Assassin Campaign

[Gafgarion]

As I'm sure some of you have figured out (because of my constant stream of WML-related questions in #wesnoth), I'm working on a campaign.

The plot is all planned out (bug me if you want to hear it) and 2 scenarios are completed so far. I'm waiting on my graphics guy to finish portraits for the main characters before I release anything for playtesting.

The main focuses of the campaign are:
1.) Extensive and innovative use of fog and shroud.
2.) Gameplay focusing on a smaller number of units.
3.) Reliance on speed, stealth, and tactical strikes.
4.) Large customization elements of your units/army.

If normal Wesnoth were Unreal Tournament, my campaign would be comparable to Thief... At least that's what I'm shooting for.

4/7/2004 Update: 2 scenarios released. The campaign is attached to this message in .zip format. Installation should be self-explanatory.

8/15/2004 Update: All scenarios rewritten, 3rd scenario added. Previous saved games are totally. incompatible with this version

[Darth Fool]

As I'm sure some of you have figured out (because of my constant stream of WML-related questions in #wesnoth), I'm working on a campaign.

The plot is all planned out (bug me if you want to hear it) and 2 scenarios are completed so far. I'm waiting on my graphics guy to finish portraits for the main characters before I release anything for playtesting.

The main focuses of the campaign are:
1.) Extensive and innovative use of fog and shroud.
2.) Gameplay focusing on a smaller number of units.
3.) Reliance on speed, stealth, and tactical strikes.
4.) Large customization elements of your units/army.

If normal Wesnoth were Unreal Tournament, my campaign would be comparable to Thief... At least that's what I'm shooting for.

I hope to release my 2 finished scenarios for public playtesting tomorrow, with the 3rd level following shortly after.

sounds cool!

[turin]

The plot is all planned out (bug me if you want to hear it)

OK.

tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot
tell me the plot.




no, really, tell me the plot. are you trying to go assassinate someone, as implied by the title? this would be an interesting idea.

[Circon]

The plot is all planned out (bug me if you want to hear it).
I hope to release my 2 finished scenarios for public playtesting tomorrow, with the 3rd level following shortly after.

/me bugs Gafgarion
/me bugs Gafgarion
/me bugs Gafgarion
/me bugs Gafgarion
/me bugs Gafgarion
/me bugs Gafgarion
/me bugs Gafgarion
/me bugs Gafgarion
/me bugs Gafgarion

[Insinuator]

Yippeeee! A new campaign! Bravo, encore, marvelisimo, extraordinaire! It even sounds good.

[Gafgarion]

Well my portrait artist went out of town for a week without telling me, so I'm holding off on releasing what I have so far (I'm a raving perfectionist).

In the meantime I have been revising my storyline (developing the backstory), messing with balance (the second scenario hasnt been tested yet because no one except me can beat the first scenario ) and revising some major rolls in the campaign (both storywise and gameplaywise).
Despite the delays I really do hope to get the first 2 scenarios out the door by Monday.

[Gafgarion]

Guess who didn't make the Monday deadline

I'm on a major push to make unique graphics for all the heros in my campaign and I really really really hope to release some levels soon.

[Gafgarion]

And I've finally released the first 2 scenarios (minus character portraits! ). The .zip is attached to the original post and it will be updated to stay current with my development.

All questions, comments and criticisms are welcomed, especially on balance issues.

[turin]

any chance you could post it as a tar.gz archive? that would make it SO much easier for me...

[Loriel]

Theme looks interestingly different, particularly the first scenario - essentially a "solo" expedition. Second scenario is closer to the "traditional" style.

Based on the initial release of first 2 scenarios, run on current CVS version of wesnoth, in easy mode.

Disclaimer - others will no doubt find the scenarios easier or harder than I did, based on their playing style, choices of strategy, or just plain luck.

Suggestion - add a simple Makefile to aid installation, (see Benj's Orcish Campaign for an example).

Introduction/story - formatting was far too narrow, probably because of the width of the accompanying graphics. I assume they are used as placeholders until the "real" graphics are ready, but it's probably worth creating something wider.

I'd prefer to see the hero advancing through the campaign, which would mean starting at a lower level (eg level 2) and might need some rebalancing. The first two scenarios seem relatively easy (at least in easy mode), and a weakening of the hero shouldn't unbalance them too much.

Suggested fixes :
"The Recruit"
story="What the assassins weren't told was that the man had a wife and son. Although a bloody job, even assassins have morals and they did not kill innocents. When a dying woman stumbled out of the burning cottage with a baby in her arms, they were appalled that they had killed a woman and her child."
Suggestion "... Although their job is a bloody one, even assassins have morals and they do not kill innocents. ..."

message="I ask this for no particular reason but, out of curiousity, of strength and stealth, which do you value more?"
"curiousity" -> "curiosity"

message="Perhaps Ambassador Woychek had a political issue he was pondering. Maldwyn didn't know nor cared to ask, but he answered regardless."
Probably either ".. didn't know or care to ask .." or " .. neither knew nor cared to ask ..."

message="The Empire is a greater fool than I had thought. Only an idiot would hire an amateur to do a profession's job!"
"profession" -> "professional"

"The Hideout"
message="So enamored they were in their conversation that they did not detect the ambush that was about to strike."
Probably something like "So engrossed were they in their conversation that they did not notice the ambush that was about to be sprung."

[Gafgarion]

any chance you could post it as a tar.gz archive? that would make it SO much easier for me...

I intended to post it as a tar.gz, but I got a forum error when trying to upload it. I promise that the next release will be in tar.gz

[Gafgarion]

Suggestion - add a simple Makefile to aid installation, (see Benj's Orcish Campaign for an example).

I will look into this.

Introduction/story - formatting was far too narrow, probably because of the width of the accompanying graphics. I assume they are used as placeholders until the "real" graphics are ready, but it's probably worth creating something wider.

Yup, you got it... There were supposed to be a few scenes done by the MIA portrait artist in there. Dave suggested a quick fix to me, though, that should correct this problem in the next release.

I'd prefer to see the hero advancing through the campaign, which would mean starting at a lower level (eg level 2) and might need some rebalancing. The first two scenarios seem relatively easy (at least in easy mode), and a weakening of the hero shouldn't unbalance them too much.

This is something I'm considering, although my plan at the moment is for advancement paths to be chosen through actions made in-game.

Suggested fixes...

I shall have those fixed for the next version, thanks for the thorough testing!

[Dave]

Note that the game assumes that you want the text in the 'intro' scenes to be the same width as the images. This means tiny images won't work so nicely.

The campaign looks rather interesting I completed the first scenario on my first run through (medium difficulty), but it was nice and tense!

I hope you keep developing this campaign -- what I've seen so far seems cool.

David

[Gafgarion]

Note that the game assumes that you want the text in the 'intro' scenes to be the same width as the images. This means tiny images won't work so nicely.

The campaign looks rather interesting I completed the first scenario on my first run through (medium difficulty), but it was nice and tense!

I hope you keep developing this campaign -- what I've seen so far seems cool.

David

Try it on hard, a very small change makes it much more difficult

The third scenario is very WML-heavy (namely using fog and shroud with changing tiles, switches, boobytraps and the like), so it'll take a little while to finish but my hope is that it pans out to be an interesting scenario... and maybe someday I'll get portraits

[Insinuator]

I had a few questions and comments on the campaign so far.

First, I was wondering when this campaign will be posted in the wiki. And also, when will the next release be?

My comments had more to do with bugs. Aside from the text at the begining being weird, as has been mentioned by others, I have no icon for the main character. I can still move him around, but he is completely invisible, or non-existent would be the more correct term. I believe he is the desperado character, correct? I checked the placement of my .png files and .cfg for units and images, and they seemed correct. I must admit though, that, at least on Windows, each campaign has it's own format to put into the game, and this was no exception. I'm not sure what to do with the ds_store files, so I left them in the unzipped folder and transferred the rest. I am running Win98SE with Wesnoth version 0.7.3.