Sourcetrunk review : why do you like this game so much ?

[sourcetrunk]

Hi,

I'm in the process of playing The Battle For Wesnoth (addictive as hell) to do a review on my Sourcetrunk podcast about it. Feedback about the open source project from the users before I start digging in to the project has proven to be very valuable.

Could I borrow a little time from you Elves, Orcs and Mages ? These five questions would help me to look in the right places for nice features about TBFW.

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

again, thanks a million for your time,
much appreciated.

Dimitri Larmuseau,
host/producer of Sourcetrunk

[Eleazar]

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?
Simple but deep gameplay and great faction balance.

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)
Not recently, because there are very few being made. Alpha Centari was a favorite.

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?
It's pretty easy to contribute. The organization is more friendly and open than most others i've observed.

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)Graphics (mostly terrain) and some Conceptualizing

[Ken_Oh]

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?
It's complex yet intuitive and easy to contribute to. This means there's always something new to play around with. In my opinion, a large part of the game being intuitive is having a simple economy that integrates itself into the combat system. Recent strategy games (including RTS) often make unintuitive and hard-to-manage economy systems that bog down the real action. A game like Wesnoth already has you micro-managing your troops on the battlefield; there's no need for much more than that.

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)
Not recently, but when I did it was either browser-based games like Urbandead, Xenocide3001, Kingdom Of Loathing, The Reincarnation/Archmage, or Chinese historical games like any of the Romance of the Three Kingdom games. I also play M.U.L.E. a lot, if that counts.

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?
They help you generate content. As long as you put in effort, they will see to it that you get what help you need.

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)
Beautiful moments for me are mostly when I get some tricky code to work in something I'm working on. Terrible moments are when I find that I can't get it to work or it's simply going to be more complicated than it's worth.

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)
I've been contributing half-ass content for years now.

[Herduk]

Could I borrow a little time from you Elves, Orcs and Mages ?

This is racism!
We little dwarves protest loud!

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

It's small (download size), easy to learn but hard to master, decent number of playable races, multiplayer for free, great variety of user contents of high quality (some campaigns and factions are very well designed), a well-active community of players to play with.

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

Advanced Wars (1 + 2)
Civilization I + II
Colonization
Final Fantasy tactics.

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

It's live! Developers are active and some new members join, artists same.
You can always find someone new to play with and you will never be sure to be the best.

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

When i win my first mp game after months in which i only lost was one of the nicest moment

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

I would like, but my knwoledges are too littles at this moment.

[sourcetrunk]

>This is racism!
>We little dwarves protest loud!

I could have sworn I heard something ... oh well ...

[playtom]

1)great graphics/music for a free and open source game. awesome extensibility( with WML ) single player and multiplayer server available.
large amount of contents compared to the other guys(dozens of user made campaigns/era/MP packs!)

2)if by turn based. i only play Tactics arena online. other than that and wesnoth, i don't like any other TBS games. RTS is my favorite

3)great community of course you can find answers to anything wesnoth or help on the forums. and people work voluntarily together to improve the game

4)most beautiful:"went through all campaign without losing a single unit"
most terrible:"crashed a Multiplayer game!"

5)i haven't, not officially. wesnoth contributors don't have alot of time therefore progress is slow. my unfinished campaign is only on the first few scenario

[turin]

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

Simple to learn, but full of strategy, and extremely easy to modify and contribute to.

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

I've liked a few TBSs, like Heroes of Might and Magic (III), but nowadays I mostly play Wesnoth and a few RPGs.

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

It's very helpful if you're willing to put in some effort. It won't do your work for you, but if you start a project and ask it to explain something, it usually will. And often you can ask "how can I do this in WML" and get a reply with all of the code needed to do it.

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

Probably when I spent several hours working on a map for a campaign scenario then acciddentally deleted it.

Actually, that's happened several times...

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

Yes, I've written... let's see... five campaigns and counting, I maintain the Imperial Era, and I've done a sizable amount of graphics for mainline.

[zookeeper]

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

Probably being able to contribute to it. If I couldn't, I probably wouldn't have remained interested in the game itself either for very long, even though I think that as a game it has uncommonly deep and interesting gameplay despite being simple.

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

Not much (I don't tend to play a lot of different games, I tend to play the same games a lot). Galactic Civilizations (I & II), Shogun: Total War and a few RPG's are pretty much the only other turn-based games I remember playing seriously in recent years.

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

Hard to say, nothing really specific comes to mind. Maybe just that fact that there's a pool of generally friendly and sometimes knowledgeable people who you can ask for assistance with almost anything relating to the game.

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

Nice moments are probably generally good MP matches (or happy incidents like this one) or getting good feedback on something I've contributed. Major annoyances would be some general directions Wesnoth development has taken (in various different areas) which I think are bad or dumb but which I can't really change or have changed. Nothing overwhelmingly negative while actually playing really comes to mind, occurrences of streaks of bad luck or MP opponents leaving in the middle of the game are too numerous.

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

I've done a lot of sound effects and animations and I'm one of the WML experts around meaning small bugs fixing in campaigns and units and acting as a WML helpdesk (WML being the scripting language in which basically all the content is written in).

[Lorbi]

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

Everything.
I really like the sprites. ( except the new WC )
It offerso so much different strategies.
The very well balanced factions.
There is more than just elf, dwarve und human to choose from.
More different units than in much other ga,es.
The way that luck is implemented.
...

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

chess

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

i got the impression that the wesnoth community tends to be more intellectual / mature than the average gamecommunity ( eg WoW )

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

most terrible: the day i started to learn WML
most beautiful: the day i finished my first self made scenario

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

yes .. but uploaded only 1 scenario so far

[Melbourne]

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

Has its own very rich in game culture, it has a great cultural mix of players in the forum and online game, very appealing and professional finish to everything that you see in the game. Exciting campaigns and fun multiplayer online.

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

Warlords II - but not since playing Wesnoth! Steel Panthers a long time ago.

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

Friendly, mature, supportive and fun.

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

Best moment was seeing my six year old son enjoy the game (he is turning 7 tomorrow).

Worst moment? Making a wrong turn in a campaign, and realising I hadn't kept a saved game!

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

No. I would love to put together a campaign, but I'm too busy playing. My son loves drawing maps in his scrapbook and then making them in the editor.

[Noyga]

Hello,

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

From a player point of view :
- simple but rich and balanced gameplay
- nice graphics/music
- for online games you can choose to play short or long games, depending your available time
From a contributor or addon creator point a view :
- nice extensibility (through WML)
- you can contribute to the game, and it can happen very quick

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

I used to play Cibvilization-like games, but i find they tend to last too long...
I play two online turn-based php games (BloodCombat and Mountyhall), those really don't eat time.

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

It's very helpful if you're willing to put some effort. There are some nice art tutorials.

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

I enjoyed watching of playing some games with (S)elfish Weirdo and a few other guys, mostly for the funny roleplaying part.

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

Yes :
- Code (WML, some C++)
- Multiplayers Addons (The Extended Era and a few other things)
- (French) Translation

[NeoPhile]

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

It doesn't follow the trends. You don't need the latest graphics card to play it, it's not 3D, and it's turn-based. Essentially, it offers very unique gameplay for this day and age. Also, it's available for linux.

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

I still break out the original Civ every once in a while.

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

They've got good spirit - People say good luck at the start of the game, and clap each other on the back at the end. You can sometimes find opponents swapping strategies mid-game, and offering advice to less experienced players. The forums are similarly good, in that they have a wealth of friendly, helpful people

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

Not really. I've made a few contributions to other people's campaigns, and improved the wiki too. Nothing major though.

[shevegen]

I found this survey as link from another forum thread here.
I think this is a good idea to link to surveys, else I would have missed it for sure (i check the forum only ~ one time in 2 weeks or so at the moment...)

Here my answers:

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?
Simple game concept, strategic yet clear aspect, no 3D bloodbath orgy ;>
2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)
In the past, yes, but these days they have kinda disappeared, unfortunately (but i play
civilization every now and then). This, and that I have less time now than I used to have ... but maybe the main reason is really that so many old games just disappeared. The fate of closed source
3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?
That there ARE SO MANY (no really, that is a good thing, its an active, healthy community)
4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)
Beatiful: It was when i played for the first time, a rather difficult scenario, where
the enemy invaded from all sides, but also via ocean. i had to think where best to
place my units... that was nice.
Terrible: Actually it was a scenario which was way too difficult compared to other scenarios, ie when the AI had a big advantage while I as a played would often not play as "perfectly" ... i just dont have the time to ie. control 25 units like the AI does effortlessly,
and place them all so perfectly that the enemy units cant hit them (the units in question
were high level knights that could instantly kill any other unit with a little luck)

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)
Not really, i am trying to do a campaign but to be honest, i find WML too complex.
I am trying more with a campaign editor though, i am just too lazy to learn all of
WML just to make a little campaign ... hopefully the guys that do the editor
will continue to make it better

[Dovolente]

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

I like the fact that it is very international, and that people from so many countries and cultures are working together to develop the game.

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

Terrible: Logging on to the multiplayer server as a complete newbie, getting smacked down, and realizing how much I had to improve to be able to compete.

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

I make multiplayer maps. The included map editor and the accessible mark-up script language make it so that anyone can satisfy their creative urges and contribute add-on content to the game.

[Jetrel]

1.) what makes TBFW stand out amongst other, proprietary games ?

It's open source, and has a clean path of evolution through what would for proprietary software, end up as sequels. Wesnoth has evolved over its old self to the same degree that Civ II evolved over Civ I. Of course, at the same time, this can be a detriment, since it means that basic gameplay/graphics features that probably should be overhauled, don't get that treatment.

2.) do you play other turn-based games (and which ?)

n/a

3.) what is the most pleasant aspect of the TBFW community ?

An inverse ratio of "1337 d00ds" compared to the average online community.

4.) what was your most beautiful and/or terrible moment with TBFW ( really good multiplayer event, crash in the middle of a very good game, etc.)

Worst moment was back when I was merely a player, and hadn't yet cracked open the game's data files - I was playing "Ford of Abez", and assumed that like most other games, if you succeeded in doing something that you were expressly told not to on grounds of it being "impossible", you'd unlock a secret level of some sort. In this case, the daring deed was trying to defeat the princess and her preternatural number of troops, instead of crossing the river like I was supposed.

After a herculean effort, I finally managed to defeat her, which as it turned out, simply triggered a very premature game over. You only get to do things the approved way in that campaign.

Hard to say precisely what the best moment was. There've been plenty of good ones.

5.) do you develop for this game ? (code, campaigns.)

It'd be safe to say that I've made the lion's share of the game's graphics. I also do a lot of other stuff, when I have time.