|
 Welcome to a Let's Play of Fall from Heaven II! What is Fall from Heaven II? I'll let the lead designer Derek "Kael" Paxton explain: Kael posted:Fall from Heaven II is a dark fantasy mod for Civilization IV. The Age of Ice has ended, what is left of the once great empires of man have formed into small tribes, ready to rebuild and retake that which was lost. But the world is not empty. Hordes of barbarians await these new civilizations. Wild animals stalk hapless scouts and reckless emissaries. Giant spiders lie in patient wait in the jungles and the forests waiting for their prey to take that last, fatal, step. In short, drastic overhauls are applied to practically everything, including (but not limited to) the civilizations themselves, the religion and civics systems, units, terrain, custom game options, a freaking in-game card game and the entire Civilopedia. So we're talking about Civilization IV in a fantasy world? No and yes. Erebus, the world of Fall from Heaven, is based on Kael's old D&D campaign and as such Erebus itself as well as majority of it's characters and history have existed before Civilization IV. There has been a lot of writing from multiple people specifically for Fall from Heaven II, though. A part of the charm of the world is that while there are hardly any lacking details about the stories we see in the game, there's this ever-present feeling that all we have is just tiny part of the story. Kael has released some tales outside the scope of the mod but many, many things are still unknown and likely will stay left up to your imagination. It's a completely different game from Civ IV, to be honest. That being said it's still Civ IV too. It's a turn-based strategy game that puts you in control of a nation. You must guide that nation by founding cities, by constructing buildings and recruiting armies, by waging war, by signing diplomatic treaties. There are other nations with their own leaders – either human or AI – that have the best interests of their own nations in their minds. In normal games there are various victory conditions so that warfare doesn't have to be the only way to the top of the pecking order, although the old wisdom still applies: there will always be an army presence within every nation – either it's own or that of their neighbour. Why another LP when one has been done already and one is currently ongoing and both of those are excellent? This LP will be centered around the official scenarios that come with the mod, while the other Let's Players play custom randomly generated games. There are quite a lot of scenarios, enough to rather talk about a campaign, really. And they're rich with lore. In fact, that's what my focus will be on. A bare minimum amount of space will be used in explaining the game mechanics. For people interested in that side of the game, I'll heartily recommend Octag's Let's Play (edit: requires archives now). Be warned, though, if you care about spoilers, that that thread has no spoiler rules and plot twists and turns are being discussed openly and without warning. I will be offering both the official scenario playthroughs as well as other pieces of lore that I feel are relevant to the scenarios in question. However, despite some of the lore being "official", the nature of the mod is quite open. It's based on a self-made D&D world, after all. While I'm going to only provide the "canon" lore in this thread, don't feel restricted to it in the game. Let your imagination go wild! Actually, I think it's time for  A Spoiler Rule
I'll be using an older 0.41d version of the mod for this LP, for the purpose of ensuring that the scenarios run as intended. There has been an AI upgrade patch among the later versions that some people have reported causing troubles sometimes. (And some have had no problems but I'll play it safe.) The latest and final version is 0.41o, though you will want a small bugfix installed too. Tholal's More Naval AI mod, while otherwise every bit worth of installing, apparently breaks the scenarios. You'll have to do a clean install to play them. All credit for all of the lore goes to the writers themselves. Check the first link at the bottom of the post for details. Direct quotations of the source material will be put between tags quote:like this  Fall from Heaven Intro SlideshowUseful links Kael's Introduction to FFH2, including download links Fall from Heaven Wiki FFH forums at civfanatics.com An incredible 229-page manual Updates: Chapter 0: Of Gods, Creation and Compact - Lore Update Chapter 1: You got graphics in my roguelike? - Gift of Kylorin, part 1 Chapter 1: More fireballs - Gift of Kylorin, part 2 Chapter 1: Of Magic and the Age of Magic – Lore Update Chapter 2: Between the Rock and the Hard Place - Against the Wall, part 1 Chapter 2: Fortifying - Against the Wall, part 2 Chapter 2: The Origins of Dwarves and Runes of Kilmorph - Lore Update Chapter 2: The Hero, The Wonder and The Spell - Against the Wall, part 3 Chapter 2: The Stand - Against the Wall, part 4 Chapter 3: Fall from Heaven - Lore Update Chapter 3: Choosing sides - Barbarian Assault, Prologue Chapter 3: Welcome to the Jungle - Barbarian Assault, part 1 Chapter 3: You Can't Have It All - Barbarian Assault, part 2 Chapter 3: Holy War - Barbarian Assault, part 3 Chapter 4: Twisted Men - Fall of Cuantine, part 1 Chapter 4: Bannor and The Order - Lore Update Chapter 4: Rooting Out Evil - Fall of Cuantine, part 2 Chapter 4: The Fugitive - Fall of Cuantine, part 3 Chapter 5: The Pack of Camulos - Return of Winter, part 1 Chapter 5: The Consequences of Bloodlust - Return of Winter, part 2 Chapter 5: Of Predators And Their Prey - Return of Winter, part 3 Chapter 5: The Age of Ice and the Origins of Auric Ulvin - Lore Update Chapter 6: Go for the Throat - Blood of Angels, part 1 Chapter 6: Law and Chaos - Blood of Angels, part 2 Chapter 6: The Divine on Erebus - Lore Update Chapter 6: I Am Sailing - Blood of Angels, part 3 Chapter 6: Dancing with the Wolves - Blood of Angels, part 4 Chapter 7: Hot, Hot, Hot! - Into the Desert, part 1 Chapter 7: Of Arawn and the Once Elves - Lore Update Chapter 7: Enlightenment - Into the Desert, part 2 Chapter 7: The Good Guys Just Want to Watch the World Burn - Into the Desert, part 3 Chapter 8: My Bigger Ponies - Beneath the Heel Chapter 8: Tying Some Loose Ends - Lore Update Chapter 9: Choosing Sides - Wages of Sin, Prologue Chapter 9: Strategic Considerations - Wages of Sin, part 1 Chapter 9: Oath-takers and Oath-breakers - Wages of Sin, part 2 Chapter 9: Damage Control - Wages of Sin, part 3 Chapter 9: To Serve and Protect - Wages of Sin, part 4 Chapter 9: Exorcising - Wages of Sin, part 5 Chapter 9: Students of Kylorin - Lore Update Chapter 10: It's Coming Right For Us! - Grand Menagerie Chapter 11: I Want to Play a Game - The Momus, part 1 Chapter 11: Not the Buddy Cop Movie You'd Expect - The Momus, part 2 Chapter 11: The Mid-Boss Fight - The Momus, part 3 Chapter 11: Race Against Time - The Momus, part 4 Chapter 11: The Curtain Call - The Momus, part 5 Chapter 11: Lunacy Abound - Lore Update Chapter 12: Wavebreakers - The Radiant Guard, part 1 Chapter 12: Turn the Tide - The Radiant Guard, part 2 Chapter 12: The Evil That Men (and Demons) Do - Lore Update Chapter 13: Choosing Sides - The Splintered Court, Prologue Chapter 13: The Way of the Forests - The Splintered Court, part 1 Chapter 13: The Spring Begins - Lore Update Chapter 13: The People Divided - The Splintered Court, part 2 Chapter 13: Live and Let Die - The Splintered Court, part 3 Chapter 13: The People United - The Splintered Court, part 4 Chapter 14: Choosing Sides - The Cult, Prologue Chapter 14: Unearthing History - The Cult, part 1 Chapter 14: Passing Through - The Cult, part 2 Chapter 14: How to Train Your Dragon - The Cult, part 3 Chapter 14: Illian Rituals - Lore Update Chapter 15: Choosing Sides - Lord of the Balors, Prologue Chapter 15: Gone to Hell - Lord of the Balors, part 1 Chapter 15: Of Afterlife - Lore Update Chapter 15: Fear No Evil - Lord of the Balors, part 2 Chapter 15: Some Choirs Sing, Some Act - Lord of the Balors, part 3 Chapter 15: The War Never Ends - Lord of the Balors, part 4 Chapter 15: Butt-Kicking for Goodness - Lord of the Balors, part 5 Chapter 15: To Hell with the Devil - Lord of the Balors, part 6 Valiantman fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Sep 18, 2014 |
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 09:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 01:52 |
|
|
Chapter 0: Of Gods, Creation and Compact – Lore Update Erebus was without form... and void. (Note, this is quite a wall of text and you don't need to swallow it all in one go if you don't want to. There's a summary at the end that will be enough to let you keep following the later updates.) ----------------------------------------- Gods and Creation  Erebus is a setting of the "dark fantasy" genre. Very few things are perfectly good, happy endings are rare and the difference between the good and the bad guys often is that the former will murder you with less enthusiasm. It was not always like this, however. At first there was One. The One created Heavens and let 21 beings into it, which the One named angels. The 21 angels were given the power of creation. The One commanded the angels to fill the void that still existed, with Creation that would mirror Heaven. They set out to do exactly that. Each of the 21 was given a different precept, a control of an aspect of the Creation. Every angel created a world of their own and also worked together to create a masterpiece, a combination of all the precepts – Erebus. When all was set and done, the One took the power of Creation back. And then things went rapidly downhill. Lasted long, didn't it? It may be that each of the angels that fell had their own reasons for their rebellion against the One – perhaps the rebellion was inherent in Creation to begin with – but two things contributed to the overall corruption of Creation: the rebellion of Agares and the rebellion of Gabella. The Angel of Hope, Agares, had anticipated that the One would take the power of creation from them, felt it unfair and had prepared in secret. While he still was able, he had created infinite wells of elements in his own world and had placed gems in the middle of them. When the power of creation was taken from him, the wells and the gems had enough power in them to last until the end of time, if needed. Agares started to shape his own world as he wished and no longer as a reflection of the Heaven. Hope – dreams, desire, worship and want – overwhelmed everything and all the inhabitants of the his world knew only him and not the One or the other angels. This rebellion of his seeped into Erebus, too, and eventually became so entwined in it that it could not have been removed without unmaking the Creation itself. Gabella, in turn, was the first woman created. You see, the angels felt they needed to create something that was greater than a sum of their precepts – humans, descentants of the angels themselves. Nemed, the Angel of Life agreed to give up his precept to become the father of the human race and for him the angels together created a wife. Aeron, the Angel of Strength would create her physically perfect while every other angel would give her their best possible gifts. Then this happened: quote:Nemed was reborn a man. He gave the precept of life to Arawn and now he marveled at the slightest sensations of creation. The way the grass tickled his feet, the goose bumps on his back from the cool air, and the weight of his own body.  ... yeah, I can see how that might make you reconsider your life and deeds and everything you know about the universe. (Gabella's story will be dealt with more detail later so don't spoil it yet, please.) Eventually, the One returned. Unwilling to destroy Creation, the One condemned the angels to live among it until he would return. All 21 of the angels had something to be ashamed of but Agares and six other angels rebelled. They would be know by mankind as evil. The rest were tasked to protect the Creation and guide it towards enlightenment. Seven of the remaining angels actively opposed the rebels and they are called good. The remaining seven angels are called neutral. The angels and their precepts:
After casting the angels out, the One went back and shattered the connection between Heaven and Creation. The angels, nay, gods, created hosts of angels to serve them and went on spreading their influence on Erebus. Except Agares. Still rebellious, he didn't create anything but instead annihilated everything in his own world and it is still in ashes today. ----------------------------------------- The Compact  In the world of Erebus the normal people are usually aware that gods exist. Depending on where they live, they might even see the power wielded by the priests of the different deities almost daily. The gods themselves are nowhere to be seen anymore, though, and neither are their angels usually. That's because after the rebellion of the seven, there was one instance where they all were able to gather together and agree with each other on one thing: they must retreat from Erebus and stop intervening into it's matters directly. After the One had gone back into the true Heaven, the gods swiftly found themselves battling against each other. Being gods, they still wielded considerable power even after losing the power of creation and soon all manners of elementals, giants and dragons ravaged the world, wielding devastating magics with little care for smaller beings or Erebus itself. Soon it became apparent that whatever the result of the Godswar, there would be no more Erebus left after it had concluded. The God of Balance, along with the God of Life and Death, the God of Earth and the God of Knowledge were able to force the others into negotiations and the resulting agreement was called The Compact. The gods would retreat to their own worlds (or "vaults") along with their angels. So, a breather for mankind, you say? Apparently you missed the "dark fantasy"-part. If there's a brief moment of peace and happiness, it's only because the following disasters need a little preparation time. The gods were no longer able to have direct warfare so they agreed to use mortals instead. The insignificant insects that the humans are were no longer trampled without care but with care, because now the gods' amount of influence was directly related to the amount of his or her followers.  Besides, The Compact is not as much a divine agreement as a legal document in the spirit of the worst cases of the US legislation. And the bad guys had the lawyer. Safe to say there are more ways around it than around the Mexico-US border.The Compact marked a new age in the history of Erebus. The Age of Dragons was at the end and the Age of Magic about to begin. (For reference, after Age of Magic there was the Age of Ice, after which began the current age, the Age of Rebirth. We'll be returning to all of these three later.) ------------------------------------------------- Summary
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 09:01
|
|
|
Chapter 1: You got graphics in my roguelike? - Gift of Kylorin, part 1 It's time to start actually playing the game! Like I said, Fall from Heaven has quite a few scenarios and they're actually partially linked together so I'll switch talking about a campaign when referring to them as a whole. The developers have therefore had to add a bit of a hoop to jump through that might freak you out when you first go searching for the scenarios in the game menu.  Pick "Single Player" as usual and then "Play a Scenario". Notice the fancy background wallpaper? I noticed literally the same week I started planning this LP that you can change it. I'll switch it to the default one when appropriate for the campaign. The guy in the background is called Sphener. He's one of the heroes of the game. We may or may not end up seeing him during the campaign.  At the top of the scenario list there is an option for FFH2 Scenarios. After selecting it and clicking OK, you're presented with this screen. This is where I backed up the first time. What is this? I don't get to choose what I play? Did I miss a menu? No I didn't. Just click OK, and when asked for the game difficulty and length, just accept the defaults. Then a loading screen comes up and...  Ta-dah! The game started a small map as Sabathiel of Bannor but then instantly fired up this screen. You can actually see the normal user interface around the scenario selection screen if you're using a higher resolution than I am. As you can see, most of the scenarios are still locked and only those that have the flag icon in front of them are actually available at this point. The five bottom-most scenarios are sort of stand-alone things. However, the one we're picking as an introduction, Gift of Kylorin, is the only one that actually has no effect on any of the other scenarios. Each of the others has potential to alter some details in the campaign arcs. Compared to your average Civilization game, this one is also quite unique in another way but you'll see it soon enough.  quote:Gift of Kylorin  And there he is: Dain of the Amurites. That was quite a lot of names in the scenario introduction but I'll be dealing with each of them in time (except Barbatos, screw that guy). For now it's enough to know that Kylorin was the Mage-King of the greatest human empire ever, during a time called Age of Magic. Say what you will but at least Dain doesn't aim low. We're now hundreds of years into the Age of Rebirth and there was whole another age in between still, so safe to say this cave is old. Dain is all we have for this scenario. No city building, no settlers, no armies. Just Dain. Civ IV goes Nethack. (With considerably less feasting on random corpses, hopefully.)    Dain is in good shape. Both the healing salve and the spellstaff are at hand, ready to be used if needed. His imagination is already tempting him with a prospect of becoming an archmage. This scenario is a pretty good tutorial for unit handling. We can see that Dain has strength of 5 and movement of 2 (and is level 10 but that doesn't affect anything here, other than ensure that Dain won't level up during the scenario.) He's actually pretty beefy for a mage. The strength stat is used for the combat rolls and it doubles as the health of the unit. Movement points just mean how many tiles the unit can move in one turn. The small icons at the side of his stat screen are called Promotions. When someone has seen the world or an army unit has fought together long enough, they're bound to eventually learn new things. In game this is represented as good old experience points and at certain thresholds you can pick new promotions for that person or unit. From top to bottom Dain's promotions are
The glowing blue icon with a golden star in a picture above was an available promotion: Strength I (+20% strength to the unit and +10% strength to all units summoned by it), which we promptly add to Dain.  Dain enters the Cave of Ancestors, alert and admittably a bit nervous. As if to calm himself down he draws a magical rune of warding in the air... only to see it vanish, before he has had time to even finish it. Right. This Cave is warded against outside magic. It certainly is functional. You can't bring extra magic into the trial, Dain has to make do with what is allowed within the rules.  The cave floor is soft and wet, almost swamplike, though firmer. Your footprints stay only for a while and then they smooth over again, as if to deny the opportunity to follow your steps back, in case you got lost.  Turning from a corner, Dain sees a door to his left and... a patch of grass and a chest to his right!  Opening the treasure chest, Dain feels a familiar tingle on his fingertips, as if drops of cold water were dripping from them. The cave has allowed him the first of the spells used in the trial: Spring. Unfortunately the water surrounding the chest is too wide to jump over and the walls behind the river are too steep and smooth to offer any grip for your feet and fingertips. Deciding that swimming in the cave might not be wise, Dain decides to try the door instead.  Okay, not then. Let's head back and...WOAH.  (I didn't quite remember the flames were there and was actually startled when they suddenly lit the screen up. Quite effective!)  Dain calmly steps right next to the flames, the fire almost licking his robe, and casts Spring. The flames recede immediately.  The floor is still scorching hot but not impossibly wide to leap over. Behind the corner another chest lies in wait. What was such a fiery challenge guarding?  Ha-do-ken!  Fireball is the bread and butter of the Amurite mage warfare and as such very familiar to Dain. However, the door with the fire symbol doesn't agree and pushes the ball back like it did to Dain. Oh, wait, it doesn't push Dain back anymore. Through we go... The fireball is actually a summoned creature, and as such it benefits from Dain's Spell Extension and Strength promotions. To use it we can just select it and move or attack with it like with any other unit. It disappears at the beginning of the next turn if it's still alive. We can't really spam them, though. A unit may only use one spell per turn and items and unique abilities that some units will have technically count as spells too.  Thank goodness for good eyesight! Spectres. Rather weak undead but they have movement of 2 and there's actually four of them. A former amurite siege mage knows what to do...  BLAM! Flashy!  While Dain is frying the spectres, this walking, flaming corpse shambles in sight. This is bad news, Pyre Zombies are quite resistant to fire – evidently, since it's continuously on fire and still shambling.  They're not immune, however. The answer to the fire resistance: more fireballs! A couple of explosions later the pyre zombie is seriously wounded. An attack doesn't have to succeed to be useful if the attacker is expendable like the fireball or if the attacker has high enough a chance to withdraw from combat. Even though units that stay put do heal a bit every turn, two fireballs was more than enough to overcome the natural healing and bring the zombie down to 2.5/4 strength.  If you press G and hover the mouse cursor over an enemy, you get an estimate of your chances against it. Looking good for Dain. I still decided to fireball the zombie down instead.  So much for the zombie. However, in his excitement Dain had momentarily forgotten what exactly it is that makes these undead so feared across Erebus. They explode violently upon death. He was lucky to dodge most of the firey burst but too close to evade it all and his hands got some pretty bad burns. Not wanting to waste his precious salve he instead just holds them on the moist ground of the cave for a while. A healing nap in the corner. The staple of all dungeon adventures.  The chest on the other side of the room allows Dain to use another familiar spell – courage.  Approaching the grim looking totem in the doorway, Dain feels growing uneasiness, until finally he can but run in fear. The dread feeling doesn't pass until he's out of sight of the totem.  Few easy incantations and the weakness of mind is no longer a problem.  After passing through the door, there's another warded door with no way through yet.  Gah! The biggest tar demon ever! These demons, however oily, sticky and disgusting, are rather harmless. They're pretty durable and not at all bad screen for bigger and more powerful denizens of hells but alone they're not much of a threat.  After softening it up with a couple of fireballs, Dain wades into melee...  Damnit. Need more fireballs.  More fireballs (and some selective knifework) provided. Tar demons have a high chance to split into two upon death. Actually the original was held in place so Dain could have just walked past. The whole thing is pretty much a courage-themed scare and quite effective at that since that demon is like 8 times the size of a normal.  An empty hallway turns out to be not so empty when two wood golems emerge from the alcoves. Dain has walked into a trap!  Actually both of the alcoves are full of the golems. Fortunately they're wood and thus very flammable.  The end of the hallway is littered with skeletons – thankfully of the unmoving kind – and among them is another magical chest.  Maelstrom! Among the siege mage ranks there were usually a few people who had specialized into the school of air for this spell specifically. A sudden violent thunderstorm in the midst of the battle does wonders against a numerous enemy, as long as all of your allies stay safely in the eye of the storm. And after the weather had calmed – fireballs. Amurites may be lacking imagination sometimes but you can't argue against them if you're a pile of ash. There's an error in the description in the screenshot. The damage limit is actually 70%.  Having gotten the newest spell in his arsenal, Dain is free to proceed through the door of air. A wave of hot air slams against his face, making him instantly sweat. I guess the fireballing part of the cave is behind now?  A mane. Weakest of the demons – barely eligible to be counted as one. And not fire resistant. Oh well.  Oh, okay. He brought a few fellow tortured souls.  KRA-KA-BOOM!  BLAM! BLAM!   Oh heck.  So far the trial has tested Dain's ability to cast some spells, yes, but he's starting to feel that the real challenge actually lies in testing the trialist's body and mind. Do you dare to almost step into the fire to extinguish it? Can you control your fears and maintain your discipline when faced with otherworldy horrors and ambushes by unthinking automatons? Do you have the endurance to endlessly conjure and guide fireballs against an endless horde of enemies when the heat already is almost unbearable? Speaking of heat, if the fiery trenches are behind already, why is the temperature not dropping?  AARGH!  KILL IT WITH LIGHTNING, OR FIRE, THROW PUPPIES AT IT!  It's... not moving? Wait, what is this demon again? It seems familiar, as if...   Right, so now Dain is faced with the nigh-invincible prince of the demons on Erebus, who likely very much would prefer to lord over his vast dominion behind the oceans in the Fane of Lessers instead of waiting for Dain to pass by in this damp cave with nothing but a horde of manes to keep company. Awkward. Oh, it motions to step forward? Well, no thank you. Or okay, as long as Dain keeps out of arms reach. It's not like his fireballs are any good:  Since attacking is, in essence, trying to move into another unit's tile, the act of attacking uses up the same amount of movement points moving normally would. The Meshabber of Dis is held in place so it can't move and thus it's not possible for it to attack, just defend.  As Dain steps to meet the demon prince, it presents him a riddle. The demon must really appreciate being summoned into this cave for centuries if not for millenia and made to act as a glorified sphinx whenever someone decides to wander in. Dain listens what it has to say. He can't accuse the riddle of being too short.  "If you wish to pass this gate of mineYou must correctly solve my rhyme The Harpy, winged, watches coldly. A Satyr, piping, prances boldly. A Naga guarding, ever more. A Werewolf carved as from the floor. The Golem will round out the five. Choose the right one to stay alive! Every monster likes to eat, Which finds Humans a tasty treat? Each one dwells in just one place, A single drink is for each race, All have colors, one apiece, The key is which on Humans feasts... It's tough to know, without a clue, I will give, more than a few, One half a goat, lives in a tree, The serpentine, on Half-Elves feeds, The hairy one fills up on grog, Left of the dungeon are cliffs of fog, Cliff dwellers all drink ale, they say, He who eats Gnomes is fond of gray, Deep in the cave, one favors red, In center is the wino's bed, The feathered femme lives in the first, The friend of brown, for beer will thirst, The beast who prefers all things blacker, Resides next to the Dwarven snacker, Tis beside the one in red, Resides an Elven eater's stead, Next to the pit, the flyer dwells, The construct thinks that green is swell, A neighbor of the black of heart, Feels drinking water is an art. No more clues to help your plight, The answer given when it's right. Though when it's known, they'll be no doubt. So please don't plead, don't beg, don't pout. Divine the answer, though it's cruel, Who eats Humans as a rule?"
------------------------------------ Audience Participation! We'll cut Dain's adventures short and return to them later. Meanwhile, we have a riddle to solve. Because a wrong answer leads to Meshabber being released, and he promptly attacks, Dain needs to get the answer right. Of course, I've solved the riddle already (in the intended way!) but... Whoever is the first to provide the right answer, that is not googled (be honest with this, it's just a game), will get to name four of the five dwarven cities in the next scenario. 
Valiantman fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Jan 7, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 09:04
|
|
|
Glad to see someone do these, I never got around to completing all of them when I played this mod. Also I think the answer to the riddle is Harpy
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 09:26
|
|
|
Glad to see this started! I did a few of the scenarios but then I installed the better AI mod without knowing it broke them, so I never got to finish them all. This one in particular I started but never finished, I found it was surprisingly difficult for what's ostensibly a magic tutorial scenario- maybe I wasn't doing it right. I do remember getting out a pen and paper and trying to figure out the riddle, getting an answer I thought was right, finding out it was wrong, then just deciding to brute force it by save/reloading. It's not easy!
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 17:59
|
|
|
Taking the initial clues, we get to a point where Golem eats Dwarf or Human, the Dwarf-eater lives in 1 or 3, and the Golem lives in 3, 4, or 5. So, if the Golem lives in 4 or 5, it eats Humans. So we can assume Golem lives in 3, and if that assumption leads to either a contradiction or the finding that golems eat humans, we can conclude that golems eat humans. But by assuming that golems live in 3, we discover that satyrs eat gnomes and like brown - but the one who eats gnomes likes gray, which is a contradiction. So golems eat humans. (I already knew this from brute-forcing it in the scenario, but actually went to the trouble of solving it for this.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 19:33
|
|
|
Glidergun posted:Taking the initial clues, we get to a point where Golem eats Dwarf or Human, the Dwarf-eater lives in 1 or 3, and the Golem lives in 3, 4, or 5. So, if the Golem lives in 4 or 5, it eats Humans. Congratulations! I'll start working on the next scenario on Thursday or Friday, so you have until then to provide up to 4 city names. The following table made by civfanatics.com forum user Ioocas (loocas? hard to tell with their font.) 
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 19:56
|
|
|
The Harpy lives in the cave? This logic puzzle is messed up.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 22:25
|
|
|
Given that they're dwarf cities, the "proper" thing to do is probably to name them after Boatmurdered and other Dwarf Fortresses. But I feel like giving them more auspicious names. Your cities are to be called Jericho, Iwo Jima, Alamo, and Troy. Glidergun fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Jan 7, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 23:08
|
|
|
FWIW, since I puzzled the whole thing out, I believe the complete solution is (from left-right): (1-5 left-right) 1. harpy-cave-red-water-dwarves 2. werewolf-pit-black-grog-elves 3. satyr-tree-grey-wine-gnomes 4. golem-cliffs-green-ale-humans 5. naga-dungeon-brown-beer-half elves These sort of puzzles are fun, and this one definitely benefits from not being the usual format of a group of trendily named 30 somethings (with very particular cocktail preferences and a rigid adherence to a party hosting rota) that is beloved of team building exercises. Thankfully in this one there was only one step that necessitated finding a contradiction to continue (at least, the way I solved it). You can fill most of the table out straight from the clues until you get to something like this: (1-5 left-right) 1. harpy-cave-red-?-? 2. ?-pit-?-?-elves 3. satyr-tree-?-wine-? 4. ?-cliffs-?-ale-? 5. ?-dungeon-?-?-? At that point, either the werewolf must live in either the pit or the dungeon (it drinks grog, it can't live in the cliffs). If it lives in the dungeon, then the only location left to fit the combination of 'likes brown, drinks beer' is the pit, but then the water drinker can't be next to the liker of black, so that doesn't work. Therefore, the werewolf lives in the pit. From there, the brown-liking beer drinker must live in the dungeon, so the green-liking golem must live in the cliffs, leaving the half-elf eating naga for the dungeon. Water is the only remaining drink for the harpy to take, so the werewolf must like black. The satyr is the only one that can like both grey and eating gnomes, so the only food left for the golem is tasty tasty human. Awesome OP, looking forward to following this thread!
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 00:06
|
|
|
Prof. B. Bearington posted:You can fill most of the table out straight from the clues until you get to something like this: You can get at least a bit further than that: Harpy can't drink beer (because it likes red, and beer=brown), wine (because wine is in 3 and harpy is in 1), ale (because ale=cliff) or grog (because wolf=grog), so it has to drink water.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 00:25
|
|
|
Glidergun posted:Given that they're dwarf cities, the "proper" thing to do is probably to name them after Boatmurdered and other Dwarf Fortresses. But I feel like giving them more auspicious names. I actually anticipated the Dwarf Fortress thingy and had a little joke written for that ready. That you for proving me wrong about the rigidness of goon mentality. I'm certain I can work with those. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 00:31
|
|
|
This is an interesting little scenario, and maybe it's just because I'm sick but that riddle confuses the hell out of me. I would have had to search online for the answer, because there is no way I would have gotten Golem out of that.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 01:02
|
|
|
Fortunately golem is the first choice, so if you decide to just brute force it you get it right immediately.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 01:08
|
|
|
But... but golems don't eat. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 14:06
|
|
|
Poil posted:But... but golems don't eat. These are Riddle Golems. Totally different breed.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 15:54
|
|
|
will you be doing the scenario that came with civ 4 as well?
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 16:16
|
|
|
Don't... don't golems in fiction just require humans/souls to function? You know, eat them in a way? I skipped to the end, saw the part about eating humans as a rule and immediately thought of the golem.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2013 07:24
|
|
|
Ghost Stromboli posted:Don't... don't golems in fiction just require humans/souls to function? You know, eat them in a way? I skipped to the end, saw the part about eating humans as a rule and immediately thought of the golem. Not especially. I don't doubt there's some game or something where golems work that way, but typically they're just powered by generic magic and classically they were given motive force through divine power as expressed through holy words.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2013 08:45
|
|
|
King Doom posted:will you be doing the scenario that came with civ 4 as well? The Age of Ice? I hadn't thought about it but it's possible, now that you mention it. If I'll end up playing that, it will be a bonus update in the end of the LP, though. I've yet to play it through at all and as far as I can tell, it's very much a scenario that you can fail by doing wrong things in the start and not notice it until much later.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2013 17:07
|
|
|
Glidergun posted:Not especially. I don't doubt there's some game or something where golems work that way, but typically they're just powered by generic magic and classically they were given motive force through divine power as expressed through holy words. I think I'm basing it off two Bioware games: Jade Empire and Dragon Age. So I guess they solved it for me by complete chance.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2013 17:59
|
|
|
Valiantman posted:The Age of Ice? I hadn't thought about it but it's possible, now that you mention it. If I'll end up playing that, it will be a bonus update in the end of the LP, though. I've yet to play it through at all and as far as I can tell, it's very much a scenario that you can fail by doing wrong things in the start and not notice it until much later. It isn't hard, depending on how you play. The starting area can be turned into an impregnable fortress by placing a pair of cities at the two passes into 'your' valley, or you can try and keep a scout or two alive and winning fights long enough to turn them into mammoth riders. at that point there's not a great deal that can beat them, and considering how weak frostlings and wolves are, it isn't that hard. If you do manage to get a mammoth rider with tame animal, there's a certain bird floating about that makes hit and run raids slightly easier than eating cake too.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2013 01:29
|
|
|
King Doom posted:It isn't hard, depending on how you play. The starting area can be turned into an impregnable fortress by placing a pair of cities at the two passes into 'your' valley, or you can try and keep a scout or two alive and winning fights long enough to turn them into mammoth riders. at that point there's not a great deal that can beat them, and considering how weak frostlings and wolves are, it isn't that hard. If you do manage to get a mammoth rider with tame animal, there's a certain bird floating about that makes hit and run raids slightly easier than eating cake too. I did manage to get 2/3 of the item you're supposed to get but than I just left it be. Octag posted:This one in particular I started but never finished, I found it was surprisingly difficult for what's ostensibly a magic tutorial scenario- maybe I wasn't doing it right. The many of the enemies, such as the wood golems, can simply be bypassed. They don't follow you. The most important thing is to mind your distance from the enemies.  Also there's the thing where enemies are not supposed to get any experience from destroying a fireball. Apparently it doesn't apply here, and for example against the pyre zombie I actually had to restart once since it had promoted to like Strenght III and I resorted to meleeing with uncertain odds and died. The tar demon part I one-shotted at first but the two smaller ones it spawns weren't separated so that I could get a screenshot showing both of them so I re-tried that too. Took 5 tries to kill it again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2013 20:32
|
|
|
I didn't even realize the mod had these scenarios until I installed the AI mod that breaks them, so very much appreciating this spinoff to the other LP. Seems like this one in particular would have been good to start with, magic was easily the most confusing thing for me in the start and even now, something like this would probably be helpful to playthrough!
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2013 20:55
|
|
|
Chapter 1: More fireballs - Gift of Kylorin, part 2 The correct answer to the riddle presented by Meshabber of Dis is "Golem." The demon prince vanishes into thin air. Dain kept his cool and was capable of calm, logical thinking under extreme pressure. One more trial passed and Dain steels himself for surprises as he opens the next door.  Grass and even some mushrooms? Refreshing sight after the mini-hell but perhaps it's just to lure the trialist into a false sense of security.  Apparently this part of the cave is a home for three ogres. This will be quite a challenge.  After numerous fireballs the two lesser ogres fall but the third, big one, is chained to ground much like the demon was. It seems to be guarding a chest (and a doorway, though it's not very visible).  Ugly and really strong. No amount of lightning or fireballs will help here. The higher the maximum strength of the unit, the more it heals in a turn, since the natural healing is percentage-based. The 14/16 value means that the ogre has different offensive and defensive strengths. The first one is always the one that doubles as the unit health, though. Besides it has 3 first strikes. In practice that means that it gets three attack rolls in a row before it's opponent even has a chance to try (unless the opponent also has first strikes – you'd need three to nullify all of the ogre's). Basically the stoneskin ogre is untouchable for Dain and his fireballs and Maelstrom can only bring a unit down to 70% strength at most.  Dain wanders around the room looking for a clue, in vain, until he spots something in a particularily uninteresting corner.  A hidden passage! I almost got stuck here. The only way to see this passage, unless you look really really closely, is to step into the tile where Dain is now, or on the tile south of it.  Having shown perception of his own, Dain is rewarded with perception of magical kind. A summonable floating eye.  Slinking behind the back of the ogre, Dain opens the door and enters a labyrinth. Time to find the way through it by putting the new spell to use. Floating eyes, as well as hawks, are the best scouts of the game. You can order the eye to fly to any of the yellow tiles and it will reveal a wide area around that tile and then return. This is incredibly useful but will get repetitive fast if you want to keep eye on the enemy movements. Even if you're particularily OCD, I don't think you'd keep sending out your eyes/hawks every turn for long, no matter how useful they are.  The eye revealed to Dain that there's a portal in the north-eastern corner of the labyrinth. However, no direct route there is revealed yet so more scouting is required. What's more worrying is the enormous Clockwork Golem that's guarding the portal. One problem at the time, though. First the labyrinth.  The labyrinth is vast and with every mark on the ground smoothing over fast, and walls being solid rock, it could be hazardous to wander in without the eye. To add to the danger, the eye reveals that Dain isn't alone in the labyrinth.  In the part of the labyrinth opposite to the portal room, Dain finds three things of an interest: a man, a hellhound and a secret room with a chest. The man is... hard to see. As if your eyes aren't able to really fix on him. Odd. The hellhound has him cornered so perhaps it would be wise to deal with it first. Luckily, it's weak and after an electrical tenderization it's not a problem for Dain to cut the hound right open.  The man thanks Dain for help. He seems to have been in the cave for pretty much the same reason as Dain. For saving his life the man hands Dain a potion and... just vanishes? Who was this person? Unfortunately there seems to be no way to the chest that the floating eye revealed. The Sidar are one of the nations of the game but I'm not sure if at this point of the timeline Dain has ever actually met any one of them so for the purposes of my narrative I'll ignore that part of the text. It's not spoilers to discuss them as long as you don't go into too much detail about their leaders of heroes or general background. The game files tell that the chest contains a "Raise Skeleton" spell but I found no way to get it. Perhaps it's a tease or an oversight.  Dain navigates his way through the labyrinth, evading the wandering enemies, except for one (cue blasting sounds), and arrives at the door of the portal chamber.  Dain pushes the door open. The golem hasn't noticed him yet but it's too strong to defeat and too fast to outrun. Dain reaches for the flask he got from the mysterious adept and drinks it.  His entire appearance changes! It's impossible to tell if the potion really has made Dain invisible or if this new appearance if something the golem doesn't consider hostile but despite looking at Dain's direction it makes no sign of hostility or aggression. Safe from it, Dain can't help but wonder the marvellous testimony to the possibilities of engineering. Perhaps one day the machinists will rival even the best of the mages? Keeping his calm, Dain walks past it towards the portal...  And reaches it safely. Stepping through, Dain finds himself in front of the cave again, but somehow more.. capable? Seasoned? Whatever the right word for the feeling, he has passed the trial!  All the spells he learned in the cave have vanished from his mind, except for those he already knew, but he remembers how it was like to cast even those spells he had never used before. It probably won't be much of a challenge to learn them properly once he gets a chance.  ------------------------------------ That concludes the first scenario of Fall from Heaven II. It wasn't a long one to play and not especially challenging either, as long as you mind your distance from enemies. I didn't have to use either of the panic buttons I had, the staff or the salve. Hammering enter to finish the turns felt like chore, though. This game isn't built for dungeon adventures like this but on the other hand this shows just how much you can bend this game to your liking if you're a capable modder. Next up, a lore update, after which we'll go back in time and play another of the stand-alone scenarios, which will give me an opportunity to introduce the city building and warfare aspects of the game. Featuring dwarves.  The cave is an actual building for the Amurite nation in the game. In practice, recruiting adepts in a city with a cave gives them a headstart in learning new spells and makes it faster for them to eventually become proper mages. quote:
Wikipedia posted:Cassivellaunus was a historical British chieftain who led the defence against Julius Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC. The first British person whose name is recorded, Cassivellaunus led an alliance of tribes against Roman forces, but eventually surrendered after his location was revealed to Caesar by defeated Britons.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 11:24
|
|
|
I realise this is a lot of images on one page. Let me know if it's too heavy to load.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 11:25
|
|
|
It's cool. Which scenario comes next?
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 11:42
|
|
|
Hmm. That was kind of an abrupt end. I was expecting you'd have to climb your way through, all the way to level 3 spells. You didn't even get all the level 1 spells... Still, looking forward to more scenarios! I've only played a few of them myself.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 14:11
|
|
|
Aha, seems I was a lot closer to the end then I realized. I noticed that the Sidar Adept seemed to have a leader of its own. Could you open diplomacy with them during the scenario? Is 'Shekinah' supposed to be the name of the Adept, or...? Googling 'Fall from Heaven Shekinah' just brings up a lot of biblical stuff 
Octag fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Jan 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 19:42
|
|
|
Silver Falcon posted:Hmm. That was kind of an abrupt end. I was expecting you'd have to climb your way through, all the way to level 3 spells. You didn't even get all the level 1 spells... Level 3 spells do tend to be a bit similar though. Most of them summon a Thing, which has Affinity to that mana type.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 20:19
|
|
|
Octag posted:Aha, seems I was a lot closer to the end then I realized.  There's nothing you can discuss with her, though. Neither has any technologies and there are no other civs to chat about. Kanthulhu posted:It's cool. Against the Wall Valiantman fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Jan 12, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 08:16
|
|
|
Double posting but has anyone been able to actually get that last chest from the room with the skeletons? I'm pretty helpless with computers so I can't just go digging in the files to see if there's something to solve the mystery there. Wouldn't even know where to look.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 16:40
|
|
|
Valiantman posted:Double posting but has anyone been able to actually get that last chest from the room with the skeletons? I'm pretty helpless with computers so I can't just go digging in the files to see if there's something to solve the mystery there. Wouldn't even know where to look. http://imgur.com/blk0v If you stand on the tile highlighted by the black dot, you get a pop-up about a secret door, which leads to the chest when opened.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 16:56
|
|
|
Ilyich posted:http://imgur.com/blk0v I sense a bonus addition to the latest update as soon as I am able.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 20:44
|
|
|
Valiantman posted:I realise this is a lot of images on one page. Let me know if it's too heavy to load. It is getting a little heavy, yes. I suggest waiting for a new page before posting the start of the next scenario.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 03:48
|
|
|
A new page, you say? I recall trying the scenarios when I gave FFH a good honest try. To memory, many of the, at least initial ones, were extremely long slogs. I'm actually quite interested in this LP, if only because you've the patient to do these.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 11:31
|
|
|
Gamerofthegame posted:A new page, you say? I remember playing at least half of the scenarios and long slogs was the first thing that came to my mind as well. Which is a shame, because the scenarios were quite interesting, and how the choices you made affected the other scenarios was an intriguing mechanic. So I'm glad to see these scenarios LPed, because they really deserve it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 11:51
|
|
|
Is it ok to discuss Kylorin, since booth he and the Amurite civilization has been mentioned in the thread?
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 12:57
|
|
|
Captain Aardvark posted:Is it ok to discuss Kylorin, since booth he and the Amurite civilization has been mentioned in the thread? That's how it generally works, yeah. It was only the Age of Rebirth stories (ie. the stories directly relevant to the scenarios) that I asked to keep quiet about. That being said the next update is written and it has a bunch about Kylorin since it's a 75% history update.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 14:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 01:52 |
|
|
Lord Hypnostache posted:I remember playing at least half of the scenarios and long slogs was the first thing that came to my mind as well. Which is a shame, because the scenarios were quite interesting, and how the choices you made affected the other scenarios was an intriguing mechanic. So I'm glad to see these scenarios LPed, because they really deserve it. I've unfortunately got to agree with this assessment after playing through a number of the scenarios. A lot of good ideas are at work here, but the Civ 4 engine and interface don't really work for them. At more times than not, it winds up being excessively long and boring. Two of the maps from Falamar's scenario are especially bad in this regard. Good luck to you, Valiantman. Looking forward to seeing what I missed out in not playing the other scenarios.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 14:48
|
|