After the Storm 0.10.18.1 [Wesnoth 1.14.x & 1.15.12+]

[Astoria]

I think, it is 1.11.1-specific (it's very buggy version), because when I was playing at 1.11.1+SVN I haven't noticed anything like this

I didn't notice anything like this on 1.11.1 either.

[Iris]

It’s a moot point now, really. I decided to drop 1.11.1 support for the next release, which will be published ‘soon’.

[Iris]

Version 0.9.1 is out!

Since the campaign is complete, any future—and hopefully infrequent—releases from now on will consist mostly of bug fixes, balancing changes, art updates, and very minor features. On this particular occasion, I played the campaign end-to-end on Wesnoth 1.11.2 to make sure various 1.11.x-specific issues were solved as early as possible in order to make the eventual transition to 1.12 as smooth as possible. I will try to make sure future releases of the campaign are well-tested against future Wesnoth development versions as well. (Future, future, future.)

Because of a very annoying player side data loss bug (#20373 [Gna.org]) affecting various E3 scenarios, I decided to drop support for Wesnoth 1.11.1, thus only Wesnoth 1.10.x and 1.11.2 are supported for this release! I will simply ignore any future reports on technical issues occurring on 1.11.1.

Aside from the aforementioned, some other noteworthy changes in this release include making E3S13 an optional/bonus cutscene as it was originally intended to be, adding very simple AMLAs for two main characters throughout E2 and E3, updating the Aragwaithi units to match bumbadadabum’s and vultraz’s changes to the faction from the Era of Chaos add-on (as of version 1.1.0), as well as an amount of minor prose fixes and improvements from vultraz, 8680, and me.

The complete changelog for this version follows:

Code: Select all

Version 0.9.1:
--------------
* General:
  * Added workaround code for a problem with the [lock_view] implementation and
    its interaction with unit movement via [move_unit_fake]/[move_unit] on
    Wesnoth 1.11.x.
  * Made it so sequences using [animate_attack] do not display a floating label
    when dealing 1 HP damage since most of the time this is a consequence of
    dealing 100% HP on the target with kill=no, or other reasons along the same
    line.

* Graphics:
  * New or updated unit graphics: Elynia, Ivyel, Argan.

* Scenarios:
  * Fixed several instances (E1S7, etc.) of sighted events taking place
    prematurely on Wesnoth 1.11.x.
  * Fixed several instances of loyal units auto-recall code causing warnings on
    Wesnoth 1.11.x.
  * Minor prose fixes, tweaks, and enhancements throughout the entire campaign.
  * E1S7 - The Search for the Past:
    * Glyphs needed to end the scenario are now marked with a blinking tile
      outline (requires halos to be enabled in Display preferences).
    * Minor cutscene improvements.
    * Reworked message glyphs' code so their messages can be triggered as many
      times as the player wants (NOTE: the last glyph triggered will still
      unconditionally trigger the end of the scenario).
  * E1S9.1 - The Triad, part 1:
    * Minor gameplay improvements.
    * Removed duplicate character line during the initial sequence.
  * E1S9.2 - The Triad, part 2:
    * Reworked some code for increased robustness.
  * E1S9.3 - The Triad, part 3:
    * Reworked some code for increased robustness.
  * E1S10 - Tears:
    * Fixed gold carryover from E1S8 (Fear) being reduced to its 40% (for an
      effective carryover of 16%) when calculating the initial player gold
      supply for this scenario.
    * Reduced minimum starting gold to compensate for the bug fix above.
  * E1S11.1 - Return to Wesmere, part 1:
    * Fixed "retrieving member of non-existent WML container" warnings at the
      start of the scenario.
  * E1S11.2 - Return to Wesmere, part 2:
    * Fixed spurious "retrieving member of non-existent WML container" warning
      at the end of the scenario.
  * E2S1 - By the Moonlight:
    * Minor balancing changes.
  * E2S4 - Shifting Allegiances:
    * Minor map balancing tweaks.
    * Reduced turn limit from 34/33/32 to 28/27/26.
    * Other minor balancing changes.
  * E2S7 - Proximus:
    * Fixed minor fog refresh issues during the initial cutscene.
  * E2S8 - And then there was Chaos:
    * Minor balancing changes to increase difficulty.
  * E2S9 - New Hive:
    * Minor balancing changes.
  * E3S3 - Amidst the Ruins of Glamdrol:
    * Apply the default AMLA to Kyara and Horo a predefined amount of times on
      prestart according to the difficulty level.
    * Made it so neither the player nor Nar-hamoth can land a hit on each other.
  * E3S4 - Outpost of Hell:
    * Fix specific units being unintentionally visible during a white screen
      sequence.
    * Fixed "trying to remove non-existent menu item" warning at the end of
      the scenario on Wesnoth 1.11.x under certain conditions.
    * Make sure side 2 units also get their demolition ability and overlay
      removed at the end.
  * E3S5 - Pass of Sorrows:
    * Make the teleportation/exposition event in the middle of the scenario
      work as intended.
  * E3S7B - Dark Sea:
    * Make the northwestern Shaxthal and eastern undead sides less prone to
      stealing player villages.
  * E3S9 - Dark Depths:
    * Minor boss fight improvements.
    * Minor cutscene improvements.
  * E3S10 - Blood:
    * Made the foreshadowing moon combination have a x4 multiplier effect
      instead of x5 on all difficulty levels, not just Hard.
  * E3S13 - Epilogue:
    * Fixed some cutscene-only female units not having their gender specified
      in WML or translatable strings.
    * This scenario is now only accessible after recovering an object hidden in
      a previous scenario.

* Terrains:
  * Experimental fix for the long-standing gate clipping issue when adjacent to
    stone wall corners.

* Units:
  * Added sidebar icon for units affected by the 'stun' weapon special.
  * Added sidebar icon for units affected by the movement range bind spell.
  * Applied changes from bumbadadabum's "The Aragwaithi" add-on, versions 1.0.6
    through 1.0.9, and "Era of Chaos" version 1.1.0:
    * Archer HP increased from 26 to 28.
    * Granted the new 'precision' weapon special to the Greatbow's ranged
      attack.
    * Increased Guard's blade resistance from 10% to 20%.
    * Increased Guard's XP from 64 to 74.
    * Decreased Guard's cost from 28 to 27.
    * Decreased Pikeman's cost from 38 to 28.
    * Increased Shield Guard's cost from 37 to 45.
    * Increased Shield Guard's blade and pierce resistances from 10% to 20%.
    * Granted the 'marksman' weapon special to the Swordsmaster.
    * Renamed the Aragwaith Witch's image files (may break saved games from
      E3S2).
    * Various animation fixes and updates.
  * Balancing:
    * Increased Elynia's (E3) mystic fire attack strength from 5-4 to 5-5.
    * Increased Elynia's (post-Divergence) ensnare attack strength from 9-3 to
      9-4.
    * Increased Forest Spirit's movement points from 5 to 6.
    * Decreased Fallen Faerie's HP from 49 to 43.
    * Decreased Fallen Faerie's wail attack strength from 12-3 to 11-3.
  * Gave Anya and Elynia special AMLAs for E2 and E3.
  * Fixed wrong description for Galas' bolas attack AMLA (stated magical as the
    weapon special, it is actually slows).

[mousyack]

Great job, shadowmaster. I have played though this campaing not only for gameplay reasons, but more because of a good story, I started to sort of sympathize with the characters in the same way as when reading a book.

Only one thing I would like to note, in "Destiny part 2" scenario

Spoiler:

(on hard) I managed to guess that this was the last big battle, so, being unaware of the surprise that comes after killing the lich, I played aggressively and lost most of my units. Preserved some wolves as suggested, but wolves alone wouldn't help against a horde of lvl3 drones.

So, maybe some players would have appreciated a more pronounced notice that killing the lich does not end the scenario.

Normally I should have replayed the battle preserving my army as much as possible. Instead, I cheated for a ton of gold and started to spam ghosts, 18 per turn. Spent like 4000 gold on them, and even so, I just barely managed to survive for 12 turns o_O

[thornt]

I have to say this is probably the best campaign I've played so far...
I particularly liked several elements of it, including the intricate storyline, different gameplay styles, and

Spoiler:

the fact that Eryssa, the supposed villain to begin with, turns out to actually just be another lost soul trying to find her way in life and sort of becomes friends with Elynia

But, if I may be so bold to do so, I'm going to voice a couple suggestions for the future storyline...

1. It would be nice to have a story in which the main villain (Uria) is not purely motivated by power and remaking the universe/world in his/her image, since this type of story has been utilized so many times. It might be hard to do, but villains being pure evil seems a bit generic.
2. It is also hinted that there might be other powerful demon lords/gods/whatnot out there; it might be interesting to have several factions going on besides the whole Lady of Light faction vs Uria faction going on.

Spoiler:

3. Now this is really a weird one, but nobody ever said that Wesnoth had to be purely monogamous... since Elynia and Eryssa both clearly love Argan, maybe they can share him? That would be strange, but different.

4. Ultimately, I felt that the one thing most lacking about this campaign was the absence of unique hero abilities. This makes heroes just seem like powerful units rather than heroes. (Of course, this is something lacking from most Wesnoth campaigns, but perhaps it would be nice to explore through a different medium as you have suggested you will).

That being said, there's so many things you have done well here that I can't even begin to list them all. Keep up the good work and hope to see the continuation in some different media soon.

[vultraz]

Spoiler:

3. Now this is really a weird one, but nobody ever said that Wesnoth had to be purely monogamous... since Elynia and Eryssa both clearly love Argan, maybe they can share him? That would be strange, but different.

Well the thing is, Argan is dead. He died at the end of Invasion from the Unknown. Other appearances of him in After the Storm are either memories or illusions.

[thornt]

Err right, scratch that then. I don't know if anyone else noticed this but this is basically the first story I've ever seen without any prominent male characters (still living, then) :O. A moot point, but still interesting.

[vultraz]

Well, there was Galas. He was male.

Spoiler:

But he died in episode 1

EDITL oh, and Durvan

[Astoria]

Well, there was Galas. He was male.

Spoiler:

But he died in episode 1

EDITL oh, and Durvan

Don't forget Horo, Cron and Elorran. (Also the Aragwaithi).

[Iris]

1. It would be nice to have a story in which the main villain (Uria) is not purely motivated by power and remaking the universe/world in his/her image, since this type of story has been utilized so many times. It might be hard to do, but villains being pure evil seems a bit generic.

Well, actually...

Spoiler:

She had or has an additional motive for her quest, but exploring it in detail wasn’t within the scope of AtS. It’s only vaguely hinted at in the passage where her real name is revealed. I think we won’t know for sure until we can play as her!

But yeah, has anyone played this campaign on Wesnoth 1.11.4 (as opposed to 1.11.2)? I haven’t had the time or energy to do it myself, and I will be a little busy during the upcoming months, so if there are any problems on 1.11.4 it would be nice to hear of them so I can fast-track AtS 0.9.2.

[Dugi]

...time... ...myself... ...a little busy..

You highlighted the letters IftU, does it mean that you were busy with IftU, making an update to it?

[Iris]

You highlighted the letters IftU, does it mean that you were busy with IftU, making an update to it?

Are/will be. There are a handful of other things with higher priority sitting in my to-do list at this time.

[Iris]

Version 0.9.2 is out!

Not a lot happened since the last release, but this version still includes an amount of bug fixes and minor improvements. Really, most of the changes this time are transparent under-the-hood stuff that hopefully did not break anything. Notably, though, Wesnoth 1.11.1 is no longer supported. But it’s not like anyone would be still using that with 1.11.4 being the latest version and 1.11.2 having been around for quite a while.

The main reason for fast-tracking this release is a rather critical bug fix concerning users of Wesnoth 1.11.4+dev (Git master) only. If you have no idea what that means, it means you couldn’t possibly be affected by the issue.

In a related note, nobody responded to my call for gameplay reports on Wesnoth 1.11.4, so I am going to assume there aren’t any issues there until proven otherwise.

The complete changelog for this version follows:

Code: Select all

Version 0.9.2:
--------------
* General:
  * Dropped workaround code from 0.9.0 for a bug causing side data loss
    throughout Episode III on Wesnoth 1.11.1. Use Wesnoth 1.11.2 or later
    instead.
  * Various code optimizations taking advantage of features introduced during
    Wesnoth 1.9.x that were not used before AtS E3S7.1 before.

* Graphics:
  * New or updated unit graphics: Uria.

* Scenarios:
  * E1S3 - Civil War in the North:
    * Fixed elvish sides being visible on the game Status Table before the
      protagonists reach the fort.
  * E3S2.1 - Return to Raelthyn:
    * Added a statue prop with backstory information about Adavyan.

* Units:
  * Fixed "Terrain '**' has evaluated to 100 (cost) [...]" warnings on Wesnoth
    1.11.x caused by Aragwaith units.
  * Description changes:
    * New descriptions for Verlissh Matrix Core, Matrix Flow System, Psy
      Crawler, Psy Mindraider units.
    * New Imps race description.
    * New Spirits race description.
    * Fixed typo in Demons race description.
  * Made it so Verlissh Matrix Core and Matrix Flow System’s sprites are scaled
    down on the sidebar only when standing unit animations are disabled.

* User interface:
  * Made sure cutscene theme with menu bar works on Wesnoth 1.11.5 and later
    (affecting E1S6.2, E1S7x, E1S11x, E2S3.2, E2S5x).

[Eru_Iluvatar]

This release adds the final Epilogue scenario for Episode III, which will become a bonus feature in 0.9.1. If you had previously finished AtS Episode III using versions 0.8.90 or 0.8.90.1, you will have a start-of-scenario save for the Epilogue scenario which youcan use after upgrading to this version.

How do you unlock the Epilogue? When i finished the campaign all I got was a text that said something along the lines of "you feel that a certain other Guardian of Darkness may have missed something." Was there something along the way that I missed?

[vultraz]

This release adds the final Epilogue scenario for Episode III, which will become a bonus feature in 0.9.1. If you had previously finished AtS Episode III using versions 0.8.90 or 0.8.90.1, you will have a start-of-scenario save for the Epilogue scenario which youcan use after upgrading to this version.

How do you unlock the Epilogue? When i finished the campaign all I got was a text that said something along the lines of "you feel that a certain other Guardian of Darkness may have missed something." Was there something along the way that I missed?

Spoiler:

Starting in version 0,9,1, shadowmaster made the Epilogue a "secret level", as it may. If you find something, I'm not sure what, in a previous scenario with either Anya or Elyssa, you will be able to view it.