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 Majesty is a stroke of fancy and surrealness from the now-defunct Cyberlore Studios in 2000. If you've heard of it, you've probably heard of it from the Paradox Interactive expansions on the IP that started happening in 2009, starting with Majesty 2 and branching out into other genres: from 4x to tower defense, there is relatively little the Majesty universe hasn't covered at this point. But very few people know where it began. Strange, isn't it? Let's fix that. The unique thing that Majesty does - that no other game has ever really done the same way - is that all your strategy is, in essence, macromanaged. Your 'troops' are not bonded knights with an abstracted command structure that allows you to tell them to go there, hit that, and use your special ability. They are heroes, drawn from guilds you build. Fantasy tropes on their own personal journeys. They share some goals with you, sure, but they are not actually beholden to you. They don't have to follow your plans and your orders, and frequently they choose not to. Your job is to herd these willful and often suicidal roughnecks to a common goal, and bring peace and prosperity to your kingdom. You might be scratching your head right now as to how the hell that can work, especially in a year 2000 game. Well, you need not wonder. TheLastRoboky, Orv, and I are here to walk you through this wild, woolly, and extremely challenging game. The game takes a bit to spin up, as it is well aware how strange a game it is. As such, it spends a lot of its early missions teaching you basic things that it will expect you to have down to an instinct later on. I hope you'll stick with us through that and find out why this game is an overlooked classic, and appreciate the simple brilliance that ran through its design. How will this work? The three of us have been passing around save games before recording playthroughs of individual missions. This will allow us to bring you all some wildly varying play styles and takes on the game's challenges as we go forward, and also different perspectives on how to approach and conquer the game from the various players. An RTS? Isn't this going to be boring to watch? This is a really valid concern to have. There are multiple situations in Majesty where you are waiting for something to happen; an event to fire, a hero to get off his lazy rear end and hit something with his damned sword, or for that fatass tax collector to finish bringing back your freaking gold. Through the magic of video editing, however, I can make these 5 minute lulls pass in 20 seconds. And I intend to! I can't promise that you'll find every moment as visceral and gutwrenching as Dark Messiah or one of our Transformers games, but I can promise that there will not be long stretches of nothing of real importance happening while the three of us drone on about nothing. And I can also promise the tried and true 'too much goddamn fun' brand that folks have come to know us for. This game was a childhood passion for all 3 of us and we love it to death. How hard does this game get? Very hard. I have yet to find another RTS that throws similar challenge profiles at its players. It starts out slow, but when this game ramps up, it will have you sweating through your shirt. Part of this is the game's fault, for not introducing you to some of the downsides of expanding too fast, but in many cases the challenges are just well thought out and the game does a very good job of sticking it to you. The last half-dozen missions are so difficult, in fact, that I insisted upon almost all of the videos being recorded (without commentary) before we opened up the LP. They're SO HARD that I didn't want to run into a burnout situation from getting our poo poo kicked in so hard right at the finish line. In addition to all of this, we will be giving away copies of this game for free as this LP goes on. I have over 2 dozen copies of it to give away as prizes. These are Steam codes for the HD remake, practically guaranteed to run on modern computers, and capable of modern resolutions. Here's how you win a copy: 1) Comment on individual videos as they come up on Youtube. Commenting on a video will enter your name in a hat that I will pick randomly, one per episode. In other words,  .2) Make some sort of awesome fan-art of some of the emergent stories that show up as we're playing this game. This game absolutely rules at unexpected stuff, and if you bring some sunshine to all of our lives by immortalizing it, you're going to get rewarded. Fan-art will generally be rewarded before the drawings, but I thought it was terrible to leave those of us without much artistic skill out of the running entirely. Especially when it's everyone's involvement that makes these LPs worth doing.  But enough of that. GREETINGS, MY LIEGE: Episode 1: To the post Episode 2: To the post Episode 3: To the post Episode 4: To the post Episode 5: To the post Episode 6: To the post Episode 7: To the post Episode 8: To the post Episode 9: To the post Episode 10: To the post Episode 11: To the post Episode 12: To the post Episode 13: To the post Episode 14: To the post Episode 15: To the post Episode 16: To the post Episode 17: To the post Episode 18: To the post Episode 19: To the post Episode 20: To the post Coolguye fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Mar 24, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2014 06:50
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Reserved for things
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Oct 10, 2014 06:51
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The Bell, Book, and Candle (Orv) + The Wizard's Curse (Coolguy): Youtube, Polsy From the manual: Accepting The Crown The great hall of my families Palace was alive with the character of two score nobles and nearly as many servants. I had never seenour fair Palace more alive than on this, my coronation day. While I understood that it was an occasion of great celebration, the extent of the festivities still surprised me. The hall had been proudly adorned in the colors of my family. Bright banners bearing our hawk and sunburst crest hung from the highest beams of the lofty ceiling. The great hall was filled with representatives from every one of our village guilds, as well as dignitaries from communities all over Ardania - from the Valmorgens of the Central Plains to Celdorinii from the furthest tip of the Western Provinces. Along the boundaries of the space, the Palace Guards stood silent vigil in the red tabards, halberds polished to a mirror-like sheen and held in the formal position of salute. The coronation was a solemn occasion. My mother elected to step down from the throne and pass the crown to the next generation. In her wisdom, she chose to make sure that she was present for the transition of power in order to help shepherd the next reign toward the goals that were important to her. While the popularity of my mother's rule lent a bittersweet edge to the rite, the revelry that followed made it clear that my subjects gave me their full support as the caretaker of their hopes and dreams for the future. From the great hall, we adjourned to the courtyard where the mood quickly changed from solemn to celebratory. The yard was filled to overflowing with tables of of rich foods, skilled performers from around the realm, and joyous visitors dressed in bright finery. The function lasted through the remainder of day and well into the evening. So engrossed was everyone in the festivities that few took notice of the sudden agitation of the Palace Guards atop the wall. Across the courtyard, I caught the Captain of the guard taking my Royal Advisor aside for a brief few seconds. Once they were done the Captain quickly returned to his men on the walls, while the Royal Advisor made a direct course towards me. It was then that I first heard my Advisor utter a phrase which would become all too familiar before long. "Forgive the intrusion Your Majesty, but a situation has arisen..." The celebration was over, and the responsibilities only beginning. Building spotlight: The Palace  Supports 2 Peasants, 1 Tax Collector Four heroes must be recruited before upgrading your palace Allows construction of standard buildings A sturdy keep with four towers and an iron gate, this structure is the foundation of any new Ardanian settlement. This four-walled design dates back over three centruies and is said to have been designed by Adolphus of Volencia, the engineering genius. Most Dwarves dispute that claim, citing that it was one of the many creations of Grendar Broadbrow.  Supports 4 Peasants, 1 Guard, 2 Tax Collectors Twelve heroes must be recruited before upgrading your palace Allows construction of standard buildings, temples and Wizards Guilds A fortified manor hall has been added to the Palace. Additional living space has been allocated to craftsmen. An expanded armory has been included along with a barracks for a Palace Guard.  Allows construction of Fairgrounds and temples to Lunord or Helia Supports 6 Peasants, 2 Guards, 3 Tax Collectors This Palace has been developed to the very height of Ardanian architecture. Both the servants quarters and barracks have been expanded to increase their capacity. The towering spires afford an unparalleled view of one's surrounding settlement. Hero Spotlight: Gnomes  Voice Video
Allowing Gnomes into your kingdom means that you cannot build Elven or Dwarven structures. They also require a level 1 palace and are incompatible with a level 2 palace. Coolguye fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Nov 7, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 06:51
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And here we go, into an object lesson in how much it sucks to be the RPG quest giver! It's nice to know the Skaven are still about, trying to Inherit all your stuff from the sewers. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 06:52
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Night10194 posted:It's nice to know the Skaven are still about, trying to Inherit all your stuff from the sewers.
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Oct 10, 2014 07:07
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Look, man, it's your own fault for smelling like warpstone. Little bastards loving love their magical plutonium cocaine.
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Oct 10, 2014 07:11
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For those of us who never played the Majesty series, could you explain what's going on a bit? I figured it out by the end of the video, but at first I was a bit lost as to how your actions were influencing the heroes, and how you get gold.
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Oct 10, 2014 07:20
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I thought it was pretty well explained, given that they covered heroes spending money and how the bounty system worked.
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Oct 10, 2014 07:30
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Oh man, I used to love this game as a kid. Let's talk about the voice clips. Majesty had some really amazing voice clips. I still remember the Warrior of Discord's roar, followed by "COME TO PAPA". The Krolm cultists had a pretty sweet roar too.
Kristopher fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 07:32
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Tax Refund posted:For those of us who never played the Majesty series, could you explain what's going on a bit? I figured it out by the end of the video, but at first I was a bit lost as to how your actions were influencing the heroes, and how you get gold. Yeah one of the problems you inevitably run into in this game is that there's a ton of stuff going on, and most of it is non-obvious because of this game's very, very unique setup. We'll do our best to cover everything explicitly eventually, but if I were to infodump everything it would probably be an hour-long lecture just to explain the basic economy the game institutes between money, time, and hero actions. I am not at all joking when I say we've just barely scratched the surface on how this game works. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask them, and I'll include them, and their answers, in the update post!
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Oct 10, 2014 07:37
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Kristopher posted:Oh man, I used to love this game as a kid. Let's talk about the voice clips. Majesty had some really amazing voice clips. I still remember the Warrior of Discord's roar, followed by "COME TO PAPA". The Krolm cultists had a pretty sweet roar too. I was so sad they talked over the gnome's death message. "But I'm... just.. a gnome..." Speaking of Gnomes, they mock them in this video, but if you manage to get a gnome up to level 10 it turns into a Gnome Champion with new artwork and voice acting. It's still useless.
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Oct 10, 2014 07:47
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Majesty RTS by The Time Wariors. This gonna be good!  Also, F.#$@ you rats; get out of my town's sewage system. 
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Oct 10, 2014 07:50
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Bremen posted:I was so sad they talked over the gnome's death message. "But I'm... just.. a gnome..."
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Oct 10, 2014 07:51
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Bremen posted:I was so sad they talked over the gnome's death message. "But I'm... just.. a gnome..." Sod off, Gnomes are amazing. True, they're not the best of fighters, but you get lots of them and they build/repair fast. I usually run with gnomes and (spoiling to be safe) Paladins. Also, holy crap that's a quick Kryptan Temple, good job, guys! They're my second-most favourite hero next to Wizards, and definitely my favourite in terms of utility.
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Oct 10, 2014 08:00
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Tax Refund posted:For those of us who never played the Majesty series, could you explain what's going on a bit? I figured it out by the end of the video, but at first I was a bit lost as to how your actions were influencing the heroes, and how you get gold. Set money on a target to try to draw your heroes to attack it. Set money on the map to draw a hero to go there and thus reveal the map for you. Heroes have their own wills and some people will do their own things. Examples-Rangers adore exploring and will happily run around clearing the black. Clerics will always follow Warriors around. Solari will gravitate to Guard Towers if possible. All this needs gold. You get gold by Marketplaces, Inns, Trading Posts spawning Caravans to deliver Gold to a Marketplace(The base amount multiplied by the level of the Marketplace), Fairgrounds, and Gardens(Which also give heroes random buffs) at Tier 3 Palace. This gold gets collected by Tax Collectors and brought to the Palace. The palace provides several per upgrade level, and you can get more via the fountain building, which auto-spawns when you have any 5/10/15/etc of 'economy' buildings-Inns, Marketplaces, Blacksmiths, Gardens(I forget whether Fairgrounds count). quote:Speaking of Gnomes, they mock them in this video, but if you manage to get a gnome up to level 10 it turns into a Gnome Champion with new artwork and voice acting. It's still useless. Bolded is false. It raises their baseline stats such that they can do good damage, and their baseline stats are such that they're nigh-impossible to HIT. Add to this their building capabilities and the fact you've got 12 of them running about and they're a valid choice even as compared to the other to races. Regard them as Hero Peasants; Peasants that will buy things and are often earning their gold passively, as they're always around fixing things and getting money that way. Bloodly fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 08:02
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Bloodly posted:All this needs gold. You get gold by Marketplaces, Inns, Trading Posts spawning Caravans to deliver Gold to a Marketplace(The base amount multiplied by the level of the Marketplace), Fairgrounds, and Gardens(Which also give heroes random buffs) at Tier 3 Palace. This gold gets collected by Tax Collectors and brought to the Palace. The palace provides several per upgrade level, and you can get more via the fountain building, which auto-spawns when you have any 5/10/15/etc of 'economy' buildings-Inns, Marketplaces, Blacksmiths, Gardens(I forget whether Fairgrounds count). Be aware that this isn't even 10% of the picture behind making money in this game.  Coolguye posted:I've been trying to figure out how to dump the voices on this game's audio for a while now. If I can nail that you can bet there's gonna be stuff like this in the update spotlights too. Coolguye fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 08:05
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http://www.cyberlore.com/majesty/downloads.htm Voicework and other stuff's here.
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Oct 10, 2014 08:26
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Bloodly posted:http://www.cyberlore.com/majesty/downloads.htm Oh for gently caress's sake. Well, the ones that I am ripping from the HD version apparently have higher bitrates than these, but good lord. I'd be embarrassed I didn't know they were there, but the music download link actually references windows 98 so I think I can be forgiven on this one.
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Oct 10, 2014 08:32
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The only reason I had that link was a vague memory from the Warlock 2 LP that that link had turned up in there.
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Oct 10, 2014 08:52
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The original Majesty is one of my favourite games of all times (and Majesty 2 is also pretty damned good), so I'm really happy that it's getting LP'd allowing people that might not know of it to see it in action.
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Oct 10, 2014 09:19
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Bremen posted:I was so sad they talked over the gnome's death message. "But I'm... just.. a gnome..." That's probably going to happen a lot for early stuff, there's so much nonsense in this game to explain.
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Oct 10, 2014 09:26
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I spent so much time playing this in the middle school computer labs. It was my childhood.
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Oct 10, 2014 09:29
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This game is really cool conceptually and I really wanted to like it, but somehow it never really quite clicked with me in practice. Maybe I've been playing it wrong, though, so I'm looking forward to your LP. Majesty is probably the closest game in character to the original Dungeon Keeper, which is one of my all-time favourites. I'd love to recapture that experience.
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Oct 10, 2014 09:50
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Hehe, ah, the beginnings of that Ardanian humour I've come to know and love, despite not all the games set in that world being good, or even passable. But Majesty, once you get the hang of the arts of OHGODRATMEN and OHGODHEROES (home defense in the face of infinispawns and the fact that higher level heroes won't bother with quests if the lewt isn't phat enough) is really fun, and a good 75% of the time, the pain you suffered the first time through a level is worth it for the Adviser's amusing speeches. And yes, that second level is far more indicative of the general intelligence of the Ardanian populace than it appears to be.
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Oct 10, 2014 10:54
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Hey I love ratmen, they're one of the few things that doesn't kill level one wizards with impunity. Granted that's because I always have guard towers near them and they're hitting the guards instead of gibbing the wizards, but still. I'm surprised that you guys didn't show off an attack on the wizard, because this mission is the one that explains why you should actually bother with the guys. This game is the most amazing, chill rts ever and I love it. Even when it's kicking your teeth in, you're just slamming your palm to your face in amusement as your heroes go visit the tavern while dragons rip apart your kingdom. If it has one fault, it's that to really understand the game you have to learn one thing: the hud has a little question mark you can click on for every building and hero that tells you what things actually do. This is by far the most useful thing in the hud, because there are a lot of things that buildings do that just aren't apparent at first.
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Oct 10, 2014 10:55
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The sewer/graveyard aren't all terrible. They provide money / experience for new heroes to get a start on. Especially Wizards, who make rogues look like solid titanium statues.
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Oct 10, 2014 11:39
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Lord Booga posted:Especially Wizards, who make rogues look like solid titanium statues. Only at level 1, mind. Once they reach the double digits (a feat in of itself, admittedly), they bestride Ardania like colossi, with your petty heroes peeping about to find themselves dishonourable graves- which in turn will make even more skellies to pump up more wizards!
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Oct 10, 2014 12:20
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Cardiovorax posted:This game is really cool conceptually and I really wanted to like it, but somehow it never really quite clicked with me in practice. Maybe I've been playing it wrong, though, so I'm looking forward to your LP. Majesty is probably the closest game in character to the original Dungeon Keeper, which is one of my all-time favourites. I'd love to recapture that experience. The very first time I ever played this game, I felt exactly the same way. I really wanted to like it but something just wasn't working between me and the game. Fast forward to last year and I decided I'd give it another go, and had an absolute blast, so when we decided to do the LP I was happy because maybe I'll be helping someone rediscover this game's charms and get a proper go out of it like I did. Anyway I hope everyone enjoys it and I apologise well in advance because I play this game in the absolute least optimised way possible in terms of the game's economy which means a lot more time spent waiting for money. On the plus side I know exactly how to win the poo poo out of these levels.
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Oct 10, 2014 12:37
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Really looking forward to this LP - This game was one of my favorites as a kid, and is still a theme and style I wish more games would take a stab at.TheLastRoboKy posted:Anyway I hope everyone enjoys it and I apologise well in advance because I play this game in the absolute least optimised way possible in terms of the game's economy which means a lot more time spent waiting for money. On the plus side I know exactly how to win the poo poo out of these levels. I'm hoping this comment involves lots of wizards . While I'm sure it was far from optimal, I spent most missions in this game trying to build up bigger and bigger hordes of wizards; because surely the best way to get one of those bastards to live long enough to achieve godhood is just to throw more of them at the problem. I'M MELLLLTIIIIIING
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Oct 10, 2014 13:03
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Pro-tip for Good Economy: build your gold producing buildings around watch towers; taxmen drop off their cash there and at the castle. Minimizing the time it takes for them to bumble their way to and fro means more money in your bank earlier and less chances of him dying off from a chance troll! 
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Oct 10, 2014 13:54
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Ahhh, Majesty. An interesting game with an infuriating gimmick. I actually use the wizard's spellbook line while searching for things in real life, that's how much fun most o the lines are.
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Oct 10, 2014 15:54
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Sage Grimm posted:Pro-tip for Good Economy: build your gold producing buildings around watch towers; taxmen drop off their cash there and at the castle. Minimizing the time it takes for them to bumble their way to and fro means more money in your bank earlier and less chances of him dying off from a chance troll! Clustering Inns around sensitive locations like the Marketplace is also good for two reasons: Number one, it gives the tax collector a shorter walk to get all your cash, and number two, heroes will idle around inns for no general reason at all, so they're more likely to be on the scene when poo poo goes down!
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Oct 10, 2014 17:08
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Oh man, this game. THIS GAME. My friend and I spent a shitton of time on this. We got our asses kicked because we were like, 6, but oh what a glorious clusterfuck.
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Oct 10, 2014 17:16
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Been excited for this since FoC. Never played the game myself, but it looks pretty fun and sounds like it'll get even better.
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Oct 10, 2014 17:18
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Inns are made to be dumped around-yes, generally everywhere, but mainly on the edges; they are also places of refuge for heroes. If a hero is forced to retreat, he'll go either to home, or an inn, whichever is closer, presuming he has the money to stay there. As the edges move, you build more. Their cost grows very slowly as compared to everything else, which is deliberate. ALWAYS do two Marketplaces at first if at all possible. Use one for constant Market Days. Market Day doesn't really improve much with the level of the Marketplace. I heard about this game from elsewhere. I count myself lucky I have it as Majesty Gold on CD. Mainly because the game actually doesn't NEED the CD. I can put it on pretty much anything.
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Oct 10, 2014 17:22
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Bloodly posted:ALWAYS do two Marketplaces at first if at all possible. Use one for constant Market Days. Market Day doesn't really improve much with the level of the Marketplace. This equation changes drastically if elves are involved but that's a story for another time. Coolguye fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 17:26
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Huh. This game looks really interesting. I'm usually absolutely awful at RTS games, but it looks like I wouldn't have to micromanage and multitask nearly as much in this game, so that sounds like something I can get behind.
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Oct 10, 2014 17:54
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Coolguye posted:It's about +150 gold I think, which is a pretty asinine deal when you consider it's 1000 gold to order the upgrades, plus the costs of whatever the research involved is (around 500 for level 2, 700 for level 3). You would have to pop Market Day over 10 times for the investment to be worth it.
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Oct 10, 2014 18:57
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The premise of this game seems hilarious and frustrating in equal measure.
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Oct 10, 2014 19:02
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Cythereal posted:The premise of this game seems hilarious and frustrating in equal measure. Pretty much this, but it's not too frustrating and the hilarity is pretty solid just from watching the stupid stuff your ai pawns keep doing.
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Oct 10, 2014 19:26
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