Opal

[Elijah Meeks <elijahmeeks at yahoo dot com>]

Okay, so this game was a real mess back when it was
Specula, and most of what I was doing was trying to
make it work.  The default game is still too large for
anyone to have a quick-sit-down-and-have-fun time, but
I'll be putting together some random setups with
various map sizes in the next few days.  Still, it has
a number of features that I'm quite proud of, many of
them only made available by Hans' and Eric's
improvements to the engine.

Most noticable are the undead, who produce all manner
of different undead depending on what unit they
destroy and what unit does the destroying.  They're
pretty weak to begin with but they're like a plague--a
really nasty plague, and if you're not careful you
could find yourself beset by an army of liches,
zombies and death knights.  Also, the leader of the
undead can turn other leaders into liches.  The way
XConq handles capture of self-units is such that this
means the undead side captures the entire side, which
makes sense from a storyline perspective (Kind of like
Sauron corrupting the kings of Men with the nine
rings).

Also, there's an experience system, but a very
primative one.  Regular units, if they survive enough
battles, can turn into a 'Hero'.  They're powerful
melee units and are also self-units, which makes sides
not quite as fragile as they used to be.  The same can
occur with mages turning into 'Archmage' units, but
it's much more difficult to keep mages alive.  A Hero
unit can turn into a Legendary Hero unit, which is one
of the most powerful units in the game, if he can
survive combat with self-units and other heroes long
enough.

As an aside, this highlights an issue with the current
experience system.  It doesn't seem to give cxp for
every combat and it gives equal cxp whether you miss,
hit or destroy.  Not too big a deal, but Legendary
Hero units leave behind an Eldritch Artifact unit
(that represents their fancy sword or ring or armor or
whatever), which is supposed to give enough cxp to
change a Hero into a Legendary Hero, but it doesn't
always work.

Aside from that, the magic system works pretty well,
though the AI only likes summon spells.  Cast a Power
Word, Kill and annihilate an army; or use the various
nature spells to create a mountain range or inland
sea.  There's always a chance that some swordsmen or a
fort or a wyrm will appear.  There's also a
possibility of an independant hero or archmage
appearing, and using the independant-capture-chance,
if you can avoid being slaughtered by them, you can
convince them to join your side.

If anyone gets a chance to play it, I'd love to hear
feedback.

Elijah  


		
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