I’ve been discussing with a lot of friends in these past days regarding how the beastmen are present in the game at the moment. They currently spawn in every map except “Into the Nest” and “Skittergate” and when they do they are very predominant, up to maps where we’ve had them for the whole map, final event excluded.
I’m very unhappy about the situation, as their presence makes little to no sense in most of the old maps, and even people less attentive to the storyline have agreed with me they feel a bit off.
So after some thoughts this is my suggestion:
Have no beastmen spawn in the maps more directly involved with the Helmgart storyline: these are “Righteous Stand”, “Convocation of Decay”, “Hunger in the Dark”, “Halescourge”, “The Screaming Bell”, “Into the Nest”, “The War Camp” and “Skittergate” for the main campaign, both Bogenhafen maps, and “Horn of Magnus” and “Garden of Morr” for Back to Ubersreik.
For the record, Fatshark has said that their plan is currently not to have them on the lord maps, so my suggestion would have them remove them from 4 additional maps of the Helgmart campaign (and a fair bit of the DLC ones).
To offset that, I suggest they could make Athel Yenlui a full beastmen map, like Dark Omens. Whatever (or whoever) interfered with the Bridge of Shadows is gone from the map already by the time we get there, so, story-wise, having it as a mostly, or totally, beastmen map would fit.
The remaining maps:“Fort Brachsenbrucke”, “Against the Grain”, “Empire in Flames” , “Festering Grounds” and “Engines of War” are all outside of Helmgart (or Bogenhafen, or Ubersreik), and having beastmen there would not be as disruptive. As many people have observed, lore-wise, the beastmen are opportunists, so it seems reasonable that in less populated towns/areas, they happened to join the pactsworn for a bit of fun.
I would still suggest to rework the way they spawn a bit, to have them appear in small, possibly specific sections of the maps, where it seems most likey to encounter them, instead of having them to appear in random sections, or for most of a map, stealing the pact sworn’s spotlight.
The most suited sections in the example maps would be:
The area around the ford in “Fort Br.” from the dropdown to the tunnels.
The first part of Against the grain, up to the oak hill.
I’m actually a bit conflicted about Empire in Flames, maybe have them around the outskirts? outside the city proper? Or have them as a continuos, but mixed presence across the entire map event excluded. Or maybe no beastmen at all, I’m unsure.
Festering grounds is full of forest bits.
Engines of war too (it even has a herdstone!).
You got the gist.
I believe Drachenfels will have beastmen this time, and i think their presence will be the focus of our return, so all in all I believe we’ll have no shortage of hoofed enemies to fight.
In any case, some specific new lines to aknowledge the beastmen presence in these maps would do much for immersion (“Beastmen in Ussingen, the heresy” or “I’ve seen many towns raided by the herd, bun nothing on this scale”)