| Description: This is a strange tale of six unique underdogs who must join their forces in order to defeat uberhero Gelu, who has built the fortress of New Avlee and invaded these peaceful lands. Each of them must make the best of their unique specialties: Albus - upgrades Giants and Titans to Lords of Thunder Melissa - upgrades Monks and Mages to Enchanters Igor - master of Haflings and Estates Boris - master of Sylvan Centaurs Nagash - master of Ghosts Raven - master of Rogues and Espionage Additional Info: This is version 1.4! Versions 1.0 - 1.2 have been sent to several people for testing. Version 1.3 entered MapHaven's 2004 contest as "Gelu's Legacy 3: Underdogs". Due to the deadline, it was rushed. I changed some locations and monsters, mostly to make the scenario more difficult. :) Underdogs was reviewed by Qurqirish Dragon and got 4/5. Here's part of the review: COMMENTS: As the title implies, this is the third map in a series, but this review will stand it on its own merits. There are several distinct storylines, each involving one or two of the main characters. Quest guards and border gates separate the protagonists until various conditions are met, but this also isolates several areas from the enemy, which means you have a place to retreat to if you feel you cannot win- which is good, as there are no taverns available on the map. Several of the heroes have unique specialties that have been customized, and the roster of the necropolis has been changed slightly to accommodate one of these changes. Unfortunately, not all of the WoG functions were properly implemented in the map. For example, the Henchmen script is active, but as it is an internal script (rather than activated from the options menu), it does not display the messages correctly; more on this in “below the bottom,” below. Another problem that I discovered was the ability to trigger site events multiple times. As a result, I had heroes gaining a free 40,000 experience per day, and traveling upwards of 100 spaces per day. My tips below will NOT include exploiting these flaws. Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable map, despite these flaws. SOME TIPS: Get expert scholar for at least one hero, and use mithril to place rocklands or magic plains by each castle. When you eventually gain Town Portal, you can use these to release a hero that otherwise will automatically be removed from the map before the normal exit is available. This hero can then be used to soften up Gelu before you make the true effort to defeat him. Try to get monks in the castle town as early as you can. Build a magic university for obtaining magic schools that you like. Before you begin this map, set your WoG options to WoGify all WoG maps, and disable all scripts except for henchmen, creature experience (neutral stacks do NOT get experience), and mithril. Turn off object replacement, but leave new sites active. This should clear most of the text problems. BUGS AND PROBLEMS: Aside from what was already noted above, several map sites seem to have been mislabeled. A site called “mage guild” was a naga bank and several Halfling cottages were called “abandoned lighthouse” A few other sites were simply called “object” SCORE: On my first try at hard difficulty, I won on day 63 (month 3, week 1, day 7) for a score of 242 and (appropriately) archmage rating. PROS: Lots of customization, including new artifacts and new map sites. Blessings and curses also fit nicely in. Occasional hints to the story are provided to locate the more uncertain aspects. CONS: Easily exploitable bugs make the map easier than desired. A few WoG-specific errors- mainly the above text problem- makes a few things murky, but not a significant problem. THE BOTTOM LINE: Things are fairly well laid out in this map, and it is tricky to handle- definitely a hard map. However, it is not what I would consider of expert difficulty- only the final battle *MAY* be a cause for that. This map earns 10/10 for utilization and 8/10 for rating, to earn ****1/2 on description. It gets an 10/10 on appearance, as it is a well dressed map, 7/10 for the story, as I would have liked a little more character development, 6/10 on flavor, and 9/10 on style, to earn **** on entertainment. It gets 14/20 for balance, and 14/20 for placement, for a solidly constructed map, to earn ***1/2 on design, for an overall rating of **** (78 out of 100). The scenario also won the Clover Magic award in MapHaven's 2004 competition. |