|
 Is this Dungeon Keeper 3? Yes. Really? It isn't some shoddy, cheap imitation that's visually similar but nowhere near as enjoyable as the real thing? No, I think this is the real deal. Hello! Welcome to War for the Overworld. I, like many others, really love Dungeon Keeper 2. And a lot of game developers have tried to make something that recaptures the feel of Dungeon Keeper 2 in order to cash in on that nostalgia. Most of them have failed. But I think that War for the Overworld does a damned good job of it. For anyone who doesn't know what the hell I'm talking about, War for the Overworld is a strategy game where you design and manage your own evil underground lair full of monsters. It's a lot of fun! The game started out as an early access title, and apparently had a very rocky start. However, since I'm not an idiot, I didn't try the game until it had left early access, and when I got my hands on it, it was really good! I'm going to show off the game's very nice single player campaign. I hope you'll join me! Updates Episode 1: Awakening Episode 2: Welcome to Kairos Episode 3: Traps and Bolts Episode 4: Shades of Grey Episode 5: The Rear Guard Episode 6: Behind Enemy Lines Episode 7: Heart Attack Episode 8: Desecration Episode 9: Lambs to the Slaughter Episode 10: The Kenos Episode 11: Desperate Power Episode 12: Subjugation Episode 13: Equilibrium Enchanted Hat fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Apr 18, 2019 |
#
?
Mar 1, 2019 23:37
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 08:06 |
|
|
Episode 1: Awakening MYSTERIOUS WOMAN: Now go, Over-   Welcome back, Underlord.Mendechaus rudely cuts off the first narrator. He's a disembodied voice, but this portrait seemed fitting. I must say, I wasn't expecting you quite so soon. The transference may have left you feeling a bit foggy in the head. Focus now - I'll try to ease you back into it. Fortunately, this does seem to get easier each time. This is your home realm - the source of your power and the anchor that binds you to reality. Many years ago, it was destroyed, and you were cast out into formless nothing. Fortunately, you've returned from your exile, to once again challenge those who would stand between us… and the mortal realm of Kairos. Your resurrection heralds the next phase of our assault upon its wretched Empire, now led by the newly crowned Emperor Lucius. But he is least and final of our worries: it's his generals, and the protection of their goddess, Kira, that will truly test our mettle. Ready yourself, Underlord. Let's begin our war for the overworld! This is our war table, showing the realm of Kairos. Notice the distinct lack of everything being on fire. We're here to fix that.  Unfortunately, we're stuck doing the tutorial level first. We'll make it quick.  Welcome back Underlord. It's been a long time since you were banished to the Aether… You've returned as a husk of your former self, but I've taught far denser Underlords than you. Let's start with the basics…The big glowing green thing in the middle is our dungeon core. If that goes, we go. This is unfortunate, because it seems to attract heroes who want to hit it with their swords.  These little green guys are our workers. They're magical creatures summoned by our will, and they're totally disposable. They're usually pretty efficient, but if you're feeling impatient, there's a mechanic for slapping them to make them work a bit faster. Our first priority is to have them tunnel through the rock towards the jagged thing at the top of the screen.  This is a gateway. This is what monsters use to immigrate to our dungeon. Now that our workers have tunneled to it and claimed it, worthwhile monsters can start appearing here. However, first we have to build something that will attract the monsters. Maybe closets or a big bed for them to hide under?  Actually, what the tutorial wants us to build is this room with a training dummy. Maybe this will attract some really big, muscular fitness bro monsters?  Oh.  A gnarling has entered your dungeon. Attracted by the Barracks, these green-skinned scrappers aren't quite right in the head, and they'll happily hack at your foes until someone is dead. Actually, gnarlings aren't that bad. Among your early-game monsters, gnarlings are decent melee fighters that work well in large numbers. And since they're attracted by the barracks, which you need to train all of your units, you're inevitably going to attract a lot of them. In order to keep them fed and happy, I build a pigsty for meat.  And this sleeping quarter. Apparently the latest trend in monster bedroom décor is "gibbet chic".  Before I can complain any more about the interior of this dungeon, the walls are breached by little blue ghosts! They strike so suddenly that I can't even get a good shot of them!  I send in the gnarlings. The ghosts are roughly equivalent to my workers, who are worthless, so the gnarlings make short work of them. Beating the ghosts is the end of the tutorial level, thankfully.  Well done, Underlord. I see it's all coming back quite quickly… I expected nothing less. But there's much still to learn, but why don't we work in a bit of murder while we're at it? It's time for you to enter the realm of Kairos.Next time, we'll actually get to face some heroes and pillage all their stuff! Enchanted Hat fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Mar 1, 2019 |
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2019 23:37
|
|
|
Never heard of this, but it looks awesome - Dungeon Keeper was phenomenal and if it's even close to that level of quality, it'll be great.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 00:45
|
|
|
I wanted to get into this game, but I never thought it was like Dungeon Keeper 2. Glad to hear it's like that, looks fun.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 02:08
|
|
|
Ah, I do enjoy this game. If you were a Dungeon Keeper fan back in the day I highly recommend it, you won't be disappointed. WtfO was created by a group of Dungeon Keeper fans specifically to be the Dungeon Keeper 3 they always wanted that never happened. They even got the original guy from DK2 to be the voice of the mentor. I've still got the third DLC to play through, I should really get on with that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 02:21
|
|
|
I backed this on kickstarter and was really disappointed on release. Tried it again on a whim 6 months ago and they really improved on it, it's a damned good game now.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 06:46
|
|
|
seaborgium posted:I wanted to get into this game, but I never thought it was like Dungeon Keeper 2. Glad to hear it's like that, looks fun. If anything, I'd say that at times, it feels a little too much like Dungeon Keeper 2. It feels almost like an HD remake instead of an original game. Tenebrais posted:WtfO was created by a group of Dungeon Keeper fans specifically to be the Dungeon Keeper 3 they always wanted that never happened. They even got the original guy from DK2 to be the voice of the mentor. Wait, they got the same guy? That's awesome! I thought it was just a good impression of him.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 09:54
|
|
|
Nope, it's Daddy Pig in all of his oinky glory.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 09:59
|
|
|
I've played this game, and I'm a pretty big fan of their take on Dungeon Keeper. Unfortunately, I'm also hot garbage. I'll be looking forward to someone showing me how it's done!
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 18:48
|
|
|
Episode 2: Welcome to Kairos Now's the time for a bigger challenge. Before you lies an Imperial keep, guarded by a certain Lord Roussimoff. He had a bit of an accident that melted most of his face, but he's no less vigilant a soldier. He's been sent to guard an object that could threaten our campaign… get in there and burn the rest of him, Underlord.Well, I'm not one to leave a job unfinished. Let's get the invasion of Kairos started!  We've punctured the veil of this world through a schism - a point of weakness in the bonds between realms. Unfortunately for us, the Empire has crafted defences to keep us from the heart of their kingdom. These inhibitors prevent Underlords from trespass, but whether it's bone or stone it can be broken. I suspect that this Empire force has yet to taste true battle, but before you go engaging them you'll need to muster up some minions.Smash the glowing thing, got it. The use of the term "Underlords" is interesting. Are we not the only Underlord? Are there other Underlords like us out there, trying to destroy the land of Kairos? Maybe they'll be our friends later and help us fight the heroes. It's nice to have friends.   As usual, the first thing to do is tunnel straight for the monster gateway. Also, Mendechaus is kind of a jerk. Unfortunately for me, your time in the Aether has left you a weak husk of your former self. In order to reacquire your powers you will need to access the Veins of Evil. This is the "Veins of Evil" that Mendechaus was talking about. It's one of the ways that you unlock new room types and other useful tools for your dungeon. The talent tree layout makes it look like it's going to have a lot of customisability and allow for interesting choices in terms of what kind of dungeon you want to design, but honestly, it's extremely railroaded. You get access to a couple of tools each mission, and you'll unlock substantially everything in the order that the level designers want you to. We only have one option, which is to unlock the archive, so let's do that.  I build a small archive. Archives allow you to research "sins" that you can spend on the Veins of Evil screen to unlock more tools. You need researchers, though, and our gnarlings are much too stupid to do that.  A Cultist has found its way into your Dungeon. Attracted by the magical tomes within your Archive, these minions will spend most of their time researching Sins for you. Though they are weak combatants, they have the power to curse your foes… making them weak to your other minions' blows.Luckily, the archive attracts nerds! Cultists are almost completely useless in combat, but they're necessary for researching sins in the archive. I'd recommend always building the smallest possible archive, just enough to get a minimum number of cultists to research sins. Any more than that, and they will just take up valuable space in your monster army.  After "researching another sin", which sounds like a really strange euphemism, I can unlock the tavern. This is not a tavern for attracting adventurers (although a tavern in a monster dungeon would be a very clever trap, come to think of it). Rather, it's more like a dining hall for your monsters. Monsters prefer to eat from the tavern rather than grabbing a raw pig from the pigsty. What's more, they'll even pay for their food at the tavern!  South of the dungeon core, I build this giant super-room with a training barracks to the left, a tavern in the middle and a bedroom to the right. The game's tutorial trains you to build little 3x3 size rooms with individual entrances, and the game's mechanics support this to an extent. Rooms get a small bonus to their efficiency if they are surrounded by unbroken wall tiles. However, in my experience, the bonus is not big enough to justify making numerous small, separate rooms, especially considering the efficiency of having monsters live and eat right next to the training room.  Shortly afterwards, my workers find some kind of eyeball gyroscope. This is a Perception Shrine. It gives you free map vision in a pretty big radius, allowing us to peek into Lord Roussimoff's fortress to the north.  This is the hero fortress. Hero fortresses are quite a bit nicer than our dungeon. For one, they have excellent masonry, and their bedrooms aren't full of gibbets. The heroes still have to eat raw pigs straight from a pigsty, though, whereas we have a nice new tavern, so perhaps it all evens out. We could attack right away, but I don't feel strong enough to pick a fight with Lord Roussimoff just yet. We'll wait until we've attracted some more gnarlings and then let them train at the barracks for a little while.  …at least, that was the plan, but I soon get alerted that Roussimoff's diggers are tunnelling straight for our dungeon!  I summon our minions to the Perception Shrine, where the diggers breached our dungeon. Pictured are two cultists getting beaten up by enemy soldiers. Luckily, we've also attracted a couple of gnarlings who are able to get the job done.  After beating the soldiers, I retreat back to the dungeon. In order to attract some more gnarlings, I expand the barracks. Rooms in War for the Overworld (and Dungeon Keeper before it) work a little strangely. Most room types have something called props. In the case of the barracks, the props are the training dummies along the middle of the room. The number of props determines (in a rather confusing non-linear fashion) how many monsters that room will attract, and how many monsters can interact with that room. In order to make a prop appear in most room types, the room has to be at least 3x3 tiles in size. That will spawn one prop in the centre tile. To make another prop, you can either build another 3x3 room somewhere else in your base, or you can expand your existing room. If you decide to expand your room, you only need to add a 2x3 section to spawn one more prop. So a 5x3 room will spawn two props. This room shape is a rather strange 3x7 with an extra 2x3 at the bottom, spawning a total of four props. It would have been more efficient for me to make a 5x5 room to get four props, but there was another room in the way, so I had to improvise.  That's enough training for now. When you're ready, rally your minions to the Inhibitor and defeat Sir Roussimoff. At this time, Mendechaus becomes impatient and tells us to stop screwing around.  I plant our war banner right on top of the Inhibitor, which tells our monsters to charge right at it. This is a very sophisticated military tactic known as a coup de main, which I decided to use after careful deliberation, and should in no way be interpreted as me being lazy or bad at controlling my units.  Our army charges at the heroes' fortress. Our force has grown to six gnarlings and somehow five cultists, even though I deliberately tried to minimise the number of cultists that we'd attract. These guys grow like weeds. To tip the balance in our favour, we have a special card up our sleeve:  Possession! We have the power to directly possess any monster in our dungeon in order to participate in the fighting personally. I decided to possess a cultist, which is why a large part of my screen is obscured by his goofy red hood. Cultists are useless in close combat, but they do have a nice heal spell that they can use to support the gnarlings, as well as a pretty wimpy fireball. I hang back and pretend that I'm making a difference while our gnarlings do all the work.  We've managed to break into the heroes' treasury. Luckily, our gnarlings are dumb enough to keep moving towards the Inhibitor instead of stopping to plunder this room. And the cultists are worthless, so I don't care what they do.  We reach the Inhibitor, and Roussimoff is there waiting for us. He's pretty tough, but there are many of us, and only one of him.  Roussimoff: The light… the light has gone… Kira… I am… Extinguished… Soon, he's just a red smear on the beautifully tiled floor.  With Roussimoff dead, I feel confident enough to cancel the possession spell. The gnarlings will make short work of the undefended Inhibitor.  Well done Underlord, you're learning much faster this time. We've barely even started, and you already have a notch on your belt! Well done, Underlord, but there's no rest for the wicked… Two Inhibitors still stand between us and the mainland… but after your butchery of poor Lord Roussimoff, I doubt they'll be as weakly defended…And with that, we've beaten our first real mission of the game! Now that we have the archive, we should soon be able to unlock some more interesting monsters and tools for our dungeon. We have a lot of pillaging still to do!
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 22:36
|
|
|
Ah, there we go: The obligatory "show you how to kill a thing that's not actually a threat to you" starter mission. It's not hard to see what it's trying to do here, but I do like how even at this point, the perception shrine and tavern show you that everything isn't as it was.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2019 12:29
|
|
|
The room size to efficiency thing is a little limiting in my experience; it trains you to want to spam out as many 5x5 rooms as possible and "optimized" dungeons look like really bland almost office-space layouts. The game was great fun though and the devs did a fantastic job supporting it post launch, grips aside.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2019 14:04
|
|
|
NewMars posted:Ah, there we go: The obligatory "show you how to kill a thing that's not actually a threat to you" starter mission. It's not hard to see what it's trying to do here, but I do like how even at this point, the perception shrine and tavern show you that everything isn't as it was. The game feels almost like an expansion pack. Basically the same thing, but with some new content and just a couple of new mechanics to try to keep it fresh. KazigluBey posted:The room size to efficiency thing is a little limiting in my experience; it trains you to want to spam out as many 5x5 rooms as possible and "optimized" dungeons look like really bland almost office-space layouts. Min-maxers gonna min-max. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2019 15:46
|
|
|
Enchanted Hat posted:The game feels almost like an expansion pack. Basically the same thing, but with some new content and just a couple of new mechanics to try to keep it fresh. It kind of feels like to DK2 what DK2 was to DK1. More modern graphics, a bit more of a connecting story to the campaign, a couple of new mechanics (although I think DK2 might have had less mechanics than its predecessor). Different set of creatures and traps, that sort of thing. If you wanted a more divergent take on the genre, check out Dungeons 3 if you haven't. That series tried to create the a dungeon-building game from first principles and ended up taking some pretty different options to the Keeper series, like actively picking which creatures you recruit, and going to the surface to take the fight to the good guys. 3 is easily the best of the series. It's let down, however, by not having any sort of AI enemy. There's just scripted attacks from the pre-established heroes. You don't ever fight other keepers/underlords/whatever that are playing the same mechanics as you, in the campaign or skirmishes, besides multiplayer.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2019 17:40
|
|
|
Tenebrais posted:It kind of feels like to DK2 what DK2 was to DK1. More modern graphics, a bit more of a connecting story to the campaign, a couple of new mechanics (although I think DK2 might have had less mechanics than its predecessor). Different set of creatures and traps, that sort of thing. The annoying thing about Dungeons 3, as much as it is a personal-taste YMMV kinda' thing, is the humor. Good GOD, I had to mute all voices after a few sessions of that game. Say what you will about WftO, at least it nails the kind of dry wit that DK1&2 were known for, but Dungeons 3? Case in point, super early on they do this lamp-shade-y joke about how they've coasted on Lord of the Rings references for 3 games now and how they have to stop before they get sued, but a couple of missions later LotR returns to being their Nr.1 most referenced and most joked about topic, at a rate that's probably measurable. It's maddening. And that's before we get into the run-into-the-ground gimmick of the advisor always calling you "The "X" Evil", where "X" is a new word or phrase linked to whatever is going on at the moment. Look, YMMV and all that but it really put me off the game in a major way. Which was a shame because the dungeon design and whole over-world RTS thing were neat.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2019 18:09
|
|
|
I kinda like the fact that your creatures have something to spend their money on in War for the Overworld (though DK 2 also a way to suck money out of the greedy little blighters in the form of the Casino). What would they otherwise need the money for, Evil Retirement*? Also, I love the fact that you use a pigsty for your basic food income is due to a joke quote from DK2: "Micro-pigglets stalk your dungeon, beware!". Dungeons 2 almost had something of a Keeper vs Keeper fight in both the main campaign as well as the story expansion A Game of Winter. Still heavily scripted, mind you, but still there in some capacity. The only other thing I'll mention is that Dungeons 1 is VASTLY different from the other two (much less Dungeon Keeper) in both tone and game play - in it you build something of a dungeon theme park where you attract (and kill) adventurers as your main source of resource income. It also really feels like it's an overambitious game made by young game dev studio - far more interesting ideas than satisfying game play. *Yes, I know it's a upkeep mechanic. It just feels odd to have something as useful as Gold get poured down so many tiny black holes.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2019 18:42
|
|
|
Tenebrais posted:If you wanted a more divergent take on the genre, check out Dungeons 3 if you haven't. That series tried to create the a dungeon-building game from first principles and ended up taking some pretty different options to the Keeper series, like actively picking which creatures you recruit, and going to the surface to take the fight to the good guys. 3 is easily the best of the series. It's let down, however, by not having any sort of AI enemy. There's just scripted attacks from the pre-established heroes. You don't ever fight other keepers/underlords/whatever that are playing the same mechanics as you, in the campaign or skirmishes, besides multiplayer. I heard that Dungeons 1 was bad, so I've just ignored that series. Maybe I'll look into Dungeons 3, thanks! KnT posted:I kinda like the fact that your creatures have something to spend their money on in War for the Overworld (though DK 2 also a way to suck money out of the greedy little blighters in the form of the Casino). What would they otherwise need the money for, Evil Retirement*? Also, I love the fact that you use a pigsty for your basic food income is due to a joke quote from DK2: "Micro-pigglets stalk your dungeon, beware!". One thing I miss from Dungeon Keeper 2 is essentially mugging your own minions. In Dungeon Keeper 2, if I were short on cash, I'd just find some wealthy minions and just knock them out and steal their money.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2019 18:54
|
|
|
Yeah. The gameplay in Dungeons 3 was pretty good, but I just couldn't deal with the "humor." I had to quit after like mission 3 because it was so bad
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2019 20:08
|
|
|
I'm a huge fan of Dungeon Keeper and it looks like they've done a hell of a good job capturing the feel of the series. Used to have so much fun building dungeons and chaining traps together.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 10:08
|
|
|
Enchanted Hat posted:I heard that Dungeons 1 was bad, so I've just ignored that series. Maybe I'll look into Dungeons 3, thanks! You can still do this - sort of. I'll elaborate more when you hit the appropriate building.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 12:16
|
|
|
Ah, you've moved on to a game who has a more sympathetic protagonist than your last. Good show.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 21:31
|
|
|
Keldulas posted:Ah, you've moved on to a game who has a more sympathetic protagonist than your last. Good show. It's hard to find a game with someone who can top Armand. The Underlord is just trying to run a subterranean gastropub while defending it from invading heroes.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 23:55
|
|
|
tithin posted:You can still do this - sort of. I'll elaborate more when you hit the appropriate building. Yeah, the HR department got several great upgrades in this game. After a certain point you can almost function without mines.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2019 21:33
|
|
|
Episode 3: Traps and Bolts You're making great progress, Underlord… You'll be back to your old self in no time. Our next target is the citadel of the intransigent dotard Lord O'Theland. He's a dimwitted sort, and he seems to like marching his troops into an early grave… I'd say it's time to learn about traps.I'd say whoever came up with that name is a dimwitted dotard. But nevermind that, it's time for traps!  Welcome to The Breach, Underlord. This stronghold was built into this chasm to safekeep one of the Empire's inhibitors. With its trained garrison it's virtually impervious to attack… Fortunately for you, their commander, Lord O'Theland, is a vacuous sort who will throw his troops at your dungeon without strategy or order. I can think of no better time to learn how to build defences for your dungeon, but to do this you'll first need a Foundry. Before that, first things first: getting our monster gateway. This is the first mission where the gateway isn't immediately visible, so I just order the workers to dig in every direction in order to find it.  It turns out to be right next to the dungeon core. I guess they just wanted to worry you for the five seconds it takes to stumble across the gateway. I unlock our new room, the Foundry. But before I can even show it off, we immediately get a new kind of monster.  A Chunder has entered your dungeon. Attracted by the Foundry, this gassy creature will joyfully launch the fetid contents of its stomach to attack, your other minions would do well to stay a few steps back. Mendechaus, that's just gross. Unfortunately, we need these guys for our foundry. The foundry is used to build traps, and traps are absolutely wonderful.  As if on cue (because it is), the game tells us that we can unlock our first trap. The Blade Lotus. The Blade Lotus is a spinning flower of destruction that tears nearby enemies into shredded flesh as it pushes them away. Because the game thinks very little of me, it tells me exactly where I should place the trap - in the middle of the eastern tunnel towards the hero fortress.  We also unlock a cannon and a wooden door. Again the game tells you where to place them. Now that the game has finished telling me the wrong way to make traps, here's the real way to build traps for your dungeon:  More dakka. A big block of cannons should allow you to defend against any attack. There are some neat traps and obstacles later on that we'll be using, but at this stage in the game and with the traps available to us, the big block o' cannons can't be beat. Unfortunately, you can't always just drop a block of cannons in your base. Traps are limited by two factors: 1) Gold cost. Traps are kind of expensive. Each cannon costs 1,500 gold to build, which is quite a lot. On the other hand, monsters that you attract into your dungeon are free. Theoretically you'll have to pay your monsters too, but you can get around that. 2) Mana lock. The game has a mana system that's used for a number of useful spells that you can cast to help your monsters. The mana regenerates automatically, but the maximum amount of mana that you can store is slightly reduced for each trap that you build. This isn't a big deal, but it means you can't just cover the entire map in cannons. Sadly.  So how can I afford the gold cost for all these cannons?  My workers have discovered a gold shrine! A gold shrine allows your workers to mine an infinite amount of gold from it. I'm not exactly sure how the physics of gold shrines work, but they're delightful. Mining gold from gold shrines is somewhat slower than mining it from regular gold ore, but not enough that it matters. We'll never be hurting for gold in any map where we can find a gold shrine. Now that we've built up our traps, we're ready to sit back and let Lord O'Theland send all his troops into the meatgrinder. Once he runs out of troops, we can just waltz into the fortress and smash the inhibitor. Easy, right?  So let's not do that. O'Theland: This evil presence shall not stand up to my might! Rally straight forth to assault them, men! How terribly kind of the nitwit to announce his attack… prepare to defend the centre line, Underlord!The game gets a little confused if you just charge right at the fortress.  O'Theland: What do you mean they're all dead?! This threat is more serious than I thought! The mission is very easy if you hang back and wait like you're supposed to. If you attack straight away, it becomes kind of tough, as Lord O'Theland will spawn wave after wave of heroes to attack your traps, which you'll have to defeat with your invasion force. My strategy here was to build two very large barracks, 5x5 each, which gave me a ton of gnarlings who are very good in combat. Additionally, I placed a good amount of traps back in the base in order to take care of any heroes who got past the invasion force. O'Theland: Give me a minute, I shall prepare a new plan of attack to thwart this devil!  Scatter their bones for the rats to clean. O'Theland: Kira's sceptre! They've all been bested? Okay hold on, hold on. I'm thinking.  Our monsters have fought their way through the fortress, and are now just outside the room housing the inhibitor. Lord O'Theland waits inside. To help them out, I possess one of the gnarlings.  Destroy the Inhibitor swiftly! It lies open and undefended, but for that odious blaggard.Aw, I don't want to kill this guy. He looks so happy.  O'Theland summons another wave of soldiers, and I drop out of the gnarling to cast some support spells. The fight is getting very messy.  O'Theland: By the light… have none of you had any training at all? By the end of the battle, all of O'Theland's soldiers as well as most of our monsters have been wiped out. Now it's just O'Theland, a cultist and a couple of gnarlings. But at least that's the end of his reinforcements.  O'Theland: Swiftly troops, attack all three sides and we'll surely overwhelm them with our might! Welp. With his dying breath, O'Theland summons a giant wave of soldiers! I try to rush our monsters at the inhibitor to smash it before the soldiers appear, but we don't quite make it, and they wipe out the rest of the invasion force.  We have no monsters left to defend ourselves, and all the heroes charge through the fortress, heading straight for our dungeon core.  Of course, by the time they reach our dungeon, the chunders have managed to construct most of the defence cannons I ordered. And monsters are completely disposable. More have already arrived through the gateway.  The heroes go down, and I rally all of our new monsters for one final push towards the inhibitor!  Our first attack had nearly managed to destroy the inhibitor, it had about a third of its health left. Our new monsters give it a light tap. What a marvelous meatgrinder you've constructed Underlord! Superbly executed. Before we move on, I must warn you the next Inhibitor comes with an unpleasant surprise. Fine work, Underlord! Now that O'Theland and his ronies are a dehydrated paste, let's move on with our assault and destroy the final Inhibitor!
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 21:54
|
|
|
Pretty standard Dungeon Keeper levels so far. It's basically just a mission pack, I hope we get to see some truly new things, too.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2019 07:21
|
|
|
There are some missions that mix it up a bit more. Also, the Ultimate Edition with all DLC is on sale over at GoG for about 1/3 the normal price.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2019 02:47
|
|
|
In fact I think the next mission introduces two of WftO's original features. The ones so far have basically been tutorials for people who never played Dungeon Keeper. The Veins of Evil are also an original feature but they're not really relevant in the campaign since your progression is restricted to what the current mission is presenting you. It's a much bigger deal in Skirmish/Multiplayer/DLCs.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2019 12:20
|
|
|
I'm liking the change to the mana cost for traps, where it lowers your maximum mana rather than hurts the regen and costs mana to fire. That seems a lot more balanced.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2019 20:09
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:Pretty standard Dungeon Keeper levels so far. It's basically just a mission pack, I hope we get to see some truly new things, too.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2019 22:49
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:Pretty standard Dungeon Keeper levels so far. It's basically just a mission pack, I hope we get to see some truly new things, too. Not covered so far; each mission has both a "complete in X amount of time" achievement, as well as a "complete a specific objective" on the map achievement. The specific objective is usually pretty easy but the speedrun versions are all extremely tightly timed. I've tried a couple of them and they're pretty hard to get!
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 00:43
|
|
|
I -just- got this game and now I see there's an LP of it, haha. I've been having a lot of fun with it, and I'm only on level 5 or so. Game's fun and I'm gonna watch this LP and see what all you do differently. Like apparently having bigger rooms is good? I forgot a lot from DK2 I think. I haven't tried Dungeons 3 yet, but from everything I saw on gog in the descriptions, 90% of all the enemy leaders are female (All DLC except for one has a female main antagonist) which makes me very leery of it being a bit too representative of the creators' thoughts. (If I'm wrong please let me know, I haven't played them yet)
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 03:24
|
|
|
Gloomy Rube posted:Like apparently having bigger rooms is good? Sort of. Certain rooms create an interactive prop whenever there's at least a 3x3 space- the barracks generates a training dummy, library generates a research station, slaughterpen generates a pigpen, forge generates an anvil, that sort of thing. It generates an additional prop every time you expand the room at least two tiles out in a general direction, so you'd have two things in a 3x5, four in a 5x5, etc. There's also the concept of prop efficiency- the prop does its job faster for each adjacent fortified wall or door its 3x3 space is next to, up to a maximum of 250% efficiency when it's next to 7 fortified walls/doors. The efficiency meter is represented by a little gauge above the prop with seven slices that fill up when it's next to a door or fortified wall, and you can hover the mouse over the prop to see its exact efficiency. This replaces the DK2 system where being next to at least three squares of fortified wall gave you and additional item to play with in some rooms (racks in the torture chamber or training targets in the training room, for instance) so you could get more capacity out of a fixed floor plan (or do dumb like drag a line of a room down your hallway so you could have a 1x9 room or something). A consequence of this is that a 5x5 room with fortified walls and doors in any hole you feel like making will have all four props running at 250% efficiency, while going larger may mean you have props that aren't adjacent to enough walls/doors for maximum efficiency. Not all rooms care about this- some rooms only use size for capacity and don't spawn props, there are a few rooms with props that don't have efficiency meters, and rooms like treasuries and lairs can be set out in any format you like. Even for rooms with prop efficiency you're free to not care about it if you don't use the props enough that it matters or if you just want enough props to attract enough creatures.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 08:55
|
|
|
Gloomy Rube posted:I haven't tried Dungeons 3 yet, but from everything I saw on gog in the descriptions, 90% of all the enemy leaders are female (All DLC except for one has a female main antagonist) which makes me very leery of it being a bit too representative of the creators' thoughts. (If I'm wrong please let me know, I haven't played them yet) Poil fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Mar 9, 2019 |
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 11:02
|
|
|
The humor is really cringeworthy though.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 11:08
|
|
|
But at least it was written by someone using both hands. I did like when Thalya started pissing off the narrator and he narrated that she was suddenly attacked by bears and some bears spawn in right next to her on the map. The whole ultimate evil evingly eviled some evil evil and the main character going on with things like "kill them, rip them to shreds, paint their nails in flowery patterns" all the time did get old quickly.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 11:17
|
|
|
I don't remember that part, either didn't get that far or it got buried under all the references. Still, I should get back to that game at some point...
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 11:25
|
|
|
Episode 4: Shades of Grey Revenge is a dish best served cold, Underlord, but we're a bit… lacking in refrigeration.That did not even remotely make sense. The traitorous coward Marcus has made a deal with the Empire to save his own revolting hide; he defends the final Inhibitor, and, in exchange, the Empire's dogs leave him to cower behind his dungeon's walls. Get in there, Underlord, and tear it all down! Here entrenched lies the traitorous Underlord Marcus. He has pledged to protect this Inhibitor with his life, having convinced the Empire that he means them no harm… the pathetic little turncoat. This uneasy peace has lasted too long, vanquish this traitorous Underlord and destroy the Inhibitor he protects.This time we're doing something a little different. We're going after a rival Underlord with his own dungeon. We have to breach his dungeon, destroy his dungeon core, and then smash the inhibitor that he is guarding.  This place is riddled with Brimstone, its hardened exterior will be impossible to mine using conventional means… but we have other forms of excavation. Open the Veins of Evil and unlock the Underminer. This mission, we're unlocking the Underminer, which is our first Construct. Constructs are a new feature in War for the Overworld. They are devices that your workers can build anywhere in your territory or on neutral territory. This one is pretty situational. After constructing it and triggering it, it will explode, destroying any surrounding brimstone tiles, and seriously damaging enemy dungeon walls. It's useful if you're trying to get into an enemy dungeon or a hero fortress that doesn’t have an entrance, but that rarely comes up.  But we need it now! So let's use this thing. Your Underminer is ready to be activated, click it to start the show. Ah, I should have mentioned, Brimstone is a fairly volatile substance.Blowing up a brimstone tile will also blow up any adjacent Brimstone tiles, starting a chain reaction. It's kind of a shame, because it would have been quite useful to have our dungeon core surrounded by impenetrable stone.  We've cleared away the brimstone, but it turns out that we were also surrounded by water! You can use the Wooden Bridge to span your dungeon across water. I build a bridge to the east, where there is a new type of room for us to claim: the Beast Den. This room will allow bloodthirsty Beasts to enter your dungeon. Unlike normal minions, Beasts cannot work nor train themselves in your Barracks… they wish only to strip the flesh from your enemies. In addition, they do not require payment or a Lair, and they are more than happy to eat Micropiglets straight from your Slaughterpen. However, these unfortunate creatures care not for their own lives, and will fight until their last breath… they cannot be saved if they fall in battle.The beast den is an interesting addition to the game. Normally, your monsters are a pretty significant investment. You have to build rooms to attract them, then house them, feed them, train them and pay them. Losing a bunch of high level monsters is quite a setback. Beasts, on the other hand, are totally disposable cannon fodder. The beast den is very cheap to construct, and will attract a large number of beasts relative to its size. However, the beasts are weaker than proper monsters such as gnarlings, and if they lose a battle they just die immediately instead of getting knocked out. After seizing the beast den, we spawn our first beast.  The Skarg is a deceptively cute beast that prefers the flesh of Dwarves above all, and can be trained to fetch and return eyeballs.It's a  The Oculus is a master of the mind, if it encounters an enemy it will assault their senses, temporarily turning them into a vegetable. Outside of battle, the Oculus will explore the depths of the Underworld, relaying back what it sees to you… and to its eldritch hivemind.My beasts have a bad habit of spawning inside crystals. This is another beast, the Oculus. They're worthless for fighting, but luckily that's not what they're for. Oculuses… oculi? gently caress it, beholders will spend their time flying randomly around the map, making them very useful disposable scouts.  Unfortunately, they tend to get into trouble doing this. The beholder has just found a small hero fortress to the east, and is now about to get pummelled. We are separated from the fortress by the water around our base, and the heroes seem to be in no rush to attack us. This is fortunate, as we only have one skarg and a couple of beholders.  Meanwhile, the workers have found a gold shrine! Looks like this'll be another mission where money doesn't matter.   With my newfound wealth, I build up the dungeon. This layout with lots of water everywhere makes it difficult to fit in large rooms like the training barracks, so I just clearcut the map around the dungeon core to maximise my building space. This is a bad idea for something like the foundry, which gets a productivity bonus from having adjacent walls, but if you're just building bedrooms or pigstys, it doesn't really matter. Theoretically, this would be a bad idea for a training barracks if you want your monsters training in it. But I have a better plan for how to train our monsters.   I couldn't show this off in the last map because the game deliberately prevents you from claiming tiles near the heroes' fortress in that map. But generally, I'm not a big fan of using traps defensively when you could be using them to lay siege! Building a block of cannons near the enemy fortress before you attack will make any fight with the defenders go much more smoothly. I'll wait for these cannons to complete before building a bridge to the hero fortress.  In the meantime, our beholders keep getting into fights that they can't win.  Once the cannons complete, I build a bridge across the water. Our workers immediately get to work claiming tiles on the other side.  A single priestess comes out to fight. But now with the cannons backing them up, our suicidal beasts do a lot better.  No more heroes come out, so I move in the rest of our monsters. It turns out the siege cannons were totally unnecessary, as this tiny fortress is almost undefended.  We finally run into some token resistance, but it's not very convincing. It's frankly a little embarrassing.  While our monsters clean up, I move on to the fortress to the east. This looks like a much larger structure, so I start work on siege cannons.  The cannons complete, and our workers start claiming tiles. A few guards show up, but the cannons and our monsters easily wipe them out.  I don't even bother with the siege cannons for the third fortress. It's clear that the heroes here are no threat to us. But the heroes aren't our real enemy here.  This is Underlord Marcus' dungeon. The entrance is protected by several layers of cannons and blade traps. It's going to be a pain to get through here. Also, why is his dungeon so much snazzier than ours? I want some of those coloured LEDs!  I build the bridge and send in the beasts and the gnarlings. That sparkling thing in the middle is a new construct, the Conduit. Conduits make our workers dig and claim tiles faster, which is extremely handy when you're fighting other Underlords, for reasons which will become apparent.  Strangely, Marcus isn't sending his own monsters out to defend, so we take out his defenses without too much trouble. However, all his workers are coming out now to try to reclaim the tiles that we are claiming inside his base.  There is only death for us here. Withdraw your minions immediately! Apparently, Marcus is trying to repel our assault by asking us to leave. While innovative, it's not a very effective strategy. We're rapidly approaching Marcus' dungeon core. I'll not kill my own kind, but you and your minions will not be the death of me. Our monsters breach the door to Marcus treasure chamber. The area around his dungeon core is covered with cannons and traps, but he's still not sending a credible force of monsters at us. Please… let me be and leave this realm… Look how easily they throw their lives away, blindly following you to destruction… are you any different? The Aether beckons, can you feel it tugging as I do?Maybe this strategy of asking nicely worked against the heroes, and that's why they left him alone. But an Underlord should know that mercy is for the weak!  A final blow, and Marcus' dungeon core starts to disintegrate. He manages to get out one final whine.  The light is then snuffed out of his core.  With his core destroyed, all of Marcus' claimed tiles quickly revert to ordinary dirt. You'll regret not heeding my advice. Underlord, this campaign will be the end of you. Pay no attention to his frightened blabbering… It turns out Marcus had an absolutely huge dungeon. It's hard to understand how he was so weak.  Over here is the inhibitor, protected by brimstone. With Marcus gone, we can easily blow it away with another underminer.  Now that his Core is a smouldering ruin, there are other matters that need your attention. The underlord Rhaskos was locked in a scrap with a gaggling of greasy midgets… but he has since gone silent. Get over there and find out what the hell is going on. A job well done, Underlord. Marcus' shattered spirit will not soon forget the price of his cowardice! Now that the Inhibitors all lay broken, only one final snag prevents us burning the heart of their land.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 20:44
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:Pretty standard Dungeon Keeper levels so far. It's basically just a mission pack, I hope we get to see some truly new things, too. There are a couple of new things, like the constructs and the beasts, but generally it just feels very much like Dungeon Keeper 2, which is exactly what I like about it. It's like a good expansion. tithin posted:Not covered so far; each mission has both a "complete in X amount of time" achievement, as well as a "complete a specific objective" on the map achievement. The specific objective is usually pretty easy but the speedrun versions are all extremely tightly timed. I've tried a couple of them and they're pretty hard to get! Yeah, the speedrun timers are very tight. I've only gotten a couple of them.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 20:50
|
|
|
I always get stumped on the second to last mission of this.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 21:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 08:06 |
|
|
So one of the things I really like about WftO is the dungeon themes. Each NPC keeper in the campaign has their own aesthetics, and there's more besides. You can use them yourself unlocking them with achievements, or some are cosmetic DLC. Marcus' theme is available by buying the Underlord Edition of the game.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 21:30
|
|