Stalemate Tournament - scripted fighting map testing
You start with barracks, storehouse, handful of serfs, recruits, weapons and some towers. Over time, you're receiving recruits and weapons - all will stockpile to certain limits. If one of your teammates bites the dust, you will receive more goods to help you keep up with your enemies - this way 1 vs 4 should be theoretically balanced - at least resource-wise (though, there will be quite a traffic jam for the lone player). Moreover, if one team is pushing forward with army but the second one is camping - attacking team will be getting points, while camping team more weapons and recruits (in case they were beaten up badly, this will help them recover to some extent)
But wait! There's more to it! There are two timers running that will keep you on your toes. First is the stalemate timer - if this one hits zero - everyone loses (unless game says otherwise). If some unit gets killed, timer is reset. Second is the elimination timer - if this one hits zero - player with lowest score loses and timer resets. Player can also be defeated by losing barracks or storehouse - in this case timer is also reset. You earn points for killing units or defeating player, lose points for losing units, especially ranged (now, you cannot be a good general with getting your archers flanked, right?) and lose hell of a points for starved unit!(however unnecessary is that) You also lose some points for even equipping ranged units (to prevent certain players from ranged-heavy army, while his teammates do cannonfodder for him, and then losing because of their loses and all kills going for ranged). Crazy? Certainly! But at any rate, rule is same for all players. Effectiveness of this measures is yet to be determined. And that's where you come in!
What needs to be tested:
- fun coefficient
- effectiveness of anti ranged-heavy army policy
- timer values. Are they crazy low? Or damn too long? Whatever?
- weapon and recruit rations. Are weapons and recruit scarce in 4vs4? Are weapons and recruits arriving too fast when there is one player in team? (remember, weapons won't get stuck in storehouse, serfs are there mostly for effect)
- is number of starting weapons appropriate?
- are stockpiling limits a hindrance? (max 50 weapons per type, 100 per armour, 50 recruits at the moment)
- anything really...
- comments on how awful it looks, if applicable, are also welcome, provided there is some advice how to remedy the situation
Some "breathtaking" images, especially fight against AI:
Overview
Some early game test play
Later stage of the same test play
Now go out on blood-red battlefield to do some heavy testing! Please?
If someone will actually test it, please also post replays!
-- edits no.1:
- added hills to bases to help in defending, you could get flanked too easy when not 4vs4, especially in first attack (hopefully, it also motivates players not to camp, because sallying forth might become harder)
- removed penalty for equipping ranged units (no effect really...)
- reduced penalty for losing ranged units
- reduced rations of ranged weapons
- now every 8th unit dead will reset stalemate timer (to prevent possible scenario when one team camps and accumulates units faster, sending out one militia to die; however, bonus to campers shouldn't outweigh point bonus to attackers)
- when stalemate timer reaches zero and one team is forward (in game referred to as 'sieging') and other is camping, camping team loses, attackers win
- changed starting resources in barracks, to prevent 'all knights' (and hopefully motivate for some tactics)
-- edits no.2:
- increased axe rate
- slightly decreased horse rate
- balanced resources teamwise at start if teams are imbalanced
- defeated player's army will be sent to his base
- elimination timer decreased from 12 to 10 minutes
- corner positions should now be equally defendable as others
- non-walkable hills are now made of rocks, except those between teammates (+other map improvements)
-- edits no.3:
- slightly decreased horse rate (again)
- some tuning to timers
- rebalanced reinforcements for campers (now, number of players in both teams is considered)
- fixed cameo appearance of division by zero, that was introduced by improved reinforcements for campers
- automatic alliance and share fog creation - no more yelling in chat room: "hey noob, join team 2 !!!!1!1", hopefully team chat broken this way, manual teams recommended
-- edits no.4:
- increased rate of weapons, decreased rate of recruits (recruits are scarce in beginning, weapons in late game (in case of 4vs4))
- decreased rate of reinforcements for campers,
- minor adjustments to map (chaotic water flow in lake fixed, removed some unwalkable tiles)
Thanks goes to testers:
Omigoshe, Sebas, Thommerd, czechnoob, Reek, BLaD3, WollongongWolf, Shadaoe, Szellentés, Bence, 2 czech players whose names I shamefully forgot to write down or save a replay, woloszek, StarWars, saxxor
-- edits no.5:
- minor balancing changes
- minor map fixes
- minor text fixes
- uploaded after a year just in case it will make it to new remake release