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Duke Ragereaver
May 6th, 2017, 12:40
Download it here (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=125)!

Vuen’s Tomb

Difficulty rating: Hard


Long ago a Keeper of legendary proportions, Vuen 'the Darkener', ravaged and terrorized the world before being vanquished in this realm. Though destroyed, the evil he inflicted lingered. Thus the Heroes build a fortified monastery to watch Vuen's final resting place. Lay siege to this place and lets see what relics we can uncover from this tomb.


https://image.ibb.co/nz0nWQ/map00297.png

damedog
May 6th, 2017, 19:17
How do you play these custom maps? All the ones i've done were already part of KeeperFX

Duke Ragereaver
May 6th, 2017, 21:41
How do you play these custom maps? All the ones i've done were already part of KeeperFX

One needs to put the files in the Levels directory within the KeeperFX directory. After doing that you can select the level to play in the Skirmish/Free Play menu within KeeperFX (KeeperFX users: please feel free to correct me if this has changed).

YourMaster
May 6th, 2017, 22:02
You're right of course. There's even an entire wiki page to describe what you just said: https://github.com/dkfans/keeperfx/wiki/Playing-Custom-Maps

On a side note, I've started playing your map this morning, I've almost completed the hero dungeon. I hope to finish it tonight, so far, so good.

EDIT:
I finished the map, it worked perfectly in KeeperFX 0.4.6u.
It's a good map, but too be honest I don't think this is the most fun one you released.

I liked the start, but I saw through it. I learned to stay away from the water, so quickly found the first hero dungeon and proceeded from there. At this point the map becomes kinda basic, with the player having to clear out the hero fortresses. This is going through the motions, going room for room, no vision so no strategy involved and every room contain heroes your (trained up) starting party can deal with.
What I found a bit strange is that when you destroyed the hero heart, suddenly a few hero parties stream in from where the white heart was, I believe it makes more sense to do that while white is still alive.
The final keeper was too strong for me, with no satisfying way to deal with him. I had kept my original army, sacrificed for one reaper and found the one on the map, but still my 22 creatures that included a spider, hounds, warlocks, orcs, dragons and a tentacle could not hope to defeat that large number of vampires, that even kept regrowing. Your message suggested traps, but they did not enter my dungeon for traps to be useful. Early on a few creatures did - that got destroyed - and after that CTA stayed on the entire level never bringing new creatures.
I had already explored his dungeon with my reaper, and decided my only option was to cheese him. Using the collapse spell was not really a nice option due to you scripting in new vampires, so I provoked a fight and teleported in with a sped up vampire to snipe his hearth for the victory.

While I could not finish Tymnath Herez (https://keeperklan.com/threads/5729-Tymnath-Herez) due to the pathfinding bug, I liked that level a lot more. It had a similar concept, but you had the sight spell there and multiple paths to take with each path offering valuable rooms, so you had to choose where to go first and how quickly you wanted to push, while staying alert for the rival keepers. In contrast, this map is basically a single path, and the only real destination is the gems.

That said, even though I personally feel it is not one of your best, compared to what else is out there this is still one of the better maps and certainly worth playing if you are looking for a user-made map.

Duke Ragereaver
May 7th, 2017, 07:21
Thank you YourMaster!

Quick question to confirm: did the enemy Keeper not try to attack by raising a CTA on your land periodically?

YourMaster
May 7th, 2017, 08:01
It did so once, and kept it on the entire time, for the rest of the game. So that made it completely ineffective once the first group of creatures died.

Duke Ragereaver
May 7th, 2017, 08:22
Strange, from my testgames the enemy Keeper is supposed to make attacks from time to time and start effectively a 3-way battle. Its possible to manipulate some battles between the Heroes and the enemy Keeper if timed right.

If that happends as intended the map becomes more difficult and actually urgent but satisfying, while a few Vampires can be fended off fighting a horde of them can become very costly. So the Player is supposed to find means to counter the constant invasions. The Chicken and Cave-in spells are effective means to delay, while the Lightning spell and traps are good at thinning out the enemy army when he tries to attack.

So yes, its strange the level did not play out as intended in that regard.

YourMaster
May 7th, 2017, 08:31
Perhaps KeeperFX also messed up the CTA spell, which combined with the manipulation you do in the script has this effect. A shame really.
I can fully imagine having the Keeper actually do stuff would make this map more fun.

Than perhaps this is another map best played in the original game.

darkkingkongman
May 7th, 2017, 15:27
Hello, Duke Ragereaver, Could you upload a map thumbnail of your map?

Metal Gear Rex
May 7th, 2017, 16:32
There is a thumbnail already, are you unable to see it?

impboy4
May 7th, 2017, 16:40
I can't see it either.

Duke Ragereaver
May 7th, 2017, 17:10
Strange.

I have uploaded the preview from an external image uploader this time, is it visible now?

https://image.ibb.co/nz0nWQ/map00297.png

impboy4
May 7th, 2017, 17:17
Yes, it's visible now.

Hades
May 14th, 2017, 21:31
Having played it, I find that it's quite a solid map, except for the fact that you can get high-level reapers off the bat once you get Mistresses and Orcs. After that, it's a simple matter of attrition. Perhaps have the magic doors behind guard posts and have you dig your way around to reach the hero base first?

impboy4
May 14th, 2017, 22:08
...Orcs...

Trolls are needed for reapers not Orcs.

Hades
May 15th, 2017, 09:08
KeeperFX created a second combination: Dragon, Orc, Hound.

YourMaster
May 15th, 2017, 10:21
And that's exactly why in 0.4.6u I removed DragonsLovers new temple additions,... you end up with so many possibilities to get creatures from the Temple, it becomes nigh impossible to create a map where the player can't become far too powerful from the temple alone.

Duke Ragereaver
August 5th, 2018, 22:05
I have uploaded a new version.

The main change is that the enemy Keeper has been overhauled. This time he behaves more as I envisioned. Rather than starting out with an army of Vampires/Monks, he will attract them and some other Creatures. Although initially inactive, he will rapidly build up his dungeon and will become aggressive. Its very much possible to fend him off but it can become costly (and slighly chaotic) until certain traps or spells have been acquired by defeating the Heroes.

YourMaster
August 20th, 2018, 14:14
I replayed the map, actually expecting it to be warrens, but of course once I opened it I noticed it was another map.

KeeperFX still does not know how to handle the processes you set, and I still get a single CTA attack that lasts the entire game, so without any units.
The end battle seemed more fair now, with there not spawning indefinite new units for yellow, I could abuse my spells to eek out a victory against all the vampires. (I used lightning to kill some spiders/skeletons first, then when I attacked I kept the vampires at bay with a chicken spell and kept healing as much of my units - especially my reapers - until I finally won after a long battle.

I'll have to look into how I can get that CTA-behaviour in an easily reproducible way, so we can find a way to fix it. Because I'm sure the map plays out a lot differently if yellow actually does something.

Duke Ragereaver
August 22nd, 2018, 21:08
Hm that is pretty bothersome.

I have used the following computer processes regarding attacking.

The enemy Keeper should become belligerent after 30000 gameturns, or 3 paydays. From there it will check every 1500 turns with a 45% chance to attack, raising the CTA flag for 3000 turns. In the regular Dungeon Keeper the enemy Keeper does behave as it should. According to similar scripts like in level 16, the value with 8 is defined as MinForAttack, which I think is the minimum amount of Creatures needed?

SET_COMPUTER_CHECKS(PLAYER3,"CHECK FOR QUICK ATTACK",1500,45,3000,8,30000)

These following processes seem to prevent the enemy Keeper from trying to dig and/or bridge towards the Player.

SET_COMPUTER_PROCESS(PLAYER3,"ATTACK SAFE ATTACK",-1,100,335,100,0)
SET_COMPUTER_PROCESS(PLAYER3,"ATTACK PLAN 1",-1,100,335,100,0)

YourMaster
August 22nd, 2018, 21:41
Hm that is pretty bothersome.

I have used the following computer processes regarding attacking.

The enemy Keeper should become belligerent after 30000 gameturns, or 3 paydays. From there it will check every 1500 turns with a 45% chance to attack, raising the CTA flag for 3000 turns. In the regular Dungeon Keeper the enemy Keeper does behave as it should. According to similar scripts like in level 16, the value with 8 is defined as MinForAttack, which I think is the minimum amount of Creatures needed?

SET_COMPUTER_CHECKS(PLAYER3,"CHECK FOR QUICK ATTACK",1500,45,3000,8,30000)

These following processes seem to prevent the enemy Keeper from trying to dig and/or bridge towards the Player.

SET_COMPUTER_PROCESS(PLAYER3,"ATTACK SAFE ATTACK",-1,100,335,100,0)
SET_COMPUTER_PROCESS(PLAYER3,"ATTACK PLAN 1",-1,100,335,100,0)

Thanks, that's useful. And I believe it's not the creature needed, but a percentage of creatures somehow.

YourMaster
November 8th, 2019, 00:38
Hm that is pretty bothersome.

I think I managed to (partialy) fix CTA in KeeperFX 0.47U, from alpha 1953 (https://keeperklan.com/threads/6928-KeeperFX-Unofficial-continued-development-alpha-builds?p=55633&viewfull=1#post55633) onward.

Your map now seems to play out as intended. Makes a big difference!

Duke Ragereaver
May 9th, 2020, 15:43
I think I managed to (partialy) fix CTA in KeeperFX 0.47U, from alpha 1953 (https://keeperklan.com/threads/6928-KeeperFX-Unofficial-continued-development-alpha-builds?p=55633&viewfull=1#post55633) onward.

Your map now seems to play out as intended. Makes a big difference!

I am pleased to hear that. :D