Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

Feedback for the mainline campaign Heir to the Throne.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
Poison
Posts: 171
Joined: August 13th, 2017, 4:54 pm

Re: Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

Post by Poison »

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

1.14.7, Champion (Challenging), 677 gold.

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

7. Shamans once again show what they are made of.

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

Not exactly that clear that you have to choose between two doors but anyway, the uncle helps.

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

Clear.

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

Volume of opponents of course. In the end it looks like a real escape.

(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?

Add a third recruit spot at the pillars.

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

Bad recruitment choices.
Attachments
HttT-The Dwarven Doors replay Poison.gz
(45.67 KiB) Downloaded 435 times
Zrevnur
Posts: 117
Joined: January 11th, 2020, 12:04 pm

Re: Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

Post by Zrevnur »

Content Feedback wrote: December 7th, 2005, 4:06 pm (1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
1.14.9 Challenging (in Ironman mode), played at least twice
Content Feedback wrote: December 7th, 2005, 4:06 pm (2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6, I think I should have hired for one more turn but I wasnt sure if I had the time, see next point
Content Feedback wrote: December 7th, 2005, 4:06 pm (3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Its not properly clear that I just have to move the leader to the designated spot. There is also this mine entrance. And Wesnoth scripters come up with random stuff. So me being unable to trust the somewhat unclear objective I didnt really know properly what I needed to do. It would be better to be crystal clear about the exact spot and that its enough to just move there with the leader.
Content Feedback wrote: December 7th, 2005, 4:06 pm (4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Ok.
Content Feedback wrote: December 7th, 2005, 4:06 pm (5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The major challenge was knowing the objective and not meeting it. If I would have known I could trust it I would have had more time which would have made it easier.
Content Feedback wrote: December 7th, 2005, 4:06 pm (6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Assuming knowledge of the objectives and the monster popup its one of the more fun ones (7).
Content Feedback wrote: December 7th, 2005, 4:06 pm (7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
See point with scenario objectives.
I also dont like the sea monster popping up. If you are unlucky and dont know about it this can end your campaign. They dont have 'ambush' ability. Why does it suddenly appear? Its one of those scripter-doesnt-like-players things.
Attachments
HttT-The Dwarven Doors replay.gz
(63.29 KiB) Downloaded 341 times
User avatar
Lord-Knightmare
Discord Moderator
Posts: 2337
Joined: May 24th, 2010, 5:26 pm
Location: Somewhere in the depths of Irdya, gathering my army to eventually destroy the known world.
Contact:

Re: Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Content Feedback wrote: December 7th, 2005, 4:06 pm (1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
1. Normal/Wesnoth 1.15.12+dev
2. 6/10
3. crystal clear
4. 6/10 - I guess this is what inspired Northern Rebirth.
5. Trying to break one of the orc formations before being overwhelmed.
6. 6/10
7. Good as it is.
HttT-The Dwarven Doors replay 20210424-010823.gz
(60.5 KiB) Downloaded 134 times
Creator of "War of Legends"
Creator of the Isle of Mists survival scenario.
Maintainer of Forward They Cried
User:Knyghtmare | My Medium
mal_shubertal
Posts: 93
Joined: December 1st, 2018, 6:58 pm

Re: Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

Post by mal_shubertal »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
1.16.2 Challenging
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6. lots of variables, difficult timing, had to try it a couple times.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Pretty clear. I didn't pay much attention to the dialogue at first, and I didn't understand that it randomly selected whether the mines or the doors were open, so I had to restart once because I went to the wrong entrance.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I like it. The LoTR reference with the "tentacled monsters ALWAYS hang out at the entrance to dwarven tunnels" was pretty funny. Also coming back to this campaign after Northern Rebirth I see the setup for that campaign in this scenario. It REALLY seems like a missed opportunity for a cameo from Liberty, though.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Timing. I really tried to rush it the first couple times, and kept either getting stuck or having too many losses. Once I slowed down and just played it as "defeat all enemies, and incidentally move Konrad to the mines", I had much better results and got a ton of xp.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10. Very complex, fighting on many fronts, really variable terrain and enemies. Really rewards you for having units that fly or teleport, so you can adjust the balance of your units in different map areas.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Like I said above, this seems like a HUGE missed opportunity for a cameo for Harper and Baldras from Liberty. The timeline matches up EXACTLY for Konrad to meet a footpad and thug who are uncle and nephew on exactly the islands of Isle of the Damned. You wouldn't really even need to change any of the dialogue, just the names of the units. The first time I played through this campaign, I didn't notice the parallel, but now that I've played Liberty it just slaps me in the face. Delfador and Kalenz are sort of side characters in this story who get their own separate campaigns elsewhere, so it seems fitting for Harper and Baldras to make an appearance here as well. Similarly, I think changing the names of the orc leaders to match those in the first scenario of Northern Rebirth, and maybe giving them some dialogue that makes some reference to that campaign, would also really tie everything together. It seems right since Heir to the Throne is sort of the "flagship" campaign, that players would experience it and then get to see the backstory of all the side characters in different campaigns.
Attachments
HttT-The Dwarven Doors replay 20220418-101932.gz
(65.5 KiB) Downloaded 59 times
lujo86
Posts: 41
Joined: January 31st, 2023, 9:50 am

Re: Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

Post by lujo86 »

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

1.16.8
Highest

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

6

(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?

The base of it is totes fine, but the forced high fantasy style is really killing what would otherwise be a pretty great campaign. I'll give an example, so it doesn't look like I'm harping on this in every feedback for no reason.

The "watcher in the water" gag / lotr reference is actually fairly brilliant conceptually, it's just ruined by the style. The way you're supposed to deliver a gag like that is something like this:

- Someone steps on the village.
- *triggers dialogue line from another character, preferably a rogueish type, with the uncle bandit being perfect if he's available when it happens, but even an elf would do* - No! Step away from the...
- *Cuttlefish appears* - Raaaawrrrrrr! (or similar silly angry squid sound, try various ones, chose the funniest)
- *bandit/elf finishes line* -"...lake.
- *whoever stepped on the village goes: - What in the... How was I supposed to know!?
- *random elf interjects: - It's those #$"!#$ dwarves! They always do this!
- *bandit/preferably uncle adds: -Yeah, I was going to tell you, but then I thought everybody knew dwarves go for this sort of...
- *conrad/delfador/however returns things back to action: - Get away from that thing! NOW!

Similarly, a lot of fairly deece story all over the campaign is kinda floored by the wooden style. It makes the characters feel like planks and more cliche than they need to be. I mean, Gandalf, especially in the Hobbit, was low-key a tricksy jokester and snarker with his own opinions, frustrations and scheemes going on. And the guys in this campaign are in a fair bit of trouble a lot of the time, while most of their dialogue is as if they're holding speeches (short ones, sure, but still). Folks in over their heads speak a lot more naturally and fall into black humor and snarking, not so much pathos. It'd still be high fantasy just... more gripping, convincing and relateable.

I guess I ought to just figure out how to edit a bunch of this stuff and then show it to someone in charge for inspection, it's way easier to get across when shown rather than told about. :(

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

Recruiting the right troops, positioning, handling the odds.

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

7 it does the job it sets out to do.

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

Doesn't really seem to need any fiddling with, other than the usual writing style problems.
User avatar
ElvishMystical0
Posts: 33
Joined: September 19th, 2018, 12:15 am

Re: Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

Post by ElvishMystical0 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Versions 1.12 to 1.16 Easy and Medium. This feedback relates specifically to 1.16 Medium.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Originally a 7 until I realized that I didn't need to rush all my units up to the entrance but could actually stay and fight. So knock it down to a 6.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very clear.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The storyline is getting good again but again, it's spoiled by a lack of character development for Konrad.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
This is a step up from Northern Winter. You've got three Orcish enemies on different sides of the map but you can't just muddle through at your own pace as you could with Northern Winter because if you stay and fight too long in the hills and mountains you're going to get overwhelmed by the Orcs and Trolls.

This is actually a challenging scenario because you've got so many different units and possibly different levels.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
This for me is easily an 8-9 and one of my favourite scenarios in the campaign. It's like it's three or four previous scenarios rolled into one, it's balanced, and you can play this so many different ways.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
This is where I'm going to follow on from my feedback from Gryphon Mountain. This scenario has the potential to link or tie to other campaigns. If you start with Delurin you get told that there's a loyal bandit hiding in a village. If you play Liberty one of the starting Footpads is called..., Delurin.

Now this is where I have a suggestion. I would change the Gryphon Mountain scenario completely. It doesn't work for me at all. I don't get why Loyalists would need eggs from Gryphons because Gryphon Riders are associated with the Knalgan Alliance and Dwarves, who are going to be fighting on your side and not with the Loyalists. There's already been a confrontation with Li-sar and the Loyalists who are in hot pursuit. Maybe change that scenario to one fighting Drakes.

Instead of giving players the ability to recruit Gryphon Riders you could give players the ability to recruit outlaws instead but only if you find Uncle Soma the loyal Bandit. Or, if you want to add a twist, you could set up an ambush where you have outlaw units hiding in villages (Northern Outpost in the Eastern Invasion) who initially attack you, but Delurin and Konrad have a dialogue where Konrad says he's opposing the Queen's forces and Li'sar is pursuing him and at this point Delurin agrees to join Konrad's forces and from this point you can recruit outlaw units, together with Dwarves.

This fits other campaigns, Liberty, Northern Rebirth, The Hammer of Thursagan but not The South Guard.

This also balances the campaign. those who went to Muff Malal's Peninsula got more money and XP but couldn't recruit outlaw units, which you could only recruit during Isle of the Damned. But what if everyone could recruit outlaw units from Dwarven Doors?

This is just my suggestion.
Orek
Posts: 27
Joined: June 24th, 2020, 1:02 am

Re: Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

Post by Orek »

Content Feedback wrote: (1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
(1) Challenging (=Champion=Hardest) in 1.14.17 on permadeath
(2) 6 (9th most difficult = 15th easiest)
... [Difficult] 2, 16, 14, 4, 9, 6, 5b, 10, 13, 12, 23, 8, 7, 3, 15, 17, 19c, 22, 1, 20b, 11, 24, 18 [Easy]
(3) Vague but intentionally so
(4) Clear and interesting enough
(5) When the true entrance was the western one (The Great Doors), protecting Konrad against purple enemy units was challenging.
(6) 4 (15th most fun = 9th most boring)
... [Fun] 2, 1, 6, 9, 5b, 4, 16, 15, 23, 3, 12, 14, 10, 24, 13, 8, 7, 19c, 20b, 11, 17, 22, 18 [Boring]
(7) Currently, going to the western entrance on (14, 3) seems to be more difficult than the eastern one on (25, 2). To balance the difficulty, for example, I would either make the western one slightly easier by making a snow area around (10,9) mountain to slow movements of purple enemy units or make the eastern one slightly more difficult by making a snow area around (26, 5) mountain to slow Konrad's movements.

YouTube Link: Run 1 Run 2 Run 3
Walkthrough: HttT walkthrough (hardest, permadeath, v1.14.17) + General campaign guides (Replays for all scenarios can be downloaded from here.)
JL42
Posts: 66
Joined: December 9th, 2023, 11:19 am

Re: Scenario 13: Dwarven Doors

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)
6
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; moderately interesting.
What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
It's important to realize early that you don't have time to stand and fight – while a strong army could potentially defeat the nearby enemies, doing so means that you will not be able to make it to the doors before time runs out. So you have to find a way to disengage and fight a running battle, which really gives the feeling that you are fleeing for the doors, hounded on all sides. The starting dialogue also makes it clear that this is the necessary approach; and it indicates that you may need some extra time to look for an alternative entrance. Very well done.
How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8
What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
While the southern enemies already have high base income, I might suggest bumping that up even further, so that they have 30 or 40 gold each turn to recruit (maybe reduce their starting gold slightly to compensate). Or alternatively give them an influx of gold starting around turn 7 or 8. This would help to make it borderline impossible to actually defeat them, and contribute to the impression of more and more orcs coming out of the woodwork to chase the player's army. (It would make it more logical that there is a time limit, if the southern orc armies kept significantly growing in later rounds.)

---------------
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.
Post Reply