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This post has been edited by Jewels: 14 October 2008 - 03:56 PM
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Foul Hordes 1.46 (2.1/1.0)
MultiQuote#2 Guest_Nioca_*
Posted 09 March 2008 - 04:32 PM
I highly recommend this scenario to designers.
No, seriously. It's the perfect example of what NOT to do when designing. First off, town and outdoor design in general is just really crappy. Tons of terrain and floor mistakes (like cave floor on the surface, rivers with absolutely no banks, etc.) are combined with the most unrealistic towns I've ever seen. Added to this is a massive, empty outdoors that are incredibly bland. Random generic monster swarms that make absolutely no sense, and are all as underpowered as NM's nephilim were overpowered. I probably could have fought through this scenarios with an L15 party with ease, except for a couple fights. There was no dialogue or real plot, as far as I could tell. I wandered around for hours, and still couldn't find the main dungeon. Just a bunch of random, unconnected encounters that have no bearing on what you need to do whatsoever, assuming you can figure out what you need to do. Oh, and this scenario is seriously monty haul. You could get an incredible number of wand, potions, herbs, etc. just by looking carefully enough. And nearly every town had a storage place of some sort.
And that's just scratching the surface of the insanity.
There is a town that consists of practically nothing except guards, cats, and dogs. Said town has control panels that pretty much do nothing and have no real purpose other than the one releasing a bunch of underpowered enemies. Oh, and there's constant meowing and barking while you're there, which steadily causes you to lose your mind. The author inserted himself as a demigod, and he made use of our favorite Avernum clich hackneyed villain for the main threat, the Vahnatai. Thankfully, not Rentar-Ihrno, but it was an Ihrno, nonetheless.
There are a couple of good things about this scenario. First, there were a couple of neat coding tricks used. Not original, but neat. Second, it educates new designers about what not to do in a scenario.
I didn't complete the scenario, since it just became too painful to play. However, I definitely got a good enough feeling of how it was playing out to rate it.
Final Score: 1.6
A must-play for new designers; a must-avoid for players.
No, seriously. It's the perfect example of what NOT to do when designing. First off, town and outdoor design in general is just really crappy. Tons of terrain and floor mistakes (like cave floor on the surface, rivers with absolutely no banks, etc.) are combined with the most unrealistic towns I've ever seen. Added to this is a massive, empty outdoors that are incredibly bland. Random generic monster swarms that make absolutely no sense, and are all as underpowered as NM's nephilim were overpowered. I probably could have fought through this scenarios with an L15 party with ease, except for a couple fights. There was no dialogue or real plot, as far as I could tell. I wandered around for hours, and still couldn't find the main dungeon. Just a bunch of random, unconnected encounters that have no bearing on what you need to do whatsoever, assuming you can figure out what you need to do. Oh, and this scenario is seriously monty haul. You could get an incredible number of wand, potions, herbs, etc. just by looking carefully enough. And nearly every town had a storage place of some sort.
And that's just scratching the surface of the insanity.
There is a town that consists of practically nothing except guards, cats, and dogs. Said town has control panels that pretty much do nothing and have no real purpose other than the one releasing a bunch of underpowered enemies. Oh, and there's constant meowing and barking while you're there, which steadily causes you to lose your mind. The author inserted himself as a demigod, and he made use of our favorite Avernum clich hackneyed villain for the main threat, the Vahnatai. Thankfully, not Rentar-Ihrno, but it was an Ihrno, nonetheless.
There are a couple of good things about this scenario. First, there were a couple of neat coding tricks used. Not original, but neat. Second, it educates new designers about what not to do in a scenario.
I didn't complete the scenario, since it just became too painful to play. However, I definitely got a good enough feeling of how it was playing out to rate it.
Final Score: 1.6
A must-play for new designers; a must-avoid for players.
#4
Lazarus 
- Kakistocrat
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- Group: Administrators
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Posted 09 March 2008 - 04:32 PM
Absolutely terrible. Undoubtedly BoA's worst, and probably the first BoA scenario to measure up to the true horrors of BoE. From message dialogs that allow door bashing/picking options, to barren outdoors that are randomly sprayed with desert, grass, and cave floors all together, this entire scenario is beyond amateurish.
Don't play it. 1.0
Don't play it. 1.0
#5 Salmon
Posted 09 March 2008 - 04:33 PM
You know what? You all suck as critical thinkers. I too noticed that the design, balance, and plot sucked. I noticed how easy it was to stumble on the BigBoss without completing any preliminary tasks. But I also noticed that this is likely a ported BoE scenario. The evidence is there. If so, this is pretty damn good. I mean it works, and doesn't have ? monsters.
I award it a 2.1 for being a glimmer of hope for the porting process.
Edit ---
Shit. Now I have to deduct .5 for not having an exit strategy.
New score of 1.6, because a scenario really needs a win option. And for the record, I too noticed that the towns didn't make sense, the dungeons didn't make sense, and it was not appealing to the eye. But on that tiny scale we use for the truly sucky, it was on the high end.
I award it a 2.1 for being a glimmer of hope for the porting process.
Edit ---
Shit. Now I have to deduct .5 for not having an exit strategy.
New score of 1.6, because a scenario really needs a win option. And for the record, I too noticed that the towns didn't make sense, the dungeons didn't make sense, and it was not appealing to the eye. But on that tiny scale we use for the truly sucky, it was on the high end.
#6 Jemand
Posted 09 March 2008 - 04:33 PM
Undead valley made more sense than this! In fact, this scenario has nothing positive about it, and the negative things are to numerous to mention. At least it is possible to win.
I would give this the first rating of -3, but out of politeness I give it 2.0.
I would give this the first rating of -3, but out of politeness I give it 2.0.
#8 Guest_Smoo_*
Posted 09 March 2008 - 04:34 PM
These are the rough notes I made of Foul Hordes while playing it. Usually I tend to write some kind of review based on my observations, but I'm not going to this time since Foul Hordes isn't really any kind of a scenario. So on to pros and cons. Warning! Bad language ahead.
+ The bosses at least have some kind of custom scripts
+ Radzak-Ihrno does a little monologue if you play a singleton. R-I: "I am The Revenger!" Me: "(Silence)" R-I: "That's right I controlled the hordes!" Me: "(Silence)" R-I: "So be it!" And then fighting.
+/- Transformer had a neat little coding trick, but it doesn't cost a single action point to use so it makes every fight easy.
- Random Monsters attack plot
- Horrible town design
- Even more horrible outdoor design
- Dialog non-existent
- Brigand Fortress in the middle of nowhere. "The mage is Charask" - dialog. What the hell?
- A sidequest was shitty. Descend and open a door.
- Aw goddamnit! A dragon.
- Lord Sam the demigod.
- Backstory is horrible drivel: Vahnatai lived on the surface then the Empire then the sliths et cetera, et cetera.
- Terrain could have at least been frilled. Sheesh.
- Buggy to boot (the "reset_dialog" call is hardly ever used.)
- Vahnar: half-human, half-vahnatai. Fuckity fuck.
- If no-one wants to talk to me in a friendly town then that town should not be made!
- Son of Sss-Thsss. Yeah. On the surface.
- Where's the main quest in the quest list?
- Everyone is introduced out of the blue: This is Salvjek, he does things. Like the player's supposed to know them.
- Vahnatai!
- I accidentally found the main dungeon.
- "This trapdoor obviously leads into a place infested with nasty monsters. You take extra care not to enter." HAH! Nasty monsters my ass.
- When I left the scenario victorious, my coin amount was suddenly -25000. (This is apparently a BoA bug, not a Foul Hordes bug.)
- The scenario folder has the images from Valley of Dying Things.
- Level range is way off. A level one party might be able to beat the scenario. (Well, I tried, but the bosses were too much.)
1.4 You could do worse... Supposedly... By being more buggy or unwinnable or something, I don't know.
+ The bosses at least have some kind of custom scripts
+ Radzak-Ihrno does a little monologue if you play a singleton. R-I: "I am The Revenger!" Me: "(Silence)" R-I: "That's right I controlled the hordes!" Me: "(Silence)" R-I: "So be it!" And then fighting.
+/- Transformer had a neat little coding trick, but it doesn't cost a single action point to use so it makes every fight easy.
- Random Monsters attack plot
- Horrible town design
- Even more horrible outdoor design
- Dialog non-existent
- Brigand Fortress in the middle of nowhere. "The mage is Charask" - dialog. What the hell?
- A sidequest was shitty. Descend and open a door.
- Aw goddamnit! A dragon.
- Lord Sam the demigod.
- Backstory is horrible drivel: Vahnatai lived on the surface then the Empire then the sliths et cetera, et cetera.
- Terrain could have at least been frilled. Sheesh.
- Buggy to boot (the "reset_dialog" call is hardly ever used.)
- Vahnar: half-human, half-vahnatai. Fuckity fuck.
- If no-one wants to talk to me in a friendly town then that town should not be made!
- Son of Sss-Thsss. Yeah. On the surface.
- Where's the main quest in the quest list?
- Everyone is introduced out of the blue: This is Salvjek, he does things. Like the player's supposed to know them.
- Vahnatai!
- I accidentally found the main dungeon.
- "This trapdoor obviously leads into a place infested with nasty monsters. You take extra care not to enter." HAH! Nasty monsters my ass.
- When I left the scenario victorious, my coin amount was suddenly -25000. (This is apparently a BoA bug, not a Foul Hordes bug.)
- The scenario folder has the images from Valley of Dying Things.
- Level range is way off. A level one party might be able to beat the scenario. (Well, I tried, but the bosses were too much.)
1.4 You could do worse... Supposedly... By being more buggy or unwinnable or something, I don't know.
#9
Iffy
- Unspecified Services
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- Group: Members
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- Location:Inside my comfortable box
Posted 01 June 2008 - 01:22 PM
Outdoor Design - 1
Just...bad.
Town Design - 1
Also...bad.
Combat - 3
Some of it seemed interesting. Most of it was horrible.
Plot - 1
Random monsters, random people, and then this random vahnatai-boss dude?
Scripting - 3
Some things were used well. Though the lack of the reset_dialog() call and the constant cat and dog noises in that one town brought the rating way down.
Average - 1.8 - .2 for not getting help from here or SW so...
Final Score - 1.6
Just...bad.
Town Design - 1
Also...bad.
Combat - 3
Some of it seemed interesting. Most of it was horrible.
Plot - 1
Random monsters, random people, and then this random vahnatai-boss dude?
Scripting - 3
Some things were used well. Though the lack of the reset_dialog() call and the constant cat and dog noises in that one town brought the rating way down.
Average - 1.8 - .2 for not getting help from here or SW so...
Final Score - 1.6
Don't judge a sentence until you know all the words.
Be grateful you have your unsellabe trowels -Goldenking
My BoA scenarios: Muffins n' Hell|The Triple Valley(Recently released)
Be grateful you have your unsellabe trowels -Goldenking
My BoA scenarios: Muffins n' Hell|The Triple Valley(Recently released)
#10
Ephesos
- Voice of Reason
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- Group: Members
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- Joined: 15-January 07
- Location:Somewhere dark... damn torch still won't light.
Posted 27 September 2009 - 05:18 PM
(re-posts review)
Salmon, you have to go back to the town you started in and climb in a boat. Yes, it's contrived and dumb, but it's there.
So I'm going to be blunt. This was horrible. But it was functional, and it was from someone who we haven't really seen any of. So I can't be too displeased with it. Sure, I wasn't happy to play it, but I saw a bit of potential.
So the outdoors and town designs were awful, and the high level suggestion didn't stop the creator from inserting goblin fighters at odd intervals. Sure, you beat up on a Rentar clone, a 'dragon', and a few random named bosses who you somehow know a lot about. Sure, none of it makes sense, there's no direction, no sense of style, no real plot, and no focus whatsoever. But it's another designer who was able to put it all together without ever touching the community. With a bit of help, they could get better.
Still, this was pretty awful. Scary thing is, it's worse than Undead Valley and Nephilim Mystery. Better than Shipwrecked, though... 2.1
Salmon, you have to go back to the town you started in and climb in a boat. Yes, it's contrived and dumb, but it's there.
So I'm going to be blunt. This was horrible. But it was functional, and it was from someone who we haven't really seen any of. So I can't be too displeased with it. Sure, I wasn't happy to play it, but I saw a bit of potential.
So the outdoors and town designs were awful, and the high level suggestion didn't stop the creator from inserting goblin fighters at odd intervals. Sure, you beat up on a Rentar clone, a 'dragon', and a few random named bosses who you somehow know a lot about. Sure, none of it makes sense, there's no direction, no sense of style, no real plot, and no focus whatsoever. But it's another designer who was able to put it all together without ever touching the community. With a bit of help, they could get better.
Still, this was pretty awful. Scary thing is, it's worse than Undead Valley and Nephilim Mystery. Better than Shipwrecked, though... 2.1
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