World of Wesnoth (MMORPG add-on project)

[Dugi]

I just wanted to mention it. The ai behaves that way when a character or enemy unit is about to level up. It will be ignored, as the levelup can heal the unit. However with an Aggression of 1.0 this should not happen but it does :/. Maybe you could just save the levelup in a variable?

It must be in a variable in the unit, like mana. Using the usual variables would cause trouble with more players and annoy in lua.

You might delete the labels when entering a menu and replacing it, after this is done. Or we just make activateable label for each scenario. As lua Errors should not show, we might as well ignore that ^^.

There is a function to collect all labels that would allow hiding them and putting them back after. But one lua error in a GUI and all labels gone forever.

Statuschanges mean: defence: 8, 20% attack up and so on

You mean like properties of items that affect the player?

I'm not quite sure. It started when the scarecrows attacked. It might has something to do with my special attack "trash" which triggers on defence. In the attached save game, it indeed shows when the turn starts.

It had to do something with traits, probably triggered by an [object] being added by WML. It was some kind of variable manipulation problem (that didn't manifest because I used no [object]s) that appears only in lua (in fact, you are supposed to do that in WML, but it crashes lua), and it was easy to fix.

The repaired file:

[Heindal]

Yeah, I meant properties.

[Dugi]

I looked at it, it seems that the description is generated properly, but only several first lines are shown, depending on the number of lines in the description of the first item shown there. Apparently the textbox created is not created large enough to show the whole description, and it's not in my powers to resize it. I have decided to initially fill it by a text consisting if a stream of new lines, and it created it large enough. Use this file to have it fixed:

[thenotoriousmrbaker]

Well I know i'd play it if it ever came out. I don't have much that i'd be able to contribute though, still trying to figure out how to create/combine factions.

[Dugi]

Well, the game is mostly working, the main problem is that there is only one scenario at the moment. Heindal, the scenario writer, is busy with his own problems afaik, but he should return. If not, I might write some scenarios myself.

[Heindal]

I will be back for a while. I so far fixed the first scenario and did some changes to the gameplay:

Mostly this is about dynamic - for example after the second missions the defenders start to built barricades and the peasant will then join the attack against the watchtower and try to free the village.

I also got rid off the side 10 and fixed different issues concerning the last mission.
The concept of glamdrol is done (the second scenario is done); i now have to write a scenario and build up the map.

I will tell you the details via pm, later.

I also had an idea for encounters in the world map - we already discussed that dugi, but I think this one might be working. You just extend the map and create a space right of the main map. The heroes are teleported to this spot and can do the fighting. After the encounter the mainmap resests and heroes are teleported back. Thus way we are saving one scenario and reduce loading time.

[Dugi]

Good to read that second scenario is done. I am still thinking of the idea Mabuse proposed, using some of his perfectly polished maps as dungeons. Some balancing might need to be done earlier, if you need to alter the experience calculating formula, see the calculate_max_experience function in utils.lua, it should be easy to change.

I really like the idea of fights on the main map moved to an area somewhere on a corner of the overland map instead of an extra scenario. There might be more places like this to handle different terrains.

[Heindal]

As the terrain or the map part is generated, when the heroes encounter an enemy we can than take the terrain of the leader unit and create different terrains, based on a random effect. It will however take some time to finish and perfect the 'second scenario' - even so I think the worldmap can also be considered as second scenario.

Spoiler:

With three scenarios and maybe a final fight in Glamdrols Underground, the morpg would be ready for an alpha.

You did a great job with the lua part so far and the heroes even so placeholder, look really great.


I also changed the starting story:

World of Wesnoth: The time between the years 350 and 417 YW is known as the First Dark Age. For almost 70 years Wesnoth was ruled by changing factions and short-lived dynasties. The Age was dominated by chaos, invasions and struggle to survive. A perfect time for heroes. Rumours about strangers in black robes roam the taverns of Irdya. Followed by a path of destruction and armies of countless minions they seem to seek for only one goal: the destruction of Weldyn, if not Irdya itself. The king has invited individuals with great potential, regardless their birthright or their origin. He has asked for heroes, for you! After a long exhausting march on your way to Weldyn you stay the night in the tavern of Tath, a small village North of Weldyn. Suddenly the town is attacked by Undeads. Is this just bad luck or are you the target of an attack? Will our young unexperienced heroes prevail against the undead foe?


I used the first dark Age, as it offers a lot of potential and ideas. The story explains why the heroes traveled together and would than explain why the heroes have to fight their way to weldyn first. Than they will receive the mission to negotiate with the orc tribes, which will be done if they defeat the first leader :p. We could than add funny comments done by the orcish heroes.

[Dugi]

As the terrain or the map part is generated, when the heroes encounter an enemy we can than take the terrain of the leader unit and create different terrains, based on a random effect.

Randomly generated terrain is fine. I think that it might be done so that the enemy will stand on the same terrain he stood on at the start of the fight, the player will stand on the same terrain as he stood at the start of fight, and the terrain in between will be randomly generated, something between the two, maybe with some villages and decorations added.

With three scenarios and maybe a final fight in Glamdrols Underground, the morpg would be ready for an alpha.

Good, good.

I also changed the starting story:

That's good. The only detail is that the word undeads shouldn't be used, because undead is both singular and plural.

[Heindal]

I'm almost done. I finished the work on the world map and the glamdrol map, scenario design and repaired the tavern scenario. Its not perfect, but annother step in the right direction. But there is still an issue concerning the entrance of a new map.

It constantly brings: game_error: creating unit with an empty type field

I don't know what causes this problem. Any ideas? It could be the hero, which start without a type - but I'm not sure!
As you can also start with any scenario i tested them and they all worked fine.

(I'm quite sure that I already worked out this bug, maybe we used an older version for the development - or an earlier computer crash has caused the problem resulting in data loss.)

I also started a network game, which is a very good to test a multiplayer campaign for bugs.
I realized that the import function doesn't work, this just works in local games. Creating a hero however works fine.

[Heindal]

I can't find a solution, so I will now post the results of my work. Its still a work in progress, but I've tested each scenario and they seemed to work fine.

[Dugi]

It constantly brings: game_error: creating unit with an empty type field

It appears that the leaders/heroes are not recalled properly. This error probably causes some further lua errors. I don't know why they aren't recalled properly, but it can be worked around. Simply storing them in the victory event (which is almost always the last event fired) and unstoring them (despite the amount of strange codes, unstore_unit and similar things do everything you expect them to do) on new locations in the prestart event of the next scenario should solve it (might need some no_leader=yes in players' sides' definitions).

I realized that the import function doesn't work, this just works in local games. Creating a hero however works fine.

This looked terribly bad, but now I read on the wiki that In multiplayer campaigns, each Persistent Variable also requires a side, and it's not easy to guess that because I worked only with singleplayer so far, I didn't know of this. Lucky that I found it.

This file should fix it, use it to replace the same file in the lua folder.

[Dugi]

The error game_error: creating unit with an empty type field is your fault. I have debugged it and found that none of the player sides have the type of the leader assigned. It works in multiplayer if it is the first scenario, because you choose them at the beginning, but not if continuing (as I said, recalling appears to be broken). I assigned them a unit type and made the game recall them manually, and everything works. It was simple WML stuff.

I also fixed the problem that if you choose to start with an older unit, you can't change your mind.

Here's the updated version:

[Heindal]

I'm sorry for that, but as you know I don't have experience with multiplayer campaigns (except for the one noone plays). I feared that the types in the second scenarios would overwrite the selected heroes and as the first scenario worked without types, I believed that it would overtake the type of the herotype as in single player campaigns. I will test this new version for bugs, but as I said I just have time till the end of august.

[Dugi]

There is nothing that could be overwritten, the characters seem to simply vanish. Normally, only the leader's id matters, the type, name and other stuff can change (and is relevant only if you are starting with that scenario for some reasons, so maybe it can be omitted, don't know), but in our case, the characters are failing to be get recalled, and so it crashes. Anyway, it is wholly fixed, the characters are stored/unstored and the normal scenario leaders are just placeholders to be deleted.

If you have time only till the end of august, could you please hurry and make the cultist fight scenario (that would be the end of this alpha)? I will finish the spawning and other things afterwards, and upload it in then.