The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Loci
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Joined: October 28th, 2008, 10:49 pm

Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Loci »

Thanks for the campaign. I played through on Normal, 1.12.0 (campaign v1.1.0) and it was quite fun. I did notice a few bugs and arrive at a few suggestions:

Bugs:

Treewalk allows village teleportation sometimes (when starting turn on a village, perhaps?)

There's a lua error in place_unit that causes randomly-placed units to not be placed completely.
scenario 3:
scenario 8:
Suggestions:

Change vapour rats to a 2-4 ranged attack instead of 1-8 (8 attacks just takes too long to play the same animation 8 times in a row... and a whopping 24 times if you attack with frenzy).
scenario 2:
scenario 5:
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Thanks for the feedback! I'll consider your suggestions for the next release and try to fix the bugs you found.

Is there any chance of getting the exact text of the Lua error? That would probably help a great deal with tracking down its source.
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
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Loci
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Loci »

Celtic_Minstrel wrote:Is there any chance of getting the exact text of the Lua error?
error text:
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Inky
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Inky »

Besieged Druids v.1.1.0, Wesnoth 1.12.0, Normal Difficulty

01 What happened: A nice scenario, fun challenge to level the initiates.

02 Dank Tunnels: Turn limit seems a bit tight here; a few more turns would be nice.

03 Orc Port: The domination ability is pretty cool.

04 Watery Tunnels: The loyal ghost is nice. Killed the undead leader.

05 Along the Coast: This scenario unbalances the rest of the campaign a little bit; I found the previous scenarios to be well balanced but this scenario allows you to level a massive amount of elvish sylphs making the rest of the campaign too easy.
Also, I think the undead should only respawn if the number of undead on the map falls below a certain amount; otherwise you get 100+ units on the map, most of which are doing nothing, and the enemy move takes way too long even with Skip AI Moves.

06 Dread Marsh: Sometimes when the mosquitos spawn there is a Lua error saying something like invalid placement; this also happens occasionally in scenario 08 Return Home when the mosquitos are supposed to spawn.
I really liked the feel of this scenario; it's a nice challenge to have a map which isn't all forest for a change.
Also, I noticed that villages here give 2 gold/village but I don't think it's necessary since I ended up with a huge amount of gold (~1k) for the last 3 scenarios. Although it actually doesn't matter since you can't recruit anything useful anyway.

07 Chasm Descent: Starts out difficult but once you get rid of the initial wave you can just walk in and kill the lich.

08 Return Home: An easy scenario due to the abundance of forest terrain.

09 Back Home: Extremely easy scenario.
Not sure whether this is intentional but the enemy AI behaves very strangely here; they will often retreat and not attack even at night.
I felt like the ending was kind of abrupt; you kill the last enemy and the scenario immediately ends, without any dialogue from the characters.

General:
I loved the special abilities of the initiates; my favorite was the treewalk ability.
The hardy trait says it gives +10% resistances but actually gives +15.
The druid leader's 6-3 thorns attack is missing the magical special.

A very enjoyable campaign. Thanks for your hard work!
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Thanks for the feedback! :D I'm focusing on other stuff right now so it'll likely be awhile before I work on this right now, but I'll keep your report in mind for future updates.
Inky wrote:Sometimes when the mosquitos spawn there is a Lua error saying something like invalid placement; this also happens occasionally in scenario 08 Return Home when the mosquitos are supposed to spawn.
Is this the same error that Loci reported, or a different one? From what you say it sounds like it's likely the same issue, but if it's significantly different, it'd be great if you could get me the full text of the error.
Inky wrote:07 Chasm Descent: Starts out difficult but once you get rid of the initial wave you can just walk in and kill the lich.
I'm not quite sure here whether you consider this to be good or bad?
Inky wrote: 09 Back Home: Extremely easy scenario.
Not sure whether this is intentional but the enemy AI behaves very strangely here; they will often retreat and not attack even at night.
I felt like the ending was kind of abrupt; you kill the last enemy and the scenario immediately ends, without any dialogue from the characters.
That doesn't sound intentional; I'll have to look into it.
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
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PikadudeNo1
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by PikadudeNo1 »

It appears your custom advancements aren't working in Wesnoth 1.12.1 - shamans that were supposed to have them available according to my reading of advance_events.cfg had only the default Druid and Sorceress.

The custom traits and advancements make this a very enjoyable campaign; I wish you luck in getting the latter working again.
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

They're not working again? That's annoying... I'm pretty sure I had them working in 1.12.0. I had issues where a shaman would lose the extra advancement possibilities at the end of each scenario (if I recall correctly), so perhaps if you level an initiate twice in the same scenario, it might work? In any case, I'll look into the issue.
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Inky
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Inky »

Inky wrote:Sometimes when the mosquitos spawn there is a Lua error saying something like invalid placement; this also happens occasionally in scenario 08 Return Home when the mosquitos are supposed to spawn.
Is this the same error that Loci reported, or a different one? From what you say it sounds like it's likely the same issue, but if it's significantly different, it'd be great if you could get me the full text of the error.
Yes, it's the same error reported by Loci.
Inky wrote:07 Chasm Descent: Starts out difficult but once you get rid of the initial wave you can just walk in and kill the lich.
I'm not quite sure here whether you consider this to be good or bad?
It's not good or bad; I just meant that the scenario turned out to be much shorter/easier than I expected.
Inky wrote: 09 Back Home: Extremely easy scenario.
Not sure whether this is intentional but the enemy AI behaves very strangely here; they will often retreat and not attack even at night.
I felt like the ending was kind of abrupt; you kill the last enemy and the scenario immediately ends, without any dialogue from the characters.
That doesn't sound intentional; I'll have to look into it.
Here's my replay from that level; on turns 8/9 (first/second watch) the enemy doesn't really do anything besides shuffle units around.
Attachments
DruSi-Reclaiming_the_Citadel_replay.gz
(85.86 KiB) Downloaded 399 times
PikadudeNo1
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by PikadudeNo1 »

I think I had the "custom advancements not working" issue as soon as the 1st scenario; maybe the bug occurs when the game is saved and loaded?
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Ah, perhaps - I think I recall it occurring in that situation as well. Looking at my log, it seems there are may be some unreleased fixes for the shaman advancements, so hopefully that will address your issues once I release the next version. I'll do some testing myself too, just to make sure.

EDIT: Okay, so regarding the leader's thorns missing the magical special... for some reason, this occurs when she attacks the first goblin leader. I have no idea why. Maybe it also happens in other circumstances, but I haven't gotten any further than that in my testing. If anyone has any idea how this can be fixed, please let me know.
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

I just uploaded version 1.2 to the add-ons server.

Changelog:
  • Fix some issues with shamans who should have a third advancement option not having it
  • Misc changes taking advantage of new 1.12 features (sighted events, scenario-global lua includes)
  • Turn limit increased in scenario 2 (Dank Tunnels)
  • Rabid rat bite and vapour rat breath animations are now faster
  • Fix incorrect hardy trait description
  • Fix some minor issues with music tracks that probably no-one ever noticed (certain tracks that were supposed to play were mispelled and thus didn't play)
  • Add a hint that there's something hidden in scenario 2 (Dank Tunnels), hopefully making it less likely that newcomers will miss the secret area
  • Widen the ford at the south edge of the druid citadel map (used in the first and final scenarios)
  • Addressed the issue with the merman fighter sitting on the village if you manage to save him. It's no easier to save him than before, but if you do manage it, he moves off the village and also comes over to your side. (Saving him requires a lot of luck; in particular, you have to hope that a third naga does not show up during the attempt, and it depends on the nagas missing most of their attacks.)
  • While in the entryway of scenario 4 (Watery Tunnels), units get an illuminated-like bonus. This probably won't actually have any effect on anything, and was done just for flavour. (I suppose you could lure undead out to the entrance if you really wanted to.)
  • The agile trait now also makes units move slightly better in cave terrain. (It also applies to mountains, but that's less relevant to the situations in the campaign.)
  • If there are already a large number of undead on the map in scenario 5 (Along the Coast), the spawning of more every 6 turns will be delayed until the number of undead falls below that maximum amount. (Actually, it applies to units of that side, not undead specifically, so bats are also included in the count, while the bonus ghost and any units currently dominated by Ariandela will be excluded.)
  • Some attempts to use micro AIs to make the animals behave more animal-like in scenarios 6 (Into the Dread Marsh) and 8 (The Journey Home). Also to force the orc leader to head for the necromancer in scenario 6.
  • Reduce the number of potions hidden in scenario 2 (Dank Tunnels)
  • Reduce the gold carryover percentages; most scenarios are now around 50%. This is still up for more tweaking, of course.
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

I just uploaded version 1.3 to the add-ons server.

Changelog:
  • Fix leader having shyde portrait even as a druid
  • Completely new scenario 5: "Reinforcements"
  • Redo the map for scenario 6 (Along the Coast) and some other tweaks: reduced turn limit, remove mine tunnels (except on hard mode), fewer undead
  • Fixed the Lua error from [scatter_units] (almost certainly)
  • Orc leader in scenario 7 (Into the Dread Marsh) will now take a turn to recruit before marching off to the enemy
  • You now get two saurian spellcasters in scenario 7; I can understand they're unlikely to be super-useful, but they're there for the flavour (this relates to the new scenario 5)
  • Fix Lua error that could occur in scenario 8 (Descent into the Chasm) if you didn't have the dwarves, orc, ghost, or other units that can move fast on cave terrain
  • Fix cures overlay staying after upgrading to Zealot
  • I think this should finally fix the undead in scenario 6 (Along the Coast) and the monsters in scenarios 7 and 9 (Into the Dread Marsh, The Journey Home) seizing villages for no good reason. (They'll still retreat to them if injured, of course.)
The issue with the leader losing her magical special turns out to be a bug with a mainline macro. The workaround is to not attack the first goblin leader with your leader. Also, the bug now only affects easy mode.

Also, the campaign is now on GitHub, for what that's worth. (Probably not much. Well, I guess it means you can look at the code without downloading it first.)
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
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GodlyDragon
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by GodlyDragon »

Hi there, nice job in this campaign! Just there to report a bug: at the start of Along the Coast scenario, our leader lose all exp, items and recruits. Could you fix it please?
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

I actually uploaded the fix earlier today. Unfortunately, you'll have to replay scenario 5 to get the benefit of the fix; after updating, just load "DruSi-Reinforcements.gz" and go on from there.
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Xara
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Xara »

The Treewalk is very cool. :)

Just two things to mention:
1. In the first scenario, in which you use a shroud and changed objectives frequently, perhaps you should gradually increase the turn limit to give players a proper sense of pressure.
2. And it would be nice if you show the objectives when you change them.
It pronounces Sha'ha, not Zara.

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