Wesnoth Terraforming

Discussion of all aspects of multiplayer development: unit balancing, map development, server development, and so forth.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Jarom
Posts: 110
Joined: January 4th, 2015, 8:23 pm
Location: Green Isle, Irdya or Poland, Earth - I'm not quite sure

Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by Jarom »

Image
Yesterday I and White_Drag0n relased new multiplayer modification called Wesnoth Terraforming. You can download it from oficial add-ons server. It allows players to modify map during the gameplay and has many configurable rules. Also, it contains a bunch of special maps designed for this mod. It's very easy to extend. The best part is that only game host have to download modification to play it, other players and observers can join without it.

We'll translate and add more features to it, although most of content is finished and add-on is fully playable. It has it's own help, which is accesible by right-clicking your leader during your turn. It's also a way to check settings applied in this game.

We're looking forward for your opinions, feedback and self-made sets of changable tiles. We can upload files here and/or make a tutorial how to use it if you want us to.
User avatar
taptap
Posts: 980
Joined: October 6th, 2011, 5:42 pm

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by taptap »

Looks promising. Needs experimenting and refinement, I guess. I believe it would be a good idea if terraforming would work with gold, even if you keep the hard limit on village and castle tiles and the limitation by leader + a few tiles around. As is I can not imagine a reason why an elvish area won't be covered with forests within a short time, while dwarves put up mountains everywhere.

Additional keeps would be neat.
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
User avatar
Jarom
Posts: 110
Joined: January 4th, 2015, 8:23 pm
Location: Green Isle, Irdya or Poland, Earth - I'm not quite sure

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by Jarom »

Have you modified default settings yet?

Terraformign can work with gold, it isn't bad idea. I'll talk with White_Drag0n about it. But, in published version you can change "tiles per turn" to 1, "bonus from villages" to 1 or 2 and check "allow tiles carryover", so it'll be just like most tiles you can get from villages only.

Limit on villages and castles is also changable. We can slightly increase slider cap, but is it really necessary? Do you really want map covered all aroud with castles?

There's small checkbox to turn off counting from leader only (if unchecked, it'll be counted from nearest of your units).

If you want elvish part of map covered with forests everywhere, set high values on starting and per-turn tiles (first pair of sliders), set terraforming range to 3-8 and uncheck "count from leader".

You can change castle tile to keep on every change mode and preset if option "Keep tiles limit" is set to something other than "no extra keeps".


--
We're planning to make small tutorial and relase new version this or next week.
User avatar
White_Drag0n
Posts: 55
Joined: January 11th, 2016, 1:42 pm

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by White_Drag0n »

Are we? :P Good to know.

I'm still figuring out what are the most optimal settings to play, but from my experience the gameplay is dynamically changing terrain back and forth rather than camping in one place. But if it ever becomes a problem, I think we might need to implement alternative ways of gaining points - for example by paying gold for them, or by killing enemy units.
User avatar
taptap
Posts: 980
Joined: October 6th, 2011, 5:42 pm

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by taptap »

I just looked into default settings and a smallish map on my own, imagining playing it. (No, I don't want a map covered in castles. I just was wondering that with equal terraforming points nothing really prevents the unoccupied tiles in a contested area being changed back and forth.) Maybe it plays out very differently.

Do you play on official server? If yes, when?
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
User avatar
Jarom
Posts: 110
Joined: January 4th, 2015, 8:23 pm
Location: Green Isle, Irdya or Poland, Earth - I'm not quite sure

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by Jarom »

When you play with other human, you can increase range of blocking enemy changes (there's a slider for it) and turn on hexlock option. First one disallows changing terrain when enemy unit is on tile in range specified in this option, second one disallows second change until your next turn ends (it means the next player in next turn will be able this tile, but you in your next turn and he in his nearest turn won't). Default setting really need improvement.

I'm playing on official server when I have enough free time, that means a few late afternoons in week.
User avatar
White_Drag0n
Posts: 55
Joined: January 11th, 2016, 1:42 pm

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by White_Drag0n »

Just like Jarom said. Using the Hex-lock function works well against switching terrain back and forth, as every time you form terrain, the tile cannot get changed again for a full turn. So if p1 makes a forest on turn 8, it can't be changed until p2's turn 9.

I visit the server quite frequently, although you don't need to download this add-on to join games played with it - meaning that if we aren't online, you can just host and try to catch a random player.
User avatar
Jarom
Posts: 110
Joined: January 4th, 2015, 8:23 pm
Location: Green Isle, Irdya or Poland, Earth - I'm not quite sure

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by Jarom »

We forgot to mention it earlier, but Wesnoth Terraforming has been uploaded to 1.14 add-ons server. Feel free to play and experiment with settings. gl&hf.
User avatar
Jarom
Posts: 110
Joined: January 4th, 2015, 8:23 pm
Location: Green Isle, Irdya or Poland, Earth - I'm not quite sure

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by Jarom »

We've released Wesnoth Terraforming 2.1, which fixed some minor mistakes in earlier 2.0 big update, on 1.16 add-ons server. A lot of code was rewritten for better maintainability, but core features remain largely the same as in previous versions. Most importantly, add-on continues to support no-download play, which means that only the player hosting the game needs to have it downloaded.

Changes from 1.0:
Fixed minor problems introduced with new Wesnoth versions. They were minor enough to go unnoticed until now.
Sliders for special tiles limits (castles, keeps, villages) now allow a special value of -1, meaning unlimited.
Similar/preset were redeveloped as similar/unlocked changes and a new preset, choosable variants was introduced.
New preset comes with menu to choose the exact terrain variant you want (e.g. pine, deciduous or tropical forest). It's much more complex than default preset, and may still contain undiscovered mistakes or inconsistencies, but covers most of terrains available in the editor.
It also includes a new option, allow free changes, which enables you to change functionally equivalent terrain (e.g. road and grass) into each other without using terraforming points.
We also tweaked default settings slightly, thanks to Hejnewar's advices for making it more competitive-friendly. Best values are still open for discussion.
User avatar
octalot
General Code Maintainer
Posts: 783
Joined: July 17th, 2010, 7:40 pm
Location: Austria

Re: Wesnoth Terraforming

Post by octalot »

1.16's add-ons manager has a new set of filters - a "Tags" drop-down menu with a checkbox for "Terraforming" add-ons. PblWML#tags describes how to add yours to the list.
Post Reply