Favorite Map

[jack hawkins]

Favorite map and why

Thornlands

When i first played this map all those years ago it felt like I there was so much to explore. I love all the little sercret caves. Took me over a year to find all the hidden areas. With the help of the arrows you used to be able to jump on.
Do miss the jumpable arrows ):

 

[Gorynych]

Thornlands...It just...brings back so much nostalgia of hitting 3 archery and thinking

"I AM THE GREATEST ARCHER IN THIS GAME"

And then getting my first helm ;')

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

HEY GUYS my favorite map is [...] because the XP I can get there is beyond outrageous.
It'd probably be a very dumb idea to tell you guys what [...] is though.
I hope everybody realizes this.
*HINT*

But my actual favorite map is aluhandra2. Not only is it the pinnacle of great design in terms of gameplay and looks, it's also a free-roam map - free-roaming being a key aspect of RPGs. So yeah, aluhandra2 or gtfo --->

 

[jack hawkins]

hmmmm havent been to aluhandra2 yet. Is it a disconnected map?

 

[zeus9860]

Hard to pick a single favorite map...

Would have to say it this way:
-low lvl map (isle or chapel, both are awesome imo)
-medium lvl (possibly aleyesu or nightmare_thornlands)
-hard (umulak, i like the map's theme and i think it looks good too)
-very hard (the_wall duh)

 

[Echo717]

low - isle
mid - highlands
high - kfortress
hell - umulak

 

[Fegged]

chapel for being hard :<

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0255]

chapel for being hard :<

chapel is a godsend compared to mines

 

[Fegged]

no one cares for mines <.<

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0255]

no one cares for mines <.<

Because its too hard, Obviously.

 

[Fegged]

lies i send a adventurer in there and he does it :>

 

[Tigerkev]

lies i send a adventurer in there and he does it :>

Because everyone is an adventurer when wearing something which gives parry?

 

[zeus9860]

Because everyone is an adventurer when wearing something which gives parry?

Fyi parry comes out of weapons and shields.

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0255]

lies i send a adventurer in there and he does it :>

He must of lied to you and went to chapel instead.

 

[Fegged]

lies i send a adventurer in there and he does it :>

Because everyone is an adventurer when wearing something which gives parry?

Thats exactly the point, everyone is a adventurer and can solo mines :>

 

[jack hawkins]

yep, been there done that

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

hmmmm havent been to aluhandra2 yet. Is it a disconnected map?

That's another thing about Aluhandra2 that makes it perhaps the best map in the game - it's actually connected to both the game world and to the lore. In otherwords, unlike the vast majority of this game, Aluhandra2 actually takes place on Daragoth.

That said, thornlands kind of rivals it for me, especially given the fact that thornlands has lanethans fantastic music and aluhandra2 has some random stolen shi ti midi.

 

[jack hawkins]

aluhandra2 what is the recommended level for this map?

 

[Thothie]

30+

Aluhandra2's music, as I was reminded somewhat to my embarrassment recently, is actually original.

It also isn't really part of Daragoth, or at least, it isn't in its original intended location nor form nor content.

 

[Crow]

every1s fav map is my maps fyi

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

30+

Aluhandra2's music, as I was reminded somewhat to my embarrassment recently, is actually original.

It also isn't really part of Daragoth, or at least, it isn't in its original intended location nor form nor content.

1) Oh wow - who wrote it?

2) How was it originally intended, and moreover, where was it's original location supposed to be?

 

[Crow]

every1s fav map is my maps fyi

st0p typin leik such a fagg0t

 

[Freerad]

It also isn't really part of Daragoth, or at least, it isn't in its original intended location nor form nor content.

/joke It was supposed to be part of Gurluas' lore

 

[Thothie]

Thraxis did the music. We steal a lot of music, but as the engine doesn't really limit us in that regards, we don't tend to steal anything that sounds midi'ish. So if you do hear anything midi'ish, odds are it is original work.

Originally, Aluhandra was supposed to be a blasted set of dunes, once fertile plains, with ruins of a great human civilization scattered amongst them, placed in the far western reaches of Daragoth (branching from WicardOven), along with some snake-man cult. There were a few issues with that - first off, that the engine does not play well with wide open desert plains, and second, it'd be a bit odd for the human civilization to be spread out to the west, and then retracted, through the elven empire, back to the east. Possible, given the number of ages that have passed, but, as of yet, there's not been an age where the humans were the dominant force, nor in which the elves didn't have their capital smack in the middle of the continent. The valley and cavern gauntlet was much kinder to the engine, and the advent of the Shahaddar orcs got tossed in later, along with the addition of the palace, of course. So, like nearly everything else in the game, the whole thing got quite a bit of twisting, both for sake of consistency and playability, coupled with, as usual, new stuff getting tacked on, crammed in, and lopped off.

Granted, there still are plans for an Aluhandra west - and we'll be assuming a rather twisted crescent shape to the desert as a whole. It'll likely still be valleys and caverns, perhaps studded with some ruins, like Aluhandra2 - and eventually there's to be a mini-game involving a human village in the desert. Maybe the next one will be more free roam, rather than the gauntlet/farm combo in Aluhandra2, but I've my doubts it'll be as pretty.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

Originally, Aluhandra was supposed to be a blasted set of dunes, once fertile plains, with ruins of a great human civilization scattered amongst them, placed in the far western reaches of Daragoth (branching from WicardOven), along with some snake-man cult.

Minus the wicardoven thing, that sounds fairly accurate with what is portrayed in Aleyesu and Aluhandra. Desert as far as the eye can see and no shortage of ruins, either. the Obelisk, that structure where you fight Adunalesge and the temple in Aleyesu itself (speaking of the temple I like to pretend it is an ancient temple of torkalath [probably buried under the sand during the crystal age] long abandoned. It might be worth it to 'officially' consider it a temple of Torkalath as the only one we have right now is in highlands, and that hardly qualifies). In Aluhandra there is the ruins of Shad palace and that structure inside the cave.

There were a few issues with that - first off, that the engine does not play well with wide open desert plains,

It's true that a lot of rock was used in those maps to act as vis blockers but can't very large sand dunes be used as vis blockers in future maps?

it'd be a bit odd for the human civilization to be spread out to the west, and then retracted, through the elven empire, back to the east.

It does not seem all that odd to me that human civilization could have spread across a good portion of the globe, or at least exited the desert. They could have easily traversed through the Utraakkrh mountains (scroll down to Norim for anyone who doesn't know the obscure Dwarven name for the Bloodrose mountains). This is especially likely to have occurred since Dwarves live there and, being the 'balancers', they would have likely allied with human kingdoms any time the Elves amassed such power that they threatened that balance of power.
Also, that these mountains are situated where they are makes the visblockers in Ricklers maps very logical. It would only make sense for the first maps of the Aluhandra region to have a mountain close by.

Granted, there still are plans for an Aluhandra west - and we'll be assuming a rather twisted crescent shape to the desert as a whole. It'll likely still be valleys and caverns, perhaps studded with some ruins

For whatever reason it didn't occur to me that you could use ruins as well as giant sand dunes as visblockers.

but I've my doubts it'll be as pretty.

Well, you can't really blame anyone for not being Rickler. That said, it would be kind of a tragedy to put a really ugly/noobish map next to Ricklers amazing work. I think Lockdown is a very capable mapper and that he could handle the task of finishing the Aluhandra region really well.

Edit: I'll also take this opportunity to ask... what the hell is Wicardoven anyway? And how do you even pronounce it? Is it original lore by lanethan or just a random map that was made? Or something in between?