BITTERFROST - Test of Time Version

[Cyrion]

Superb units Curt (which is no surprise...)!

May I borrow your crossbowman for Discworld??

[our_man]

Looking good Curt!

Do I take the presence of treasure chests and books in the units.gif to mean that the player will get to embark on quests in this scenario a la Midgard ?

[fairline]

Looking forward to this one too, Curt! ToT scenarios are pretty thin on the ground, and this one is sure to be a classic if its an enhanced version of the MGE scenario.

It's probably too late for unit suggestions, but how about some individual hero units. I know you had events-produced super-units in the first version, but how about some individual character units to embark on quests with?

[curtsibling]

@Cyrion:
Please, take what you wish!
I owe you for not getting those riders done!

@our_man:
Correct!
The huge events space of ToT will be used for some fun quests!
The rewards will be gold, spells, and some special units.

@fairline:
You got it!
You may notice some cheesy heroes on the 2nd last row of units in the above post.

And more will be made!

I plan to give each civ a special unit. Even those evil Ancients!

[curtsibling]

The little crowns will be used to signify a hero unit.

Right now they are for elites, but I will make a new symbol for that.

[Zabba149]

Keep up the good work Curt! I am really looking forward to a good ToT scenario.. .......there are so few out there..

[curtsibling]

Cheers!

This won't be the last ToT work I do, I plan to do Dictator3 also...

[curtsibling]

Work resumes!

I present the current line up of units...Some new hero units too!

Last unit of the 3rd bottom row:
Ancient Strike Cannon.

2nd bottom row:
Egraz the Sorceress, Rashkan the Horned, Irene the Maiden, Lopaz the Bright, Othmok Deepeye, Nathnael Sternsteel, Goldfist the Greedy, Bonemystic the Bleak, Slode the Slyfoot.

Bottom row:
Fine Treasure, Random Chest, Fine Gold, Wise Tome, King of Bitterfrost, Floron the Lighthand, Bhurkis the Mighty, Dromo the Fearless, Scoundrel.

Silly names, I know!
But that is the staple of fantasy genres!
You will be able to unlock these characters in a variety of ways, even forming an army with them!

If you can retain them without mishap!

More to come...

[curtsibling]

The new title.gif...

[curtsibling]

ToT Bitterfrost is ready for a beta-playtest, but I need somewhere to host it...

I will seek out a place on CDG and post a link soon!

[curtsibling]

OK, here it is!

Please give me some feedback on the scenario, you'll need ToT to enjoy!

http://cdgroup.org/forums/tbs/civ2/viewtopic.php?t=186

Let me know what is needing fixed, changed, etc!

[Catfish]

Downloaded it. I'll only have time to do limited testing. You've released it at a bad time - a bunch of ToT-ers are out of action. Techumseh's ultra-busy, Boco's bitten off more than he can chew and William Keenan's nowhere to be seen.

I noticed you're using the older mountain set. I later cleaned up the bases so they tile better. I also changed most of my terrain to the smoother tiling style described by Mercator. I'm using his grids in the icons.bmp file as well.

Someone also had a moan to me about my l-w-l coastline tiles, specifically that the river mouths weren't wide enough. This has been addressed. In updating these on my website, I then noticed a copy-and-paste bugger up in one of the files – now fixed.

BTW, tile dithering was kept to a minimum due to the contrasting light and dark terrain types.

Oh and I was also using stepping/mile stones to mark out the roads. I had difficulty following the road signs.

Anyway, I've attached the versions of terrain1, terrain2 and icons that I'm currently using.

BitterTerrain.zip

[curtsibling]

Thanks, Catfish!

I'll update the terrain (which looks great regardless) with your recommendations...

[Mercator]

I'm a lousy playtester, but I can at least give you some comment on the graphics...

Unlike Catfish, I would actually prefer much more dithering. That way the terrain transitions aren't as abrupt. And I'm not a big fan of the mountain graphics, I'm afraid. Other than that, it looks great!

Oh, and in case you'd want to get rid of the health bars over the gold, huts and other immobile units, you could use the wonder that is called SpriteGen.
They're not very obtrusive though, so it's quite OK as it is.

[Catfish]

Back again. I bothered to "Mercatorise" the coastlines, tweak a few trees and river mouths (I can't help myself - I blame Boco ) so I've updated the file again, providing uploads are working properly.

Originally posted by Mercator
Unlike Catfish, I would actually prefer much more dithering. That way the terrain transitions aren't as abrupt. And I'm not a big fan of the mountain graphics, I'm afraid. Other than that, it looks great!

I tried different amounts of dithering and wasn't keen on large amounts, especially with the dark forest juxtaposed to the light, flat types. I suppose I could experiment some more, but it's personal taste, I guess. You know how to change it.

The mountains aren't by me, only modified by me. If you've got better ones, then cough them up.