Scenario 1: Slipping Away

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Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by Content Feedback »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) What did you think about the dialog and story?
(4) What were the major challenges you faced?
(5) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(6) What suggestions do you have to make it more fun?
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jeremybauerle
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by jeremybauerle »

(1) Difficulty level & Version?
  • Corrupt (Challenging) 1.13.8
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario?
  • 2
(3) What did you think about the dialog and story?
  • First, the story is basically Frankenstein. Ardonna is Dr. Frankenstein, but she's not ashamed of it. The book, however, really emphasized Dr. Frankenstein's love for nature and humanity, which helps us understand his guilt when he creates a 'monster'. Ardonna's drive is not well described: is she jealous of the other races (Elves/Dwarves); is she upset about the premature death of her family members; is she just rebelling against her instructors; or is she just genuinely interested in knowledge? Make me understand her motivations more clearly.
  • Second, for a player like me that downloads the game a every couple years to see what's new, I get lost in the Wesnoth timeline. The dates (9 XII, 22 YW) mean very little to me, but the temporal proximity of this campaign to some others seems relevant to the story. Give me a quick recap of the state of the Wesnoth.
  • Third, the journal text introduction is mostly fine, but when it jumps to the map, I get disoriented. Who is Ardonna talking to? The bats? Herself? This dialogue could be more journal text and it would be less jarring.
  • Also, that first paragraph on the map is repetitive. Each sentence starts with I: I should... I shall not... I should... I can... I will...
  • Lastly, Ardonna never talks about the Plague effect of the zombie creatures. I get why she can reanimate dead/dying things, but why can other zombies do that? (I understand that those are just the mechanics of the game, but I was expecting the narrative to address it.)
(4) What were the major challenges you faced?
  • a. Level 0 Bats are too weak and inconsistent attackers, especially when their enemies are in forests/mountains.
  • b. Level 0 allies have a very hard time protecting Ardonna, especially when she's a juicy non-counter attacking target.
  • c. The scenario becomes much more difficult if you can't Plague the enemies. It's especially easy to get overrun if you didn't plague the first few units.
(5) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
  • 3, but that's fine. I get that this scenario is helping to set the stage for a long campaign.
(6) What suggestions do you have to make it more fun?
  • I was hoping Ardonna would be unique in some way. Maybe she starts at Level 0 because she's an academy drop-out. Maybe she learns to fight with bat-fanged daggers because of fondness for bats. Maybe she only knows ice spells because of her self-mentioned lack of training. Something that sets her apart mechanically to complement her character's individualism.
  • I was expecting the one undead bat to be a Loyal unit. It doesn't really matter because the unit gets outclassed so quickly, but it might emphasize the attention Ardonna gave to her first reanimation.
  • Maybe consider removing gold completely from this scenario. It seems like she's using the bats to steal from local farmers, but Ardonna earlier claims that she's learning Necromancy to help people. Ways to go about removing gold: Have free friendly bats appears when Ardonna reaches the ruined castle. Or have another faction of bats appear that only target the rats, so the player only has to focus on the wolves. Or, Ardonna could reanimate her own bats when they die within X spaces of her - encouraging a different play style for bat units.
  • I never really had a chance to see if the farm fences worked at preventing enemy attacks. Consider changing farm placement, adding more farms, or make them bigger.
SanDonk
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by SanDonk »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) What did you think about the dialog and story?
(4) What were the major challenges you faced?
(5) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(6) What suggestions do you have to make it more fun?

1) Difficult, 1.14.1
2) 8
3) Fine
4) It was terribly hard to pass though the way (at least on difficult level). Problem one: Ardonna has no melee attack, which makes the rats target her every time and chase her everywhere (they are too afraid to attack the bats), they are quite numerous and quick. Problem two: The bats has no ZoC, so they are not able to protect her properly.
5) 7 - it was hard, but playable
6) Perhaps make Ardonna a special character of her own type with weak melee attack (5-1 for example).
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by beetlenaut »

SanDonk wrote: May 20th, 2018, 3:42 pm 5) 7 - it was hard, but playable
That was my intention for a lot of scenarios. It's fully beatable on hard--I've done it several times--but it's not supposed to be easy.
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Konrad2
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by Konrad2 »

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

Diabolic, 1.14.3

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

7, vurnerable leader and no strong units. At the beginning no ZoC either.

(3) What did you think about the dialog and story?

It was good..? I delayed too long between playing and posting feedback. I've also played in german, to check for grammar errors and stuff.

(4) What were the major challenges you faced?

Making sure that the right units die so the others can live.

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

7

(6) What suggestions do you have to make it more fun?

-
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Thrash
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by Thrash »

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

1.14.5, Corrupt (Challenging)

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

4

(3) What did you think about the dialog and story?

Fine.

(4) What were the major challenges you faced?

Getting the feel for using the undead bats to create more undead. Not getting bogged down and continuing to make progress.

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

7

(6) What suggestions do you have to make it more fun?

Plays well.
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The_Gnat
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by The_Gnat »

Content Feedback wrote: May 13th, 2017, 10:36 pm(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Normal on 1.14
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5. It wasn't very hard even though I played it with almost no strategy and didn't recruit anyone :D
(3) What did you think about the dialog and story?
Nice idea I really liked the story and the artwork looked nice. Good use of the sprite pictures and good unique idea.

I like this alternate perspective of how the mages grow to become necromancers.
(4) What were the major challenges you faced?
I didn't go very quickly because I was waiting for my units to heal so I nearly ran out of time.
(5) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6 it was fun but good that it was quick because it was kind of repetitive. Bats vs. rats is a unique match up though ^_^
(6) What suggestions do you have to make it more fun?
The map and units are what make this fun. Maybe throw in some spiders, different color wolves, scorpion, (maybe even a drunk farmer out at night to talk to). Also it would be cool if you could find some units or items or something on the map. Maybe some more dialogue to help characterize the protagonist.

Also if nothing else please add a message when you win the scenario! Maybe some self-congratulation by the protagonist or the narrator could do a bit of foreshadowing.

I got to the village and nothing happened and the scenario was over... :|
jeremybauerle wrote: June 21st, 2017, 7:58 pm ...
Also this user has some really good ideas which I support fully. I don't know if maybe some of this has been considered but since no one replied to him I will assume not. I understand that for mainline you have plenty of other things to worry about but implementing some of these ideas would take 5 seconds and I would happily implement the dialogue and things that have no effect on balancing. :)

For example:
jeremybauerle wrote: June 21st, 2017, 7:58 pm I was expecting the one undead bat to be a Loyal unit. It doesn't really matter because the unit gets outclassed so quickly, but it might emphasize the attention Ardonna gave to her first reanimation.
Yeah I agree, definitely! :)

Furthermore:
jeremybauerle wrote: June 21st, 2017, 7:58 pm Lastly, Ardonna never talks about the Plague effect of the zombie creatures. I get why she can reanimate dead/dying things, but why can other zombies do that? (I understand that those are just the mechanics of the game, but I was expecting the narrative to address it.)
This definitely needs to be explained. It could be as easy as a quick one-liner about the animation spirit transferring into the dead or something. :eng:
jeremybauerle wrote: June 21st, 2017, 7:58 pm I never really had a chance to see if the farm fences worked at preventing enemy attacks. Consider changing farm placement, adding more farms, or make them bigger.
Farm fences do something?
SigurdFireDragon
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by SigurdFireDragon »

I may implement the loyal zombie bat and some dialog about its plague ability suggestions.
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by beetlenaut »

SigurdFireDragon wrote: November 10th, 2018, 5:13 pm loyal zombie bat
There is a reason the bat is not loyal already. Loyal units are irreplaceable, so if you lose one, you will be encouraged to save scum or just restart. Even at its highest level, the zombie bat is terribly fragile, and you will want to use it, so it would create a worse problem than normal. (And before it's suggested, no, I'm not interested in seeing level-2 zombies. That runs contrary to the whole the idea.) This is the same reasoning I used to decide not to put any items in this campaign.
SigurdFireDragon wrote: November 10th, 2018, 5:13 pm dialog about its plague ability
I hadn't ever really thought about explaining the plague ability. Here's what I'm thinking now. Ardonna animated the nervous system of the bat (though she calls the nerves "life-force pathways"), so she doesn't have to expend any effort to keep the bat moving. The reanimated nervous system keeps the body going automatically like it did while the bat was alive. It just doesn't issue voluntary commands, which is why the reanimated have no will. To her surprise, she could find that it takes no, or almost no effort on her part to expand the nervous system control to a newly-dead creature in the seconds while it's currently being bitten by a already-reanimated corpse. The two piles of dead flesh function as one entity in that instant, and the transfer is basically automatic. It would just need a sentence or two the first time plague ability is used.
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by SigurdFireDragon »

beetlenaut wrote: November 10th, 2018, 6:35 pm There is a reason the bat is not loyal already. Loyal units are irreplaceable, so if you lose one, you will be encouraged to save scum or just restart. Even at its highest level, the zombie bat is terribly fragile, and you will want to use it, so it would create a worse problem than normal.
That makes sense.
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The_Gnat
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by The_Gnat »

SigurdFireDragon wrote: November 10th, 2018, 5:13 pm I may implement some dialog about its plague ability suggestions.
Thank you!
beetlenaut wrote: November 10th, 2018, 6:35 pm There is a reason the bat is not loyal already. Loyal units are irreplaceable,
True, thank you for explaining. :)
LordWolfDan
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

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)

- 3

(3) What did you think about the dialog and story?

- Nice beginning. This story starts off with Ardonna's desire to become immortal, something that wasn't Malin Keshar's intention in DiD. It's interesting how intelligent she is by studying these bats and wondering how to reanimate someone to life

(4) What were the major challenges you faced?

- Trying to keep Ardonna safe from wolves

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

- 6

(6) What suggestions do you have to make it more fun?

- While not really the most possible, I'd go with Ardonna having her own portrait instead of using generic female dark adept portrait
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Kylix
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by Kylix »

Once become a necromancer, Ardonna should receive a modified necromancer avatar (white-haired dark adept, but with necromancer's clothes and pose), instead of the classical one. This should be applied on Shynal, too (feminized Harper with necromancer's clothes and pose).
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by beetlenaut »

All these characters should have better portraits, but I am not a good enough artist to draw them. If you can make the portraits you suggested, they would probably get added.
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Offriender
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Re: Scenario 1: Slipping Away

Post by Offriender »

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
3

(3) What did you think about the dialog and story?
I thought it was an interesting contrast to DiD, in a good way. While Malin Keshar was a sad boi, the protagonist here doesn't seem capable of having a dark thought.
Why does she look so weird in the intro? Is it a legacy sprite?

(4) What were the major challenges you faced?
I thought I was going to walk to the goal easily but wolves took me by surprise and swarmed the leader so I had to reload.

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

(6) What suggestions do you have to make it more fun
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh portraits
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