[C3C] Maze Of The Goblin King

[SuedecivIII]

Maze Of The Goblin King is a Civ 3 based role playing game. It is inspired by high fantasy, and starts with your heroes trapped inside a twisted labyrinth, owned by The Goblin King. The goal is to escape the maze, by taking the prophecy to one of the gates visible on the map, in as few turns as possible. To do so, you will need to kill monsters, find treasures, solve puzzles, and level up your heroes.

How Do I play?

There are two ways


-As a role playing game, with the dungeon master controlling the units within the scenario, and the players telling the dungeon master what they want their characters to do.

-As a single player scenario in Civ 3. There are a few role-playing prompts (IE guiding conversations with NPCs) that you will have to do yourself. See the post below.

What are the treasures?

-Gold can be found around the dungeon. Can be used to rush units.

-Magic Amulet: Carried by the scout. Can be used to revive a player from the dead, or rush a wonder or unit. To revive a player or rush a unit, first rush a building, then switch to the unit. The shields should carry over.

-Tent: Carried by the scout. Can be used to build a wizard hut (airbase) or a city wherever you would like.

-Eagles: Carried by the scout. Can be used to make an outpost, a radar tower, or it can be used as a cruise missile (with lethal land and sea bombard).

Outposts can be placed on mountains for 3 tiles of vision in all direction. This will always reveal 2 or more secrets or pieces of treasure! You are highly encouraged to place outposts on mountains. I know that when you play RPGs you probably hoard your consumables, but don’t do this here! You’ll miss a ton of cool stuff.

What are the puzzles?

Puzzles reward players with creativity or good knowledge of the Civ 3 game mechanics. Here’s a refresher on how airbases work.

Wizard huts (airbases) appear across the map. They allow your party members to warp (airlift) to any other wizard’s hut that they control. Only one unit can warp from a wizard hut each turn.

You can also teleport (airdrop) from a wizard hut. This can be done by all of your party members on the same turn, but it can only be done if your unit has full movement points (AKA, they started the turn on the Wizard’s Hut). You can only teleport onto a tile that isn’t fog of war (hint hint, use the eagles). If you teleport onto an occupied tile, your unit will die, so check first.

If barbarians seize a wizard hut, they will destroy it.

What are the heroes?

You start the game with 5 heroes. The scout, the guardian, the barbarian, the ranger, and the engineer. They may die. If they die, you may revive them. You upgrade the heroes by taking armories and arsenals (cities, often designed as boss fights). In terms of non-combat abilities:

Characters start with a teleport range of 4. They get +1 range when they level up. They also all get +1 movement point, and +1 HP

The scout holds treasure, and as a result can never be put on a boat. Sorry, scenario editor mechanics. Do not lose the scout, or it will be very difficulty to revive your party members.

Tier 1 scout holds 3 treasure. Tier 2 scout gets the “radar” ability and holds 6 treasures. Tier 3 scout has amphibious, blitz, radar, and can see invisible units. It can hold 10 treasures.

The ranger starts with blitz. The tier 3 ranger has lethal bombard.

The tier 2 engineer gets lethal bombard. Tier 3 engineer has blitz and lethal sea bombard.

The tier 2 guardian gets detect invisible.

The tier 2 barbarian gets blitz and amphibious assault.


What are the monsters?

Yellow units belong to the goblin king. Purple units are barbarians, wild monsters or rebel tribes. In this scenario, there is no starting combat bonus vs barbarians. You may build a wonder, the war academy, that gives you a +100% bonus vs barbarians.

There may be invisible monsters and traps throughout the dungeon. Level up your heroes and they may be able to detect them.

Generally the encounters get more difficult the further you travel from the center of the maze. Bones (tundra) represent a spike in difficulty. But harder encounters yield better treasure.


What are the buildings/units?

-Elf bait (looks like deer) is distributed around the map. Building a city on it allows you to build an elvish worker. This unit can build roads through the walls of the maze.

-Boats: You can build them in coastal cities. They allow travel over coast! Note that the scout cannot go in a boat, but most tiles you can land on should have a wizard hut near so you can warp him in.

-Border Expansion just gives you 10 culture per turn. Having expanded borders can give you important pieces of vision.

-The War Academy gives a +100% bonus vs barbarians (so purple enemies, not yellow enemies)

-The Dwarven Bank Account gives 5% interest on your treasury. It is build in 2 parts, and so it requires 2 amulets to be built.

-Orcish Medics act just like battlefield medicine. Might be quite useful in some boss fights where you’re unable to heal.

-Elven Spy Center allows you to spy on the goblins. You can steal their maps, their unit locations, and look inside their cities.

-Wizard’s Pilgrimage places an airport in all cities on the same continent.


Limitations

There are a few things I wasn’t able to program into the scenario. You should follow them as rules even if they aren’t enforced mechanically.

-There’s nothing stopping you from “reviving” a player who’s not dead, and having 2 copies of the hero. Don’t do that.

-The game doesn’t stop you from teleporting on top of impassible terrain, such as jungle walls or magic barriers. Don’t do that.

Credits

Thanks to all the play-testers in the Civ 3 Multiplayer discord! And thanks to CFC for hosting an archive of unit assets.

 

[SuedecivIII]

Encounters

If you're playing this as a single player scenario, reveal the spoiler for yourself at the appropriate time.

Spoiler Drunken guard outside the barbarian’s armory. He’s stuck in the wall of the maze. :

Man… The dwarves did this to me. I’ve heard it before and I’d better tell it to you. Don’t mess with the Dwarves!

Spoiler Elven Prisoner. At a barbarian camp 2 tiles south of the center of the maze, under some wheat. :

Adventurer… you must pay close attention! If you want to escape this place… follow the breadcrumb trail!

He passes away before you can ask him anything more.

Old Man’s Hut

At various places throughout the dungeon, you’ll find huts belonging to old men. They are represented by tobacco on the map. They’ll make you a cup of tea and you can ask them about the maze. You may pick one of the topics below when you find their homes. For any hut you find after the second one, you may ask two questions (AKA click on two spoiler tags below)

Spoiler What is the control room? :

I’ve heard about it. Some say it’s at the extreme northwest corner of the maze, some say the southwest. That’s where the Goblin King lives. Legends say that’s where he relays the orders from, and he’s got a map of the whole place.

Spoiler What is the banana trail? :

South of the shifting sands, Northeast of the barbarian armory. Aye, it’s true that many people have lost their lives there, but it’s not as dangerous as they say. There are some of the “experiments” the goblins have been working on. I don’t know why you’d want to visit there at all though, to be frank. Nothing good would come of it.

Spoiler What are the three paths? :

South of the guardian’s armory, west of the engineer’s armory. There’s a wizard hut to the south, go talk to the man there. He’ll send you on one of the three teleportation paths. Of course, you have to know where you’re going, but that’s another matter.

Spoiler What is the Hall Of Mirrors? :

Oh. This one is the stuff of legends. I can’t say too much for sure. The rumours say that the goblins had a laboratory at the northeast corner of the map. Far north of the Eastern Gate, far east of the scout’s armory. The experiment there has… kind of taken on a life of its own. They say they used to make horrific monsters, or valiant heroes. Very powerful beings, maybe the place could bring you unmatched power too. But whatever they had going on up there is ancient history. No one has heard a peep from the place in years.

Spoiler What is the Dwarven Shipyard? :

Aye, that’s a sad story. The dwarves have resisted the rule of the goblin king the hardest. Some say they still have a hideout. But they used to have a thriving port city west of the barbarian armory. They do mining just outside the city. They used to have a refinery somewhere upriver past sugar rapids. But it’s fallen into disuse. The Goblins have been shipping it downstream to the eleven dockyard. The locals there are all getting sick, it’s a tragedy really. I’m sure they would shower you with gifts if you liberated them.

The dwarves? Not so much, but it’s a strategic port that lets you reach much deeper into the maze by boat. The land around the port is mostly desolate rock, but they raise cattle on the far side of the river. If you wanted to retake the city, best bet would be to take the cattle and starve them out. The townsfolk would surely defect.

Spoiler What is sugar rapids? :

It’s deep in the maze, Northwest of the dwarven shipyard. Go further upriver and you’ll find the old dwarven refinery. You’d have to build a canal though, the old one got destroyed. But there’s nothing there. All the loot was taken with them by the dwarves when they lost their mines, to their hide-out further upriver. Some say the paths to the dwarven shipyard, and the hall of mirrors are near sugars rapids.

Spoiler What is Franklyn’s Urn :

Frank? Aye, he’s not the same as he used to be. He went on a exploration trip to the volcanoes past sugar rapids with some weird folk and they got lost. An elf, a dwarf… a wizard even I think. They all died trying climb through the walls of the maze. Frank had their bodies burned but lost the urn that held their ashes on the trip back. And his mind I’m afraid. He hasn’t been the same since. Last time I saw him he kept babbling… “There’s wrapping on the ex! There’s wrapping on the why!” What he meant by it all is beyond me.

Spoiler What is Lake Chernobyl? :

That’s a sad story. Used the be the most beautiful crystal clear lake, full of treasures. It’s east of the engineer’s armory. But the goblins use a lake in the middle as a place to do their experiments.

Spoiler What are the abandoned mines? :

The dwarves used to draw ore from the mines west of their shipyard. Not just ore, but treasure too! They say the goblins were too scared to explore because of all the dwarven traps. But you should be fine as long as you haven’t done anything to make them angry.

Spoiler What is the Dwarven Hideout? :

The dwarves used to have a shipyard on the Western half of the map, downriver of the maze’s main waterways. But they’ve moved upriver since the goblins took their shipyard. I think they ended up east of the orcs? God knows where that puts them. But if you find their hideout, go in, have a chat. If you’re an enemy of the goblin king you’re a friend of theirs. They might have some gold for you, and I’m sure they’d share all they know about the maze.

Spoiler What is bone Island? :

Downriver from the orcish shipyard, east of the Goblin engineering province. I think the goblins used to stash treasure there, or maybe religious artifacts. All I know the dwarves used to stay clear. If you go, stay careful.

Spoiler Tell me about the Goblin King? :

He runs the whole place. Some say he lives in the control room, but some of the wilder theories say he’s still doing experiments in the hall of mirrors. I don’t believe a word of that. Wherever he is, he knows a great deal about the maze. I’m sure that defeating him would lead to a way out.

Spoiler How do I leave the maze? :

Aye, don’t we all want to know that. I’m afraid I can’t help you there. I think only the Goblin King himself knows for sure, although there’s bound to be plenty of ways, there being two gates and all. Hmmm. But I think there was some elf who knew something. Some rebels captured him, I think they have a camp just a few tiles south of the center of the maze. If you want a lead, go talk to him.

 

[Rathvilly]

this was great fun - took me 215 turns but I didn't cheat ! hope you do more puzzles ...