Campaign Design How-To

[uncleshelby]

Wow. Thanks for writing this. It has influenced me a lot.

[Bitron]

It helped me a lot, thank you!

but I have one more question and I hope its not the wrong place to ask about that.
What about places wich already exist ? For example Glamdrol, or Dorset. There are maps out there, but am I allowed to use them ? Or vice versa, allowed to create them new but different ?
I'm not sure about that :/

[zookeeper]

What about places wich already exist ? For example Glamdrol, or Dorset. There are maps out there, but am I allowed to use them ? Or vice versa, allowed to create them new but different ?

Yes, you can use existing maps and modify them as you wish, whether they're from mainline or from the add-on server.

[Bitron]

Thanks for the quick answer!

What is about recreate things, if the existing map doesnt fit at all ?

[Whiskeyjack]

What is about recreate things, if the existing map doesnt fit at all ?

Hey Bitron, if you do not aspire to reach mainline status with your campaign one day (which is rather unlikely for any campaign at the moment I guess, as that market is somewhat saturated (at least believed to be)) you are free to do whatever you want. If that should be your aim, it probably wouldn´t hurt to stick with any (important) landmarks mentioned in the official campaigns.
AFAIK Wesnoth does not impose any obstructions for the creation of UMC content (besides the obvious no racism etc. policies).

[Xara]

What is about recreate things, if the existing map doesnt fit at all ?

Many campaigns are intended to be set in the Wesnoth world but are not taken as canon, A New Order for example, that's no big deal.

[Bitron]

A do try to fit in the wesnothian canon with my project. And of course I want to reach at least mainline-quality. that's why the question is quite important to me.

There is one map in my campaign wich includes Glamdrol, taken out of "An orcish Incursion". I changed quite nothing on the place itself but extended the map in the east and south.

The most important thing is Dorset. There is a map in UMC "Fate of a Princess" but it doesnt fit my needs for that map.

[SkyOne]

The most important thing is Dorset. There is a map in UMC "Fate of a Princess" but it doesnt fit my needs for that map.

That map is for (around) 200-240YW. You can remove Dorest (and Farzi, too) if it is not necessary on your campaign (it has officially been named Dorest since BfW 1.11, instead of Dorset). There is no Dorest on LoW map, and AOI is 8-9YW. But FoaP campaign starts 200YW, and it is just a UMC.

In my setup:

Spoiler:

Dorest is build in the late 1st century of Wesnoth by Orcs who sign the treaty with a pacific Elvish noble of the Greenwood. That elf also helps building the city of Farzi later (before the time of FoaP campaign). Then Dorest is burned, and disappears once in 416YW. After that, Orcs rebuild the city at the southwest of the original location for SotBE campaign.

[Bitron]

I definitely need Dorset, or .. Dorest.

Is Dorest, where "Giving Some Back" (SotBE) takes place ? If so, it's would fit quite well, but it looks not very orcish.
My Campaign will be a few years after SotBE (~862 YW)

[Jack_Stone]

How do you use images from your campaign files "data/campaigns/Campaign/" for placing images on the map as in {PLACE_IMAGE "scenery/sign-post.png" 1,1}?

[Bitron]

Not sure about that, but you could try to change the path within the macro.
Instead of "scenery/signpost.png" try "data/campaigns/Campaign/*name-of-png*.png"

[Kwandulin]

You can define a new binary path (in _main.cfg) via

Code: Select all

[binary_path]
	path=data/add-ons/My_campaign/
[/binary_path]

and then you might as well refer to the image in "data/add-ons/My_campaign/images/icons/my_awesome_icon.png" with image="icons/my_awesome_icon.png". You might want to take a look at the codes of the mainline campaigns and see how it is managed there.

Greetings

[Gyra_Solune]

That document was really interesting to me, and I am certainly going to study it (and take another look at THoT!), many thanks! I'm working on drawing up a drake-focused scenario, where my primary aim is to reduce gimmicks and keep weird add-on units to a minimum, and orient it towards getting a feel for how the unusual faction should be played (though perhaps a few decisions might be questionable, such as opening it up with your main recruitments being ogres and trolls and nagas for a few scenarios, with the first arc being to unite the clans of drakes with what scrap you manage to find, but after that I see very little reason you'd recruit much of those guys once you get lots of drakes rolling), as I imagine the headline scenario of a faction ought to be.

[Aldarisvet]

I totally disagree with the idea that there must be some easy and gold-harvesting scenarios and then periodically some gold-draining scenarios.
This creates scenarios with absolutely different levels of difficulty and confuses player.
But moreover, what annoying the most, that in fact in hard level of difficulty you cannot relax even in obviously easy scenarios.
Let me comment on real example.
The Hammer Of Thursagan is the mainline campaign that really disappointed me.
There is absoutely easy scenario with trolls there, you can see from the beginning that it is quite easy. That trolls just helpless. But in fact the challenge of this level is to kill troll leader ASAP to get more so needed gold for the next scenario. That is totally stupid. I just cannot see any sense this scenario exists in the campaign. It is not needed in the plotline, it is tactically unintresting. Next, hard scenario with bandits is intresting, and this just creates an illusion that you can relax while in fact you cannot.
Then, later, absolutely easy scenario when you together with mages attacking drakes. I have the feeling that even an AI ally could win there alone. But two scenarios later you meet really hard scenario, where you passing through the forest with elves. Bah, dwarfs have just 30% defence at forest and elves have 60%-70%, this is really hard scenario. What I understood after that scenario, that in the easy level with drakes I should be fully concentrated on advancing as much mages as possible, both fire mages and healers, elves cannot hide in the forest against magic attacks, and also mages have 50% defence in forest. But I raised only two White mages to the scenario with elves. That was not enough. Really, should I forsee that I would meet elves? I used scenario with drakes to raise more different high-level dwarves, I thought this is a campaign about dwarves, and adding mages there totally changes the whole rules. But all types of dwarfs just helpess in the forest. Well, Stalwarts and Sentinels a bit better, they have 40% in forest, and good in defending, but they do not have enough firepower to kill elves if the forest to break through.

I am sure that in the good campaign all scenarios must be of same level of difficulty. If the scenario is correctly balanced, you can make even large-scale battles without painful losses in veteran units and gold. And the same time, there must be no experience-harvesting scenarios in which you play with helpless AI just like a cat with a mouse with the only idea to get as much experienced units as possible.

After some thinking I got an idea that the whole campaign could be intresting in case mages to be replaced with fencers. They have 70% defence in forest and also skirmishing ability to breakthrough. Dwarves+fencers, that would be unususal (and finding a fencing school instead of mage school in mountains is possible, why not). However, I have not passed the scenario with elves and do not know how much mages needed later. And a dwarvish campaign with healers is not a dwarvish campaign. And also putting white mages everywhere is a banality. Why Liberty campaign is good is because you have no healers there.

[taptap]

I totally disagree ...

Having scenarios of different difficulty or scenarios with a fixed difficulty independent of earlier success can be very helpful to balancing. Allowing players, who were worse in one part to recover. Playing on highest difficulty, you are aware that you have to always stretch... for a little more gold, efficiency etc. even in the easy scenarios anyway. That said when I played Hammer of Thursagan on highest difficulty, I ended up playing on minimal gold almost only with veterans for some time. (It still worked, but it was very unlike all other mainline campaigns, where I tend recall very little and most work is done by L1.)