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| Thread: Faction Recreation Contest #7: Academy/Tower | |
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Rimgrabber
Famous Hero
It's a fixer-upper
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posted February 07, 2021 10:04 PM |
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Faction Recreation Contest #7: Academy/Tower
Now that we've all had a nice refreshing break, let's get on to Academy! Personally I much prefer mages over warriors in fantasy settings so this is a faction I've been quite looking forward to doing!
As a reminder:
Create a lineup following any format, at least 2 Hero classes, 1-3 unique buildings + a grail building, and backstory (taking place in the NWC universe, Ashan, or a universe of your own) for whichever faction we're doing.
You will have 1 week to submit your proposal, after which there will be a 3-day voting period during which anyone, contestant or not, can give each submission a 1-10 score on creativity, but you have to score ALL the submissions(except your own if you made one) or else your vote is ignored. This is because the final winner will be determined by the average scores given. After voting is done, everyone will have a week to submit their proposal for the next faction, and so on. You can jump in at any time or sit any contest out if you want, each will be judged separately. Winners are awarded a feeling of satisfaction and my eternal love
1. Necropolis
2. Castle/Haven
3. Inferno
4. Rampart/Sylvan
5. Dungeon
6. Stronghold
7. Tower/Academy
8. Sanctuary
9. Dwarf Fortress
10. Conflux
11. Swamp Fortress
12. Forge
13. Cove
14. Create-Your-Own (Good)
15. Create-Your-Own (Neutral)
16. Create-Your-Own (Evil)
Happy brainstorming!
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http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=46284&pagenumber=1
^ Part 2 of my proposal for Heroes 8 (Part 3 coming soon)
you lost your internet privileges
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Galaad
Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
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posted February 07, 2021 10:10 PM |
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I'm in for this one!
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Rimgrabber
Famous Hero
It's a fixer-upper
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posted February 08, 2021 12:07 AM |
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Woohoo!
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http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=46284&pagenumber=1
^ Part 2 of my proposal for Heroes 8 (Part 3 coming soon)
you lost your internet privileges
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Alon
Known Hero
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posted February 08, 2021 09:55 AM |
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Edited by Alon at 12:23, 28 Mar 2021.
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Academy (it's been a while... ~2021-3-28)
The world follows physical rules. Through the study of magic, we learn those rules, use them to our advantage, and progress from barbarism to modernity - and may the best wizards win.
The academy is a wizard faction, relying primarily on summons and constructs. Four of their units are elementals, and three are constructs. The wizards themselves are multiracial but all humanoid and living, and all maintain loyalty to the academy rather than the humans to the castle, the elves to the preserve, or the orcs to the horde.
Architecturally, the academy is fairly eclectic, but probably has a Northern European-like base, contrasting with the more French or Mediterranean and also more uniform castle. There is a lot of smoke coming from the forges and fireplaces; this is by far the most urban of the factions, and those are not pretty modern cities, but polluted Early Modern or early industrial ones.
Socially, it is hierarchical: there are wizard guild masters, there are apprentices, and there are servants. It's much like the castle this way, but has no mutualism: a starving peasant who comes to a castle noble will be offered serfdom, one who comes to an academy wizard will 9 times out of 10 be turned away and 1 time out of 10 get a service job.
In game mechanics terms, this means the following:
* Most academy units have neutral morale, as constructs or summons; only the alchemist and flying machine can have morale.
* Likewise, little upkeep is needed and the army travels light, so it has higher speed on the overland map than one would expect based on unit speed in combat.
* The wizard heroes are all active on the map, personally steering their pieces using a menu of spells, which makes unit control work a bit differently (see below on heroes).
* Academy heroes have far and away the broadest repertoire of spells, and this includes the might heroes too.
Heroes and skills
The wizards are specialists - each studies a different field of magic. Even within each class, differences between different heroes are considerable, to the point that choosing the correct hero is an important part of the macro, just as choosing the correct unit comp is. However, there are commonalities to all wizards, namely, they all use their study of magic and physics to move units on the battlefield. This leads to the most important difference in micro between the academy and other factions:
Special skill: mana pool
Within the academy army, only the alchemists, genies, and flying machines move normally. All other units participate in a system of pooled mana, in which the hero starts each turn with a pool of points with which to move units, based on the hero's level and the overall size of the remaining army. Moving a unit within the mana pool system drains the pool.
In other words, an academy hero can choose, instead of having each unit move and attack once as is normal, distribute the attack from some units to others, at a rate that depends on army size. Thus tanks like the golem can remain inert while the damage dealers behind them like the salamander launch a stronger attack. Casting a spell does not normally use mana for any hero, but an academy hero can choose to expend mana on casting a stronger spell.
Artificer
The artificer is the academy's might hero, a wizard whose specialization involves forging powerful items. Those items unfortunately are not tradable, because maintaining them is difficult, and take time (1 turn at a town) and money to construct, but once built, they stay with the hero forever. This allows stacking bonuses that other heroes get just one of, but conversely those bonuses do not come free.
Specialization within the artificer class means that each different hero has a different menu of items they can create and use. One hero specializes in magical weapons and can craft items appropriate for upgrades for different units, another in magic wands and can create such items to boost their own spellcasting or that of various caster units, a third in fabricating stronger material and then different items boost different construct units, etc.
Conjurer
The purest of the magic users, the conjurer can forgo a large amount of conventional military thinking and just focus on casting spells better.
Though specialized, all conjurers have the summoning ability, which allows them to teleport summons from one town they control to the battlefield. This only works for summons, that is the four elementals and the genie, and not for constructs, and it does not work if ambushed. This simplifies logistics, unless the slow golems are brought in, and permits great flexibility in choosing the best army for the occasion.
Different conjurers moreover have different bonuses. These can be bonuses to one type of unit, or bonuses to hero spellcasting.
Special buildings
Library: an annex to the mage guild, permitting access to more spells, in line with the academy's longer list of usable spells.
Factory: an economic structure. Within the area control system, each town gets income based on the surrounding area within a radius. The presence of a factory increases the income coming from ports and mines within the radius, but not from ordinary farmland.
University: an expensive place furthering the study of the mundane and magical world. The university has two functions: it grants a mana pool bonus to any defending hero, and slightly levels up any visiting hero's spellcasting once per hero per university. The latter function stacks between different towns' universities, and the macro permits players to build new towns where they can level up all their heroes.
Units
Tier 1
Gnome: an earth spirit looking much like a short human with childlike head-to-body size but the facial features of an old person. Gnomes attack with their mining axes, and are hard to kill for such small creatures; they can also use their mining knowledge to repair mechanical units.
Will o' wisp: an air spirit that turned into lightning. They hover, moving slower than other light-flying units like the preserve's pixie and the dungeon's dragonfly, but possessing a magical attack that causes more damage than mere annoyance.
Salamander: a fire spirit that can get excited and exude flames, but can just as well look like this out of combat. The salamander moves fast, inflicts area of effect fire damage in melee, and can breathe fire at skirmish range to avoid retaliation. However, it is a glass cannon, and dies to arrow or javelin fire or even long pike without being able to use its fire aura.
Tier 2
Nereid: a water spirit that, like water, can change its shape, and travels over land as a horse before attacking with a tail lash. The nereid can equally well travel over water, so an army consisting exclusively of nereids and flying creatures can travel over water provided at least one flying creature is heavy enough to carry the hero, true of all except the will o' wisp. The shapeshifting ability of the nereid permits it to move through moats and seep through castle walls in sieges.
Gargoyle: a flying mechanical construct animated out of stone. The gargoyle's stone skin resists attacks that are weak against armor, like arrows, and the creature's ability to fly and hit hard makes it a nuisance to high-tier fliers.
Alchemist: a junior member of the mage guild, fighting alongside animated and summoned allies. The alchemist has a range of abilities complementing those of the hero wizard, including healing summons (but not constructs, which are repaired by gnomes), throwing explosive potions for AOE at skirmish range, and countering enemy magic. But be careful - the alchemists are not as expendable as summons or constructs, and can be demoralized.
Tier 3
Golem: a tough clay construct that hits hard and is hard to kill. Attacks that are weak against armor, like arrows, are almost useless; poison is ineffective; fire is feasible but not ideal. The golem is tough enough that it can bash in city gates, helping clear the way for salamanders to get in and wreak havoc. To defeat the golem, either use tough anti-armor shock attacks, or cast spells to dismiss its magic.
Genie: a spiritual being without an element, summoned out of a lamp to appear as a horned humanoid. The genie is bound to serve the wizard hero as a spellcaster. The genie's spells are protection, buffs, and debuffs, never direct damage.
Flying machine: a flying construct, ridden by an experienced alchemist who receives extra hazard pay, and like a ground alchemist is affected by morale. Alone among all town lineups, the flying machine can attack at range without landing, only landing for gnomish repairs, so ground melee units cannot reach it, skirmish units don't have enough range, and archers can hit it but cause little damage. It can only be defeated by the boulders of the catapult, by spells, or by air units.
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Jiriki9
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Altar Dweller
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posted February 08, 2021 04:31 PM |
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Edited by Jiriki9 at 10:16, 07 Apr 2021.
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Tower
...still preparing the spells...
General infos
-this proposal is meant to be in the same setting and game as the factions from the former rounds.
-the setting is an entirely new one, neither the "old" setting up to H4, nor Ashan.
-there are several gameplay aspects that I have decided for myself, but will not detail here, unless someone asks me to. After all, this is about the faction, not a game proposal. Examples are: Battlefields, Diverse Terrain Features (Forests, High Grass, Shallow Water, Small Ceiling in Underground, deep Sand, slippery Ice etc.), Weather, Ambushes, Advanced Diplomacy, Governors, Quests.
-both world and gameplay I'll develop during the rounds (Which is the reason why I won't give relations for the yet unknown new factions)
-I follow a classic, choiceless 7-tier lineup with alternate upgrades for the units
-there is a "Tech Tree" for every faction (saw the idea here and found it awesome so it's in my proposal)
-this, as my other proposals in the contest, draws inspiration from various other fictions. This is intentional and either meant to be a hommage, or a parody.
Academy
Music
may be tba
In a nutshell:
bla bla bla
Strengths:
-Spellcasting
Weaknesses:
tba
Big changes to older Academy:
tba
Backstory:
blablabla
Faction Relations
The Towers are not one united realm, so many relations are not so clear.
-Castle/Haven: Truce, but both are willing to ally against darker or savage foes.
-Conflux: Peace to Alliance
-Cove: Neutral
-Dungeon: War
-Dwarf Fortress: Truce to Peace, depending on which tower
-Forge/Factory: Allied
-Inferno: Shifting, depending on the situation
-Necropolis: Neutrality, sometimes shifting ot alliance or war depending on the situation. Necromancy is officially shunned, though.
-Preserve: War
-Sanctuary: Truce to Peace, depending on which tower
-Stronghold: Neutral to War
-Swamp Fortress: Neutral to War
Hero Classes
Wizard:
Wizards are the embodiment of magic users in the eyes of most. Coming from any races, they are powerful, intelligent and curious - but also ambitious, arrogant and often reckless. They belief they can understand the world and shape it with their magical powers.
Starts with 0 Attack, 0 Defense, 4 Spellpower, 2 Knowledge, as well as the Theory Sub-Skill.
Chances for Skill choices at level up (all non-mentioned: about standard chance)
-High Chances for Sorcery, Air Magic, Fire Magic, Mysticism
-Low Chances for Fighting, Siege Warfare, Offense, Stealth,
Wizards:
-Gendulf (Male Demigod; Start with Air Magic; Specialty: Adventurer Recruiter - Increases the Adventure skill for all of your heroes.)
-Solmyr (Male Djinn; Start with Air Magic; Specialty: Lightning Heart (Any Lightning-based spells are cheaper for Solmyr; When he has reached Level 10, they also get more effective.)
-Wulfric Brian (Male Human; Starts with Sorcery; Specialty: ???)
Archivar:
Where wizards and alchemists seek the new and unknown, archivars look onto the past and its wonders. They guard the Tower libraries and vaults - but they can also be found in ancient ruins or on exotic markets, looking for ancient artifacts and forgotten lore. Thus, they know surprisingly good how to defend themselves.
Starts with 0 Attack, 2 Defense, 0 Spellpower, 4 Knowledge, as well as the Prior Knowledge Sub-Skill.
Chances for Skill choices at level up (all non-mentioned: about standard chance)
-High Chances for Enlightenment, Mysticism, Earth Magic, Stewarding, Adventure
-Low Chances for Fight, Leadership,
Archivars:
-Hora (Genderless Ethereal; Starts with Mysticism; Specialty: Warden of Time - No time Altering skills and spells can be used in a battle with Hora present, nor on the AM when Hora is close.)
Alchemist:
Alchemists are the Towers' masters of substential magic: potions, explosions, minerals and artifacts are their domain. They have the shortest lifespan of all academy heroes. Their Creativity is known across the world - as is their total carelessness about things as unimportant as riches, status, power, food, limbs or lifes.
Starts with 1 Attack, 1 Defense, 2 Spellpower, 2 Knowledge, as well as the Experiment Sub-Skill.
Chances for Skill choices at level up (all non-mentioned: about standard chance)
-High Chances for Fortune, Resistance, Estates
-Low Chances for Fight,
Alchemists:
-Alfred (Male Dwarf; Starts with ???; Specialty: Dynamine - when defending, the battlefield starts with randomly placed explosive mines)
-Bunsen (Male Half-Demon; Starts with Fire Magic; Specialty: Burner - Increases all heat-based damage dealt on the battlefield.)
-Hodgkin (Female Djinn; Starts with Enlightenment; Specialty: Life Research - Increases the hitpoints of units under her command)
-Lavoisier (Male Air Elemental; Starts with Air Magic; Specialty: Mass Preservation - makes transformation-based spells more effective)
-Severus (Male Half-Elf; Starts with Dark Magic; Specialty: Firm Mind - units in Severus' army are resistant to Mind Control)
Faction Skill: Arcane Research
The Academy heroes are constantly doing experiments, reading ancient scrolls or theorizing on the nature of magic. This gives them the ability to expand the boundaries of spellcasting in various ways.
Arcane Research allows a hero to embetter their spells, magic skills and magical units - by spending time. A hero with this skill can choose 1/2/3/4/5 subejcts they want to research. A subject can be 1 magical (f.e. summoned, animated, spellcasting) unit, 1 spell or 1 magic skill which the hero possesses or have in their army. They can also set their dedication into research:
-Neglect: no research, but 100% movement points.
-Along the way: 20% research speed, 80% movement points.
-Duty: 40% research speed, 60% movement points.
-Interest: 60% research speed, 40% movement points.
-Dedication: 80% research speed, 20% movement points.
-Obsession: 100% research speed, but no movement possible.
After a time, the hero will have a breakthrough and can embetter the spell, skill or unit type for themselves. Without subkills or buildings, the only possible embetterment is slightly increasing the effect of spells & skills, and the hitpoints of magical units.
Subskills
-Experiment (Gives the hero the option to do experiments on the subject, giving +0/1/3/6/12/25% research speed, rising with the dedication level.)
-Theory (Allows to work on more general targets with arcane research: Spell Schools, Spell Types (damage, heal, buff, etc.), magical unit types.The boni on a breakthrough there are smaller, but apply to more targets.)
-Prior Knowledge (The research speed is highly increased when a target has been researched before, even by another hero.)
-Hypothesis [Theory & Prior Knowledge] (You can choose the breakthrough effect you're aiming for when choosing the target. This slightly reduces the research speed, though.)
-Evidence [Theory & Experiment]
-Data [Evidence]
-Scientific Interchange
-Synthesis (Allows to add effects of the same target group to a target. For example, researching haste (a buff spell), you can add the effect of blessing to it, thus effectively creating a combined spell. For units, you might research Sphinxes, and add an ability of the gargoyles to them.)
Units
Tier 1: Familiar (Summoned, Sentient)
Small creatures summoned from another realm, sentient, but obedient. They are normally called to perform lowly tasks for any spellcasters of the Tower.
Abilities:
-Assistance (Familiars give an Academy Hero a bonus on their Arcane Research speed.)
-Helpful Hand (Adjacent friendly spellcasters get a Bonus on initiative.)
Upgrades:
-Assistant (More intelligent and loyal than familiars, assistants are mostly used by wizards, archivars and alchemists, usually. Often, they stay with one master for a long time. They also have their use in warfare, though. Assistance and Helpful Hand are more effective, also Boosts Spellcasters Mana slightly. Initiative and Hitpoints are better than for Familiars.)
-Servant (Less intelligent than Familiars, they are used for heavy and dangerous tasks, or simply as subjects in Experiments. Stronger by stats. They can be sacrificed to give a strong boost on Arcane Research.)
Tier 2: Gargoyle (Animated)
These statues were once purely ornamental, until someone discovered their immense use as flying golems. They can actually fly when animated, and still take quite some damage.
Abilities:
-Flying
-On Guard (When this unit uses defense, it is then "On guard". In this stance, when a friendly unit gets melee-attacked within movement range, this unit flies towards the attacker, and performs a strike against them, before the attacker strikes. This ends the stance and uses up this units retaliation.)
Upgrades:
-tba
Tier 3: Walking Armor (Animated)
-tba
Abilities:
-Empty Hull ()
Upgrades:
-
-
Tier 4: Mage (Living, Sentient, Humanoid, Human)
-tba
Abilities:
-Spellcasting (Which spells are available is based on all the mage guilds you control. How many of them are available is based on the stack size. Level 4 and 5 Level spells are never available to mages.)
Upgrades:
-tba
Tier 5: Sphynx (Animated)
Not the mythological creature, but a statue of it, animated by magic. Nonetheless, the Alchemists and Wizards have managed to create interesting abilities in these sculptures, by the use of mysterious crystals and techniques.
Abilities:
-Riddle Gaze (This unit can perform a riddle gaze against enemy non-blind units. This is a mind-based ability, thus not affecting units and unti types immune to mind-based effects. If successful, the target unit is trapped and cannot act whatsoever, until they solved the riddle that popped up in their head. If the sphinx performs any other action than continuing the riddle gaze, the target unit gets freed one turn after the sphinx broke the gaze.)
Upgrades:
-tba
Tier 6: Djinn (Magical Being, Sentient, Spirit)
-tba
Abilities:
-tba
Upgrades:
-tba
Tier 7: Titan (Magical Being, Humanoid, Elemental)
-tba
Abilities:
-tba
Upgrades:
-tba
Special War Machine: tba
-tba
Associated Units:
-All sorts of Golems (at least: Stone, Iron, Sand, Gold, Crystal)
Town:
Building Chart
Quote:
Legend:
Building A [Requirements] (Effect)
>Upgraded Building A
-> twice upgraded Building A
-Other Base Building needing Building A
General buildings are black
Magic buildings are blue
Dwelling are red
Special buildings are green
Buildings unique for Dungeon(except dwellings) are bold
Village Hall (500 gold income)
>Town Hall (1000 gold income)
->City Hall (2000 gold income)
-->Capitol (5000 gold income; unique per faction)
-->Province Hall (3000 gold income)
Fort (Makes the defenses stronger; allows Building dwellings)
>Citadel (Makes the defenses stronger; +25% Creature Growth)
->Castle (Makes the defenses stronger; +50% Creature Growth)
Marketplace (Allows trading resources for others. More marketplaces allow a better trade rate.)
>Ressource Silo (Gives 1 Crystal per day)
Tavern (Can recruit heroes of level 1)
>Inn (Can recruit heroes of level 5)
Mage Guild Level 1
>Mage Guild Level 2
->Mage Guild Level 3
-->Mage Guild Level 4
--->Mage Guild Level 5
Blacksmith [Town Hall] (Can build the ???)
>-tba [tba] (Can build the tba
sds(BLA)
Summoning Chambers (Allows recruiting Familiars)
Sculptor [tba] (Allows recruiting Gargoyles)
Magical Works [tba] (Allows recruiting Walking Armors)
Arcane University [tba](Allows recruiting Mages)
Riddle Gate [tba] (Allows recruiting Sphinxs)
Cave of Wonders [tba] (Allows recruiting Djinns)
Elemental Node [tba] (Allows recruiting Titans)
Grail Building: tba
Defenses:
tba
Tech Tree
Every faction has their own Tech Tree, offering benefits for all your heroes, armies, towns and AM-Structures.
The tech tree can be accessed on the Adventure map. Most Techs have requirements you must meet. If it is buildings, 1 town with them is enough.
Techs take time to research. The more towns you have, and the better built these towns are, the less time Techs take.
Campaign
tba
Scenario 1: tba
tba
Scenario Style: tba
Map Size: tba
Enemy Players: tba
Starting Hero: tba
Starting Bonus:tba
Victory Condition: tba
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Rimgrabber
Famous Hero
It's a fixer-upper
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posted February 21, 2021 08:03 PM |
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Classes:
Artificer (Mixed)
Likely Skills: Enlightenment, War Machines, Logistics
Unlikely Skills: Offense, Occultism, Leadership
Sorcerer(Magic)
Likely Skills: Sorcery, Destruction Magic, Luck
Unlikely Skills: Leadership, Defense, Offense
Psion(Magic)
Likely Skills: Occultism, Dark, Enlightenment
Unlikely Skills: Tactics, Logistics, War Machines
Troops:
1: Oneiroi (Sandman/Pesanta)
2: Familiar()
3: Golem ()
4: Baku (
5: Gargoyle(/)
6: Alchemist()
7: Naga (/)
____________
http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=46284&pagenumber=1
^ Part 2 of my proposal for Heroes 8 (Part 3 coming soon)
you lost your internet privileges
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Alon
Known Hero
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posted April 07, 2021 11:31 PM |
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Jiriki9 said:
Familiar (Summoned, Sentient)
Small creatures summoned from another realm, sentient, but obedient. They are normally called to perform lowly tasks for any spellcasters of the Tower.
Abilities:
-Assistance (Familiars give an Academy Hero a bonus on their Arcane Research speed.)
-Helpful Hand (Adjacent friendly spellcasters get a Bonus on initiative.)
Ooh, I really like this idea!
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Gandalf196
Bad-mannered
Famous Hero
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posted April 08, 2021 03:45 AM |
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Jiriki9 said:
Wizards are the embodiment of magic
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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
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Alon
Known Hero
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posted April 17, 2021 03:06 AM |
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Is anyone else still doing this and needs more time?
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Jiriki9
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Altar Dweller
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posted April 18, 2021 08:52 PM |
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I am now and then updating my entry, but I am not having time to be dedicated to it, frankly...
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Rimgrabber
Famous Hero
It's a fixer-upper
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posted April 20, 2021 11:30 PM |
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I'm really sorry for ghosting this thread everyone. I do sincerely want to continue this project but I haven't been in a very good place right now. I've been feeling really overwhelmed by life and don't have a lot of mental energy to spend on this since I'm currently working on my friend's city council campaign, have writing projects I need to do, and I'm starting college.
I'll pop in the forums from time to time but I don't have a lot of time and energy for heroes lately.
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http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=46284&pagenumber=1
^ Part 2 of my proposal for Heroes 8 (Part 3 coming soon)
you lost your internet privileges
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