BITTERFROST II - Development Thread!

[curtsibling]

Many thanks, dude - There is more of this style of scenario to come!

And I am glad to hear you will give ToT a chance,
the possibilities are awesome for people like us who love to create new worlds in CIV!

PS
I hope you (and all) have a fine New Year and don't get too plastered!

[Leonidas]

Hmmmm, with all the praises being given to ToT and this scenario, I too may be joining the dark side.

I'm going to have to install Tot and see for myself.

btw Curt, with your love of doing fantasy scenarios, it would be interesting to see you do a Middle Earth: Total War scenario with all the factions and units from Lord of the Rings.

Cheers!

[curtsibling]

Heh!

That epic is already being made by a ToT wizard of far greater stature than me!

Mr Catfish!

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by curtsibling


Heh!

That epic is already being made by a ToT wizard of far greater stature than me!

Mr Catfish!

Excellent

Has he started a thread about his scenario yet?

Damn - now I'm really going to have to install ToT - heheh

Much better looking graphiics.

btw if people like the LoTR movies, I would highly recommend getting the Extended Editions of all three movies. With 2 hours of additional movie footage added it is an epic movie-watching experience. Almost 12 hours of viewing.

[curtsibling]

The extended DVDs indeed rock!

They add much of the LOTR story - With many good scenes.

And make logic of the very nonsensical second and third movie installments.

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by curtsibling
The extended DVDs indeed rock!

They add much of the LOTR story - With many good scenes.

And make logic of the very nonsensical second and third movie installments.

I agree - after seeing the extended versions, I could never watch the regular ones again.

Jackson did a bang-up job in adding all that extra material.

And the bonus material (docs about Tolkien and the making of the movies) are fascinating in their own right.

A superb piece of work, and it is clearly one of my all time favourites.

If anyone has not seen the extended versions yet, then you are in for a treat

[curtsibling]

I am sad they left out the Miranda Otto vs Liv Tyler mud-wrestle match though!

Or did I imagine that scene?

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by curtsibling
I am sad they left out the Miranda Otto vs Liv Tyler mud-wrestle match though!

Or did I imagine that scene?

heheh - it's on one of the bonus discs

Although, on the bonus disc for the third film Jackson reveals an alternative scene that he had shot for the confrontation between Sauren and Viggo.

Instead of using that scene, they cut it out and used a giant troll to face Viggo instead.

Too bad - I was a bit miffed that Jackson did not keep it in - the showdown would have been in keeping with the plot of the movie. And I think it would have been far more dramatic.

[curtsibling]

Hmmm - Dunno...

Sauron could not take bodily form again until he had the ring -

A Viggo/Dark Lord duel may have seemed a bit silly.

Sauron is better as a doomed power, a menace - Who once was not unlike Gandalf/Saruman.

He does not need to appear in person to cause fear...
Just as a big Illuminati-style eye!

The Scouring of the Shire would have been a better finale...

Better than the ending they used....Gah!

Far too long and horribly boring...

[Sarsstock]

Well I watched the extended eddition last night for the first time myself, and I have to admit that even for a movie I enjoy so much four hours and ten minutes is just a tad to long. But I will have to look for this alternate ending where Viggo and Sauran face off.

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Hmmm - Dunno...

Sauron could not take bodily form again until he had the ring -

A Viggo/Dark Lord duel may have seemed a bit silly.

Sauron is better as a doomed power, a menace - Who once was not unlike Gandalf/Saruman.

He does not need to appear in person to cause fear...
Just as a big Illuminati-style eye!

The Scouring of the Shire would have been a better finale...

Better than the ending they used....Gah!

Far too long and horribly boring...

Did he need the ring before he had bodily form?

I didn't know that.

That makes sense.

However, Jackson never stated that was the reason he cut out that fight scene - weird.

I agree about the multiple endings. I wish Jackson would have used the female narrator (from the first pic) to tie all the ends together at the end - would have moved a bit faster and provided closure.

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
Well I watched the extended eddition last night for the first time myself, and I have to admit that even for a movie I enjoy so much four hours and ten minutes is just a tad to long. But I will have to look for this alternate ending where Viggo and Sauran face off.

The best way I found in watching all three extended versions was this way:

I watched all three films over three days. I would get up at 4:00am on Wednesday morning, make breakfast and coffee, and watch the first film.

Then I did the same thing on Thursday and Friday mornings for the second and third films.

This way I wasn't tired, I was alert, and was able to enjoy all three films without dozing off - heheh

A bit extreme - but it worked - and I enjoyed it. At that time in the morning, it is quiet and dark outside and makes the movies that much more enjoyable.

Cheers!

[Cyrion]

Playtest report

Back on Topic!

Though I have to admit LOTR is a good topic too... (how could I tell the contrary, I read the books 9 times...)


First of all, I have to confess it felt much more like I was playing the game than playtesting it: I surmise you did A LOT of testing on your own before you released the playtest, because the game mechanics behave extremely smoothly!

This is probably the scenario I enjoyed the most: the theme, graphics, sounds, events, everything concurs to make it the (nearly ) perfect one for me!

Specifically, what I like the most is:
1) the units and cities graphics are awesome!

2) I really like the sounds, they add a lot to the atmosphere!

3) the way to "recruit" the heroes: it gives you a hell of a motivation to conquer those barbarian cities! and their graphics and description are excellent!

4) the way you gain Wonders when you conquer certain cities: that is, not in the conquered city, but in you Capital! I didn't know you could do this in ToT (and it's one more reason I'll probably be sold to ToT soon...)

5) the scenario's originality: choice of units, choice and name of Wonders: I repeat what I already wrote, it builds an atmosphere that makes it an unique experience!

6) the name of one of the Historian is really well chosen! but I have some doubts about all the others... (I have to admit I had a good laugh when I read the historian report! )

7) I can't wait to continue my game!


And now a few comments about what I like less (well, you didn't think you would get only praises, did you?). They are not bugs (most of them at least), but rather things I subjectively would prefer different...

1) I noticed that the 2 Wonders I gained by conquest (Heroic Tale of Lopaz and Verach the Engineer) don't show up in the Pedia; I suppose it's not on purpose and you should perhaps give them an unreachable pre-requisite so that one can know what they bring!

2) When you build an irrigation on a rivered square, it fully hides the river; that makes it difficult to follow the river, and doesn't look too good IMHO; I don't know how you could change it, though...

3) If I guess right, the gameplay is more or less supposed to develop as follows:
- slow, peaceful development for a few turns (exploring, building new cities), until you can build strong enough units to conquer barb cities
- once you can build good units, you can attack barb cities, and gain heroes, and your expansion accelerates (that's where I am in my game now!)
- after a while, I suppose you clash with the other "common" civ
- and in the end, I suppose you have to resist to the Ancients and their fearsome units

I really like this succession of different rates and phases, but I think the first one (peaceful development) is too quiet: I haven't been attacked once by anything until I decided to attack a city! A strong menace at this point would probably be unwise, but I would like some risks to loose a city if I'm not a little bit careful (I didn't even need to garrison my cities...). Some "stress" would help to get in the game quicker. Some bandits or raiders would do the trick IMHO, just to keep the player on his toes, and to remind him that Bitterfrost is not a place for the weak-hearted (I guess the rest of the game will give me more than my share of that )

But I know this is fully subjective

4) and even more subjective: sorry to say so, but I don't like the different "dark forest" terrains: what they represent is not obvious for me. It's not that they disturb me much, but the rest of the set pleases me so much that they really suffer from the comparison!



And now: back to the game!

[curtsibling]

I am chuffed that you got a buzz from the scenario, dude!

The main thing is that I hope it shows what can be done with ToT,
And note that I am no ToT expert like Tech, Boco or Catfish!

This year could be a year for a real explosion of amazing ToT scenarios!

Well, I am on a short holiday just now... (the first in more than a year!)

I will be back on Monday, with a new update!

[curtsibling]

PS
And I will work on fixing a few of the the things (barbs, irrigation, terrains)

...and improve them!