A Rough Life

Review and rate user-made single and multiplayer campaigns and scenarios.

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Gweddeoran
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Gweddeoran »

thanks for quick reply
i can ony beat pet of death and cpunsellor before i die
or i can kil bone marshall and get swarmed
how do i beat 3???
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Elvish_Hunter
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Elvish_Hunter »

gweddeoran wrote:how do i beat 3???
It's not easy. Usually I kill first the Bone Marshall, then I put my units near the one-hex passage at 22,27, with a healer behind. In this way, depending on how I deploy them, I can attack the enemy units in two against one, or in four against two. After quite a bit of time, the enemy waves will be exhausted and you can proceed to get rid of the remaining leaders - this scenario doesn't have a turn limit anyway.
Current maintainer of these add-ons, all on 1.16:
The Sojournings of Grog, Children of Dragons, A Rough Life, Wesnoth Lua Pack, The White Troll (co-author)
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Gweddeoran
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Gweddeoran »

Thanks a lot man!
I'll try that! :D
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Gweddeoran
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Gweddeoran »

I killed 3 enemy leaders and kyoko is on the oak.
nothing happens.
should i kill all of em?
i killed all and slew ruphulfus but he came back
EDIT: i moved kyoko and i finsished it! :D
Noron
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Noron »

Hello! I like the campaign so far (I'm on the third scenario, playing on Hard).

I have a question (and suggestion for clarification): one of the "improvements" one gets for levelling up kyoko reads:
"Max HP bonus +3, Max XP +20%". Now, this improvement does indeed add 3hp to her maximum (bringing it from 26hp to 29hp) and +20%xp to her next advancement threshold (from 25xp to 30xp). However,
a) all other improvements also add +20%xp to her next advancement threshold, even though they do not mention it and
b) this option appears strictly inferior to the "increase hp" one, which adds 5hp instead of 3.
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Elvish_Hunter
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Elvish_Hunter »

Noron wrote:a) all other improvements also add +20%xp to her next advancement threshold, even though they do not mention it and
b) this option appears strictly inferior to the "increase hp" one, which adds 5hp instead of 3.
You're right. The +3 HP is the default AMLA. Back then, I didn't think to use a modified version of it, so that it'll appear only after the +20% HP options are exhausted. I guess that I'll do it. :)
Thanks for the feedback!
Current maintainer of these add-ons, all on 1.16:
The Sojournings of Grog, Children of Dragons, A Rough Life, Wesnoth Lua Pack, The White Troll (co-author)
Noron
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Noron »

I finished the campaign! I liked it. More specifically:

(1) Did you like the storyline of the campaign? If not, what would you propose changing?
I like the storyline. I find the epilogue (after the enemy is slain) a bit ... underwhelming, particularly the happier of the two endings. I like campaigns that end with a bang. Also, I find the fact that an elf maiden is the daughter of a dwarf king ... mmm. Though I guess one could find an explanation for that, e.g. an adoptee.

(2) Did you enjoy the combat element of the campaign? Was there too little of it in relation to the text? What was the difficulty like (with reference to your chosen level)? What general changes would you propose to the combat/battles?
The combat was ok. Hard, but then I did play on hard :) I briefly glimpsed at Medium, and it was not that much easier, so maybe more causal players might find that too difficult.
It was nice playing on small maps (I hate really large maps with 40+ turn scenarios...). But sometimes I felt that the map was a bit too cramped to allow for strategic thinking, so that a lot relied on luck - if the combat is over in 3 rounds, and it's well balanced, there's a good chance of you getting defeated no matter how good a player you are. For example, the first time the characters face Ruphulus in dragon form. In general, combats in the throne room feel a bit cramped.

(3) Did you like the amount of mid-game conversations between the units? Was there enough or too much of it, or would you like to see more? (With specific examples if possible.)
Well done. Nothing truly astounding, but it faded in the background without interfering with enjoyment of the game.

(4) Were you annoyed by any of the "director's choices" in the campaign (notably, leveling Jacques and transforming him into different types)? If yes, what would you change?
Nah, it was nice. Kyoko's advances were a bit obscure, but...

(5) Which map(s) do you think would most need improving? (And let me know if you'd be willing to help.)
As I said, the throne room is a bit cramped (mostly because you end up fighting only in a tiny section of it).

(6) How much do you think that this campaign would need or benefit from custom art?
Actually, I like it the way it is. I dislike the initial "dream" where skeletons appear "superimposed" on the background. I would have like the background alone better.

(7) What other specific suggestions would you have that would make the campaign better and more fun (especially those that do not require too much work)?
Actually, I like the campaign as it is. If I have a reservation is that I came to it thinking it would be a thieves' campaign - that's why I chose it in the first place. It started that way, but it soon took another path. I think the "advertising" in this sense is a bit deceptive.
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Aldarisvet
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Aldarisvet »

I finished this campaign at summer, later always was forgetting to write about it. For me now this campaign have best storyline, but others aspects are quite weak.
Sentimenatal atmosphere of this campaign is unmatched. Main heroes of this campaign are like alive. Their thoughts, feelings are displayed masterfully. The whole campaign is like a mini-opera in a game. It is about love and life, as Shakespeare's play. The end is somehow strange, two totally different lines. However I played just a one of them, I prefered to stay with Kyoko. The campaign would be perfect if it would be finished with dragon's death or something is need to be done. I think that would be good and dramatical if main hero would return to the home first, and than return back to Kyoko.

Now about gameplay. The only scenario that is tactically intresting is the first one (that was actually the reason why I decided to play this campaign). Others do not require thinking. But i was so intrigued by storyline that did not pay much attention on a gameplay later.

What more? I found quite strange that a dwarf king have an elvish daughter. Something should be done with sprites.
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Elvish_Hunter
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Elvish_Hunter »

Noron wrote:Also, I find the fact that an elf maiden is the daughter of a dwarf king ... mmm.
Aldarisvet wrote:I found quite strange that a dwarf king have an elvish daughter. Something should be done with sprites.
Right now I don't remember if that was ever explained in-game, but I always assumed that the Dwarf King had an Elvish wife.
That said, thanks for your feedbacks! 8)
Current maintainer of these add-ons, all on 1.16:
The Sojournings of Grog, Children of Dragons, A Rough Life, Wesnoth Lua Pack, The White Troll (co-author)
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Samonella
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Samonella »

I just finished this campaign and want to say that I enjoyed it a lot- great balancing, artwork, and exceptional storyline. Here are three things I think could be improved:

1) Is there a special reason Kyoko's sprite has leaf wings? As a daughter of a dwarf, this seems out of place, and her movement costs don't indicate flight to me. I'm not a graphics expert, but removing the wings shouldn't be a hard job, should it? Only melee-2 would be tricky, since you'd have to draw whatever is covered by the left wing.

2) In Flip_of_Destiny, I got the wrong message about King Bombason; I let him die, but got the message saying he's out at work. I think the reason is that you set 'Bombason_dead' to '1' if he dies in the previous scenario, and test if it equals 'yes'. you either need to use boolean_equals=yes or equals=1.

3) Some of the maps seem unattractive to me. Remaking them is a lot more work than the previous comments, but would make a big improvement.

Other than that, though, I thought this was an excellent campaign. Great work to everyone who contributed! :D
The last few months have been nothing but one big, painful reminder that TIMTLTW.

Creator of Armory Mod, The Rising Underworld, and Voyage of a Drake: an RPG
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Elvish_Hunter
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Elvish_Hunter »

Samonella wrote:1) Is there a special reason Kyoko's sprite has leaf wings? As a daughter of a dwarf, this seems out of place, and her movement costs don't indicate flight to me. I'm not a graphics expert, but removing the wings shouldn't be a hard job, should it? Only melee-2 would be tricky, since you'd have to draw whatever is covered by the left wing.
The real reason is that this sprite was made for another campaign (namely, White Troll) and I liked it :) . Also, once you remove the wings (which are more like a decoration than the real deal), she'll look pretty much like your run-of-the-mill Shaman. Sure, she'll still have a bigger stick and slightly different dress and hairstyle, but... nothing truly special that makes her stand out.
Samonella wrote:2) In Flip_of_Destiny, I got the wrong message about King Bombason; I let him die, but got the message saying he's out at work. I think the reason is that you set 'Bombason_dead' to '1' if he dies in the previous scenario, and test if it equals 'yes'. you either need to use boolean_equals=yes or equals=1.
Thank you for the report. You see, this campaign was bade in the 1.6 times. Back then, several campaigns used 1 instead of true (or yes) and 0 instead of false (or no). When I took it over, I updated it, but I guess that this peculiar instance slipped.
Samonella wrote:3) Some of the maps seem unattractive to me. Remaking them is a lot more work than the previous comments, but would make a big improvement.
On the other hand, there's also the risk of making worse maps. The one that always received the most critiques was the one in The Day of Reckoning, as it's way too big, with a lot of narrow passages that, while allowing to win even with just a handful of units, on the other hand make the scenario really slow. It's one of the many things that I always wanted to do, but never found the time or the right idea. I don't need a ready made map, mind you: if anyone has a proposal, even a crude sketch is enough.
That said, one possible way to rework the scenario may be to put our heroes in a central chamber, then all the enemies are in other chambers surrounding this one (more or less, like The Pursuit in NR, but with less narrow corridors). The player decides when to open them and in what order. Sounds good?
Current maintainer of these add-ons, all on 1.16:
The Sojournings of Grog, Children of Dragons, A Rough Life, Wesnoth Lua Pack, The White Troll (co-author)
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Samonella
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Samonella »

Elvish_Hunter wrote:The one that always received the most critiques was the one in The Day of Reckoning, as it's way too big, with a lot of narrow passages that, while allowing to win even with just a handful of units, on the other hand make the scenario really slow...
That said, one possible way to rework the scenario may be to put our heroes in a central chamber, then all the enemies are in other chambers surrounding this one (more or less, like The Pursuit in NR, but with less narrow corridors). The player decides when to open them and in what order. Sounds good?
Actually, I thought that map was one of the best. Getting through the narrow passage wasn't a problem because I was playing on easy, however. Here's a suggestion, take it or leave it: if long lines of troops in the narrow passage are a problem, could you simply not give those two death knights so much gold, even on harder difficulties? You can still find a good balance by giving some of that gold to the other three enemies.

The maps I thought weren't very good were scenarios 1 and 15, Led_Astray and Quenching_the_Thirst. The first one is obviously balanced to a pinpoint, so changing the battle ground is a bad idea; it just irked me that there was no path Jaques could have entered the island from. Suppose the Goblin's corner of the map extended a little farther and suddenly expanded into the main coast for a few tiles. This encourages the player to fight past the goblins and hide in that corner, so during the starting messages Jacques could say something like "No! The goblins are blocking my escape. I doubt we'll get past them!" Immediately afterwards, change to a new map that features the same small island, but with a few tiles of the left map edge removed so the left border cuts off the possible escape route. Alternately, just dump some fake-map-edge tiles to cover that side of the map up. Either way, it's lots of work for such a small detail. I could throw together a prototype, though I don't know how to send it to you. (An easier solution would be to show a small boat leaving just before the first message.)

The other one is the map for 15_Quenching_the_Thirst. It's a creative idea, but looks like not a lot of work went into it. I think a little variance in the terrains could go a long way. Some shallow water here, some dry (not sand) hills there. Throw in some rotted bridge tiles (they still function the same way, just look a little different) and some embellishments like stones or skeletons. Is there a reason there isn't even a square of flat mixed into the hill and mountain areas? I was no fan of those thick sand hills giving almost everyone poor movement; I think some dirt tiles mixed in would be great. Also, I'm not sure why there are lilly pads when the rest of the map is so clearly dead and dry; logically the hills would be pretty grassy anyway. I guess it makes sense if the point is to subtlety remind us that the water is needed for the life, and the dam is causing such damage, though in that case I would have lilies scattered through the whole lake instead of just the north border. The illuminated cave tiles don't make sense; they make parts of the cave lighter than the outside. And... maybe I missed something, but why is there a channel of water along the top? It would be an improvement in my opinion to move the sand hill trail up one tile to connect with the mountains.

Wow, I picked those apart pretty good; it's all meant as suggestions. Like I said before, A Rough Life is one of the best add-on campaigns I've ever played. I could spend a lot longer listing parts I liked. 8)
The last few months have been nothing but one big, painful reminder that TIMTLTW.

Creator of Armory Mod, The Rising Underworld, and Voyage of a Drake: an RPG
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Elvish_Hunter
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Elvish_Hunter »

Samonella wrote:The first one is obviously balanced to a pinpoint, so changing the battle ground is a bad idea; it just irked me that there was no path Jaques could have entered the island from.
Reading your suggestion I got this idea. Let me know if you like it or not.
At the start of the scenario, we'll see a boat approaching the island. Jacques and his crew disembark, and move to the starting position. Jacques then says "Strange. This is the spot marked on the map, but there's nothing there. I wonder why".
Then the Peasant leader says "He's here! Go!". Then, another Peasant starts moving towards the boat and says "Heheheee...". When he reaches the boat, he goes away with it; Jacques yells "HEY! My boat!" and the Peasant on the boat answers "Haha! See you never again, sucker!". Then the scenario continues as usual, with some minor dialogue editing at the start.
Alternatively, this Peasant may wield a torch and simply set the boat on fire, to cut Jacques' escape.
Samonella wrote:though I don't know how to send it to you
It's not hard. You can attach the modified map in this topic, after packing it in a zip file. :)
Current maintainer of these add-ons, all on 1.16:
The Sojournings of Grog, Children of Dragons, A Rough Life, Wesnoth Lua Pack, The White Troll (co-author)
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Samonella
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Samonella »

Elvish_Hunter wrote:At the start of the scenario, we'll see a boat approaching the island. Jacques and his crew disembark, and move to the starting position. Jacques then says "Strange. This is the spot marked on the map, but there's nothing there. I wonder why".
Then the Peasant leader says "He's here! Go!". Then, another Peasant starts moving towards the boat and says "Heheheee...". When he reaches the boat, he goes away with it; Jacques yells "HEY! My boat!" and the Peasant on the boat answers "Haha! See you never again, sucker!". Then the scenario continues as usual, with some minor dialogue editing at the start.
Alternatively, this Peasant may wield a torch and simply set the boat on fire, to cut Jacques' escape.
Both could work great, or you could even say a different peasant owns the boat and offered to ferry Jacques and friends, but he was actually in league with the aggressors. I especially like the torch idea, though. Imagine this twist: one of the ruffians looses his head and attacks the peasant for burning the boat, ending up killing him. This way Jacques doesn't initiate any killing, but he gets tied to the situation more closely; the other peasants would blame him. "Now no one can say you don't deserve what's coming!"
The last few months have been nothing but one big, painful reminder that TIMTLTW.

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Elvish_Hunter
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Re: A Rough Life

Post by Elvish_Hunter »

Samonella wrote:I especially like the torch idea, though.
Samonella wrote:"Now no one can say you don't deserve what's coming!"
I modified the scenario following your suggestions. The main difficult, of course, was adding the new pieces of dialogue in a way that doesn't feel shoehorned.
These are the modifications:
Spoiler:
I'm attaching the scenario here; feel free to test it and suggest any other improvement. :)
Attachments
01_Led_Astray.cfg
(28.97 KiB) Downloaded 723 times
Current maintainer of these add-ons, all on 1.16:
The Sojournings of Grog, Children of Dragons, A Rough Life, Wesnoth Lua Pack, The White Troll (co-author)
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