Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Feedback for the mainline campaign Sceptre of Fire (not to be confused with the Heir to the Throne scenario of the same name.)

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masuat
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by masuat »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Hard, 1.10.6
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
It's difficult if you take the path that I took (heading right towards the eastern troll leader)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear, the game mechanic is different from usual but the only uncertain thing is how far away the resources will be

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I think there was nothing of note or out of the ordinary.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The time limit. I failed thrice because you need at least two miners, and you can't kill the eastern trolls quickly enough to complete the objective
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
A lot of fun. 10
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None in particular
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Again, the time limit
(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?


This is a really well designed scenario. I was punished for trying to break through the eastern trolls instead of going north, but I caught on eventually. The scenario is very fair if you approach it that way. There were enough villages scattered around the big north fighting area that I was able to afford another miner (essential to winning) when I brought my leader back to base. I like the use of the chokepoints such as the 2 shallow waters in the first corridor, and the castle + cave line that blocks the trolls coming from the east. It feels really good to use them. I lost this scenario 3 times before I could figure it out, but it was so much fun that I didn't mind. The free-for-all teams also made it play out a little differently each time.
Curtis
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by Curtis »

jdr90000 wrote:The scenario is broken in 1.11.1 - the scenario quits out and goes to the end screen after SoF 4 - Gathering Materials.
This was similar to my experience with 1.11.7. I'm playing the Mac version, and it freezes on the map that shows your route to the battle site, which is to say before the actual scenario begins. I have to alt/command/escape my way out of it, and cannot progress past this point. I've tried backing up to the previous scenario and advancing again, but no dice.
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zookeeper
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by zookeeper »

Curtis wrote:
jdr90000 wrote:The scenario is broken in 1.11.1 - the scenario quits out and goes to the end screen after SoF 4 - Gathering Materials.
This was similar to my experience with 1.11.7.
It's very very very likely the same problem that caused crashes/freezes with other scenarios using randomly generated maps, which will be fixed in 1.11.8 which ought to be coming out soon.
Curtis
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by Curtis »

Thank you for your reply.
Curtis
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by Curtis »

zookeeper wrote:It's very very very likely the same problem that caused crashes/freezes with other scenarios using randomly generated maps, which will be fixed in 1.11.8 which ought to be coming out soon.

This scenario is still not working in version 1.11.8.

The campaign has progressed one step, in that I can now get up to turn one of the scenario, but I can't move units. I can recruit or recall, but none of the five at start units will accept orders to move. Their little balls are green, and selecting them does highlight the hexes they should be legally allowed to move to, but actually ordering them to move results in the highlighting vanishing and a number appearing on the destination hex I selected. Their balls remain green.
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Turuk
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by Turuk »

Curtis wrote:This scenario is still not working in version 1.11.8.

The campaign has progressed one step, in that I can now get up to turn one of the scenario, but I can't move units. I can recruit or recall, but none of the five at start units will accept orders to move. Their little balls are green, and selecting them does highlight the hexes they should be legally allowed to move to, but actually ordering them to move results in the highlighting vanishing and a number appearing on the destination hex I selected. Their balls remain green.
The controls in 1.11.8 were switched to a new experimental control scheme, and will be switched back to the defaults in 1.11.9. Please see the second bullet in shadowm's post for directions on how to switch it back.
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Curtis
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by Curtis »

Turuk wrote:
Curtis wrote:This scenario is still not working in version 1.11.8.

The campaign has progressed one step, in that I can now get up to turn one of the scenario, but I can't move units. I can recruit or recall, but none of the five at start units will accept orders to move. Their little balls are green, and selecting them does highlight the hexes they should be legally allowed to move to, but actually ordering them to move results in the highlighting vanishing and a number appearing on the destination hex I selected. Their balls remain green.
The controls in 1.11.8 were switched to a new experimental control scheme, and will be switched back to the defaults in 1.11.9. Please see the second bullet in shadowm's post for directions on how to switch it back.
That worked, after some experimentation. Thank you.
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D-Wade
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by D-Wade »

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6 - I finished off all enemies. It was a little tough without a healer but still doable.

(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?
Good dialogue.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The hardest part about this scenario is keeping your units alive against the big amount of enemies. It's not like they hurt a lot, but without any healer, the masses can kill off some leveled units.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7 - It was something different and unlike many other scenarios.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Guarantee a couple of villages in the starting area and one in the initial corridor.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
One time. I chose the wrong method and split up my forces the first time. The second time, I moved forward with one big ball and did much better.
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doofus-01
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by doofus-01 »

[quote="Content Feedback"](1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
normal, 1.13.1+dev

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
I didn't finish it.

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The random map generator is nice. The small amount of dialog that exists isn't so great, just like the dialog in the rest of the campaign. I find that the dialog detracts from the campaign, and because this is a mainline campaign, it puts a bad foot forward for Wesnoth. This opinion is not shared by the people involved, however, so I will not continue repeating it.

(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?
(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?
BfW 1.12 supported, but active development only for BfW 1.13/1.14: Bad Moon Rising | Trinity | Archaic Era |
| Abandoned: Tales of the Setting Sun
GitHub link for these projects
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Inky
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by Inky »

(1) Level and version? Hard (Lord), 1.12.4, 180 starting gold
(2) Difficult? (1-10) 9, very hard due to turn limit.
(3) Objectives? Clear.
(4) Dialog? Fine.
(5) Challenges? extremely tight turn limit
(6) Fun? (1-10) 10, loved this scenario.
(7) Changes? It's great as is.
(8) Restarts? None.

Recruited 3 miners, rushed the southern troll, then rushed my units back to kill the northwest troll, and then took my time killing the eastern troll.

Finished turn 32/34, killed all enemies. Somehow managed without losses although several units nearly died.
Attachments
SoF-Gathering_Materials_replay.gz
(50.26 KiB) Downloaded 720 times
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shadow12
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by shadow12 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on? Hard 1.0.4
Starting 138 gold. Ended turn 37/37. (I used the last 2 turns to gain some xp killing trolls.)
(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? Its an interesting story.

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

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10, it was challenging and fun. The map layout was creative. It was a refreshing change from "kill all enemy leaders."

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Good as is.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? no

This scenario is similiar to the Infested Caves in Northern Rebirth. Like that scenario, the enemy will mostly avoid you and fight each other, as long as you have a strong group. I didn't attack aggressively. In the middle chamber, I formed a line on one side and was able to pretty much sneak by. I was still able to gain a lot of xp by finishing off wounded.

I had 12 troops and 2 miners. They split into 2 groups, one miner per group. One group went SE, the other went north. One miner had time to bring his coal to the castle, then go back for a 2nd load.
Sometimes life unexpectedly throws a Troll or a nasty Queen Naga in your path.
sine_nomine
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by sine_nomine »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Difficult (Lord), Wesnoth 1.12.4
212 starting gold
(plenty to spare)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Anywhere from 3 to 8, time could be a major issue depending on the map.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
No issues

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Time can be a huge issue, the map is so highly variable that you might not be able to get the materials in time. It might be hard to get the materials if you need to split your troops three ways to have enough time, you might have to use valuable units as sacrificial screens to allow miners to gather materials because you won't be able to defeat three troll warriors simultaneously. Also there might not be very many villages so you might not have any gold carryover.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
It can be fun if a couple of the enemies fight eachother and you have time to fight your way through the map to get the materials. If there's an incredibly long travel distance from your keep and all the enemies encounter you rather than fight eachother, the scenario can be a chore to play. The fact that it's so highly variable makes it even worse.
So something like 2-7.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It would be better if there was just one map and someone put some effort into designing it rather than relying on random generation.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No but I replayed a couple times for a better gold carryover, which is incredibly map dependent (once there were only 11 villages in the entire map).

Note: For some reason, when I start the scenario it sometimes says I have more villages than I can see, e.g. 2 out of 0 villages. If I save and reload it fixes itself (goes to 0/0 from then on).
Attachments
SoF-Gathering_Materials_replay.gz
Just the replay (villages are normal)
(45.3 KiB) Downloaded 692 times
SoF-Gathering_Materials.gz
My save file at this point, not sure if it's just happening for me or if it's a common error
(8.99 KiB) Downloaded 645 times
SoF-Gathering_Materials_turn_1_replay_with_extra_villages.gz
It says I have 2/0 villages
(23.41 KiB) Downloaded 657 times
Konrad2
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by Konrad2 »

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

1.14.4, Hard

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

4

(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?

Like.

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

Recruiting enough Miners. One isn't enough.

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

3. Not much to do...

(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?

I recruited only one Miner in the first run and ran out of time.
In the second run I recruited two Miners, but didn't take part in the first fight, so the blue trolls crashed everyone else with plenty to spare, trapping me and wasting too much of my time.
So I reloaded a few turns earlier, took a proactive role vs blue in the fight and won.
Attachments
SoF-Gathering Materials replay.gz
(36.58 KiB) Downloaded 702 times
LordWolfDan
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by LordWolfDan »

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

- 1.14.5, Normal

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

- 5

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

- Crystal

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

- Not much of it, but I say it's okay. Builds up the plot

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

- Being swarmed by the enemies

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

- 7

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

- Increase the number of turns

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

- No
devavrata
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 4 - Gathering Materials

Post by devavrata »

Content Feedback wrote: March 11th, 2008, 11:12 pm(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Battle for Wesnoth 1.8.3, Easy, Battle for Wesnoth 1.10.7 Medium, Battle for Wesnoth 1.12.5 Hard
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear. The graphics for the coal and gold are unknown at the start, but you recognize them as soon as you see them. Anyway, I think killing all enemies should finish the scenario rather than waiting for the miners to go back to the base.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Clear. What is interesting about this level is the random map, having to explore it until you find the coal and gold.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Caves with many different terrains and bottlenecks... but then, you can use it to your advantage -defend the bottlenecks and attack the open spaces. The random map I got had an alternative path, so I could go around the bottleneck after defeating one of the troll armies.
(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?
It's good as it is.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
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