Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Feedback for the mainline campaign Heir to the Throne.

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Caladbolg
Posts: 198
Joined: January 1st, 2016, 4:40 pm
Location: Hopelessly trapped within the Submachine

Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by Caladbolg »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.12.5, medium.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
2. Probably the easiest scenario in the whole campaign along with the isle of Alduin but I'm rating this one slightly higher because the sheer number of corpses can overwhelm you if you're not paying attention. It's deceivingly easy.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Clear but there was nothing especially interesting about it. Also, "yonder"? Really?

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
No problems, but I see how the sheer ease of defeating corpses can be deceiving for someone who's new to the game.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9. In my opinion, one of the most enjoyable scenarios because you can simply click things without worrying about strategy :D

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Adding a loyal unit or something... Even though you can easily grab a lot of XP here, distributing it can be hard because the number of enemies is much greater then the number of your forces.
The first time I played HttT, I tried going down both routes after the bay of pearls but I gave up on the isles of the damned because it was quite hard and lvl 2 skeletons were a pain to deal with. This scenario OTOH was much easier and so I always chose this route whenever I played afterwards. Then, after a long time I tried playing the isles just to see whether I could beat them and I found out that there's a loyal white mage there. Since then, I always chose the isles even though I find this one much more enjoyable...


Other data:
-start gold: 402
-recruits(1): Mermaid Initiate
-recalls(10): Archer, Druid, Fighter, 2x Horseman, 3x Mage, Mer Hunter, Mer Initiate; (+ Captain recalled automatically)
-advancements(4): Fighter->Hero; loyal Mage-> White Mage; 2x Horseman->Knight
-turns taken: 11/24
-end: 262 gold, 19/24 villages
-XP: Knight, Druid & Initiate at 1/4 needed; Captain, Initiate, Fighter at 1/2; 2 Mages, Archer & Konrad close to advancing
-not as lucky as before
-dmg dealt: +1%
-dmg taken: +11%
-no losses or reloads
-as seen from the replay, some of my units were close to death at some point. I took some risks because I didn't really feel that they could die- this scenario can be won even without thinking too much about strategy.
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Kylix
Posts: 110
Joined: September 28th, 2016, 11:38 am
Location: Milan, Italy

Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by Kylix »

In Isle of the Damned, we can find Delurin, an outlaw who allows us to recruit outlaws, yet unfortunately only in that scenario, and Moremirmu, an anomalous white mage, while here we don't find anyone. I think in the new update, we shoud be able to find at least two other new loyal units, possibly one of them should be an outlaw who allows us to recruit his/her fellows.
LordWolfDan
Posts: 216
Joined: September 30th, 2018, 7:31 am

Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by LordWolfDan »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?

- 1.14.5, Beginner

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

- 3

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

- Easy, get rid of dark sorcerer

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

- Good

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

- Dealing with so many walking corpse units

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

- 4

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

- I don't see any. All I say is that this scenario is good farm for harvesting XP for level-1 units
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mxb2001
Posts: 32
Joined: January 26th, 2019, 7:03 pm

Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by mxb2001 »

[quote="Content Feedback" post_id=43173 time=1095734522 user_id=123454]
(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Normal no cheating, 1.12

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
While it was obvious that the signpost was the way out it was a shock that Konrad had to actually walk to the road at map edge to escape, could have lost more units because I expected scen to end.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Was nice, like the choice,

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Realizing that my plan to defeat was going to cost me more than 2 experienced level 1 recalls and start costing me the level 2's and then running like $%$ for the bloody signpost in terror....

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Reading older reviews it sounds like all they had to deal with was zombies, who go poof very nicely indeed. Double teams of adepts though were slaughtering my guys and I would have tried to deal with them if the guy had only called up a limited number of them but not only was his gold infinite but so were the adepts

[/quote]
01/01/01
Konrad2
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Posts: 3330
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Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by Konrad2 »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

1.15.0, Champion (Challenging)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

3

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Clear and okayish. It's still a joke to me that Muff Malal's undead are described as a strong horde. And Konrad says at the end that they managed to save 'those good people'. I didn't see any of those.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

None.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

7, comedy relief.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

No.
Attachments
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mal_shubertal
Posts: 93
Joined: December 1st, 2018, 6:58 pm

Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by mal_shubertal »

(1) What difficulty level and Wesnoth version have you played the scenario on?
1.16.2
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) [1]
7. Winning with a big enough gold carryover to do well on the next scenario is particularly challenging.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
very
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Random filler, not particularly interesting.
(5) What were your major challenges in completing the scenario?
Figuring out how to kill the enemy leader through the huge wall of units, and finishing fast for a big early finish bonus.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6. Like Bay of Pearls, it encourages interesting coordination between land and water forces.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Seems fine as is.
Attachments
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lujo86
Posts: 41
Joined: January 31st, 2023, 9:50 am

Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by lujo86 »

(1) What difficulty level and Wesnoth version have you played the scenario on?

1.16.2
Highest

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

3, but I can see it being more difficult for a beginner, especially if they don't have experience fighting zombies, or if they didn't feed XP to the right Mermen in the Bay of Pearls.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

10.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Average. Also, "yonder" :lol:

(5) What were your major challenges in completing the scenario?

The enemy troop composition is actually fairly decent at dropping random player troops, whether it's through wearing them out with zombies, swarming with bats in addition to zombies or just nuking with adepts. So keeping the stuff I was trying to farm XP with alive, I suppose.

The enemy troop composition is very favorable towards elves, though, so using frontline fodder was rewarding.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

It was very fun, to be honest, 10 for fun. I just hope I don't regret taking this route later in the campaign.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

Nothing wrong with the map, honestly, it's just that getting some XP on a few lvl 1 units doesn't really feel like it's going to compare well to the absolute bounty of unique stuff you get for taking the other route (we're talking Moremiru, who's p much Delfador 2.0 if not even stronger, a loyal lvl2 footpad, a supply of bandit units and probably more total XP opportunity for the core mermen). I could be wrong, but I just wish that taking this route was more on par with the other one in this regard.
Kapiork
Posts: 7
Joined: February 29th, 2020, 10:06 am

Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by Kapiork »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.16.3
Commander (Normal), the middle one

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6, maybe even 7. I did NOT expect Walking Corpses to be so dangerous. I admit to save-loading several times and even restarting the whole scenario once because I lost high-experience units, mostly Elvish Fighters I was lacking (as I had "amazing" luck of losing pretty much every experienced Fighter in previous scenarios :doh:). I am NOT looking forward to the next mission.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear. Defeat your first Undead opponent. There's no doubt that escaping will not give you early finish bonus.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It's alright, if simple. It's good that it encourages the player to gather experience for their troops before Elensefar. Bit strange that there are no "local people" that Konrad talks about though (and no, the villages don't count).

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
- Figuring out how much gold I should spend on units (primarily Elvish Fighters) to be able to fend off the Corpse hordes, but not too much, as I'll need all I can for Elensefar.
- Deciding who should stand on the single forest tile (17.16) during the first fight - after a few attempts ended up going with Colia the Elvish Avenger.
- Finding the best spot to defend against the endless (and I mean endless - Malal has ludicrously high base income) hordes of zombies with some Dark Adepts mixed in. The area around the lone forest tile doesn't seem to have good enough defense values for my needs, so I had to quickly move to the middle-most mountains and form a line on them (from 10.15 to 15.16). Hills just aren't "dodgy" enough.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Somewhere around 4, mostly due to frustration caused by my poor tactical decisions. :x Though it was fun to watch zombies coming to the meat grinder that is Colia in the forest, one by one. :twisted:

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Maybe add a [loyal] Peasant or two on lower difficulties? I know this could potentially affect the campaign balance in a huge way, due to giving you access to Loyalist unit/s, but it's not like it'd be easy to level them up, right? Of course, they shouldn't follow you if you just book it outta here. :lol:

The overall difficulty seems fine considering my quite low skill level.

Actually, now that I think about it, as much sense as it makes story-wise, I don't think the "escape" objective should be there, as it's sort of a trap for new players. There's no benefit to running away, it only makes the next scenario harder due to not allowing you to gather more experienced troops. Ergo, this objective should be removed, possibly with a justification that a) Konrad wouldn't want to risk a possibilty of the undead chasing them and thus backstabbing at Elensefar; and b) he is such a goody two-shoes that he couldn't just leave the local people to die to the undead (this would match his attitude in Scenario 13). Just a suggestion though.

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Attached a replay. Here are some statistics for context:
Spoiler:
Attachments
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Chapter V of "How to suck at life"
JL42
Posts: 66
Joined: December 9th, 2023, 11:19 am

Re: Scenario 5a: Muff Malal's Peninsula

Post by JL42 »

What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
v. 1.16.10
Lord / Challenging
How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Difficulty is 1 if you prefer to just keep walking past the enemy. If you actually stay and fight then it's about 4.
How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very clear.
How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Very clear; mildly interesting. This is another scenario where you are given the really good advice to train up some veteran troops. It's weird to me how this campaign keeps giving me advice and beginner tips (all of which are great dialogue), but none of the previous campaigns did that. Should have started with this one first.
What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The most difficult part is assaulting the enemy keep at the end while he keeps endlessly recruiting.
How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6 – Dealing with waves of low-level enemies is always entertaining. It has enough challenge to keep things interesting while still being fairly easy.
What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Can't really think of anything I would change.

---------------
About the Overall Campaign:

The maps and storyline here are well-made and polished, though not as completely epic as some of the other campaigns. I like that it is lengthy, giving you time to develop your army, and gradually introduces many different terrains and unit types. This seems like a great beginner campaign since it's fairly easy and the early scenarios are framed as a kind of mentoring environment for the young hero. (However, it's a bit strange that some of the basic dialogue tips, like "hey, loyal units don't require upkeep!" are just now arriving, after I've already played through several previous campaigns without that advice.) There are some glitches that can come up in the Scepter of Fire scenario, and some of the princess-related dialogue around scenarios 17–21 felt a bit confusing and unbelievable (more specific comments in the relevant threads). This campaign is very close to full marks, but due to those few lingering issues and the lack of any real epic blow-you-away maps I'm going to rate it 4 out of 5.
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