sub-Objectives:

- Destroy the Hero Outposts

Riddle:

- It seems someone is short of Vampires and they are willing to trade some in for a fresh pair of Reapers!

General Information:

Well, train your Undead up on the Heroes, destroy their Outposts when you find the time and then wipe your Rivals out! Once you gain control of the two Hero Prisons or the Graveyard you'll be able to build these rooms and enlarge them to get a bigger army. Until then, be wary with your troops and don't engage in fights with the big explorer groups from the Heroes! In fact, it might be wise to delay your expansion until you are sure that the Heroes have passed the area you want to dig to, to avoid giving them a shortcut right through your dungeon.

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Mission Ten - DARKSHINES

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Story Arch:

Keeper Demediel challenges you personally it seems and to deliver this message he sent one of his Underlings, Keeper Raum. The conditions are that you have to kill him first, something Raum is seemingly laughing about. Well yes, he is right. What could a powerful Grand Keeper like you do to a pathetic bungler like him? Show him what true power is so we can take on Demediel. He will be a more worthy foe indeed, though that will mostly be because of him using some of his servants in that fight. As if that would matter to us, it simply means that we can crush his entire empire within one major battle! But wait... is that a Hero Presence I sense? Oh, these fools realize that they stand no chance against us and yet they still send some troops to spy on our fight with Raum? Once he is dealt with you shall put their heads on spikes! Convert their leader and together with your army send him back where he came from to show them what you think about this! Send these Heroes a message to not anger you again!

Objectives:

- Kill Keeper Raum

- Convert the Leader of the Hero forces

Sub-Objectives:

- Destroy both Hero Keeps to the North

General Information:

Beware; I won't throw a single Keeper at you this late into the campaign for no reason! He is way stronger than Dagon and you have to be very fast at building your dungeon and creating your army to even stand a chance against his takeover attempts! So be swift and expect a hard fight with Raum. The Heroes after that are not much of a problem, but don't just let your creatures kill the Knight leading these forces, for if you do so you will still lose! Convert him and this mission will be completed successfully.

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Mission Eleven - TAKE A BOW

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Story Arch:

Here we go, let us put an end to this foolish challenge! Keeper Demediel fortified himself in the middle of a large lake with two of his strongest followers to his sides. They are devoted to him completely and even see themselves as the 'sons' of his empire. Weirdos. Well, we know a good cure for that! Destroy them and then launch an attack on their master! We also got word from small Hero forces in this realm. They might not be many, but they could prove to be quite dangerous if pushed into combat. It might be best to delay their destruction until a bit later, or you can ignore them completely if you want to. What matters is that Demediel and his servants fall!

Objectives:

- Destroy Keeper Demediel's empire
- Kill his followers Pirichiel and Theurgia

Sub-Objectives:

- Lure the Heroes out and kill them
- Find the hidden Mana Vaults

General Information:

This level was designed with the 'Nemesis' feeling in mind, with a small Hero presence, two weaker Keepers and one strong Keeper. You'll probably have to face the weaker once first before using their resources to take out Demediel. Be wary of the Heroes though! They might not have much at their disposal, but they will fight back relentlessly.

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Mission Twelve - Hysteria

http://imageshack.us/a/img839/8035/rt3q.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/rt3q.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img401/8885/vzmc.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/401/vzmc.png/)

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/1046/rfkz.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/rfkz.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img854/1536/g07.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/854/g07.png/)



Story Arch:

It appears that the Master Keeper Legion doesn't like what we did with all those Keepers recently and he now stands against us with his band of nameless Keeper slaves. They are sieging us as of now and are preparing for a large scale invasion. You must act quickly and take them out before their armies start swarming us. Take one of the dungeons by force and build up your own Legion to deal with them! However, this realm was under Hero control before Legion started to slaughter them. They may be willing to offer their assistance if we should come across them...

Objectives:

- Crush Keeper Legion and slaughter his nameless slaves

Sub-Objectives:

- Explore the realm and find neutral Heroes that survived Legion's attack

General Information:

This is a truly challenging map. There isn't much Gold, you start without a Portal and the enemies are way stronger than you. The only advantage you have is that you start with Hero forces that are generally a bit better than their creature counterparts. Make sure to keep them alive and use them as your Elite force, because you won’t have enough Gold to afford all the units you will get from Portals, once you’ve captured them. Also, exploration is pretty important here. You might find a few nice surprises...

http://imageshack.us/a/img163/2793/nv6.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/nv6.bmp/)
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Mission Thirteen - BIG FREEZE

http://imageshack.us/a/img16/4272/0r2q.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/16/0r2q.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img21/1430/v47.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/21/v47.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img10/5272/l8k.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/10/l8k.png/)



Story Arch:

Winter is coming and forces the heroes to move their main forces to flashpoint areas to save resources, while they have to leave other zones weakly defended. However, two Keepers have made preparations to destroy one of the stronger garrisons before this happens. The Heroes here, led by Lord Lancelot, are expecting a Keeper to attack them, but they don't know there are actually three Keepers cowering around their castle. Keeper Harkan, who comes forth from the inner Harmonia, and is known to be one of Nemesis main commanders during the first major invasion on Harmonia, lays sieges the castle for unknown reasons. Keeper Lucifer most likely wants to gain access to the Southern parts of the kingdom through this Keep. And we of course seek the demise of each of them. Take down Harkan and Lucifer, on top of that slaughter the Lord of the Land and his bodyguards! The Heroes have been bothering you for long enough, it is time for payback!

Objectives:

- Destroy the Greater Keepers Harkan and Lucifer
- Kill the Lord of the Land and his Royal Guards

Sub-Objectives:

- Destroy the Hero Fortress

General Information:

In this realm you and two of your Rivals will face a big hero fortress. Whoever gets spotted on the lake first will draw their attention and will soon be attacked by a large Invasion force. Should you want to take them on yourself I'd advise you to build a large amount of traps first. Should they go after your Rivals; the fight can go both ways. Either the Heroes win and return to their castle, or the Keeper survives and rebuilds his army. They might also choose to go after the Lord himself later on. All in all this is probably one of the most dynamic maps in this campaign; it can play in a lot of different ways.

http://imageshack.us/a/img195/7458/wzm.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/wzm.bmp/)
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Mission Fourteen - CITIZEN ERASED

http://imageshack.us/a/img547/9217/o1vi.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/547/o1vi.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img43/7295/m97.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/m97.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img24/2858/k7dq.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/k7dq.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img46/2852/aph.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/46/aph.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img442/1098/9fwv.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/442/9fwv.png/)



Story Arch:

The Hero forces in this realm were no match for the Keepers who found themselves stranded here, powerful Overlords by the names of Moloch, Loki, Wendigo, Astarte and Baal. These Keepers want nothing but the blood of any goodly forces of this once peaceful land. The remaining military forces of these Heroes have now allied with Keeper Baal who will use them to their full extent to wipe out anyone daring to oppose him. Astarte and Wendigo are preparing their forces to stage attacks on him, while Moloch stays in the defense for now. Loki sure as hell plans on screwing them over like he is known to do. All in all this is surely goin’ to be a total mess with everyone trying to slit each other’s throat. Choose your method Keeper and defeat them all! Meanwhile it seems like our old acquaintance Keeper Lillith is fighting with Buné in a nearby realm. This will be interesting to say at least, we shall investigate this further once we are done here.



CITIZEN ERASED - A

Story Arch:

A few creatures deserted your rivals to join your side. Put them to a good use.

Objectives:

- Slay your rivals Baal, Wendigo, Astarte and Loki

Sub-Objectives:

- Find the hidden Specials

General Information:

Choices! Yeah, every CE level will play out with a different play style in mind. Version A is probably the easiest and forces you to crush your weaker Rivals to get even with your stronger enemies.

http://imageshack.us/a/img5/8826/7zz.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/5/7zz.bmp/)



CITIZEN ERASED - B

Story Arch:

A few Heroes join your cause, but they alone won't be enough to overcome your enemies. The few Mistresses that tagged along from your last conquest present you the solution to change this...

Objectives:

- Slay your Rivals Baal, Moloch, Astarte and Loki

Sub-Objectives:

- Find the hidden Specials

General Information:

Version B forces you to adapt to your situation and to get converts in order to defeat your rivals.

http://imageshack.us/a/img594/6387/59q.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/594/59q.bmp/)




CITIZEN ERASED - C

Story Arch:

A band of local thugs offer their assistance to you.

Objectives:

- Slay your rivals Baal, Wendigo, Astarte and Loki

Sub-Objectives:

- Find the hidden Specials

General Information:

Version C is easily the hardest and forces you to torture information out of your enemies’ troops to pit them against each other and then move in for the kill and their dungeon.

http://imageshack.us/a/img11/857/oi1.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/11/oi1.bmp/)



CITIZEN ERASED - D

Story Arch:

The legions of your enemies are strong and unforgiving. Luckily we have the means to counter their advance with intelligent and strategic planning.

Objectives:

- Slay your Rivals Baal, Moloch, Astarte and Loki

Sub-Objectives:

- Find the hidden Specials

General Information:

In Version D you will rely on traps to overcome your enemies.

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/161/ujp.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/12/ujp.bmp/)



CITIZEN ERASED - E

Story Arch:

All forces in this realm are under the command of one of your rivals. However, their fighting will prove useful to us as we raise the Undead to infest this realm!

Objectives:

- Slay your Rivals Baal, Moloch, Astarte and Loki

Sub-Objectives:

- Find the hidden Specials

General Information:

In Version E you will use the Undead to slay your rivals.

http://imageshack.us/a/img526/530/d35.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/526/d35.bmp/)



CITIZEN ERASED - F

Story Arch:

With caution and careful planning we will first take over the hideouts of the remaining Heroes and then strike at our Rivals from out of nowhere!

Objectives:

- Slay your Rivals Baal, Moloch, Astarte and Loki

Sub-Objectives:

- Find the hidden Specials

General Information:

In Version F you have to build your dungeon in the caves and you will have to use Barricades and Freeze Traps in order to make your ranged fighters invulnerable to enemy attacks while they take out their troops.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/5575/ku.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/ku.bmp/)
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Mission Fifteen- SAVE ME

http://imageshack.us/a/img259/8825/pbep.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/259/pbep.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img194/79/j49.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/194/j49.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img32/5435/1n6.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/32/1n6.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/5130/tli.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/12/tli.png/)



Story Arch:

So it seems like Keeper Lillith wants to form an alliance with you. She knows you well, so it is a weird request from her. It seems like her fights with the Undead Keeper Buné went out of hand and that she is now losing ground. Regardless, her negotiator now sits in our Prison, so the method is yours for the choosing. Either send him back with our regards or take his head on a spike. She most likely knows it anyways; she will die by your hands in the end. However, there is another Keeper interfering with our initial plans and set his dungeon up right next to us. A short term alliance might be a good way to cripple him enough for your forces to go in for a quick kill. In the end it can only be you who leaves this fight alive, and we know well who that will be!

Objectives:

- Slay Keeper Buné and Lillith
- Destroy the bungler Keeper Abatu

Sub-Objectives:

- Form a short term alliance with Lillith
- Find the Undead left to rot by their Master Buné and recruit them to your cause

General Information:

To create an alliance, simply drop the Warlock she sent to negotiate at the tile shown in the Intro. But remember that you want her slain, you will automatically break the alliance once Buné is dead. However, don't think you can abuse this by having your army nearby her heart. If she catches even one of your creates near her Heart Chamber she will turn against you. Also, if left alone the battle between Lillith and Buné can easily go both ways, so prepare to meet either a lot of Undead forces, or Lillith's elite fighters that survived the battle.

http://imageshack.us/a/img41/4476/pn9.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/pn9.bmp/)
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Mission Sixteen - STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

http://imageshack.us/a/img822/1469/7cq.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/822/7cq.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img692/4717/1jtj.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/692/1jtj.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img90/5853/z5cy.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/90/z5cy.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img4/8966/g86n.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/4/g86n.png/)



Story Arch:

Keeper Damballa seeks to reign over this land and he has yet to meet competition. It seems like he isn't as cowardly as he was once, facing heroes in those big numbers, but once he catches sight of you he will surely tremble in fear. His plans here are to forcefully get control of the Hero Castle. Their current leader, Lord Byron, still mourns over the loss of his wife and has neglected his duties. Damballa knows of this and will use it to gain an advantage in the coming battle. Like Olisha he will use the Hero Gates for his own purpose to manipulate new arrivals to his side. We got word that he uses a once widespread method called 'Scavenging' for this. Unlike the weakling Olisha he won't close these Gates down as soon as the first group of naive adventurers joins his side. No, Damballa will keep these Gates open to restock and buff his ranks. Even though this will put him at risk to have groups of invaders appear in the middle of his dungeon, his ever growing army will surely counter balance that. However, if you should happen to challenge and divert his troops at the right time, his newly claimed empire will surely fall under all the pressure. This time Damballa won't escape your wrath! Kill him, and make sure it is only you who will be victorious!

Objectives:

- Kill the coward Keeper Damballa

Sub-Objectives:

- Close down the Hero Gates to cut Damballa's reinforcments off

General Information:

This level is similar to Madness as in that the enemy Keeper gets his reinforcements from Hero Gates and has no Portal. However, here it is mandatory to close down the Gates or better, to prevent your Rival from getting to them in the first place. He will get endless reinforcements from them until they are closed down, however, some of them will still spawn Hero Groups that will go after Damballa. Observe the situation and then do whatever will give you the upper hand in this fight. Once Damballa's forces are cut down, go in for the kill! Don't allow the Heroes to steal your victory! Also, you need to play really aggressively here to prevent your rival from getting to strong, or worse, to cut you off from the Gems in the Hero fort. This is pretty much preparing you for the next mission, were things will be even worse...

http://imageshack.us/a/img853/1690/r0j.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/853/r0j.bmp/)
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Mission Seventeen - APOCALYPSE PLEASE

http://imageshack.us/a/img543/6018/iwr.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/543/iwr.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img833/1402/sz0x.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/833/sz0x.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img802/2772/2tc2.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/802/2tc2.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img15/3191/3dxb.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/15/3dxb.png/)



Story Arch:

Keeper Kobal seems to be holding a competition for his own amusement; whoever manages to scare the Lord of the Land out of his Keep will gain his alliance against the other participants. Thus far two Keepers have engaged in this fruitless competition, Keeper Sonneillon and Keeper Vanth. Even though they are close to being considered Master Keepers they will most likely ally once they hear that you will take part in this as well. Usually this isn't our style, but if that is what we have to do to lure Kobal out of hiding, so be it. Having him on your side for the time that the other two Keepers are alive might prove to be quite helpful. Meanwhile while we engage in this pointless competition our scouts are close to locating the Undead Grand Keeper Charon. Buné's minions had quite some useful information about him. We also started picking up on Leviathan's trail. Not much longer and we shall face off with one of your old rivals again...

Objectives:

- Stomp Keeper Kobal into the ground
- Defeat your competitors Sonneillion and Vanth

Sub-Objectives:

- Win the tournament

General Information:

The idea of this mission is based on the official level 17 Moonshrine. Instead of fighting for the Temple you now fight to bring the Lord of the Land down so you gain a short term alliance with Kobal. Don't wait too long, attack the Heroes as soon as you have somewhat of a force at your disposal or your competition will succeed in this. That'd end up with three Keepers against you with Kobal constantly launching attacks at you, so it is better to avoid this. Feel free to play it defensively though, but keep in mind that these Keepers are deadly competent! To win the tournament it is mandatory to attack before the second payday!

http://imageshack.us/a/img441/4594/x3c.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/441/x3c.bmp/)
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Mission Eighteen - LIQUID STATE

http://imageshack.us/a/img585/1923/rd0.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/585/rd0.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img832/6057/h2w.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/832/h2w.png/)



Story Arch:

So it seems like we finally located the Grand Keeper Charon. He camps to the east of a Hero fort and has already killed the Lord Churchill, destroyed their Hero Gates, and generally wreaked havoc to the place. His undead came out of nowhere when no one was expecting it and disappeared in the same fashion. Now all these pathetic Heroes do is trembling in fear of another attack by the Undead Hordes that marched through their territory last night. Wherever Charon is hiding, I'm sure he will come out of his hole once he sees that you are coming after him. Expect a long and bloodstained war with his Legions before he goes down. On a side note the Keeper Mastema appears to be following her own plans of challenging Charon. Shoot her dreams down and kill her before she gets out of control and starts screwing your plans over.

Objectives:

- Defeat your rival Mastema
- Crush the Grand Keeper Charon

Sub-Objectives:

- Free the heroic turncoats
- Convert the goodly forces to your cause

General Information:

Your second Grand Keeper is even harder to bring down. His undead hordes will steadily push you back until you finally manage to breach their lines and after that Charon's defenses might do the same to you. He will give you a lot of trouble before he goes down for sure. But before you even get there it's a Kill - or be Killed scenario with the Keeper Mastema who will use her DA's to their best extent to wipe you out. Luckily you start with two Reapers to compensate this. Still, she will be pretty tough, make sure you fight her where you want it and nowhere else! That pretty much means you should be the one launching an attack, otherwise things might get complicated...

http://imageshack.us/a/img822/8933/yzp.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/822/yzp.bmp/)
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Mission Nineteen - DEAR AGONY

http://imageshack.us/a/img16/2528/grj.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/16/grj.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img195/8848/h6cq.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/h6cq.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img7/7403/ypoo.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/7/ypoo.png/)



Story Arch:

Three of the most powerful Master Keepers still around have decided to form an alliance to bring you down. They join their mighty forces in a desperate attempt to stop your expansion and will try anything to kill you. Beware; this might be one of your biggest challenges yet. On top of that they sealed most resources away from us and Hero forces close to us protect the other riches of this realm. And apparently their leader Lord Mallory is trying to ambush us by hiding his Keeps from us. Explore this realm carefully and choose your first target wisely. It will be a hard fight indeed, but once you managed to weaken the enemy alliance, things should get easier. Do everything you can to get an edge over your remaining enemies and purge this realm from their influence! Wreck the Castle of the Heroes and kill their Leader for attempting to lure you into a trap and then repaint the walls of their fort with blood!

Objectives:

- Kill the allied Keepers Demogorgon, Vassago and Barbas
- Slay the Lord of the Land

Sub-Objectives:

- Wipe out every Hero you come across

General Information:

The second remake from my TFR campaign (with the first being Hysteria) this realm comes slightly re-designed with an even more capable AI. Beware; these Keepers are strong, whether they are in the defense or the offense. And they might choose to do both, especially Vassago who could easily try to attack the Hero Castle. Explore the realm carefully and then use all your tactical knowledge to wipe the weakest enemy out. Use the newly won resources and go straight after the second enemy. Also, if you though Baal was a tough enemy with his Hero forces, wait until you see Barbas...

http://imageshack.us/a/img39/7237/ozt.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/39/ozt.bmp/)
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Mission Twenty - UNSUSTAINABLE

http://imageshack.us/a/img138/9254/k829.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/138/k829.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img694/9605/n4b.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/694/n4b.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img689/8984/t399.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/689/t399.png/)



Story Arch:

We have finally located Leviathan. He camps close to the realms known as Emberglow and Snapdragon, now held strongly by Hero forces. In the land of Sunburn he constructed a vast fortress and trains up his legions that get sent forth against the goodly defenders of the kingdom. To finally get to him we have a few obstacles to overcome though. Here in this realm we are challenged by the mighty she-devil Keeper Prosperine who managed to steer up Keeper Ornias against us. This realm is rather poor on resources, so any massive dungeon you might plan to construct will become unsustainable after a short time. Prosperine and Ornias are just holding up because they share their riches with each other. So be swift with their kills, before your creatures start deserting. However, it might still be the best solution to hire some topnotch fighters here. I heard Reapers were sighted by the local Heroes in big numbers?

Objectives:

- Slay the Keepers Prosperine and Ornias
- Withstand the Heroes wrath

Sub-Objectives:

- Recruit the local Horned Reapers for your cause

General Information:

This level faces you with mighty opponents indeed. Both Keepers here will be extremely difficult to bring down without Reapers and the Heroes will use their opportunity to strike at you to its full extent once they think it's save to attack. Be careful, and try to get as many Reapers as possible. You will need them.

http://imageshack.us/a/img24/5537/dk6.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/dk6.bmp/)
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Mission Twenty-One - ISOLATED SYSTEM

http://imageshack.us/a/img19/4661/iyt.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19/iyt.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img844/4729/g569.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/844/g569.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img90/7870/mgt.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/90/mgt.png/)



Story Arch:

The last challenge we seemingly have to face will be the trickster Derisor who wants to steal the treasures of a bunch of corrupt Heroes led by the psychopath Mordrede and his cronies. The only reason why he dares to come this close to a Grand Keeper is because he thinks his illusions can keep him hidden from any threat. While that trick might work on the lesser beings like Heroes, it won't fool a good Keeper, especially not one of your or Leviathan's size. Build up your forces and lead them through his defenses personally to make him realize this mistake before you beat his heart into oblivion! Should the Heroes be inclined to stop you, do the same with their leaders! These last few foes are nothing but an obstacle in your way to Leviathan, so deal with them appropriately.

Objectives:

- Defeat Keeper Derisor personally
- Slaughter the corrupt Lord of the Land

Sub-Objectives:

- Tortur the Prisoners of the Lord
- Steal the riches of the Heroes

General Information:

This is quite the unusual way to defeat an enemy Keeper, no CTA or claiming of his domain here. No, instead you will lead your troops personally to first slaughter the Lord of the Land and then your Rival who will most likely try to hide his presence from you. Build up your army and then lead your troops into his dungeon. In fact, it might be a good idea to de-possess and lead the next band of warriors into his dungeon to maximize the damage.

http://imageshack.us/a/img829/72/pdt.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/829/pdt.bmp/)
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Mission Twenty-Two - RULED BY SECRECY

http://imageshack.us/a/img16/8475/zlk8.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/16/zlk8.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img441/6938/rks7.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/441/rks7.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img839/4264/7tmz.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/7tmz.png/)



Story Arch:

Here you stand now, in front of the most powerful foe you have ever faced, the Grand Keeper Leviathan! He waits here in the realm of Sunburn and builds up legion after legion before sending them at the heroes. Like any Grand Keeper he is so powerful that he can direct his attention at neighboring realms without being physically present there. As off now he is leading his forces against the defenses of the King. And exactly that will be his downfall. An uprising already occurred recently, due to him ignoring the indifferences between his creature and hero forces and even though he is paying more attention to his castle now, we should be able to take him by surprise. Find survivors from the recent uprising. Sneak into his dungeon and claim it from under his nose before he notices our presence. Then move in and kill him in a grand battle! But beware, Leviathan managed to convert one of the three Princes of Harmonia and King Reginald entrusted his most powerful Commander, Lord Pureheart, with his recovery. If they try to interfere in any way, make sure to let them pay for it. Tear their skin off and throw them in a pit of salt before putting their pathetic remains on spikes! They should complement your new castle quite nicely. Come Keeper, slay your old advisory! Show those Dark Gods their place by taking down the most powerful enemy they could ever rally against you! Make sure that Leviathan's demise reminds them to not challenge you again!

Objectives:

- Crush the castle of the Grand Keeper Leviathan
- Survive the Hero Onslaught

Sub-Objectives:

- Recruit the creatures that deserted Leviathan
- Convert the Prince to your side

General Information:

There is nothing more to say, go on, win, and declare yourself as the victor of the Kasabian Campaign, the Slayer of three powerful Grand Keepers! (Note, for the final showdown with Leviathan you might want to turn DKII's graphic setting to Medium, since it'll be one of the largest fights you'll ever have in DKII with something like 150 units engaging in a massive final battle. Doing this should avoid any crashes, and the further you zoom in, the more stable the game seems to stay too, so keep these things in mind)

http://imageshack.us/a/img19/6020/a01.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19/a01.bmp/)
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Secret Realm 1 - MK ULTRA

http://imageshack.us/a/img823/8771/rpb7.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/823/rpb7.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img62/6060/cviq.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/cviq.png/)

http://imageshack.us/a/img826/9206/bdcj.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/bdcj.png/)



Story Arch:

Keeper Buné had particularly useful information about where our old friend the Grand Keeper Charon might be. One of our best scouts has been gathering Intel to confirm these reports, but it seems like he got cut off from our dungeon and is being hunted down right now. The reinforcements we sent to him lie dying and only direct intervention from your side can save him and the Intel now. Make sure to get him out of there alive, we can't let this data slip through our hands!

Objectives:

- Kill whatever is lurking in these dark hallways and return the rogue to your dungeon

Sub-Objectives:

- N/A

General Information:

Technically this is supposed to be played before 'Liquid State', if you found the 'Locate Hidden World' special in 'Save Me'. This is pretty much a Possession map. Use your ranged attacks and run if things get dangerous. That's all I'll say, have fun!

http://imageshack.us/a/img32/7799/g9r.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/32/g9r.bmp/)
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Secret Realm 2 - RECESS

http://imageshack.us/a/img826/5706/iq1.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/iq1.png/)



Story Arch:

Tired from engaging in wars with all of your Rivals all the time, Keeper? My scouts have found the perfect spot for a short vacation then! The heroes usually traverse through this realm to get to one of their farther off outposts, but we sabotaged their Hero Gates for them. They'll be stranded here and wil serve as a fine amusement show for us. Prepare an ambush and enjoy the slaughter, Keeper!

Objectives:

- Ambush the Hero forces

Sub-Objectives:

- N/A

General Information:

Get strong forces, train them up fast, build your defenses and slaughter the Heroes! That is all there really is to it. Be careful, the Heroes can get pretty strong later on!

Availability:

The 'Secret Level' Extra can be found in one of the last five realms, going from 'Liquid State' to 'Ruled By Secrecy'. Try to find it before playing this, or cheat and play it without finding it if you want to. It's more like an extra challenge anyways.

http://imageshack.us/a/img41/5584/b1z.bmp (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/b1z.bmp/)
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The Aftermath


What to do next Keeper? I'm sure Leviathan's old castle is a nice vacation spot for now, but what will be your future plans? For one there is still the kingdom of Harmonia. These heroes have caused quite a few problems during our conquest and I'm sure you'd want to make them pay. Furthermore it seems like a few Keepers managed to breach the defense lines of King Reginald, among them our old Rival the Grand Keeper Prometheus. Keeper Carrion is leading the remains of the Covenant according to our latest update on his status. There is still enough work to do. We can go whenever you are ready Keeper, just give the word and we'll be on our way...


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AuH1oX1RnSE/TP5NZA1iUHI/AAAAAAAAAtE/eyKWru7f01Q/s200/Kasabian+lsf+lost+souls+forever.jpg
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The Aftermath - Mission 1 DEVIL IN THE DETAILS


{NO IMAGES FOR AFTERMATH MAPS]


Story Arch:

Now the way into Harmonia lays wide openn. Nothing but feeble heroes remain here to slow down your invasion. The fortress beneath the outer reaches of the province Sparklydell presents their last bastion to stop Keepers from entering their kingdom; it is blocking a fiery path that leads straight into the heart of their land. Tear down this mighty castle, crush it as you did with Leviathan's! Kill Lord Ascanius and destroy all the Hero gates and this realm shall be yours; a stepping stone into the real kingdom of Harmonia!

Objectives:

- Kill Lord Ascanius
- Destroy all the Hero gates

Sub-Objectives:

- Take control of the prisons and the graveyard

General Information:

This is going to be the first of three Aftermath missions. This will be the 2nd longest one, another one will have a short expedition to Sparklydell and the last and longest one will see you in control of Leviathan's old castle. Here you will find a big hero fortress with hundreds of heroes. To take them all down you will need to rely on unusual creature combinations and time your attacks well. Depending on whether you run out of gold or not you'll need to become a lot more aggressive than usual as well.

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Download Link



Download the full Campaign here! (http://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=98)


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Episode Two


For now I'll take a break from map making, but be sure that I'll continue this story at some point. There still is Harmonia to conquer and you still have a few Keepers to deal with. Only thing I'll say now is that the second Episode will feature the Heroes more prominently and will include the King and a few other familiar faces. That's all there is for now, I'll inform you of any updates. My plans for now are to update this Episode whenever I see a reason to, and to make a few 'Aftermath' maps where you defend Leviathan's old castle against Invasions of Heroes or a band of Keepers. Episode 2 will probably come at some point during the next two years, though I might start with it sooner or later, depending on how I feel about it.


For a later update I might also create text based introductions for levels like Animals or Big Freeze, where I haven't used Mentor speeches for the Intro. A full changelog for each major update will be made available too.



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Video Walkthrough



Though currently unfinished, you can take a look at some strategies for two levels of this campaign here:

Mission 1. Supremacy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frBhjI5a1Rg)

Mission 14. Citizen Erased A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frBhjI5a1Rg&feature=youtu.be)


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Thanks to...



- Rex for the Balancing Patch (http://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=97)
- Decagon for helping me with the map testing (http://keeperklan.com/members/2688-Keeper-Decagon)

Hapuga
June 23rd, 2013, 22:38
This looks really epic. Very good design, has the epicness of large scale that I don't see in new maps any more.

Skarok
June 24th, 2013, 17:17
Thanks! I really took my time with these maps to make them feel like a coherent campaign that brings a few fresh ideas for gameplay into DKII and generally reflects your progress in the later missions. I hope you and everyone else enjoys playing these maps as much as I did making them. :D Though I have to admit that the AI gave me headaches sometimes.^^

Duke Ragereaver
June 25th, 2013, 11:19
Kudos to you for the epic presentation and design! I will try to find my DK2 disc and get it to work to play this. :)

Skarok
June 30th, 2013, 18:31
Alright, I updated the Download Link. The missions 'Stockholm Syndrome' and 'MK Ultra' are now available, furthermore I improved the AI's on 'Explorers' and Apocalypse Please'. I also gave every LotL a proper name now, the story will be updated accordingly. Make sure to download the updated maps before playing these levels!


Kudos to you for the epic presentation and design! I will try to find my DK2 disc and get it to work to play this. :)

Cool, I hope you'll like the campaign. ;)

Skarok
July 28th, 2013, 14:58
The file is now updated to Version 1.2. No 'new' stuff this time, but I improved a few levels, mainly the first few. Panic Station, Prelude and Follow Me have the biggest changes, with some of them having updated Patch Data which for one thing makes the Monk stronger. As soon as I have time to test the new Values for the other maps I'll have them updated with it for Version 1.3 as well. 1.4 or 1.5 will probably include the Aftermath Maps then, giving you 3 more Levels in total to play. With 32 levels the Campaign will then get no more new additions, but mainly bug fixes or improvements for the existing maps.

Also, any feedback from those who might have played it yet? :)

OneLastBattle
September 20th, 2013, 18:25
I really want to play these maps, but my attempts at playing from the command console aren't working, so included installations/tutorials for that would be great (Specifically, I think it doesn't like the route to my copy of DKII, which is in "Bullfrog Products Ltd")

Skarok
September 22nd, 2013, 11:10
I really want to play these maps, but my attempts at playing from the command console aren't working, so included installations/tutorials for that would be great (Specifically, I think it doesn't like the route to my copy of DKII, which is in "Bullfrog Products Ltd")

Are you using version 1.3 or 1.51? Because this campaign is designed for these versions only, it won't work with 1.6 - 1.8. If yes, try to make a shortcut of your DKII EXE. Edit it and add ' -q -level "LevelName" ' in the Properties, changing "LevelName" to the name of the actual map you want to play. If you are still not sure how to do that I could make a tutorial wioth pictures later today!

OneLastBattle
September 22nd, 2013, 15:44
Are you using version 1.3 or 1.51? Because this campaign is designed for these versions only, it won't work with 1.6 - 1.8. If yes, try to make a shortcut of your DKII EXE. Edit it and add ' -q -level "LevelName" ' in the Properties, changing "LevelName" to the name of the actual map you want to play. If you are still not sure how to do that I could make a tutorial wioth pictures later today!

Nevermind, it turns out my DK2 folder was called "Dungeon Keeper 2" not "Dungeon Keeper II" -_-

Btw, could you convert the old campaign to 1.3 as well? I tried to, but the best I could manage was it running about 2 seconds ingame before crashing.

Skarok
September 22nd, 2013, 16:07
You mean the Draraks Empire campaign? Honestly, I'm not sure if I even wanted to convert it to 1.3 in its current state as it has a lot of flaws due to me not being that experienced in map-making back then when I made these maps. If I were to convert it I'd need to update quite a few things which would take me some time. Especially now since I'm already working on a full Expansion pack for DKII which will be even more extensive than the Kasabian Campaign, if not only for the way I have to design the Campaign for it. I might have some time to redo the DE maps once I'll have the Demo for the Expansion Pack released though!

Shonji
November 14th, 2013, 10:10
Hey Skarok

I am new to these forums from an account standpoint, but been here for maps in the past. I loved your Draraks Empire campaign, it certainly added a lot of challenge, mainly the last 2 levels, I still have yet to beat the final level after dozens of attempts. After playing all of them so many times, I blow through them left and right, but still love them.

I just recently came back into playing DK2 after a break of it and came back here and saw you had this new campaign(I know it isn't technically new, seeing as its been up for quite a few months, but new since I last looked here) It looks very interesting and I could so enjoy a new challenge, but I am not very computer savvy. It may be sad compared to what other people can do, but the most complex thing I can do is just adding maps into the game.

So I was wondering if you could make some sort of tutorial for us kind of idiots that have next to no computer logic whatsoever that want to play this, as well as other maps.

Mainly the 2 problems I seem to have no luck finding a solution to are these-
1. I have the GoG version of DK2 which is version 1.7, is there any way I can erase said version and go back to 1.3? Or better yet, have both available and choose which one you want to play in.(I read that 1.3 is vastly more challenging due to smarter AI vs the braindead one in 1.7, but at the same time there is a lot of maps that seem to only work in 1.7) Just curious if that 2nd option is possible. I am stuck on this part already since in Rex's patchnotes it says it will 100% not work in 1.7, so I am already screwed there lol.

2. What does the commando line mean, and how does it work? I think this is the cmd, but not entirely sure. If that is the case, what do you do in there to load these maps and actually play them?


I am sorry in advance if there is some thread that discusses these topics but I haven't had any luck finding any within the last hour or so of looking. Even if I did, chances are I wouldn't understand it easily. Thank you Skarok or anyone else if your able to help this sad DK fan get this up and running. Very much appreciated.

Skarok
November 14th, 2013, 19:38
Hey Skarok

I am new to these forums from an account standpoint, but been here for maps in the past. I loved your Draraks Empire campaign, it certainly added a lot of challenge, mainly the last 2 levels, I still have yet to beat the final level after dozens of attempts. After playing all of them so many times, I blow through them left and right, but still love them.

Hey Shonji, glad you liked my older campaign! Looking back I think there are a lot of things I could've done better with it, which I tried to do with this campaign, but I'm glad that there are people enjoying it nontheless!



I just recently came back into playing DK2 after a break of it and came back here and saw you had this new campaign(I know it isn't technically new, seeing as its been up for quite a few months, but new since I last looked here) It looks very interesting and I could so enjoy a new challenge, but I am not very computer savvy. It may be sad compared to what other people can do, but the most complex thing I can do is just adding maps into the game.

So I was wondering if you could make some sort of tutorial for us kind of idiots that have next to no computer logic whatsoever that want to play this, as well as other maps.

Are you talking about mapmaking or how to play the campaign? If it's the latter, you pretty much do the same thing you'd do with Skirmish maps. Simply transfer all the map files into your map folder. The only difference then is how you access them, as you won't be using the Skirmish menu for this. You boot up each individual map via a DKII shortcut with a commando line added to it.



1. I have the GoG version of DK2 which is version 1.7, is there any way I can erase said version and go back to 1.3? Or better yet, have both available and choose which one you want to play in.(I read that 1.3 is vastly more challenging due to smarter AI vs the braindead one in 1.7, but at the same time there is a lot of maps that seem to only work in 1.7) Just curious if that 2nd option is possible. I am stuck on this part already since in Rex's patchnotes it says it will 100% not work in 1.7, so I am already screwed there lol.

Well, as far as 1.3 goes, you can get it here (http://keeperklan.com/threads/128-Download-Dungeon-Keeper-2-v1-3-here?highlight=version+1.3). You can't really 'downgrade' from 1.7 to an earlier version, but there isn't really a need to, as you can keep multiple copies of DKII, as long as you install them on different paths and keep the folders separated. I have something like 7 different DKII folders myself.^^

Note that it may say that the links are removed, but the attachment to a 1.3 version is still there. I will keep this campaign exclusive to version 1.3 for now for various reasons, I'm not even sure if it'd work with 1.7 anyways. Still, since most people bought DKII on GoG nowadays anyways I don't see what's wrong about downloading a game you already bought, especially if you consider that you can't downgrade to 1.3 and 1.7 is pretty much a flawed version.

If Hapuga really decides to remove that link as well I'll link to an uploaded 1.3 version of my own copy, or maybe I'll even have my Expansion Pack released by then, which will come with it's own 1.3 game folder.


2. What does the commando line mean, and how does it work? I think this is the cmd, but not entirely sure. If that is the case, what do you do in there to load these maps and actually play them?

Well, basically you just have to right click on a DKII shortcut and go to the properties. Then you can add commando lines behind the path, which should be something like "C:\Users\Ryan\Desktop\Dungeon Keeper 2\DKII.exe" Note that I have my DKII folder on my desktop, the path will be different if you have your folder somewhere else. In the end it doesn't really matter where it is though, as long as you write in the right commando lines.

For booting up SP maps which the ones of this campaign are, add the following: ' -q -level "LevelName" ' in the Properties, changing "LevelName" to the name of the actual map you want to play. And remove the ' 's in front of the -q and after the LevelName".

Shonji
November 14th, 2013, 20:37
Thanks for the help, I think I understand now. If you could add your link to 1.3, that would be great. I tried the one you linked, as well as the General Improvement Mod and neither work at all. The 1.3v link I can load into the game, but as soon as I get to the main menu, it just crashes to desktop. As for the Mod, I can get into the game and it works, but 80% of the screen is just black.

Trying to figure out how to get 1.3v working.

Skarok
November 14th, 2013, 20:55
Alright, gimme a moment to upload it. Btw, I think you can fix most black screen or crashing problems by turning off Hardware Acceleration and using the NVidia Control Panel to turn down the Antialiasing of the game.

Shonji
November 14th, 2013, 21:16
Yeah, you are right. I turned off Hardware Acceleration and loaded into one of the default skirmish maps and that ended up fixing it. Now its a matter of getting Rex's Patch working now. Then I can finally add this gem of yours after.

Also wanted to ask if your Drarak's campaign works in 1.3? I remember your thread saying you would try and convert it to 1.3. Want to see how much different they are compared to 1.7 if it works.

Not surprisingly I ran into a problem, I can't seem to add in anymore maps than the default 4 in 1.3. I tried adding your draraks campaign to see if they would even show up in-game, and they wouldn't even do that. I can get the game to run if I use Autorun, but if I actually try to use the DKII.exe that is right under Autorun, it crashes upon loading the main menu. I am thinking this is the reason none of the maps are showing.

I am still trying to see if I can get it to work, but no idea really what to do.

Skarok
November 14th, 2013, 21:58
Well, about the DE Campaign... I wanted to convert it to 1.3 last year, but I ran into loads of problems with my unstable 1.3 copy at that time, so I never really got that far with it. Technically I could convert it now, but if I were to do that I'd like to change and fix a few things before I release it, which would take up some time. On top of that I'm still improving the Kasabian Campaign and working on an Expansion pack, so it could take some time until I get around to finish up a polished version of it. One more thing I'd really have to do is to fix up my horrible grammar of the other thread.^^

Btw, here's the link to the 1.3 version: http://www.mediafire.com/?676m5h7rz33xmz2

Metal Gear Rex
November 14th, 2013, 22:06
Not surprisingly I ran into a problem, I can't seem to add in anymore maps than the default 4 in 1.3. I tried adding your draraks campaign to see if they would even show up in-game, and they wouldn't even do that. I can get the game to run if I use Autorun, but if I actually try to use the DKII.exe that is right under Autorun, it crashes upon loading the main menu. I am thinking this is the reason none of the maps are showing.

Are you trying to run the maps via Skirmish menu? If so, that's not the way to go about it. I don't think the maps are set up to be played from that but even if you could, you shouldn't. The Kasabian Campaign uses custom settings for the AI in order for it to function properly and provide an appropriate challenge. Setting up AI in the Skirmish menu will overwrite the AI settings on the map.

Shonji
November 14th, 2013, 22:47
That is where I was messing up, I was thinking that was the case.

Just put your patch in and Skarok's Kasabian Campaign in, now to get these to work.


I was able to get your first level to work, thank you both for the help, I am sorry if I was a pain in the ass. But I still have one more problem. Its the screen being all black again, I was able to fix that when I in the main menu, but here when it goes right to the map, I can't figure out how to actually see.

Skarok
November 14th, 2013, 23:14
Hm, did you turn Hardware Acceleration off in the main menu? That usually fixes the black screen problem for me. If that doesn't work, try setting the Antialiasing to 0.

Shonji
November 14th, 2013, 23:21
I did that when it lets me go to the main menu and that works, but it seems to reset and turn back on when I close the game. That is the part that confuses me.

I will try setting Antialiasing to 0

Metal Gear Rex
November 15th, 2013, 00:19
That is where I was messing up, I was thinking that was the case.

Just put your patch in and Skarok's Kasabian Campaign in, now to get these to work.

I was able to get your first level to work, thank you both for the help, I am sorry if I was a pain in the ass. But I still have one more problem. Its the screen being all black again, I was able to fix that when I in the main menu, but here when it goes right to the map, I can't figure out how to actually see.

Actually you don't need to download my patch at all. Skarok merely states that his campaign uses the settings and balance created from my patch, but all of the configurations are limited to the levels you apply it to. You can download Skarok's campaign and just play it as it'll already have the patch applied to it, and it won't effect any other part of the game.


I did that when it lets me go to the main menu and that works, but it seems to reset and turn back on when I close the game. That is the part that confuses me.

I will try setting Antialiasing to 0

I have the same problem, actually. It's weird, because I never had that problem with my 1.3 folder, but after installing the General Improvement Mod, I began getting that issue. I don't know why. Try removing that folder or something. I can't guarantee a fix though, as I haven't tried it myself.

Shonji
November 15th, 2013, 00:33
I ran into the same problem even in my 1.3 folder. Still the same thing. I am done messing with it for the night, will mess around with it more tomorrow and see if I can get it to work. I will just see how the campaign is like with 1.5v and the changes you made. Hopefully it isn't a joke like the last 100 times I beat it.

Metal Gear Rex
November 15th, 2013, 01:10
I ran into the same problem even in my 1.3 folder. Still the same thing. I am done messing with it for the night, will mess around with it more tomorrow and see if I can get it to work. I will just see how the campaign is like with 1.5v and the changes you made. Hopefully it isn't a joke like the last 100 times I beat it.

I hope you're good at timing your Lightning and your Heals.

Skarok
November 15th, 2013, 18:23
I ran into the same problem even in my 1.3 folder. Still the same thing. I am done messing with it for the night, will mess around with it more tomorrow and see if I can get it to work. I will just see how the campaign is like with 1.5v and the changes you made. Hopefully it isn't a joke like the last 100 times I beat it.

Well, as I said, changing the Antialiasing setting usually fixes all the screen errors. Unless that Improvement Mod really screws something up with the game, but I'm not sure how that'd work, as it's applied to a 1.7 version of DKII and shouldn't really affect 1.3. Might still be worth a shot to remove it to see if it makes any difference.

Shonji
November 15th, 2013, 20:31
Well, as I said, changing the Antialiasing setting usually fixes all the screen errors. Unless that Improvement Mod really screws something up with the game, but I'm not sure how that'd work, as it's applied to a 1.7 version of DKII and shouldn't really affect 1.3. Might still be worth a shot to remove it to see if it makes any difference.

Yeah, turns out it is the Improvement Mod, Anti-aliasing is already on lowest setting. So without being able to get to the main menu, it won't work. Once I finish this improved campaign I am going to wipe that version of dk2 and try again on 1.3

Skarok
November 15th, 2013, 20:50
Ah, I see. Figured it must've been something like that. Anyways, depending on how long that'll take you I might have the next update finished anyways, so you'd have a bunch of more fixes for the maps. Just gotta remember what changes I wanted to make, then it should be done fairly fast.


Also, as an announcement: I scrapped the idea of 3 Aftermath maps and will only do one, which will be fairly long and will play out as a mix of a MPD map, and a normal Campaign one. From the length it'll take at least as long as the normal RBS Campaign mission and will be the last level I'll add to this particular campaign, excluding possible releases of MP Coop maps based on this campaign that i already have lying around. I was also planning of making a walkthrough series of all the maps for people who might have problems with certain missions, or for people who just like to watch DKII videos in general. If anyone's interested, that is.

Skarok
November 17th, 2013, 11:00
Alright, I did some minor bug fixes and updated the campaign to version 1.3.1!

I hope I can finally update all levels with the new patch values with the next version, but I'll have to see if I have enough time to test everything. Until then just remember: When you start a map, save the game and then exit, start it with the exact same shortcut you used last time if you want to load said save (So if you played Supremacy, use the shortcut you made for that particular level again). This is because there are basically two patch values for all the levels and one of them has the Elite Vampire as Mana Generator, while the other one has the Elite Dark Angel. If you load up a map with a different patch value than you had before, it'll use the globals from that map and might cause some heavy gameplay problems for the AI.

Shonji
November 18th, 2013, 13:32
I myself have the same problem with the black screen from hardware acceleration getting reset every time the game is restarted. I don't know what causes it myself. I just go to options and untick hardware acceleration every time I start the game and bear it. I've been assuming it was something to do with Windows 7 or patch 1.51 and I've had that on my list to fix sometime in the future.

I didn't really think about whether I was the only one that had the issue before now.

I've tried editing the Windows registry settings but that didn't really improve anything.

I looked up many troubleshooting guides to fix the DK2 black graphics issues and I found them all useless for me.

It's actually good to know that other people have the same issue.

It might also have something to do with the 4 gigabyte patch being applied to the game. I will have to check that, I guess.

EDIT:

By the way I can't even get 1.3 to work so, I can't really compare that to 1.51 to see if it has the same problem. And I'd rather play DK1 than use DKII executable version 1.7.

That is where I am stuck at as well, while I would love to play this campaign, since I just finished Rex's patched one, I just can't get it to work, on 1.51 or 1.3. The game is in a more working state for me in the 1.51v so I will just stick to that.

Skarok
November 18th, 2013, 14:19
Are you unable to get 1.3 to work or just the campaign itself? If it's the latter, maybe you're doing something wrong with the shortcuts. If it's the latter, try removing the Improvement Mod, as it seems to cause problems with 1.3. After that try changing the Anialiasing setting to something else, I recall having mine on 2 or 0.

Shonji
November 18th, 2013, 14:52
Are you unable to get 1.3 to work or just the campaign itself? If it's the latter, maybe you're doing something wrong with the shortcuts. If it's the latter, try removing the Improvement Mod, as it seems to cause problems with 1.3. After that try changing the Anialiasing setting to something else, I recall having mine on 2 or 0.

I got it to work, it wouldn't with with the other 1.3v. But the one you uploaded it works perfectly with. Looking forward to these levels now that I can play them.

Shonji
November 19th, 2013, 18:07
Have to say, so far I am loving this campaign. I am on Follow me right now and I got to say, this is nuts. Each of these levels you need to do the right thing to win or else it is very difficult if not impossible to win, and I love it.

I will say though that Prelude is the most unfair level I have seen so far. I had to skip this level since I just can't downright win it, the northern keeper is tougher than you in all aspects, and you have heroes kicking you in from behind as well. I am not even kidding when I say I lost that level a good 20 times already, all within roughly 10-20 minutes into the map. Even when I do loads of traps, the northern keeper always is able to overrun me. You can't rush them, you can't turtle and pray you knock out a lot of his creatures. I just have no idea how to beat him, I can see the rest of the level being vastly more doable once he is dead. My guess is you need to use boulders against them, but with little gold available, you can barely make a few without having 0 gold leftover. Not even Survival was as nuts even though its 3 on 1, since you could knock out one of the keepers pretty much almost instantly and the 2nd one can be killed not too much later.

Any tips for Prelude? I hate skipping over levels, moreso when this is meant to be played like a campaign, but I would have been stuck on it for days now otherwise.

Skarok
November 19th, 2013, 19:01
Well, I wouldn't say there is just one way to win these levels. Especially on Supremacy, Madness, B&H and Survival you can win by lots of different approaches, I remember Rex, Decagon and me doing lots of different stuff to win each level. Panic Station also gives you numerous ways on how to play the level, though the most obvious and easiest one would probably be to stick with your Reapers. But even with that, I think I made this campaign pretty difficult, as I also intended to give myself a challenge with some of the maps. This is mostly reflected by the extremely aggressive and dangerous Keeper AI.

How did the other levels play out for you? I remember Butterflies and Hurricanes can become pretty difficult if you fall for certain feints of your rivals.

For Prelude, I remember Rex having some problems with the green Keeper while Decagon and I had a pretty easy time defeating him. I think it mostly depends on what tactics you use. Actually attacking him yourself is pretty difficult, the most important thing is that you have to actually wear him out before you go after him. Decagon managed to do that by building trap rooms to gradually weaken his army. I prefer the approach by opening up to his little lake. Then I build numerous doors, so he needs multiple attacks to actually reach my dungeon. Since his army will never arrive with full capacity at the same time i's pretty easy to take out a few creatures at the time. If you manage to capture some high level units, try to convert him. You should do the same with the Heroes, or if there's really no time to convert them, heal them, up and drop them to slow down Green's attacks.

After some time he shouldn't have much left do defend himself with, that's the point when you strike. First try to take his Portal, then the library for the CTA spell. After that he shouldn't last for too long and you'll be able to deal with the Heroes and the remaining Keepers. Good luck!

Shonji
November 19th, 2013, 19:59
Well, I wouldn't say there is just one way to win these levels. Especially on Supremacy, Madness, B&H and Survival you can win by lots of different approaches, I remember Rex, Decagon and me doing lots of different stuff to win each level. Panic Station also gives you numerous ways on how to play the level, though the most obvious and easiest one would probably be to stick with your Reapers. But even with that, I think I made this campaign pretty difficult, as I also intended to give myself a challenge with some of the maps. This is mostly reflected by the extremely aggressive and dangerous Keeper AI.

How did the other levels play out for you? I remember Butterflies and Hurricanes can become pretty difficult if you fall for certain feints of your rivals.

For Prelude, I remember Rex having some problems with the green Keeper while Decagon and I had a pretty easy time defeating him. I think it mostly depends on what tactics you use. Actually attacking him yourself is pretty difficult, the most important thing is that you have to actually wear him out before you go after him. Decagon managed to do that by building trap rooms to gradually weaken his army. I prefer the approach by opening up to his little lake. Then I build numerous doors, so he needs multiple attacks to actually reach my dungeon. Since his army will never arrive with full capacity at the same time i's pretty easy to take out a few creatures at the time. If you manage to capture some high level units, try to convert him. You should do the same with the Heroes, or if there's really no time to convert them, heal them, up and drop them to slow down Green's attacks.

After some time he shouldn't have much left do defend himself with, that's the point when you strike. First try to take his Portal, then the library for the CTA spell. After that he shouldn't last for too long and you'll be able to deal with the Heroes and the remaining Keepers. Good luck!

Let's see....

In Supremacy, I took out the Blues one lair that was out in the open, and both his training rooms, then attacked from both sides that are a straightaway to his dungeon heart, I had I believe 9 or 10 biles demons as well as a good amount of freeze traps on the one side with his entire army which held them off for a while, the other side was salamanders and goblins that went for his heart.

Madness I was able to build a mini base right next to his, moved all my creatures there, built about 10 sentry traps, and had one massive battle, the sentry put in work now which I like, before they were junk. After the massive battle I pulled back, only lost like 4 or creatures while he lost about 20 heroes, then once I was fully healed I attacked again, this time I overrun him and killed him.

Panic Station I had 4 lvl10 Reapers from constant fights with the Blue Keeper, I had about 15 skeletons, 2 mistresses and about 10 knights and guards, which were all 6-9s. Blue was the weaker one due to our fights, sent my 4 Reapers in and killed his army since they were mostly all just lvl 1-3s. Killed him, Green was the tough one, used my entire army on him, Only my 4 Guards survived the fight and killed him.

Prelude as you know I have yet to win.

Survival the first time I did it I didn't kill either of the weaker keepers fast enough and all 3 attacked me and easily overran me. The 2nd try I practically rushed the weakest which I believe was Green, he won the first battle we had since I only had a few creatures, but I went at him again almost instantly and beat him, I built a lot of traps in the southern area of my dungeon, expecting Blue to come, and he did, right into them, My traps held off his first attack, and that was all the time I needed to go 100% all out on Yellow and while I took a lot of damage, losing half my army, I dropped Yellow, at that point it was won already.

B@H I didn't find difficult at all, in fact, this is my favorite map of all. knew the general areas of all the keepers and just linked them both together with each other pretty much. I linked Blue and Yellow together, with Blue narrowly beating Yellow, then dropped a bunch of bile demons and imps to reclaim the bridge and sell it to prevent blue from taking yellow's dungeon. Blue shortly after killed Yellow and I linked myself to Yellow's dungeon and found that Blue already pulled all his troops out by hand, so I took Yellow's base. Blue kept his Cta at the other side of the lava river from the bridge scuffle and never moved it. I figured I could either brute force it, which I believe I could have won, or went sneaky. I found where Purple and Green's bases were, and ended up linking Blue and Green to Purple's base. The combined forces of those two killed Purple, but I had 5 of my salamanders attack Blue's heart while he was away, he never attempted to stop me, so I killed Blue, and Green finished Purple at the same time. I then just had one massive battle at Green's heart room. The battle lasted a good 10 minutes but I ended up having a few warlocks and bile demons survive and killed Green. By far my favorite level.


Yeah seems like boulder/door was what was needed for me, 4 braced doors+boulders were more than enough to drop all but a few elves and bile demons of his army, at that point I converted most of his troops, and turned the weak ones into skeletons and threw them back at him. I took his portal afterwards but I have to say, he lasted a very long time under the assault. My entire army of like 20 at that point was in his dungeon and his few bile demons and elves took 10 minutes before finally going down and I could finally kill him.

I haven't beat the level yet but restarted a few times to see something. Blue Keeper doesn't mind gold at all. In my current save and all other retries they just take out the southern part of the hero fort and stop doing anything. They have a good amount of gold near there base, some in plain sight IN their base. But their imps won't dig it. I am wondering if he is meant to do this or not. I was planning on linking him to Purple but seeing how weak he is, it may as well be better to brute force him and claim his 2 portals, and finally take Purple out. It just surprises me since he was very offensive in the beginning, then just stops doing everything.

Skarok
November 21st, 2013, 19:35
Sorry for the late reply, I've been really busy the past few days. Anyways, here we go.




In Supremacy, I took out the Blues one lair that was out in the open, and both his training rooms, then attacked from both sides that are a straightaway to his dungeon heart, I had I believe 9 or 10 biles demons as well as a good amount of freeze traps on the one side with his entire army which held them off for a while, the other side was salamanders and goblins that went for his heart.

Weird, something must have gone wrong with the latest update. Normally you can only get 3 or 4 Bile Demons and Salamanders aren't even supposed to be available before Madness.



Madness I was able to build a mini base right next to his, moved all my creatures there, built about 10 sentry traps, and had one massive battle, the sentry put in work now which I like, before they were junk. After the massive battle I pulled back, only lost like 4 or creatures while he lost about 20 heroes, then once I was fully healed I attacked again, this time I overrun him and killed him.

I'm surprised you had the time to do this, to my experience Green always progressed to far for me to have time to start a flank attack once I've dealt with the Heroes. I'm sure that this one of the rather quick strategies, as you don't have to withstand her constant attacks and have to deal with the reonforcments she gets.


Panic Station I had 4 lvl10 Reapers from constant fights with the Blue Keeper, I had about 15 skeletons, 2 mistresses and about 10 knights and guards, which were all 6-9s. Blue was the weaker one due to our fights, sent my 4 Reapers in and killed his army since they were mostly all just lvl 1-3s. Killed him, Green was the tough one, used my entire army on him, Only my 4 Guards survived the fight and killed him.

If you only had 4 Guards left after Green died, how did you survive the Hero Invasion after that?



Survival the first time I did it I didn't kill either of the weaker keepers fast enough and all 3 attacked me and easily overran me. The 2nd try I practically rushed the weakest which I believe was Green, he won the first battle we had since I only had a few creatures, but I went at him again almost instantly and beat him, I built a lot of traps in the southern area of my dungeon, expecting Blue to come, and he did, right into them, My traps held off his first attack, and that was all the time I needed to go 100% all out on Yellow and while I took a lot of damage, losing half my army, I dropped Yellow, at that point it was won already.

Rushing Green is a tactic I like to use as well. He might be tough if you attack right away, but he surely can be beaten. I'm surprised you attacked Blue after that though. Yellow usually starts with her Invasion soon after Green, while Blue gets really powerful and becomes more of a late game enemy due to his powerful forces. I guess dealing with him first can make things somewhat easier in that regard though, if you don't happen to get invaded by Yellow while you clear out his dungeon.


B@H I didn't find difficult at all, in fact, this is my favorite map of all. knew the general areas of all the keepers and just linked them both together with each other pretty much. I linked Blue and Yellow together, with Blue narrowly beating Yellow, then dropped a bunch of bile demons and imps to reclaim the bridge and sell it to prevent blue from taking yellow's dungeon. Blue shortly after killed Yellow and I linked myself to Yellow's dungeon and found that Blue already pulled all his troops out by hand, so I took Yellow's base. Blue kept his Cta at the other side of the lava river from the bridge scuffle and never moved it. I figured I could either brute force it, which I believe I could have won, or went sneaky. I found where Purple and Green's bases were, and ended up linking Blue and Green to Purple's base. The combined forces of those two killed Purple, but I had 5 of my salamanders attack Blue's heart while he was away, he never attempted to stop me, so I killed Blue, and Green finished Purple at the same time. I then just had one massive battle at Green's heart room. The battle lasted a good 10 minutes but I ended up having a few warlocks and bile demons survive and killed Green. By far my favorite level.

Ah yeah, I like to use that tactic as well. :D I love putting enemies against each other in general, that's why I designed this level to give you plenty of opportunities to do so. As I can see you had quite an interesting outcome due to that in the end.




I haven't beat the level yet but restarted a few times to see something. Blue Keeper doesn't mind gold at all. In my current save and all other retries they just take out the southern part of the hero fort and stop doing anything. They have a good amount of gold near there base, some in plain sight IN their base. But their imps won't dig it. I am wondering if he is meant to do this or not. I was planning on linking him to Purple but seeing how weak he is, it may as well be better to brute force him and claim his 2 portals, and finally take Purple out. It just surprises me since he was very offensive in the beginning, then just stops doing everything.

Weird. Blue usually mines out all the Gold he can get to. Of curse not everything at the same time, but enough to keep him afloat. Does he only have level 1's around? Because usually, whilst still being more of a minor opponent at this point, he should have a rather well trained army at his disposal. I even saw him fighting Purple over a longer period of time once where he actually managed to defacto 'beat' him in combat. He didn't kill him, but Purple's army was in a really bad shape whilst Blue had a bunch of high level creatures.

Anyways, it's been a few days now, did you manage to beat Prelude or Follow Me?

Shonji
November 21st, 2013, 22:45
Weird, something must have gone wrong with the latest update. Normally you can only get 3 or 4 Bile Demons and Salamanders aren't even supposed to be available before Madness.

I hope this works properly, anyways. Yeah I had like 8 Biles Demons and a few Salamanders, Blue also had a ton of Bile Demons too.


I'm surprised you had the time to do this, to my experience Green always progressed to far for me to have time to start a flank attack once I've dealt with the Heroes. I'm sure that this one of the rather quick strategies, as you don't have to withstand her constant attacks and have to deal with the reonforcments she gets.

Green DID have all the reinforcements, they had like I believe 35-40 units on their side, they were advancing up to about midway through the hero fortress, and I did the other half. Then I was able to dig all the way around into their area. I am sure I took a while, but I guess I was fast enough before they attacked me, since they never once attacked me other then my assault on them.


If you only had 4 Guards left after Green died, how did you survive the Hero Invasion after that?

Traps....lots and lots and lots and lots and ermm whats the word? Ahh yeah lots. lol I kid you not I had tons, they were meant to beat the crap out of Blue and Green but they died before they got to them. They wiped out a lot of the Heroes and then I was going nuts with my Guards lol. I also kinda abused Possession since I didn't think I would win if I didn't :(


Rushing Green is a tactic I like to use as well. He might be tough if you attack right away, but he surely can be beaten. I'm surprised you attacked Blue after that though. Yellow usually starts with her Invasion soon after Green, while Blue gets really powerful and becomes more of a late game enemy due to his powerful forces. I guess dealing with him first can make things somewhat easier in that regard though, if you don't happen to get invaded by Yellow while you clear out his dungeon.

Nah, I killed Green then attacked Yellow, Blue was the final Keeper left. He just wasn't that much a threat at that point when I have my own dungeon + both of theirs and all the goodies. Blue didn't go down easily, but he didn't have a chance.


Ah yeah, I like to use that tactic as well. :D I love putting enemies against each other in general, that's why I designed this level to give you plenty of opportunities to do so. As I can see you had quite an interesting outcome due to that in the end.

Yep :D To be honest I don't think I could have taken Green or Purple if I fought them myself, they have some pretty scary armies.


Weird. Blue usually mines out all the Gold he can get to. Of curse not everything at the same time, but enough to keep him afloat. Does he only have level 1's around? Because usually, whilst still being more of a minor opponent at this point, he should have a rather well trained army at his disposal. I even saw him fighting Purple over a longer period of time once where he actually managed to defacto 'beat' him in combat. He didn't kill him, but Purple's army was in a really bad shape whilst Blue had a bunch of high level creatures.

I beat the level a few times now, Once Green is out of the picture, the level becomes INCREDIBLY easy. And yeah, every time Blue was completely useless. I saw Blue and Purple do a few skirmishes, with them both fairly even, but then Blue kept always derping out and just stopped mining, every time I killed Blue, they had lvl1s and some times they didn't even have the full 25 creatures, I swore once or twice they had like 10.


Anyways, it's been a few days now, did you manage to beat Prelude or Follow Me?

I am out Take A Bow and Hysteria right now. Follow Me I lost twice on not knowing what to do, but on the third try I had a good idea. I released the 2 northern hero groups as well as the Lotl one and they were enough to totally destroy Nexus's army. All the Heroes ended up dying in the attack but so did all of Nexus's, Ironically the Lotl got stuck in a wall midway through Nexus's dungeon so I easily killed him on my way to the heart and killed that easily when all he had was lvl1s vs my small but decent trained army of 6-7s.

Animals and Explorers I don't even wanna talk about.....let's just say I lost about the same amount of times as Prelude before winning ONCE. Grand Keepers are insane, and this was the easiest one....I don't wanna picture the others.

Darkshines was very easy. I just had one big battle with Blue and won and that was that. He was even easier than the Keeper in Supremacy.

Skarok
November 22nd, 2013, 00:16
I hope this works properly, anyways. Yeah I had like 8 Biles Demons and a few Salamanders, Blue also had a ton of Bile Demons too.
Hm, weird. Something must've gone wrong while updating the Patch values. I'll have to look into this later.



Green DID have all the reinforcements, they had like I believe 35-40 units on their side, they were advancing up to about midway through the hero fortress, and I did the other half. Then I was able to dig all the way around into their area. I am sure I took a while, but I guess I was fast enough before they attacked me, since they never once attacked me other then my assault on them.

Do you mean that no Hero Parties really went after you? Did you attack them before their dwarves breached your dungeon? Because I kinda made a secret passage into the Hero area and if you open up there instead of the normal area it should be in theory possible to avoid most of their attacks altogether. Plus you'd be closer to Green right off the bat. I'm not sure whether the attacks would actually stop, as I never really tested this. i think the Hero Parties start spawning once you killed that one Wizard, but I don't remember whether he's set to attack you no matter what, or only after you kill that special Elven Archer.


Traps....lots and lots and lots and lots and ermm whats the word? Ahh yeah lots. lol I kid you not I had tons, they were meant to beat the crap out of Blue and Green but they died before they got to them. They wiped out a lot of the Heroes and then I was going nuts with my Guards lol. I also kinda abused Possession since I didn't think I would win if I didn't :(
Well, to be honest, the Invasion is supposed to come off as a surprise. And considering that the map starts out with putting you against two Keepers, Players would usually thing that the game ends after the second Keeper dies, so they'd be more reckless here. After that they'd really have to try everything they can to slow down the massive Invasion at the end that doesn't just go after their main dungeon but destroys the newly claimed rooms from Green and Blue as well.



Nah, I killed Green then attacked Yellow, Blue was the final Keeper left. He just wasn't that much a threat at that point when I have my own dungeon + both of theirs and all the goodies. Blue didn't go down easily, but he didn't have a chance.

Yeah, he's supposed to put up a fight, but should only be a real danger for players who play way too defensively, or those who just rush up to the next Keeper once one of them goes down.


Yep :D To be honest I don't think I could have taken Green or Purple if I fought them myself, they have some pretty scary armies.

Well, they are the most dangerous Keepers on the map after all. Sometimes they engage each other and fight for supremacy over the eastern area of the map, in that case you might just stand a chance by pressuring one side until the Keeper falls, but generally it'll either end up with one of them winning eventually. However, if you took out Blue and Yellow first you should have quite a force under your command yourself, in which case you'd be able to go toe on toe with them.


I beat the level a few times now, Once Green is out of the picture, the level becomes INCREDIBLY easy. And yeah, every time Blue was completely useless. I saw Blue and Purple do a few skirmishes, with them both fairly even, but then Blue kept always derping out and just stopped mining, every time I killed Blue, they had lvl1s and some times they didn't even have the full 25 creatures, I swore once or twice they had like 10.

Weird, Blue usually handles himself pretty well in my experience. I just tested it and he was doing rather well. However, even with Blue being rather dull, I hope Purple did up a fight for you at least. Unless you really convert everything his army should normally be about equal to yours.


I am out Take A Bow and Hysteria right now. Follow Me I lost twice on not knowing what to do, but on the third try I had a good idea. I released the 2 northern hero groups as well as the Lotl one and they were enough to totally destroy Nexus's army. All the Heroes ended up dying in the attack but so did all of Nexus's, Ironically the Lotl got stuck in a wall midway through Nexus's dungeon so I easily killed him on my way to the heart and killed that easily when all he had was lvl1s vs my small but decent trained army of 6-7s.

Ah yeah, that's pretty much how the map usually plays out. Sometimes however Nexus manages to repel the Heroes while keeping some of his creatures alive. Due to that I usually try to sneak into his dungeon while he is in his major fight with the LotL and his cronies.

Have fun with Hysteria btw! The Keepers there can be quite dangerous, especially the longer the game takes. Same for TaB. Even though they don't really expand too much there, they can become quite dangerous if they start attacking you before you're ready. Although this level is one of the easier ones I would say. Especially because you can take your time with everything.


Animals and Explorers I don't even wanna talk about.....let's just say I lost about the same amount of times as Prelude before winning ONCE. Grand Keepers are insane, and this was the easiest one....I don't wanna picture the others.

Oh yeah, Animals can be quite difficult if you don't watch out for Hades and let him take over the other dungeons. Especially if he cuts you off from the gems or the two Portals from Yellow. The others don't necessarily have a stronger and bigger force, but their tactics will differ from Hades a lot. On Explorers I guess the explorer groups that were circling around your dungeon were causing problems.^^ Or the fairy attacks, as they can be pretty good Vampire killers.


Darkshines was very easy. I just had one big battle with Blue and won and that was that. He was even easier than the Keeper in Supremacy.

Huh, that is surprising. While it's possible for him to be rather slow at times he will usually build up his army way faster than you, especially because you have to research most stuff first in this level. He also enjoys using rather confusing tactics, I even have a recording where he totally managed to outwit me by fooling me with a 'feint attack'

Shonji
November 22nd, 2013, 04:34
Do you mean that no Hero Parties really went after you? Did you attack them before their dwarves breached your dungeon? Because I kinda made a secret passage into the Hero area and if you open up there instead of the normal area it should be in theory possible to avoid most of their attacks altogether. Plus you'd be closer to Green right off the bat. I'm not sure whether the attacks would actually stop, as I never really tested this. i think the Hero Parties start spawning once you killed that one Wizard, but I don't remember whether he's set to attack you no matter what, or only after you kill that special Elven Archer.

Hero Parties attacked me, I wiped out half the hero fortress, up until the midway area where there is soft rock to break that can lead you into her section of the map. I was getting hit by Giant attacks every now and then from that one gate in the middle that couldn't be destroyed, but they were hardly a threat. She was having a hard time taking out the last Gate that was still Hero controlled, which gave me enough time to build a small fort and ambush her, which worked very effectively.


Well, to be honest, the Invasion is supposed to come off as a surprise. And considering that the map starts out with putting you against two Keepers, Players would usually thing that the game ends after the second Keeper dies, so they'd be more reckless here. After that they'd really have to try everything they can to slow down the massive Invasion at the end that doesn't just go after their main dungeon but destroys the newly claimed rooms from Green and Blue as well.

It did catch me offguard xD I was thinking the level would end when Green died, he did and it didn't end. Then I notice a lot of heroes, but that was the area I placed about 50+ traps in to keep Blue and Green out from going into my dungeon. I think it was just pure chance that was also the area the sneak attack happened.


Well, they are the most dangerous Keepers on the map after all. Sometimes they engage each other and fight for supremacy over the eastern area of the map, in that case you might just stand a chance by pressuring one side until the Keeper falls, but generally it'll either end up with one of them winning eventually. However, if you took out Blue and Yellow first you should have quite a force under your command yourself, in which case you'd be able to go toe on toe with them.

Yeah in my case, other than when I forced them all to fight, they all stuck to their own sections. On a few reloads when Yellow actually managed to beat Blue, I noticed Purple troops were there as well, so I guess they dug into each other, but other than that, they all were defensive.


Weird, Blue usually handles himself pretty well in my experience. I just tested it and he was doing rather well. However, even with Blue being rather dull, I hope Purple did up a fight for you at least. Unless you really convert everything his army should normally be about equal to yours.

Blue was doing well up until about the point I wiped out the eastern side of the hero fort and Blue and Purple wiped out the western side entirely. I watched a few battles of them to duking it out and Blue dished out just as much damage as they took. But then just nothing, they stopped digging gold any their troops started getting pissed and ended up leaving. Purple kept attacking me because of my annoying ass Rogue, until I got tired of him and turned him into a Skeleton, on my first win I tried attacking before killing Blue and well...I took out about half Purple's army, but I lost just about everything I had. Thankfully Blue was weak and had very little creatures so the few survivors I had were enough to kill Blue. With 2 more portals and a few converted weaklings that I could buff up and some Skeleton fodder, I had about 60 vs their 45ish. It wasn't a cakewalk, but I overran Purple.


Ah yeah, that's pretty much how the map usually plays out. Sometimes however Nexus manages to repel the Heroes while keeping some of his creatures alive. Due to that I usually try to sneak into his dungeon while he is in his major fight with the LotL and his cronies.

Yeah, on the first few tries I threw one hero wave at a time at him, which Nexus easily was able to smash. It took about 4 tries to realize I should get each pillar to 1 wall left, then break a couple at once, so I ended up doing the Lotl as well as the two frontal ones and I won at that point.


Have fun with Hysteria btw! The Keepers there can be quite dangerous, especially the longer the game takes. Same for TaB. Even though they don't really expand too much there, they can become quite dangerous if they start attacking you before you're ready. Although this level is one of the easier ones I would say. Especially because you can take your time with everything.

Hysteria is the part I am stuck at now, Little gold and having them all pounding on you often becomes too much. TaB was easy for me, but I also took a risk. I built a temple and graveyard 5x5 and got a lot of Dark Angels as well as Reapers and Vampires. Had 6/2/8 of them all and got them all to 5, then attacked Yellow. I think Blue was the weaker one, but Yellow for some reason seemed easier. So I attacked them, downright slaughtered their army, they had lvl6s and 7s, but First Class creatures are tough lol. At that point I had a gem, Built up army and just went for Purple, didn't bother with Blue. They were stupid and dropped their entire army right on top of my army so I killed 90% of them before they really even started attacking. The only part that scared me was when they sudden got a large group of creatures, I saw some level 10s in there that worried me, that small group wiped out about half of my army, but it was in the heart room so while they killed a lot of my army, the other half killed the heart. Was a fun level, but liek you said, pretty easy.


Oh yeah, Animals can be quite difficult if you don't watch out for Hades and let him take over the other dungeons. Especially if he cuts you off from the gems or the two Portals from Yellow. The others don't necessarily have a stronger and bigger force, but their tactics will differ from Hades a lot. On Explorers I guess the explorer groups that were circling around your dungeon were causing problems.^^ Or the fairy attacks, as they can be pretty good Vampire killers.

Every single time....Hades killed Gregory or Green Keeper, in turn totally cutting me off from Blue, which had the gems....The time I finally won, Hades attacked, wiped out Green's army, I killed Green and very fast set up a Secret door right next to Greens old Lair. That stopped Hades for now, I then went to Yellow which I found to be incredibly easy. But then I started running into money problems, and I didnt go far enough in Green's dungeon to dig to them. I was able to claim a few tiles ahead, and Baracade myself before Hades's Imps got to me, did that twice and was able to dig and kill Blue. I ended up assaulting Hades up his western path and that was a brutal fight, I swear he had like 30 Skeletons.... I am glad that level is done with is all I can say.


Huh, that is surprising. While it's possible for him to be rather slow at times he will usually build up his army way faster than you, especially because you have to research most stuff first in this level. He also enjoys using rather confusing tactics, I even have a recording where he totally managed to outwit me by fooling me with a 'feint attack'

His base and troops were all 5s and 6s, and I noticed he had like 7 Reapers which scared me, but he never attacked me, I ended up doing a couple Magic Doors and behind one of them were 5 Boulders, got him to drop his entire army in front of the Magic door, sold it, and 5 Boulders later, he had barely anyone alive. Boulders are very nice now :)

I am currently on Citizen Erased, doing F version first, I find this one to be the most interesting to start with, will take me a while to get through all of these. As for Big Freeze, I literally did nothing and both Keepers died. I am just building up my base and watching my creatures train, and I hear that Lucifer has died, I laugh and keep going on. Then I hear that Harken died as well. At that point I was cracking up to the max. Both keepers dead and I didn't even need to lift a finger. Once I got access to the Gem, I once again went almost all First Class creatures and easily wiped out the Heroes.

Skarok
November 22nd, 2013, 15:57
Yeah in my case, other than when I forced them all to fight, they all stuck to their own sections. On a few reloads when Yellow actually managed to beat Blue, I noticed Purple troops were there as well, so I guess they dug into each other, but other than that, they all were defensive.

I also had runs where Yellow attacked Purple, even though she normally attacks me. The map can play out somewhat random, but not as much as Citizen Erased.


Blue was doing well up until about the point I wiped out the eastern side of the hero fort and Blue and Purple wiped out the western side entirely. I watched a few battles of them to duking it out and Blue dished out just as much damage as they took. But then just nothing, they stopped digging gold any their troops started getting pissed and ended up leaving. Purple kept attacking me because of my annoying ass Rogue, until I got tired of him and turned him into a Skeleton, on my first win I tried attacking before killing Blue and well...I took out about half Purple's army, but I lost just about everything I had. Thankfully Blue was weak and had very little creatures so the few survivors I had were enough to kill Blue. With 2 more portals and a few converted weaklings that I could buff up and some Skeleton fodder, I had about 60 vs their 45ish. It wasn't a cakewalk, but I overran Purple.

Well, then it seems like everything worked out as I intended too, aside from Blue's AI messing up. Purple is supposed to be strong, but if you convert some Heroes and take the portals of the other Keepers you should be slightly stronger than him.


Yeah, on the first few tries I threw one hero wave at a time at him, which Nexus easily was able to smash. It took about 4 tries to realize I should get each pillar to 1 wall left, then break a couple at once, so I ended up doing the Lotl as well as the two frontal ones and I won at that point.

Ah, so I guess you fought off the Heroes that went after you and then killed Nexus. I usually start with my sneak attack through the sides of his dungeon while he's still fighting, so I usually have to hope my traps can keep them away for long enough.



Hysteria is the part I am stuck at now, Little gold and having them all pounding on you often becomes too much.

My tips would be to claim all the gold to the east of your dungeon on Yellow's island as quick as possible before he takes it and then to launch an attack on Purple's outpost. After that I'd take down Yellow, followed by Green. (Which will most likely lead you to Purple again, as he likes to rush in for the portal of his dead ally). Avoid contact with Blue at all costs, don't anger him until the others are dead! Keep your Heroes alive and explore to find some more. They're superior to their creature counter parts and will be a great help with dealing with bigger forces. If Green or Yellow should try to attack you at some point, be sure that it'll be a tough fight. If you think victory is impossible, try to intercept his troops before they reach the CTA at your dungeon and sacrifice some minions to keep the fight somewhat away from your dungeon until the other Keeper removes his flag. A few traps on the surrounding areas are a good idea to keep your domain more secure from these raids. You should also play fairly aggressive and secure as much Gold as possible. You don't want to run out of it before at least four Keepers are dead.



TaB was easy for me, but I also took a risk. I built a temple and graveyard 5x5 and got a lot of Dark Angels as well as Reapers and Vampires. Had 6/2/8 of them all and got them all to 5, then attacked Yellow. I think Blue was the weaker one, but Yellow for some reason seemed easier. So I attacked them, downright slaughtered their army, they had lvl6s and 7s, but First Class creatures are tough lol. At that point I had a gem, Built up army and just went for Purple, didn't bother with Blue. They were stupid and dropped their entire army right on top of my army so I killed 90% of them before they really even started attacking. The only part that scared me was when they sudden got a large group of creatures, I saw some level 10s in there that worried me, that small group wiped out about half of my army, but it was in the heart room so while they killed a lot of my army, the other half killed the heart. Was a fun level, but liek you said, pretty easy.

I'm surprised you managed to defeat Purple here without taking the portal from Blue. Did you use the stuff from the Hero cavern? The thing that makes this level so easy is that you have basically all the time in the world to deal with Purple if you want to, so you can just prepare everything until you're absolutely 100% ready. I knew this would make it somewhat easy, but it's also ho I intended the map to play out.


Every single time....Hades killed Gregory or Green Keeper, in turn totally cutting me off from Blue, which had the gems....The time I finally won, Hades attacked, wiped out Green's army, I killed Green and very fast set up a Secret door right next to Greens old Lair. That stopped Hades for now, I then went to Yellow which I found to be incredibly easy. But then I started running into money problems, and I didnt go far enough in Green's dungeon to dig to them. I was able to claim a few tiles ahead, and Baracade myself before Hades's Imps got to me, did that twice and was able to dig and kill Blue. I ended up assaulting Hades up his western path and that was a brutal fight, I swear he had like 30 Skeletons.... I am glad that level is done with is all I can say.

I usually attack Green at that long hallway as soon as I see Hades attack his outpost and seal it off with a Secret Door. In theory you could also attack him yourself and seal the place off before Hades attacks, but it's a bit easier to just wait until Hades deals with his creatures.
However, this most likely leads to him building up his huge shock troop division of Skeletons and Vampires. You said you attacked from the west, so I guess you saw his huge Prison and Graveyard complex? :D

Btw, what happened on Explorers? You said you found it to be almost as difficult as Animals?



His base and troops were all 5s and 6s, and I noticed he had like 7 Reapers which scared me, but he never attacked me, I ended up doing a couple Magic Doors and behind one of them were 5 Boulders, got him to drop his entire army in front of the Magic door, sold it, and 5 Boulders later, he had barely anyone alive. Boulders are very nice now :)

Hm, investing in Boulders would certainly be useful here. In the video I mentioned he totally tricked me to build all my defenses on the East of my dungeon with a quick diversion with dozens of Salamanders, and when they were build he just came directly from the North and bypassed them completely, ultimately bringing me down very very quick. I could upload it if I can find it again.


I am currently on Citizen Erased, doing F version first, I find this one to be the most interesting to start with, will take me a while to get through all of these.

Ah Citizen Erased, the probably most random maps in the campaign! The AIs will react completely different almost every time you play the level. Plus I think it's the only map I've got that features 5 different Keepers. (Albeit one will be the replacement for another on different map variants). How's it going with this map?



As for Big Freeze, I literally did nothing and both Keepers died. I am just building up my base and watching my creatures train, and I hear that Lucifer has died, I laugh and keep going on. Then I hear that Harken died as well. At that point I was cracking up to the max. Both keepers dead and I didn't even need to lift a finger. Once I got access to the Gem, I once again went almost all First Class creatures and easily wiped out the Heroes.

Huh, weird. The first Keeper to move into the lake gets attacked by the Hero Invasion. Whilst they both most likely survive this, it's very possible one of them might actually fall if the Heroes catch him unprepared. No idea why the other one died as well, though I suspect that Harken did breach the fortress and got his as kicked by the Lotl and his troops. Eventually they must have followed him back to his DH I guess. Seems like you got really lucky, as this is a pretty dynamic map. Pretty much anything can happen, so it's actually possible that the next time you play it, Lucifer manages to conquer the Heroes and maybe even Harken.

Shonji
November 22nd, 2013, 17:27
My tips would be to claim all the gold to the east of your dungeon on Yellow's island as quick as possible before he takes it and then to launch an attack on Purple's outpost. After that I'd take down Yellow, followed by Green. (Which will most likely lead you to Purple again, as he likes to rush in for the portal of his dead ally). Avoid contact with Blue at all costs, don't anger him until the others are dead! Keep your Heroes alive and explore to find some more. They're superior to their creature counter parts and will be a great help with dealing with bigger forces. If Green or Yellow should try to attack you at some point, be sure that it'll be a tough fight. If you think victory is impossible, try to intercept his troops before they reach the CTA at your dungeon and sacrifice some minions to keep the fight somewhat away from your dungeon until the other Keeper removes his flag. A few traps on the surrounding areas are a good idea to keep your domain more secure from these raids. You should also play fairly aggressive and secure as much Gold as possible. You don't want to run out of it before at least four Keepers are dead.

I will try that this time around when I go back to it.


I'm surprised you managed to defeat Purple here without taking the portal from Blue. Did you use the stuff from the Hero cavern? The thing that makes this level so easy is that you have basically all the time in the world to deal with Purple if you want to, so you can just prepare everything until you're absolutely 100% ready. I knew this would make it somewhat easy, but it's also ho I intended the map to play out.

I think the only reason I won was because while he had about 50 creatures vs the like 35 I had, he dropped them on top of my entire army, so I killed about 30 of them before they even got up, I also had an entire army of all First Class creatures which I am sure played a huge factor. And no, I didn't bother with the Hero Cavern. I built a few doors and an alarm trap incase they dug out of their area, but they never did. I got my Vampires and Skeletons from killing my Goblins and Salamanders and a few Vampires from the Portal.


I usually attack Green at that long hallway as soon as I see Hades attack his outpost and seal it off with a Secret Door. In theory you could also attack him yourself and seal the place off before Hades attacks, but it's a bit easier to just wait until Hades deals with his creatures.
However, this most likely leads to him building up his huge shock troop division of Skeletons and Vampires. You said you attacked from the west, so I guess you saw his huge Prison and Graveyard complex? :D

Yes.....yes I did. I understood how he had so many now. There was like fking 6 4x4 Prisons and I saw about 3 4x4 Graveyards. I am like..........wow. At least Skeletons die fast, so once they were all gone, it was an even fight, it was a pain doing those battles to get the Skeletons killed though.


Btw, what happened on Explorers? You said you found it to be almost as difficult as Animals?

Skeletons.....Skeletons are the reason it was annoying. They kept charging outside my base and drew the attention of the large Hero party. I tried doing doors and traps, but the small parties that attacked kept breaking them all. Not to mention Vampires suck pretty badly before lvl3 or 4 when they learn drain, doesn't help when I see them die in a single fight.


Hm, investing in Boulders would certainly be useful here. In the video I mentioned he totally tricked me to build all my defenses on the East of my dungeon with a quick diversion with dozens of Salamanders, and when they were build he just came directly from the North and bypassed them completely, ultimately bringing me down very very quick. I could upload it if I can find it again.

That would be funny to watch, but yeah in my case he never did anything, he just was training and built a massive Casino.


Ah Citizen Erased, the probably most random maps in the campaign! The AIs will react completely different almost every time you play the level. Plus I think it's the only map I've got that features 5 different Keepers. (Albeit one will be the replacement for another on different map variants). How's it going with this map?

So far I have beaten F and B. In F I literally did next to nothing in F. Loki kept attacking me but I kept slaughtering his troops since ranged units and pretty tough now. And Astarte was the main powerhouse in this map. They killed Baal and Moloch. Never bothered me which was funny. During an assault Astarte had on Loki, I got right next to their heart without gettign noticed and started to attack it, Astarte finally tried to defend it after a while but it was already too late, the heart was at the very critical state (<10%) so I killed it before they did much. Then I just killed Loki which had nothing left from the attack from Astarte.

In B I think the thing that save me was 4 Magic doors in a row. The creatures have a hard time getting close enough to hit it, and they never usually have enough damage to destroy one until ranged fighters get close. Baal died first by Astarte again, but luckily I snatched a few Heroes from him before dying, a Guard,Knight,Elf. I was hoping he would live longer so I could take more, since I got rid of my Mistresses and went full Hero army. After that, all 3 Keepers were going after me, but like I said, Magic Doors are amazing. They kept holding them back and all their armies kept killing each other trying to get to my doors. Astarte almost got me since she managed to break down all 4 doors, but thankfully my blockers were able to keep them in the small corridor and my ranged units took them out fast. I rebuilt my Magic doors right as Astarte started to attack me again. At this point I had a little surprise for her. While she was busy trying to break my doors, I made a small little trap fortress right next to her heart. Busted the walls down and dropped everything I had right in her heartroom. She tried to counterattack but all the sentries and lightning traps made short work of her army while I beat her heart down. Once she finally died I more or less won, with 3 dungeons under my control, I just went all out on Loki since he was the next threatening, I lost most my Heroes in the fight with him but still managed to kill him, then just put a Cta on Moloch's heart and watched as my creatures beat into him, he was able to hold out for a while but my first big attack on him took out most of his army, and with 4 portals spitting out troops, even if lvl1, they eventually overhelm his last few defenders.


Huh, weird. The first Keeper to move into the lake gets attacked by the Hero Invasion. Whilst they both most likely survive this, it's very possible one of them might actually fall if the Heroes catch him unprepared. No idea why the other one died as well, though I suspect that Harken did breach the fortress and got his as kicked by the Lotl and his troops. Eventually they must have followed him back to his DH I guess. Seems like you got really lucky, as this is a pretty dynamic map. Pretty much anything can happen, so it's actually possible that the next time you play it, Lucifer manages to conquer the Heroes and maybe even Harken.

I turned the reveal all cheat on to watch what was going on once I heard the Lotl freaking out. Lucifer broke out first, and it was early too, I think I was only like 5-10 minutes into the map, and a good 30 something Heroes attacked him. He had no chance in hell, only a few Wizards and Elves died in the battle. Then Harken broke out while the Heroes were going back to the castle and they saw his imps trying to dig the gold near my dungeon(Which I found funny since he had about 200-300k worth of gold near him) So they started to attack him, he beat the attack but lost like 5 of his 10 DA's. Then I just went back to my own dungeon, and like 20 minutes later I hear massive battle music, I look around and like you said, the entire inner fortress of Heroes were attacking Harken, he got beaten in the battle, took a good amount of the Heroes with him, but not enough, they eventually got to his heart. I just found it funny how it went from a 2 keeper enemies to just the Lotl and I didn't do a thing.

Skarok
November 22nd, 2013, 18:49
Skeletons.....Skeletons are the reason it was annoying. They kept charging outside my base and drew the attention of the large Hero party. I tried doing doors and traps, but the small parties that attacked kept breaking them all. Not to mention Vampires suck pretty badly before lvl3 or 4 when they learn drain, doesn't help when I see them die in a single fight.

Ah, I see. That's why I keep my Skeletons in a Guard Room and try to have as few entrances into my dungeon as possible. The Vamps are actually not that hard to train up imo, there are enough low level Heroes around and with the Protect spell it's hard to lose them there. The explorer groups are a different thing though, as are the Fairy attack groups. If I recall correctly their attacks were more than enough to take out a high level vamp if they teamed up. How did it go with the two Keepers btw? I remember Kimaris being somewhat of a slog with his Inferno spell, but rather manageable while Malphas could really mess you up if you didn't capture the other Portals before confronting him.


That would be funny to watch, but yeah in my case he never did anything, he just was training and built a massive Casino.

I think I could upload it later today.


In B I think the thing that save me was 4 Magic doors in a row. The creatures have a hard time getting close enough to hit it, and they never usually have enough damage to destroy one until ranged fighters get close. Baal died first by Astarte again, but luckily I snatched a few Heroes from him before dying, a Guard,Knight,Elf. I was hoping he would live longer so I could take more, since I got rid of my Mistresses and went full Hero army. After that, all 3 Keepers were going after me, but like I said, Magic Doors are amazing. They kept holding them back and all their armies kept killing each other trying to get to my doors. Astarte almost got me since she managed to break down all 4 doors, but thankfully my blockers were able to keep them in the small corridor and my ranged units took them out fast. I rebuilt my Magic doors right as Astarte started to attack me again. At this point I had a little surprise for her. While she was busy trying to break my doors, I made a small little trap fortress right next to her heart. Busted the walls down and dropped everything I had right in her heartroom. She tried to counterattack but all the sentries and lightning traps made short work of her army while I beat her heart down. Once she finally died I more or less won, with 3 dungeons under my control, I just went all out on Loki since he was the next threatening, I lost most my Heroes in the fight with him but still managed to kill him, then just put a Cta on Moloch's heart and watched as my creatures beat into him, he was able to hold out for a while but my first big attack on him took out most of his army, and with 4 portals spitting out troops, even if lvl1, they eventually overhelm his last few defenders.

Looks like you had quite some fun in B. Getting all the Keepers to attack you certainly makes things interesting, especially when you prepared yourself for a siege. :D


I turned the reveal all cheat on to watch what was going on once I heard the Lotl freaking out. Lucifer broke out first, and it was early too, I think I was only like 5-10 minutes into the map, and a good 30 something Heroes attacked him. He had no chance in hell, only a few Wizards and Elves died in the battle. Then Harken broke out while the Heroes were going back to the castle and they saw his imps trying to dig the gold near my dungeon(Which I found funny since he had about 200-300k worth of gold near him) So they started to attack him, he beat the attack but lost like 5 of his 10 DA's. Then I just went back to my own dungeon, and like 20 minutes later I hear massive battle music, I look around and like you said, the entire inner fortress of Heroes were attacking Harken, he got beaten in the battle, took a good amount of the Heroes with him, but not enough, they eventually got to his heart. I just found it funny how it went from a 2 keeper enemies to just the Lotl and I didn't do a thing.

Huh, Lucifer never attacked that soon into the game for me. If he really attacks as early as ten minutes into the game, he will obviously get destroyed. Harken tends to go after the southern Gold depot you start off with, no idea why he does this sometimes. Usually he'll use his CTA to clear out the Heroes, but if Lucifer really died that soon, I can see them being powerful enough to push Harken off.

Shonji
November 22nd, 2013, 19:29
I don't think Lucifer was attacking, I think he was mining the gold on the edge and one of the hero slow cannon saw his imps, thus sealing his fate. Harken never attempted to fight back the heroes really other than when it was too late. I redid the level and this time neither of them came out of their areas. This will make a more interesting challenge. I just find it funny they both derped badly and died for it.

I jumped ahead to Save Me and I find this level pretty easy so far, we both killed Green keeper after a few assaults from Lillith and i finally attacked when she did as well. Now that I have a gem I am just going to sit back and watch her and Bune duke it out. The way I see it, I am unsure what would be better for me. To fk Lillith over and hope she dies, or help her kill Bune, only for her to turn on me. I am feeling I shoudl let Lillith die since she is closer to me and Creatures are more threatening to me then Skeletons which die easily and Vampires which I could just use the water against them.

Still getting my ass kicked in Hysteria, that one might take me a while to master, it seems like the instant I take Purple's outpost with the portal. EVERYONE freaks out and goes all out on me. The last few times I restarted when I saw everyone's Cta at my heart and watched as 100s came at me.

Curious to see how Stockholm Syndrome will play out. From what your little description of it says. It is basically another Madness. Wonder what the surprise is.



Ok I am wondering, Green Keeper died to the Lotl and his heroes in Stockholm, I am wondering if I should count that as a win or not lol. I heard a massive battle going on, then the screen just went black as if I won.

Keeper_Dave
November 22nd, 2013, 21:46
Hey Skarok,

This is amazing, so much work went in to this. Can't thank you enough. Playing these levels is like I've never played the game before, bravo.

I want to ask you what you think of my set up, and if it's OK for your campaign. I'm using the newest GOG version of DKII (version 1.7), with the newest GIM (http://keeperklan.com/threads/3417-General-Improvement-Mod-A-New-Unofficial-Patch-for-DK2/page7?p=44600&viewfull=1#post44600) (General Improvement Mod). The GIM apparently reverts DKII back to version 1.5, and I can verify that by the beefed up Keeper AI.

So do you think this will work as long as it's v1.5? The AI in your campaign seem to be extremely competent.

My other question is: Even if I load the maps via the command line, will the "Improvements" in the GIM mess with your map's custom settings?

I'm using the GOG version and GIM as a workaround only because I simply CAN'T get the stand alone version of DKII to work, even the one you linked to, it just crashes at the menu on open every time.

Thanks for your time (and tech support!)
Dave

Shonji
November 22nd, 2013, 22:08
Hey Skarok,

This is amazing, so much work went in to this. Can't thank you enough. Playing these levels is like I've never played the game before, bravo.

I want to ask you what you think of my set up, and if it's OK for your campaign. I'm using the newest GOG version of DKII (version 1.7), with the newest GIM (http://keeperklan.com/threads/3417-General-Improvement-Mod-A-New-Unofficial-Patch-for-DK2/page7?p=44600&viewfull=1#post44600) (General Improvement Mod). The GIM apparently reverts DKII back to version 1.5, and I can verify that by the beefed up Keeper AI.

So do you think this will work as long as it's v1.5? The AI in your campaign seem to be extremely competent.

My other question is: Even if I load the maps via the command line, will the "Improvements" in the GIM mess with your map's custom settings?

I'm using the GOG version and GIM as a workaround only because I simply CAN'T get the stand alone version of DKII to work, even the one you linked to, it just crashes at the menu on open every time.


Thanks for your time (and tech support!)
Dave

I had the same problem in the past. GIM won't work, I tried for a couple days trying to get it to work.

Skarok
November 22nd, 2013, 22:20
I jumped ahead to Save Me and I find this level pretty easy so far, we both killed Green keeper after a few assaults from Lillith and i finally attacked when she did as well. Now that I have a gem I am just going to sit back and watch her and Bune duke it out. The way I see it, I am unsure what would be better for me. To fk Lillith over and hope she dies, or help her kill Bune, only for her to turn on me. I am feeling I shoudl let Lillith die since she is closer to me and Creatures are more threatening to me then Skeletons which die easily and Vampires which I could just use the water against them.

Yeah, Green is only really a problem if you chose not to ally with Lillith. As to whether you want to help her or not... well it depends really. Sometimes it'll be easier to deal with Buné after their fight, but sometimes Lillith might become a pretty big threat to you. It can go both ways really. If you're lucky they'll both be rather weak after their confrontation though, in that case it should be pretty easy to win. Also, make sure to look for the Hidden Realm extra for MK Ultra! ;)


Still getting my ass kicked in Hysteria, that one might take me a while to master, it seems like the instant I take Purple's outpost with the portal. EVERYONE freaks out and goes all out on me. The last few times I restarted when I saw everyone's Cta at my heart and watched as 100s came at me.

Weird. Though I have noticed that the AIs on Hysteria seem to be very passionate about aiding their allies when they are in their need. Like they actually communicate with each other and try to help others in danger out. No idea why they do this on just this map though.



Curious to see how Stockholm Syndrome will play out. From what your little description of it says. It is basically another Madness. Wonder what the surprise is.

Oh, Stockholm Syndrome certainly has a few surprises. Especially the area were most of the fighting with Damballa will happen is pretty interesting. ;)




Hey Skarok,

This is amazing, so much work went in to this. Can't thank you enough. Playing these levels is like I've never played the game before, bravo.

I have to thank you. :D Always glad when people enjoy my maps!



So do you think this will work as long as it's v1.5? The AI in your campaign seem to be extremely competent.

Honestly, I'm not quite sure. Shonji said he had a lot of problems trying to get it working with that. However, I'd suggest you just copy the files over into your game and give it a try yourself. Maybe it'll work for you. If not, try using the 1.3 version I linked in this thread.


My other question is: Even if I load the maps via the command line, will the "Improvements" in the GIM mess with your map's custom settings?

Nope, it wouldn't really matter that much, as the level variables and globals are stored separately for each map.


I'm using the GOG version and GIM as a workaround only because I simply CAN'T get the stand alone version of DKII to work, even the one you linked to, it just crashes at the menu on open every time.

Hm, did you try to change the Anti-aliasing setting as I mentioned above? This seems to be a pretty good fix for most of the problems people have with 1.3. Or if you can get into the menu, turning off Hardware Acceleration.

Shonji
November 22nd, 2013, 23:31
I allied with Lillith, together we dropped Green, then I allowed Lillith to fight Bune by herself. She was winning the battle, that was when I started getting sneaky. I noticed as long as 1 or less of your creatures are in her heart room, she is fine. So I got an imp into her dungeon, and a combination of the 1 imp and Tremor, I broke down the wall north of her heart so it was a 5 wide space instead of just 1, then I placed my entire army with Cta in the room above her heart and waited, I saw that Bune was just about to die, and rushed all my troops at her heart. I was hoping she would have left a few creatures behind to finish him, but she didn't. So my army is pounding her heart in when she tried to save herself. Her army was tough but wasn't big anymore due to Bune, so she was able to kill a good chunk of mine but I had more creatures than her so they kept beating the heart until she died. At that point I had to Cta up to Bune and finish him off, his heart literally was in the 0% state. I am laughing that she didn't leave a single creature to hit it one more time...

As for Stockholm, I was surprised. I won the level without really doing anything. When the cutscene that shows that Damballa is attacking the Lotl, I knew those two were battling. What I didn't expect was my screen going dark as if I won. I was just starting to fight the Heroes and apperently the Lotl was able to kill Damballa and that was it. I don't know if this happens often or very rarely, or if something messed up. I was expecting a big battle, but didn't think the Heroes would win lol.

I just attempted Apocalypse Please and.....those two Keepers are brutal. I completed the sub objective to get Kabel to ally with you....only for him to die about 5-10 minutes later due to their combined assault on him. Then they did the same to me and just slaughtered me. Holy crap xD I thought Kabel was really strong, but I guess not strong enough to survive 2 Keepers.

Keeper_Dave
November 23rd, 2013, 09:48
Honestly, I'm not quite sure. Shonji said he had a lot of problems trying to get it working with that. However, I'd suggest you just copy the files over into your game and give it a try yourself. Maybe it'll work for you. If not, try using the 1.3 version I linked in this thread.


Perhaps I should clarify. When I asked "will it work" what I mean is, will the level function properly. The program runs fine, I can load at least the first level, and Rex's campaign replacement levels and any other custom levels. Everything seems to function properly but just worried it won't function like your DKII v1.3. I know the best thing is to get your copy working, I'll give it another shot.



Hm, did you try to change the Anti-aliasing setting as I mentioned above? This seems to be a pretty good fix for most of the problems people have with 1.3. Or if you can get into the menu, turning off Hardware Acceleration.

Yea I saw you mention "setting Antialiasing to 0", where can I set this? I've been using my NVIDIA control panel to tweak the anti-aliasing and threading settings like some have mentioned (http://keeperklan.com/threads/1212-Dungeon-Keeper-II-How-I-got-it-running-with-Hardware-Acceleration-turned-on-in-win7) here but that does not help.
What are the compatibility settings in your link?

Skarok
November 23rd, 2013, 12:09
I allied with Lillith, together we dropped Green, then I allowed Lillith to fight Bune by herself. She was winning the battle, that was when I started getting sneaky. I noticed as long as 1 or less of your creatures are in her heart room, she is fine. So I got an imp into her dungeon, and a combination of the 1 imp and Tremor, I broke down the wall north of her heart so it was a 5 wide space instead of just 1, then I placed my entire army with Cta in the room above her heart and waited, I saw that Bune was just about to die, and rushed all my troops at her heart. I was hoping she would have left a few creatures behind to finish him, but she didn't. So my army is pounding her heart in when she tried to save herself. Her army was tough but wasn't big anymore due to Bune, so she was able to kill a good chunk of mine but I had more creatures than her so they kept beating the heart until she died. At that point I had to Cta up to Bune and finish him off, his heart literally was in the 0% state. I am laughing that she didn't leave a single creature to hit it one more time...


Ah, so you pretty much waited until Lillith lost her use to you before moving in for the kill! :D A pretty good tactic, but depending on how strong her forces are at that point, maybe a pretty risky one. Looks like it worked out fine in your case tgough. Did you find the Hidden Realm special for MK Ultra?


As for Stockholm, I was surprised. I won the level without really doing anything. When the cutscene that shows that Damballa is attacking the Lotl, I knew those two were battling. What I didn't expect was my screen going dark as if I won. I was just starting to fight the Heroes and apperently the Lotl was able to kill Damballa and that was it. I don't know if this happens often or very rarely, or if something messed up. I was expecting a big battle, but didn't think the Heroes would win lol.


Weird, that NEVER really happened to me. And I just tested the map again a few days ago. Are you sure the game didn't just crash? Even if Damballa manages to lose most of his forces in the fight against the Lotl (which he never really did for me), the various traps he has should be more than enough to keep the Heroes out of his dungeon. Actually, I think the Mentor should've said something about you losing to the Heroes, as you only really win this particular level if you kill Damballa, not the Heroes.


I just attempted Apocalypse Please and.....those two Keepers are brutal. I completed the sub objective to get Kabel to ally with you....only for him to die about 5-10 minutes later due to their combined assault on him. Then they did the same to me and just slaughtered me. Holy crap xD I thought Kabel was really strong, but I guess not strong enough to survive 2 Keepers.

Yeah, if they team up, they'll be unbelievable dangerous. :D Whilst Kobal can winn against Blue on his own, he stands no chance against both of them at the same time, even with his army of 1st class units. Depending on whether Blue and Green start attacking together they< might even be able to minimize the loss of their creatures by a lot, which also makes a difference later on. All in all you really need to apply a lot of strategy to bring them down, whilst being careful to never take them on together. They will smite you if you allow them to join their armies!


Perhaps I should clarify. When I asked "will it work" what I mean is, will the level function properly. The program runs fine, I can load at least the first level, and Rex's campaign replacement levels and any other custom levels. Everything seems to function properly but just worried it won't function like your DKII v1.3. I know the best thing is to get your copy working, I'll give it another shot.


Well, if it works fine with the Improvement Patch for you, by all means go use that! That'd probably be easier than to go through all the extra hassle by getting version 1.3 to work. Pretty much the only difference you'll notice is, that with the Improvement Patch basically using 1.51, the AI will use the Combat Pit more actively compared to 1.3. Some Keepers might be a bit more challenging compared to how I tested them in 1.3. Aside from that I don't really see any problems, as the important Data for the levels is stored separately from the rest.



Yea I saw you mention "setting Antialiasing to 0", where can I set this? I've been using my NVIDIA control panel to tweak the anti-aliasing and threading settings like some have mentioned (http://keeperklan.com/threads/1212-Dungeon-Keeper-II-How-I-got-it-running-with-Hardware-Acceleration-turned-on-in-win7) here but that does not help.


I'm not 100% sure as it's been some time since I last did this, but you should find an entry about DKII somewhere, there you have look somewhere under 'Video'. Shonji might actually know more about this as he recently did this while it's been a few years for me.^^

Keeper_Dave
November 23rd, 2013, 18:20
Some Keepers might be a bit more challenging compared to how I tested them in 1.3. Aside from that I don't really see any problems, as the important Data for the levels is stored separately from the rest.


:horny: I guess I'll just let it be then. Thanks again, will be playing these for a while.



I had the same problem in the past. GIM won't work, I tried for a couple days trying to get it to work.


I can outline how I merged the newest GOG DKII (2.0.0.32) with the GIM (0.43B). I didn't follow all the GIM installation instructions. The result is, great stability and it never crashes. I can crank it up to 1024x768 with 32-bit colour settings AND true hardware acceleration, it looks better then EVER. Plus best of all I get the old 1.5 Keeper AI which is much better then 1.7.

Hapuga
November 24th, 2013, 04:28
I can outline how I merged the newest GOG DKII (2.0.0.32) with the GIM (0.43B). I didn't follow all the GIM installation instructions. The result is, great stability and it never crashes. I can crank it up to 1024x768 with 32-bit colour settings AND true hardware acceleration, it looks better then EVER. Plus best of all I get the old 1.5 Keeper AI which is much better then 1.7.

Please do.

Keeper_Dave
November 24th, 2013, 07:05
I don't actually have the GOG version of DK2, so if you will explain how you did this I can add GOG version support to the mod. I only had access to the patch.dll GOG file from the French http://dungeon-keeper.net/ website. Did you have to hack anything in the game installation?


No hacking. I basically installed the new GOG DKII (payed for it), then followed your manual installation instructions, except step 3. Load the DKII.exe, not anything else. Seems to work out of the box like that.

I also add ' -32bitdisplay -32bittextures -nointmouse' to a shortcut.

I can't get anti-aliasing to work however much I try. Even tried editing the config.ini file. Any ideas?

If you encounter a black screen due to the hardware acceleration, this (http://keeperklan.com/threads/1212-Dungeon-Keeper-II-How-I-got-it-running-with-Hardware-Acceleration-turned-on-in-win7) is a work around, but only works if you have a NVIDIA Control Panel as far as I know.

My system is:
win7 pro x64
nvidia geforce GTX 660

Keeper_Dave
November 24th, 2013, 16:02
I have been basing the mod off my old original DKII cd from 1999 for the game and have been reluctant to buy the game from GOG to get fixes for crashes and graphics. So I don't plan on buying the GOG edition unless I absolutely lose patience trying to understand walls of assembly code.

You are braver then I. I have never run an instance of DKII that has not periodically crashed, so that's why I'm so happy to get this to work. Note: The first GOG release of DKII crashed for me, but the newest one (2.0.0.32) does not.

Shonji
November 26th, 2013, 20:12
Finally beat the campaign, it was certainly interesting. I won't lie though, I didn't like the last few levels at all, not so much because of their difficulty, just mainly due to how they were played out. I know that isn't very helpful, its just I can't really explain why I didn't like them. Just something about mainly the last 3 levels just rubbed me the wrong way. Overall it was fantastic though. One of my favorite aspects of the Campaign is how often time, you could replay a level and it would play out differently, I replayed more Citizen Erased levels and they always play out differently each time. One of them Baal didn't actually die first like he always does! I certainly look forward to this Expansion of yours.

One thing I just noticed is how almost every Gem that enemy Keepers control always turn into a normal Gold block when you defeat them. This saddened me when I finally realized it. They are all doable still (besides Hysteria, that is the only level I just can't win) but would be nice if at least the Gold block it turns into is a higher than normal value if doable. Perhaps Gold blocks that were once Gems are 15k gold vs 3k. Nothing game changing but a nice little bonus.

Skarok
December 26th, 2013, 16:47
Amaizing campain so far! great work!

I'm happy that you like it. ; )



Since you start out with just a few rooms and the rest are marked with "?", I assumed that I would unlock these other rooms later in the level.
But when I captured the enemies prison, I still couldn't build one of my own.
Is there something wrong or are the other rooms none-unlockable on this level?

Well, the question mark pretty much means that all of these rooms are researchable. After your warlocks have researched all spells they will continue with the rooms, given that your library still has enough storage. After that they will research the traps and then the spell upgrades last.


And another, perhaps stupid, question.
Many levels has an unlockable magic that looks like a metal cube and is called Chicken spellgrade 2.
I can use it but nothing seems to happen.
That is actually the Protect spell, similar to the one in DKI. When you cast it on one of your creatures it will become impervious to most attacks for a short duration of time. Pretty useful in major engagements.

Metal Gear Rex
December 26th, 2013, 20:29
I've played through the original DK2 campaign about a dozen times but haven't played much skirmish or tried different updates/patches for DK2, but I've noticed that the Dark Mistress is pretty much useless in higher levels since they ONLY use their magic... no regular attacks.
Has this something to do with the required patch or is it a design choice for your campaign?

Dark Mistresses are meant to be a utility type support unit, a disabler. Their Lightning is not designed to deal damage, unlike the Skeleton or Fairy's Thunder spell. Rather, it has a shorter recharge time to be cast more frequently, thus stunning more frequently. Then there's Freeze, which is self explanatory.

Stunned units take bonus damage, so the job of a Dark Mistress is not to deal direct bonus damage but rather to amplify the damage of other units.

Metal Gear Rex
December 27th, 2013, 23:56
Ah yes, I see.
If memory serves, the dark mistress melee attack was almost as powerful as the dark knights in earlier versions.
So imagine my surprise when I send my mistresses to battle and they just stood there, drooling... :)

Thanks for the info, though!

Both Dk1 and Dk2 seem to favor Mistresses quite a bit. Though Mistresses in Dk2 aren't nearly as OP as their Dk1 counterpart if I recall correctly.


Please! What is the ancient secret of getting the warlocks to research rooms?
Giant library with lots of spare room = Check!
A league of warlocks, Lvl5+ working 24/7 = Check!

When they're done with the magic, magic upgrades and workshop items they just quit. "There's nothing left to research"
The locked rooms still have the "?" over them.

You are playing 1.3, right? I recall this happening to me before, but I can't remember the conditions. It either happened because it was a later version of the game, or because there were too many researchable items (Spells, Rooms, and Doors/Traps). Possibly both.

Metal Gear Rex
December 28th, 2013, 03:11
Well, the versions has got me a bit confused actually :P
I have the GOG version, ergo 1.7.

I'm surprised you can play the game at all. I tested my patch with 1.7 and it crashes the game. That is, presuming you tried it with the GOG version before bringing in the GIM.


And then I installed "Rex patch with more balance and pie" to play the Kasabian campaign (The campaign that requires researching rooms), however it's just a modded version of 1.7 if I understand correctly?

No. It isn't a modified 1.7 or anything. Both Skarok and I hate that version of the game. My patch is designed to work with 1.3 and, supposedly 1.51 though I never tested it. My patch is basically modified map data that effects only the given map. All changes are done with the official DK2 map editor. Therefore, you don't actually need to download my patch as the data is already on the Kasabian Campaign map files. I don't even possess the capability to even mod the game as you may think, unfortunately.


When I couldn't research rooms with "Rex's version", I installed "G.I.M. Vers. 0.63". this one -> http://keeperklan.com/threads/3417-General-Improvement-Mod-A-New-Unofficial-Patch-for-DK2
Now, the startup screen says V. 1.5.... So I guess I downgraded?
However, it still doesn't work.

The GIM is essentially a 1.51 version of the game. I don't play it myself though as I really have no reason to use that over my patch for the time being, so I can't really say much beyond that. I'm also inexperienced with 1.51 myself.

Skarok
December 28th, 2013, 22:13
Well, I can only really verify this for 1.3, but neither I nor Decagon had any problems with researching the additional stuff at all. I am not sure why it doesn't work for you, but my best guess is that there is some problem with the different game versions. Wouldn't be the first time that something has been made unavailable in the later versions for no apparent reasons, e.g. the Lotl always dying automatically, even though there was already a toggable option to do that if it was wanted.

Shonji
December 29th, 2013, 01:52
Finally beat the campaign, it was certainly interesting. I won't lie though, I didn't like the last few levels at all, not so much because of their difficulty, just mainly due to how they were played out. I know that isn't very helpful, its just I can't really explain why I didn't like them. Just something about mainly the last 3 levels just rubbed me the wrong way. Overall it was fantastic though. One of my favorite aspects of the Campaign is how often time, you could replay a level and it would play out differently, I replayed more Citizen Erased levels and they always play out differently each time. One of them Baal didn't actually die first like he always does! I certainly look forward to this Expansion of yours.

One thing I just noticed is how almost every Gem that enemy Keepers control always turn into a normal Gold block when you defeat them. This saddened me when I finally realized it. They are all doable still (besides Hysteria, that is the only level I just can't win) but would be nice if at least the Gold block it turns into is a higher than normal value if doable. Perhaps Gold blocks that were once Gems are 15k gold vs 3k. Nothing game changing but a nice little bonus.

I read over what I said here last month and wanted to say what exactly didn't I like so much with the last 3 levels after going back and replaying them. Saying why something didn't feel right isn't helpful, so maybe this would be a better.

Ruled by Secrecy being the last level was expected to be the hardest of them all. I found this level to be extremely lackluster due to how fairly easy it was. Due to Leviaithan's Heart being seperated from the rest of his dungeon. All you have to do is kill off his imps and dwarfs and he will NEVER be able to stop your advances on him. I had a fairly easy time killing his imps and the dwarfs were annoying but they died soon enough, then just carefully claim his dungeon from under him. Due to so many creatures, without no one digging gold, his army ended up leaving and then it is more or less game over. I slowly ended up taking his entire base out from under him and had easily 100-150 creatures 5+. I think I had the largest payday I have ever seen before in this level. With it being 198k, mainly due my need to convert all prisoners I have if I have the time. Personally I find that to always be the best choice no matter the case. Skeletons die easy and are only useful if you can't convert or don't have limitless funds. Vampires I won't even make, only ever through portal. 10 lvl 1 anything is stronger than a single vampire. I love the Vampire the most out of all creatures and I would easily admit that they are worthless unless you can't convert. Even 10 level 1 skeletons have a better use than a single Vampire. This level would have been vastly harder if the Dungeon Heart wasn't blocked off, while the idea is good, it in-fact was the fatal flaw that made the level a joke. Other than that, rest was good.

Isolated System was just easy in my opinion, but that isn't a bad thing either. The last several levels have been brutal so having an easier time is nice, but it felt too easy for being the preultimate level. The possession gimmick was nice, been a while since I actually did possession since I hate that spell, being too broken and unfair. Not much to say about this one since it was fairly straightforward.

Unsustainable I didn't like that neither Keeper were aggressive. Or extremely defensive. You don't have a lot of gold, but more than enough to make a powerful army and Blue is fairly easy to defeat once you fill out your ranks. And Purple was getting attacked by the Heroes so they weakened her a bit so when I attacked, it was easy, even the Heart spawning final wave fell when 40+ troops and beating them down. The heroes were the best part of the level. Which I like since you NEEDED the portals of your enemies to be able to beat them, but it would have been nicer if they didn't fall as easily. Perhaps make Blue vastly more defensive, having a lot more traps to defend himself, or make them attack you fairly early so unless you prepare fairly fast, he would overrun you. Maybe make Purple attacking you instantly after Blue dies, so your still weakened and don't have more creatures yet.

Don't get me wrong. I loved all these levels, but these last few kinda were letdowns compared to some of the earlier levels. I also played each of them several times to see if they weren't just unlucky moments and they all played out fairly similar. Overall this is still a fantastic work and I wouldn't have it any other way :) Just a few minor gripes that could have made some of these final levels even better.



Also on a side note, I noticed I missed Dear Agony while playing through the game, and I can't get into this level. I load into the game like all the other levels, but once the loading screen is finished, it goes back to Desktop. No crash pop-up, just auto-closes. Wanted to know if there is a problem with this level? Wondering if that is the case or if my files for this level are messed up and should reinstall that levels ones again.

Metal Gear Rex
December 29th, 2013, 05:16
I slowly ended up taking his entire base out from under him and had easily 100-150 creatures 5+. I think I had the largest payday I have ever seen before in this level. With it being 198k, mainly due my need to convert all prisoners I have if I have the time.

For information to reference at a later date, I must know how you handled this payday. Call-to-Arms, Prayer and Create Gold, loads of Gold Tiles, Casino, Gem, or a combination of those? Or possibly something else I'm forgetting.

Shonji
December 29th, 2013, 05:58
For information to reference at a later date, I must know how you handled this payday. Call-to-Arms, Prayer and Create Gold, loads of Gold Tiles, Casino, Gem, or a combination of those? Or possibly something else I'm forgetting.

Just a long walk and the 2 gems I stole from the Leviathan. I still had all my creatures living in my section of the map, so they had a bit of a walk to get to the giant treasury, that and the 24 lvl10 Imps teleporting all over the place really ups your gold count fast. I also never allowed them to ever stop mining. I also converted little less than half of his old dungeon into a huge treasury which I think could have held up to a little under 500k. I rarely allow my imps to get to level10 since teleport often gets them killed, but here I allowed it and I noticed how they can spam teleport. Even if the treasury wasn't right next to them and was instead halfway across the map, they still would get there and back to the gem in seconds.

If it wasn't for the teleporting, I am sure this would have been impossible. This actually makes me curious to see if I can break this and get an even higher limit. I failed to capture quite a bunch of creatures. I think if I was successful of grabbing every single one, or took his dungeon slower, I would have had a longer time taking more of his troops. I am curious if there is a limit to the amount you can convert before it won't let you anymore or the game just crashes.

Shonji
December 29th, 2013, 20:03
Thanks guys for all your help!
Still, one more problem though...
As I mentioned in the beginning, my reason for venturing out here to get help was that my warlocks wouldn't research rooms.
Well, I finally got the 1.5 version working, which hopefully would take care of this problem.
However, when running the game I have to go to option and disable hardware acc. to avoid black dots/flickering during gameplay.
This would be fine if you wanna play the main game, but you HAVE to do this every time you start the game.
So when running maps from the Kasabian campaign, ergo directly starting the level from a command line in the shortcut, the hardware option cannot be changed :/

I've tried disabling everything I can in the Nvidia control panel for this particular program and used all the command lines I know in the shortcut settings but still no luck.
Any ideas?

I had the same problem, and from what I have gathered, there is simply no way to fix it. Only way would be if GIM had a function that kept hardware acc. off. If I recall correctly, problem with it is something to do with GIM being based off a disk copy of the game I believe, not the GOG version, since the GOG version is different, they actually tweaked the game to make it more functional.

It will work fine for everything else but sadly it is a no go with command line levels. Did you try installing a 1.3 version? It should work fine and give you better results with the game due to it running better. There is the occasional crash so you want to make sure to save often. I will try finding the link again.


Here it is http://www.mediafire.com/download/676m5h7rz33xmz2/DKII+1.3 Thank Skarok for it :)

Shonji
December 29th, 2013, 21:57
That's too bad :/
I did download a supposed 1.3 version from a torrent link somewhere here on the forum, but it had me quite confused.
The autorun.exe was in Russian and for some reason the game menu said 1.7, and if I remember correctly when I added the Kasabian campaign maps to it, the game wouldn't start at all.

Thank you (and Skarok) for the link! Just downloaded it and will give it a try now!

Edit: Woooho, It worked!
The warlocks are now researching the rooms and all the imps are happy :D
Thank you for all your help!
All of ya!

It is good to see you were successful. Now it is time to kill some Heroes!

Skarok
February 15th, 2014, 11:52
The Campaign has been updated to version 1.3.5 and now features a brand new map, "The Aftermath - Mission 1 Devil in the Details"!

Download it here! (http://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=98)

Some smaller updates have been made as well, but nothing really noteworthy. I'll probably finish a bigger patch at the end of this month which will, most importantly, fix bugs and include an updated lighting system I created for the 'Abbadon Expansion Pack'. Depending on how things go I might add the 2nd Aftermath map as well at that point.


Also, some updates about the second Episode; I have no plans to start working on one yet, as I'm not really working much with DKII at all at this point, and when I do I mostly work on the Expansion Pack or try to improve the already existing maps of the Kasabian campaign. So the soonest I'll probably start working on it would be at the end of this year if anyone is still interested.

Skarok
February 20th, 2014, 21:19
Another update with a change of plans:

I will not be releasing the second 'Aftermath' map this month; instead I will be focusing on patching the existing levels and working on the balancing of a few levels, including 'Ruled by Secrecy', 'Unsustainable' and 'Stockholm Syndrome'.

What I will be adding are more alternative variants of the existing levels with partly vastly different gameplay. Planned for this release are 'Supremacy Revisited' which will be a bigger and more challenging version of 'Supremacy' for those who have already beaten the campaign; an alternative version of 'Butterflies and Hurricanes'; 'Citizen Erased G'; and maybe a slightly different version for both 'Madness' and 'Prelude'.


If everything goes as planned, I will have the update out on the 10th of April. (Yes, some heavy delays compared to the initially planned release)

Celtik
April 6th, 2014, 18:17
Hi Skarok. I just played through the 1st map (Supremacy) and it was absolutely great, very good job. I played it using the GIM v0.95 running DK2 v1.51 and everything was fine.

That first map is really good I can't wait to try the rest.

Csimbi
April 26th, 2014, 11:26
Hi Skarok,
I just played the first map using the GOG.com release.

Great job!

I have created a launcher so one would not have to mess around in the command line.
Place it to the same place as DKII-DX.exe is.
If you're using a different binary, just do a case-sensitive search and replace all for DKII-DX.exe in the command script.
You might want to include it in the next update.

Thanks again!

Done the second and the third maps.
The endgame in the third map was a killer. I did not expect that...
Great job!


Edit
I'm on map 7. Follow me. It never ends.
I banished all keepers, dug every square, but the mission does not end.
Any clues?
Thanks!

Skarok
April 26th, 2014, 21:36
Hi Skarok,
I just played the first map using the GOG.com release.

Great job!

Glad to hear you like it! However, I'm not so sure how the Campaign will work with the GOG version, seeing as it is designed specifically for 1.3. It shouldn't cause any major problems I reckon, aside from the AI being a lot weaker due to the 1.7 bug of it not droping its creatures, but if you should run into any problems or want to play it with the proper AI, you can get version 1.3 here (http://www.mediafire.com/download/676m5h7rz33xmz2/DKII+1.3). ;)


I have created a launcher so one would not have to mess around in the command line.
Place it to the same place as DKII-DX.exe is.
If you're using a different binary, just do a case-sensitive search and replace all for DKII-DX.exe in the command script.
You might want to include it in the next update.

Wow, that's awesome, thanks! I really appreciate it, I had no idea how to even do something like this.^^ I'll be sure to include it within the next update and I'll add your name to the list of contributors.


Done the second and the third maps.
The endgame in the third map was a killer. I did not expect that...
Great job!

Yeah, it was designed to be somewhat of a surprise. I hope it wasn't too bad, though?


Edit
I'm on map 7. Follow me. It never ends.
I banished all keepers, dug every square, but the mission does not end.
Any clues?

Follow Me? You should win after defeating Nexus and killing all the Heroes on the map. Did you leave any of them alive or do you still have some of them in your prisons?


Also, on an unrelated side-note; The reason why I still haven't finished the latest update was that by every single change I make to a map, the AI drastically changes its behavior, even when the updates don't even affect it at all. Since I didn't have much time on my hands and the AI basically forces me to spend quite some time on each map to make them work again as intended, the progress I made has been pretty slow going. I'm not making any promises, but I think I should be able to get a grip on the AI in the later levels of the campaign much easier, so I might be able to release the update at some point during the next month. I'll make a new post once I'm sure I can confidently set a deadline.

I might be able to release the new versions of Supremacy and B&H a bit earlier as a demo version, as I have those maps already finished. Either way, those are assured to be in the next big update, as is Citizen Erased G. The second Aftermath map might take a bit longer, but I'll try to squeeze it in too, if I manage to get it polished in time.


More feedback would be very much appreciated as well! The more feedback I get, the more I can improve the maps per update. And due to the AI I'll have more time to more make bigger changes for the next few updates.

edit: Which will take quite some time, as I am mainly working on the Seats of Power Expansion Pack right now.

Pendanyk
September 5th, 2014, 19:12
Hey!

First of thanks for this great piece of work!

I have a little problem though, or I might just be too bad at playing DK2 (I have only played the original campaign on 1.7 before, so that might be a point :P):
I can't seem to be able to beat the very first level. The other keeper attacks me way too early (especially when I am the one to encounter him with my imps - he attacks with his full strength straight away) with an army that's twice as big and strong as my creatures are (so basically solely his goblin army matches my entire number of creatures, and they're all level 5 compared to my level 1-3 guys...) - I am barely able to dig out my realm and set up a few traps. How am I supposed to win this? Any hints?

Weirdly I had more time in my first try. I was the one to dig into his lair and even then he refused to attack, although I was unable to beat his army at this point. Poor decisions (fighting in range of his turrets with a weaker army, barely any traps, too many entrances...) on my side made me lose that game though when he finally decided to go for my heart.

Sadly I am not able to play with the 1.3 version you have linked in your last post. It crashes right when the loading screen appears on both my systems (Windows 7 64 and 32 Bit). I am using the 1.7 version with the GIM.

Deadworker
November 14th, 2014, 21:09
Hey!

First of thanks for this great piece of work!

I have a little problem though, or I might just be too bad at playing DK2 (I have only played the original campaign on 1.7 before, so that might be a point :P):
I can't seem to be able to beat the very first level. The other keeper attacks me way too early (especially when I am the one to encounter him with my imps - he attacks with his full strength straight away) with an army that's twice as big and strong as my creatures are (so basically solely his goblin army matches my entire number of creatures, and they're all level 5 compared to my level 1-3 guys...) - I am barely able to dig out my realm and set up a few traps. How am I supposed to win this? Any hints?

Weirdly I had more time in my first try. I was the one to dig into his lair and even then he refused to attack, although I was unable to beat his army at this point. Poor decisions (fighting in range of his turrets with a weaker army, barely any traps, too many entrances...) on my side made me lose that game though when he finally decided to go for my heart.

Sadly I am not able to play with the 1.3 version you have linked in your last post. It crashes right when the loading screen appears on both my systems (Windows 7 64 and 32 Bit). I am using the 1.7 version with the GIM.

Hey, i have kinda the same problem, i did also play the normal campaign and some skirmish matches only and did never experience such a difficulty. Would be cool to maybe have some videos or a let's play of kassabian-campaign, showing some average strategies of how to defeat harder enemys and improve my own skill.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Skarok
November 16th, 2014, 04:40
I can't seem to be able to beat the very first level. The other keeper attacks me way too early (especially when I am the one to encounter him with my imps - he attacks with his full strength straight away) with an army that's twice as big and strong as my creatures are (so basically solely his goblin army matches my entire number of creatures, and they're all level 5 compared to my level 1-3 guys...) - I am barely able to dig out my realm and set up a few traps. How am I supposed to win this? Any hints?

Weirdly I had more time in my first try. I was the one to dig into his lair and even then he refused to attack, although I was unable to beat his army at this point. Poor decisions (fighting in range of his turrets with a weaker army, barely any traps, too many entrances...) on my side made me lose that game though when he finally decided to go for my heart.

Supremacy can be a bit tricky if you face the enemy Keeper under unfavorable circumstances. He can get six creatures more than you and can make Skeletons out of yours. On top of that he is also very good ad handling his creatures and won't easily let them be killed. The trick in beating him is to face his army in your own dungeon where you can support your troops with traps, or in a bottleneck position, where his numerical superiority doesn't matter so much. Try to get as many Bile Demons and Trolls as possible to tank his army and get Dark Elves for the killing blows. Once you cut down a good chunk of his army you can attack him head-on.

One more thing that can be helpful is if you only open your dungeon up in one place and try to defend yourself from there. On the other hand if you have more entrances, you might also be able to get him to invade from multiple angles at once, thus limiting the amount of creatures you have to fight at once.


Sadly I am not able to play with the 1.3 version you have linked in your last post. It crashes right when the loading screen appears on both my systems (Windows 7 64 and 32 Bit). I am using the 1.7 version with the GIM.
if 1.3 doesn't work, then 1.7 with GIM is the best alternative. It should play mostly the same, a few minor differences aside.



Hey, i have kinda the same problem, i did also play the normal campaign and some skirmish matches only and did never experience such a difficulty. Would be cool to maybe have some videos or a let's play of kassabian-campaign, showing some average strategies of how to defeat harder enemys and improve my own skill.
.

I actually wanted to do a written walkthrough at some point, detailing some strategies on how to beat each level, but unfortunately I never really got around to do that. Not sure whether I'll do an entire Video Walkthrough, but luckily, I did already record some gameplay from the campaign, which is why I took the freedom to upload it while I'm at it. :D


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTSNsek-dJ4

This is from "Supremacy" and should give all of you who struggle on this level some ideas on how to approach the enemy Keeper.

Crafty
November 18th, 2014, 06:57
Amazing campaign! finished the first mission and went straight into the 2nd one, been playing for around 4-5 hours straight now. I may be addicted to this campaign... :D I'm impressed at the difficulty of your maps, finally I have found a challenge! You made the AI very smart, I wish all maps had your AI from what I've seen so far. So when do you plan on releasing the next episode?

Skarok
November 19th, 2014, 06:36
Glad to hear that you're enjoying it! :D

As for the second Episode, I'll probably start working on it once I'm done with the SoP Expansion Pack. As I don't know how much time that'll take me, I don't really have any exact date in mind. But you can expect it at some point in the future, as I still have plans on doing this project.

Deadworker
November 24th, 2014, 14:42
hey,
does the creatures in kasabian campaign have the stats of the dk2 balance-(and pie-)patch ? would be nice to know what they are capable to.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Metal Gear Rex
November 24th, 2014, 15:28
hey,
does the creatures in kasabian campaign have the stats of the dk2 balance-(and pie-)patch ? would be nice to know what they are capable to.

Greetings, Deadworker.

If I recall correctly, the Kasabian campaign uses super out of date patch data. It uses the first released balance patch I believe.

Skarok
November 24th, 2014, 16:02
Yes that's right, the Kasabian Campaign uses the first release of the Balancing Patch. There is an Excel document included with the download, that lists most of the changes the patch makes. You should be able to get pretty much all relevant information from there!

Deadworker
November 27th, 2014, 01:03
Hey Skarok,

i was able to beat some of the levels yet, skipped others and have arrived on the later levels. there i have a question. is it intended that some rooms aren't buildable? for example i think i couldn't build yet the temple in any level, also very often i couldn't build the combat-pit and were not able to attract any dark knight or dark angel, neither to convert them from the enemy, cause every time i tried they instantly died in torture chamber(also horned reapers, royal guards and i think knights too). I'm in Liquid State now. instead of these rooms in later levels i had questionmarks of which i thought i could research them to get those rooms, but without success only researching most traps(also new ones) and spells(which seem more likely to be just available in certain maps). but the rooms i could not unlock. i thought of converting enemy rooms or gathering special objects to unlock them, also without success. the graveyard instead i could build very early on and in the past levels i also had sometimes the chance to attract reapers.

i ask for that, cause the enemy most time had dark knights or dark angels, while i generally only attracted goblin, warlock, salamander, troll, bile-deamon, dark elf, rouge, skeleton and vampire (as far those rooms were available(most times they were)) and later on 1 or maybe 2 horned reapers per level. also your unit list in the download names a "tali" and the firefly for the first i dont know what it is and the second i never ever saw in the whole campaign.

For what i have read of you and Shonji, i think most of the maps are to difficult for me yet. while on same levels(even later ones) i got pretty far and also could beat some of them, there were others(also earlie ones^^) i had no clue of how to beat to. For now i have learned the worth of some traps and doors, especially freeze trap in combination with barricade and the shooting traps to defend my dungeon, but killing the enemy keepers is most times were i fail and kinda all my minions die. without combat pit my creatures only reach lvl 5 in general, while enemys are most times between 5-10 on heroes as on keepers. i get far in levels in which i have access to the CTA-Spell, prison torture chamber and graveyard to either convert many enemy creatures or build big armies of undead, a gemstone, and at least one lvl A creature to attract as the horned reaper (which saved my ass some times), without these i have a lag of knowledge of how to beat a keeper properply as they have always more portals or creatures and the only way to get a bigger army is through more portals which means to attack a stronger keeper or through masses of undead and converted troops.

So far Big Freeze was my favorite map, i had time to build my dungeon in a very nice position, being able to build up a fortress and to train creatures, while the enemy keepers were busy with the heroes until i was ready to fight them. the only thing for now in every attempt(i had about 5 or 6) on this level, blue got killed by the heroes when he entered them after kinda 10-15 minutes.



Greetings, Deadworker.

Metal Gear Rex
November 27th, 2014, 01:38
also very often i couldn't build the combat-pit and were not able to attract any dark knight or dark angel, neither to convert them from the enemy, cause every time i tried they instantly died in torture chamber(also horned reapers, royal guards and i think knights too).

With the original balance patch, units were divided up by tiers and Black Knights, Dark Angels, Horned Reapers, Vampires, Royal Guards, and Stone Knights were all considered First Tier. I had it set up so that First Tier units could not be converted, as that would bypass the gold cost and time necessary to invest into leveling them.

With the second patch release, I began to move towards the idea of all units being more or less on equal / on the same tier, so all of the above mentioned units ended up being weakened but were otherwise considered normal units. (Well actually the Vampire got buffed since he was quite questionable / weak in the original patch despite being first tier)

As for attracting them, well I'm pretty sure Skarok didn't want them to be available in whatever map so he didn't put any in the creature pool. Just because you have the room doesn't necessarily mean you can get them.


I'm in Liquid State now. instead of these rooms in later levels i had questionmarks of which i thought i could research them to get those rooms, but without success only researching most traps(also new ones) and spells(which seem more likely to be just available in certain maps). but the rooms i could not unlock.

Question mark rooms should be researchable. It might be a bug that they aren't available. I seem to recall one version of DKII that bugged out with researchable rooms, but this is very much a vague memory. It might be that having traps and doors set as researchable in addition to rooms is related to this bug, assuming I'm recalling this bug correctly. Maybe the issue is very simple. You're sure you have enough library space? Researching rooms, traps, and doors also cost library books and thus require extra space.

Are you able to upgrade spells?


i ask for that, cause the enemy most time had dark knights or dark angels, while i generally only attracted goblin, warlock, salamander, troll, bile-deamon, dark elf, rouge, skeleton and vampire (as far those rooms were available(most times they were)) and later on 1 or maybe 2 horned reapers per level.

The AI is quite stupid, so it isn't uncommon to give enemy Keepers some kind of edge so that they may pose a significant challenge. In the original patch, this was quite easily done by granting them access to higher tier units while denying the player access.


also your unit list in the download names a "tali" and the firefly for the first i dont know what it is and the second i never ever saw in the whole campaign.

The document included is actually my old worksheet for the patch before I started using google docs and working with it primarily on there. I gave Skarok the file some time ago and I guess he just packaged it in there, so that's why there's some extra stuff there.

Tali is my super cute Black Knight RP character that I put in for fun. Her stats are in the patch file but she's not really used on any map if I recall. As for the Firefly, his stats are documented because he was in the patch before I decided to add in the Horned Reaper. For technical reasons, I have to sacrifice one creature to be able to turn the Horned Reaper into a normal unit, but I was under the assumption that I could not use elite slots. So for that reason, I sacked the Firefly, which is why you don't see him at all in the campaign. I later learned from Decagon that it was not necessary to sack the Firefly and that I could sacrifice an elite slot, so the Firefly is available in the latest patch release.


For now i have learned the worth of some traps and doors, especially freeze trap in combination with barricade and the shooting traps to defend my dungeon, but killing the enemy keepers is most times were i fail and kinda all my minions die. without combat pit my creatures only reach lvl 5 in general, while enemys are most times between 5-10 on heroes as on keepers. i get far in levels in which i have access to the CTA-Spell, prison torture chamber and graveyard to either convert many enemy creatures or build big armies of undead, a gemstone, and at least one lvl A creature to attract as the horned reaper (which saved my ass some times), without these i have a lag of knowledge of how to beat a keeper properply as they have always more portals or creatures and the only way to get a bigger army is through more portals which means to attack a stronger keeper or through masses of undead and converted troops.

It's not necessary to have a bigger or a stronger army than the opponent to be able to defeat them. With proper spell support and good tactics, you can overcome a lot of opponents. If I knew more about how you're playing, I could figure out perhaps what you're lacking or why you are losing. But then again, this is also the old patch, which was pretty imbalanced, even if it was great for my level of experience at the time and as a step up from vanilla DKII. So I'd be less familiar on what's good as I'm used to the new patch.

Deadworker
November 27th, 2014, 15:43
Question mark rooms should be researchable. It might be a bug that they aren't available. I seem to recall one version of DKII that bugged out with researchable rooms, but this is very much a vague memory. It might be that having traps and doors set as researchable in addition to rooms is related to this bug, assuming I'm recalling this bug correctly. Maybe the issue is very simple. You're sure you have enough library space? Researching rooms, traps, and doors also cost library books and thus require extra space.

Are you able to upgrade spells?

Yes i was, and i did watch for enough library space. first they researched the spells, then traps and then they did the upgrades, but after them the advisor said, i had everything researched and no more research was done.




The document included is actually my old worksheet for the patch before I started using google docs and working with it primarily on there. I gave Skarok the file some time ago and I guess he just packaged it in there, so that's why there's some extra stuff there.

Tali is my super cute Black Knight RP character that I put in for fun. Her stats are in the patch file but she's not really used on any map if I recall. As for the Firefly, his stats are documented because he was in the patch before I decided to add in the Horned Reaper. For technical reasons, I have to sacrifice one creature to be able to turn the Horned Reaper into a normal unit, but I was under the assumption that I could not use elite slots. So for that reason, I sacked the Firefly, which is why you don't see him at all in the campaign. I later learned from Decagon that it was not necessary to sack the Firefly and that I could sacrifice an elite slot, so the Firefly is available in the latest patch release.

Ahhh ^^, i just wondered for never having heard of that name anywhere in dungeonkeeper.





It's not necessary to have a bigger or a stronger army than the opponent to be able to defeat them. With proper spell support and good tactics, you can overcome a lot of opponents. If I knew more about how you're playing, I could figure out perhaps what you're lacking or why you are losing. But then again, this is also the old patch, which was pretty imbalanced, even if it was great for my level of experience at the time and as a step up from vanilla DKII. So I'd be less familiar on what's good as I'm used to the new patch.

For example, i had to destroy a keeper, which was not attacking me, only some imp-fights for tiles. he had stronger creatures than me, i had no combat pit and had only few of my creatures above lvl 5(i think lvl 5 was reachable with the training-room). he had some barricades and sentry-traps which were no problem, but inside his dungeon there were poisontraps and inferno traps near his lairs, stronger and more creatures and some steeldoors to stop me from getting to the dungeon heart. fighting his army inside his dungeon supported by his traps, his spells and his hand of evil, picking every low creature and throwing it into the lair, always ended in loosing many of my creatures, being than converted or used for skeletons and vampires.

for the spell-use,
i have CTA-which does group the minions, but they focus on the enemy creatures and die to the traps(the inferno trap, if the enemy had one, most times killed 4-5 of my creatures).

the thunderbolt can stun enemy creatures, but not kill them, i used it on the stronger ranged creatures to stop them from dealing to much damage, but the cooldown made me only stunning 1-2 creatures at a time.
also the keeper healed them, if their hp got to low.

the heal has cooldown and heals less hp than it did back in original campaign(i mentioned on earlier posts, that i did only play the campaign alot and some skirmish, so thats the base of my skill for dk2 ^^), but i got it used with the shield-spell(chicken-spell :D) to have a biledeamon tanking. but they still were too strong, having more ranged creatures to deal constant damage with tanks keeping me away from them.

i did use the the turncoat sometimes on his stronger creatures if able to, but one more or less enemy creature didn't turn the fight.

beside them i only recall tremor, no idea what to do with it in a battle, possesion, well loosing spell support and hand of evil and overview did not convince me to use it, inferno was not accessable, as this would have helped me much more with damage, sight of evil, i used it to discover the map.
so that was my what i could do with the spells, but the enemy keeper did use them too, or at least some of them.

Thanks for the help, Deadworker.

Skarok
November 27th, 2014, 16:59
there i have a question. is it intended that some rooms aren't buildable? for example i think i couldn't build yet the temple in any level, also very often i couldn't build the combat-pit and were not able to attract any dark knight or dark angel, neither to convert them from the enemy, cause every time i tried they instantly died in torture chamber(also horned reapers, royal guards and i think knights too). I'm in Liquid State now. instead of these rooms in later levels i had questionmarks of which i thought i could research them to get those rooms, but without success only researching most traps(also new ones) and spells(which seem more likely to be just available in certain maps). but the rooms i could not unlock. i thought of converting enemy rooms or gathering special objects to unlock them, also without success. the graveyard instead i could build very early on and in the past levels i also had sometimes the chance to attract reapers.

Well, not all the "power rooms" are available in each level. Some of them, like the temple, do appear very rarely. The same is true for some traps and spells. And as Rex said, in the first version of the Balancing Patch Tier 1 units die instantly when tortured. However, if there's a question mark in either the room, spell or workshop tab, you should be able to research something there. It's weird if the game refuses to let you research spells and I personally haven't encountered this problem with either version 1.3, nor 1.51. However, someone else reported that he had problems with this as well. I think it might be a problem with 1.7 in that case, though it should be working if you use the GIM. Without that, the maps probably wouldn't work at all though. At the very least they wouldn't play as intended, not just due to problems like the researching issue, but also because the standard 1.7 AI will not work right on these maps.

I can't quarantee it, but this:


Yes i was, and i did watch for enough library space. first they researched the spells, then traps and then they did the upgrades, but after them the advisor said, i had everything researched and no more research was done.

Does sound a lot like it might be a problem with your game version. Are you using the GoG version with the GIM?




i ask for that, cause the enemy most time had dark knights or dark angels, while i generally only attracted goblin, warlock, salamander, troll, bile-deamon, dark elf, rouge, skeleton and vampire (as far those rooms were available(most times they were)) and later on 1 or maybe 2 horned reapers per level. also your unit list in the download names a "tali" and the firefly for the first i dont know what it is and the second i never ever saw in the whole campaign.

If you could give me the exact level names I could go a bit more into detail, but yes, some Keepers do get stronger creatures than you. However, only the later Keepers can really get a lot of them and by that point, you'll have the chance to get some Tier 1 units like the Reaper or Black Knight for yourself, albeit in a more limited number. Rex pretty much covered the other two things already.



For what i have read of you and Shonji, i think most of the maps are to difficult for me yet. while on same levels(even later ones) i got pretty far and also could beat some of them, there were others(also earlie ones^^) i had no clue of how to beat to. For now i have learned the worth of some traps and doors, especially freeze trap in combination with barricade and the shooting traps to defend my dungeon, but killing the enemy keepers is most times were i fail and kinda all my minions die. without combat pit my creatures only reach lvl 5 in general, while enemys are most times between 5-10 on heroes as on keepers. i get far in levels in which i have access to the CTA-Spell, prison torture chamber and graveyard to either convert many enemy creatures or build big armies of undead, a gemstone, and at least one lvl A creature to attract as the horned reaper (which saved my ass some times), without these i have a lag of knowledge of how to beat a keeper properply as they have always more portals or creatures and the only way to get a bigger army is through more portals which means to attack a stronger keeper or through masses of undead and converted troops.

Well, the Kasabian Campaign is all about dealing with more powerful Keepers, which forces you to adapt your tactics and refine your strategies. Bigger and stronger armies can be beaten, but you need the right circumstances to be able to do that. The trick is to find out how to force engagements that will be in your favor and how to manipulate the enemy in order to nullify his advantages. There are lots of different ways on how to do that and in general you'll find your own ways the more you play the game and the more you get to know the mechanics. However, as everyone plays the game somewhat differently, you might run into problems with your strategy on some levels, which might force you to try out a completely new way to approach the game in order to win.

In general, if you have difficulties with specific levels I'll be happy to help you out and give you some tips.



So far Big Freeze was my favorite map, i had time to build my dungeon in a very nice position, being able to build up a fortress and to train creatures, while the enemy keepers were busy with the heroes until i was ready to fight them. the only thing for now in every attempt(i had about 5 or 6) on this level, blue got killed by the heroes when he entered them after kinda 10-15 minutes.

Hm, this seems to be one of the big issues with DKII. The AI seems to act somewhat different to a certain degree for each player. Decagon or I never had Blue break out early, while Shonji and you seem to have a case where he breaks out way too soon. Unfortunately there seems to be some kind of unpredictability in the way the AI works, so it's impossible for me to make sure it works exactly the same for everybody, I'm afraid.





The document included is actually my old worksheet for the patch before I started using google docs and working with it primarily on there. I gave Skarok the file some time ago and I guess he just packaged it in there, so that's why there's some extra stuff there.

That's right. I don't think you started with the Google docs until after you put out the first release of your patch.






For example, i had to destroy a keeper, which was not attacking me, only some imp-fights for tiles. he had stronger creatures than me, i had no combat pit and had only few of my creatures above lvl 5(i think lvl 5 was reachable with the training-room). he had some barricades and sentry-traps which were no problem, but inside his dungeon there were poisontraps and inferno traps near his lairs, stronger and more creatures and some steeldoors to stop me from getting to the dungeon heart. fighting his army inside his dungeon supported by his traps, his spells and his hand of evil, picking every low creature and throwing it into the lair, always ended in loosing many of my creatures, being than converted or used for skeletons and vampires.

Usually the Keeper should fight you, the imp-war thing is only really a thing for the standard 1.6 or 1.7 version of the game. I'm assuming that the Keeper was busy with a fight elsewhere or had his CTA flag up. Normally you should be able to have them engage you in a case like this or draw his creatures out into a battle. Maybe if you could tell me what level exactly this happened on I could give you some tips? I'm not sure, but this does sound a lot like it could be either "Panic Station" or "Follow Me"?



for the spell-use,
i have CTA-which does group the minions, but they focus on the enemy creatures and die to the traps(the inferno trap, if the enemy had one, most times killed 4-5 of my creatures).

In a case like this, try to avoid having your creatures fight the enemy near his traps, unless you dealt significant losses to his army already. If it really is necessary for you to fight him there (which it normally shouldn't), try using tanks like the Bilde Demon or Black Knights as they can take on the enemy without getting destroyed by the traps too fast.



the thunderbolt can stun enemy creatures, but not kill them, i used it on the stronger ranged creatures to stop them from dealing to much damage, but the cooldown made me only stunning 1-2 creatures at a time.
also the keeper healed them, if their hp got to low.

the heal has cooldown and heals less hp than it did back in original campaign(i mentioned on earlier posts, that i did only play the campaign alot and some skirmish, so thats the base of my skill for dk2 ^^), but i got it used with the shield-spell(chicken-spell :D) to have a biledeamon tanking. but they still were too strong, having more ranged creatures to deal constant damage with tanks keeping me away from them.

In a case like this, you clearly don't stand a chance in an open engagement and should look for an alternative way to fight the other Keeper, where he can't use his advantage in a battle as much. If he keeps the upperhand in a battle he will be able to keep his creatures healed and yours under a constant attack


i did use the the turncoat sometimes on his stronger creatures if able to, but one more or less enemy creature didn't turn the fight.

No, but this one creature that gets turned is sure to be killed by his comrades in most cases. Use that to your advantage to get rid of some of the most powerful enemy creatures, but remember that it doesn't work on first class creatures such as Lord of the Lands or Dark Angels!


beside them i only recall tremor, no idea what to do with it in a battle, possesion, well loosing spell support and hand of evil and overview did not convince me to use it, inferno was not accessable, as this would have helped me much more with damage, sight of evil, i used it to discover the map.
so that was my what i could do with the spells, but the enemy keeper did use them too, or at least some of them.

Tremor only really helps you to scare off Imps or breach an enemy dungeon rather quickly. Possession can be useful for scouting, but in general, you will be at a major disadvantage if you use it in a bigger battle, as the other Keeper will be able to use offensive spells against you, heal his creatures and pick them up before they die, which you won't be able to do anymore.

And yes, the AI uses their spells as well, so watch out for that! Some might be specially dangerous, but others might use them without too much concern, so while one Keeper might use his Inferno every time he loses an engagement to take your creatures down without risking his own, others won't hesitate to deep fry their own. You need to study each enemy in battle and find out, how they manage the battles exactly and then adapt to this in order to win more easily.

Metal Gear Rex
November 27th, 2014, 19:11
Yes i was, and i did watch for enough library space. first they researched the spells, then traps and then they did the upgrades, but after them the advisor said, i had everything researched and no more research was done.

Certainly sounds like the bug I was thinking of. In the original 1.3 release, Skirmish / Multiplayer had the option to have researchable rooms, traps, and doors. In 1.51, for some reason, they removed this option. So maybe around that version or versions afterwards, they screwed something up and broke functionality somehow for that. Wouldn't be surprised though since 1.7 breaks multiplayer.


Well, not all the "power rooms" are available in each level. Some of them, like the temple, do appear very rarely. The same is true for some traps and spells.

Definition of power rooms from what I understand it would be Graveyard, Combat Pit, and Temple. All three of these rooms are considered stronger because they are used to obtain a higher unit tier or just generally have a stronger function. They also have more health and take a long time for Imps to take over. The Torture Chamber may also be considered a power room by Skarok's definition but it has the same amount of health as normal rooms.

For Traps, the Fireburst and Boulder Traps are the big ones, maybe also the Lightning Trap.

Fireburst was originally designed to be some kind of super trap, which is why enemies often have it and why it's so incredibly powerful. Vanilla DKII had it perform some kind of unique "Fireburst" shot, which basically dealt damage over the course of 4 seconds (game time). It had a pretty high damage value actually (2000, and it hits 16 times), but it had two big problems. It dealt Range-from-Origin damage, so that 2k damage gets downscaled a lot based on position. It has 1 tile range, so the damage gets scaled down a lot more and also just generally doesn't hit all too many units. Range-from-Origin damage can also sometimes be a bit buggy and this is more apparent / consistent when the spell in question has 1 tile range. It runs into the problem of vanilla Hailstorm and Bile Demon gas where sometimes it just doesn't hit anything.

In the patch, I changed Fireburst so has a Inferno shot, which puts it on par with Keeper and Reaper Inferno. Inferno deals much more intense damage compared to Range-from-Origin and doesn't bug out (well the graphics sometimes do but that's different). Other than that, I gave it a radius of 2 so it hits a lot more units. It deals damage over 8 seconds though so you have more reaction time to withdraw if necessary. I don't remember the damage value but it was probably enough to make the trap absurd.

The Boulder Trap is super OP in earlier versions of the patch. Basically, the Boulder deals fixed damage hardcoded into DKII somewhere or something, and at the time of making the original patch I didn't realize this. A lot of the health values are scaled down from vanilla, so the Goblin has like 600 HP in the patch where as he had 1500 HP in vanilla DKII. They're relatively the same, just downscaled, but as the Boulder's damage is static and could not be downscaled, it became incredibly powerful in the first two patch releases.

For power spells, I seem to only recall Inferno and Create Gold being considered power spells. I know Skarok hated Create Gold and probably replaced it with some kind of Freeze spell (which funnily enough I don't like but for different reasons). Create Gold is pretty OP and I removed it later on. I don't remember Inferno's damage stats but I remember it had a relatively low casting cost in the original patch. There's a Turncoat spell but that wasn't intended for player use, it was mainly a tool for AI.


Usually the Keeper should fight you, the imp-war thing is only really a thing for the standard 1.6 or 1.7 version of the game. I'm assuming that the Keeper was busy with a fight elsewhere or had his CTA flag up.

To elaborate more on this point, normally the AI in 1.3 / 1.51 drops his creatures in response to enemy threats. However, if the AI has a CtA up, they don't drop creatures and I think they are less likely to pick up creatures to save them too.


For example, i had to destroy a keeper, which was not attacking me, only some imp-fights for tiles. he had stronger creatures than me, i had no combat pit and had only few of my creatures above lvl 5(i think lvl 5 was reachable with the training-room).

Not sure how viable this is on general maps in the Kasabian Campaign (I never played through the whole campaign and probably won't finish now until it gets updated with the new patch) but perhaps try venturing out towards some Heroes or something to gain combat exp if you really need it.


he had some barricades and sentry-traps which were no problem, but inside his dungeon there were poisontraps and inferno traps near his lairs, stronger and more creatures and some steeldoors to stop me from getting to the dungeon heart.

Gas Traps, or Blood Traps as I called them back then, dealt some minimal amount of damage but had really high radius and I already talked about Fireburst Traps. Basically you wouldn't want to engage with too many fragile units. Salamanders work decently for resisting Inferno damage but I think they also kind of sucked in general in the original patch. They had Fire Spit (or was it Spit Fire?) at Level 2, which was pretty poor later on while the peak of their damage was with Lv7 Meteor, which also had reduced value at Lvs 9+.

Salamanders compared to Goblins have more HP but lower melee DPS. They technically hit harder but they hit slower so their overall damage still ends up being subpar, but not by too much. The Goblin has 20 DPS and the Salamander 17 if I recall, so Salamanders might still be outright better than Goblins in the original. I recall this is before I gave the Goblins Flame / Firebomb at Lv10 so they didn't have much late game.


fighting his army inside his dungeon supported by his traps, his spells and his hand of evil, picking every low creature and throwing it into the lair, always ended in loosing many of my creatures, being than converted or used for skeletons and vampires.

Perhaps you can try retreating more often if you think you can't win? You can use hit and run tactics to weaken enemy defenses. Alternatively you can try to bait the opponent into attacking you on your land and on your terms. When attacking, unless you're really sure you can blitz down an opponent in one quick swoop, I'd recommend taking it slow and keeping your Imps behind (or even a bit ahead if possible) of your main fighting army. This way, if anyone falls, you're more likely to be able to save them. This also allows you to still retain pick-up and drop benefits despite being on the offensive.

You may need to also try micro-managing a bit yourself in combat. Pick up individual units and move them back to the support lines so they aren't in a vulnerable position. Relocating units is also good to keep everyone in good formation with the tanks in the front and also keep support units in back. Sometimes the AI can do some pretty stupid things there so a bit of micro-management can keep everything in order.

For spell support, you can try alternating back and forth between Thunderbolt and Heal to keep casting spells while one of them is on cooldown to have more efficient spell support. Try also to register who the biggest priority is. Heal units who you think you can afford to heal. Get familiar with the health values to better understand healing priorities. A Bile Demon at half health might be more safe than a Goblin at 3/4s health. If a unit is under too much fire, it might be better to move them to the rear where they're safer. They might be in a bad position where too many units are targeting them and you can't outheal the damage effectively.

Thunderbolt can be good defensively or offensively. Use it in combination of your support or melee units to burst down an enemy unit or to take down a tank in order to break enemy lines. Units who are stunned will take double damage. You have to time your hits correctly, however. Stun duration is much lower than in vanilla, as you've noticed I'm sure. So your timing need to be much more precise if you're to take advantage of stun damage.

Also to note, units will likely ignore stunned units and will instead prioritize non-stunned units, even if that means attacking a different target from before. That's something to note and another reason why you need to time your thunderbolts well.

Additionally, if units are hit while stunned, their remaining stun time will increase by 25% (but it cannot go beyond their original stun value). You can use this to keep a big target down.

More advanced tactics involves denying enemy hits. The idea is to stun a unit when they're about to attack, after they start their animation but before they actually strike. This not only denies them the attack but their attack is on cooldown afterwards so they have to wait to be able to attack again. This is similar as to how you're stunning support units, but it requires more precise timing and also alternative unit priority. You want to do this against a big heavy hitter like the Giant or a Black Knight. These kinds of units can deal a lot of damage but they deal it all in one swing. Faster units like the Goblin are more or less immune to this because they have virtually no cooldown time.


for the spell-use,
i have CTA-which does group the minions, but they focus on the enemy creatures and die to the traps(the inferno trap, if the enemy had one, most times killed 4-5 of my creatures).

Creatures prioritize other creatures over Traps. That's one of the main reasons why Traps are so powerful, actually. In the right position, a single Spike Trap can do loads against invaders. The counter to this would be in support units. Warlocks and Dark Elves have some pretty good bursty spells that can make short work of traps. Even if your support creatures aren't targeting the traps, their projectiles can still hit them if they're in the way of enemy units they are targeting.

The other counter is to just try and avoid traps if you can or destroy them when no creatures are around. Trap activation does not warn the player at all and Alarm Traps are useless for AI as it just doesn't register them, so if you can catch the traps alone, you can make short work of them. Most ranged units work really well for this. Don't use Mistresses or Vampires, however. Mistress Lightning is terrible for damage and Vampire Drain actually does nothing to Traps and Doors. They might try to melee the traps down instead, which can work.


In a case like this, try to avoid having your creatures fight the enemy near his traps, unless you dealt significant losses to his army already. If it really is necessary for you to fight him there (which it normally shouldn't), try using tanks like the Bilde Demon or Black Knights as they can take on the enemy without getting destroyed by the traps too fast.

Bile Demons and Black Knights are pretty similar. You can see Black Knights as upgraded Bile Demons but they're different still. Stat wise, Black Knights have far superior health (about double the amount if I recall correctly) and much greater damage. However, Bile Demons actually have less of an issue with stun time, so they can't get knocked down and stunlocked, nor are they *as* vulnerable to stun damage for similar reasons. They also have the Invulnerable spell at Lv6, so in some ways they are better. This allows them to resist enemy burst like a series of Fireballs at the start of combat.

Invulnerable isn't immune to everything, however. Certain damage types can pierce it. Inferno Damage, Lightning Damage, and Drain Damage. There's only three cases of Inferno Damage (The spell, the trap, and the Reaper), but Lightning Damage is probably more common all around. Drain Damage, however, is unique to the Vampire.


the thunderbolt can stun enemy creatures, but not kill them, i used it on the stronger ranged creatures to stop them from dealing to much damage, but the cooldown made me only stunning 1-2 creatures at a time.

Thunderbolt is a utility spell. It's been nerfed significantly from vanilla DKII as the original spell was super OP due to how high stun duration was and also the benefits of stun damage. Still, the advantage of casting it anywhere is pretty big in its own right. As mentioned above, it's good for denying enemy attacks and for combo bursting down individual units.


also the keeper healed them, if their hp got to low.

The counter to this is generally in the form of burst damage. One big hit to finish them off before the AI considers healing them.


the heal has cooldown and heals less hp than it did back in original campaign

Rightfully so because the vanilla Heal Spell was crazy omgwtf overpowered.


(i mentioned on earlier posts, that i did only play the campaign alot and some skirmish, so thats the base of my skill for dk2 ^^)

Vanilla campaign makes for a poor tutorial in a lot of ways. It encourages a lot of passive and generally play and never provides a real challenge for the player. There's an abundance of gold so management is never a problem and there are so many overpowered things to abuse that the game just loses all sense of difficulty. Both my patched campaign and especially Skarok's campaigns emphasize more aggressive playstyles on top of having generally faster paced maps and higher level of difficulty, so these maps can end up challenging vanilla DK2 players a great deal.


but i got it used with the shield-spell(chicken-spell :D) to have a biledeamon tanking. but they still were too strong, having more ranged creatures to deal constant damage with tanks keeping me away from them.

It's a good tactic if you can draw a lot of attention to one unit, but remember what I mentioned above regarding damage types that pierce Invulnerability.


And yes, the AI uses their spells as well, so watch out for that! Some might be specially dangerous, but others might use them without too much concern, so while one Keeper might use his Inferno every time he loses an engagement to take your creatures down without risking his own, others won't hesitate to deep fry their own. You need to study each enemy in battle and find out, how they manage the battles exactly and then adapt to this in order to win more easily.

You make the AI sound smarter than it actually is.

Deadworker
November 27th, 2014, 19:37
hey,
thank you very much for your help, for the version, i have 2 dungeon-keeper 2 discs at home, one of a purple game-collection(play the volume or seomthing) and one original dk2-cd.
but i'm not sure what version i have, cause it says everytime 1.7 in the main-menu, which cant be, i think the 1.7 version came way after both of those copies. is it necessary to have the GoG Version? i heard it is only the 1.7, which as i understood is not best solution for this campaign.

Sadly im not fully sure, what map i had those problems on, but i am replaying them anyways, so next time i will ask for specific levels. As it seems that my version could also be a problem, i will see what that will change, as far as you can help me install the right version with the right patches.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Metal Gear Rex
November 27th, 2014, 20:52
but i'm not sure what version i have, cause it says everytime 1.7 in the main-menu, which cant be, i think the 1.7 version came way after both of those copies.

The version number is in the bottom right of the main menu, yes. If there is no version number, then you have the vanilla 1.3 release.

Normally, when you install DKII, it will always install the 1.3 version of the game no matter what version is on the disk. You then have the option to patch the game, which then brings it up to whatever version is on the disk. In other words, you should be able to get the 1.3 version by simply reinstalling the game and then not patching it afterwards.


is it necessary to have the GoG Version? i heard it is only the 1.7, which as i understood is not best solution for this campaign.

GoG isn't necessary. It's more like a 'last resort' if you can't get your hands on 1.3 or you can't get it to run on your computer properly. Even then, it still needs GIM in order to not have the 1.7 brain-dead AI.

Deadworker
November 27th, 2014, 20:59
hey,
and after installing, is there any patch i need. i have win7 64-bit, so as i can remember, the cd-version didnt work, and the only solution was version 1.7 with a patch from here, if i recall right.
is there a win 7 fix for version 1.3?

Greetings, Deadworker.

Metal Gear Rex
November 27th, 2014, 21:49
hey,
and after installing, is there any patch i need. i have win7 64-bit, so as i can remember, the cd-version didnt work, and the only solution was version 1.7 with a patch from here, if i recall right.
is there a win 7 fix for version 1.3?

I'm not sure. I have Windows8 and it works fine for me. I even upgraded to 8.1 against my will and it still worked fine. But then again I also don't play from the disk.

Skarok
November 27th, 2014, 22:34
hey,
and after installing, is there any patch i need. i have win7 64-bit, so as i can remember, the cd-version didnt work, and the only solution was version 1.7 with a patch from here, if i recall right.
is there a win 7 fix for version 1.3?

Greetings, Deadworker.

I remember something about the SafeDisc thing causing problems on newer systems, which is probably why Rex and I don't have any problems, as we both use the same version of the game with that file removed. I actually linked it here in this thread already, you can try out whether it works for yourself here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/676m5h7rz33xmz2/DKII+1.3

Alternatively you can try updating your own game to version 1.51 and if it still doesn't work, patch it to 1.7 and use the GIM.


You make the AI sound smarter than it actually is.

Oh but it certainly is... sometimes.

Metal Gear Rex
November 27th, 2014, 22:40
I remember something about the SafeDisc thing causing problems on newer systems, which is probably why Rex and I don't have any problems, as we both use the same version of the game with that file removed. I actually linked it here in this thread already, you can try out whether it works for yourself here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/676m5h7rz33xmz2/DKII+1.3

Alternatively you can try updating your own game to version 1.51 and if it still doesn't work, patch it to 1.7 and use the GIM.

I actually just PMed him with that very link ^^


Oh but it certainly is... sometimes.

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/DarkFire4114/DKIIAI.png

Deadworker
November 28th, 2014, 12:17
hey,
finally that worked haha. i played Big Freeze to compare. it took blue more like 20-30 min to open to the heroes, but first time he stomped their army, throwing all his creatures at them. sadly i died when opening to the heroes, so i had to restart. that time blue got killed through the heroes. i can attract every creature and research the freaking temple!!!
Gonna replay the campaign now. the second time i only opend one tile to the heroes, so they could not get past my biledeamons, this time i had 4 black elfs and 2 warlocks, so i did only loose a goblin.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Skarok
November 29th, 2014, 12:10
hey,
finally that worked haha. i played Big Freeze to compare. it took blue more like 20-30 min to open to the heroes, but first time he stomped their army, throwing all his creatures at them. sadly i died when opening to the heroes, so i had to restart. that time blue got killed through the heroes. i can attract every creature and research the freaking temple!!!
Gonna replay the campaign now. the second time i only opend one tile to the heroes, so they could not get past my biledeamons, this time i had 4 black elfs and 2 warlocks, so i did only loose a goblin.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Glad to hear that everything's working correctly for you now! Hopefully you'll be able to provide some more feedback or suggestions once you get further through the campaign!

fizz
November 29th, 2014, 16:49
Hello All,

I have an issue when playing on every maps with combat pit. The AI keepers never use it.
I'm playing with 1.51 patch.
Sorry if there is a thread for this that i missed.
And really nice work for this epic campaign :)

Deadworker
November 29th, 2014, 19:00
hey,

how exactly can i turn off the hardware acceleration? experienced some random crashes now.

did supremecy and madniss now, dagon was no match. i did build through the right to his portal, and killed some of his creatures, chasing my imps solo :D, when i had killed some of his creatures, i did build a trap-room with sentrys, a slow-sentry, barricades to protect them and 2 freezetraps, a poisontrap and a spiketrap at the entry to the room. i build it near the water and set a bridge to his bridge, gathering my troops in the traproom, soon all his remaining creatures came in and got destroyed. did put my ranged creatures behind the barricade to the sentrys, the enemy never reached them. after that he continuesly threw lvl 1 creatures at my lvl 6-8 army, but was no match anymore.

in madniss i had to be faster and more gold problems. olisha conquered the castle till a locked door on kinda the half map. the prison was easy reachable through the northern wall of the first room of the castle near me, so i could get my 7 skeletons fast, which get their second spell with 4 or 5, so they were nice for stunning heroes and killing them. i ambushed olisha in the middle lava-room with the locked door. letting my elfs and warlocks kill the first of her heroes over stonebridges i only needed 3 biledeamons to catch the focus of most of her troops. i slowly retreat till a large room of the hero castle which has lava and one tile earth inside. there i put my ranged creatures on the centertile and the rest beside them, having biledeamons tanking the front and keeping the others behind them with my hand of evil, soon the most of olishas troops were down, while i could build stone bridges over the lava and fast reclaim the tiles with my fallen troops, loosing nearly nothing. oliash without reinforcements was then no match anymore. had to reload the battle against her 2 times, cause i did some mistakes.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Skarok
November 29th, 2014, 19:18
I have an issue when playing on every maps with combat pit. The AI keepers never use it.
I'm playing with 1.51 patch.
Sorry if there is a thread for this that i missed.

Unfortunately, that's an issue with the older game versions. The AI doesn't use combat pits that much for training and only ever lets two creatures fight, if at all. I can't fix that unfortunately, but with the Balancing Patch only letting creatures train up to level 6 in the pit and this campaign being designed with this problem in mind, everything should be play out correctly for you. This is actually something that might make some maps a little bit more difficult for people with 1.7 and the GIM patch, but only by a little.


And really nice work for this epic campaign :)

Thanks, I appreciate it!


hey,

how exactly can i turn off the hardware acceleration? experienced some random crashes now.

You should be able to to that in the options on the main menu. After that you close the game and start the maps over the commando line as usual. If you still experience issues the hardware acceleration might've turned itself on again upon your closing of the game. In this case, start the campaign level via the commando line, save the game after starting and then close it. Open DKII normally, turn hardware acceleration off and load your save. Normally it shouldn't turn itself on again, but if it does, this should get you around this issue.

About Supremacy and Madness, sounds like you found some tactics that were quite effective. If you carry on like that, you should be getting through the next couple of levels without too much difficulty! :D

Metal Gear Rex
November 29th, 2014, 20:09
Unfortunately, that's an issue with the older game versions. The AI doesn't use combat pits that much for training and only ever lets two creatures fight, if at all. I can't fix that unfortunately, but with the Balancing Patch only letting creatures train up to level 6 in the pit and this campaign being designed with this problem in mind, everything should be play out correctly for you. This is actually something that might make some maps a little bit more difficult for people with 1.7 and the GIM patch, but only by a little.

If it ends up creating a difference between an army of Lv5s vs Lv6s, then that might be pretty significant and increase challenge considerably. Aside from the extra stat increase, Lv6 is a big level for certain creatures. Goblins obtain Fireball, Warlocks gain Hailstorm, Bile Demons learn Invulnerable, Rogues get their second Invisibility (I think they have two of these in original patch), and Reapers obtain Flame / Inferno (I forgot which one). For any first class unit, the extra 25% of stats is really significant as they already have very high base stats.

1.51 / 1.7 / GIM also have certain other differences that can impact the balance of maps. With all of these versions, there is an issue with creatures being able to heal themselves. Balance was designed around 1.3, in which case creatures cannot heal themselves. This makes units like Knights and Guards significantly stronger and harder to kill. I don't remember what other units have Heal like this, but I do know that these kinds of tweaks can easily upset a level's balance more than it may seem.

In 1.51 specifically, there is a problem with Magic Doors being immune to normal attacking, which makes them extremely difficult to deal with as normally the best way to deal with them is through normal attacking and heavy hitters. In 1.7, this was reverted. GIM refers to 1.51 so it would have this problem too.

That being said, I don't really remember the details for any map, even the ones I played, so I'm not sure how much it'll impact the campaign. I'm merely pointing out that the potential for these issues is quite high, so the game version can be very significant.



hey,

how exactly can i turn off the hardware acceleration? experienced some random crashes now.

You should be able to to that in the options on the main menu. After that you close the game and start the maps over the commando line as usual. If you still experience issues the hardware acceleration might've turned itself on again upon your closing of the game. In this case, start the campaign level via the commando line, save the game after starting and then close it. Open DKII normally, turn hardware acceleration off and load your save. Normally it shouldn't turn itself on again, but if it does, this should get you around this issue.

After turning Hardware acceleration off in the main menu options (this option isn't available within the in-game options), you have to enter a normal game. The main menu options does not save for some reason, which is why you have to enter a normal game before quitting DKII in order for the settings to be saved.

If you are playing 1.51 or GIM, then you have to turn off Hardware acceleration every time you enter the game. GIM refers to 1.51 and 1.51 does have an issue with Hardware acceleration, in that it defaults to on every time you open DKII again. Since you have to open the campaign via command line, you can't really get around it. In that case, follow Skarok's direction for loading into the campaign.

Stone_Knight
November 29th, 2014, 20:23
Hello All,

I have an issue when playing on every maps with combat pit. The AI keepers never use it.
I'm playing with 1.51 patch.
Sorry if there is a thread for this that i missed.
And really nice work for this epic campaign :)

This was a problem, which gave me headaches for long time. But happily in this thread "Problem with training combat pit" I described how it will be done in the troubleshooting section. Take a look to that ;)!

Skarok
November 30th, 2014, 11:48
If it ends up creating a difference between an army of Lv5s vs Lv6s, then that might be pretty significant and increase challenge considerably. Aside from the extra stat increase, Lv6 is a big level for certain creatures. Goblins obtain Fireball, Warlocks gain Hailstorm, Bile Demons learn Invulnerable, Rogues get their second Invisibility (I think they have two of these in original patch), and Reapers obtain Flame / Inferno (I forgot which one). For any first class unit, the extra 25% of stats is really significant as they already have very high base stats.

This isn't really a problem, as all Keepers who could train up their creatures to level 6 via the combat pit, normally do so anyways from combat alone. I can only think of two levels where this would actually make an impact, those being "Take a Bow", where it'd make the final fight with Purple more difficult (who you can easily outnumber anyways by taking down the other Keepers first), and "Ruled by Secrecy" where you should get an equal army to your enemy anyways by the time you engage him.



1.51 / 1.7 / GIM also have certain other differences that can impact the balance of maps. With all of these versions, there is an issue with creatures being able to heal themselves. Balance was designed around 1.3, in which case creatures cannot heal themselves. This makes units like Knights and Guards significantly stronger and harder to kill. I don't remember what other units have Heal like this, but I do know that these kinds of tweaks can easily upset a level's balance more than it may seem.
In 1.51 specifically, there is a problem with Magic Doors being immune to normal attacking, which makes them extremely difficult to deal with as normally the best way to deal with them is through normal attacking and heavy hitters. In 1.7, this was reverted. GIM refers to 1.51 so it would have this problem too.

Those two things might be a bit more impacting. Though it shouldn't throw the level balance completely off, certain parts might be more difficult/easy than in the 1.3 version. I guess all I can do is make some changes to certain levels if 1.51 or GIM users experience problems, but I'm confident that for the most part, the campaign should still be doable and challenging.

Deadworker
November 30th, 2014, 19:07
hey,
could do now panic station, the reaper are aweomse, and survival, with a traproom as only entrance to my dungeon, where my creatures leveled up fast and i could kill them, had some gold problems but it worked. but on prelude i have no idea of how to beat it. i have way to less gold to build a proper dungeon with prison and graveyard, i can train my creatures up to 5 but have no biledeamons, which i always need for tanking, i could build some traps for green, but it was never enough, he always won after like 10 mins of fighting and rushed to my dungeon heart. also some heroes came from the back and finished my last creatures. the adwise is to fight green first to get a protal, but he has way to many creatures with lots of biledeamons and dark elfs. should i ignore green first and try to only attack the castle? i tried it but my gold is out after some time.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Metal Gear Rex
November 30th, 2014, 21:22
This isn't really a problem, as all Keepers who could train up their creatures to level 6 via the combat pit, normally do so anyways from combat alone. I can only think of two levels where this would actually make an impact, those being "Take a Bow", where it'd make the final fight with Purple more difficult (who you can easily outnumber anyways by taking down the other Keepers first), and "Ruled by Secrecy" where you should get an equal army to your enemy anyways by the time you engage him.

It would depend on when the Keepers engage in combat. The Combat Pit can also help train creatures faster, depending on the training vs combat exp rate of the particular unit, so worst case is they hit Lv6 before Heroic engagement when they would otherwise be like Lv4, thus they have an experience lead the entire time compared to what would be the case in 1.3. But perhaps I'm overestimating the Combat Pit, since it can only train a few units at a time.

It suddenly occurs to me that increasing the Portal limit from 15 to 20 indirectly nerfed the Combat Pit because the automatic training from the Training Room becomes more practical.


Those two things might be a bit more impacting. Though it shouldn't throw the level balance completely off, certain parts might be more difficult/easy than in the 1.3 version. I guess all I can do is make some changes to certain levels if 1.51 or GIM users experience problems, but I'm confident that for the most part, the campaign should still be doable and challenging.

How impacting this is depends on the balance of powers between Keepers and Heroes as well as the number of melee units that have Heal.

In my own patched campaign, this really impacted Level 6a because there's an abundance of Knights and Guards on that map. That map is already difficult on its own, so the extra difficulty would make it really brutal / annoying, especially for that point in the campaign.

Levels 7 and 11 are maps that have a really delicate balance. In Level 7, it was designed so that Gormagon would eventually lose to the Heroes if the battle went on for too long, but it was still feasible for him to win if he managed to rush the Heroes and shut down their Hero Gate. Level 11 is also a map that had a delicate balance between each Keeper, allowing Raksha to usually end up being the strongest of them all but she would still battle Morgona for a long period of time.

While the above two maps wouldn't be impacted by units healing themselves (I think anywho), any statistical change I did could impact the whole map by upsetting the balance, depending on the specific change of course, as each Keeper had a different selection of units and spells. Making Salamanders stronger would be a significant buff to Raksha who Infernos everything. Dropping Dark Angels down to a regular tier actually really crippled Raksha as she would kill her own DAs while Morgona never relied on 1st class units.

I'm still not sure how this impacts your campaign, but am merely presenting a few examples on how easy it can be to destroy a level's balance if the conditions are right.

helpplz
January 29th, 2015, 12:36
Hi dear keepers,

I hope im not asking smt thats been asked 100 times be4, (surely i am :) ) but i desperatly need your help.

So ive been trying to run the kasabian campaign, did everything readme said nd red all the comments nd still no use.

So i copied all the map filed to dk2 data folder, i have version 1.5 nd 1.7 with the general improvement addon.
Now im trying to change the name of my dk2 exe into DKX -q -level Supremacy but every time it just loads to the main screen.
ive tried everything now, i cant find anywhere or anyway to put a commando line somewhere or an alternate way to run it :(

Could some1 plz tell me how to run it?

greetz

Metal Gear Rex
January 29th, 2015, 16:31
Hi dear keepers,

I hope im not asking smt thats been asked 100 times be4, (surely i am :) ) but i desperatly need your help.

So ive been trying to run the kasabian campaign, did everything readme said nd red all the comments nd still no use.

So i copied all the map filed to dk2 data folder, i have version 1.5 nd 1.7 with the general improvement addon.
Now im trying to change the name of my dk2 exe into DKX -q -level Supremacy but every time it just loads to the main screen.
ive tried everything now, i cant find anywhere or anyway to put a commando line somewhere or an alternate way to run it :(

Could some1 plz tell me how to run it?

greetz

Make a shortcut of your DKII executable. Change the target to be something like this.

"C:\Dungeon Keeper 2\DKII.exe" -q -level "Supremacy"

The Kasabian Campaign as well as my original patch were both designed with 1.3 in mind. If you can get your hands on that, it would be the best way to try it. In versions onward, there are changes to Keeper AI among other things that may influence the way the levels play out. They should still be very playable, mind you, but perhaps not to the fullest extent of what was intended.

Deadworker
March 4th, 2015, 19:25
could someone do one or more videos playing one of the later levels? maybe prelude, hysteria or one of the citizen erased or even one of the last missions. i'd really like to see some tactics and micro-managment for those levels. for now i only found the one of supremacy.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Crafty
March 11th, 2015, 22:19
I seem to be stuck on the map Butterflies & Hurricanes - Less than 10 minutes blue will dig to my dungeon heart and rally his troops there and kill me every single time I try to restart the level. I don't think blue is suppose to come after me but he does every single time :/

Deadworker
March 12th, 2015, 15:20
hey, when i played it blue did not move to me, so i had pretty easy way doing yellow, then green and purp and last blue. right now i experienced 2 ways to stop a enemy keeper from doing a specific turn every time, but you should safe before trying. i did dig to the direction he were coming from and mined gold there, he probably wanted to mine. i did train my creatures pretty fast to scare him off( thats what atleast i think it do, worked for me some times already)

Crafty
March 12th, 2015, 15:54
Yeah I noticed last night, if I dug out a specific gold block he would come kill me, so I didn't dig it out and he didn't attack me til late game. Then I killed him, then purple was invading his remains, and then yellow invaded at the same time lol. So I let purple and yellow engage and then attacked purple from behind. it was a glorious onslaught!! Thanks for the tips.

Deadworker
March 12th, 2015, 18:20
yeah no problem :) its close to what happend to me, yellow was kinda the hardest, cause i had not many creatures and so the fight was pretty even, but after him i got green who was fighting purp and i think even close to winning, cause he threw not one creature at me, while i had his dungen-heart down. purp had like no creatures anymore against my actually full untouched army and with all the portals and strong creatures, which are sometimes unlocked by killing specific enemys, for me i could sometimes only attract reapers, dark angels, dark knights or even dark mistresses after i had had killed the first, second or third keeper(important for later levels), blue was no match anymore.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Crafty
March 13th, 2015, 03:49
on level 7 "follow me" how do you get reapers? as seen in the picture. I just beat the level, but it was very hard with only 8 skeletons and 5 vamps lol

Deadworker
March 13th, 2015, 14:47
hey, as far as i remeber you have no portal in that realm right, well spoiler alert, but i think there was an imprisoned reaper somewhere on the north-east right next to the map-end. i found him short before attacking nexus as i remember.

SonOfOdin
March 14th, 2015, 16:22
Hey there,
I'm new to the forum :)

Got a question:
I could not get the Kasabian Campaign running, I have got the German 1.0 release Version of D2.
I only found patches to 1.7 and to 1.8 what is not supported.
Now I bought the english version von GoG and installed the inofficial patch. The game now says it is 1.5 and the first map of the campaing is running smoothly.

Question:
When I attack the keeper on the first map, he heals his troops that fast that I cant kill them.
Even if i place 15 cannon traps that fire all the same time on one taget - its healed up all the time and cant be killed.
The same happens when I lure one of his creatures out - I attack it with all my 20 level 5 troops, but his creature is healed up before I can kill it, or he pulls it back.
Any advice?

Deadworker
March 14th, 2015, 21:35
Hey,
well im not fully sure about your problem, but there are some tasks, which have to be done to play kasabian campaign proberbly. first the campaign needs version 1.3 or 1.51 to work right in the balance of spells and creatures. next is that this campaign needs to be started with a shortcut, so if you dont know, you need to create one of dkII.exe and put the command line -q -level "LevelName" to the target-line. so for example (Target: "...\Dungeon Keeper 2\DKII.exe" -q -level "Supremacy") to play the first level. somewhere in this thread is also the best gamespeed for playing listed, i think it was 150% but i'm not fully sure about that. for the heal i don't know about this, but if it still occurs even though you have done all correctly, for information it does have a cooldown of 3-4 seconds if its upgraded and does heal lower creatures quit full but it should not keep them from dying. on the other hand this campaign does have its difficulty and you need some creatures to be able to beat even the first enemy in the first map off. that this campaign does have a very different balance to the original dungeon keeper 2. so there are some pretty tanky creatures now like the bile-deamon or blacknight, but also different spells of which one does make a creature invincible, im not fully sure if the enemy got that one too, but i think so and with heal and invincible a unit such as a higher level bile-deamon or blackknight can pretty much tank a lot of damage.

well so you could look for those points and check if you whether believe it to be a bug or maybe the balancing.

Greetings, Deadworker.

Crafty
March 15th, 2015, 04:52
Animals hardest level yet, had an on going fight with hades/pink back and fourth for several hours. it didn't help he conquered green - so I only had yellows portal to help beat him. couldn't have done it if I didn't get 2 reapers from the portal. although one of them always died and was replaced. but I managed to get one to a lvl 10 and helped me defeat purple. and after that blue was a breeze. best series of maps ever played. very challenging and fun! hope he releases the rest of the kasabian chapters!

Deadworker
March 15th, 2015, 12:36
hey,
on animals i did crush yellow first and when purp was invading green, i did dig into greens dungeon at that long hallway and built 2 hidden doors there which purp didnt notice. that gave me green for free, so he had lost all his creatures to purp and purp had lost some of his stronger creatures. took me some trys to beat hades in the end, but i was succesfull with a trap-room, a reaper level 7 or 8, like 6 level 7-9 biledeamons, and besides some blackknights and dark angels a hell lot of dark elves and warlocks. he was for real very hard, cause he did always keept 2 high-level reapers back which could easily burn my army if i wasn't careful, but you have access to 2 "creature-kill-magic-objects" which i needed to have those reapers down.

Skarok
April 9th, 2015, 13:33
hey,
but on prelude i have no idea of how to beat it. i have way to less gold to build a proper dungeon with prison and graveyard, i can train my creatures up to 5 but have no biledeamons, which i always need for tanking, i could build some traps for green, but it was never enough, he always won after like 10 mins of fighting and rushed to my dungeon heart. also some heroes came from the back and finished my last creatures. the adwise is to fight green first to get a protal, but he has way to many creatures with lots of biledeamons and dark elfs. should i ignore green first and try to only attack the castle? i tried it but my gold is out after some time.


The trick in defeating him is to either hold off his creatures with some traps and doors and slowly convert the attacking Heroes until you are stronger than him; Saving up for a single Boulder trap to weaken his army enough once they attack or build an effective trap room and fight his army in there. Alternatively you can also try to ignore him and attack the Heroes first to gain experience, capture their gold and maybe even make some converts in the meantime. Plus you could take out their Hero Gates to stop their attacks on you.


could someone do one or more videos playing one of the later levels? maybe prelude, hysteria or one of the citizen erased or even one of the last missions. i'd really like to see some tactics and micro-managment for those levels. for now i only found the one of supremacy.

Greetings, Deadworker.

I have been planing on making a video walkthrough of the entire campaign for a while now, but don't have that much time for it unfortunately. However, I did just record Citizen Erased A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frBhjI5a1Rg) yesterday. However, one of my DKII versions seem to be broken and the audio always starts to glitch out at some point, so I had to copy the files over into the Expansion Pack folder, which is why you'll see my dungeon being purple in the video. Ideally you want to get your first portal within the first 20 minutes, or alternatively a big number of converts or vampires depending on which map version you choose.


Hey there,
When I attack the keeper on the first map, he heals his troops that fast that I cant kill them.
Even if i place 15 cannon traps that fire all the same time on one taget - its healed up all the time and cant be killed.
The same happens when I lure one of his creatures out - I attack it with all my 20 level 5 troops, but his creature is healed up before I can kill it, or he pulls it back.
Any advice?

Well, the Keepers do heal their creatures quite consciously and often have warlocks to help the process, plus the invulnerable spell. You should still be able to down them, especially if you use lightning to stun them, as the enemy AI won't heal them then. This should only be tricky in fights with one or very few creatures though, as the AI can't care for all its creatures in larger battles.


hey,
on animals i did crush yellow first and when purp was invading green, i did dig into greens dungeon at that long hallway and built 2 hidden doors there which purp didnt notice. that gave me green for free, so he had lost all his creatures to purp and purp had lost some of his stronger creatures. took me some trys to beat hades in the end, but i was succesfull with a trap-room, a reaper level 7 or 8, like 6 level 7-9 biledeamons, and besides some blackknights and dark angels a hell lot of dark elves and warlocks. he was for real very hard, cause he did always keept 2 high-level reapers back which could easily burn my army if i wasn't careful, but you have access to 2 "creature-kill-magic-objects" which i needed to have those reapers down.

That's actually the standard tactic for defeating him. :D Cutting off his way to the western half of Green's dungeon shortly after he attacks to gain access to her portal and Blue's dungeon.

Crafty
August 23rd, 2015, 04:31
So um, im stuck on level 9, (explorers) ive claimed the temple/graveyard/prison but when I sacrifice vampires I get bile demons, OR IS THAT HOW YOU NOT GET REAPERS? cuz I have no clue how I get reapers.

Metal Gear Rex
August 23rd, 2015, 05:00
You can't get Reapers from the Temple. Temple sacrifices cannot be saved in the editor. They can be changed, but for some reason the data isn't savable, thus they are the same as in vanilla 1.3, because that's the version that Skarok and I use. Ergo, no Horned Reapers.

You obtain Horned Reapers from the Portal by building a Graveyard. In the current patch, you need only 1 tile as the Graveyard is expensive. But in the original patch that the Kasabian Campaign uses, you need I believe 25 tiles. I do recall the Graveyard was also more expensive in that version as well.

In other words, tough shit.

Crafty
August 23rd, 2015, 06:24
then I have no idea what his riddle represents:

Riddle:

- It seems someone is short of Vampires and they are willing to trade some in for a fresh pair of Reapers!

Metal Gear Rex
August 23rd, 2015, 07:52
then I have no idea what his riddle represents:

Riddle:

- It seems someone is short of Vampires and they are willing to trade some in for a fresh pair of Reapers!

I do remember that it's possible to make a custom Temple sacrifice via script. Level 20 in the original campaign did that for the 'elite' Dark Angel. Basically it requires a Temple being built in a specific location and dropping all the necessary creatures simultaneously (as they all have to be in the Temple sacrifice area at the same time to trigger the script)

Of course, both Vampires and Reapers also come in from the Graveyard so it could be something with that too.

Skarok
August 23rd, 2015, 10:53
then I have no idea what his riddle represents:

Riddle:

- It seems someone is short of Vampires and they are willing to trade some in for a fresh pair of Reapers!

No, you were right about the Reapers. You have to drop 5 of your Vampires into the temple pool really fast in order for the script to fire up. Try to drop them simultaneously and you should get them.

Crafty
August 23rd, 2015, 17:46
Ah yes that worked, I tried 2 at a time and then 4 but didn't work. Only if I knew I was 1 short for my goodie reapers.

Haha Z
January 8th, 2016, 15:37
Just found this cool Campaign.
Will leave comments/strategy on the missions below as i progress.
1.
Pretty standard, u get to see the new ai act tho, with great reflex on heals and pickups. You also encounter the super buffed ranged minions and learn to time lightning with their projectiles. Great start to the adventure.

2.
Firsttime u encounter the heroes, and high leveld one aswell. This mission is tough, make no mistake about that. Learn to micro your creatures and save/load alot to ensure none of your minions die. I like to throw away goblins here to ensure i get more biledemons, archers and mages. Later i like to booby-trap the room before the neutral traproom with a trap room for myself. 6 lightning traps will do. Next let the enemy keeper attack u in this room. Rinse and repat a couple of times to weaken him enough. This alone is then enough to push on towards victory.

3.
The new reapers, here u learn, if u didn't know already that call to arms removes all the needs for your creatures, this means the reapers won't ask for any gold. Clean up one then the other of your enemys, watch for lightning and dark mistress as they are strong vs the reapers. Quite boring mission, as it's a long grind with nothing to do.

4.
The dreaded mission that alot of people here complain over. You start without a portal and the intro-video tells u to attack the green and take his. He is supposed to be "weak". Well tough luck when it turns out u are gold starved, got no call to arms, are pinned in a tight spot with blue and white hitting u. What i like to do is to build a 3 by 3 combat pit and quickly drop my 2 elfs into it. Get them to 6 and repat with the mages. Meanwhile get a 3 by 3 prison and torture chamber. Next build 4-5 doors in the hallway out to green and get close to his portal, not to close tho, leave some water inbetween so he can't cap. Next wait for the white player to hit u. This should be won easily and u get intorduced to the convert phase of this campaign, which is alot harder then the usual. First of all all good heroes will instantdie and can't be converted, second of all the dmaage in torture chamber is alot higher. Convert what u can and hold off green and the new threat from blue. Multitask your forces to fight green and defend from blue, luckily blue is very weak and won't pose any threat. Keep your creatures alive and watch them reach level 8-10. Now get the portal, the bridge and the library and u finally get call to arms. Finish of green when u have a break from the attacks. After this the mission is more or less won, instantly attack blue who have a few lvl 4 creatures. Next it's time for purple who have better forces but still nothing to worry about.

5.
The easiest mission so far, i like to get some bile demons/warlocks/elfs rdy and then trap green and yellow with a few lightning traps. Blue have some reapers but nothing to worry about.

6.
Focus on getting some bile demons with your limited space. Prepare a traproom towards yellow. After he is gone the mission becomes very easy.

7.
Skipping this mission, after claiming everything white had and digging down the last rock two things happens. Either i die from the massive army. Or i die from the super buffed yellow that without any problem kill all the heroes and gain 2-3 lvls while doing so. How this mission is winable with 1 reaper and 1-2 vampires and a lvl 10 dwarf is above me. Moving on.

8.
Expected a real fight here, but the grandkeeper seems no difference from the rest. I took out green and yellow first claiming their stuff. Then blue. Then i built a traproom next to purple. Battle didn't even take 1 min for all his creatures to be dead, i was like wtf? Anyway what did take time on this mission was the magic doors. My creatures even if i got 30+ simply cannot kill a magic door. This seems like a design flaw and the reg, the lightning or the hp on the door should be nerfed. Had to posses a imp and make it dig out the wall on all those doors to get through. So ye hardest part of this map? Destroying a single magic door.

9.
Another sneak mission without a portal and 100 save reloads. Will be skipping this and every similair mission like it from now on. Also.. I hate skeletons.

10.
Very stanard build with little restrictions, with a portal. You face a horribly weak blue player that doesn't expand or attack you. Also hero forces that doesn't expand or attack you. Building on this map was fun, but the difficulty? Possibly easiest map yet. The description states "Beware; I won't throw a single Keeper at you this late into the campaign for no reason! He is way stronger than Dagon and you have to be very fast at building your dungeon and creating your army to even stand a chance against his takeover attempts! So be swift and expect a hard fight with Raum." I took around 40 min while eating lunch to get close to his prison meanwhile he was idle without doing much. Not sure what the "be swift" part is about, mby map is bugged.

11.
The nemesis enemy here actually is pretty strong, however if u take out the 2 others first and then trap him with the standard lightning trap it's no worries.

12.
I expected a challenge here judging from the description. What a letdown. The enemies have so many traps that they are stuck on negative mana regen, which means 0 mana the entire time. This happens to blue and in some sort purple. Start by taking out the enemy to the east and progress upwards to deal with purple. Finally shift your focus towards blue who will be stuck on 0 mana, no heals and no lightnings, ever. Not much of a battle. Took me till now to realize u can use ctrl + s to quicksave, this seems to make the game crash ALOT less then the standard esc - save game. Moving on.

13.
Fun mission that sends u out against pretty strong heroes. Train up your mages/bile demons and get some lightning traps, then dig south and proceed even more south. Eventually u encounter two locked doors, behind those are your real rivals, green and blue. In my game green was the strongest of the two, with posses and inferno spell he is tricky to get to as imps are so slow to convert land.

14.

CezzaXV
August 29th, 2016, 21:14
Hi there,

I realise this campaign is over 3 years old now and I'm not sure if you're still monitoring this thread, but just in case I wanted to say thanks for all your hard work!

I'm playing this with the GOG version of the game, and I've had doubts over whether the AI is working as intended. It is INSANELY difficult. Is it meant to be? I've fought my way through the first 9 levels, but I'm currently on Darkshines and I honestly dispute that it's possible. Within 10 minutes of starting the level the blue keeper is sending a large army of level 4-6 creatures right to my dungeon heart and there's nothing I can do to prevent it. I've seen other people commenting that it's easy!

I see in the original post that it wasn't intended to work with version 1.7 but later posts suggested it might, maybe that's it.

niva
January 21st, 2017, 08:56
Hi there,

I am a girl from Germany and sorry for my bad english:
Thank you for this awesome campaign!!! I am now on level 7 (follow me) and I dont know how to make it!!!!!!!! No portal and many heroes, they are attacking me and I can not fight them.
Can someone help me??

And some notes: I noticed, that in some levels sometimes the rival comes very early!! I dont know why, maybe it is kind of a bug - just restart or reload, and often the problem is solved.

But omg this campaign is SO HARD LOL but it makes so much fun!!!!!!! Have to load very often - otherwise I would have been beaten 1000 times hahaha ;)

impboy4
January 21st, 2017, 14:48
Hi there,

I am a girl from Germany and sorry for my bad english:
Thank you for this awesome campaign!!! I am now on level 7 (follow me) and I dont know how to make it!!!!!!!! No portal and many heroes, they are attacking me and I can not fight them.
Can someone help me??

And some notes: I noticed, that in some levels sometimes the rival comes very early!! I dont know why, maybe it is kind of a bug - just restart or reload, and often the problem is solved.

But omg this campaign is SO HARD LOL but it makes so much fun!!!!!!! Have to load very often - otherwise I would have been beaten 1000 times hahaha ;)

It's because the campaign was designed for version 1.3-1.51 of the game and not 1.7. If you want the levels to be easier; you can get the General Improvement Mod which applies 1.51 mechanics to your game.

niva
January 23rd, 2017, 19:28
It's because the campaign was designed for version 1.3-1.51 of the game and not 1.7. If you want the levels to be easier; you can get the General Improvement Mod which applies 1.51 mechanics to your game.

Hmmmmm okay I dont know what this means xD

I dont want them to be easier!!! But i don't know the strategy for level 7!?

I skiped level 7 because I have no idea!

Now I am on level 8 and after 1-2 hours playing, the game is so slow omg, I dont know how to explain it with the right english words, but it jerks, like lagging!?!??? Maybe this level is too full of creatures? I dont know, it sucks really, it is like I would play online and my ping is 9999999999 xD

Metal Gear Rex
January 23rd, 2017, 20:25
Hmmmmm okay I dont know what this means xD

There's four versions of DK2: 1.3, 1.51, 1.61, and 1.7. 1.61 is barely mentioned as it's just inferior to other versions. In each of these versions, the enemy Keeper AI behaves differently. Seeing as this is a campaign that primarily uses enemy Keepers, that is a pretty important factor.

1.3 is the original game. This is what the Kasabian Campaign was designed under. I don't remember the differences in 1.51 exactly off the top of my head, but it's possible that it's more aggressive or trains better or something. 1.7's AI is also considered the braindead AI, because it doesn't response to enemy threats and won't drop down creates to defend itself.

You can identify which version you're using by booting up DK2 and looking at the bottom left corner of DK2. It'll display the version number there. If it doesn't display a number, then it's 1.3. If you got DK2 off of GOG, then you're running 1.7 as that's the only version they have. Sadly it's considered the worst version of the game around these parts, due to the terrible AI>

In addition to different versions having different AI, Skarok and I noted some strange behavior in how Keeper AI would behave when testing each others' maps. When one of us would test the map and leave the AI alone, the AI would act exactly the same each time, and build in the same patterns. However, when we gave it to the other person, the AI would behave differently, but that behavior would again be consistent for the other person. While it probably has something to do with different computers and DK2 reacting to each one in a different manner, this did make it problematic to balance maps. I could never beat level 5, Survival, because the AI Keepers would attack *much* sooner and simultaneously to another than Skarok could test for.


Now I am on level 8 and after 1-2 hours playing, the game is so slow omg, I dont know how to explain it with the right english words, but it jerks, like lagging!?!??? Maybe this level is too full of creatures? I dont know, it sucks really, it is like I would play online and my ping is 9999999999 xD

Try lowering the graphics setting. The game hiccups and can crash if there's too many things going on at once, I assume due to it trying to render too many polygons at once or something.

Skarok
January 24th, 2017, 00:13
Hi there,

I realise this campaign is over 3 years old now and I'm not sure if you're still monitoring this thread, but just in case I wanted to say thanks for all your hard work!

I'm playing this with the GOG version of the game, and I've had doubts over whether the AI is working as intended. It is INSANELY difficult. Is it meant to be? I've fought my way through the first 9 levels, but I'm currently on Darkshines and I honestly dispute that it's possible. Within 10 minutes of starting the level the blue keeper is sending a large army of level 4-6 creatures right to my dungeon heart and there's nothing I can do to prevent it. I've seen other people commenting that it's easy!

I see in the original post that it wasn't intended to work with version 1.7 but later posts suggested it might, maybe that's it.

Hey there and thanks for your kind words! You're right, the campaign was intended for version 1.3 or 1.51, but people have also gotten the 1.7 to work by applying the "General Improvement Mod" (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=109) by Wyrmcast. I think there's also a link to a DKII 1.3 version in this thread somewhere, though I'm not sure.

Yeah, Darkshines is one of the level where it really comes down to whether the AI decides to play ball and behave or decides to run loose. Rex summed the main problem up perfectly and unfortunately, it can have quite severe consequences for this campaign due to the heavy focus on enemy Keepers.

There are a few maps in which the erratic and inconsistent Keeper behavior can really mess things up, such as in Survival as Rex mentioned. Darkshines also seems to be tricky, in some cases the enemy Keeper is a total pushover, whereas he was intended as a more difficult version of the first Keeper in Supremacy and seriously managed to push my face in during my tests. I got him to attack consistently at about 25-30 minutes, but for some he never seems to attack at all, or in your case, way earlier than intended.

Hysteria is also in a weird place; When the map works as intended you are fighting in a pretty difficult struggle against a Keeper coalition that takes turns in attacking you. Whilst this seemed to work for pretty much the entire testing phase, I think when Rex got to this map one or two Keepers would just cast CTA next to his dungeon heart right off the bat. And I have no clue why or how that even was possible, because there are set level requirements that the creatures of an AI Keeper have to reach before the game allows him to go over into an attack mode.

With Stockholm Syndrome I don't even know where to start. For me Green consistently manages to beat the Heroes that attack him in the beginning and then expands rather quickly. When Decagon tested the map, the Heroes beat him into a pulp within 10-15 minutes of their initial attack. Which is just utter bullshit, because when I tested the map with the Keeper AI turned off, it took almost thrice the amount of time for him to die, with his creatures just randomly wandering about. I have no idea how the AI manages to screw up so badly with superior forces, insanely devastating trap rooms and spells and scripted reinforcements, that it can lose faster when it is actually managing its forces than when I purposely lobotomize it. And then when I test it again with the same version of the game, hell the exact same folder of DKII down to the last byte, the AI just mysteriously manages to do the exact opposite and destroy the Heroes much faster than I even planned.

This is a huge problems for Keeper-centric maps. You can spend hours and days in order to get one Keeper to behave in a satisfying, and most importantly consistent way, but when another person tries the map, it will most likely act completely different to how seen and manipulated it to behave all the time. This doesn't even need include any interaction between the AI and the player, as I mentioned with Stockholm Syndrome above. So you spend another couple of hours and dozens of tests until the AI finally behaves consistently for you and the tester. Success! Well, as soon as a third or fourth player has a go at the map you will most likely

There is a reason most AI Keepers in the normal campaign just sit around defensively (Asmodeus, Malachai, Nemesis&Co), or are literally separated from you entirely until they are loosened on you (Malleus). The level where you face off with Harkan and Carrion is also a perfect example, for most people Harkan never ever even makes an attempt at the Temple whilst Carrion casts his CTA once or twice and then leaves it, completely destroying the point of the whole map.

And then there's 1.7, after which the AI will not even drop creatures at threats anymore. Or never more than one at a time at least. The AI (and the rules it operates under ha, as if!) is really just a big mystery in this game. :/




Thank you for this awesome campaign!!! I am now on level 7 (follow me) and I dont know how to make it!!!!!!!! No portal and many heroes, they are attacking me and I can not fight them.
Can someone help me??

On that map you can capture a workshop, prisons (+a Torture Chamber I think) and you can build a graveyard. So all in all, you won't be able to get too many creatures. Make sure to train those you have up as much as possible and secure your dungeon with traps. In order to beat Yellow you can't hope to overpower him, really. But if you explore the destroyed Hero castle between your dungeon and his domain you will see pillars of indestructible stone surrounded by a bit of earth and some Hero walls in each room. If you tear down the earth and the walls the pillars will collapse and heroes will cave in through the roof. Some of those heroes will attack you and some will attack Yellow. So make sure to build defenses and when you are ready, unleash the Heroes in order to weaken and distract Yellow.

Whilst his creatures are fighting the Heroes you can use your small number of (hopefully now high leveled) creatures to sneak into his dungeon from another side and kill him whilst his army is distracted. Or you just rampage through his dungeon and lairs specifically whilst he is off fighting, thus you will ensure that his creatures can't recover. Yours will be probably level 9 or 10 afterwards and even with his two portals level 1 creatures shouldn't cause you any trouble. Just make sure to kill him before the Heroes you released get too far into your dungeon as well! A long trap corridor should be able to delay them long enough if they are a problem.

If you still have difficulties with the level, there's a secret Horned Reaper in a prison just to the Southeast of the Yellow Keepers' eastern dungeon entrance. Good luck!




And some notes: I noticed, that in some levels sometimes the rival comes very early!! I dont know why, maybe it is kind of a bug - just restart or reload, and often the problem is solved.


THIS! This is hugely important, but I don't know if I ever specifically mentioned it in this thread. If you load a saved game on a Kasabian map after playing Skirmish, MPD or the normal campaign the global date (I think, it's been some time) of the map before will be used for the Kasabian map. This is why you could play Skirmish with the map revealed and then when you loaded into the normal campaign still carry over that benefit. Restarting, or reloading your save after you loaded into the map might be a good solution to fix some issues with wonky AI behavior and it seems to be working out for you.

I'll make sure to add this information to the initial post!



But omg this campaign is SO HARD LOL but it makes so much fun!!!!!!! Have to load very often - otherwise I would have been beaten 1000 times hahaha ;)

Yeah the difficulty might spike a bit too much at times, especially if the AI decides to go rampant. But I'm glad you're having fun nonetheless!



Now I am on level 8 and after 1-2 hours playing, the game is so slow omg, I dont know how to explain it with the right english words, but it jerks, like lagging!?!??? Maybe this level is too full of creatures? I dont know, it sucks really, it is like I would play online and my ping is 9999999999 xD

As Rex said, try lowering your graphics setting to medium or low. It's just for this mission and possibly for Liquid State and the final battles in Ruled by Secrecy. There are loads and loads of creatures on the map as you fight the three toughest enemy Keepers during these missions and the game can lag out if you and the AI duke it out with your full forces. Make sure to save before and after major engagements on these particular maps!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On another note, I'll possibly get back to working on the SoP-Expansion (https://keeperklan.com/threads/4726-Seats-of-Power-Expansion-Pack?p=51537#post51537)again soon, which, if it does indeed get finished at some point, will be the next best thing since sliced cheese. Or sliced bread, take your pick I guess! No promises yet though.

niva
January 24th, 2017, 22:44
Thank you!

Well I played it again, but at the end i had to cheat :((( Dont know how to make it - no portal, no spells etc.... only a this dwarf and a few skeletons and maybe 1 vampire. Hmmmmmmmmmm dont know.

Sorry I meant "explorers" and not "animals" with this lagg-thing. I lowered graphic options but it still lagged. I just played and played and finally it went better.

Skarok, you are from Germany?

niva
January 27th, 2017, 10:51
Hey guys,
sorry but I am now playing "Hysteria" and I am overtaxed now.
I was playing for maybe 1-2 hours, and then they are attacking me without a break. First green, then blue... It is ok, I am beating them, but there is no break!!!!! When the blue creatures are dead, the green ones come, and when I beat the green ones, the blue ones come again xD
Is it a bug again or normal?

impboy4
January 27th, 2017, 15:13
Hey guys,
sorry but I am now playing "Hysteria" and I am overtaxed now.
I was playing for maybe 1-2 hours, and then they are attacking me without a break. First green, then blue... It is ok, I am beating them, but there is no break!!!!! When the blue creatures are dead, the green ones come, and when I beat the green ones, the blue ones come again xD
Is it a bug again or normal?

"Hysteria is also in a weird place; When the map works as intended you are fighting in a pretty difficult struggle against a Keeper coalition that takes turns in attacking you. Whilst this seemed to work for pretty much the entire testing phase, I think when Rex got to this map one or two Keepers would just cast CTA next to his dungeon heart right off the bat. And I have no clue why or how that even was possible, because there are set level requirements that the creatures of an AI Keeper have to reach before the game allows him to go over into an attack mode." -Skarok

niva
February 3rd, 2017, 16:14
ok i installed this general improvement mod. the DKII-DX.exe is ok, but DKII.exe doesnt work. there are many black big pixles :( i dont know how to play the kasabian campaign, because the enemies are fighting me nonstop...

Deadworker
February 5th, 2017, 15:02
well the DKII-DX-exe is for modern OS like win 7 or win 8, while on the normal DKII.exe you may experience bugs as you said "black pixles". the kasabian campaign is started via shortcut, there are multiple instructions in this thread on how to make such a shortcut. for the kasabian campaign, it is as mentioned on the first page very hard and no comparison to the original campaign in DKII. you should consider watching the two recordings of skarok playing the campaign, they are also linked somewhere in the thread.

Most important you should get biledeamons or trolls for tanking and lots of dark-elfs and warlocks for damage. if the AI is attacking all the time, then your creatures should level up quite high, so you can just start turning the fight. later on, even if they enemy attacks he mostly has low creatures lvl1-4, what you should easily fight off.

PS: Finished Prelude for the first time now, fought like an hour with green, till i finally got the upper hand

Narachi
August 5th, 2017, 15:20
This campaign has been the most fun I've had in this game for ages so far :). I'm playing it on 1.51, where the fact that most enemy hearts so far are protected by magic doors provides an additional nice difficulty.

Currently, I'm playing Butterflys and Hurricanes and still looking for a proper setup, as either yellow digs into my base while expanding at the beginning or blue tries to grab some gold veins if I'm not fast enough, and either of them straight up run over me. I felt that Prelude and Survival were both pretty easy compared to e.g. Panic Station, but I cheesed the last two AIs in Survival.

One question though, which editor did you use to make the levels? I cannot find any editor that gives me both the "Create Creature" option as well as the possibility to make enemy keepers directly get level 6 creatures out of portals. So far the Level-6-lamers always put up the best fights xP.

impboy4
August 5th, 2017, 16:44
The official DK2 Editor. More specifically the 1.3 version which the campaign was made for.

Narachi
August 6th, 2017, 22:58
Hm. So far I've tried out the RC3, Pro and http://www.moddb.com/games/dungeon-keeper-2/downloads/dungeon-keeper-ii-official-worldeditor version. Are there even more? xD

Or do I need to run the editor from a 1.3 installation folder? I also like making maps, but it sucks that there are very cool options that I cannot choose from!

I've now finished Butterflies and Hurricanes, which was surprisingly easy. Follow me took a while, but it was doable with a little Horned-Reaper-Possession shenanigans. Very nice concept for a level, I hope to see more of it :). Will probably write a little bit more about how I tackled each level soon. I can watch my DK2 skills increase exponentially with each mission xP. I might even play the campaign a second time just to see what I'd do different or more efficient. Both thumbs up!

impboy4
August 7th, 2017, 01:32
You have to run the editor from a 1.3 installation to make maps for 1.3 yes.

Just like how you need an editor in the GOG installation to make 1.5 or 1.7 maps.

Metal Gear Rex
August 7th, 2017, 13:53
One question though, which editor did you use to make the levels? I cannot find any editor that gives me both the "Create Creature" option as well as the possibility to make enemy keepers directly get level 6 creatures out of portals. So far the Level-6-lamers always put up the best fights xP.

Pretty much we use DK2 Editor Pro, which is superior to the default / official DK2 editor. RC3 is only useful for a few very specific things like adding actions to Heroes within a Hero Party, adding Lair / Hatchery tiles, or changing certain details within Level Variables that for some reason are locked out of other versions. RC3 is otherwise very buggy.

The "Create Creature" option, are you referring to making a minion spawn directly on the map or force spawn a creature from the portal? In the case of the former, basically right click on any trigger and you normally have "Add Trigger" and "Add Action" to use but you should also have "Add Creature Action" which allows you to spawn a creature. I recommend saving before editing the spawned creature's settings like ownership and level because it can crash under certain circumstances (I forget which). If you're looking to spawn a creature from the portal, then you go to Add Action and then there's the Creature Tab all the way to the right that handles that. As a note, anything that doesn't come out of the portal normally will spawn just fine but it will be stuck at the bottom of the portal as there's no programming for that creature's entrance to get them to move forward a tile like with normal spawned creatures.

Although, Enemy Keepers spawning higher level minions from the portal is a normal feature. DK2 AI cheats a bit. The AI enters an 'attack mode' once certain conditions are met, and it will only leave attack mode once something breaks those conditions (usually after a set time or losing enough minions). When it enters attack mode, part of the attack mode conditions involve a certain number of creatures at a certain level, and what happens is all remaining creatures who aren't at that level will instantly jump to the appropriate level. Additionally, newly spawned creatures while the AI is in attack mode will also instantly jump up to the appropriate level. In your mentioned example, it's clear that this level is 6. That means it requires all minions to be level 6 or higher to enter attack mode, but has an exception rule for 5-7 minions to be less than that (I don't remember if the exception quantity is the exact same as the level requirement of the minions, or if it's the same + or - 1). Once it enters attack mode, those remaining 5-7 minions will all jump up to 6.

This should answer your questions.

Narachi
August 8th, 2017, 00:08
Hello and thanks for your elaborate reply (and for the awesome balance patch also used in this campaign from what I've read!) :). I did not know about the AI "attack mode", but it's very interesting. No wonder the weirdest enemies were the most difficult to beat sometimes. At least now I know why the level 6 spawns stopped once I breached its Dungeon. And it also explains why some AIs didn't get the bonus when I attacked first. It's an amazing feature, steamrolling an opponent with a steady supply of fighters (lvl 1 don't count) makes it much more interesting. It's nice to know that it doesn't have to be implemented manually / the attack requirements are sufficient! I also started working ages ago with the Pro editor, but only made crappy stuff. The Kasabian campaign inspired me to try something a little bigger or at least better though, at least if I keep my motivation.

//EDIT (before having posted...)
Create Creature works now. I expected it to work like the Hero Party creation, but doh! You have to place the creatures ON THE MAP as well D:. Awesome, now I can do some additional stuff.

OLD: Regarding the "Create Creature" option, I know and have found both of those. Generate works fine. But "Add Creature Action" opens the creature selection tab, and any selection I make will not be registered for the list (unlike for example the same selection screen for the hero party, that one works). The list remains empty, and because I have to "accept" an empty list, no action is added. I think I've had the same problem some years ago, but I have no memory of how I solved it back then and I also didn't really find anything when googling the issue, I guess the community is a bit small x]. Maybe I should dig in the mapmaking forum here, it's basically all there is :P. But so far I have a lot of fun playing around with terrain altering and camera movement in the editor.

Regarding the topic itself, I'm still stuck on Animals :3. I cannot breach the Magic Door to Yellow quickly (cause 1.51), stomping Green with Goblins works nicely, but by the time I reach yellow and beat him down purple is roflstomping everything. Some more tries to go :P. I think I've already spent more time on this fan-made campaign than on most AAA games nowadays X]. And winning is much more rewarding!

//EDIT 2:
I've finally beaten Animals! I killed yellow, purple killed green, and then I had to kill purple with his 7 or so Portals with my 3 Portals, that was one hell of a slaughter. Afterwards I immediatly stomped Blue because he was obviously no match for an army that defeated Purple in an hour-long battle. Also, Purple's godlike turncoat spell was so annoying D:

Narachi
August 12th, 2017, 01:16
After finishing Darkshines, here's a more elaborate post about the first 10 levels, as promised:

Supremacy
Nothing much to say here. I built up my Dungeon without opening up to the lake, trained all my creatures to level 5 (with 3 or 4 bile demons, those were essential), researched everything and at the same time dug up north near the west end of the map. Once everything was settled, I battled Dagon at his own Portal (first CTA, then I waited for my creatures, then opened the wall. a number of his creatures died to the inital burst while being knocked down). For some reason, he put the creatures in two piles, one around a corner, so by the time every creature of his engaged I already had the upper hand. As soon as I took his portal it was over, I just battled to his heart and beat him. Took me like 5 save reloads and a restart though because opening up too soon or too late caused some troubles.

Madness
I enforced the guard room at the east end of the dungeon and crushed the heroes one after the other without too many problems. I managed to reach Olisha pretty fast seemingly, in front of the room just north of your dungeon behind the impenetratable rock. I had severe gold issues at that point, so I dug around the left side to the back of Olishas base and mined one of the large gold seams there, giving me more than 600k, enough for the rest of the entire match. I set up a trap room at the junction between my digging site and the hero fortress with lots of spike traps, lightning traps and barricades and waited for her assaults. Over the course of the next 6 or 7 attacks by her I thought twice that it was now time for a counter attack, only to find out that she just got a massive increase in strong creatures xO. Reload. Her high level vampires were a pain in the ass, so I reclaimed my gold mining area (because I had been pushed back to my trap room on both fronts), dug the walls to her graveyard and captured it by fooling the AI (it will not drop the same creature to defend it twice if it is still near the room). After that, no vampires, no problems, as I "defended" the graveyard against capture with the lightning spell while her army died. Then I attacked and crushed her without any problems. Took me a total of 3 save reloads.

Panic Station
First time I wasn't nearly efficient enough to rescue everything, but I got a good idea of how the reapers work. So I restarted (twice), freed everything and attacked the left flank of the big hero fortress. behind the (hero-) doors I saw purple already claiming tiles, so I switched my attention to the right flank and claimed it entirely, as green hadn't pushed out yet. I used the water to attack him with a reaper and Symbiosis, and that for some reason totally stopped all of his aggression (he stopped digging), but at the same time he gained the status of "I only spawn level 6 minions from my 2 portals", making an attack unfeasable at that point in time with only some reapers, a mistress and a knight. As my reapers were already fairly high (8-10) and purple was starting to claim my right flank, I chose to just rally my creatures at his dungeon heart (by slowly progressing), which seemed to work like a charm (Inferno. Inferno. Inferno.) until I hit his magic door (1.51 Dx). No chance of digging it down with imps at that distance because I had rushed in and didnt wait for claiming. So I walked my reapers through the door with symbiosis one-by-one (thanks enemy imps for cooperating and opening it), and I lost my level 8 reaper during that time, just like my mistress because of not being able to give attention to her healing while in symbiosis. With 3 reapers, all level 10 at this point, at his heart, he died rather quickly. Then I built up the dungeon, mined gold and trained creatures, managed to dig around green's left side once again, and with two reapers and some weaklings managed to breach his dungeon and kill him. After claiming his first portal (the place where I had breached), he lost his level-6-super status, however it was a tough fight because of the Inferno friendly fire. I also lost 1 reaper before the fight due to their moody nature, and 2 just weren't enough against the level 6 army with black knights and mistresses on their own.
Then suddenly, a timer started. I figured there would be an attack when it ended, so I let my creatures rest and new creatures train and set up some traps. Then the attack started and I got stomped. Reload, different setup. Stomped. Reload, barricades everywhere erratically to slow their progress, concentrated all of my army in front of my main dungeon behind barricades, and managed to defeat the big wave coming for me because they got spread out better. The two side waves didn't pose a threat after that. I guess that last wave was greatly influencing the map name?
Took me 2 restarts and loads of reloads because I had to learn about green's imba portals the hard way.

Prelude
First two times I got rushed down by green as I tried to keep both him and the heros at bay. Third time I set up a boulder trap in a corridor to his lake, and he didnt even attack once >.<. I killed and converted all of the heroes, and when I had 3 archers and 2 guards I attacked just crushed him, he didn't stand a chance. I got CTA from his library and used it to send my creature to the hero base afterwards. At that time the keeper in the south (blue?) thought it would be the perfect opportunity to rally his creatures to my dungeon heart (he didn't even connect to the fortress) and let them die one by one to my army. No problems, I answered by immediatly crushing him. Then I didn't spend too much time attacking the last and strongest keeper. The first try I attacked alongside his path and got stomped, because he also was in level-6-cheat-mode and I just couldnt deal with it. A reload later I decided to deviate from the path after initally killing most of his army, digging through the small hole that leads closer to his dungeon heart, and attack there, which proved to be successful. So all in all just two restarts and one save reload. Seemed easy after all.

Survival
Interesting map. I used the same strategy in all of my 3 attempts with different gold digging patterns. I got as much as possible, dug a loooooong corridor around my dungeon and connected it to a welcoming trap room. The first keeper to attack me was yellow, and after an extensive battle in the room I had slain most of his creatures and counter attacked, only to notice that the bastard had built 5 (!) magic doors on the way to his dungeon. A lot of digging later I finally made it and killed him quite easily. Because the idiot had used all of his gold seams (and I literally mean all of it) on magic doors, 7 large lairs and 5 hatcheries, I got into severe money problems, so time was of the essence. I killed green by digging a sneak tunnel near his heart, then opening up to his dungeon from the front, luring his army to my trap room (at which point he CTA'd my heart), then giving a bile demon the invincibility spell, breaching him from the sneak tunnel and invading with my army (except 1 bile demon), dealing a finishing blow to his heart. I lost quite a number of creatures, but luckily mostly low levels. Blue posed a different problem though because he had reapers and knights and wasn't as dumb. I used exactly the same strategy, but he would also drop creatures to defend himself against my own breach. In the end I barely made it, as his army had already reached my heart and had severely managed it by the time he died. That was a fun race.
Took 2 restarts and 3 or 4 reloads in the fight with blue to make the timings of my sneak attack perfect, because his army was just too strong.

Butterflies and Hurricanes
Oh boy. The first level where I needed tons of restarts because I got rushed by either blue, yellow or both (one from the back, one from the front). In my second game I noticed a strange unclaimed room near yellows dungeon, and I decided to investigate. I dug out all important parts near my own dungeon (especially the +Imps secret) and tunneled to said secret room to find a nice level 5 or so salamander. I used this path to also link blue and yellows dungeons (1 gold seam at each end). Blue already had started digging towards me, but I got to know his path quite well ( x[[ ), so I left the critical tile with two open sides towards my dungeon, because 3 imps can't dig faster than 2 can repair. Then I breached both of their dungeons at the same time and watched the battle. Blue was much stronger than me and yellow at this point, so I waited for him to attack yellow and breached his dungeon just before he reached yellows heart. It took me 3 or 4 save reloads to get the timing right, but in the end yellow died around 5 seconds before I killed blue, getting a dungeon for free. The remaining ones, purple and green, were also both very strong, but I had noticed before that green's heart is very exposed. I watched their battle with the keeper spell, and when purple was engaged enough I attacked his dungeon and camped his lair, making him lose the battle. Then I withdrew my creatures (not losing any) and breached green's heart, killing him in the process. The upper boulder trap luckily got activated by one of my imps and destroyed his second boulder trap. Then, I immediatly attacked purple, who didn't put up any fight anymore. All in all it was quite easy once I got the hang of it.

Follow me
Very cool map.I needed two reloads until I speeded to the prison and the mana vaults, got the skeleton and made the thief into another one, trained both of them to levels 4 and 5 and then started taking out the guards and making more skeletons. Once the critical mass of around 6 level 5 skeletons was reached no single enemy would be considered dangerous anymore. As soon as I got the graveyard I stopped imprisoning until I got one vampire, and then used that one to research all the spells. While he did that I expaned my skeleton army to a final strength of 16, claimed every part of the hero fortress and freed the reaper. Then I experimented around with the hero pillars and quickly noticed that in my case, all possible combinations didn't harm the enemy keeper. So I used the final 3 enemies that I had captured, a dwarf, a wizard and a guard, healed them repeatedly and let them battle against the reaper until it reached level 9. Then I used the level up secret. And then I dug down the pillars one after the other (except the LotL), with my reaper camping the drop spot and using Inferno, mostly instakilling the whole bunch once they fell down. I converted them until I had around 16 to 20 heros, at which point I regretted having used the secret too early. Still, the keeper was pretty dangerous with his knights and dark angels, so I lured them out one by one with my reaper and symbiosis, beat them and healed them up in my prison so he wouldn't attract new ones. When I had 6 knights and 2 angels in my prison (also having converted around 4 mistresses, 3 dark elves, 2 trolls and a bile demon), I attacked and crushed him with ease. I could have been MUCH faster here. Only needed 1 or 2 save reloads after the inital restarts.

Animals
Where do I start. Loads of restarts again. Purple would always be faster no matter what I did. I also figured out the secret door strategy on my own, but didn't get to try it, or he would just attack it by chance and crush me. I imemdiatly sold a door and built 1 lair and hatchery tile to start attracting goblins, then dug out more rooms while mining gold to set up an arena asap (I only got goblins and bile demons though). I let wizards to the necessary research after training in the arena and had a sizeable and trained army pretty quickly, sadly, no knights (got them after yellow). Then, as written above, I managed to beat yellow (couldn't get through the magic door so I needed to wait and camp until he built his bridge to attack green) while purple stomped green, then i built a trap room with some undug rock, barricades and an array of 16 hail traps and invited purples 7-portal-army with a loads of vamps and skeletons. I left some wizards, lizards and goblins in a temple to produce the necessary mana. His attack wiped out all of my low level creatures and basically the entire trap room, but the ridiculous dps of the hail traps in the initial enconter together with my trained creatures proved to be good enough to kill most of his army as well, especially all of the high level creatures (I managed to convert the bile demons and mistresses). I built up the room partly again (only barricades were left), and his second and third attack wave weren't nearly as strong. I had built a graveyard even before attacking yellow and had 2 level 6 reapers by the time of the inital purple attack, and after the defense they had reached levels 8 and 9. After I think the fifth wave of his creatures I felt safe enough to start pushing back, as my creatures also had leveled up massively (at least those that had survived all encounters), and indeed I manage to push the entire way to his dungeon heart and kill him. Luckily he only targeted the weaker level 10 creatures with his turncoat spell when I attacked him (level 10 trolls, I think he did that on purpose.). After he died I immediatly went and killed the blue keeper who was reeeeeaaaaaaaally weak in comparison.

Explorers
Just when you thought you had seen everything.... no, massive parties of over-leveled heros digging through solid rock while circling around my dungeon are a first. Needed 2 restarts because of a bad dungeon layout at first, then I managed to organize everything nicely with doors (skeletons manufacture sooooooooooooooo slow.......). At least vamps are quite nice researchers. After the research was done I let 3 vamps die so they wouldn't keep stealing my gold (4000 for a weak ass lvl 2 creature? Not in my dungeon.). Then I lost some skeletons, noticed that I can only get two with the small prison that I claimed, and suddenly remembered that there was a text about two keepers which I have to kill after surviving the heros. Fuck. But I had already claimed most of the tunnels and a good idea of where I had to go, I also saw green behind some door. Then I heard greens creatures hammering down said door. And then green invaded my tunnels. Fuck². And just when I thought it was over, a miracle happened. After fighting a big hero wave in the tunnels (and winning said exchange), green just died. Amazing. WHen my imps ventured near his dungeon I saw blue high level creatures leave and already thought that I was totally lost if blue claimed green's dungeon as well. But blue didn't. As I found out, there was a single tile of water seperating the blue and (previously) green paths. So I got the entire dungeon for free. And green's inferno spell. And the gold. And everything. I used my newly acquired and train ed up creatures to first wipe out all of the remaining heros (you could guess the chance of me doing that earlier with 2 skeletons and 3 level 2 vampires), I converted 6 giants, 5 guards and 3 archers, and then attacked blue by breaching near the training room in the south, where he didnt find the hidden door. I CTAd my army behind a corner, waited for his creatures to push, and then infernoed the hell out of them, the weakend creatures died to the first burst of my army and over half of his forces were gone. Then I just kept pushing through his entrance trap room and trap corridor and killed his heart. Thanks again blue for being so kind, but mission objective is mission objective.

Darkshines
Oh boy². I "only" needed 2 restarts on this map and 2 save reloads to switch tactics entirely. The biggest problems for me in this level: 1.51 magic doors and the inability to research ANY rooms (BIG bugger). I only had access to goblins, wizards, salamanders and bile demons against his vastly superior army. That was challenging. I also could only push them to level 5 and didn't have the ability to build any traps because of the missing workshop. But I found 4 neutral salamanders (I think), so at least that "evened the odds" (not really). I dug out a lot of stuff pretty quickly, with a looooooooooooooong corridor to the back of his dungeon, where I breached to keep him busy with claiming for a long time. Then I CTAd my creatures to my side of the lava river where he had built a room on the other side and used symbiosis on a salamander to aggro his creatures. Because of the "threat" of the army behind me, he dropped all of his stuff, but only the ones who can walk on lava could actually attack me. I managed to kill his high level salamanders, two reapers and all but 2 of his giants with that initial aggression. But he wasn't dumb, so he built a bridge to the place where my army was located afterwards, so I pulled back everything I had to the lair first, and then CTAd them to my portal room (where I had dug out a nice shape previously because I liked it, but it proved to be incredibly effective in the defense). Note: I had 6 bile demons, 5 or 6 wizards, 4 goblins and 5 or 6 salamanders left at this point. Without the 5 level 5 bile demons I wouldn't have made it. Tanks are incredibly important in this situation. Then I waited for his attack, which quickly arrived because his imps were very fast in heading for my portal room. And then I had to use almost every trick in the book to give me the edge in the fight, because my army was still worse than his. Healing creatures, putting wounded goblins in the lair, getting wizards back to my portal, dropping my imps behind his casters to distract them (which worked like a charm for the projectile burst waves) and casting lightning on his weak creatures as well as getting the damn imps to rescue my downed ones in the heat of battle. Said battle took a good 30 or 40 minutes, and at the end all of his reapers, most of his vampires, and all of his high level creatures besides one goblin were dead. On the other hand, my army was entirely on levels 8, 9 and 10 (apart from level 1 replacements for my 5 or 6 lost creatures), so he couldn't defend against my counter push at all anymore. He suddenly got some stronger creatures at one point, even two reapers, but they didn't pose a threat. The heros after that were a joke obviously, with the knight being an annoyance, because the time he needs to be converted is inversely proportonial to the time it takes for a bile demon to get angry because it wants food.



So far, this campaign has provided me with the 2 best 1v1 battles I've had against an AI in DK2, along with the best dungeon-race and very cool new ideas. I just hope that I don't make the level's that I'm working on too difficult because of this experience xP.

I made a new post simply because this one is lengthy.

Endrix
August 14th, 2017, 18:23
Can anyone make a let´s play of them? I found only the missions Supremacy and Citizen Erased A.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTSNsek-dJ4

Narachi
August 14th, 2017, 18:29
I actually wanted to. But some of the missions get REALLY long, I'm bad enough to use lots of reloads, and there are longer sections of buildup where nothing is happening. I don't think that will be nice to watch. The only maps with constant action might be "Follow me" and "Butterflies and Hurricanes", at least on my level xP. For all others, there were breaks. Oh, and I noticed that I cannot record with my old laptop (and I don't seem to get 1.51 running on my desktop PC because the hardware is way better). I've liked the playthrough of Supremacy, and I haven't watched Citizen Erased yet because I didn't want to get spoilered (mostly with tactics and the map layout) :P.

Narachi
August 30th, 2017, 00:04
Found a bug in "Save me". Blue tried to mine green's gems, and after I killed green the gems turned to impenetratable rock, blue still tried to mine em and the game crashed. Apart from that, the missions since Darkshines were easier than the ones before. Probably because of the availability of more rooms right at the start. Citizen Erased A was fun because I never got the prison and the wooden bridge, so I could only take a single dungeon and needed to beat the 2 remaining keepers using those minions and a training room (no arena either).

impboy4
August 30th, 2017, 00:28
Ah yes, the AI imps mining impenetrable rock bug; Rex had it happen in level 12 of his patch so he had to redo the level to prevent that. I think the only fix in this case is to change the script so it will turn into regular rock instead of impenetrable rock that way it won't crash.

Raistlindragon
March 5th, 2018, 22:51
Hi so I have been trying to Play this Campaign all Day and it just will not work.
Anyone who can help me would be very appreciated.
I did like it says and copied all the Maps into the Map order then I Created a Shortcut to my Launcher no problems so far.
Now I tried to change the Launcher Shortcut from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Bullfrog\Dungeon Keeper II\DKII.exe" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Bullfrog\Dungeon Keeper II\DKII.exe"-q -level "Supremacy" and it keeps telling me that the name specified is not Valid and I just Can't figure out what's going wrong.
I have even tried the Launcher supplied here and that starts and I got to Play Supremacy wich is by the way Really great, but nothing more if I try to put in another number it just does nothing.

impboy4
March 6th, 2018, 20:19
Care to give a screenshot?

Raistlindragon
March 7th, 2018, 20:43
Okay so I finally got it working.
I had to rename the Main DK Aplication as it was Named Dungeon Keeper 2 and not Dungeon Keeper II, then I Started it in Combatability Mode and finally I put a space between the exe and the q-level.
Now the only problem I have is that not all Levels can be opened with this I have finished 4 of them but the levels Butterflies & Hurricanes and Panic Station still will not start they blink once show the starting Windows then shutdown.

impboy4
March 7th, 2018, 22:19
That's why you use quotation marks around each level name; it's only then it will work.

Raistlindragon
March 8th, 2018, 11:20
Yes I have been even if iu did not write it down here, what I don't get is why only 4 Levels don't work and the rest do.
I have Tested all of the Levels now just to see if they start and the rest do.
I would like to complement the Designer on these Levels they are very Hard to beat and are a lot of Fun to Play.

Raistlindragon
March 8th, 2018, 12:00
Okay so I downloaded the Levels again and now they work it must have been a problem with the Dowload.

Raistlindragon
April 11th, 2018, 17:25
Okay so I am having a great time with this Campaign it is Hard and fun to play thanks for making this.
I had a bit of a starting problem but that was a problem with the Download and I fixed it now I have a question.
I am on the Level Isolated System and I am trying to build my Army to go out and defeat them but after 5 Mins it goes to the End Screen and askes me to press Space and then it shuts down like I have completed the Level is there a Hidden Timer or am I doing something wrong.

impboy4
April 11th, 2018, 20:37
There are three objective hero units inside a cavern near blue's dungeon heart; they all must be killed in order to win the level. Idk if the blue keeper might have accidentally killed them for you but if they did; then that's why it caused the end screen to appear. If you are playing this with the GOG 1.7 version don't; this campaign was made for version 1.3 which Skarok happily uploaded on page two of this thread.

Raistlindragon
April 11th, 2018, 21:04
No I am using the 1.3 Version but it could be that the Blue Keeper killed them, I have tried several times to do this but how am I supposed to stop the Blue Keeper from doing this it is finished but I would still like to Play this Level and it is annoying.

Raistlindragon
May 29th, 2018, 16:10
Okay so I am having fun with this Campaign and I must say it is really quite Hard sometimes.
Now I have a new problem I have Played all the way to Citizen Erased D and now after about 5 Minutes of Playing it shuts down, so I thought it was a Level problem and tried a different one but it still happened.
Does anyone here have the same problem and a solution I have tried everything that is here so far and I have tried lots that where not here and nothing works, I have no new Software or settings and it does not create a report it just freezes for a few seconds then shuts down.

Narachi
July 24th, 2018, 00:44
I thought a while about "speedrunning" the original game, but because it is so blatantly easy, that would not be fun. Instead, I'm going to try to finish all of the Kasabian maps as fast as possible, that should provide a much better challenge. Ill make some updates every now and then when I'm motivated xP.

First things first: I modded the maps slightly, take a look here: https://imgur.com/a/IZnSw1Q . The upper change resets the Point Count on map restart, whereas the two infinite triggers in the second change make sure that the point counter acts as an ingame-frame-counter (typically around 4 per second, here around 6 per second because of 150% speed) to give an exact time measurement for the level. Even if nobody is gonna bother, beating my own time already made that change worth it ;-). I made sure to save the map properly (without replacing Mana Generators for example).

So far I've only got a proper run of the first level, Supremacy, in 3958 ingame frames or 11:14 in real time with some lags.

I play on 1.51, so some proper AI, but no room research and magic doors can only be damaged by projectiles. For this reason I don't use them, I also avoid Symbiosis because it's OP. Game speed is 150%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU7kZNutNko

Enjoy x].

Deadworker
July 28th, 2018, 16:43
Im going to watch it!

Mollematen
July 30th, 2018, 18:02
Hello

I recently picked up DK II again and found this excellent campaign. I just wanted to thank you for creating these very challenging maps, its been a lot of fun. I'm only halfway through the campaign, so still lots left to play and I'm looking forward to the rest. :)

Endrix
July 30th, 2018, 21:08
I would like to play the Kasabian Campaign. However, all on standard + my own coding / balancing.

Unfortunately I only know how to overwrite my own version from map to map, but this refers to the creatures statistics. I do not know where you for example set the training cost and creature limit.
And why this is not automatically overwritten when overwriting from the map before.

Metal Gear Rex
July 30th, 2018, 21:45
I would like to play the Kasabian Campaign. However, all on standard + my own coding / balancing.

The campaign was designed around 1.0 version of my balance patch + slight modifications (I think there were slight modifications anyway). It can't even be updated properly to the current balance patch without breaking the level design. I highly doubt fundamentally changing the stats to something of an entirely different design philosophy will do anything but break the balance of the maps and ruin the experience.


Unfortunately I only know how to overwrite my own version from map to map, but this refers to the creatures statistics. I do not know where you for example set the training cost and creature limit.
And why this is not automatically overwritten when overwriting from the map before.

There's two types of changes, global data, which is what you're currently overwriting and contains everything within the configuration tab, and level variables (under levels tab), which needs to be manually updated from map to map.

Narachi
August 2nd, 2018, 03:36
Finally managed to record a proper run of the second level, fraps started acting up >_<. Nevertheless, I've finished Madness in 9683 frames or 27 minutes and 30 seconds, same settings as previously. I improved the render quality. If someone watches it, I might add some commentary to the videos to explain what I'm doing, I just need the feedback x].

Here's the link, have fun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlHpBFVyeDE

Endrix
August 7th, 2018, 11:27
I can not play map 3 "panic station" ?

The map do not start.

Narachi
August 7th, 2018, 14:21
Did you start the level with the command line
-q -level "Panic Station"

or just with
-q -level Panic Station
?

The latter one will not work. It might also be case sensitive. This is the problem if DK2 closes before anything happens in the loading screen. If it closes after having loaded a bit, there is some corrupted files or data which it cannot read. Try reverting back to the standard files and test again (in case you did your own modification as you had mentioned).

Endrix
August 8th, 2018, 19:05
-q -level "Panic Station"

It worked. Thx.

Endrix
August 9th, 2018, 15:57
What do I have to do in level 7? "Follow Me"

In dk1, I would lock my dungeon over water with guard posts and then conquer the area. that does not work in dk 2.

Karol Piechowiak
August 14th, 2018, 19:40
hey This is Awensome but i am so stupid and i dont know how to start this maps/game pls Master coudl you help me

any video or something

Metal Gear Rex
August 15th, 2018, 12:55
You have a working copy of DK2 1.3, yes? You can tell what version you're on by booting up the gameand looking at the bottom left of the main menu, it'll say the version number. If it doesn't, that means it's 1.3, which is the only version that doesn't say anything.

Inside your DK2 folder there's a data folder, then an editor folder, and a maps folder in there. Paste the maps in there.

Now to play the levels, right click your DK2 executable and make a shortcut. Then right click and check the properties of that shortcut. There's a bit that says "Target" showing the location of the executable in quotes.

Add the following to the end of it, outside the quotes: -q -level "levelname"

Replace levelname with the map you want to load. For example, the first map in this campaign is "SUPREMACY" so you'll end up with: -q -level "supremacy"

Load up the shortcut and that should load the level. Then you simply need to change the target location for each map.

Endrix
September 16th, 2018, 10:11
In level 16 "Stockholm Syndrome" in the midgame, after a video sequence (in black), the pc crash and goes out of the game :(

keddk
October 2nd, 2018, 05:52
Hi!

I'm on Supremacy and I've would like to ask two questions.
Is it normal that the enemy keeper can cast Thunderbolt on my territory?
Is it normal that game speed increased after a lot of playing?

impboy4
October 2nd, 2018, 06:39
Hi!

I'm on Supremacy and I've would like to ask two questions.
Is it normal that the enemy keeper can cast Thunderbolt on my territory?
Is it normal that game speed increased after a lot of playing?

1. Yes, the campaign uses modified gameplay mechanics from Rex's patch (his first version of it to be exact)
2. 150% game speed is preferred since it provides the best experience.

keddk
October 2nd, 2018, 09:32
Thanks!
About my 2nd question. I didn't adjust the game speed, it seemed to speed up on it's own. I was about to lose the map, maybe it's a feature.

Metal Gear Rex
October 2nd, 2018, 15:09
About my 2nd question. I didn't adjust the game speed, it seemed to speed up on it's own. I was about to lose the map, maybe it's a feature.

Shouldn't be. Never heard of that happening or being possible.

impboy4
October 2nd, 2018, 18:09
I think he's talking about the edited creature speed of some creatures the patch also did.

Metal Gear Rex
October 2nd, 2018, 22:31
I think he's talking about the edited creature speed of some creatures the patch also did.

That wouldn't cause a speedup in the middle of the map. But the information we have to work with is limited.

keddk, can you describe more of what you meant by "speed up"? What was affected and how did it change?

keddk
October 3rd, 2018, 17:38
The movement speed of all creatures. It's not that important though.

happytogether
May 29th, 2019, 06:32
I really enjoy this campaign. Right now, I'm stuck on the 3rd map, "Panic Station".
My game version is 1.51.
OS: Windows Xp.
Kasabian Campaign: 1.3.5.
Two workshop items and one spell appears weird in the UI.
Are they supposed to look like this?

https://imgur.com/a/5Z4jCTd

ITEM "This is a thief" = A cannon on wheels.
ITEM "This is a firefly" = Trigger trap.
SPELL "This is not a reaper" = I think this is a protection spell, but don't know exactly what it does. Anyone has a description of it?

Metal Gear Rex
May 29th, 2019, 08:12
https://imgur.com/a/5Z4jCTd

That would mean you don't have the proper text file, which changes those text lines to match the new items. The text file should've come with the download file.


ITEM "This is a thief" = A cannon on wheels.

That's the Slow Trap. Like the Vampire's Slow spell in the original game, although I don't believe any creature uses it anymore. Uses the same icon.


ITEM "This is a firefly" = Trigger trap.

That's the Hail Trap, like the Hailstorm spell.


SPELL "This is not a reaper" = I think this is a protection spell, but don't know exactly what it does. Anyone has a description of it?

That's the Invulnerability spell. Makes creature immune to all damage except Lightning, Drain, and Inferno (because that's just how the game hardcoded that function). Invulnerability is not a function used in the normal game, it uses the Armour spell, which the Balance Patch doesn't use.

happytogether
May 29th, 2019, 14:08
Thanks, it's great that this still has support.

jdom84
August 18th, 2019, 20:56
Thanks, it's great that this still has support.

Is there support?

I played the first two levels but the third doesnt start just crashes

YourMaster
August 18th, 2019, 22:00
People who have trouble with the third level usually start it incorrectly. The third level is the first level where the map name consists of more than one word. Make sure your link is as described.

jdom84
August 18th, 2019, 22:30
People who have trouble with the third level usually start it incorrectly. The third level is the first level where the map name consists of more than one word. Make sure your link is as described.

Hey thanks for the swift response I think it is typed correctly, it has the capital and a space right? Panic Station? But I noticed I am still on version 1.7. Even though I reinstalled the original GOG game files. I think it is 1.7 I have. Could this be the issue?

YourMaster
August 19th, 2019, 00:40
GOG has version 1.7 yes. If this is the only version you have, get GIM (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=109)with it. But the levels should launch regardless.

You should have: -q -level "Panic Station"
Including the quotes.

IamShonji
September 4th, 2019, 11:27
Hey Skarok, its been a long time, couldn't remember my old account info so just made a new one. Shonji. Ended up doing your campaign here again since its about the only one that is an actual campaign and still fun to do to this day and noticed something I think I noticed in the past.

Has Dear Agony always not worked? No matter how many times I redownload the campaign, or reinstall a 1.3 or 1.5 version of Dk2, it is the only map that won't load. The game loads up, the load screen shows for one second then goes back to desktop.

Also if you are still doing maps, I could help playtest them again.

Quuz
February 29th, 2020, 19:43
Great campaign with a good level of difficulty, great design and thoughtful levels.
The best of what I played on dk2.
Thank you Skarok so much for your work!

jeylavinsky
April 19th, 2020, 14:43
I don't know how to run the game from the command line. What is the command line? What i must write? Can someone help me?

YourMaster
April 19th, 2020, 17:11
From the included readme:



To play the maps you need to start them via the Commando Line. Edit your shortcut and add ' -q -level "LevelName" ' in the Properties, changing 'LevelName' to the name of the actual map you want to play. For example, if you wanna play level 1 'Supremacy', change it to 'Supremacy'. Simply enough, eh?

Mannoroht
April 3rd, 2021, 03:12
Has Dear Agony always not worked? No matter how many times I redownload the campaign, or reinstall a 1.3 or 1.5 version of Dk2, it is the only map that won't load. The game loads up, the load screen shows for one second then goes back to desktop.

The Map does work but it's not named "Dear Agony" instead it is named "Dear agony.." (yes, with two dots). However, I don't get the "victory" screen after killing and claiming everything on the map and it crashes more frequently than the other maps for some reason (played on 1.3)

So, as a heads up for everyone: in order to start Mission 19 you have to either rename the map to "Dear Agony" or put "Dear agony.." in your command.

inwaves_shogun
May 14th, 2021, 13:26
hello, i am loving the campaign so far. have played the first 2 levels supremacy and madness. (loving the muse song references btw). however, i am having issues getting the 3rd map panic station to load. maybe there is an issue with 2 word map names and the command line thing. not entirely sure what to do. i use the gog version of dk2. using the configure option to load the first 2 levels works fine, just for some reason typing the command and the map level Panic Station doesnt work at all, closes automatically. not sure if there is any advice on this or help. hoping someone has an idea anyway, thank you.

YourMaster
May 14th, 2021, 13:43
People sometimes have difficulty with the 2 word map names yes.
I believe the command line should read:
-q -level "Panic Station", including the " "

inwaves_shogun
May 14th, 2021, 14:12
People sometimes have difficulty with the 2 word map names yes.
I believe the command line should read:
-q -level "Panic Station", including the " "

it seems to have worked! tysm :D