Aetas Magica (0.0.1)

[firefox]

Welcome to the official Aetas Magica Development Thread!

Today you will find Aetas Magica 0.0.1 on the 1.12 add-on server.
Since my old project on the 1.8 server scored 4068 downloads alhough I just uploaded 3 demo versions,
I felt confident to start with a demo version aggain.
Also I hope to get more motivated if people know what I am doing.

So what is in this demo version?

It contains the Children of Gaia faction. Only one of their units is actually new, but that's all I have for now.
You can test it aggainst the Northeners from the default era. When I finish the next faction, the Northerners will be removed from this add-on.

What is [i]Aeteas Magica[/i]?

"Aetas Magica" is latin and can be translated as "Age of Magic" or "Times of Magic".
It is intended to be set in the world Irdya, so that it can be used to expand the story of Wesnoth.
I have not specified any timelines yet, so it may be used before and after the fall. (But I think that before the fall makes more sense.)
I plan to make 8 factions, 2 for each alignment.
I also have an idea for a campaign named "The Philosopher's Stone" but I will not tell you about it yet.

The 8 Factions

Children of Gaia
Wood Elves that specialize in Archery.
They are almost like the Rebels from default era, but I replaced the Mage and Merman Hunter with the Fairy unit line.

Solomon's Disciples
Alchemists from south-eastern lands where the terrain is more dessert-like.
They specialize on alchemy, so all of their units are based on elemental attributes:
Ignis - attack, Terra - defense, Aer - speed, Aqua - balance
Their main unit is the Alchemist, he has 4 different advancement paths.
The other units are elemental spirits.

The Tribes
Orcs that specialize on spiritualism. They are liminal.
They will be similar to the default orcs but instead of assassins, trolls and goblins they will have shamans and spirits.
Instead of the Wolf Rider they will have a Spirit Falcon.

Ancient Kingdom
A dwarven society ruled by seven kings.
They specialize on runecrafting, which means that they construct magical clockwork devices.
(e.g. floating castles, magic cannons, mechanical beasts)

Kaiser Reich
A religious human empire ruled by the holy Kaiser.
Similar to the Loyalists but with more holy magic.
Their units are Priests and Temple Knights.

Children of Nyx
Dark Elves that specialize in astral magic.
They are similar to Wood Elves but wield magic instead of bows. They also craft different weapons.

Underwolrd Society
Humans that live in the underworld. They guard the gates between this world and the Netherworld.
They focus on the art of summoning demons.

Sennin
Ninjas from the lands of mist. Their goal is to maintain balance between light and darkness.
They are liminal and have the best movement of all factions.
They are quick and elusive and can walk over water.

All feedback, balance suggestions, ideas for unit descriptions, lore (should be compatible with mainline lore) or other things are to be posted here.
If you want to support Aetas Magica with art, post it here too. (I will not start an art threat until I learn pixel art.)

Any praise or crtique is welcome, there are no dumb questions, feel free to tell me everything.

[Temuchin Khan]

I'm intrigued. Good luck with this!

[Lord-Knightmare]

I'm intrigued at playing this one as well, but only when it reaches a beta-testing phase...(Since I got exams and I'm busy studying for them)

"The Philosopher's Stone"

Why does this sound like a Harry Potter novel? Oh wait, it's the same name as the first one in the series. Changing the name would be better.

[doofus-01]

Why does this sound like a Harry Potter novel? :hmm: Oh wait, it's the same name as the first one in the series. Changing the name would be better. :)

Harry Potter, Inc. really shouldn't be allowed to claim that name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher%27s_stone

[firefox]

my campaign idea is totally unrelated to Harry Potter.
i was inspired to this idea by 2 anime series (one about alchemy and the philosopher's stone and one about djinn and king solomon).
by combining theese two elements i composed my story line.
i choose the name "The Philosopher's Stone" because that is the main theme of the campaign.
but if it is too confusing i can change it to "The Sage's Stone".

however, i will not start working on this until i release version 1.0 of Aetas Magica (where all 8 factions are basically done).
balancing can always be done and creating unit art will take a very lomg time. so only the basic unit.cfg's are nessesary to start.
since you brought up the theme i will tell you about my story concept:

Spoiler:

Prologue - The Laws of Alchemy
the main character (who doesn't have a name yet) and his best friend Djaffar study alchemy at the academy.
one day in the library they find a record that mentions king solomon and the philosopher's stone/sage's stone (hm, now i think that "age's stone" sounds better). they already know about king solomon but they never heard of the sage's stone. the record states that the sage's stone can bypass the basic laws of alchemy, so they want to learn more about it. but the record is incomplete and nobody seems to know anything about it.
one of the town elders tells them that it is a lost art and that they should research something else instead.
~time shift~
in their last year at the academy they discover old ruins in the dessert where they find the same inscriptions that they found in the record of the sage's stone. but again the information is incomplete. since there are no clues to any further trails they finally stop searching for the sage's stone.

Chapter I - The Lost Art
(from here on i will only give vague descriptions, because it would ruin the plot twists if i tell the whole story right away.)
the main character is now a teacher at the academy and has a student named Aladdin.
Djaffar has become a sciencist and lives in the dessert to research the movement of the sands.
rumors, that people living at the borders dissappear, spread more and more frequently.
so the main characters start to investigate that matter.
their quest leads them from the border trough the dessert to ancient ruins and back to the city where the truth about the sage's stone is finally revealed. and it is entirely different from what they have expected.
the first chapter ends at this climax.

Chapter II - Solomon's Gate
the main character is not playable anymore and the story is narrated from Aladdin's perspective from now on.
after learning the truth about the sage's stone he must flee from his land.
at the border he is captured by the Kaiser Reich, wich has started a war aggainst the alchemists.
surprisingly he is saved by a priest, but then he finds out that the priest is also involved in the creation of the sage's stone.
the scale of this incident is larger than anything he imagined.
when he tries to escape he recieves help from an unexpected side and a new "hero character without name" is introduced.
Now they must stop the upcoming war and destroy the sage's stone, but what can they accomplish if they cannot trust anyone?
Aladdins only chance is hidden somewhere in the old ruins. The last secret of King Solomon: the power to summon the Djinn.

back to the topic:

i noticed that i forgot to change the Blue Fairy's defense for castle terrain. i fixed it, but did not upload it yet.
it will come with the next update.
i decided to do the "Solomon's Disciples" next, because i already put a lot of thought into their design.
for now i will frankenstein their sprites using sprites from the "Era of Magic", but when i learn to make pixel art, the design of the elementals will undergo dramatic changes.

[firefox]

playing games is much more fun than developing add-ons. so i didn't make any progress so far.

and now that i feel inspired to work again, i got myself involved into the development of a Minetest add-on.
this will probably take most of my time, so i will pause the development of Aetas Magica for now.

this project is NOT abandoned and you may NOT take control of it.

[Ravana]

I hope to see Children of Nyx faction some day. I really like dark elves, and astral magic is fitting for them.

playing games is much more fun than developing add-ons

For me its other way around though.

[firefox]

big news:

in the last time i have played more minetest than wesnoth.
also ideas for minetest come more easy to me than ideas for wesnoth, so i decided to make a minetest subgame instead of a wesnoth era.
the only wesnoth i played was LotI, which inspired me to change my campaign idea to be more like LotI.


if i get back to developing wesnoth add-ons, i will probably change my concept again.
so i offer Aetas Magica for takeover.
if anyone is interested in it and wants to develop it, send me a PM and i will give you my pbl file.
then it's all yours .