Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

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Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

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(1) What difficulty levels 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?
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
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calmon
Posts: 7
Joined: March 20th, 2008, 12:29 pm

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by calmon »

I find the scenario very cool but one question:

After winning i've more than 12.000 gold. 1 Chest in the treasure room alone contained 10.000 Gold.

I play at the hardest difficult under 1.5.

Is this a bug or works as designed? I mean i start the next scenarion with around 10.000 gold and it seems rather easy now.

edit: Ok found out, after the next scenario you start with only 100 gold. Without any reason the treasure is lost!
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Sgt. Groovy
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Posts: 1471
Joined: May 22nd, 2006, 9:15 pm
Location: Helsinki

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by Sgt. Groovy »

Well I just started this scenario, but come on--skeletons again!
Tiedäthän kuinka pelataan.
Tiedäthän, vihtahousua vastaan.
Tiedäthän, solmu kravatin, se kantaa niin synnit
kuin syntien tekijätkin.
claudya
Posts: 49
Joined: September 22nd, 2008, 7:50 pm
Location: Jena, Germany

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by claudya »

Okaaaay, who of you developer guys hates us gamers that much to create a scenario like that?!? :D I needed the whole f***ing night!!! (but it was worth it and a lot of fun!)
(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
The easiest (I think it's labled "normal". But difficult enough though.)
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9. Those spiders in the big chamber were tough to deal with.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Quite clear. Find that guy and finish him.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Really great. As said: I had plenty of fun. It was surprising all the way. The dialogues in during the whole campaign (as far as I played it) are good read.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
- Defending the southern chamber against all directing and fighting a multi-front war. But once I figured out how to do it it was not that difficult any more. The enemies were stuck in a traffic jam within their tunnels. :mrgreen:
- The spiders in the great camber. I needed a couple of tries. No matter how many units I sent in before the retreat way closed - they alway got killed within two or three turns. But then I found a good solution. :mrgreen:
- And not to get confused in the complex caves was a major challenge.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10. Lots of fun. Ah no, actually it was hell. :mrgreen:
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
:hmm: Can't think of any.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
The drake got killed whenever I used him. But after some reloads I just left him dead.
(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
Sorry, I wish I could help you... but I got no idea what you are talking about. :mrgreen:
Earworthm
Posts: 20
Joined: September 10th, 2008, 2:14 pm

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by Earworthm »

After a few tries, i saw it was actually useless to go in the spider chamber, maybe you could find a way to force people to go there (like water rising in another campaign or forress destruction), or add more tactical asoects to the scenario (there is no need to use strategy for now).
But it is a cool level indeed, not that hard after understanding how to stuck ennemies in the corridors. I wish all the levels could be that good. And The campaigns too.
Oh, and sorry for my english^^
Zaphod
Posts: 18
Joined: September 21st, 2008, 7:08 pm
Location: East Coast Elite-Land

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by Zaphod »

1) Easiest (still plenty hard though)
2) Considering all the times one of those draugs innocently hit a unit with 60% defense 3 out of 4 times and the initial lack of healers, 7. Once you get the mages+all the other free units, 6 cause you still have to deal with the liches+all 9 spiders.
3) Clear as mud. :lol2:
4) Pretty schweet. One of the few things that keeps me going while endlessly restarting scenario 1 is being able to listen to all 5 mages talking.
5) Getting past the draugs+revenants+DKs (not the ape) without healers or good defense tiles was one. Then slogging my way through a long, winding hallway with a skelly on every hex to be confronted by no less than 3 liches. At the same time trying not to get poisoned/slowed/plain bitten to death by those arachnids wasn't fun :evil: . Also trying to keep the healers and Krash and the wraith and the loyal dwarves alive. Aside from that, easy.
6) 10. Love it! The unlimited turns, free units and massive gold makes me cackle evilly :twisted:
7) Maybe a little terrain variety and some *other* point to the waterway, but that might detract from the feel of an evil empire crumbling under your awesomeness.
8) I reloaded and saveloaded many more times than was healthy for me (DRAUGS!!).
9) I know not of this WML of which you speak.
I shall take this potato chip... and eat it!!
PhilipN
Posts: 34
Joined: October 27th, 2008, 4:49 am

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by PhilipN »

Solved the problem of having my best units stuck in the Great Chamber by restarting the level. The hardest challenge was that of killing Malifor; I was given no warning about his, shall we say, limited suceptibility. I had to figure out how to kill him as the white magi can't kill him in one visit to his watery chamber, and he can fully heal during the time that it takes them to wind their way through the tunnel. I ended up sacrificing either an outlaw or a fugitive (can't remember which) to weaken him up for the magi to take him out, then reloading saves until I got the magi to hit him enough times to kill him (they were hitting an average of around 50 or 60 percent of the time, so it took a few tries). Note: I like the dialog a lot, and now that I've gotten farther in the campaign, I've found just how useful the drake is, especially after he's a lvl-3 Drake Flameheart!

Most fun campaign I've played so far (talking about NR as a whole), with the possible exception of the Hammer of Thursagan, which is also quite fun and features an infinite-turns cave maze.
sabalzen
Posts: 25
Joined: April 1st, 2009, 12:50 pm

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by sabalzen »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Easy, 1.6
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Overall, 7, spiders 9 :)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very clear - the hard bit is how to achieve them!
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Superb. The best Battle for Wesnoth scenario I have ever played.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The spiders were the hardest, I was very lucky to survive there. (And unsurprisingly most of the units trapped in there didn't make it...)
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
11. Perfection.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Don't change anything!
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
I might have once or twice gone back a turn when one of the main characters got in the way of a Draug... :oops:
lotsofphil
Posts: 128
Joined: March 27th, 2009, 4:45 pm

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by lotsofphil »

In 1.7.4 on Windows XP, even when you kill Malifor with a white mage he still reappears, flashes white and says "You can't kill me." Then the level ends. This needs to be changed due to a change in [endlevel] tag handling. See here: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=26883

edit: this problem should be fixed now.
Last edited by lotsofphil on September 25th, 2009, 2:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Khamsin
Posts: 3
Joined: March 21st, 2008, 12:38 pm

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by Khamsin »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Easy, still.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Quite good. I played it almost through, but it was middle of the night then (it seems to be the longest scenario in the whole game) so I tried to finish it, finally losing almost all of my army but having cleared the whole map at this stage except the left spider chamber.
I then restarted taking into consideration what I learned, thus leading to the following master plan:
- First and most important: Free the healers
- It's easy to stand the ground to the left and right with five to six units (outlaws!) in the beginning and even less after you have the mages.
- The treasure was not really needed fast, as I got 12.500 gold from the start, so I just awaited the orange sceletons there and finally moved into the treasure chamber from both sides at the same time.
- I went into the Great chamber with as many experienced units as possible. In the first try, with only few units up there, only half the spiders attacked. But when sending the army (about 20 units), they all attacked at once. I lost about half of my fighters. Tallian was with the army and I had a healer with me, so I was able to explore the left spider chamber with Tallian (after reloading).
- meanwhile the left and the right chambers were cleared and the water on the right was calm again. I finally took out the Draugs one by one, sacrificing level 1 units. Malifor was attacked from the north first. The Nagis were not a problem.

(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?
Great story.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Not losing interest. There were many chambers that only contained Death Knights, clearing these was boring.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Plus: GREAT usage of the space. There was nearly no hex left unused.
Minus: Took a bit too long.
Minus: Only sceletons (and spiders) force you to build uniform army of Footpads.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Shorten it a bit, maybe by taking out some of the Death Knights and setting a time limit. Instead of having so many narrow tunnels (that make the game easier for players) I would widen the ways a bit or putting in some bigger chambers to allow the computer to set up better defenses and not hindering himself.
Putting a trigger on the artefact! So you can decide which unit shall take it. Tallian was still peasant then, I always held him back. But afterwards I could advance him with the help of the artefact (only realising after the scenario that he will be advanced anyway)

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
I made some faulty decisions:
- Moving the Drake up in the left - too slow.
- Moving the Elvish druid up in the right - same problem.
- Taking the artefact with a dwarf (see the trigger suggestion).

As written, I restarted the whole scenario, although I played 80 turns in first run (and not succeeded). Second attempt only took about 60 turns to the glorious end.
shadowblack
Posts: 368
Joined: April 15th, 2010, 3:03 pm

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by shadowblack »

1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.8.3, Spearman (Challenging), i.e. Normal difficulty

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
1 to 10 – varies greatly depending on luck (the mage missing 4 out of 4 attacks, Draugs hitting 4 out of 4 against 70% def, etc.) and your own decisions. For the most part it is pretty easy, if you don’t make any careless/stupid moves

(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?
Great. Malifor sure is a sore loser, eh? :)

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Probably the spiders. Second place is for the battle against Malifor’s guards – I got pretty lucky and lost only 2 Fugitives (for once the liches missed a lot of their attacks). I had no idea I had to kill Malifor with a White Mage and found out about that by reading the previous comments (though I did kill him on first try with the male White Mage). Number three is bad luck – I lost count how many times a Draug attacked a 70% def Fugitive and hit 3 out of 4 attacks (or even 4 out of 4)

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10 – I loved it! It is like a mini campaign.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
No changes – leave it as it is.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Bad luck made me load quite a few times – and since the scenario is long there are plenty of chances to get unlucky…
You are a Dark Adept: You immerse yourself in the dark arts... potentially with great rewards...
Feldegast
Posts: 92
Joined: December 13th, 2003, 9:10 am

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by Feldegast »

Wesnoth 1.8.4 - is it normal that the 'rod of justice' is always picked up by the unit that finds it first instead of letting any unit decide whether to pick it up?
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Herduk
Posts: 97
Joined: August 18th, 2005, 9:19 am
Location: Bergamo - Italy

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by Herduk »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Easy
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
2, only the spiders were a "serious" threat
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear: seek-and-destroy the lich
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Nice, i love the 2 white mage and they discussion while one of them dead.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Level up as many units possible and clear all the various caves
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
4, undead too easy with a bunch of L2-L3 outlaws, 3 Lord Dwarves, 1 L4 Red Mage and the units you rescue.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Less dispersive and more types of enemy
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Nope
Don't bother a dwarf.. you can argue with his hammer!
Benefuchs
Posts: 54
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 9:40 pm

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by Benefuchs »

1) challenging, 1.8.5
(2) 6
(3) quite clear.
(4) nice!
(5) Keeping valuable units alive. Or, so to say, maybe I will replay it to keep the loyal dwarves alive. And get the artefact from the spider chamber...
(6)
+ Good ambiance.
+ skellies left & right make for easy leveling (after the first wave).
+ yeah, healers!
- Draugs and Liches might nearly kill any unit in one turn if lucky.
- extremely long
-> 5-6
(7) might be a bit shorter and smaller. Plus, 10,000 gold is a bit ridiculous.
(8) sent like 2 l3s somewhere alone.
(9) n/a
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Maiklas3000
Posts: 532
Joined: June 23rd, 2010, 10:43 am

Re: Scenario Review: NR 5 - The Pursuit

Post by Maiklas3000 »

(1) Difficulty, version? Nightmare; 1.9.4
(2) How difficult? (1-10) 5
(3) How clear? Clear.
(4) Dialog? Very good.
(5) Challenges? Retrieving the healers before running out of HP. Spiders. Tedium.
(6) How fun? (1-10) 8
(7) Changes?
The main change needed is to either eliminate the Lich's near immortality or to put secret passages from the eastern passage back to the rest of the map. The problem is that if you send your white mages down the eastern passage, then kill the Lich with a different unit, then he'll teleport randomly somewhere, and it's a long, long trek back down that passage.

The spiders are just too evil. One time, I sent a Druid and 5 Dwarf Lords and 1 Fugitive to the seven castle hexes in the middle. They were swarmed by 21 spiders and quickly wiped out. I know you have the leader warn nobody to go off alone, but this was an elite squad. There needs to be a stronger warning, probably as direct as a sign that says "Danger, spider infestation ahead!"

Also, it is possible to sneak past the southwest death knight without him raising an alarm and recruiting. Then he runs out and attacks without recruiting. This did not happen in the replay, because I sent a footpad, and footpads seem to set off the alarm (perhaps because of their range of movement.) But anyway, this should be fixed.

All in all, it's one of the most complicated scenario designs, and pretty cool and fun, but it suffers from the time involved in slogging down long corridors as well as the time needed to defeat vast hordes in narrow corridors.

(8) Reloads or restarts?
Spiders caused a couple of restarts from start. No save-reloads.
(9) WML?
Fine.
(10) Replay?
Attached. Note that it is 223 turns long, so you will want to turn off animation. For the first 150 turns the action is in the starting area, then the battle vs the spiders starts in the north, and then by turn 200 the final battle in the northeast starts.
Attachments
NR-The_Pursuit_replay.gz
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