I don't think I have ever seen the term leopard vomit before.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
While boasting with the kill of Moma I talk to a farmer to check for new quests.
This is a known quest already but quite an interesting twist to the history:
My increased fame allows me to recruit a third follower, Issha "Livingsound", another crossbowman!
Now, what to do next? The closest quest would be the outlaws Umcos and Kajeth to my west.
I think I will do that.
Fast travelling again as the day will end soon.
Approaching the bandit camp from the west. (as did Harmless Puzzlehorn a few weeks ago).
As I drop out of the fast travel, I immediately spot Umcos, the leader! (The green à to our NE)
There also a pair of Pethits teeth lying around (the little white zs. (remember the old guy that got murdered pretty quickly?) Also some equipment.
So as the sun is low on the western sky, we prepare to fight!
"You have been struck down!" - Tales of Dwarf Fortress
---
"moby_harmless seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!"
There is another bowwoman behind Umcos. And a Pikewoman appears with tiny straight scar on her right hand. Ah-ah! She must have been in fight before. (And she has, she is the pikewoman that got injured by a bolt in the previous fight and fled the scene.)
Well, Bale and me rush towards the Umcos position, using the cover of a tree, as Umcos is a crossbowman.
Not so sure this is a good idea as those other two bandits come towards us as well.
Bale gets hit by two bolts and falls over, being heavily injured. He has a broken leg and broken ribs and tries to crawl away. However the bandit Pikewoman is almost upon him.
I charged at Umcos himself, missing a few times but manage to knock him to the ground with a tackle. I too fall on top of him.
I land a couple of good swings at Umcos leaving him quite wounded and in pain. Meanwhile Bale, my Pikeman dies quickly at the hands of the bandit Pikewoman. She now proceeds to flank my crossbow fellows, which oblivious of the danger keep firing (and hitting for the first time now) at Umcos. I am still on the ground with Umcos some 10 meters in front of my crossbowman, while the bandit Pikewoman approaches from the side, a mere 5 meters away now from them.
I decide to leave Umcos alone in his pain for now and struggle up to try to save my crossbowman!
Phew, by the time I reach the scene, the crossbowman realized the danger and started shooting the attacking Pikewoman, landing some hits, but not slowing her down enough. She reached Gagu and piked him mightily in the foot. Gagu now tries to crawl away, while Issha keeps firing bolts and I have arrived now.
Here is the situation.
I am the brownish @ in the center. the brown à to my immediate SW is the injured bandit Pikewoman. To our W is the injured Gagu (on the ground) trying to get away. South of all of us is Issha (the green @).
~ 5 tiles to my East is the corpse (red background) of Bale.
~10 tiles NE of my position is another green à with a brownish background. That is Umcos, lying on the ground (indicated by brownish background. To his NE (~10 tiles) were the two teeth are is the bandit bowman (green Ã). he should be out of range for now.
And here the battle log up to now:
I am quite happy with my contribution so far, basically taking out the leader.
Let's continue.
Oh yes! Two swings at her weapon arm and at her leg brings her to the ground and losing her weapon. And it goes on!
First proper kill for me! (Taking revenge on an adversary of a former Harmless makes it extra sweet!).
I proceed in the cover of the tree to finish off Umcos!
Then head back, as I realize I am to exposed to the remaining bandit bowman. Grabbing the metal breastplate and cap from the corpse of my friend Bela.
Better equipped I try to make my way to that bowwoman, using tree for cover where possible. Gagu crawls after me, while Issha stays where she is and gets hit by a bolt???!!!
Oh shit, she is badly wounded. And it means there is a bandit crossbowman somewhere near, although I cannot see him. Probably south of Issha. Shit, shit, shit!
"You have been struck down!" - Tales of Dwarf Fortress
---
"moby_harmless seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!"
This gets confusing.
I go directly for the bandit bowwoman, while there are no more trees between me and her. But she gets hit by crossbow bolts. I don't get any notification, but it must be my remaining two injured fellows. Who else?
As I close in on her, I spot Pethits rotten corpse to the north and Kajeth, the other outlaw, who introduces herself:
Oh, yes. She is still some 20meters away. Should be enough time for me to kill the bowwoman.
A direct hit to the head. It helps that she was unconscious before!
Now, I think I will retreat a bit a check out what happened to Issha. And have a close eye on the movements of Kajeth.
Issha hobbles towards me and Gagu is near me as well. However, Kajeth the sadist approaches fast and first messes up Gagu, while I try to hit her:
No dice, she is just incredible skilled it seems.
That last jumping away from my strike was crucial to the next events, as she jumped away from Gagu as well, who crawls away from the fight, while I am suddenly her only reachable target!
It goes as you would expect from DF:
So, yes, DF, Ladies and Gentleman, once again!!!
Grrr, this is really not a game to get over-confident.
The correct course of action would have been to leave with whatever loot was nearby and run the hell out of it, ignoring injured followers and not confronting the bowwoman and definitely not fighting Kajeth with only two injured crossbowman as support. Well hindsight = 20/20, as they say.
mh
"You have been struck down!" - Tales of Dwarf Fortress
---
"moby_harmless seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!"
This is what the world remembers of Harmless Couplewater:
Note the long list of entities (mostly hamlet councils, I suspect) that are hold me in high regard due to the slaying of Moma the leopard and Umcos the outlaw.
Gulp! The bandit gang ("The Rooters of Packing") has impaled my body on an acacia spear after my death!
So, yes, any suggestions on how I should proceed from here on?
Continue to use peasants and explore, fight and die?
Or try a slightly more capable character (which is no guarantee at all that he will live longer, that Kajeth girl is quite scary!)
mh
"You have been struck down!" - Tales of Dwarf Fortress
---
"moby_harmless seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!"
Just nos finished catching up with the tales. Serdoa is right, you need a more skilled character to vanquish Kajeth... her slaying of harmlessess must be put to an end!
Thanks for the welcome. I enjoy the reading and look forward for the next adventures.
Ok, I will attempt a wrestler with the next character, using the "Hero" setting, i.e. one level easier than "Peasant". Which btw, does not make any of the game mechanics easier, it just lets you spend more points in skills during character creation.
I have never tried wrestling before, though.
mh
"You have been struck down!" - Tales of Dwarf Fortress
---
"moby_harmless seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!"
I used a "Hero" setting, allowing me to put slightly more points into my skills. I am now an expert Wrestler. I also increased my social awareness, hoping to recruit a larger crowd.
Harmless M. "Coalflights", starting off in Waspsstrokes.
Talking to the civilians, I sure enough pick up the quest to kill Kajeth!
I travel light, with only a spear, no shield and my basic clothing.
My home hamlet had only one soldier, which I recruited, Mistrum "Sparklehip", a Crossbowman.
So I have to visit other hamlets on the way to get more people to join me.
I pick up Mab "Greatestgranite", a Lasher and Citu "Balancewhip", a Lasher. Citu has a nice name for a Lasher.
Before nightfall we approach the bandit camp from the west, carefully!
Corpses and equipment are lying around, but nobody attacked us yet.
And then we are challenged:
I can see none of her fellows and we are a party of 4. Should be easy, right?
Here we go:
Basically the two lasher and me charged at her, while she went for the crossbowman behind us.
...
I go directly for the throat with my hand to choke her, locking her head with my arm and her spear with the other arm.
As she passes out I stab my spear into her head.
And that was that!
Hooray!
Ok, lets search the area for any remaining bandits and clean up the mess maybe a bit.
"You have been struck down!" - Tales of Dwarf Fortress
---
"moby_harmless seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!"
