Sylmar - Elves vs Orcs Battlefield
This scenario is meant to be a precursor of what is to come in Silmarillion.
Background
The background is simple - you agree to help an elf with an invasion to their holy burial grounds, and are summoned to the place.
There you will help the general of the elves, called the Warden, remain alive and hold off waves of Orcs. On your side there will also be Elven squads spawning, but at a slower rate.
Squad Mechanics
There is a fixed number of squads that will "reinforce" the map, for each side ; after that, the spawn rate is halved, ie reinforcements take a long time to arrive. So knowing how to take out enemy squads becomes important, while conserving your own sides squad numbers. Amidst this you will also have to keep the Warden alive at all costs. Squads revolve around Commanders, like Elven Sergeants Lieutenants etc, and Orcish Chieftains, Champions, Warlords.
Objectives
If you fail to conserve the Elven squads properly, with 25% of the Elven squads left in reserve, the Elven King Shade will spawn at the Graveyard. He has considerable battle ability and will greatly help against the orcs ; however he is also your countdown to defeat, as he cannot be healed and though he has a tonne of Life, they will gradually be whittled away as the Orcs arrive. Once the Elven King Shade arrives, he also becomes a critical objective - you have to guard him to the best of your ability while keeping the Warden alive as well. If the Elven King Shade dies you also lose the Scenario.
To win the scenario, you have to defeat the enemy commanders - turns out to be 3 Balrogs leading the Orcish army, and they arrive on the field when 75% of the Orcish squads have already been fielded, and only 25% are left in reserve. The Balrogs will attack one at a time, and the next will attack about 100 game-seconds after the previous one is defeated. Each Balrog can be likened to a building with a strong attacking capacity, and it will be fairly impossible to take them down alone ; you will have to rely on Elven Squad support to defeat each and every one of them, one at a time.
All enemies spawn with hitpoints stats etc, based on your Level. Both Balrogs and Elven King Shade engage in melee combat at a distance (ie they have a melee weapon with considerable Range)
Rewards
If you win the map, every party member gets 150K XP and the party gains 2 Reputation.
If you lose the map, the Warden's death results in -60K XP and -1 Rep ; the death of the Elven King Shade results in -90K XP and -1 Rep.
There is also bonus 30K XP, for killing a Balrog before it starts to move on its own to attack the centre. This bonus would apply to killing the 2 Balrogs that do not attack initially, before they actually attack. Its quite a challenge but players are welcome to try it
I know I had hell a lot of fun playtesting this.Other Features
- Warden uses, among other standard abilities like Prayer, Holy Smite, Chain Lightning, Stoneskin, he also uses something called Mass Regeneration that grants himself and all nearby friendly units +5 Life / Sec for 10 seconds. Note that the Warden's Holy Smite *does* hurt party members who are Evil, so Evil PCs cannot join the battle and watch out for Korgan / Viconia if you're using them
- Elven King Shade summons his Dancing Sword Anguirel, that has fast movement fast attack speed, and does ice damage on top of normal damage. It lasts only for 5 rounds, but is resummonable, and also has a tendency to "flit" around from enemy to enemy during battle, even though its original target is still alive. Hence its name the Dancing Sword.
- Balrogs use, apart from standard Fire Shield, Fear, Paralyzing Gaze, Sunfire, Fireball, they also use Flaming Whip, that does considerable fire damage and slows the target down to a crawl
The mod should be released within the next 2 days. (I promised K'ae it'd be done within 12 days of Christmas)
Feel free to post questions here
Edited by Zyraen, 04 January 2008 - 02:59 AM.
