How big are the maps?

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rich12545
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How big are the maps?

Post by rich12545 »

Like, about how many squares wide and deep for a typical skirmish map.

How many maps come with the game?

Is a random map generator planned?
zakblood
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by zakblood »

there are 3 size of maps for the game in skirmish mode,

the smallest is 7x14

the middle one is 14x14

and the largest is 21x14
Uncle_Joe
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by Uncle_Joe »

Note that the Medium and Large maps are 'Locked' (presumably until you win some of the small). Unfortunately, the small map skirmishes are completely uninteresting IMO...no room to maneuver, no cards to mix things up, and only a 'kill the bad guys' objective (ie, no territorial objectives available so nothing like the map control possibilities of the board game).

The cards are expected to be released at some point in the next month or so. I hope that the Objectives are also released so that the scenarios can be more than 'kill the enemy'.

And I'm not sure the purpose of 'locking' the maps. This isn't some FTP game where we should have the 'earn' stuff...the game is fully paid for so I'm not sure why I should be 'locked' out of content.

For the record, I think the actual gameplay adaptation is fantastic (and will be better when the cards are present). But I'm not a fan of locked content or the lack of objectives possible in the skirmishes.
zakblood
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by zakblood »

once you finish one set of maps on the small scale you progress to the next size, so it's a reward tbh and only needs doing once, then you can replay as many times as you like, if everything is unlocked on day one, would you do campaign 6 mission 6 first knowing it was the hardest? or jump straight into rogue and die every 2 mins then come back here complaining everything is too hard? no of course not, that would be poor design and bad planning.

the game is scaled so the difficulty is gradual so the learning curve is correct, you don't get to play harder stuff until you have managed to beat the easy stuff, so as to be ready for it, most games tbh are like this in one form or another when either mission based or skill related.

saying all that, i understand what your saying also, so a reply from a developer with a better answer or more correct would be better, as mine is only my opinion, and i'm wrong as many times as i'm right, but is offered in good faith and also to help.
Uncle_Joe
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by Uncle_Joe »

zakblood_slith wrote:once you finish one set of maps on the small scale you progress to the next size, so it's a reward tbh and only needs doing once, then you can replay as many times as you like, if everything is unlocked on day one, would you do campaign 6 mission 6 first knowing it was the hardest? or jump straight into rogue and die every 2 mins then come back here complaining everything is too hard? no of course not, that would be poor design and bad planning.

the game is scaled so the difficulty is gradual so the learning curve is correct, you don't get to play harder stuff until you have managed to beat the easy stuff, so as to be ready for it, most games tbh are like this in one form or another when either mission based or skill related.

saying all that, i understand what your saying also, so a reply from a developer with a better answer or more correct would be better, as mine is only my opinion, and i'm wrong as many times as i'm right, but is offered in good faith and also to help.
Thanks for the reply and yep, I'm aware of the reasoning behind the 'locking' of content. To me it was a plague on the gaming industry introduced by consoles and then later taken to new extremes with 'free to play' titles. And for the latter, it makes a degree of sense since they want you to continue to play the game in hopes that you'll eventually pay for something (I used to work for a major game studio and believe me, that's what they want... ;) ).

But in a game where you pay for it up front, I see no reason to lock content. If I want to jump right to a large map and play an interesting battle I shouldn't have to suffer through half a dozen less interesting battles on tiny maps. That's like buying a chess set and being told you have win 10 games of checkers before you can play with it lol.

Anyways, I guess the main issue for me here is that the small maps with no cards, no objectives, and high unit density are not interesting enough for me to WANT to play through them to 'unlock' the better ones. And I honestly can't recommend it to friends who are vaguely interesting in Heroes of Normandie when I have to tell them that they have to 'grind' to get to play games on par with what we've played in the board game version.

Maybe once the editor is out and the cards (and hopefully objectives!) I'll be able to just create what I want to create and play that way. Here's hoping! ;)
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by IainMcNeil »

We're discussing removing the lock. The aim was to avoid people getting overwhelmed by large scenarios before they played smaller ones but it seems like it might be a bad idea.
rich12545
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by rich12545 »

21x14 doesn't sound like a very large map to get overwhelmed unless this is a very complex difficult to learn game. Will someone be answering my last two questions please?
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by IainMcNeil »

I don't know the number of maps for sure, but its a lot of gameplay. Maybe someone can post the exact number.

An editor is planned but no plans to produce a completely random map where individual tiles are spawned. The game is built from boards which are balanced so randomly placing the boards together would work if people were looking for that. It would by design give a good map however they laid out.
Uncle_Joe
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by Uncle_Joe »

Thanks for the updates. Hopefully the lock can be removed (even a 'cheat code' to do away with it).

For the number of maps, I *believe* it's 4 of each size so 12 total for Skirmish maps.
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by twilightling »

Needing to beat one of the previous maps make some sence, but having to defeat all 4 is a bit too much for me personally.
visualrob
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by visualrob »

Hi guys,

We listened to your feedback: we discussed this internally, together with Slitherine, and you convinced us that the lock needs to be removed entirely. We'll do it in the next patch.

The achievements will remain ("completed small/medium/big skirmish map set"), and you'll still get a lot of points for those, as you should. Skirmish is hard. :)
rich12545
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by rich12545 »

Tbh, twelve maps doesn't sound like very many. Depending on players for more might or might not come about. I still recall Team Assault that iirc had maybe three maps made by players.
Uncle_Joe
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by Uncle_Joe »

That's great news! I can't wait. :)

Any chance of Objectives (ie, collecting points for terrain) make their way into Skirmish mode (or at least to the Scenario Editor)?

rich12545 - 12 maps is only for Skirmish mode. Once you can mix and match with the editor the possibilities should be endless (especially if we have the ability to place overlays).
rich12545
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by rich12545 »

Yes, what you say is correct. But I'm not into map making. Some games have an active modding community and some don't. Impossible to tell in advance.

The ad says "Quick battle mode with lots of pre-designed maps" so I'm thinking maybe 30-50 maps rather than 12. I'm more into skirmish play than campaigns for most games. Anyway, I'm still thinking about it. There's more than enough for the $20 cost and it looks like the devs will continue to add more so I'll probably buy it next week. I really like the way the game is setup kinda cartoonish like BA but even more so.
Uncle_Joe
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by Uncle_Joe »

Well you wont have to 'make' maps the way you do for some titles (ie, edit one hex/square at a time).

The HoN boardgame uses large 'geomorphic' map squares that you can configure how you like. You generally lay out between 2 and 9 tiles and can form them into a desired map combination. It takes just seconds in the board game so I'm sure it will be equally easy here (ie, pick a few map tiles and orient as you prefer). There also 'overlays' which you can add to spice the maps up (buildings, bunkers, sandbags, etc) and again, it's just grab one and place it where desired.

So with the editor, it should just a matter of spending a few minutes to put together a map. Now whether those maps can be used in 'skirmish' or 'vs AI' mode remains to be seen.
visualrob
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by visualrob »

Hi,

we're eager to add more content too, and especially to see the community response once we release the editor. Speaking of which: the editor will allow any kind of scenario you see in the main game. It's really the same tool we used internally for making the whole game, only polished and refined, and redesigned for simplicity of use.

Anyone will be able to create a scenario in a few clicks, from tiny to giant (relatively to HoN sizes) maps. You will be able to select the armies with a few clicks, like you already do in skirmish/rogue. You will be able to set victory condition and events, like we do in the game (occupy, eliminate, bring item, etc...). No programming required. The maps will be playable in solo or multiplayer. In our intentions, it will be a glorified skirmish generator, only without points and achievements.

I hope we can also sneak in a couple of really nice features, but I'm not sure if we'll manage to do it in the first release of the editor, so I'll stop here. :)

Again, I'd really like to be surprised by the scenarios created by the community. I can't wait too. :)
Last edited by visualrob on Fri Oct 02, 2015 10:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rich12545
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Re: How big are the maps?

Post by rich12545 »

Ok, that sounds good. With the interest this game is drawing, I think there will be lots of maps/scenarios. It looks easy enough I might even try it. :shock:
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