Am I asking too much?

[Daravel]

Hey,

I stopped playing Wesoth a good while back, but have always wished to develop something and give back to this amazing game. I am an ideas and story person and not so much of a creator. I have come up with a campaign idea that (I hope) brings several new aspects of gameplay to Wesnoth. I'm focusing it a lot more around story and characters (while still maintaining traditional Wesnoth fighting) - with some hopefully, interesting new ways of designing scenarios.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I'm not a creator. I can draw or design and I don't know any WML - or have the time to learn it beyond perhaps a few basics. Essentially, in order for me to go anywhere with this campaign idea I'd have to recruit an artist and coder.

My question is: Am I asking too much to expect someone else to put a lot of effort (which I'm sure will end up being considerably more that I invest) into my campaign idea? Is it common for coders/artists to join into a campaign in this way or do I need to build up a relationship with someone first and then rope them into it?

I have the story idea in my head and know exactly where I want it to go, I know the units and even the map design - which I'm happy to have a go at creating.

Thanks

[artisticdude]

Am I asking too much to expect someone else to put a lot of effort (which I'm sure will end up being considerably more that I invest) into my campaign idea?

If you posted your idea people might be able to decide whether or not they want to help out. Frankly, few people will be willing to do your work for you no matter how great your idea is, so I'd advise that you at least learn the basics of WML before starting this.

Unfortunately, I'm extremely busy with my own projects at this point, so I'm afraid I can't help much, but I'm sure there are many other people who would be willing to assist you in the creation of your campaign if they like the idea you have.

[Hulavuta]

At the risk of sounding like some random jerk, I do suggest that you simply learn WML, as it is unlikely, however possible, that you will find someone to do everything for you besides the story.

[Daravel]

This is kind of the answer I expected; so much for wishful thinking eh

Perhaps I should wait until I graduate before trying to learn a new language then.

I appreciate the honest answers; I just don't have the time to learn WML right now.

[Hulavuta]

If you're in college, that's understandable. But if you are in high school, unless you are in like all honors classes and have a ton of extracurriculars, I don't see how you don't have time to learn it. It's EXTREMELY easy to learn.

But when you said "learn another language" I just had a question pop up: If you speak another language can you code WML in that language or does it only run with English?

[TheGreatRings]

artisticdude was right. Post more about your actual idea if you want help.

I might help if I had the time or the knowledge, but my knowledge of coding is pretty minimal. I`m trying to teach myself, but I`m certainly not up to coding an entire campaign yet, and even if I was, I would probably prioritize my own campaigns first.

As for art, my skills as an illustrator are not up to the standards of Wesnoth.

[artisticdude]

If you speak another language can you code WML in that language or does it only run with English?

Interesting question. I'd like to say it works only with English, although the engine may support input from at least some of the more common languages, such as Spanish and French. However, I can't be certain. Zookeeper will know if anyone does, though.

[Daravel]

I'm in college/university. I'm going to take a look at some basic tutorials and get a basic understanding of how it all works. This was my intention anyway (if I found someone to help me).

When I said 'another language' I just meant learning WML. Especially as the only other coding language I know is limited Visual Basic

I'll post up my idea when I get back home. Although I need to change the setting as I just foiund out that a mainline campiagn already tackles a rebellion during Ashievere's reign. The story should be fairly translateable to different circumstances.

[joshudson]

I know there was an outstanding offer for someone to code your campaign if you provide the script and the maps.

I've never seen any outstanding offer for art. The general advice is to do with scratch art for awhile.

[artisticdude]

I've never seen any outstanding offer for art. The general advice is to do with scratch art for awhile.

Exactly. To elaborate, what you want to use for right now are placeholder images. See this page for more information. If a good artist likes your project, he/she might decide to contribute to it. However, there are a limited supply of good artists available, and most are pretty busy either IRL or creating stuff for mainline or their own add-ons, so your idea is probably going to truly have to be something special in order to attract contributors.

[Hulavuta]

When I said 'another language' I just meant learning WML. Especially as the only other coding language I know is limited Visual Basic

I'll post up my idea when I get back home. Although I need to change the setting as I just foiund out that a mainline campiagn already tackles a rebellion during Ashievere's reign. The story should be fairly translateable to different circumstances.

I know, but just the words "language" and "WML" being used in the same post brought that thought to me.

And by the way, there are a TON of campaigns that are rebellions to Asheviere's reign. An interesting topic that is becoming popular is the Fall. To date, there isn't a campaign that takes place during the fall, and if you are a good story writer, it would be fantastic as that's one of the biggest things in Wesnoth right now. (And it deserves a good story) I personally am writing a storyline based campaign that coincides with Son of the Black-Eye, which is a campaign that is rarely talked about and is not really a big part (story-wise) of Wesnoth.

[Daravel]

tsr has sent me a message detailing what he thinks I should post about my idea... So here goes:

Note: I haven't actually played Son of the Black Eye (I'm in the middle of finishing my uni work and play TSoG for the work I'm doing on that campaign) so I have just gone off what is in the Wesnoth history and the prologue to SotBE - please point out an inconsistencies, but I will hopefully sort it out fully when I get a chance to play it.

Also, I'm hoping to really have a story and experience worth playing, so I'm putting the info in spoiler tags so that only those interested need to look at it. Although, it isn't too much of a big deal.

An overview of the campaign:

The campaign occurs from roughly 826 YW until 843/844 YW. A lot of that time is covered via prologue which will feature semi-playable scenarios. It is set in and around the campaign Son of the Black Eye a follows a particular earldom in the north. I'm thinking that the Earldom is based in the very south of the Northlands, as close to wesnoth as possible and very close to the border between the Earldoms territory and the Orcs (I can't find any accurate references on this). Although Rahul of the Northern alliances and Black Eye have brokered a peace, the Orcs still maintain small raids on the small earldoms on the border (which the greater powers ignore for the benefit of larger peace).

The earldoms have a semi-leadership. Where the leaders talk and decide things for their greater good. They are not happy with the raids and defend themselves aggressively from Orcs who come into their territory. The leader of the earldom featured in the campaign is a firm supporter of this policy and organises and leads the defence and occasional counter raids.

His son is the main character of the story. The prologue will cover much of this back-story and will feature at least one mini-scenario. The son is 8 years old and he and a few friends are training in a forest clearing near the town (Earldoms have a capital town and are responsible for the outlying villages in the area too). His sister is with them too. An Orcish raiding party is nearby and a lone orc stumbles upon the children training. He captures the sister and makes off into the forest. Here the prologue is cut for the first scenario. You (the son) and the best friend must hunt down the orc. However, you are too young and slow and the Orc gets away.

We jump back into prologue to continue the story on how a search for the raiding party failed to find anything. Then, the raids tend to get bigger and more deadly (this is approximately 841/842 YW) before the war between the earldoms and Orcs officially starts and SotBE starts. The leader of the earldom is slain in a raid.

His brother, the main characters uncle becomes the leader of the earldom; he is a fairly clever and more protective leader. He opts to side with the northern alliance and he and many men are called away to join the army that eventually beats the earldoms during SotBE. At this point the son is around 24 and becomes the de facto leader.

Here the campaign starts properly. It follows the son and his 8 friends who have been training incredibly hard in different disciplines since the sister was taken. Initially it is all about defending the earldom from the Orcish raids. Until the son learns of a prisoner camp and blind to the news of serious Orchish movements near the town he splits from the group of 8 and heads to this camp in the hope of finding his sister. Along the way, they liberate a village where many more prisoners are being rounded up. At the camp they find his sister who is in a deep, un-wakeable sleep and the son must carry her back. Another idea is to have an Orc flee a fight and you have to follow his tracks. Going down the wrong path at the end will result in you following a different and more dangerous route.

Once they arrive back at the town, the rest of the group have fortified the town and prepared an old fort some way away for the impending attacks. However, before the Orcish attacks come, a human army is on the way - this is from the Northern alliance who have heard of this earldom fighting the Orcs - and the messengers are unable to convince the alliance that they were just defending themselves. The son raises a levy from the villages to recruit troops and protect the fleeing villagers and fights the human army.

Upon reaching the commanding general it is discovered that it is his uncle. He says how he was ordered to take a small detachment and wipe out local support for the war against the Orcs. The son says how he merely defended the people. The uncle said he can not go back in disgrace as he was sent here deliberately as he was from this area. The son must kill him or he would face a worse death. He refuses, but the uncle explains that there are alliance spies nearby, making sure he carried out his demands - or the earldom would be destroyed.
Again the son refuses and sets out to hunt down the spies who are nearby and stop them reporting the news back to the alliance.

I need something else to happen after this.

The northern alliance and Orcs have destroyed the earldoms army and in retribution for the destruction of their army, they head towards the son's earldom. They prepare a defence at the fort - this last fight is an epic fight to end the campaign

What is different about this campaign:

Here is a list of what I think will set this campaign apart from others:

- It will be heavily story based and try to be as realistic as possible
- You will only have the group of 8 friends for much of the campaign, with a few throwaway units in a few scenario's
- Losing any of the 8 people will result in failure - I did have a good explanation for this, but I don't remember it right now
- Each of the 8 have unique skills:
 The son is a melee fighter with a shield that allows him to push a unit back a square
 His best friend is also melee with fairly standard attacks
 The third character is a mage with standard mage skills
 The fourth is a falconer - the idea is to allow the falcon to move separately and be used as an airborne scout
 Fifth is an elusive foot with a net for slowing
 Sixth is a standard bowman
 Seventh is an unconventional fighter with a poison
 Eighth is not decided
- The battles are not expected to be massive during the campaign - until the conclusion. When there is a larger force to fight, there will be throwaway units that will not be recalled.
- Until the last 2-3 scenarios there will be no recruiting or recalling.
- There will be a multitude of different victory conditions: Protect the villagers, collect gold, hunt down an NPC, protect a position, locate a character, track an enemy. Not just the basic "kill the leader"
- There will be divergent paths relating to how well you do - not your choices.
-

tsr mentioned also detailing each scenario - which I won't do just yet. I know what I want to happen in each one. Although, some areas may need a scenario added or changed.

I will also point out that I'm happy to create the maps and such - provided I'm good enough. And that placeholder art is fine to use if no artists are interested. For the falcon I'm thinking of just shrinking a gryphon?

[Hulavuta]

People have already made falcon sprites. Really old though. If you need some animal sprites, download "Flight to Freedom"

Lol, did I get you to write a campaign around SotBE when I mentioned I was? lol

Anyway, glad that someone else is also deciding to make a storyline centered campaign, but I honestly hope it doesn't become a trend. I hope it does well, I'll help in any way I can, regarding coding help and story, but remember that school is the most important. (Never thought I'd say that) Don't end up like my brother and fail and then quit.

[Daravel]

Thanks for the tip on the Falcon.

I changed to SotBE because Liberty (I think it's that one) is set during the period I was going for, and I'd like to design the campaign so it had the potential to become mainline - regardless of that likelihood. I liked the story I had and certain elements of it could only work in a certain setting and SotBE provided it

University won't be in my way much longer! 2 assignments due this week, then I've practically graduated... woo!

Thanks for the offer. How does the story look? I wonder if there isn't enough pure combat scenario's and also if the 8 units I've created have enough firepower to carry a campaign.

[Hulavuta]

Well I'm bit a wary about having only 8 characters the whole campaign. Do you plan for it to be some sort of RPG?