The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Unplanned mini-update!

I've just uploaded version 1.3.7 to the 1.12 addons server. I also plan to put it up in the 1.13 addons server once I've completed a play-through to be sure it all works in the new version.

Changelog:
  • Fix ability to use potions on enemies
  • Balance tweaks to scenario 5 - enemy no longer recruits chocobones, and saurians get more gold
  • Dominated units no longer enter your recall list.
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
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Jarom
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Jarom »

I played on 1.3.6 version, Wesnoth 1.12.

Whole campaign is great, I really like it. I'm waiting for next part(s?). For me there're only four things that can be improved (mention that I haven't read whole thread):

1. Scenario "Reinforcements" was too hard.
I used debug mode to remove three or four waves of enemies from map and still I finished it in last turn, after reloading. I would really increase time limit, change objective to "resist for some turns" or simply make forested way through the swamps. Also, I played it two times, and saurian leader was always killed by undead before I reached him. I hope increasing gold for saurians removed this problem (I'll check it later). Also, Elvish Civilians are useless aganist undead, just like every unit you or your ally get in this scenario except one Elvish Lord and up to 7 elvish shamans. Skeletons level up quicly killing saurians, and you have to face some Death Blades early.

2. Some bugs
I got many lua errors, I'm not sure, but probably in scenario "Return Home", during the placement of hostile creatures (maybe in other scenarios too, but I don't remember, I got so many when playing UMC campaigns that I don't care). Also, there's a bug that enemies can get potions for you in the scenario Descent into the Chasm (maybe in others too). In Descent into the Orcish Realm mermen that go into whirlpool cannot return, maybe it's intended, but inables to use the powerful Storm Trident aganist undead in this scenario. Campaign abbrev (short added to scenario names) is still from previous campaign name (in your forum's signature there's old name too).

3. On easy, scenario in chasm (Descent into the Chasm) is way too easy, you have to beat just one wave of undead what isn't hard when playing Elvish Sorceresses. Maybe it was bonus for killing all enemies in previous scenario, but it's still too easy. Next scenario (The Journey Home), you have to fight about 3 times stronger army, which kills some of your experienced units (very painfull).

4.Eovyniel's Treewalk looks and acts very nice, but it's hardly ever useful, because there aren't much trees in locations, where fights took place. From other hand, you can easily teleport her into enemy keep, to quickly lose her.
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

  1. This should be significantly improved in 1.3.7, but could probably still use further tweaking. Please do check it out later.
  2. It's definitely not intended that mermen cannot return from the whirlpool. The Lua errors are probably from unit scattering attempting to place a unit on a border tile. I'll certainly fixup the filters so that enemies can't get potions for you (hilarious though that is). It's probably possible in any scenario, but not very likely when the potions are in chests rather than villages.
  3. Hmm, interesting. I'll look at tweaking the difficulty of this scenario.
  4. Really? I've found it useful more than once, particularly in the sixth scenario (after Reinforcements). Perhaps tree placement could be tweaked sometimes to make it even more useful, though, and if you have more treewalkers than just Eovyniel, that would help too.
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Can-ned_Food »

I only played the old version — 1.3.5 — and I used the Treewalk quite a few times.

By the way, did you revamp the story? I recall you said that you would, and the new name seems to indicate a different plot.
I haven't looked at the updated version yet. :oops:
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

The plot is basically the same for the most part. Some details have changed, but most of the plot rehaul was about adding or expanding stuff, rather than totally changing stuff. I renamed it not because the plot has fundamentally changed but because the original name didn't really reflect the plot beyond the first scenario. Plus it was a pretty boring and generic name.
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Richard
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Richard »

Hi there.

Played through a number of times. No complaints to give.
I love:
The advancement lines with the Elvish Mage, Treewalker and Zealot. The first time I saw them my jaw dropped... hard.

I like:
The addition of the Ghost, the Orc Archer, the Mermaid Initiate, the pair of Dwarves and the pair of Drakes. The custom traits are fairly cool (makes the L4/5 Elvish magicians fairly beast/cool/tank/awesome)

Well done
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tapaboy
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by tapaboy »

I am enjoying this fantastic campaign.

In the first scenario, by ignoring victory conditions, I could win the scenario without meeting Erendor (Elvish Ranger).
However, I could not play the fifth scenario for that.
I suggest that in the first scenario, the player's unit not to cross the river before meeting Erendor.
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron

Post by Jarom »

Is replay below from new version or I'm doing something wrong? Scenario Reinforcements. If it's new version, it's even worse. Can I try to remake it?
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

No you can't try to remake it. I'll get to that myself, eventually. You can make some suggestions, though, and I'll take a look at your replay at some point.
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Sadaharu
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Sadaharu »

Hi! I'm playing on BfW 1.12.6.

So far I'm quite liking the campaign, yet I find that in ‘Reinforcements from Anarandoloron’ (the scenario I'm currently at) the Saurian leader is way too squishy and too daring. If I play on Hard/Medium the Undead send a dozen Ghosts and swamp him before I get Ardalandwen there (she insists on not moving until Dawn/Turn 6, without any in-story explanation); if I play on Easy then Ardalandwen's own troops kill the Saurian leader even before I can get Galdarthere.

Still the ‘pact’ goes on anyway (Ardalandwen ‘speaks’ to the Saurian leader, whose lines are cut out) and I proceed to battle the Undead.
Since the aforementioned Undead've just handed me my arse on Easy I've decided to blame my 'flu, the antibiotics, etc. ;)
Or it is possibly simply the fact that the Chocobones seem to have 100% accuracy even when I have 60% defence.

Also, what is the purpose of the Fighter/Civilian under Ardalandwen's command east of the river?

An interesting… bug? (I haven't read all of the thread so I might've missed an earlier report: some of the Elvish civilians have female names but male voices. And then they are promoted to Fighter (male figure and voice) or Archer (female figure and voice).

In general (so far) - a great plus: I so love the different abilities for the shamans – and the two new lines, Treewalker and Mage. <insert thumbsup smiley>

I'll tell more when I'm finished playing. That will require finishing that Chocobone knight.
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

What do you mean by "female names but male voices"? More specifically, what do you mean by "male voices"? I'm not sure how you can assign male/female to the written dialogue (at least in English).

I think the possibility of the Saurian leader dying before you can save him has been raised before; I seem to recall trying to address that. Perhaps I can also think of an explanation her reluctance to leave before dawn.

If there's a fighter/civilian east of the river, I assume the AI sent it out to capture the village off in that direction... perhaps it'd make more sense for that village to start under elvish control, though.
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Sadaharu
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Sadaharu »

Elf recruits: Well, I get units with names such as Hyclya who have default male voices (they're heard, when they're hit by enemies). When promoted, I can choose between an Elvish Fighter with ‘male’ sprite and voices (well, they're the only Elvish Fighters) or an Elvish Archer with proper female sprites and voices.

As for the Saurian leader… in last night's attempt on Easy (!!! - the one where the AI handed me my arse) the ghosts got him anyway.

Yes, if the AI's going after the village then having no village or giving it to Ardalandwen from the start might be better.
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Ah, right, I guess because the Elvish Civilian doesn't really have the gender divide... but I should be able to at least give them the proper gender-specific hit sounds. Thanks for noticing that!
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by BTIsaac »

I recall civilians in IftU having not only gender divide, only the male ones could upgrade to fighters while the females could upgrade to shamans. FoaP did something similar with the lvl0 followers.
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Re: The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Well, I'm not going to do that here. You can already recruit initiates which level up to shamans, after all.

EDIT: I've gathered all the changelogs from this thread into one convenient place in case anyone is interested. I will continue to post each changelog here as I make releases, though.
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