Siege of Avalon
| Siege of Avalon | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Studio | Digital tome | ||
| Publisher | Blackstar | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
July 19, 2000 | ||
| platform | Windows , Linux , Mac OS | ||
| genre | role playing game | ||
| Subject | Fantasy | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
Pentium II with 300 MHz and 64 MB RAM , Windows 95 / 98 | ||
| medium | CD-ROM | ||
| Current version | 1.4 | ||
| Age rating |
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Siege of Avalon ( Siege of Avalon ) is a computer role-playing game , which of Digital Tome was developed from Texas (USA) and published by Black Star in July 2000th
action
The game is about the siege of a fortress called Avalon by the Ahoul race under the leadership of the half- orc shaman Mithras. The player takes control of a young hero who faces the danger. Siege of Avalon is divided into six chapters, which can be separated in terms of content and thematically, but still build on each other in the course of the game.
Chapter overview
- The demo
It was never officially published, but only unofficially in a fan forum. Corvus, the brother of the hero in Siege of Avalon, is controlled here. Corvus witnesses General Ovoron's betrayal with his own eyes and must find his way back to the fortress to inform the other generals. The demo provides the basis for the first chapter.
- Chapter 1 - Corvus
Chapter 1 is the shortest chapter in the game. As a free game, this also served as a demo, while the actual demo version was never officially released. It serves as an introduction to the game and the story of the Avalon Fortress. At first you only have very limited access to the individual parts of the fortress, but in later chapters the player can also enter other areas, but never the entire complex. First you explore the fortress and improve your initial skills with the local instructors, which requires training points. This is obtained by completing tasks and defeating opponents. Before going on missions in the village, the player receives orders from some Avalonians. Most of the time, this involves getting items that were lost when the Ahoul conquered the village. Later in the chapter you uncover a conspiracy and finally save Corvus, the hero's brother.
- Chapter 2 - Erdstein
Chapter 2 is about the search of the caves under Avalon for the mysterious earth stone. You are also given the task of finding the scout Lydia, a knight and the seer Waynar, as they have disappeared in the caves. In this chapter, for the first time, the player has the opportunity to control more than one player, but only two other characters who can join the player's group. Previously, this was only possible in the first chapter of Rescuing Corvus, when the latter joined the player to return from the village to Avalon. The end of the second chapter consists of the final battle of the magician Felious, who previously joins the group of the player, against the lich, the soul of a magician who carries the earth stone with him, in the caves of Avalon. Here Felious dies and reappears in the fifth chapter in the astral world.
- Chapter 3 - Fighters
Chapter 3 is dedicated to the fighter class. It mainly takes place in a forest that borders the fortress and houses an outpost. It is possible for fighters to become knight by completing a class-specific quest. In the forest you can meet lizard people, elves and the unicorn Mekki. From the elves, the player can learn special fighting techniques that humans do not know. The chapter ends with a battle with several Sha'ahoul who want to destroy Sir Baron Hartley and his troops. This would blow the outpost and destroy all of Avalon.
- Chapter 4 - Scouts
Chapter 4 is devoted to the scout class. The emphasis is on sneaking and moving unnoticed in the Ahoul camp. With the help of a magical mask that the player receives from Olon, you can even talk to most of the Ahoul and complete quests in their camps. In the village you will also meet a master scout who enables scouts to become rangers through several quests. This also helps the player to find a tunic that should distract the dogs from the player's track and to fight back the Ahoul through quests. The aim of the chapter is to strike down the traitorous General Ovoron and bring his knapsack, which contains important strategic papers, back to Sir Roth.
- Chapter 5 - Mages
Chapter 5 is dedicated to magicians. It mainly takes place in the astral plane, a mystical sphere in which the player travels, among other things, to the world of the Naga (serpent beings who are allied with the Ahoul). There is also the Ice World Frostheim and the Fire World Infernus. In the ice world, the player meets a very old and wise tree called Muir, which helps the player to push back the influence of the Ahoul from the astral plane and thus from the dreams of the Avalonians. In the astral plane, the player meets Felious, who defeated the Lich in the second chapter and died in the process. However, Felious' soul cannot leave the body for good, and the player helps him. There are many new spells to learn and a quest for promotion to be completed again for mages. This chapter is generally considered to be the most popular of the game.
- Chapter 6 - Finale
Chapter 6 is marked by the storming of the Ahoul hordes and their leader Mithras on the fortress through the south gate. Sir Roth falls into a fight with Mithras that the player can only watch. In a final battle between Mithras and the hero it is decided whether the fortress falls to the Ahoul or whether Avalon can be freed from the hordes by King Vortigerm together with the arriving cavalry.
main characters
- Mithras
Mithras is a Sha'man of the Ahoul. He is the leader of the enemy troops and thus the enemy personified. You face him personally at the end of the last chapter in the final battle. However, an encounter is possible as early as the fourth chapter if one is to thwart Ovoron's plans. But Mithras is invincible and a fight and thus ending the game prematurely is not possible.
- Sir Roth
Sir Roth is from the Kingdom of Elythria and is the Supreme Commander of Avalon Castle. From him the player receives most of the main quests over the course of the six chapters, which lead the player through the plot of the game. Sir Roth dies in the sixth chapter in a duel against Mithras, which the player can only sit by and watch.
- General Ovoron
Ovoron comes from the Kingdom of Oriam and is a respected commander of Avalon Castle, but who changes sides and overflows to the enemy. He warns the Sha'ahoul of a planned raid on a supply depot and leads his own soldiers into an ambush that only Corvus survives. Ovoron later plans to take Avalon with the help of a battering ram, but it must be destroyed by the player. In his knapsack Ovoron has important strategic documents for the Ahoul, which the player stole on behalf of Sir Roth. This then gives the player the order to eliminate Ovoron and bring him his sword.
- Corvus
Corvus is the player's older brother and comes from the Kingdom of Elythria. Because of him, the player goes to Avalon to announce the death of his father. Corvus is a very respected Lieutenant Avalon. The relationship with him opens many doors and gates for the player. The first chapter focuses on the search for him. Corvus' troops are lured into an ambush by the leading General Ovoron, which only he and Corvus survive. Corvus hides from the Ahoul hordes in a basement in the village from an ogre.
opponent
In the course of the game the young hero encounters many different classes of opponents, the following is a selection of the most important. The first opponents the player encounters are the Ahoul, who act as scouts. Ahoul appear mostly alone and rarely in groups. The Sha'ahoul, fighters appearing in groups, are the most common opponents from the third chapter. The Sha'men appearing from the second chapter onwards, a kind of magician, are a mixture of humans and Sha'ahoul. They mostly occur within Sha'ahoul groups and rarely alone.
Gameplay
The player overlooks the area in which he is moving the main character in a partial area from above. He can equip his character again and again with acquired or captured weapons and items of clothing. The up to two companions that he can add to the main character from Chapter 2 and equip act independently, but they can also be controlled temporarily by the player instead of the main character. It is controlled with a keyboard and mouse. The player can play the game in three possible character forms: fighter, magician and scout.
- fighter
As a fighter, you get a sword and simple armor at the beginning of the game. In individual training, the player is better at combat exercises. As a fighter, the player can be knighted by the squire. The third chapter is specially designed for the fighter, in which the player is knighted.
- magician
At the start of the game, the player as a magician receives a dagger and has mastered a lightning spell. In the individual training, however, more emphasis is placed on spells and mana strength. As a magician, the ascent from apprentice to magician is possible. The fifth chapter is specially designed for the magician, in the course of which the ascent to the magician is possible.
- Scouts
At the beginning of the game, the player as a scout receives a simple hunting bow and a quiver. The individual training is primarily about improving behavior in the field, such as restriction and stealth. The player can be made a hunter by the scout. The fourth chapter is specially designed for the scout, in which the player is named ranger by the master scout.
technology
The game is a Pentium II with 300 MHz and 64 MB RAM and Windows 95 / 98 .
The official patch for the game has a bad reputation among gamers because it causes more bugs than it fixes. Therefore, various unofficial patches developed by fans have been released.
After Digital Tome abandoned the development of a successor, the source code for Siege of Avalon was released on Sourceforge under the LGPL license. A programmer with the proper name Savage , the digital Tome originally supported programmatically, working on a port of the engine to other platforms, notably Linux and Mac OS X . For this purpose, DirectX libraries are replaced by SDL pendants and the Delphi code is brought into a Free Pascal compatible form. Siege of Avalon can thus be compiled and played on any architecture on which SDL and Free Pascal can run. The SDL variant of the engine can already be compiled and started. Sometimes, however, a game cannot be restarted or a saved game cannot be loaded.
Development history
The game was first sold on the Internet chapter by chapter and only later on completely on CD. However, commercial success failed to materialize - the publisher was forced to file for bankruptcy. So it never came to the fact that the planned sequel Pillars of Avalon ( Pillars of Avalons ) was published. The official website of the game no longer exists. However, a few websites are still active today that keep the game alive and provide support for new players.
At the request of project leader James Shiflett, the game engine was placed under the LGPL , an open source license.
Siege of Avalon was planned as the first part of a trilogy, which was not continued due to the developer's bankruptcy. The planned successor to Siege of Avalon was Pillars of Avalon ("Pillars of Avalons"). So far there is only an unofficial demo of this game, which was created by the developers of the series themselves and also published in a fan forum. In this demo the player controls a character, but he cannot communicate with other characters on the map. Only a few opponents can be fought. The planned third part of the series, Ashes of Avalon ("Ashes of Avalons"), was also never published.
Talks about a re-release of the game have been taking place since August 2014. The distribution channel here should be purely digital. However, the developer site went offline in 2017, and SOA was not republished either.
In September 2017, a community developer managed to fix the dependency and source code problems, compile a new working executable and introduce further corrections and enhancements such as improved resolution support.
Web links
- www.siege-of-avalon.com ( Memento from May 22, 2000 in the Internet Archive ) official website (English)
- Siege of Avalon - Open Source on SourceForge
- Siege of Avalon at MobyGames (English)
- Avalonier.de Official Siege of Avalon fansite with links to the community and the unofficial German community patch
Individual evidence
- ^ A b S. Davis: Siege of Avalon Continued Development ( English ) blackflystudios.com. November 1, 2011. Archived from the original on July 15, 2009. Retrieved on April 3, 2011.
- ↑ Going Open Source! In order to give the Siege game an extended practical life, allow ongoing player support, give the game a chance to be made available on other platforms, and to share our technical learning experience with the game development community, the Board of Directors at Digital Tome LP have agreed to release the Delphi source to the Siege game to the Open Source community under an LGPL license! on June 23, 2003 (English)
- ↑ Siege ( English ) Archived from the original on September 29, 2016. Retrieved on August 29, 2014: “ I am currently engaged in discussions to re-release Siege of Avalon. Stay tuned. "
- ↑ HD and FullHD version of Siege of Avalon by Raptor on soamigos.de (September 2017, in German)