Undead Campaign

[Circon]

ANNOUNCEMENT: Yes, the campaign is alive.
No, I refuse to answer.

I am working on finishing everything, adding Nati as summonable, and generally doing things that require some WML tricks. At least 5 more scenarios will be added. (relative to BfW 087.)

[Circon]

Campaign plot as of 28 Feb 04.
UC= Under construction. NS=Not started.

1: Brother against Brother
Setting is your guy Gwiti Ha'atel against his brother Nati. Kill him.

2. The Skull of Agarash.
Setting is Gwiti looking for a skull, one orc warchief carries it on his banner. Two other orken warlords are just getting in the way.

3. Mages and Elves
Gwiti battles his way to an ancient tower, seeking the Book of Crelanu.

4. Inside the Tower.
Gwiti searches the Tower for the Book of Crelanu.

5. Crelanu's Book!

Battle through hordes of Elves and Orcs to find the ancient tome of the necromancer Crelanu.

[ziberpunk]

I have played it. Looks good!

Perhaps some more hit points should be needed. For example, with ghosts hit points is 0-3 against undead, 1-3 otherwise, so it takes a long time to defeat the enemy.

I've had trouble with CRLF character of the configuration file.

[fmunoz]

I have played it. Looks good!

Perhaps some more hit points should be needed. For example, with ghosts hit points is 0-3 against undead, 1-3 otherwise, so it takes a long time to defeat the enemy.

I've had trouble with CRLF character of the configuration file.

Using cold attacks to harm undeads is not a good idea, nor pierce attacks. Undeads have resistance to both attack types.
So the best way to beat another undead army is to use plain skeletons to fight and some kind of flying unit to conquest villages fast.

[Sofronius]

Question of moment: Is there a map editor available?

There is MapEditor at least in CVS(/src/editor/editor.cpp). It's under development, so for example map scrolling is possible only with arrow keys atm, but editing maps with it would be probably more effective then editing maps with some text editor.

Feel free to make editor features wish list.

[fmunoz]

I had an idea, instead of a Dark Spirtit that will do the role of Delfador why no use this:

A magic talking book.
You can put it in the second-third scenario as an objetive. So when the main character picks it you can use as a character.
I have a "portrait" image of the book, but it isnt scanned yet.
Think about it.
A dark tome book, with a trapped soul inside, who can only be releasde if he finds a necromancer who knows as much dark lore as it and said necromancer dies with the book in his belongings.
You can use it to give the main character a new attack.
"Balefire", a green fire attack with poison (no, no magical 70% aim).

[Circon]

The magic talking book sounds good. Well, I had better get some major editing done, and find out how to get the CVS working.

How exactly do you "pick" the book? Have Gwiti kill it? Have Gwiti reach it?

Time to get discussing. I'm gonna edit the campaign into the second post and we can discuss it... sit down, have a cup of tea, and plan the domination of the undead

[ziberpunk]

I like the idea of the book! It's quite original and appropiate to the character I think. Other thing is how to insert this in the plot.
I think that Gwiti(?) needs an objective to make the things he does. Perhaps he wants a kind of ancient artifact or something like that that the book knows about.

[fmunoz]

Campaign plot as of 01 Dec 03.
5. Challenge!
Lady Esmerelda has brought an army of Humans to counter the growing power of Gwiti.
Objectives: Kill Lady Esmerelda.
Rescue as many Nagas from their cages as you can. If you open all 4 cages then you will be able to recruit them later.

Is there a tag for this? Like this:
if NagasReleased=5
then set Nagas=yes
And in later scenarios
if Nagas=yes
then set
add recruit=Nagas

No there isnt a tag like that ...yet.
But ... rescue nagas from cages... it just remind me of something...
Oh please, try to be more original!!!
Why not just souround the nages with mountains adn use the terrain change features to rescue them....
Nagas have been trapped, humans have contructed a damm to dry their swamp and now they are trapped waiting that the human exterminate them. You can save them if you kill the damm-keeper and flood again their valley. All nagas rescued are now under your control so you could recall them later.
Sea Hag (Naga pseudo-leader): Stranger, help us!! Humans have drained our once beaufull valley.
Gwiti: Why should I help you?
SH: If you save our swamp I and all my snakemaidens will serve you.
Tome: It seems that humans didnt want to have the nagas in one of their flanks when we arrive.
Gw: Deal done, creature, I'll spare your lands and you all will be my slaves.

After the nagas are released.
SH: We will serve you. For the lives of our unborn eggs and our next generation, we could give you our lives.

Humans commander: They released the nagas!!! We should have killed that monsters years ago!

[yawningdog]

I like the "book with a trapped soul inside" idea. Of course, it should use Gwiti to serve its own evil goals, and probably later on turn against him.

Talking about it, I'm not sure I like "gwiti" as a necromancer's name.. something with a darker edge could work better here (IMO).

I'll try to play the campaign a bit and see if I can give some constructive feedback. As for the plot, I'd try to give Gwiti (or whatever the name ) some personality and background. Yeah, he may well be a fiendish character, but that doesn't mean he can't be an interesting fellow. So let him have a reason to embrace necromancy, and show a few, though well hidden beneath the surface, rests of humanity.

E.g: Gwiti was raised on a poor family of peasants who labored some of the eastern fields of Wesnoth. Their parents saved some coins to send the boy to the Royal Medics Academy, so he could make a living as a physician and escape the poorness they had had to endure. Gwiti was an excellent student, and was surely to become a great doctor.

But suddenly, the black plague extended through Wesnoth, killing thousands and striking poor and rich alike. Gwiti's parents were touched by the dreadful illness, and despite the desperate efforts of the young scholar, there seemed to be no cure that could spare their lives. Out of despair, Gwiti gathered all his money and secretely got himself some books of necromancy, the most forbidden and darkest of all the arts of magic. Browsing through the pages of a dusty book, the novice necromancer found a powerful spell that would cheat death and save his parent's lives. The finding came at a great price, as day after day of endless investigations and studies, necromancy lured Gwiti into a pit of madness and obsession. But he didn't care, as he was glad he had at last found a way to save his parents. But just when he was making the final preparations for the ceremony, he was betrayed by a school mate. The book was burned, and he was captured, judged, and thrown into jail, were he knew of the final death of his beloved family.

For seven years he was kept on a gloomey cell, gathering hatred and rage against all forms of life. He couldn't help feeling guilty for the fate of his parents, and in his increasingly twisted mind, his thirst for revenge was the only thing that drove his thoughts. His books and grimoires were gone, but his innate talents were fed by the intense feelings he grow on that jail. And there he breeded his new found dark powers, awaiting his time, alone in the dark.

When he felt strong enough, he escaped his cage. As much as he would have liked to avenge his parents death right away, he knew his powers were still feeble and weak to face the might of Wesnoth. He remembered though something he had glimpsed at in his earlier studies. A great book of power, holding the soul of an ancient necromancer, who could lead him on his eagerly awaited revenge. So he set course for the ancient ruins of Tar Nâzel, to find and claim the mighty artifact for himself.

---

And so it could start; it's just an example I came up with now for a somewhat deeper background. The first scenario could be changed to a ruins setting (probably with mist) where Gwiti would look for the book, fighting some undead guardians. Perhaps even before he could have a "run like hell" scenario were he would be chased by some Wesnoth guards, having to reach the safety of the forests in time. Dunno, just some ideas. Yes, the whole thing departs from the current storyline, so feel free to use it or dump it as you wish.

If you like the idea, I have a plot twist I'll leave to myself for now (as it would be a huge spoiler, hehe).

[Circon]

Heh, first fmunoz says "nagas" looks too much like an earlier mission, when I am trying to make it an optional sidequest.
Then yawningdog suggests a "run like hell" for the first mission.

I have a background for Gwiti designed, but I feel its not quite ready yet.
Short version: He was fighting for Good, then became desperate, and used any power he could get his hands on to win, then was celebrated, then expelled, where he vowed revenge.

[benj]

OK, I have playtested the first scenario of the undead campaign. here are my comments:

- i've played it in easy mode, but it is far too easy ! I advise you either to lower the number of turns (24 should be enough in easy mode) or to forbid recruiting ghosts. As the path to your opponent is long, you cannot rely on flying units to rescue you when you are fighting near your brother's castle.

- the eastern road is useless, this would be nice to give it more interest (I don't know how).

- i'd really like a "100% non flying" first scenario to force player to know how to use land troops. It it easy to win this scenario recruiting several ghosts and bats to gain most of villages as AI does not recruit much bats. After that, AI does not have money to counter attack.

Hope this helps !

[Circon]

The eastern road is useless, yes. I was planning on making it a placeholder for a more powerful road, which only costs 1/2 a movement point. That way ground troops vould
very quickly move that way.

I don't have CVS, so I haven't really been able to playtest this: there were some small edits after my last testing.

[Circon]

Brother against Brother: Rebalancing.
Orders: Cut out the Walking Corpses from the recruitment list. They will appear later as part of the plot.

Here are my suggestions after playing it thrice.
Reduce to 20 experience to advance a Dark Apprentice. (Hey, some people actually want a leader who can lead!)
Reduce to 24 turns (I've won it in 17 on Medium)
Somebody commented that the brothers sound melodramatic. I don't know what that is, and I think their lines are all right, but can I get some more opinions on this?


These are easy to do, but I don't have CVS access, so I thought I'd post them for discussion and ask someone with CVS access to add them.

[fmunoz]

You should create a really original leader unit for your campaign just adding some adjetive hear and resusing most data from others units will not add too much feeling to your campaign.
If you provide me with original names, descriptions and graphic ideas (not the graphic but just a small description of how the unit will look) I'll do the graphics but you should really try hard to create some original content.
You can do it!!!
You can resuse some genereic names like "archers" but for special units or high level ones try to find something that make that unit more special ... (the game uses archer->ranger->avenger instead of archer>better archer>best archer )

Why not
Initiate->Deathmaster -(ritual in the plot to be a..)> Lich(same as existing one)->Ancient Lich(new in cvs, Elder adjetive reserved for Delfador)

Try to balance your units with the already existing units in the same level, but keep in mind that ranged attacks are more valuable, and if oyu give a units a lots of resistances or good movement that units should have some flaws (high cost, higth xp to level, less upgrades, less damage ...) to balance it.

Why not just add a couple of new maps after the 1st scenario, no need of script yet just simple levels to get people hooked