Guardian Order 0.0.4+ dev thread

[xbriannova]

It's working now? Great! By the way I've uploaded version 0.0.3h. I hope that won't set you back to square one . I think I better stop talking about that . Anyway, I've read through your entire post and I do agree with some of your points. For example, I do agree that my dialogues are rather bland and the marauders do talk a little like stereotypical villains .

Regarding unit selection, I guess I had it coming didn't I, though my initial feeling with the units I provide are that it could be a little overwhelming for some players. As for the flags, just a few days back I was considering using one of the special pre-made flags. Hopefully I might be able to edit them to include the Guardian colors.

As for the units, I'll think of something to spice them up a little. Many of what you say makes sense and I'll try to improve my campaign. Though, bear in mind that this is not even the first draft, its far from it actually, and I work in the traditional writer's way in which I don't plan from start to finish, but I'm just letting my creative juices flow. For reference to this style of writing, you could always use Stephen King as reference. There's alot of mistakes here and there but don't worry, they won't be there for long.

Hopefully I'd get more feedback as in science, as well as art, large sample sizes are required for any student of any course to make any accurate judgements of a certain phenomenon. Thanks alot for the feedback, you've given me more directions to work with , a map full of them .

EDIT: I feel like changing Sir Buckanwald's name too. It never fitted the character... Yet I can't think of a name in Wesnothian style... Bummer... Neither do I know the proper method of constructing one... Nor do I know the origins of all those names...

EDIT EDIT: I've been thinking about what you said regarding the characters dispensing advices and I think I can kill two birds with one stone if I code it such that Celith and everyone else would give all of the advices I planned only in Easy mode. As for the other four difficulty level, only the most important and life-changing advice would be given. Or, an alternative system would be to give the player the option whether he wants to allow the advisors to give him tips and tricks. The yes/no option could appear every scenario, and maybe Celith could go like, 'Sir, are my advice needed?'.

Either those two, or I could combine the two systems- give the player option, but the harder the difficulty he chose, the less advice he is given... This sounds good and simple enough to code into the WML files...

EDIT EDIT EDIT : Oh yes, and I forgot to tell you that you will be credited for this and Melinath, your name has already appeared in the _main file and your title is 'advisor'.

[Velensk]

If you don’t like their names then feel free to them. However it is still simply incorrect to call a women Sir, even if she has a social status equivalent to knight. It would be like calling a male officer ma’am as a sign of respect.

Scenario 2 took two attempts. The first attempt ended early because a horseman landed two hits on the elf. In the second one I pushed through all the enemy forces without great difficulty (though some luck at critical points helped)

It is ridiculous to listen to your people discussing tactics when you know ahead of time you aren’t going to use any of them. No I’m not going to flank them here nor there, nor am I going to hold that fort. I’m going to let them come to me and kill them as they swim or crush them in the open once day comes.

I was musing on how it was somewhat pointless to play a campaign about a faction who cannot level up properly (By this point I had a good store of pikemen/swordsmen who were much stronger than any of the order units I had except the sniper). When it occurred to me that if you wanted you could use this as a defining principle of the guardian order if you wanted. You have stated before that you wanted your faction to be balanced for multiplayer, and this suggestion would pretty much limit them to campaigns so don’t take it blindly. The basic idea would be that your units do not level up (with the exception of the leader unit), but instead have a wide variety of AMLA options to choose from. For example, your archer might not start with their fire arrows, but could pick them up as an option, maybe have your phalanx have the ability to get steadfast, have the swordsmen not start with the shield but have the option to pick up a defense only shield bash which slows down enemies, general hp/damage boosters, ect.


On the intro to phase 3: ?!? So I left the non-order units behind? Including my 3 swordsmen and 2 pikemen. That leaves me with a grand total of one veteran which is hardly any huge army.

EDIT: actually I didn't have that many level 2s (2 of them had died) however if you say something like that, it is more than a little strange to find that in the next scenario you can still recruit and recall the non-order units.

[xbriannova]

Alright, I found it weird and unacceptable myself so I'll just rename her to maybe Celith? I suppose...

Regarding the people discussing tactics, it was supposed to give the player additional options in terms of tactics and most importantly, it is also part of the story- Sir Winall doesn't like Celith very much. It gives you an idea of how both the characters are like. But I'll think of something to reduce the frustration. Maybe its high time I implement that system I talked about but to change this part would be a little trickier.

Well, the faction is pretty much incomplete. Your suggestion is great and I've been thinking about the same thing. Instead of coming up with a whole huge tree of units, I looked at 'Under the Burning Suns' and wondered if I could use the same system as the one used to level up the hero (forgot his name). It could work, and as an added bonus, I won't have to create more artwork beyond the ones I already have (except for animation images). Thanks for the great suggestion .

In mission 3, don't worry, your non-order units won't be left behind. I've yet to disallow the recruitment of non-order units too. I guess I'm still deciding whether or not to do it. I agree its a little strange, but its due to development hiccups. Hopefully I'll be able to present something better in version 0.0.4.

Thanks alot for your feedback and...

Cheers .

[melinath]

You could just enclose all tactic discussions in #ifdef EASY tags. (Er... I forget if that's the system you were talking about.)

[xbriannova]

You could just enclose all tactic discussions in #ifdef EASY tags. (Er... I forget if that's the system you were talking about.)

Yep, that's the one I was talking about.

[PhotonX]

I just played it till the end. Well, what can I say, it's too short, make some more scenarios!

I looked over the available units and recruited mainly the "normal" ones because the Order units mostly can't be raised to lvl2. So in the last scenario I had many lvl2 and lvl3 units but nearly no Order units (besides of one cataphract and one bowman who didn't fight at all)... So I'd suggest either to totally remove the normal units or to change the Order units such that they can be raised up to lvl3.

[xbriannova]

I just played it till the end. Well, what can I say, it's too short, make some more scenarios!

I looked over the available units and recruited mainly the "normal" ones because the Order units mostly can't be raised to lvl2. So in the last scenario I had many lvl2 and lvl3 units but nearly no Order units (besides of one cataphract and one bowman who didn't fight at all)... So I'd suggest either to totally remove the normal units or to change the Order units such that they can be raised up to lvl3.

Well, it is very incomplete, so all your wishes will be granted. . Its only version 0.0.3h. Still an infant, so let it grow, speak its first few words, and walk. Eventually, hopefully, the campaign will one day take you to the moon .

EDIT: As of today, I'll give you this bit, I've managed to code in 3 additional scenarios, and an overhaul of lvl 2 and 3 Order units is soon to arrive... . Hopefully I'd be able to find time to improve existing scenarios- quality is very important.

[PhotonX]

Oh, well, I thought, it was intended like this. Then I'll wait for updates.

[xbriannova]

Its going to take some time though before the next version comes. I prefer things to be more pristine than half-done before I show you guys more stuff. Enjoy your day.

[xbriannova]

For those who did not know, the reason why I have been missing for so many months is due to my duty to the country. I've been training in the army ever since October 23rd, 2009. For now, my campaign is intact, safely mothballed in my computer.

As you can see I'm back. My basic military training is over and I am now a Private. As for my campaign, I fear for its progress as this marks the second time it has stopped development for an extended period of time. Plus, I would not deny the fact that it would be hard to get back into working on my campaign as my skills in the various aspects of campaign development has dulled.

I'm not sure if I should continue developing this. Anyone who is interested in seeing this continue may help or even take over if it comes to that- I'm still in the army, and I will remain in it until 2011. In S'pore, national service is 2 years, so... I won't have ample time to work on this as a result. Chances are I will be working every weekday from morning to evening after my leave is over.

[michchar]

Aww, that's a shame, this is one of the campaigns that I was eager to see updated.

[xbriannova]

Well... I might just continue developing it. Just that my priorities have changed. As the creator, I do wish for this campaign's best you know. Its something that I've worked on quite a bit.

Before I stopped working on this campaign, there's a version that has many new things in it. I haven't published it yet so I just might do it soon...