Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

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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Pewskeepski
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

Post by Pewskeepski »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Steelclad (Challenging), 1.10.0 - 217 Starting Gold.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
A signpost or goto image would be nice.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Unbelievable. Killing Durstorn just because he tried to grab the scepter and then refused to stop bossing them around is absolutely ridiculous. My suggestion would be to make him grab the scepter from Thursagan, run towards the edge of the caves, and start yelling out to the elves that they want to surrender. And then of course Thursagan would lose his temper and, thinking of no other way to stop Durstorn, conks him on the noggin and kills him.

Another thing I find a little hard to believe is that it would take them so many years just to craft a scepter. Now, I don't know anything about blacksmiths and such, but it seems strange to me that it would take so long to just melt some minerals, bake them, and then mold them into a scepter. And again, it'd also be much more interesting if they discussed being corrupted by the ruby.

P.S: Since I lost this scenario due to a hero's death (and in the end, even Baglur was lost :(), I noticed that the death lines are really poor as well and could use some more explanatory messages.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Terrain. More forest than there is mountains.

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

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It's good the way it is.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Thursagan actually bit the dust this time.

(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?
Fine.
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fareley
Posts: 66
Joined: September 10th, 2008, 5:45 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

Post by fareley »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Hardest difficulty, 387 startig gold
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10 when i was clueless what to do, 2 after i realized that 12 turns are not enough to defeat both northern and south eastern elves
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
the get dwarf to cave thing was pretty clear, but what is "south"? Sometimes my cavalry escaped, sometimes it did not (my guess would be, it has to be on the most southern two rows plus no enemy unit around, but then again, it is just a guess)
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
as others pointed out, the campaign is about a scepter that involves a ruby, which turns everyone around it evil. Either explain to me why it does not affect dwarves, or make the dwarves go evil/crazy. Would make a way more interesting (and logic) story than just to kill the dwarf leader because he was kinda stupid (how did he become leader in the first place anyway?)
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
realizing the tight turn limit, changing my strategy from wipe-out-all-elves to running. Having almost 400 startig gold was really tempting to kill all elves, but then again, no time for that. Plus, the south eastern elves basically never stop recruiting. So i just recruited on the first turn (two griffins, 4 fresh dwarven defenders) and started running straight north east and south (west side of the river). The dwarven defenders plus the two heroes i started with easily hold off the northern elves for my main dwarf to make it to the cave with the least possible amount of turns, while the two griffins plus the one i got already tanked a few turns to distract the southern elves long enough for my cavalry to slip by across the river. Oh, and Thursagan also died on a couple attempts, as he got unlucky. But on my last try the northern elves recruited around 5 lvl2 shamans, so they had barely any damage.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
3. Even for a scenario in which the clear objective is to run (but not running with all the important heroes that have to survive, only the main dwarf and the cavalry, which was weird. As Thursagan and the gryphon barely survived until the end in the mountains, surrounded by a huge army. How will they make it to the next scenario?), it is not much fun. Don't recruit more than one full round, don't fight, sacrifice one or two gryphons to make it.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Make the dwarf leader go evil for the ruby and then kill him. Make the player actually having to retreat with more than just one unit to the caves, while being under attack.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
There were plenty. Wrong strategy, unlucky turn (key unit with 60% defense eating 7/7 blows), Thursagan dying, northern elf recruiting too many fast units (which surrounded my leader, making escape impossible), cavalry at the south not making it due to not enough distraction from gryphons
(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?
N/A
Curtis
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

Post by Curtis »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on? — 1.11.13 Lord (most difficult)
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) — 2, though it was nerve-wracking
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? — very clear, based on the Walkthrough
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? — Okay, I guess.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? — Trying to keep the Dwarves headed for the caves in the NE alive.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) — 3, kind of pre-programmed, it seemed.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? — Have the two southern Elf forces act more forcefully to interdict the units I sent out on distraction missions.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? — Yes, losing Krawg. Also, I forgot to move Allanin on turn 2. It turned out that was a good move, though.

I want to credit the Walkthrough for this scenario, seeing as how I just blasted it for "The Dragon". I followed Thrash's advice, sending Thursagan and the loyal Stalwart bodyguard towards the caves in the NW. They never got there, but they did kill a Rider or Outrider on the way, and they grabbed three villages. Allanin did his bunk down the west side of the river, crossing to the east at the bottom of the map. I wish the SW Elf had acted more forcefully in driving north after Thursagan, and that the SE Elf had acted more boldly in pursuing Allanin. My failure to move him on turn 2 should've been fatal.

I then dropped a keepful of Scouts and ran Rugnur to the NE. As Sojurner described, I lost all six of them, and had to throw Krawg in to save Rugnur, which resulted in my having to call a do-over when Krawg was hit by three Elves when I thought only two could reach him. On the second try I pulled him one space closer to Rugnur, and both survived, though Krawg was down to 2 hits remaining.
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D-Wade
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

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)
5 - After realizing that it surely is a running scenario.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear. But there should be some signpost. I played this scenario after a two day break and actually did not know the exact location I had to go to anymore.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Bonk! :D Nuff said. ;)

No, seriously: It's ok, but why kill the leader? Just "bonk" him carefully and captivate him.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
My challenge was to find the northeastern cave :) . I just read northern and headed west first, yeah -> restart. After that, I recruited five scouts and hoped that they would be enough to lure the enemy away from my heroes. And it was.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
4 - I hate running scenarios.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
I read the walkthrough before playing it, so I knew what was coming. But I still had to reload, because I headed to the northwestern cave first :doh: .
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Inky
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

Post by Inky »

(1) Level and version? Hard (Lord), 1.12.4, 202 starting gold
(2) Difficult? (1-10) 7 if you starting running immediately and only recruit a keep of sacrificial units. The scenario is probably impossible otherwise.
(3) Objectives? Clear.
(4) Dialog? Fine.
(5) Challenges? getting to the cave with Rugnur.
(6) Fun? (1-10) 4 (not much to do here)
(7) Changes? Seems okay as is.
(8) Restarts? None.

Recruited 3 scouts and 3 gryphons, all sacrificial, and immediately ran north with everyone. The sacrificial screening units were barely enough for Rugnur to make it to the cave.

Finished turn 7/12
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sine_nomine
Posts: 39
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

Post by sine_nomine »

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5 to run from turn 1 (therefore maximizing gold), seems a bit dicey since your path can get blocked. Probably best to use levelled troops and gryphons as sacrifices. The safest option is probably to kill the elves in the north then escape.
8 to kill all leaders while maintaining a good gold carryover.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear to escape but it doesn't say that you can win by killing all the leaders or that there is an eary finish bonus for doing so.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I thought Durstrom was getting corrupted by the ruby in past scenarios but he seems more reasonable here, aside from overestimating the elves' strength.
After Thursagan kills Durnstrom, he tricks the party into going to the northeast, while it would be safer and easier to return to the northwest caves (where you came from in the previous scenario). How suspicious.
Once you kill the elves you end up going towards these northeast caves for some reason, but there's no dialogue to explain. Maybe the path they took here was destroyed by the elves?
Also the dialogue in general seems like it could use a bit of an edit.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
For running, you might get trapped if the AI decides to be smart.
Killing all the leaders isn't hard by itself, but it's hard to fight on three fronts while conserving gold and the time limit can be problematic. I sent mostly dwarf lords and explorers north since you can generally attack the elves while they're on poor terrain. As for the southwestern enemies, runemasters can take advantage of the mountains. I didn't bother with the southeast front, I just held them off and then assassinated the leader with gryphons after luring him onto the snow. He recruits continuously until turn 9 so it's hard to end the scenario before turn 10.
Fortunately I had trained a strong army and had a lot of gold.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
2 to run
8.5 to fight

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It's fine. But if you want to make running more enjoyable, make it so you have to fight through one leader and make the other two actually threatening.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
I took a preliminary attempt to work out a strategy, restarted due losing a dwarvish lord, and then replayed the scenario to maximize gold carryover.
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Konrad2
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

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)

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?

Fine. It's weird that their king completly disappeared. Did they kill him instead of knocking him out? I'm not sure.

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

Figuring out where to fight the elves.

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

5

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

Make clear what happens to the mad leader.

(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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LordWolfDan
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Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

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)

- 6

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

- Quite clear

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

- I love how they got rid of Durstorn, we will never miss you anyways. The idea of Alanin parting ways with dwarves was a good idea

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

- Making sure no important units get killed

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

- 6

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

- Better explanation how the dwarves and Alanin survived all these years in the cave

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

- No
chak_abhi
Posts: 347
Joined: June 24th, 2010, 3:37 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

Post by chak_abhi »

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

1.14.7, Challenging (Steelclad)

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

10, without some modifications (see below)

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

Absolutely clear

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

Quite bland, especially locking yourselves in caves for years is not something that I appreciate; leave alone taking years to melt some gold or forge some sculptures!

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

1. Too less time. Taking Rugnur to the destined location alone takes 7-8 turns, and to do it in 12 turns against such odds seems impossible.
2. Too much gold for the enemies. They already get a huge starting gold and again they receive 200 gold each after few turns. I would like to reduce the starting gold and give them a substantial income so that they don't run out of money and can keep recruiting till the end.
3. The addition of the new enemy camp blocking Alanin's way is appreciable, but to get Alanin past this camp we need at least 6-7 units to protect him, half of which at least should be L2s. More 8-10 units are needed to counter the northern enemy that will enable Rugnur to move into the north-eastern caves early. And another 5-7 units needed to block the south-western enemy units from entering the caves and thus protect the backs of the other units. So we need around 20 units apart from Rugnur & Alanin to get through the scenario. We start with 3 of them--Baglur, Krawg And Thursagan, and need to recruit or recall the rest, which means around 3 keepfuls of recruits/recalls are needed. So quite naturally it is very difficult to be on time.
4. Lack of healers hurts greatly, since it is not always possible to rush injured units to villages. The marksmen and the magical attacks hurt a lot!

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

2 in the present form, 8 with the modifications that I have made.

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

1. Increase turn numbers to 14
2. Reduce starting gold and the booster for all enemies, and give them a healthy income

Please see the scenario file which I have attached. This I think will make the gameplay more enjoyable.

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

Several, including loss of Thursagan...!
Attachments
6_Towards_the_Caves.cfg
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devavrata
Posts: 119
Joined: August 30th, 2012, 8:59 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

Post by devavrata »

Content Feedback wrote: March 11th, 2008, 11:23 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)

To win by fulfilling the objectives and get Rugnur and Alanin to their destinations: 2 (the walkthrough from Trash about the best way for Alanin is really useful).
To win by killing all three elf leaders: 8. Yes, this is another of those "Run, you are overwhelmed" scenarios where you can overwhelm them.
(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, not at all interesting. Let's see. From the start of the campaign dwarves are characterized as greedy, all right -but then, they are made to behave oddly and break character. Funny? I have to see the fun yet. Is Durstorn corrupted by the ruby? If he really was, the last thing he would wish would be surrendering to the elves and losing the ruby - that makes no sense.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
So many units that must survive - some of them are really fragile and are deprived of a good defensive bonus on any terrain.
(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?
None
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
Konrad2
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Joined: November 24th, 2010, 6:30 pm

Re: Scenario Review: SoF 7 - Towards the Caves

Post by Konrad2 »

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

1.15.8, Lord (Difficult)

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

2, runes triviliazed it. Basically a cutscene, but better.

(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?

Clear.

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

Figuring out that runes will make my life easier.

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

6, it's nice, but no challenge.

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

-

Scenario stats:
Attempt 1
Spoiler:
Success
Spoiler:
Attachments
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SoF-Towards the Caves replay 20210124-190947.gz
Attempt 1
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benne278
Posts: 2
Joined: April 25th, 2021, 3:13 am

Re: Scenario Review: SoF 6 - Towards the Caves

Post by benne278 »

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

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

4, after I figured out what I was supposed to do.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Not clear. I agree with previous replies that the scenario needs a sign post. The first time I played it, I moved Rugnur to the hex next to where he is supposed to go, thinking that was an "entrance". Nothing happened, so I moved him around to the northeast side and nothing happened, and the elves were doing too much damage so I started over, and this time tried moving Rugnur to the eastern entrance of the northwest caves, thinking that maybe this is what "northeast cave entrance" was supposed to mean. That also didn't work. I resorted to reading the WML to find the moveto event to determine where he needed to go.

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

I was glad to be rid of Durstorn.

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

Figuring out the objectives. Other than that, it was not too difficult, but it's necessary to find a well protected space for wounded high level units, since the enemy riders are so mobile. On the northeast side of the center cave, it was possible to set up a line in the mountains and protect wounded units by putting them between the front line and the impassable cave hexes.

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

6

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

Add a signpost.

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

Restarted twice because I wasn't sure what the moveto objective for Rugnur was.

Otherwise, the scenario was not too difficult. I did two rounds of recruiting, including 5 fresh guardsmen as fodder to delay the southern elves from pursuing through the center cave.
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