This new version of Hostage is a three scenario campaign, a "present time fairytale" about the adventures of Jason, a naval captain from the (fictive) island state of Belovia.
The first two scenario's are basically the same compared to the old version, except for a new storyline, some changes in the victory conditions and improvements in playability, balance and environmental map design.
The third scenario, called Covid-19, is newly added.
Note: This campaign is made with the original scenario editor that comes with the AoE\RoR gold edition cd. I'm using the Upatch Hd v1.1-R4 to play the game fullscreen on a W10 computer.
Update 02-01-2021
A fourth scenario "Enemies of Nature" is added to the campaign. See last post in this thread for a more detailed description.
I still haven't had the time to play through this update, but I have to say that just from the look of it I'm really impressed. Your map design skills have really improved a lot. I think it's great that you've stuck with the original editor. It shows, in a good way, and the style that results from this really has that classical scenario design vibe. These days it's kind of refreshing to open a scenario and just see a good mix of forest brushes being used. Strong download recommendation on this one!
There's something interesting about telling a story about Covid-19 in a game from 1997. Sometimes you can look back at something and tell that it's an obvious document of its time, but here there's two quite contrasting time periods on display. An early 2020's story in a late 1990's game. I hope you're doing well given the circumstances Kastanje57!
Kastanje57 File Author
Posted on 10/24/20 @ 04:25 PM
Thanks for the compliments, it's nice to know my work is appreciated.
In a couple of years, The Corona age belongs to the past, represented in a game that's even much older than the virus itself.
I didn't realize this up till now but it's a funny idea though, knowing that the original game deals with ancient historical civilizations that are far much older than the game itself.
In the meantime, I've started to work on a fourth scenario. I hope to have it ready in the early spring of next year. I've a nice idea to work out but it asks a huge amount of testing and that's not always a nice thing to do.
[Edited on 11/04/20 @ 01:53 PM]
Fisk (id: Fruktfisk)
Staff
Posted on 12/15/20 @ 02:59 PM
I think the campaign also says something about how the heroes Corlis and Hersifon can't be distinguished from normal villagers if they're tasked to gather resources. A hint is to use control groups (select them and press CTRL+# where # is any number) to keep your tabs on them.
Kastanje57 File Author
Posted on 12/17/20 @ 10:40 AM
Using control group numbers is a good way to prevent loosing sight on both heroes. I've used this 'bug' in the software to increase difficulty in gameplay a bit too.
In the meantime, I'm well underway with the 4th scenario. It will be ready in a few weeks from now.
This one deals with the "enemies of Nature".
This will also be the last one I'll make since I'm running out of ideas.
[Edited on 12/17/20 @ 10:42 AM]
Kastanje57 File Author
Posted on 01/01/21 @ 09:19 PM
Last september, when I started working on the 4th scenario, I learned in the meantime about the use of customized .ai and .per files.
Up till then, I made use of the standard files that come with the game itself.
Apart from adding a 4th scenario to the campaign, customized .ai and .per files are also used in the 3 existing scenario's.
This new download contains the campaign itself: Hostage.cpx, a readme.txt and a compressed file with all scenario's, as well as the .ai and .per files that I've used to make this campaign.
This is it, no more scenario's will be added since I'm running out of ideas. I've done all I could do to make something nice, good looking and well actable.
To everyone: Best wishes for 2021 and hopefully, Covid-19 will be defeated in the cause of this year.