Scenario 12: Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

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Scenario 12: Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

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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?
(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?
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lotsofphil
Posts: 128
Joined: March 27th, 2009, 4:45 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by lotsofphil »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on? Medium
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? 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? Good.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? I was afraid of the villages.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? 5
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? It is fine as is.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? No.

I knew some of the villages were trouble so I stayed out of them until the end, when things were in hand. Sure enough, a Draug or two popped out. Also lots of friendly units popped out too. Oops.
I let Niktor die, which was probably not the best idea. Future scenarios might push that into an answer for #8.

*Edited because I confused Niktor and Lionel*
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Jarkko
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by Jarkko »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Easy (1.7 beta5)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Plain and simple: Eradicate them all.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It was catchy enough - I just don't understand, why scenarios tend to explain the mist... Couldn't it be just, that persons remember the area, but can't see there? However at first I thought, the orcs and the undead were allied... It was a kind of pleasure to learn, I was wrong.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
There actually wasn't. Reinforcements from the villages gave a sense of security for sorts, while the enemies from villages toned it down a bit. The only real problem was, when the undead begun to throw entire L3 branch at my general direction, making me to seriously plan my moves.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8 - It was a good challenge.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I don't think, it requires any significant changes.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Didn't lose, but there were moments when I had to halt and think, before making my moves.

(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?
Looked at the code and there seems to be some commenting there, but due to my lack of experience I can't really give any opinion. From all the comments the most important (at least to me) was the "Historical background" :P - At first I actually wondered, how come, that Parthyn is so fortified - that somewhat explained it.
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Anregar
Posts: 4
Joined: March 26th, 2010, 8:03 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by Anregar »

1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Easy, 1.8rc1.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9 the first time, 6 if you played it before.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear enough.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Clear and interesting, but I don't like scenarios with changing objectives too much. I mean, the first time you play, they are too difficult, and afterwards they are rather easy. Also, at first, it was not clear to me why there were 3 castles, and to wich castle I have to go (maybe I didn't read the dialogs too carefully).
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
See below.
(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?
Not sure. The difference of difficulty between first time play and other time play is too big.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

First time I played, I recruited a castle full of elves, send some south and some west, to explore the 2 castles. I found some orcs in the west, so I send the south troops to the west, not meeting the allies. The south elves entered the village at the forest in the center of the map, and they found some orcs there. Since I was short on gold when arriving the scenario (250$ or so) I was massacrated by the orcs before finding the allies and the ghosts.

Second time I had more gold (350 or so, I replayed previous scenario), so I could recruit more elves and kill the orcs except for the leader (also, didn't entered the forest village in the center). Before killing the orc leader I send my main forces to the castle in the center. By that time, skeletons and ghosts have invaded the castle and the soldiers where few and weak. When I finally arrived to the castle, second wave of ghosts come and killed almost all of my elves, so I restarted.

Third time I recruited a full castle of lvl2 and lvl1 elves and went directly to the south. Finally I could find the mages, but ghosts prevented Delfador from reaching the castle in the center and recruiting more elves. The first village I entered was that of the Draug, so I didn't entered more villages. The Draug and the second wave of ghosts almost killed me, so I restarted again.

Last time I went south without recruiting. I could reach the central castle and recruit a lot of elves. Also, I found the allies in the villages in the center. This time it was very easy to kill the undead and the orcs.

So, if you have played the scenario before, it is easy. If not, it is very difficult.
Ilanin
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by Ilanin »

1) Mage 1.8rc1
2) 5-7ish; would have been higher if I cared about keeping the garrison alive I guess.
3) Moderately clear, but it seems a bit strange you come to a human garrison and don't care at all if the garrison is overrun during the battle
4) See above, also see 9. The enemies are a bit stereotyped, but Iliah-Malal doesn't really seem the type for originality anyway
5) It's easy to get your troops strung out and ambushed if you get too ambitious, and my crapton of Elvish Sorceresses, whilst highly effective, are also somewhat vulnerable (especially to Chocobones). Slow and steady wins the day.
6) I like it, I guess. 7 or so.
7) I would personally prefer fewer friendly units from the villages - that made it practically impossible to lose. I believe what you're supposed to do is charge south to link up with the garrison and then get sandwiched between orcs and undead, and if you're that stupid you might well need them. I went off and killed the orcs first, which made everything else trivial.
8) Charging south to.... on my first playthrough, I guess I could have continued but I was sufficiently disgusted with how bad a situation I'd got myself into I restarted anyway.
9) The WML in this scenario is bugged - the event that wakes up side 5 doesn't check to see if side 5 still has any units, so you get your scouts talking to an empty keep and brandishing Leollyn's token at it. Well enough commented though which is just as well as it's rather involved.
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Majki-Fajki
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by Majki-Fajki »

1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5 - fairly easy. Resist first wave - than advance and massacre.
(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?
Quite intresting. Liked the idea of "mystery" and lvl.3 Undead.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
No challenges - just leveling units.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7 - I like being under siege, but this one is too easy. No twists.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
More suprises. I.e. someone from the south, less levelled units, but more of them (in the attacers army)
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
None.
(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
cph
Posts: 129
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by cph »

(1) Great Mage, 1.8.0
(2) 6. I finished on the first real attempt with just a few save-loads for tactical mistakes. With heavy losses (very heavy if the south garrison are included - I lost all the loyalist units except those in villages that I didn't spring until the end).

(3) Clear
(4) Good, and as clear as it is meant to be I guess - I don't see how the orcs and undead are connected yet but I guess that is to unfold later in the story.

I did notice a speech "What...is this abomination?" when there was nothing yet in sight, which therefore seemed out of place.

(5)
  • Not knowing which villages I could step on without losing units to a trap.
  • Having a village right in the middle of the forest that I was trying to defend that I couldn't step on (because it would spring a trap) was kind of annoying.
  • Facing L3 undead units with mostly L1 Elven recruits gets a bit painful. No impact damage is a pain against all these soul shooters; even Delfador with the super-lightning can't kill a two of them without losing most of his health.
  • Having to fight with an inadequately small force not of my selection in the south, again L1 units vs L3 undead mostly.
  • ...leading to undead units slaughtering the southern garrison.
  • Lots of swearing at the RNG as those white mages couldn't hit a thing; didn't kill much with them.
  • Forgetting to move units, or often forgetting to move the whole south army at all and having to reload back a turn to move them.
(6) 5 - it's a hard fight, interesting in places.

I should explain my strategy - I marched my north army west to take out the orc leader. Left the south garrison to hold out as best they could on their own - they didn't. I therefore marched my main army - after a long and very close fight with a swarm of L2 and L3 undead which nearly overwhelmed my north force as well - all the way south, over the river, to kill the undead force there and retake all the villages. And them marched back over the river to the objective. Probably I didn't need to do that and it did make it rather long-winded. Not to mention I could have saved myself a lot of time by not playing the southern force at all, since they all died and didn't make much of a dent in the undead.

(7) Not sure that I can comment yet. I didn't find all the loyalist reinforcements in the north part of the town until turn 25 or so, and perhaps I would have done better if I had them early. I may have had entirely the wrong strategy, and a dash south to defend the town - albeit on two fronts - might have worked better. (Although then I would really have been facing L3 undead with L1 elves; at least taking out the orcs first I could level up a few units to L2.)

(8) I think I never actually lost Delfador, but would have done so on one or two occasions and so reloaded in anticipation.
cph
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by cph »

As that was something of an epic wrong way to play it, I thought I would post the replay.
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DM-Terror_at_the_Ford_of_Pa..._replay.gz
Replay, 1.8.0. How to get the strategy totally wrong, somehow survive, clean up and win.
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Gerion
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by Gerion »

1) Medium
(2) 6-9. The span is between 6 when you replay it and know which villages spawn enemies and which spawn friends, and 9 when you first try it.
(3) Both very clear and absolutely not clear. The objective was not really clear, look what is going on in the garrison, but after you actually know what is going on it is very clear. But i never would change that, because this fits in nicely with the scenario
(4) Very clear and interesting. It is logical, story driven and adds to the flavour of the scenario
(5) Not knowing what is going on and because of this splitting up the units to see more of the map. So it was quite difficult to form a strong defence against the undead in time because lots of units were scattered across the area
(6) It was very fun. Great storytelling, good difficulty. I was nearly losing the battle and lost sots of elves before I was able to form a more or less stable defence line with the heavy units and wizards after freeing some villages until the rest of the elves killing the orcs were able to return and initiate a counterattack together with the humans.
(7) On second thought... I think there are maybe a little much friendly units inside the houses. I mean... of course I was happy to get so much heavy units, but it is nocht really logical. If the defenders had so many heavy units left, especially so many heavy infantry units which are far from useless against undead, why did they lose in the first place? Besieged, yes... barely able to hold the walls, yes... but losing and hiding in villages?
(8) none. Lots of nearly- losses like moving VIPs on villages that spawn enemies, but nothing that lead to an inevitable loss

Edit: Editet (7)
KrokoNoir
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Joined: August 15th, 2009, 5:24 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by KrokoNoir »

The most efficient strategy seems to go south as quickly as possible, to control the humans and enroll the mages. The dialogs are expecting this strategy.
The first time I played this scenario, I did not know that I could control the southern army, and I expected the humans to be able to resist the undeads for a while, so I decided to begin by eliminating the orcs. Then, the dialogs are completely un-understandable. The WML should at least make the difference between those two strategies. When the bad strategy is chosen, I would also suggest to have some humans fleeing the battle, finding the elves and asking for help.
shadowblack
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by shadowblack »

1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.8.2, Mage (Normal/Medium/whatever you call it)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5 most of the time, but on occasion it spiked up to 7 (for example when I had to fight 2 level 3 undead fighters + other undead with level 1 and 2 units, most of which were using piercing damage; ouch!)

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
At the very start I wasn’t sure how far to the south I need to go to find out what was going on. However on turn 1 I moved Chantal to a destroyed village and met a spearman. The objective changed to “kill all enemies” – a crystal clear objective. After that it was only a matter of deciding who to send west to the orcs and who to send south-southeast.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I liked it, but I really wish I had learned a bit more about Chantal before she left.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The undead (especially the level 3s). Once I got rid of them the rest was easy. The Orcish forces were scattered over a large area, so it was pretty hard for them to pose a threat (not counting the ambush waiting in a village.

Speaking of the ambushes – those were a bit annoying, but in the end they weren’t a big deal.

(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?
No changes.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Nothing made me restart, but I did load a few times due to my own carelessness.
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Maiklas3000
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by Maiklas3000 »

1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Most difficult; 1.8.3; 356 starting gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5

(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 dialog is messed up. First village, found a survivor. Second village, the Elvish Druid says maybe we should look for survivors. Ya think? I'd also like the survivor, a Spearman, to just stay put on the turn we find him. I mean, he was scared beepless, hiding in this village, so he shouldn't suddenly have 6 movement points and be able to charge instantly towards the enemy.

"What in the wide green world is this abomination?"
=> I have no idea what you're talking about. I can't see anything through this mist.

"They have unleashed a second wave. Soldiers, stand firm and send these abominations back to the darkness!"
=> You must have better eyesight than I. I can't see anything through this mist.

I also didn't like when a Draug popped out of an orc-owned village, and then had the audicity to taunt me with a line, "Master said more would come!" Yeah, well, the orcs and undead seemed quite happy to fight each other, so why should this Draug do nothing when the orcs occupied the village?

Later, an allied Bowman appears, stepping between two orcish Warriors and a Spectre, and the dialog is, "Halt! Who goes there?" I imagined the Spectre freezing, with a guilty look on its face. Well, it turned out that it wasn't the Bowman talking, but the leader, who was farther back. But still, the dialog was a bit messed up. Leader: "See the medallion carried by Delfador?" Mage: "Delfa-who? I can't see anything through this mist, much less a medallion several miles away." Well, that wasn't the exact dialog, but you get the idea. Delfador had just dispatched the undead leader and wasn't in the area. It was also weird when Delfador was having a conversation with the human leader, across vast distances.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The only tense spot was having a Rider ambushed by three undead popping out of a village, and losing two Riders in the process. Otherwise, it was a scenario that seemed like it could be very hard, so had tension, but turned out to be easy.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
5. Suffers from dialog disparity and also from the fact that the Mages don't have much to do if you kill the undead leader yourself before contacting them. Did the Mages even make a single zap for me? No, I don't think so.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
If you look at it tactically, I think most people will attack either the orc leader first or the undead leader first. But either case results in some semi-broken dialog. I would suggest relocating the orc leader to the extreme southwest and the undead leader to the extreme southeast. You might need to add some forbidding swamps as well, to encourage the player to go through the central fortress area first.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No.

(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?
It's okay.
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Thrash
Posts: 223
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Re: Scenario Review: DM 12 - Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by Thrash »

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

1.8.4, Hard, 366 starting gold

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

6, my elven army wasn't really pushed by the orcs once I knew not to step into villages. The humans in the keep were in tough shape and I never really got them organized until elven reinforcements arrived.

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

Kill all bad guys.

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

Certainly plentiful. A number of dialog events suffered from the usual Wesnoth "unit not actually visible to the player, but still the event triggers" bug.

"To wake up the mages, move a unit that is currently out of sight of their tower to within visual range of it." - First, when this text appeared, my screen was south of the tower, which was confusing. Also, I was really unsure what "out of sight" meant here - the unit couldn't see the tower? the mages couldn't see the unit? I ended up running an elf scout down, which I think took too long (see challenges).

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

1) I was afraid to enter villages.

2) I finally managed to run an elf down to the Mages (maybe some other human unit could have woken them?) but by then the ford was swarming with undead and only one mage made it alive across the river (and he later died, if mages are important, I'm going to be replaying this...)

3) Assassins suck with only one druid and no villages.

4) I never really got the humans organized well.

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

8, it's a good fight.

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

The dialog bugs aside, it's good as is.

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

First time I walked into a village right before the wave of orces hit me from the west. This caused me to be unable to move Chantal to where I wanted, she was caught in an awkward spot and killed.

(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?

Looks well commented, which is good, it's a complicated scenario.
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santosis
Posts: 74
Joined: October 11th, 2010, 12:04 am

Re: Scenario 12: Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by santosis »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8 - Hey let me just pop into that village ... uh oh...

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear, beat the two baddies.

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Figuring out who to sacrifice, I lost one white mage, but otherwise lost only expendable troops. I also saw the SE enemy base on the first turn and sent 3 rangers to assassinate the leader. One of the rangers died, but I took the undead leader out quite early.

I finished in round 16/36 with 0 gold and will carry 448 over to the next level.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10 - Awesome challenge with unexpected turns (good/bad villages) and surprises. Maybe the best scenario in all of Wesnoth.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Put a few Ogres in the mountains.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
A nightghast (?) killed my leader (who I moved into the water castle to make troops). I reloaded and surrounded him with elves.
dsa
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Re: Scenario 12: Terror at the Ford of Parthyn

Post by dsa »

1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Hard, 1.9.3

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6, I followed a defensive strategy and let the orcs and undead fight each other. Together with the units from the villages, this allowed me to do without recruting any units (except from one scout). I lost three of the new White Mages due to attacks from Ghosts though, but this proved to be of no problem in the future scenarios.

(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?
Other comments already said it: there are statements about units, which aren't visible.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Finding the best strategy.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8, a lot of interesting events.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Nothing too serious, but I do not understand, why the leader of the White Mages (Arpus) has no traits. The same applies to Niktor.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes, to explore what events occur and to find the right strategy, I had to restart two times.
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