Stab That Wall, Build More Boats

At some point I'm probably going to cut back on the RTS-based content, but today is not that day.

So I'm rarely especially big on the campaign missions in RTS games, because they're usually kind of... meh. The Total Annihilation missions are kind of an interesting alternative to try out that adds a little variety to what is often just the same thing over and over, but other favorite RTS games (I'm looking at you, Seven Kingdoms II) have completely and utterly uninteresting ones*.

So the campaign in Total Annihilation: Kingdoms is pretty refreshing.

First off, they're framed using a mock historical documentary, which is a pretty amazing approach to this and a lot more fun than most mission briefings I've ever seen.



Second, this means that the campaign follows different sides depending on the particular events of the mission.

Third, some of the actual missions are unusual enough that I can't recall seeing anything quite like them in other RTS games.

In my favorite of those missions I've bothered to play, you get precisely one unit, an assassin. (This happens to correspond to the bit of the video that runs from about 9:10 or so to about 9:50.)

As such, you need to use the assassin's invisibility to sneak around, find a specific unit, kill it, and then escape without being killed.

The thing that really makes this mission fun is the realization that you can use the assassin's weapon to break a hole in the wall, which allows a useful bypass of the front gates and a more casual approach than one might otherwise expect.

Of course, the real reason it's so fun is because stabbing a hole in the wall is hilarious.

In case that was boring, here's a screenshot of a stupid AI insisting on building an immense fleet of useless boats.

I have no idea why he was so determined to build all the boats, but he sure did build all the boats. (Boats that couldn't get very close to the enemy and whose primary purpose was to transport things; the boats were trapped in a pretty small place. And he was doing basically nothing else, and refused to stop once I started sinking them en masse even though he was my ally. It got pretty ridiculous.)

*The game Swarm Assault (which I have a rather blah review of here) had some really silly and memorable missions, such as one where you had exactly one colony of flying units, and the enemy had a few dozen colonies of non-flying units, and one is expected to somehow be able to overcome the various issues such as being severely outnumbered and flying units being unable to attack while crossing the water that made up most of the map.

Also, the map placed your colony on what looked vaguely like Spain and the enemies on what looked vaguely like the Americas. Dude, that's at least a bit offensive.

I did in fact mention all this in the blah review.

-Signing off.

I'm Jealous of Fryhtan Parents...

...because the names they get to call their kids by are incredible. ([Note than in Seven Kingdoms and Seven Kingdoms II, individuals were given individual names.] Not that I think Fryhtans are likely to have parents in the traditional sense of the word. As near as I can tell, Fryhtans are spawned from the warm, wet, and squishy floors of their lairs at the behest of their All High masters. For some reason, this requires gold. And if you're wondering what in the world I'm talking about, just click the "seven kingdoms" tag.)

So what are the most impressive Fryhtan names, the ones that stand head and shoulders Grokken-style above the rest?

Well, first I'll compile my top ten (in no particular order), and then have a list of honorable mentions. The spellcheck is going to hate me for this...

10. Nuonekh. I'm not sure just what it is about "Nuonekh" that amuses me so. I think it has something to do with how much it sounds like "no neck," which is very funny. The oddball spelling also makes me think of "nek battledogs," so that might also be a contributing factor.

9. Smaucross. I think the best thing about "Smaucross" is that for no apparent reason, I imagine it being pronounced by a stuffy British guy. "Smaucross, your tea is served." No, it doesn't make any sense.

8. Coassdzains. One of the things about Fryhtan names that makes them distinctive is that they look vaguely Welsh. That said, I have no idea whether there's a compiled database of Fryhtan names, or if there's a primitive name generator in 7KII's code. Anyway, this name has even more bizarre spelling and probable pronunciation than most Fryhtan names.

7. Oadmoack. I just like the way I imagine it sounds. ("Ode-moke." Say it a few times.)

6. Uetkluoph. I like seeing "ph" in words, and I also like seeing vowels that look like they should be pronounced individually.

5. Khroack. There needs to be a Fryhtan name generator online somewhere. Seriously.

4. Urbregs. I like "ur" as a word/prefix.

3. Phebress. This happens to be the name of an independent Grokken Ordo you can hire in one of the 7KII tutorials. Since Grokken are my favorite Fryhtans, and Phebress was my first impression of them, you can guess how I probably feel about Phebress.

2. Krauckuss. I'm not perfectly 100% on the spelling of this, because I recently lost the sheet of paper I wrote it down on ages ago (I wrote it down ages ago, then lost the piece of paper recently), but I'm pretty sure it would be pronounced the same. I guess I just like seeing "au" in words, too. Heck, I just like seeing "u" in words.

1. Visbraync. I had this written on the same sheet of paper as the above, so the same remarks apply. This name goes the extra mile-if it was just "Visbrayn," that would be cool enough, but that extra "c" really makes it perfect.

Honorable mentions:

Oakhclaij (easy to misread as "Oakhclau" in the 7KII font, which is also a cool name)
Aikhglut
Aizhgoum (note that "zh" is used in dictionary pronunciation guides to represent the "j" sound, so that's "Aijgoum")
Glaena
Phigluoms
Triacqouvs
Thauphxec
Shuophroi
Oullsoaph
Aikauq
Shoichrauck
Gaec
Oarmikh
Quoisti
Quess
Aitux
Aksack
Kraex
Uphoar
Gloaxix
Goik
Skoirsbrack
Cloucona
Brogue (yes, really-I've seen it more than once, too)
Ellsguokhs
Slaezh
Oartoak

Yeah, I'm still enamored of these silly names a decade later. Go figure.

-Signing off.

I'd Rather Be a Fryhtan

(Note: The following images [which there are a lot of-sorry if your connection's slow] come from two sources, Seven Kingdoms and Seven Kingdoms II. Close observation would reveal that there's an additional variation-sometimes, the buildings are bigger in the 7KII images. This is a game setting difference-when capturing the raw versions of these images, my old computer puked and decided it would never read the 7KII CD-ROM again, so I moved over to my sister's old computer to finish, where she had her own default settings enabled. Also, the only way to retrieve images from that particular computer is through a 1.44 MB floppy drive... and 7KII takes screenshots as massive BMP files, forcing me to use Paint, of all things, to do sloppy JPEG conversions.

Long story short, it was kinda involved, and that doesn't even go into how long it took to upload four batches of five images on Blogger's super-slow image uploader.

Still, this post couldn't have done without them, so enjoy. This reads best if you've read the other post on Seven Kingdoms, by the way.)

In the world of Seven Kingdoms, there are two major forces.

The Fryhtans...

...and the humans.

Your first inclination might be to sympathize with the humans, seeing as how you are probably a human yourself.

Let me tell you though, humans aren't very nice.

They're always infighting.

This, even though Fryhtans, those supposed monsters, can get along with humans quite well.

(For those of you wondering about the title text above? RTS units are huge morons, especially in old games. Those units were almost certainly enemies, yet still ignored each other unless ordered to attack each other.)

Further, humans attacked Fryhtans, with the only major provocation for a long time being that Fryhtans had cooler stuff than they did. (Fryhtans drop gold and magic scrolls that let you summon Greater Beings, immensely powerful special units.) Eventually, Fryhtans wised up and decided to rectify things.

Note that in the above image, some humans have turned traitor against their own kind, due to the overwhelming power of the Fryhtan armies they faced.

Fryhtans have a decided disadvantage, in that they number far fewer than the pernicious human plague. They make up for this with their raw strength and power-some Fryhtans are the largest, toughest units in the game, comparable to many buildings in size and durability.

There is the fact that now Fryhtans slaughter humans to power their arcane magics, but it's not like it wasn't done to them first, now is it?

Fryhtans prefer to be close to the enemy if possible-it's easier for them to overrun humans if their lairs are near human starting points.

This is an unusually lucky instance of this.

These Fryhtans in particular, the Exovum, are essentially the smarmy jocks of the Fryhtan world, but other Fryhtans will put up with them, for reasons explained later.

Note that Fryhtans have a hierarchy quite similar to that of humans-instead of a King, they have an All High; instead of Generals, they have Ordos. You can tell the All Highs by the little crowns.

Fryhtans have always had edges in durability, speed, and raw power, even when they were just wild, independent raiders.

Other Fryhtans, such as the mighty Grokken, make up for their lack of speed with powerful ranged attacks and sheer durability.

An army of high-level Grokken can be nearly unstoppable-they may be the strongest "mortal" units in the game.

Others lack speed and raw power, and need other means to make up for it, such as the Ezpinez, who have a useful ability I'll go into in a bit.

The Kharshuf are slow and lack ranged powers, but they likewise have a formidable ability, and are tougher and stronger.

With their mix of strengths and weaknesses, Fryhtans' greatest strength may come from teamwork.

Each map in 7KII is dotted with independent Fryhtan lairs, and these can be potent sources of fresh Fryhtan blood.

The Ezpinez are, as noted, not powerful units, but their specialty is producing excellent war machines, which rival or exceed their human counterparts in effectiveness.

Kharshuf have one of the more unique abilities, the ability to make camouflaged units/buildings called Lishorrs. These will attack enemies nearby, and there is an even more interesting variant, the Wilde Lishorr (dig the olde tyme spellyng), which doesn't belong to you, but replicates itself and attacks all non-Kharshuf units.

These can easily take over a map if left unchecked, and will ambush foes foolish enough to attack your deep territory.

The Exovum, already champs among Fryhtans, also bring the strongest weapon to the table of perhaps any group in the game-the Mage Tor.

The Mage Tor (here surrounded by camouflaged Lishorrs to defend it from their Wilde cousins) is a devastatingly strong building that can wipe out even the toughest armies and structures, given some time and energy.

Sadly, the Fryhtans seem to have too many weaknesses to stand for long against the human threat to their existence.

Their species is doomed to a downward spiral, where they'll eventually be replaced by something generic and stupid, like demons.

Except that one Grokken there. It looks like he might do okay.

Let us lament the lost Fryhtans. Shall we?

-Signing off.

Game Profiles: Seven Kingdoms (AA/II)

You know what old RTSs are totally awesome? Seven Kingdoms ("Ancient Adversaries" and "II: The Fryhtan Wars").



Years ago, I got a disc with some demos on it, and one of them was for 7KII. That disc influenced a lot of the game purchasing decisions my sister and I made over the following five years (well, all of them, really), and we eventually purchased at least three of the seven games on it. (I can't remember if there were any other games we thought about buying, but the three we got-Septerra Core, Revenant, and Seven Kingdoms II-were all games we both enjoyed and played quite a bit.)

More recently, I was curious about the game, and some careful internet searches later, I discovered that, like a number of low-selling games from the old days have of late, the first Seven Kingdoms (which is often called "Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries" because it was later packaged with its expansion pack, Ancient Adversaries) has been released under a general public license, and has been updated to run more smoothly on modern operating systems. Which means you can get it for free. (7KII apparently is somehow still providing enough income that Enlight, the company that created the games, is unwilling to GPL it.)

Anyway, if you've ever played an RTS, you know how they work. You look down on the game world, click on units and give them commands, and build units and bases to create and sustain an army with which to overrun your opponents.

Seven Kingdoms was the RTS that dared to be different.

Before games like Warcraft III introduced the idea of heroes who gain massive benefits from experience, Seven Kingdoms gave that feature to every unit (well, except war machines, because they're machines).

But that's a minor aspect of it. Seven Kingdoms (and its successor, Seven Kingdoms II) featured unique systems that forced you to consider how to treat your units, how to expand, and more. Each non-war machine unit other than your king has a statistic called "loyalty," which rises and falls depending on many factors, and enemy units have a statistic called "resistance" which is essentially the opposite of loyalty. It is easier to bring towns under your control with generals (or your king) if the general matches the nationality of that town. (7K:AA messes the math up a bit with its mixed nationality towns, but despite that, it was an interesting feature unique to the first game.) Also, while you could reduce an independent or enemy town's resistance by attacking it, this tends to drive down your "reputation," yet another statistic, which affects both general loyalty and resistance relative to you, and also affects your final score. There are also spies, which work in a way more like real spies than is possible in most games.

While 7K:AA had many features that were removed from 7KII, the things that it had weren't much of a loss (other than water and ships, which I love), because the addition to 7KII was a wonderful one: Fryhtans.

Essentially, Fryhtans are giant, murderous monsters that run around killing everybody and probably eating them. They appeared in the first game as "trolls," essentially annoying enemies with prizes for killing them (another thing featured later in Warcraft III), but in 7KII, you can play as Fryhtans.

For me (and my sister), this honestly makes all the difference: Fryhtans don't have reputation scores, and that means you can be as nasty as you want. In fact, you're encouraged to be as nasty as possible, because Fryhtans have magic that is essentially powered by killing humans. Seriously. (There's also another interesting vibe to Fryhtans, but I like Fryhtans so much that I'm seriously going to do another blog post at some point all about them.)

The second game also fixes a wonky thing I noticed about the first game: AI players in the first will attack independent towns to drive down their resistance, because AI players apparently don't care about their own reputation. (AI Fryhtans, of course, have no compunctions in the second game.) Another nice feature of 7KII is that you can choose to have bigger buildings, although if you're used to playing with the smaller ones, it's disorienting.

Both games also feature a number of other things, like summonable deities and other such stuff, but that's really just icing on the cake.

If it sounds remotely appealing, give that first game a try (you've got nothing to lose, it's free), and if you like that, try the second, too.

From what I've heard, the third Seven Kingdoms, Conquest, was panned by critics; it apparently only carried over some general ideas from the first two, those being the use of "gods/greater beings" and the idea that humanity had huge, terrifying monster enemies (generically renamed demons). It looks like it was very pretty, but that's probably the best thing about it. [/curmudgeon]

-Signing off.