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Beauty of the West version 3.0
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Author |
File Description |
h711 |
Posted on 03/21/03 @ 06:14 PM
File Details |
Age: |
Steel |
# of Episodes: |
4 |
# of Cities: |
2 |
Difficulty: |
Hard |
Custom Maps: |
Yes |
Minimap:
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The newest version of the Beauty of the West. This is not an easy campaign, it really challenge you knowledge about this game. You need to plan every thing very carefully, and fight against all type of limits(such as food supply limit and space limit). I set most of goals 15%-40% below what I can reach and give you more than enough money to start with. Hopefully, this should ensure that you can complete these goals too. You just have to try and try.
Land of Wonder
(Under the emperor's order, build a city in middle of mountains. But the problem is, who wants to cross miles of mountain to live there? Well, here is the way to solve it, build a wonder to attract immigrants.)
Moon Lake
(An adventure style of mission let you explore the map. Discover the legendary Moon Lake and what it can brings to you.)
Free Town
(Establish a small town as a vassal to support the parent city. Unfortunately, the local people don't like goverment control. They will not follow where you want them to go. What can you do with them?)
Beauty of the West
(With the support from the vassal, out parent city is finally a major city in the Western China. Our emperor is satisfied, but the enemies of China have aware the danger. Well they continue to let you be so close to them? Be prepare, war is coming.)
About this update:
*This version add a lots more hidden roads and areas for you to explore.
*A second monument to build in 4th mission.
*Lots more.
If you need help, you can
1. Email me. I can give you some help.
2. If you still need help, take a look at my completed city.
http://emperor.heavengames.com/downloads/viewinfo.php?id=152
If you finished this campaign, you are more than welcome to take a look how I build this city. |
Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Gweilo2
Staff |
Posted on 03/22/03 @ 08:56 PM
Playability: 2
I honestly didn't have that much fun playing this one. Here are my reasons (and I admit they are subjective):
1. The main map (Liangzhou) was too restrictive - there is really only one way to build things to achieve the victory goals by mission 4. You may get to mission 4 and suddenly realize you can't complete the population requirements because you didn't build in the correct spot. In my opinion, a map design should be flexible enough to allow more than one strategy. Also, there are some terrain graphic mistakes on the map that are irritating. If a designer is going to build a map this complex, it should definitely be mistake-free.
2. Felt like a tutorial - I was frustrated by the lack of available buildings in mission 1, especially bridges, ferries, and food types. In each mission more buildings and infrastructures are made available to the player, but I find this 'tutorial' pace rather frustrating. It felt excruciating to wait for a population of 1200 to arrive in mission 1 with only two food types and no way to evolve my housing (you can't import spice to increase your food quality because it must come by water, and you can't build bridges or ferries to connect the sea trading post from the ONLY spot on the map you can put it).
3. The city treasury is not carried over in continuation cities, it is set each time to a level determined by the designer. This really detracts from the enjoyment because you don't have to worry about managing money for the future.
4. It is frustrating to see one of your trade partners selling jade and another one buying carved jade, yet the player is not allowed to build a jade carver studio until mission 4.
5. It was very time-consuming to find the correct paths between all the elevation changes on the map, which you are required to do to navigate to the fishing industry, stone quarries, etc. Some players might call this 'exploration', but to me it felt like an exercise in frustration.
Balance: 2
The main map for Liangzhou is VERY HARD to play, and will prove extremely tough for anyone less than expert level. There is really only one solution for it to complete the campaign (download the designers map to see it). In my opinion only expert players who are blessed with great patience and are willing to restart the entire campaign (a likely event) can complete this. This rating would go up if there was only more flexibility on placement on the Liangzhou map.
Creativity: 4
The campaign has a good blend of storyline, mission goals, and events. I found the second city of Yangjing much more enjoyable to play than the main city. The designer does a good job of combining the second city into the campaign plot, it's map is good, and it has some interesting challenges unique to it.
Map Design: 3
The two maps are custom and gets points for originality, but the main map for Liangzhou is also very hard on the eyes. There are some mistakes in the graphics at elevation changes and with the rivers. It is too hard to track down the paths between the hills. The biggest reason my rating is not higher is that the map is too restrictive, there is really only one way (and placement) to build things to win all the missions. The most glaring example of this is the sea trading post - I could only find one place to put it (and I checked the designer's map and he placed it in the same spot). However, I did like some features of the map, for example the Moon lake was nicely done.
The second map for the support city of Yangjing is much cleaner and better to play.
Story/Instructions: 4
This campaign has a great storyline. It is well-supported by mission goals, events, and the map design. The story for mission 3, where the player builds the smaller support city, is very nicely done.
Additional Comments:
I understand other players may enjoy the exact things I had problems with in this campaign. If so, I encourage them to post their own review here to give a more balanced perspective.
[Edited on 03/25/03 @ 10:20 PM]
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Sharog |
Posted on 08/27/03 @ 07:16 PM
Playability: 2
seriously, i think u build the city first, then have the empty spaces fill up with water / mountains. like gweilo said, only 1 possibility build up, and at very hard u also need watchtower, which made it even harder. i never manage to build the same way u do which made me gave up at last mission.
Balance: 2
not really much balance has been done. invasion was way too easy to defeat with only few infantry.
Creativity: 5
moonlake very nice. and couple other things.
Map Design: 5
unique map. interesting mountains.
Story/Instructions: 3
nothing special here.
Additional Comments:
disadvantage it is flawed to let ppl searching couple hours for u so called perfect one and only build up. although u did gave a hint with the first momument place by having it up in the mountain.
i hope u make maps with more variaties in build up. |
h711
File Author |
Posted on 09/01/03 @ 08:33 AM
Here are some thoughts behind the design of this campaign:
This campaign and ‘Lintao Islands’ are designed based on the same idea; they are designed to push the efficiency of land using to its limit. They are not designed to be so called ‘well balance campaign’ from the beginning of the design, it just not the type of campaign it is. In another words, they are focused on ‘limit’ instead of ‘Balance’. During the design, I honestly only knew one way to build the city and fully test it to make sure there is at least one way to build it. Compare Beauty of the West to Linto Islands, BOW is a four missions campaign instead of single mission, which make it much hard to see the final requirements and plan it from the beginning. As a result, even when the population requirement for Lintao islands is set closer to my own record than BOW, I still see people complete Lintao islands by some totally different ways from mine (that is what I am waiting for), but not in BOW.
As my suggestion, people not ready for this type of challenge should not try this and look for other more traditional (balanced) campaign. If you tried but failed, don’t feel upset, it just not everyone can reach the limit. (Even as the designer of this campaign, I already knew all the tricks of it, but it still took me many hours and at least 10 tries to reach my record.)
The following are the reply to some questions posted by reviewers:
1. Lack of available buildings at early age----At early age, the life in LiangZho is very hard. Many buildings are not available until later on when the life of city get improved over time. It is a more of a story-based reason to set this way. You don’t get every thing you want from the beginning.
2. The city treasury is not carried----Since the campaign is already very hard due to the population requirement, I simply want to make it easy on money part so that you can focused the population challenge. This is why I set each mission to begin with a rich amount of money. But, I admit this setting is questionable, it could be more fun if treasury can be carried from mission to mission.
3. Jade trade problem-----This is another story based setting. At early age, people of the city are fully focused on their basic needs, which they have to try very hard to live in such mountain. It is only ok for them to get rich when their basic needs have been filled. Each of these missions represents a different stage of the city, and the order of them can not be messed up.
4. Mistakes in the graphics at elevation changes and with the rivers-----Some of the graphic errors are caused by game engine itself. If I try to fix them, I properly end up with change surrounding parts, too. And during elevation change with river, the game engine simply not let us to have waterfall, it could cause the graphic looks unreal.
5. Invasion was way too easy-----I set at least 16 wave of invasions within first 15 years of mission 4, and the heaviest is around 60-75 enemy. The frequency of invasion makes you unable to pay them off, and the hardness of some later on invasion push you to fight hard. During test, some of these invasions even took over my city. The real problem is, all event skips due to game bug, especially recurring events. It could end up with you just missed some heavy ones, which make you live in such peaceful world.
6. Build the city first, then have the empty spaces fill up with water / mountains------Not really, it is only true when I place the location of monuments, two farm lands, place for military, and that sea trade post. I want them to be there for reasons, and I work this way to make sure they are in the right place. But for the rest part of city, I build water/mountains first, leave some space for buildings. At that point, I have no idea how many people/building I can fit there, so I fit as many as I can, and then set population requirement based on my own record.
7. Road finding and that sea trade spot------These parts were intentionally made that way. It is like a puzzle solving game, people like puzzle solving like it, others hate it. Like other puzzles in some other games, there is only one way out, and you have to spend time to find that way.
At the end, I can easily lower the population requirement, which will make the campaign much more balanced. But that will set the campaign off my purpose, that is the space limit challenge I want to focus on. Should I make a special version of the campaign, which is more balanced and easier for most players out there? So that player who are not willing to take the population challenge can still have fun with this campaign?
Thank you all for try it, especially those took time to give a review.
[Edited on 09/03/03 @ 02:53 AM]
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crock |
Posted on 02/09/05 @ 05:44 PM
This is absoulutely my favourite campaign to play. I have built my city every way I possibly can think of. I was wondering if it would be possible to get the map file. Your other two campaigns are my next two favourites. I wish you had created more.
Thank you.
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h711
File Author |
Posted on 03/04/05 @ 08:20 AM
Sorry crock, I havn't checked here for monthes. The first two campaigns' maps have been lost during my system restore, but the last one I may able to find it. These campaigns/maps took me a very long time to create, especially this one. I believe I spent over 100 hours on this map/test/debug. This is why I can't have many creations; I don't have the time. I am the kind of player who spend very long time to creat/play a map to perfect it, and I only play a few of them. This type of campaigns/map need a long time to creat it, but it also need many hours and retries to play and enjoy it. Glad to see you enjoy it.[Edited on 03/04/05 @ 08:21 AM]
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h711
File Author |
Posted on 03/04/05 @ 08:32 AM
oh, one more thing. I did build my fourth campaign, but I failed to achieve the goal -- pop limit 100,000. Among the three limits in this ultima challenge: space limit, house limit, and sprite limit, I overcome the first two limits, but failed at pop 89,000 by the sprite limit. So I never posted this campaign. |
ttantt |
Posted on 03/06/11 @ 05:30 PM
I tried playing the first mission, and although I had no problem reaching the population, I cannot build the temple because I need clay and there is no way of getting it. Unless it eventually becomes available. I waited a long time though and now trade has shut down and so did my hemp. So now houses are devolving. Is it just me or something I did wrong? |
Senseisan |
Posted on 07/09/11 @ 01:34 PM
I allied whith Zhongdu (greasing it whith wood ) and received a ( very welcome ...) 6 clays gift in Jan 1006.
Edit Another one in Jan 1008.
[Edited on 07/09/11 @ 01:43 PM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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3.2 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 2.0 | Balance | 2.0 | Creativity | 4.5 | Map Design | 4.0 | Story/Instructions | 3.5 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 2,436 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 343.01 KB |
Added: | 03/21/03 |
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