Idea Info Name: Rise of the Ancient Heroes Index: Primary Category: Strategy Submitted: 7/15/2003 10:15:41 PM Written By: BebopDaBebop

Relation to other games:  I have several other games that all revolve around the world, Kodah Nak’ Tarrah.  The first idea I submitted was also a strategy game and it was called War of Gems B.O.G. (Birth of the Gems).  This game takes place before the War of Gems and before Gems were even born.  The heroes in this game are ‘Ancients,’ which are a race of demi-gods that have watched over the world since the beginning.  Later, in the War of Gems B.O.G. these heroes may take side with you or end up attacking you.  But they play an even more crucial role later in future War of Gems games.

The Idea:  Remember all those levels in strategy games like Starcraft and whatever else where you only have a limited amount of units and you have specific mission objectives to reach?  Well that is basically the case in Rise of the Ancient Heroes.  I believe that these types of missions have a great deal more strategy and more puzzle-solving elements than the typical strategy game mission where it is basically the whole ‘build up troops and attack’ sort of thing.  The main objective behind Rise of the Ancient Heroes is to prevent humanity, and the three separate races of humanity (The Jarvinah, The Calhoun, and The Satinkah) from destroying itself.

The Ancients: The Ancients, as mentioned before, are demi-gods that were originally created as caretakers for the world.  They watched over all races of the Kodah Nak’ Tarrah, not just the factions of human beings.  They watched over the Dragons as they took control of the world.  And, as the humans are doing now, the Dragons ruled the world with an iron fist and did whatever they wished—nearly destroying the world.  But The Ancients were the ones that killed off most of the Dragon population for their cruel injustice to the world.

The Missions:  Missions are generally espionage because The Ancients do as much as possible to keep their presence from being known.  However, there are points where you can actually control one of the three races’ outposts to build up armies and attack (like most strategy games).  But the missions are generally focused upon destroying superweapons, capturing fiends, or preventing major wars.  Some of the last few missions actually allow you to build up forces as an Ancients race as well.

The Heroes:  In each individual mission you have a certain amount of Ancient Heroes to aid you in your objectives.  All of these Heroes are automatically cloaked from normal vision.  There are certain units that can see hidden units, however, and each hero does not always stay cloaked.  Some heroes only remain cloaked when standing still, other heroes become uncloaked when attacking, and others become uncloaked only when they do certain tasks (capturing buildings, stealing resources, etc).  Some heroes are detrimental to a particular mission, so you must keep that certain hero alive at all costs.  If a hero dies in battle, you may regenerate him/her but only if you have the Ancient Temple.  If you do not have the Ancient Temple then the hero will reincarnate but it may take a mission or two for him/her to do so. 

List of Heroes and their Abilities:

Zentai:  Zentai is an ancient hero known to humans as the mythical form of Death.  His weapon is a scythe and he is able to quickly kill anything with a swipe of the sickle.  Zentai becomes uncloaked whenever he slashes with his scythe, but he is the quickest to recover and become cloaked again.  This means that any establishment with no ‘vision units’ (units or buildings able to see cloaked units), is extremely vulnerable to Zentai’s attacks.  Every time Zentai kills someone he becomes even stronger and if he kills enough units in a single mission, he gains certain abilities.  The first ability he gains is slight regeneration ability.  The next ability he gains is ‘silent kill’ which allows Zentai to perform a slicing attack on units to kill them instantaneously and without becoming uncloaked (note: this ability only works on infantry and takes a little while to ‘recharge’ the move).  The last ability that Zentai can get is ‘quick recovery.’  When Zentai performs this ability he floats in the air, meditates, and recovers hit points extremely fast (note: this move can only be performed when not in battle.  If Zentai performs this ability and becomes hit then he loses concentration.  Also note that this ability takes a long time to recharge).  Zentai takes most similarity to the Calhoun because of his vicious melee attacks but he shows no allegiance to that race or any other, besides the Ancients.  Zentai generally believes that there is no hope for any human race, and that they will destroy themselves along with the planet if The Ancients do not rectify their mistakes.  He believes that ultimate destruction of all the human races will be the only possible option in the end.

Audra:  Audra is an ancient hero who resembles the Jarvinah race.  She uses her intellect to manufacture weapons and techniques for herself.  She is quick but has a low armor class and low hit points.  She is not equipped for battle and the only ‘weapon’ she has is a shock rifle.  The shock rifle stuns enemy units, vehicles or buildings, but only for a short time.  The rifle can be charged, but while the rifle is charged Audra is incapable of performing any of her other special talents.  These talents include capture building and steal resources.  When Audra attempts to capture a building, she lays her back pack on the ground and opens it like a laptop, she then begins capturing it.  If she has to stop while capturing it she has to put the backpack on her back again, meaning it takes a little bit of time to get moving again.  The same goes for when she tries to steal resources.  Audra does not gain any added abilities when she gains in rank, but instead she captures buildings faster and steals more amounts of resources with her special abilities.  Audra stays cloaked until she attacks with her shock rifle, or does one of her special techniques. 

Khalidah:  Khalidah is an ancient hero who resembles the Satinkah race.  She has enormous and devastating spells that can seriously damage all those within the area of attack.  One such spell is Fireball.  When cast, this spell projects a ball of fire from Khalidah’s hands and explodes when it hits the desired area.  This spell does exceptional damage and has a large blast radius.  It is perfect for taking out a large group of attackers.  Her next spell is Lightening Bolt.  This spell takes a little warming up before she is able to summon the power to cast it.  When she does though, a huge bolt of lightening billows from the clouds and strikes down upon all those underneath.  This spell does spectacular damage, but is mostly used on buildings.  After she casts the spell she is able to click on other targets and multiple lightening bolts will shoot down from the sky.  The first lightening bolt does the most damage but the others do great damage as well.  The best way to use this attack is to shoot down an attack turret (or some other building that shoots) and when other units come to attack you, shoot them with the other lightening bolts.  Another one of her spells is called Blizzard.  This spell has an enormous area effect.  It does small damage to everything in the radius, but the real beauty of the spell is that it slows down all the units in the area, while the spell is in effect.  This spell is perfect for large scale assaults and attacks against enemy bases and forts.  Khalidah’s normal attack is actually a spell in itself, it is called Magic Missle.  It is basically a magically created arrow that shoots after an opponent at incredible speeds.  There are two main weaknesses of Khalidah.  One is her dependence on Mana.  Every spell she casts, even Magic Missle, requires mana.  But, her mana replenishes automatically.  This process is very slow, however, and she may use a technique called Absorb Mana.  With this technique Khalidah puts her hands on the ground and absorbs the mana from the earth.  Depending on what rank Khalidah is at will depend on how quickly her mana supply is absorbed.  The other significant disadvantage of Khalidah is her frail body.  She gets injured very easily and does not automatically regain hit points.  One last thing, when Khalidah is out of mana, she may do a melee attack where she chops at the opponents with her hands.  However this attack is very weak, even after she gains in rank and must only be used in very desperate situations.  Khalidah becomes uncloaked when casting spells, running, attacking, or absorbing mana.

These are just some of the ancient heroes.  There are ten in total.  The first three, that I have described here, are all based on the three races of human kind.  The other 7 heroes are based on other races of the Kodah Nak’ Terrah. 

Controlling Units

Movements and Stances:  In Rise of the Ancient Heroes, since the main focus of the game is infiltration and not huge battles with massive amounts of troops, there is more focus on how each individual unit moves and works.  The first form of movement is Run.  Run makes your unit move as fast as they possibly can across the field but it is not at all stealthy.  Some of your heroes may uncloak themselves by running because running units are easily spotted.  Walk is the second form of movement.  Walk is a much slower form of run but it is much more difficult to detect a unit that is walking.  Walking is also good when an ambush is expected because your units will likely not be taken off guard.  Crawl is the last form of movement and it is easily the least detectable form.  Many times a unit can crawl right next to a guard and the guard won’t see the unit.  However, crawling is the slowest form of movement and, if the unit is attacked while crawling, it does a lot more damage.  Now as for the stances, there are four different forms of stances.  The first one is called the Defense Stance.  The Defense Stance is the best stance to use if you think you are going to be attacked because there is no chance of your units being taken by surprise if they are in the Defense Stance.  When attacked they will attack back right away with an added advantage to their strength and defense.  The second form of stance is called the High Lookout.  With this stance the unit stands completely upright and simply looks back and forth.  This type of stance is perfect for guards, but also perfect for those that need to find something and quick.  This stance provides the most vision for the unit.  There is also the Low Lookout stance.  The Low Lookout is perfect when you want extended vision but you do not want to be spotted yourself.  The last stance is called Stay Down.  This stance is often used when a guard is looking for the unit.  Stay Down works better when you are around trees or tall grass as many a time a guard will not notice the unit at all.  The strategic player will use each one of these movements and stances perfectly to his/her advantage.  Run should only be used if the mission has a time limit.  Because it is much more likely your presence will be known if you use run.  Walk should be the most frequently used form of movement because it is much more difficult to see a walking unit.  Crawl should be used when moving close to enemy HQ.  The stances should be used constantly as well.  The best way to get vision is to move around and then switch to a stance.  Stances provide much more vision because it is easier to see while standing still.  Using stances and the proper movements is detrimental to the missions in Rise of the Ancient Heroes.

Movement Commands: In a normal strategy game usually all you have is Move, Stop, Guard, and Attack Move.  In Rise of the Ancient Heroes, you have a bit more at your disposal.  You do, however, still have the same normal commands.  Except underneath Move you have three buttons, each for the type of movement.  Click on Run, Walk, or Crawl to select the desired form of movement and the selected units will move that way.  Then, underneath Stop, there are four buttons, one for all the stances.  Click on Defense, High Lookout, Low Lookout, or Stay Down for the desired stance.  Now when you move you move with the desired movement and as soon as the unit stops it will change to whichever stance you selected.  This will provide for some interesting combinations.  One such combination would be mixing the Run movement with the Stay Down stance.  Run to gain as much distance as possible and when you see a guard or lookout tower, immediately hit Stop so the units duck and hide from the enemies.  Another interesting combination would be using the Crawl movement with the High Lookout stance.  While your units crawl the other units will not be able to see you very well, and when you stop you gain a lot of vision of the landscapes and where guys are.  And if you are spotted while standing up, just quickly move in one direction to go back to crawling.  Now it is time for the Attack Move and Guard commands.  In most games the attack and guard commands are very general, but in Rise of the Ancient Heroes you can get much more descriptive on how your units will attack or guard.  Firstly, Guard, without changing anything, will make the selected units attack any enemy that gets in their guard range.  This includes enemy units, vehicles, buildings, or anything else.  But sometimes you might want your units to guard a specific area without attacking buildings.  If that is the case, then all you have to do is right click on the Guard button and it will bring down a list of different Guard options.  There is the generic Guard, which was already explained, then there is Guard Against Attackers, which will have your units attack anything that can hurt your units (units, vehicles, buildings with firepower, etc), also there is Attack when Attacked, this will only allow your units to attack when fired upon, and the last form of guard is Protect, which will allow you to select a unit, vehicle, or building to guard.  Protect is similar to the normal Guard, except that you units put the selected object in highest priority.  This means that if they are attacking something else while the selected unit is being attacked, then your units immediately attack the enemy that is destroying the selected object.  Next up is Attack Move.  Attack Move in used in general means that while moving, if an enemy is in the path, it will be attacked.  Only enemies that can cause harm will be attacked, meaning that if a building is in the way, it will not be attacked by your units.  But if the Attack Move button is right clicked, there are more options.  There is Attack When Attacked, which is the same with Guard.  There is also, Attack All, which will attack everything in the way of the selected units.  I think that all of these options will greatly increase the strategic value of the game and will add much more elements of strategy to it as well.

Formations:  When you have a selected group, you will probably want different organization depending on the given situation.  Here is a list of different formations and what they are generally used for. 

XX
XX
XX

This type of formation is a very general one.  It is good for any situation but it is best when used in attack.  All units, when standing still in a stance, look forward.

      X

   X   X

X         X

This type of formation is best for when you are on the lookout for something.  When this formation is selected, the strongest units will go in front while the weaker, support troops, will be put in back.  The vision for this formation is excellent, but only for the front.  Units standing still in a stance will only look forward. 

          X X  

      X         X

   X                X

   X                X

       X        X

           XX

This type of formation is best when you think you will be ambushed or when your units are guarding someone because when the units stop moving, they do their stance but all of them look outwards.  So when standing still with this formation, there is no way a unit could sneak up on your group for an ambush attack. 

If a formation is not chosen then all the selected units will simply run to the clicked spot as quickly as they are able.  In a formation the selected units move in a group so the slower units are not left behind.

Vision:  I don’t think I explained this before, but vision in Rise of the Ancient Heroes is different than most strategy games.  As opposed to games like Total Annihilation, Red Alert, and Starcraft, your vision is not circular.  Your units only see in front of themselves, unless it is a special unit (usually spy units have circular vision).  Also, with the vision in Rise of the Ancient Heroes, there are two things.  The first part of the vision is your good vision, it gives you a detailed look at the surroundings and all the units that are there and everything else.  Then there is another part of your vision that is further away.  This vision shows all the landscape, and wherever there is something else there is only a ? instead of it being shown.  These question marks can be anything from units, vehicles, or buildings.  But you won’t know until you move closer.  This makes the game much more interesting and allows for back attacks and ambushes.