DiD Rework Feedback
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DiD Rework Feedback
Sorry for posting this here, but it seemed too big and unfocused for an issue on github and didn't really seem to fit the feedback threads either, given that I haven't answered the usual questions and haven't gone scenario by scenario in the usual way.
It's been a long time since I've played DiD, so I'm not sure I properly appreciate the recent changes as I don't remember what it was like before, but like it is now on 1.15.3 it flows very naturally and just works. I enjoyed it a lot. Here's a few thoughts, bugs, and responses that I had when playing it.
GENERAL CAMPAIGN STUFF
15XP for first 2nd level AMLAs for Malin and the Servant seem insanely low, would prefer it to be at a standard level 1 XP level at minimum.
AMLA says "what should our victorious unit become?", if this is changeable having it say something more along the lines of "Which skill should our unit train?" would be nice.
The Servant Spirit is easily confused with other ghosts. Give it a loyal icon, perhaps a colour change, and a comment on death.
'Servant Spirit' and 'Eidolon' are distinctly different names to their original units, but 'Wight' is too easily confused with 'Wraith' . Suggest something like 'Phantom'.
AMLA deprecation warning [Set_specials] mode=<unset> on Fat Jamie level up and Wraith hysteria (and maybe Lich Malin?)
When you become a Lich, previous AMLA like the 250% hit one etc just disappear
Suggest removing the books that appear throughout due to the confusion with The Book later.
The monuments could be cool, but they're a bit confusing as is. It would be good to have them explictly be figments of Malin's imagination/visions (I assume this is what they are, since they move), disappear when Malin touches them, and tell some kind of ever-spiralling story/poem as he touches each one rather that just generally exuding blackness and granting experience.
SCENARIO FEEDBACK
Scenario 1
Loyal units become orcish (white) instead of human on team_change
The book is an obvious and jarring Star Wars quote. Suggest that it's cut or changed.
Scenario 2
Capturing last village can release more goblins even as it triggers the end of the level. Suggest either making the objectives to capture all villages AND kill all enemies, or make it the final village not spawn gobbos.
The wolf leader can be lured out on his keep on turn one and killed, making the level even easier. Maybe turn his aggression down?
The Gold cage is weird. It should be a chest instead. Why can only Malin see keys? Also, 10 gold is not worth the time investment. Just cut this.
If you don't walk in a swamp then you have ghouls in S3 anyway without explanation. Make obtaining ghouls an objective of the scenario from the start.
End text says "...but walking corpses and bats..." despite the fact that you just got ghouls. Suggest change to, "even ghouls will not be enough..."
Darken says "These corpses and souls will supply you...". I am not hip with the undead lore, but there's no souls involved. This should just be "these corpses"
Quotes are missing around goblin leader ID in death event.
Scenario 3
There's a deprecation warning on young ogre fight (wesnoth.units.resistance has been deprecated indefinitely.)
If you kill the first ogre with corpses, you get a zombie but the Second and third kills don't spawn (because they are interrupted by events?). Add message interrupting first kill the same way saying something like "Don't turn the bodies into corpses, we need them intact for now!"
If a player's level 0 unit dies when attacked it triggers the rat_hint event
There's no reason that DV should think Malin will 'find the answer' to the mudcrawler puzzle.
Only letting Malin use the storm trident is non-intuitive. Let any unit/any non-flying unit grab it and keep it as an item throughout the campaign. It will help make units a little special.
Why would burning down the tree give you the ability to stop the magic spawning the mudcrawlers? Just let the storm trident or Malin's magic destroy the rune on contact.
The fat rat looks the same as the level 0 ones. Maybe use a recoloured sprite?
The fat rat has a level 0 ellipse.
The scorpion is stupidly difficult to kill. Removing the village that it's sitting on would help.
Malin could easily lose to the ghost in the one-on-one fight due to bad luck, especially if he's not upgraded much yet. Forcing a reload for that seems poor. Maybe force chance to hit in the battle if HP gets low?
The ghost will run away to heal when injured, leaving Malin stranded on the island. Force aggression?
Scenario 4
On easy, the southern enemy recruits almost nothing.
Scenario 5
"Whitefangs still number many and..." This wording is a bit clumsy.
DV repeats himself a little: "For now, hunt down the last chieftan" is unneeded.
Scenario 6
"What’s this awful thing that stands ’side ya?" - but ghosts don't have legs. Remove the "that stands"?
"Prepare to meet your makers, orc." - Do orcs (or humans on this planet) have creator gods?
"I am defeated but not dead, foul thing that was once my brother." Confusing sentence construction, could use a 'ya' in there.
It would be nice to bring back the Drogan ghoul as some kind of Easter egg event later? Maybe just let him keep his name?
Having Blue and red dots on the bigmap didn't make sense to me. I guess they're supposed to represent chasing the orc, but he's not really important. Suggest they be removed, or maybe used even more to represent when Malin is moving with Darken, making their absense later add to the sense of lonliness?
Scenario 7a
7a: I Could not get a Chocobone, because the AI never spawned any Cavs. Suggest Either enforcing a recruit pattern on the AI and/or allow the stable to be triggered by a skelly?
Scenario 7b
7b: Not clear which way to go. Have Malin and Darken walk in from SE
7b: Here are some more items that only Malin can use, that aren't justified. Suggest letting any unit pick them up.
7b: The amulet at 15,3 doesn't remove from map when picked up.
7b/c: Monoliths here don't work like the rest of them in the campaign. Suggest removing them.
7b/c: Having all these items, some which have events, some which don't, some can only be picked up by Malin etc. is messy. Suggest consistency.
Scenario 7c
7c: DV is suicidal and his units don't protect him well. I see you made changes to fix this since my version, but don't think there's a reason for him not to remain a player's unit here.
7c: If a unit other than DV picks up the book, have him freak out a little, insist he be given it, and get upset when Malin makes him wait, foreshadowing S8.
Scenario 8
Why would there be a lighthouse here?
Letting Fat Jaime get Drunken rage breaks his plague
Needs an alternate objective, kill all enemies.
Scenario 9
How does a dragon write on a sign? The mage's name is a cute Easter egg though.
There's some deprecated code when Malin is dying at the start.
Missing portrait on Malin's reflection in the pool
On returning from the pool, shroud came back up on the map in places that I'd already explored.
When you find some gold, Malin could say something like "What need have I for gold now?". He's beyond such earthly concerns.
The rhyme is cool, but if the potion puzzle is going to be a thing (I don't think it adds much, personally) I think it should be left as lost lab notes or as a deliberate challenge by the mage to those that follow, not as an unfinished experiment. An experiment like this doesn't really make sense.
Scenario 10
There should be some kind of victory message each time that you "win"
People ARE going to skip the story text when it starts out the same as previously. It should be different each time instead of repeating, at least while the objectives are still changing, or people will miss the introduction of the book.
The Foolish hero's units don't try to get the book. This can cause the scenario to go on even more forever than intended.
Thanks again for the campaign rework. It's very good.
It's been a long time since I've played DiD, so I'm not sure I properly appreciate the recent changes as I don't remember what it was like before, but like it is now on 1.15.3 it flows very naturally and just works. I enjoyed it a lot. Here's a few thoughts, bugs, and responses that I had when playing it.
GENERAL CAMPAIGN STUFF
15XP for first 2nd level AMLAs for Malin and the Servant seem insanely low, would prefer it to be at a standard level 1 XP level at minimum.
AMLA says "what should our victorious unit become?", if this is changeable having it say something more along the lines of "Which skill should our unit train?" would be nice.
The Servant Spirit is easily confused with other ghosts. Give it a loyal icon, perhaps a colour change, and a comment on death.
'Servant Spirit' and 'Eidolon' are distinctly different names to their original units, but 'Wight' is too easily confused with 'Wraith' . Suggest something like 'Phantom'.
AMLA deprecation warning [Set_specials] mode=<unset> on Fat Jamie level up and Wraith hysteria (and maybe Lich Malin?)
When you become a Lich, previous AMLA like the 250% hit one etc just disappear
Suggest removing the books that appear throughout due to the confusion with The Book later.
The monuments could be cool, but they're a bit confusing as is. It would be good to have them explictly be figments of Malin's imagination/visions (I assume this is what they are, since they move), disappear when Malin touches them, and tell some kind of ever-spiralling story/poem as he touches each one rather that just generally exuding blackness and granting experience.
SCENARIO FEEDBACK
Scenario 1
Loyal units become orcish (white) instead of human on team_change
The book is an obvious and jarring Star Wars quote. Suggest that it's cut or changed.
Scenario 2
Capturing last village can release more goblins even as it triggers the end of the level. Suggest either making the objectives to capture all villages AND kill all enemies, or make it the final village not spawn gobbos.
The wolf leader can be lured out on his keep on turn one and killed, making the level even easier. Maybe turn his aggression down?
The Gold cage is weird. It should be a chest instead. Why can only Malin see keys? Also, 10 gold is not worth the time investment. Just cut this.
If you don't walk in a swamp then you have ghouls in S3 anyway without explanation. Make obtaining ghouls an objective of the scenario from the start.
End text says "...but walking corpses and bats..." despite the fact that you just got ghouls. Suggest change to, "even ghouls will not be enough..."
Darken says "These corpses and souls will supply you...". I am not hip with the undead lore, but there's no souls involved. This should just be "these corpses"
Quotes are missing around goblin leader ID in death event.
Scenario 3
There's a deprecation warning on young ogre fight (wesnoth.units.resistance has been deprecated indefinitely.)
If you kill the first ogre with corpses, you get a zombie but the Second and third kills don't spawn (because they are interrupted by events?). Add message interrupting first kill the same way saying something like "Don't turn the bodies into corpses, we need them intact for now!"
If a player's level 0 unit dies when attacked it triggers the rat_hint event
There's no reason that DV should think Malin will 'find the answer' to the mudcrawler puzzle.
Only letting Malin use the storm trident is non-intuitive. Let any unit/any non-flying unit grab it and keep it as an item throughout the campaign. It will help make units a little special.
Why would burning down the tree give you the ability to stop the magic spawning the mudcrawlers? Just let the storm trident or Malin's magic destroy the rune on contact.
The fat rat looks the same as the level 0 ones. Maybe use a recoloured sprite?
The fat rat has a level 0 ellipse.
The scorpion is stupidly difficult to kill. Removing the village that it's sitting on would help.
Malin could easily lose to the ghost in the one-on-one fight due to bad luck, especially if he's not upgraded much yet. Forcing a reload for that seems poor. Maybe force chance to hit in the battle if HP gets low?
The ghost will run away to heal when injured, leaving Malin stranded on the island. Force aggression?
Scenario 4
On easy, the southern enemy recruits almost nothing.
Scenario 5
"Whitefangs still number many and..." This wording is a bit clumsy.
DV repeats himself a little: "For now, hunt down the last chieftan" is unneeded.
Scenario 6
"What’s this awful thing that stands ’side ya?" - but ghosts don't have legs. Remove the "that stands"?
"Prepare to meet your makers, orc." - Do orcs (or humans on this planet) have creator gods?
"I am defeated but not dead, foul thing that was once my brother." Confusing sentence construction, could use a 'ya' in there.
It would be nice to bring back the Drogan ghoul as some kind of Easter egg event later? Maybe just let him keep his name?
Having Blue and red dots on the bigmap didn't make sense to me. I guess they're supposed to represent chasing the orc, but he's not really important. Suggest they be removed, or maybe used even more to represent when Malin is moving with Darken, making their absense later add to the sense of lonliness?
Scenario 7a
7a: I Could not get a Chocobone, because the AI never spawned any Cavs. Suggest Either enforcing a recruit pattern on the AI and/or allow the stable to be triggered by a skelly?
Scenario 7b
7b: Not clear which way to go. Have Malin and Darken walk in from SE
7b: Here are some more items that only Malin can use, that aren't justified. Suggest letting any unit pick them up.
7b: The amulet at 15,3 doesn't remove from map when picked up.
7b/c: Monoliths here don't work like the rest of them in the campaign. Suggest removing them.
7b/c: Having all these items, some which have events, some which don't, some can only be picked up by Malin etc. is messy. Suggest consistency.
Scenario 7c
7c: DV is suicidal and his units don't protect him well. I see you made changes to fix this since my version, but don't think there's a reason for him not to remain a player's unit here.
7c: If a unit other than DV picks up the book, have him freak out a little, insist he be given it, and get upset when Malin makes him wait, foreshadowing S8.
Scenario 8
Why would there be a lighthouse here?
Letting Fat Jaime get Drunken rage breaks his plague
Needs an alternate objective, kill all enemies.
Scenario 9
How does a dragon write on a sign? The mage's name is a cute Easter egg though.
There's some deprecated code when Malin is dying at the start.
Missing portrait on Malin's reflection in the pool
On returning from the pool, shroud came back up on the map in places that I'd already explored.
When you find some gold, Malin could say something like "What need have I for gold now?". He's beyond such earthly concerns.
The rhyme is cool, but if the potion puzzle is going to be a thing (I don't think it adds much, personally) I think it should be left as lost lab notes or as a deliberate challenge by the mage to those that follow, not as an unfinished experiment. An experiment like this doesn't really make sense.
Scenario 10
There should be some kind of victory message each time that you "win"
People ARE going to skip the story text when it starts out the same as previously. It should be different each time instead of repeating, at least while the objectives are still changing, or people will miss the introduction of the book.
The Foolish hero's units don't try to get the book. This can cause the scenario to go on even more forever than intended.
Thanks again for the campaign rework. It's very good.
Maintainer of the Imperial Era and the campaigns Dreams of Urduk, Epic of Vaniyera, Up from Slavery, Fall of Silvium, Alfhelm the Wise and Gali's Contract.
But perhaps 'maintainer' is too strong a word.
But perhaps 'maintainer' is too strong a word.