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| Thread: ICTC III : The Eastern Empire | |
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jumpydady
Tavern Dweller
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posted March 17, 2008 05:15 AM |
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ICTC III : The Celestial Empire
I know it's not original and many may have talked about it but since this is my 1º time in this kind of events I couldn't find one similar to this in the competition here we go: (some of creature abilities are equal to the others in the homm5 with the same name), oh and sorry about my dreadful English...
The Celestial Empire:
Also Known as: The Forgotten Oriental Empire
Veneration: Dragon of Order
Color: Blood red, Gold yellow
Town name: Blue Heaven’s Gate
Race: Transcendental
Primary Magic: Light and Summoning
Symbol: A wingless serpent like dragon and a beautiful bird (similar to a phoenix) dancing in a yin yang symbol where the dragon is the male and represent the elements of fire and earth and a the female counterpart the phoenix represents the water and air elements, together they crate the 5º element the void the inner strength/will…
Origins and Society: After the ‘Wars of Fire’ a great number of demons fled to the east of the falcon empire so a huge part of the orders army (mages, elves, and humans, dwarves not included, they were too slow) was sent in their pursuit and after months of hunting they finally reached in a new continent. In this new ‘world’ they finally caught up those demons and there those demons were slaughtered, unfortunately the problems doesn’t ends here from the northeast of these lands a rift with miles of length has been found out a rift that connects directly to the abyss. All the lands around that rift were cursed where vile beasts half demons and dark spirits fouls there, in fact the land itself is dark like a huge shadow covering it, by that , the northeast land has been named of ‘Shadow Land’. It was impossible to return now that this new threat has been found out and so The orders army has settled there as a vigilance, the years has passed the western have forgotten already of their existence, a huge wall was built against the threat of the shadow lands from northeast a wall with thousands of miles known as ‘The Great Dragon Wall’ and from a vigilant post it has become a settlement, from a city it has become a kingdom, and by the year of the 1º eclipse 330 YSD it has become a mighty empire capable of rival the Griffin Empire, but they where no more the orders army, they where no more elves or humans or mages, in order to survive against the chaos permanent threat they united and become one as races they call themselves Transcendental, a race with physiognomy similar to humanoids with pointy ears with quasi magical abilities(all Transcendental take half damage against the ‘curse of the netherworld’, and they have magic/mind control effect proof 5%,) . For their empire survival the society is strict almost tyrannical, where is controlled by an emperor (wearing golden kimono with red dragon if male, wearing red scarlet with golden phoenix if empress) rules from the capital with the help of highest officers and an elite general force constituted by 9 of them (also known as Imperial dragons), the empire itself is divided in provinces each ruled by a high officer in the province main town, each province lesser towns are ruled by lower officers, and so on down in category, this officers are selected by their abilities in the form of a imperial exam where include physical and knowledge examination. Although they still have similarity with their ancestors they love to build mighty structures as humans, they love philosophy, and art as elves (ironically it has survived their lawfulness) and they love to craft and alchemy as mages, the entire population are non illiterate, in fact most of it are cult and they valor their wisdom/ high will (due to the fact of surviving so long under the abyss influence) so much to the point they become arrogant. After the Celestial Empire creation ‘the Orcs’ fled from the west (the griffin empire) has reached this new continent, the encounter was inevitable, but not much is known to the west about these encounters of two so opposite races, and the orcs won’t pronounce about it. Although the orcs arriving from the east back to the west may give us some conclusions …
Town Description: Due to their lawfulness all towns are square with four main gates each in the middle of each side of the wall(the wall are similar to Asian type, with roofs/tiles) two main avenue cross the town from north gate to south gate and from west gate to east gate. The town hall is a massive building located right a north of the intersection of those two avenue where however and however enter the town may see that massive structure of course the town hall main gate is located in the south of the building and a huge square is located in front the gate in fact this square is no more than the two avenues intersection, a huge phoenix and a dragon in a yin yang symbol may appear carved in the middle of the square if you capture the tear of Asha the structure is called ( The sky and earth harmony), the structures normal are painted in red in the capital and in white and brown in the other towns.
Special Buildings:
Astrology tower: the wisdom from the empire love astrology by looking at the stars they can preview the future (bonus in luck and reveals next ‘week of…’ for the next week to the hero that visit the town this week.)
Ancestor shrine: the transcendental worship a lot of their ancestors almost fanatically, asking them to bless with strength or luck/ good fortune or wisdom. (This is the main building is where our hero (also known as ‘Celestial Chosen’) applies his main skill the ‘ancestor contact’ the higher the skill the more potent the blesses are. Normally this blesses gives bonus to the creature stats for the duration of the week, some of them gives extremely powerful bonus but to the duration of the next battle, each stack of creature receives an individual bless the more powerful the stack the greater the price, each stack can’t receive the same bless twice in a week once the creature stack changes the hero, the blesses effects are gone but it still count for this week. As the ultimate ability it is called the Ancestors vengeance where the hero can summon once per battle a stack of terracotta army to the battlefield, this army is the avatar of the ancestors that wish to join to the battle, this army is physically similar to the iron golem, but statistically is more like a level 2.5 unit, the stack size is the same size of your army and it is not affected by morale, mind control, this army will disappear if destroyed or at the end of combat
Warrior memorial: bonus on morale and defense stats when defending the town
Battle academy: bonus in hero’s experience gained per battle
Recruitment camp: bonus in level one creature recruitment
Creatures:
Level1: (Training field) Spearman the basic infantry of this army, armed with a spear, it is statistically weak almost as weak as the peasant only having a slight stronger defense, abilities: first strike, defensive strike
Upgrade: (Headquarter) Pike man is armed with a long spear it has a better statistically but better still lacks of damage, abilities: first strike, defensive strike and long spear
Upgrade: (Headquarter) Halberdier is armed with a halberd it is similar to pike man but it has a better damage, abilities: first strike, defensive strike and armor damaging
Level2: (Scout Guild) Shadow Scout this units are normally send to scout armed with a short sword the shadow lands that is where it name come from, it is statistically similar to the dungeons scout, abilities: invisibility
Upgrade: (Special operation center) Shadow Dancer this units are the team leaders of the Shadow Scouts an overall upgrade in stats except on damage and initiative, abilities: sneak attack, teleport and invisibility
Upgrade: (Special operation center) Shinobi these units armed with a wakizashi and shurikens are the special assassins commanded by the empire to slay all the inconvenient to the empire, abilities: ranged, no melee penalty, invisibility, ranged penalty, poisonous attack
Level3: (Horse Track) Chariot, the cavalry of the army each chariot has two horses and has two occupants: the pilot and the warrior armed with a specialized halberd (more similar to a scythe) that is used to harvest the enemies head in the battlefield statistically similar to the bear rider but weaker in life and defense but stronger in damage attack and initiative, abilities: large creature, wheeling attack
Upgrade: (Hypodromum) Sky Chariot, these are the elite chariot normally decorated with gold and it has two warriors instead of one an archer and the halberdier, abilities: shoot on the move large creature, no melee penalty and wheeling attack
Upgrade: (Hypodromum) War Wagon, an much heavier version of chariot it has two halberdier instead of just one, it has lesser attack than the Sky Chariot and slower but it has a better defense and hit points, abilities: double attack, large creature, armored and wheeling attack
Level4: (Mystic Pavilion) Sorcerer, here in the Celestial Empire the mysticism and the arcane magic are the same they are the casters, the mix of magic from cleric, druids, and mages, they are statistically similar to druids, abilities: caster (destructive, summoning), shooter
Upgrade: (Temple) Wu Jen, these sorcerers armed with a long sword devote as much on magic as on combat skill, they have a better attack, defense and damage, abilities: caster (destructive, summoning), shooter and no melee penalty
Upgrade: (Temple) Tao Sacerdotal, armed with a long sword against the tormented spirits that sometime roams these lands, they are the exorcists, statistically weaker than Wu Jen but with a stronger magic abilities, abilities: caster(light , dark, summoning), mana strike
Level5: (Rivers Altar) Dragonne, this strange and cunning creature is a horse with dragon blood mixed. Statistically weak for a level 5 unit they normally serve as mount to important characters since they can be used as body guards as a last recourse, abilities: large creature and dragon shape
Upgrade: (Spirits Altar) Haitai, another bizarre creature, this time similar to a horse with a dog head and a turtle shell on his back, the Transcendental normally worship them for protection against bad omens, statistically similar to Sylvan Unicorns, abilities: large creature and disaster holder
Upgrade: (Spirits Altar) Kirin, creature with horns dragon like head and hooves, although it’s terrifying appearance they are extremely well good natured and only attack against evil beings it is statistically similar to the Nightmare, abilities: large creature, bless aura, celestial punishment
Level6: (Dojo) Sword Sage, armed with a katana these unarmored swordsman they can deflect arrows with his weapon, they are statistically similar but inferior to the pit fiend but with higher initiative and speed, abilities: iaijutsu, enraged
Upgrade: (Spiritual Dojo) Shinigami, living near the abyss death itself many times doesn’t mean salvation from the doom, since there are many unholy spirits that and other similarities that can destroy the souls before they can reach their final destiny the Shinigamis are spiritual warriors that guide and protect them in this tortuous voyage, they are statistically almost the same with higher speed but less armor, abilities: spiritual fighter, no retaliation strike, fearless
Upgrade: (Spiritual Dojo) Phoenix Warrior, They are the elite of the Empire’s soldier wearing a red armor with jade wings on their backs, the phoenix strength runs on their body, statistically they are similar to the champion with much less speed, abilities: iaijutsu, no retaliation strike, enraged, bravery
Level7: (Pagoda) Sky Dragon, these serpent like wingless dragon are the descendent of the order dragon in his form they, statistically similar to the green dragon but even lesser hit points, abilities: large creature, flyer, air immunity
Upgrade: (Sky Pagoda) Celestial Dragon, when a Sky Dragon reach a certain age and wisdom he suffers an metamorphoses and his body becomes even more similar to the order dragon, it scales becomes golden and it has the power to control the weather, it has statistic similar to the emerald dragon with higher damage, abilities: large creature, flyer, caster (light, destructive air spell), air immunity
Upgrade: (Sky Pagoda) Imperial Dragon, More fighting oriented these dragons are they serve as mounts to the Imperial Dragons (those 9 elite generals in fact that’s where their name (elite generals) come from) when battle these dragons have red scarlet scale with golden border, statistically similar stronger then a red dragon in attack and defense, but weaker in damage and life, abilities: large creature, flyer, ranged, no range penalty, fire blast, fire immunity
Abilities:
First Strike: this creature always strike first
Defensive Strike: carry defensive order and if can retaliate, any creature that charge against him will suffer more attack and damage
Long Spear: this weapon is so long that the user is safety from hazards such as magma shield
Armor Damaging: this weapon is designed in a way to damage the enemies defense, any creature with armored ability after getting hit someone with this ability will have his ability ruined until the end of the combat
Sneak Attack: vicious attack that can be used against any opponent with that is facing more than one target it will double the users damage
Mana Strike: this ability can cut the creature mana and gives him bonus attack and damage on the next strike it is counted as a magical attack
Dragon Shape: once per combat it the creature can change in to a dragon shape double its attack, defense, damage, speed and it becomes flyer for the next round
Disaster Holder: any allied creature adjacent to this one will suffer non from damaging or dark magic only the creature itself will
Bless Aura: any ally adjacent to it will receive the same bonus from light magic bless that has been casted to it
Celestial Punishment: if a friendly creature stack has been killed the creature can activate this ability granting him extreme bonus on attack and damage against the creature that killed his allies on the next strike (this ability activates as a free action)
Iaijutsu: once per combat by activating this ability the user gains bonus in initiative attack and damage and the enemy will be instantly stunned
Spiritual Fighter: this creature can strike incorporeal creature without penalty and can cut morale and a percentage of defense doesn’t count since it attacks directly against the opponents’ soul mechanical creatures the second ability doesn’t activate since they don’t have a soul
Fearless: always facing the death makes this creature fearless morale penalty by fear such as roar or the nightmare ability doesn’t affect him
Fire Blast: similar to the cloud of death of the archlich, but with fire element
Overall: speed and magic are the keys for this army
Other information: This army's hero has his primary abilities all at the same level, it means that he will always have statistic above the average but he will never have a good one (primary)
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Snatch
Promising
Known Hero
Proud Kappa
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posted March 26, 2008 01:25 AM |
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Cohesiveness: 7/10 (too many open ends which do not fit right, but concerning the theme alone quite good)
Imagination: 8/15 (new for Heroes but I can't see much more than just a carry-over from oriental/far east myth without something innovative)
Back story: 6/10 (average, again many similarities to oriental/far east way of living)
Battle facets: 8/10 (quite balanced but a bit chaotic, the ancestor aspect has potential and should have been expanded, it would be quite a good theme)
Discretionary: 1/5 (for the approach)
30/50
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Momo
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted March 27, 2008 04:52 PM |
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Edited by Momo at 17:05, 27 Mar 2008.
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Cohesiveness: 9/10 points I don't see many problems here, I mostly dislike the whole hybridized race idea. It would have been better if they were a race of their own.
Imagination: 10/15 points I like the idea of eastern folklore in Heroes, but it can't just end with that, epsecially with such a rich and completely virgin (in HoMM) mythology like this one. As usual, I point people toward sources of possible inspiration: Champions of Kamigawa (Magic The Gathering expansion), Final Fantasy X, Onimusha, and most importantly a throng of mind-bogglingly beautiful eastern movies (from "Hero" to "Spirited Away") were all sources of potentially countless inspirations for the flavor, which stays unexploited. Also: the final creature is an elemental dragon! AAAARGH.
Back story: 7/10 points decent story, I especially like how the civilization started by separating from the western one. Could have been written better and feature some more interesting twist.
Battle facets: 7/10 points some attention into making this unique in gameplay, but -in a sense like the whole faction- looks not developed enough. More specifically, it looks like you know where you did want to go, but stopped at half of the travel.
Discretionary: 4/5 I support an eastern faction in HoMM. Working hard could have made a much better job though.
Overall Score: 37/50
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kookastar
Honorable
Legendary Hero
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posted March 30, 2008 01:34 AM |
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Tobius's rating
The Eastern Empire
Cohesiveness(3+1)=4 a little strange with the halbediers and the dragons, but it simply doesn\'t fit HoMM anyway
Imagination(2+1+2)=5 not very inspired
Back Story(2+2)=4 you\'ve tried to expand, but it\'s somehow unrelated to the HoMM universe (e.g. no known heroes)
Battle Facets(3+2)=5 units are Ok and so are the abilities, but nothing special
Discretionary: nothing exceptional here
Total Score=18
How I graded these:
Cohesiveness (Internal Coherence [1-5]+HoMM Compatibility [1-5])
Imagination (Creativity [1-5]+Innovations [1-5]+Originality[1-5])
Back Story (How well it expands on one of the HoMM universes [1-5]+How interesting it was to me [1-5])
Battle Facets (Variety [1-5]+Inventive Aspects [1-5])
Discretionary (Bonus for exceptional efforts[1-5])
____________
uhuh
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Mytical
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted March 30, 2008 09:27 AM |
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Ok, Momo is usually very on the mark, but I have to disagree with a few things.
Cohesiveness : 8/10 I like the approach, and the idea, but sadly can't give it a higher score.
Imagination: 13/15 Oriental, a bit chaotic, and very creative. The only down part is yes the dragon. Otherwise might have recieved a perfect score.
Background : 8/10 I think it ties in nicely and has a bit of flavor. Needs a bit of work/polish, but all in all very good.
Battle : 7/10
Des: 5/5 Oriental + Chaotic + creative = Perfect in my book 
Total 41/50
____________
Message received.
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Fauch
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted April 01, 2008 04:09 PM |
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Edited by Fauch at 16:09, 01 Apr 2008.
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Cohesiveness: 9/10 lots of oriental creatures, I guess that makes sense in an oriental town.
Imagination: 10/15 it's basically the average oriental town, but there are some cool abilities and I didn't expect the chariot.
Back story: 6/10 I find nothing special to it.
Battle facets: 7/10 it seems fun to play, but I'm not sure about the balance.
Discretionary: 3.5/5 I see nothing special here, but everything needed is here.
35.5/50
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friendofgunnar
Honorable
Legendary Hero
able to speed up time
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posted April 12, 2008 06:16 AM |
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The Eastern Empire:
FriendofGunnar
Cohesiveness: 9/10
Imagination:11/15
Back story: 7/10
Battle facets: 9/10 Astrology tower and ancecestry shrine...terracotta army, nice 
Dragon Shape, Disaster Holder. simple and new
Discretionary: 2/5 no pics
A good faction but no pics or extras
38
Kookastar
Cohesiveness: 10 points
Imagination/creativity/originality/wow factor: 10 points
Back story: 6 points
Battle facets: 8 points
Discretionary: 3 points
Total 37
TDL
Cohesiveness(max 10) : 7
Creativity (max 10): 7
Backstory (max 10): 8
Battle Facets (max 15): 7
additional (max 5): 1
another oriental faction although much worse… ideas not really innovative and nothing really special available
Total (max 50):30
Guest Judge's Score : 32.30 (Judges grades are weighed differently depending on how many factions they graded)
Judges Score: (38 + 37 + 30) / 3 = 35.00
Final Score: 33.65
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