This is the Age of Light.
The sprawling continent of Summerland is a place where legends and heroes have thrived for generations. Many notable realms make up the composition. At its heart lies the capital, Glorydale, radiating hope and justice. The underground fortress of Dawnholde, ruled by the High King, stands as a symbol of strength and unity. Though situated at the distant end of the continent, far from Glorydale and Dawnholde, Saintsburgh stands as the true beacon of heroism. Summerland is defended by various heroic groups, including the prestigious Mystic Knights and Guardians.
The latter group was responsible for the pacification of the Keepers of Summerland, now known collectively as "Sleepers". The Guardians know that Keepers can never truly die and destroying their Hearts merely banishes them but in time allows them to physically remanifest themselves again. That’s why the Guardians rendered the Sleepers dormant by defeating them all and subsequently magically binding them to the land, rendering them dormant. This way their resurgence can be prevented and Summerland be protected from their malevolence. The Wardens have been tasked to keep watch over the Sleepers and have constructed dungeons around their hearts to contain them.
However, the Age of Light is drawing to a close.
Recent unexplained events have rekindled the power of the Sleepers. Rumors spread that the reawakening of the Sleepers was triggered by an unknown event, possibly originating from a distant continent. Keepers across Summerland awaken from their long slumber, shattering their prisons and leaving destruction in their wake.
The Guardians, once a formidable force, have dwindled in number. The remaining Guardians—the Warrior King, the Mage Lord, and the Witch Queen are all that remain.
In addition, a shadowy force known as the White Horde holds dominion over a single realm, led by the ancient and fearsome Vampire King. Despite countless attempts by heroes to displace them from the Silent Plains, the White Horde remains unchallenged, and rumors of their growing aggression abound.
The remaining Wardens are trying their utmost best to contain the Sleepers still dormant from their prisons. However, a collision course between Summerland's heroes and factions against the forces of darkness seems to be inevitable. The Mystic Knights, champions trained by their renowned Warrior King, must defend Glorydale and Dawnholde. The Samurai clans of Mystwater, steeped in tradition, rally to protect their homeland. The giants of Flameburgh, wielding immense strength, are preparing to launch an early campaign against the forces of darkness.
Meanwhile, at the periphery of Summerland in the realm of Ambergarde, another Keeper with a dreaded reputation wakes. One whose true name is known but avoided spoken out due to fears of empowering him. The Warden of Ambergarde knows with his waking a storm will soon be upon Summerland… a Blue Tempest.
Originally starting out as a map pack it slowly turned into a 15-level campaign that I never gotten around to finishing it till now. Most levels are pre-Unearth actually but now with the latest KeeperFX official script version. The playing experience was aimed to be close to the original gameplay but I have included a number of changes. For instance, some Creatures are rebalanced so they may have, hopefully, increased utility. Although it starts off relatively easy the overall difficulty level is at least that of the Deeper Dungeons. But at no point it should be impossible. If you do encounter issues do reach out to me!
Thanks to:
- Krizzie for playtesting
- YourMaster (landview and general support)
- ben_lp for permission of use of assets (see notes V1.1)
V1.1 (29-12-2024)
Notes:
- Now requires minimally KeeperFX version 1.2.0 to play as the campaign uses features such as the Midas Door and roaming players.
- Fixed level names.
- Minor script fixes or additions.
- Minor tweaks to Creatures.
- Streamlining of some maps.
- Added battle music from Dungeon Keeper 2!
- Levels are (more) decorated now.
- Integrated Secret Door and Midas Door into the campaign.
- Changed some pre-placed enemies' ownership to a roaming player (black) that is hostile to everyone.
- Time Mage and Druid integrated into the campaign, albeit exclusively as enemies.
- Integrated use of campaign flags in two instances. The more notable of the two is used for obtaining and permitting use of the Secret Creature.
- Opportunity for unlocking the Secret Creature (creator: ben_lp) for the last third of the campaign. This requires some conditions to be fulfilled. Hint: Scavenger Room in level 10 Emberfield. Do note: you get this opportunity only once!
Great campaign, with lots of variety, 5/5 - many thanks! I'm surprised the difficulty rating isn't coming out as higher, as I found that some of the levels made it much harder than other campaigns with higher ratings. I thought level 12 was particularly challenging (I ended up restarting it about 5 times trying to get the pace correct...). It was quite the battle at the end of it too!
I encountered the same issue with level 12 that Ivysaur97 described below: mining to the west of the fortified block in the south, before claiming the one to the east makes it impossible to win - and it takes a while for gold to run out, and then realise that a bridge won't get magically researched!
Thanks! Glad to read you have enjoyed it.
Have you played with version 1.0 or 1.1? In the latter version it is less likely to accidently softlock yourself at level 12.
It was version 1.1, downloaded 13th Feb 2025.
Having a blast with the campaign, it's fun to see the message popups and info about what's happening in the rest of the world. Side note: not sure if this is just keeperfx, but is lighting even more OP than it already was in the original game? It seems a bit excessive tbh. Creatures feel different in general, the warlock's explosive fireball seems more powerful as well
In DK1 the Meteor was bugged and would not explode when it hit a creature. In KeeperFX the damage is lowered, but the explosion is fixed to actually deal damage to creatures around it and push them a bit.
The actual stats for those are lower than bullfrog configured on it, for balance reasons.
Thanks!
KeeperFX did a number of changes on how Creatures work. In relation to your question: the damage from spells also grow with the Creatures' other stats which is 35% per level which previously was a static number. In Dungeon Keeper the Meteor spell was a flat 100 points of damage but in KeeperFX their damage output grows accordingly, allowing Warlocks (in this example) to keep up on high levels.
That %35 has long ago been changed down to 8%. It does give magic users a bit of a boost compared to DK1 sure, but this to compensate for the health cap and strength and dexterity fixes that mostly benefitted melee units.
Thanks for the campaign, i enjoyed the variety and design of levels. But there are a few bugs and cheeses that i encountered,
-on level 4 brightwyn and level 9 brightland , it's possible to block of the water with a guard post and make heroes swarm the enemy keeper/keepers
-on level 12 glorydale, it's possible to dig up tile 19,81 before you unfortify 20,81, which makes it that tile 20,81 will stay fortified when the land below it is claimed, and without a bridge, that softlocks the level
-on many levels with keepers, they can be rushed with a dragon in symbiosis, especially dungeons that are supposed to be hard to access because of doors, enemy creatures can be lured to the doors to open them.
The difficulty curve was somewhat skewed, the levels hardest imo were 6 and 10. 12 is challenging if you and your ally get unlucky with portal generation. 13 also could look tough if i hadn't rushed 2 enemy dungeons early.
Hello Ivysaur97. Many thanks for your feedback. Though not gamebreaking I will especially look into the cheesing parts on how to prevent that.
Just finnished the map pack and i loved it! Loved the lore and the playstyle, Kinda felt an extra love to the map when u had to ally a keeper. Keep making maps cuz this was awesome. 5/5 😻
Thanks! Happy to read about it. 😊
I need help with level Emberfield. If I defeat the red keeper, I lose. How do I form an alliance with him?
Hi Reyals. During gameplay go to the Information Panel (?-sign). You should see information (rooms, creatures) from both you and the Red Keeper including 2 face-icons with one being greyed out. Click on that one to form an alliance. Please let me know if you can (not) proceed.
Thank you so much
Just playing now, I can't beat level 3 though I've done everything, destroyed the heart and LotL, killed all heroes I can find on the map. Is anyone else getting this bug?
Hi Charzin. In the last upload there was a version of this map where I made an mistake in the script, making it unwinnable. I uploaded a new version of the campaign where this should no longer occur. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Workshop item updated per 19-08-2024. It now provides the full proper campaign experience! Extract into the game directory.
loved the whole pack :) well done and thank you ... lots of fun hours ..
Thanks, happy to read about it!
Yow this puts a smile to my face I was waiting for some more maps and then you drop this epic bomb its cool it has a bit of lore
Im going to try it soon and tell you what I think of it