Quest mode review (well, kind of …)

Quest mode review (well, kind of …)

Postby Wuzzy » 21 May 2016, 00:09

Hooray!
I recently managed to finish all quests in the Quest mode (version 2.2.1) on Normal difficulty. I managed to win a few even on Brutal because I found some tricks which I have exposed in other threads.

This post contains some unstructured comments about the quest mode.

It took me about 3 or 4 days. Now that I've finished the quests, I wish there were more. :)

Overall, I have enjoyed playing Quest mode. Good job! :)

The quest design overall was well done. It starts out at relatively simple tasks with only a few units and progressivly introduces more complex stuff, new units and buildings.
I like that, and I think that's good design. I'm not sure if players who never played RTSes will understand this, but I certainly did.
A couple of different ideas were used which is also good.

Unrelated to quest mode, the only thing I couldn't grasp first was how to get food, sadly the help page on Farm is not really helpful here. Eventually I found the crucial information on another help page.
It is very good that Wyrmsun has an integrated help system but it could be improved, but that's a different topic.

I noticed most maps are randomly generated after replaying. That's great because it increases replayability a lot.
But I stumpled upon one issue. The first time I played the quest “The Sack of Iuvavum” I got into a really bad starting position. I started at the map corner, between lots of rock and water, with no way to escape. And I haven't researched dock yet, but in this situation I could have really used it. So I dug all the way through the rock, which took really, really long, but I did it. Sadly my attack force was destroyed, making me unable to win, so I had to restart. It seems this was a really unique starting position since I have never gotten something like this again. It is unusal but it is nothing that makes the mission unplayable, luckily.

The Dwarf quests have a notably high amount of quests where you can't build anything. But overall those quests were nicely done. Some interesting ideas were used here, e.g. doors and potions. I liked the catacomb quests.

I have read the storylines but to be honest, I didn't think they were pretty compelling. I can tell because most of the stories I have already forgotten. They were not bad but also not notable most of the time.
But I like the general background for the Earth tribes where you progress through history. I also like that the stories are more or less connected.
The best storytelling was the story of the Scepter of Fire, this one I liked, but the end was a bit stupid. On the other hand, the final quest calls for a follow-up quest where you have to retrieve the scepter. :)

I enjoyed playing the quests and I wish there were more. There are a few features which aren't really explored in the quests. Most notably towers (I have not built them) and docks (I have not built them).
At late quests, you will eventually have enough tech points to unlock all technologies. There aren't many quests with a full technology tree, but it might be interesting.

Some rough ideas for new quests:
- Retrieving the scepter: After the events of the final dwarf quest, an expedition aims to retrieve the long forgotten scepter of fire, but some rival tribes seek it out, too.
- Slaying wyrms
- Epic fight against 3 or 4 factions who united against you
- Protect an ally against attacks
- Survive for a certain time with your home base against a strong enemy
- Quest where you can hire mercenaries (or does such a quest exist already?)
- More quests with romans, please. :)
- Quest where you have to cross the Sea
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Joined: 28 May 2012, 23:13

Re: Quest mode review (well, kind of …)

Postby Andrettin » 21 May 2016, 05:37

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:Hooray!
I recently managed to finish all quests in the Quest mode (version 2.2.1) on Normal difficulty. I managed to win a few even on Brutal because I found some tricks which I have exposed in other threads.

This post contains some unstructured comments about the quest mode.

It took me about 3 or 4 days. Now that I've finished the quests, I wish there were more. :)

Overall, I have enjoyed playing Quest mode. Good job! :)

The quest design overall was well done. It starts out at relatively simple tasks with only a few units and progressivly introduces more complex stuff, new units and buildings.
I like that, and I think that's good design. I'm not sure if players who never played RTSes will understand this, but I certainly did.
A couple of different ideas were used which is also good.

Unrelated to quest mode, the only thing I couldn't grasp first was how to get food, sadly the help page on Farm is not really helpful here. Eventually I found the crucial information on another help page.
It is very good that Wyrmsun has an integrated help system but it could be improved, but that's a different topic.

I noticed most maps are randomly generated after replaying. That's great because it increases replayability a lot.
But I stumpled upon one issue. The first time I played the quest “The Sack of Iuvavum” I got into a really bad starting position. I started at the map corner, between lots of rock and water, with no way to escape. And I haven't researched dock yet, but in this situation I could have really used it. So I dug all the way through the rock, which took really, really long, but I did it. Sadly my attack force was destroyed, making me unable to win, so I had to restart. It seems this was a really unique starting position since I have never gotten something like this again. It is unusal but it is nothing that makes the mission unplayable, luckily.

The Dwarf quests have a notably high amount of quests where you can't build anything. But overall those quests were nicely done. Some interesting ideas were used here, e.g. doors and potions. I liked the catacomb quests.

I have read the storylines but to be honest, I didn't think they were pretty compelling. I can tell because most of the stories I have already forgotten. They were not bad but also not notable most of the time.
But I like the general background for the Earth tribes where you progress through history. I also like that the stories are more or less connected.
The best storytelling was the story of the Scepter of Fire, this one I liked, but the end was a bit stupid. On the other hand, the final quest calls for a follow-up quest where you have to retrieve the scepter. :)

I enjoyed playing the quests and I wish there were more. There are a few features which aren't really explored in the quests. Most notably towers (I have not built them) and docks (I have not built them).
At late quests, you will eventually have enough tech points to unlock all technologies. There aren't many quests with a full technology tree, but it might be interesting.

Some rough ideas for new quests:
- Retrieving the scepter: After the events of the final dwarf quest, an expedition aims to retrieve the long forgotten scepter of fire, but some rival tribes seek it out, too.
- Slaying wyrms
- Epic fight against 3 or 4 factions who united against you
- Protect an ally against attacks
- Survive for a certain time with your home base against a strong enemy
- Quest where you can hire mercenaries (or does such a quest exist already?)
- More quests with romans, please. :)
- Quest where you have to cross the Sea


I'm glad you enjoyed the quests :)

About the farms, I added "Food Supply" to buildings' tooltips (the popup which shows their hit points and etc.) now, which should make it clearer that farms produce food.

A campaign for retrieving the Scepter is planned; but it should have the gnomes as the primary protagonists (since the scepter is theirs), so it will come when they are made playable.

Quests with a sea theme are planned to come eventually as well (maybe Teuton quests for the Anglo-Saxon settling of England).

You can hire mercenaries in the "The Necklace of the Brisings" dwarven quest (there's a mercenary camp generated on the map).

As for more quests with the Romans - it's something that would be very nice too, and adding a legionary unit would help give such quests flavor.

I also made a change to the Sack of Iuvavum's map to prevent you from starting in the northwestern corner bounded by rocks (since that's a boring starting position).
Andrettin
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