Aeglos Fortress - singleplayer frost-themed map

[Dallarian 335]

Welcome Skylords and Cute Beings.

 

Kingdom of Lyr receives a lot of attention recently, some even could say too much attention. It’s residents would enjoy peace, that is for sure. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

After Blight’s death, remaining Ravenships scattered across the globe, gaining influence among other Bandit clans. Some of them found Lyr vulnerable and decided to attack, before Kingdom grows in strength. Aeglos Fortress is already partly-captured, we must hurry.

 

Trailer

 

New Community Map!

Aeglos Fortress is a new single-player Community Map.

As you can see on the minimap, the map has linear progress and takes place in a mountainous terrain.
As a player you start in bottom left corner and progress though the map until you reach enemy fortress on north west. On the right there is allied Frost Fortress which must be defended throughout the game. It is attacked by steadily stronger opponents.

The map should be now available in community maps tab:

The map is named differently in German and French versions of the game. Look out for “Festung Aeglos” and “Forteresse d’Aeglos” respectively. 

The map exhibits following features:

• Fresh campaign experience
• Audio narrative in all 4 official languanges
• Objectives in all 4 official languanges
• Frost themed fortress in northern part of the map
• Side objectives which enhance experience, but are not necessary to complete the map
• One easter-egg

Event on the map

If you complete the map on Advanced difficulty before 21st February 2022, you may participate in the event. See more details there:

 

A few insights about the map:

• The map was supposed to be "Siege of Hope but cooler,", but turned out as "buggy rPvE with benefits".
• The map was in development for 55 days.
• There were made over 260 edits/versions of the map.
• The map uses 2406 lines of code.

 

Thanks

To: All administrators, founders, developers and staff members who kept the project alive until now.
To: Mynoduesp, RookieN, Emmaerzeh, LEBOVIN, Kubik, AstralShadow and Menchrese for help with map making and scripting.
To: Sykole, Metagross31, Kapo, Chimaka, Volin for help in map’s concept development.
To: All the beta testers: Dutchy, Emmaerzeh, Kapo, Sykole, Metagross31, Chimaka, Bini Inhibitor, Cobalt, CrazyCatGirl, Kettle, Mynoduesp.
To: All those who played and will play the map.

Your time was valuable to me. I really appreciate.

 

Kind regards,

Dallarian

[Draconnor 30]

On 2/5/2022 at 12:07 AM, Dallarian said:

The map was supposed to be "Siege of Hope but cooler,", but turned out as "buggy rPvE with benefits".

Map is really fun. Maybe enemy respawns are to fast/obvious and twilight dino don't look good between bandits, but gameplay and all the rest is nice. Great work.

[WaterMelonLord 631]

Hey, new stuff, I might actually play this, I'm always looking for new maps. 

[Dallarian 335]

A few days have passed and many had opportunity to play the map. I believe it may be proper moment to ask a few questions:

• There are no cutscenes present in the map - the small window that shows attacking troops on Bad Harvest and similar. Is it okay? Personally I have never paid attention to those, but if they are useful during gameplay, or appealing to eye, I shall consider adding them to the map after event is finished.
• Is there anything off-putting in the map? Something what prevents you from playing it or enjoying it?
• Are decorations and textuers breaking immersion of the map? Those aren't my strong sides and I am always worried if they make the map less appealing.
• Is there anything what would make the map clearly better?

[Hrdina_Imperia 210]

Personally, I am torn on this map. I do like it, but I feel it has some problems, at least when it comes to my own playstyle quirks. That said, everything I add is only concerning the Advanced difficulty. And whatever I say, kudos for making this map. 

Visually, it's great. Snowy environment fits the Lyrish theme well, as well as the Ice/Frost element of the fortress. In this regard, I have very little to say.

Now, when it comes to gameplay, I feel the map is too cramped. It would really benefit from being bigger in size (not sure what options there are in the editor), as the corridors are really thin, preventing kiting or any broader stratiegies except - go forth and kill/defend. This ties in with the single objective, since the map feels like a long hallways with the goal at the end, without much other options. The constant attacks also feel relentless, and while they are not hard to take down necesarily, it just feels like grinding against a wall, especially in the early ages, when you are also quite power starved.

Yes, there are the 'alternate' pockets, but considering two of four contain orbs, half of them are basically mandatory. The southeastern one also solves itself, when the reinforcements arrive at the 8. or 9. minute mark, if I remember correctly. This leaves only the central path with War eagles as an actual alternate route, or bonus objective I guess. 

 

I did try to sketch up a rough idea for a bit more open map, while adressing the issues I spoke of. Take this with huge grain of salt of course. 

Red circles are orbs, triangles alternate paths/objectives, while starts are mandatory objectives. Right from the start, players could have the possibility of assisting the Frost army breaking down the wall, or going up without this support (as in original). There, you can go to the back of the first bandit base, or try a harder route north, towards what would normally be fourth orb. This gives players the option to choose, whether they want to get their second orb in the north (though harder task, balanced around this idea), or in the east. Wast yet not tightly defended bandit encampement could occupy the entire centre of the map, meaning you still have to fight through it (if you dont want to take the bandit fortress with T2 units). Yet you can take out just parts of it, as you make your way towards the northern paths, or the eastern orbs. 

In this version, you can evade the main fortress (western star), which would in the end result in much bigger final assault wave. This is kinda a trade off - do you rather defend against much bigger onslaught, or take use time and power to destroy the bandit fortress?

What is now 3rd orb would be more or less 4th orb (central east) in this iteration, being hidden behind quite the defences. Again, you can skip this and opt to go towards the Frost fortress to defend, or clean up the Bandit objective.  All the blue triangles would work as in the original, giving the AI defenders in the main objective support of units or buildings (think Empire engineers, or simply teleporting the units there, as it is now). 

Hope my ramblings make sense and cheers. 

[Doomsword87 10]

there certainly is a lot of freedom, except for Now, with ways to improve the map, or improving yourself on the map

 

with a full deck of upgraded cards, or even a PROMO, It could turn out to be a battle not as hard

 

(is It a 45 minute or longer map?)

[Dallarian 335]

11 hours ago, Doomsword87 said:

there certainly is a lot of freedom, except for Now, with ways to improve the map, or improving yourself on the map

 

with a full deck of upgraded cards, or even a PROMO, It could turn out to be a battle not as hard

 

(is It a 45 minute or longer map?)

Currently from event submissions median time is 25 minutes, and noone played the map for 45 minutes or longer.

However, I usually do not receive first attempts, so your experience may be different.

[Lans 84]

Pretty nice map but the only thing I found odd is why those rescued Skyelf Sages don't boost the Worldbreaker Gun that is there? I get the Cannon Towers are more in front line but at least one Cannon Tower seems pretty out of the way. Also I am not sure but don't think the Skyelf Sages would boost the Worldbreaker Gun if those Cannon Tower(s) fall...

 

Perhaps it would make the map way too east because once the Worldbreaker Gun is boosted (with my own Skyelf Sage), I didn't have to worry much about sending too much of my own force to reinforce the fortress. Still feels pretty odd given that a Skyelf Sage's attack is no where near that of a Worldbreaker Gun.

 

[Dallarian 335]

On 2/24/2022 at 2:55 PM, Lans said:

I found odd is why those rescued Skyelf Sages don't boost the Worldbreaker Gun that is there?

She was too powerful and caused serious balance issues, therefore she was redirected to different tower before release of the map.

[Kobaltdragon1970 2]

worst game ever played

 

[Majora 1222]

2 hours ago, Kobaltdragon1970 said:

worst game ever played

 

Surely you understand that ''feedback'' like this is not helpful at all to the creator. Constructive criticism is always welcome and helpful, but things like this are just demoralizing and pointless.  

[Kobaltdragon1970 2]

i get it i was frustrated and my father just recently passed so please forgive the rude behavior I exhibited the map actually wasn't bad it was challenging.

 

[Majora 1222]

On 3/14/2022 at 7:59 PM, Kobaltdragon1970 said:

i get it i was frustrated and my father just recently passed so please forgive the rude behavior I exhibited the map actually wasn't bad it was challenging.

 

I'm sorry to hear that, I can understand your state of mind a lot better then. I'm sorry for your loss. 

[Yuah 14]

Great map! While I agree that it is a bit cramped it still feels very high quality.

I'm also really digging the copius amount of voice lines you used, they add a lot of immersion!