(1) Tactics Unleashed Chapter 1

STORY:
Tactics Unleashed Chapter 1 takes place on a story 7 years after the end of the prologue where Joshua, with his crew of knights and bandits try to rescue an imprisoned king and secure peace over the ravaged land once and for all.

FEATURES:
Turn Based Battle System
Dynamically Triggered Spells
Greatly Improved AI

CREDITS:
Ant for his great help on this campaign, especially on those times that i really needed improvements. This campaign wouldn't be what it is now if not for him.
All those who supported and commented on the Prologue which can be found on wc3sear.ch, Shggtshwa (can't spell it correctly), Drain_Pipe, VGsatomi.
Vexorian for his wonderful wc3mapoptimizer tool. Made me upload this one with ease since the original file was 7mb. (sorry, i have a crap connection)

Of course, comments, critics and violent reactions are very welcome.
If you found any bug, please let me know, I'll change it right away and I'll credit you for that.
If you need an unprotected map (so you can see the triggers, since I used wc3mapoptimizer to remove them) please send me a pm.

Changelog:
- I made the first dialog box very optional. Now, you can select your character instantly without having to click on a dialog first.
- Removed a lot of wait actions. Maybe these are the ones bulking up the play time.
- Fixed an abusable bug where you can control your character when he attacks or defends.
- Fixed a serious bug about the dialog menu on towns.

Download Location:
Tactics Unleashed Chapter 1 v1.02 (FREEWEBS.COM Direct Download)
Tactics Unleashed Chapter 1 v1.02 (FILEFRONT.COM)

I havent tested the whole map yet, but i just have to comment the first 10 minutes i played.

The intro cinematic was OK (not good, not bad) and i liked the storyline where the caravan guards tricked the bandits.

But the turn based fighting system was... Well, lets say untested. You cant have tried this system more than a few times.

* Dialogues is a bad way of doing it. You should play "Hero RPG" (also in this submit maps section atm) and try to make a system similar to theirs. It uses a multiboard for the action selection, dialogues are just very annoying to use.

* IT was extremly slow. Simply attacking a unit once takes allmost 30 seconds (that is, if you dont just pick a hero and attack randomly as fast as you can). There was no tutorial on how the spells worked (they had percentages and it kept saying i hadnt learned a spell even if it was in my spellbook and i had enougn mana). The REST ability was kind of weird and, once again, there was on help on how to use this. I first assumed this was the "wait for next turn" button, but then my hero got disabled for like 4 turns. He slept with footmans attacking from all directions, it all looked very unrealistic.

* There was a extremly serious bug which was easily abusable. When a unit attacked / was attacked / did something etc. it was unpaused and you could order it around. I allways attacked with a unit and then moved it back before it was paused again.

* The circles of power were quite ugly i must say, they didnt fit into the scene at all. And they often collided with the ground height difference.

* When a unit was ordered to move, it could run around trees, buildings, units for a long time to reach its destination. So basically a unit could move infinite distances on one turn, as long as the final destination was within a range. Instead, a unit should have a specific range it can move each turn.

The battle system was so slow i exited after about 5-10 minutes. I'll play again if another moderator or player says it gets better, but i cant approve the map in its current state no matter what happens after that first fight.

I agree with GaDDeN. This has a VERY low quality fight system which gave me a headache. I had to use Whosyourdaddy just so I could see a bit more of the story which was equally disappointing. Absolutely not approved for this database until that attack system gets a heavy overhaul. In its current state this is NOT playable.

I've got a good turn based combat system you could use, designed to be easy to use, by the way. Follow the link in my signature. I'd like to test it, but currently can't, maybe in a day or so.

I really thank you for those... uh, very "kind" comments.... I'll update as soon as I can.

But I'll clear things first, sorry if I haven't been clear from the start. Actually I had made a help file about this but it slipped out of my mind.

First, I really didn't want to use multiboards since the fonts are somewhat small. But like you said, ok I'll rework those dialogs, someone already told me about those but I tried to stick with it though.

Uhmm, the spells work like those in real tactics rpgs that when you attack an enemy, the percentage learned increases. You can only use spells only if the percentage is equal to 100.
Hm, the rest button allows your hero to regenerate life/mana every turn, but to a consequence of not being able to participate in combat. But actually, rest can be broken when you are attacked by an enemy.

Well, I see now that the main problem of it was being slow, so I guess... I'll rework on it for awhile. Again, thanks.

Shall I move this to Map/Campaign Projects?

Sorry bout the harsh review, i thought it was what you wanted

Yup, no hard feelings. Actually, I liked it better than nothing. That's why I said thank you. :D

EDIT:

Uhm, Tim, maybe do it next time, if you still didn't like the one I'll upload right now.

SOME THINGS I'VE CHANGED:
- I made the first dialog box very optional. Now, you can select your character instantly without having to click on a dialog first.
- Removed a lot of wait actions. Maybe these are the ones bulking up the play time.
- Fixed an abusable bug where you can control your character when he attacks or defends.
- Fixed a serious bug about the dialog menu on towns.

Tested again, and my same issues remain. Fighting is still far too slow and uninteresting.

Shall I move this to Map/Campaign Projects? I feel you need to scrap this fight system and entirely remake it.

Ok, I can remake it.. but, some suggestions would be appreciated, since I've already ran out of ideas.

Anyway, thanks, sure you can move this for some time.

Take a look at HeroRPG's system. It too is slow, but much faster/better than yours. I suggest making somthing similar to it.

Moved.

Personally, I'd go (and did go) with something using WC3's own interface. Dialogs and multiboards are far too unwieldy, and never designed to be used in that way. Using WC3's own orders, etc, it is possible to make a very smooth and fast combat system that is very easy to understand, with lots of tooltips and information.

Hmm, that made me think captain, thank you. I'll try, and I'll update ASAP.

I made a combat system based on it, so I'll warn you now - there are a lot of pitfalls in it. For some random reason, paused units don't have buffs 'tick' on them, and stuff like that makes it a lot more complicated. Having said that, if I was making it again I could probably do it a lot more efficiently than the way I did it. I made use of alliance properties to have smooth transitions from controllable to uncontrollable, maintaining advanced control at all times (and thus the icon at the top left).