Scenario Review: (UTBS) 4. Descending into Darkness

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Scenario Review: (UTBS) 4. Descending into Darkness

Post by Content Feedback »

1) What version and difficulty level did you play the scenario on? Please do not submit feedback from pre 1.4.
2) Do you think the difficulty is adequate to the level? If not describe the issue that made the scenario to easy/hard.
3) Was there any event that caused you to almost instantly lose, or made the scenario unplayable without reload?
4) Do you like the storyline and the dialogues? If not what part/character lags behind or what would you like changed?
5) Do you think the scenario was fun? Please write down some thoughts about gameplay, mood etc.
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SmokemJags
Posts: 580
Joined: February 14th, 2006, 3:24 am
Location: New Avalon
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Post by SmokemJags »

1. 102 challenging 112 normal
2. 5 in 102 3 in 112.
3. Go north... clear enough.
4. Clear and interesting enough. I especially enjoyed the easter egg dialogue in the northwest corner of the map.
5. Fast moving orc units in hills made for a challenge. First time in this campaign where the enemy units have superior movement over your units.
6. 5 Pretty average scenario, nothing too special, for better or worse.
7. Seems fine to me... that damn special pop unit is annoying as all hell but he needs to be there. Actually... 58 turns seems like too much. I think 40 is ample... I ended so early I have like 1100 gold carried over now.
8. 164. Actually not enough to recall everyone which made it a little harder.
"A wise man speaks when he has something to say. A fool speaks when he has to say something."
Sly
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Joined: October 10th, 2005, 11:59 am
Location: Montrouge (Fr, 92)
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Post by Sly »

1. 1.1.2a : Normal
2. 5
3. Very clear (so I didn't bother going for the eastern orcs)
4. Clear, but ther isn't much of them. The special orc assassin is fun :wink:
5. Not very challenging
6. 6, cool and interesting map, my Silver mage (I never remember her name) jumped from village to village harrassing the orcs and when the special assassin appeared she went and blasted him immediately :twisted:
7.
8. 470
cordobatim
Posts: 17
Joined: January 27th, 2006, 4:19 pm
Location: Texas

Descending into Darkness

Post by cordobatim »

(1) Easy 1.0.2
(2) 8... it took me several tries
(3) Very clear
(4) Good. I haven't rated the other scenarios, but I find this entire campaign to be above average in creativity
(5) Getting past the bottlenecks. There are some spots where you can only pass one unit at a time, and the enemy would line up a dozen guys there, making it impossible to get through. It took me a while to figure out that I needed to send a second group of soldiers the other way.
(6) 8. Lots of varied challenges
(7) I'd rather the tunnels be two spaces wide to give you a little better chance at strategy at those points. But I enjoyed the challenge of figuring things out.
(8) 100
pjr

Re: Scenario Review: (UTBS) 4. Descending into Darkness

Post by pjr »

quartex wrote:(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
1.1.2+svn
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very clear.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Good.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The assassin is very strong. I had to save-load a couple of times at this point.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
For the sake of the story, some explanation of what the purple monster is and why it's there would be useful.
(8) How much gold did you have at the start of the scenario?
824
Shakiko
Posts: 25
Joined: March 13th, 2006, 10:14 am

Post by Shakiko »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
normal, 1.17


(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
It was pretty hars - had to restart it 3 times because the orcs just overrun my poor desert-elves...
8


(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Pretty clear


(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The Goblin-joke was great. Sadly i went after them so the orcs then wiped out my scattered troops pretty fast :)



(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Movement-advantage of the orcs in hills :lol:
Seriously, it was hard to keep enough villages to not get into the negative while still defending 2 chokepoints to keep them from advancing onto the middle island once i got there.
Splitting up troops in several (3) shockteams of 3-4 units was key to a whole messy bloodbath in the end...


(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
It wasn't that much fun while playing all over and over again (2), because you could'nt imagine that you'd fight against 3 orc leaders with lots of supplies recruiting tons after tons of new units...
... but now that its finished it feels great (8)


(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
hmm, perhaps a warning that there are 3 leaders (a scout report?)
or tone down the supplies of the orcs abit

(8) How much gold did you have at the start of the scenario?
138
Me123
Posts: 1
Joined: April 23rd, 2006, 1:38 am

reply

Post by Me123 »

i got my can kicked on this level. i killed the orcs right above my base and that was it.
Kel
Posts: 63
Joined: June 14th, 2006, 3:21 pm

Post by Kel »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Challenging (medium)
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8, not as many surprises as the last two, but a lot tougher due to tight resources and...
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear, but there was no indication that you're supposed to go left instead of straight up. On challenging, at least, I had no chance to finish within turn limit taking the wrong path (which I took the first run through).
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Nothing too story-oriented here, though the silver ring was a nice touch. Anyways, after the multiple surprises of the first few scenarios, I didn't mind a more laid-back, "normal" one.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Working with only 100 starting gold, I had to recall only my toughest, closest-to-leveling units (for free heals). And even then, I had to retreat all the way to the sand and my keep during the second long night to avoid fighting the three or four Orcish Warriors coming at me as long as possible. It gave me a chance to recruit a bit more, though.

The other challenges were making the turn limit (on my fourth try, blasting everything out of the way with level 3's as quickly as possible, I finished with 2 turns left), and holding onto my villages with only 7-8 units against enemies coming from two directions. I sure didn't want to play another 100-gold scenario!

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Eh. About a 4, trying to learn it. After I figured it out, maybe a 6 or 7. (Like most of the previous UtBS ones, actually.)

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Indicate that the exit is at the northwest, raise starting gold.

(8) How much gold did you have at the start of the scenario?
100 flat.
BoringGuy
Posts: 2
Joined: September 28th, 2006, 2:26 am
Location: Iowa

Re: Scenario Review: (UTBS) 4. Descending into Darkness

Post by BoringGuy »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on? Medium 1.1.9
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 9
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? Clear
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? Hard to tell, can't get over the lousy stream!
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? Not enough units.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) Hard to say. Can't finish it.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
(8.) How much gold did you have at the start of the scenario?
100 Gold. I have no idea how people are ending up with any more than the minimum gold for this scenario. The prior scenario has no chance to build up gold. And even starting with all level 2 that shortly bump to level 3 I am overrun. BAH!
BoringGuy
Posts: 2
Joined: September 28th, 2006, 2:26 am
Location: Iowa

Re: Scenario Review: (UTBS) 4. Descending into Darkness

Post by BoringGuy »

OK. I changed strategies and won. Managed to catch the lowest boss when he snuck out to capture a city and whacked him with fireballs. I was too conservative the first attempts. Also finally finding out how to stop the wolves from sneaking around my backside helped.
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Zhukov
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Location: Australia

Re: Scenario Review: (UTBS) 4. Descending into Darkness

Post by Zhukov »

• Difficulty level/Version: Medium/1.1.11

• Difficulty: 8/10 - Perfect

• Objectives: Crystal clear

• Dialog: Mostly par excellence, one of the things that I'm loving about this campaign. The easter eggs and secrets were fun. One thing: when the assassin chap shows up, one of my units disappeared. While this is explained a little later, it is confusing. Perhaps the disappearing unit could say "Ahh!" or "Arg!" or whatever, it would make things clearer. As it is now, I nearly reported it as a bug.

• Challenges: The lack of gold made things tricky, but in a good way. Same for the terrain. Fighting Orcs on hills and caves is hard, to put it mildly. And of course, keeping fragile elves alive can be a pain.

• Fun Factor: 11/10 - I loved it.

• Changes: Nothing - apart from my already mentioned quibble with the dialog.

• Gold: Less then 200.
Jozrael
Posts: 1034
Joined: June 2nd, 2006, 1:39 pm
Location: NJ, USA.

Post by Jozrael »

Alright, so I played through about half the campaign on easy before going 'meh, I don't wanna play this campaign twice, and I wanna beat them all on hard, so how's about we do that'.

The last scenario was a major toughy, but I got past it. For this scenario, I'm playing it:

Hard.

I find this to be a 10/10 right now - I can't beat it. I'm starting with 100 gold (I killed the 2 undead leaders last time, had negative gold at end). I have a fairly decent army at this point - a level 4, 6 level 3s, and 6 level 2s. A couple experienced level 1s as well. Not an army to sneeze at. Also, they're almost all at max XP, so I could have like 10 level 3s soon into the level. The problem is I really can't recall them in, and even with that hefty army, I can't recruit any fodder to absorb enemy attacks, so it starts getting decimated. It's very frustrating. I'm probably trying to move too fast right now and end up on the island just totally surrounded and get chomped to pieces. Maybe going a bit slower would help, but I hate replaying missions multiple times :P. Saveloading's even worse, I all but refuse to do that (only in the case of mistakes).

Clear.

I like to keep my high level units alive - if I sacrifice someone, that's understandable. But when my full health resilient Champion is taken down in one turn because I'm fighting at night and I'm forced to use him as my point, it sucks.

Don't get me wrong, I'd say a 7 and prolly a 9 when I beat it. It's fun. Just a little too difficult for me - then again, I'm not the best player.

100 (Crai ;_;)
Jozrael
Posts: 1034
Joined: June 2nd, 2006, 1:39 pm
Location: NJ, USA.

Post by Jozrael »

Okay, finally beat the second night on like my 8th try without retreating, held the island. Had to use like every trick up my sleeve to do it, though.

Q: WTF is up with the assassin killing a unit? Without fail, it kills my mage. I'm not willing to lose her, she's important to the story! Help, please! (I'm going to post in the general discussion about this too).
Imp
Posts: 317
Joined: January 8th, 2007, 10:56 am

Post by Imp »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?

Challenging, 1.2

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

9. The first real challenge of this campaign.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Very.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Nothing spectacular.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Fighting orcs in the hills, then through cramped caves.

[b/](6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)[/b]

2. I had little gold, had few troops, and had to fight an uphill battle while trying not to lose any troops (a sure loss otherwise). In the end I had to sacrifice a very valuable Sharpshooter and Outrider.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

Give me more gold!

(8) How much gold did you have at the start of the scenario?

About 120.
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Buddy Jimm
Posts: 48
Joined: July 25th, 2006, 11:54 pm

Re: Scenario Review: (UTBS) 4. Descending into Darkness

Post by Buddy Jimm »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?

"Normal" 1.2.4

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

9. Suddenly, I am the one slogging around half-speed in unfavorable terrain. Definitely a head-scratcher.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Simple and clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

I do like the tendency to give enemy leaders entry and death dialog and I find its abscence in other campaigns leaves victory a little lacking. Apart from the assassin's entrance into the story, however, there's not much going on here to comment on.

Looking back, I see that Nym's advice to give Kaleh the ring could be taken as humorous foreshadowing, rather than just sensible.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

It was very interesting that "head west, stretch out my line and allow the enemy mass to cross the river and then still wind up fighting at night" wound up being the winning strategy after several tries. Watching my lines run around on the replay, it looked like I was crazy!

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

5. It's a good challenge, but it doesn't have the unique twists of the previous and later scenarios that make this campaign interesting.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

Probably not much. It's not the most memorable of all the scenarios, but I wouldn't want every scenario to be all crazy.

I also missed out on the easter eggs anyway.

(8) How much gold did you have at the start of the scenario?

543
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