Is Progress Robbery Inevitable?

[TigerInuzuka]

Do the evil forces push forward at a rate that it's viable to hold them back and grind/play indefinitely? (-3% from the kingdom, -1% a certain two-element graduate)

Or is it too fast and therefore going to force me to ditch my academy regardless of my efforts, leading to completely trashing my efforts whether I win or lose on the final map.

[sudokek]

You can make them last pretty long but yes you will eventually be over run, chaos always wins, or you can actually just use cheat engine to slow it down. iirc the timer is a float, 0-1 so when it starts it'll be like 0.000014 or something. 1 being time is up IIRC. I havent tried in awhile tho.

[worstcase11]

You can also simply go into quick game mode and select endless game - then the evil army wont come to destroy your school.

When they were first introduced to gameplay but before the deep ones graduation effects were 'nerfed' it was basically possible to play forever in one level even without really trying. the downside was that it became impossible to win a campaign that way. It became boring after 25+ years in the same level.

If you want to test it out somehwhat in campaign mode build a school in the swaps area, with the help of the unique faction there it is possible to hold the evil army back for several years longer than in other maps.

[TigerInuzuka]

Originally posted by worstcase11:

You can also simply go into quick game mode and select endless game - then the evil army wont come to destroy your school.

Thank you for the suggestion.
What is the challenge and the rewards to pursue in endless mode? How is the reset mechanic handled to keep things fresh in the face of the ludicrously tiny spell level caps?

Originally posted by sudokek:

chaos always wins

Originally posted by worstcase11:

If you want to test it out somehwhat in campaign mode build a school in the swaps area...

I'm not interested in temporary evil force extensions. That you confirmed a complete progression wipe is inevitable regardless of how well I do (win or loss) makes the campaign unplayable for me.

Originally posted by worstcase11:

It became boring after 25+ years in the same level.

This is only because the developer did not bother with procedural progression. Numbers not going up is bad / lazy. Regardless, it should be up to me when I'm bored with a game and ready to move on, especially if I perform well enough to earn dark force abatement, and especially if I invested a bunch of time into it.

[sudokek]

Did you read the whole message I sent lel

Originally posted by sudokek:

you can actually just use cheat engine to slow it down. iirc the timer is a float, 0-1 so when it starts it'll be like 0.000014 or something. 1 being time is up IIRC. I havent tried in awhile tho.

I just said you can do what you're asking for for literally forever, you could sink 1000 hours on the same map doing this. I'm not gonna explain more on how to use cheat engine than this tho cause there's thousands upon thousands of tutorials for it across the net. You can literally set how far the bar is along the top of the screen or lock it. You can make it change slower or w/e at your own pace.

But yeah I dont give a crap if the campaign is unplayable for you now man, hope you find a game that you like! What you're complaining about was literally intended to not be possible in this game and you call the devs lazy? ahhahaa

Originally posted by worstcase11:

You can also simply go into quick game mode and select endless game - then the evil army wont come to destroy your school.

[John Hadley]

There would be no campaign at all if not for progress wiping. The game mechanic that is fundamental to it is that each time you finish a level you get a new bonus if you managed to finish any of the level goals to earn stars, a new penalty whether or not you finished any level goals, and you are forced to move to a new map that has slightly altered challenges due to whatever the theme of that map is and the effect of your cumulative penalties and bonuses. The lord of evil coming is the time limit that you get on trying to complete the level goals. You would succeed at all of them all the time without time pressure being involved. I can think of nothing more boring than never being able to lose in a roguelike.

[flintfakeer]

Originally posted by John Hadley:

There would be no campaign at all if not for progress wiping. The game mechanic that is fundamental to it is that each time you finish a level you get a new bonus if you managed to finish any of the level goals to earn stars, a new penalty whether or not you finished any level goals, and you are forced to move to a new map that has slightly altered challenges due to whatever the theme of that map is and the effect of your cumulative penalties and bonuses. The lord of evil coming is the time limit that you get on trying to complete the level goals. You would succeed at all of them all the time without time pressure being involved. I can think of nothing more boring than never being able to lose in a roguelike.

I think op doesn't like that levels are called "games".

[Solarius]

Originally posted by TigerInuzuka:

I'm not interested in temporary evil force extensions. That you confirmed a complete progression wipe is inevitable regardless of how well I do (win or loss) makes the campaign unplayable for me.

That's not really how the campaign is designed.

The campaign gives you 6 levels that you can't "win" per say (the evil forces always end up overcoming you). The goal of these levels is to complete missions before the evil forces win. The more missions you complete, the more bonuses you accumulate.
On the other hand, you are also forces to accumulate "cuses", that make the game harder.

During the final level, you actually have a chance to beat the evil forces for good... But because of all the curses you have accumulated, it is hard. It all depends on the bonuses you have accumulated.

The ultimate goal of the game is to complete missions in a limited time, not pushing back the evil forces.

[tatzelwesen]

Originally posted by TigerInuzuka:

What is the challenge and the rewards to pursue in endless mode? How is the reset mechanic handled to keep things fresh in the face of the ludicrously tiny spell level caps?

I am also interested in this question before deciding if I want the game. It looks lovely in the trailers, but roguelike mechanics are too frustrating for my taste.

[Queen HawlSera]

Originally posted by sudokek:

You can make them last pretty long but yes you will eventually be over run, chaos always wins, or you can actually just use cheat engine to slow it down. iirc the timer is a float, 0-1 so when it starts it'll be like 0.000014 or something. 1 being time is up IIRC. I havent tried in awhile tho.

Do you have a Cheat Table for this game?

[sudokek]

Naa you just make it on the spot.

[Solarius]

Originally posted by tatzelwesen:

I am also interested in this question before deciding if I want the game. It looks lovely in the trailers, but roguelike mechanics are too frustrating for my taste.

You don't really have a challenge in Endless Mode. This mode might as well be called "sandbox".

As I explained previously, the challenge is to complete 3 missions (or the final mission at the end of the campaign) in a set amount of time. A time that can be extended to give you an easier time, but still.

[these people]

I've gone all-in on trying to stymie the evil forces and I've still only gotten to Winter 14. With a little more luck and planning I might be able to get to year 15 someday. (Or on Swamps, good tip, thank you!)

[NeckRomancer]

From someone who has dedicated way too much time in this game, you can push the forces of evil back for a very long time without cheats. On my current playthrough I managed 75 years in the swamps, and currently at 90 years in the desert and holding strong. Have over 1100 archmages trained so far in this campaign. The rate that the forces of evil progress increases with each year going by but combining Mark of the Eldest artifact, Deepfolk students (though they don't give as much benefit as it claims on their description), and entreating the kingdom/ orcs/ zombies to push back evil can beat back evil for a lot of real-life hours, or many in-game decades.
Theoretically, you could last forever without cheats but the game would essentially devolve into only playing while paused, and constantly sending pigs whenever time is going.

[Kaivian]

During campaign mode, it's designed so you'll eventually finish a level. This is a good thing, otherwise people would feel compelled to spend many, many hours pumping out tons of graduates forever.

The way it works is that evil gets progress equal to a number each tick (starting very small), multiplied by any modifiers like books, curses, game difficulty, reputation. But there's another multiplier that increases over time, increasing each tick.

Things like the amulet and deep ones, they erase *that* percentage of the bar.

There's also some people you can train that slow down the progress rate.

[these people]

Originally posted by NeckRomancer:

From someone who has dedicated way too much time in this game, you can push the forces of evil back for a very long time without cheats. On my current playthrough I managed 75 years in the swamps, and currently at 90 years in the desert and holding strong. Have over 1100 archmages trained so far in this campaign. The rate that the forces of evil progress increases with each year going by but combining Mark of the Eldest artifact, Deepfolk students (though they don't give as much benefit as it claims on their description), and entreating the kingdom/ orcs/ zombies to push back evil can beat back evil for a lot of real-life hours, or many in-game decades.
Theoretically, you could last forever without cheats but the game would essentially devolve into only playing while paused, and constantly sending pigs whenever time is going.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that Deepfolk thing. I'd just been using Marks of the Eldest and entreating the king to attack as much as possible. I got to 17 years, so I have a little ways to go!

I've beat the campaign a couple times already, and I don't really have a problem with the doom timer mechanic. I'm just doing this "see how long I can push them back" as a personal challenge.