Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Can-ned_Food
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Re: WhiskeyJack p623810

Post by Can-ned_Food »

When I did the Dark Arena, Alariel was lvl4 and I think I needed to revert maybe once. So, you probably were lvl3 or did indeed have some bad rolls. Or, of course, didn't play at Normal mode difficulty.
If you were lvl3 and got that far, then congrats.

As for the spelling errors, you should look at my earlier post to see if maybe I already reported them.
Last edited by Can-ned_Food on March 5th, 2018, 5:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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FaeLord
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by FaeLord »

HI Whiskeyjack:

Thanks for the feedback. Personally, I like the story of Alariel's Journey better than any of the other campaigns I have created, so I'm glad you enjoyed it too.

As for the relationship between Alariel and Dax, this takes place in the epilogue precisely because they don't really have much of that developing during the main story. While it is probably not as clear as it should be, they don't start seeing each other until after the adventure is over. I will endeavor to make this more apparent in future versions. However, as I'm currently occupied creating the sequel to one of my other campaigns, The Amaranthine Stone, it will likely be some time before I can return to this one.

Thanks again for playing!

-=FL=-
Wesnoth stole my summer . . . again.
Can-ned_Food
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Can-ned_Food »

Future versions? Heck, why not give us a sequel, too! What about Alariel's adventures working with Valmaryx?
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FaeLord
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by FaeLord »

Hi Can-ned_Food:

I'd love to do a sequel to Alariel's Journey. For one, I would want any sequel to still be faerie tale themed, so I'd really have to think about the story in that light. However, as I am currently developing my previous adventure, The Amaranthine Stone, into a trilogy, I will likely not have the time to work on Alariel's Journey for at least another year. :(

Valmaryx likes to present a bad guy image, but he's really quite fond of Alariel, and he would definitely play a role in any future sequel.

-=FL=-
Wesnoth stole my summer . . . again.
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Sadaharu
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Sadaharu »

I loved both this and TAS.

Does Valmaryx cheat at cards?
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FaeLord
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by FaeLord »

No, but he is pretty confident with his skills as a pinochle player. Then again, he is immortal and has had a very long time to practice. Glad you liked the campaigns. Unfortunately, the sequel to TAS, The World Seed, is somewhat stalled due to financial reasons. Hopefully I'll have that cleared up in the next month or so.

-=FL=-
Wesnoth stole my summer . . . again.
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Sadaharu
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Sadaharu »

Financial… ah, yes, Real Life strikes again. It happens to everyone.
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Aldarisvet
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Aldarisvet »

Hi Faelord!

I had several months out of Wesnoth because my all-in-one PC was at service, I coudnt continue the work over my own campaign. Spent some time playing online chess, was quite addictive for me. Kinda it was the way to relax after the work. But I returned, added two more scenarios of my campaign.
I remember I promised to translate your campaign to Russian. Since TAS was already translated by another person, I have to do this for Alariel's Journey.

So I found some time to play it. And here are replays on Hard.
The last time I was trying it, I was stucked at The Swamp. It was laggy when AI was moving and also I had problems with passing the swamp - concealed units made surprisingly dangerous attacks.
This time it was quite laggy in the beginning too but the more units I killed the less laggy it was so finally it was ok. So I happily passed the swamp with only one reload - made a wrong move and coundt undo it. Alariel was poisoned by the sudden attack of Swamp Snake but exactly at this turn I got an upgrade for a wisp to a spirit bird that can cure.

Then was The Dark Forest. Wow that looked QUITE hard during I was playing it. With only 50 gold! At the first attempt I recalled two my spirit birds and quickly understood that they are useless there. So I recalled one green tiger with some XP and recruited 2 more (because they have 70% defence on forest and good hitpoints and melee attacks). Still that magic goblins was quite unbeatable. There are two of level 3 of them (with slowing abilities!) in the map and it seemed quite impossible to kill them with my level1/2 units while trying to gather moonflowers and capture villages at the same time. At one moment I really thought it is impossible to pass this scenario on hard fairly.
After several restarts of the scenario I got a proper idea. Instead of splitting my units I gathered all 6 together and started an assault. And I prevailed! There were some reloads, but not to get better chances but to regroup better. The witch was killed and only after that I was able to gather all flowers in time.

Looking forward to pass the whole campaign soon and publish all other replays. I comment only the tactical part, because the storyline is amazing and I cannot say more about it.
Attachments
AlarJour-Dark_Forest_replay.gz
(32 KiB) Downloaded 409 times
AlarJour-The_Swamp_replay.gz
(29.38 KiB) Downloaded 406 times
AlarJour-Troll_Bridge_replay.gz
(17.27 KiB) Downloaded 352 times
AlarJour-River_Town_replay.gz
(13.14 KiB) Downloaded 334 times
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Aldarisvet
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Aldarisvet »

More of my replays.
I coninue to enjoy the storyline. I must say it really looks like a storyline created by a Writer. Cannot be compared with storylines of mainline campaigns. It, how to say in English, head and shoulders above? I also think this storyline is so good that can be put in any fantasy game/engine.

Now about the tactical part. Here are more 4 replays. In general I got the same gameplay as in previous scenarios. Because of very few units I can afford to recruit and given AI has few units too, the gameplay is different than of mainline. It is for good because it is something new. But the problem is that faction of elementals/animals Alariel can recruit does not look balanced for the campaign. In most scenarios you need only wisps and their advancements. Green tigers were needed only in one scenario. Dragonflies look absolutely useless and hawks even more useless. Level0 dragonflies at least have slow ability but at level1 it changes to poison and it this is useless for so fragile creatures. The only scenario where I really badly needed to slow the enemy was the scenario with trolls but dragonflies are vulnerable to impact! I think that the scenario with trolls is the most unbalanced because with good luck they can kill one of main characters. Also I pesonally do not like scenarios where you have no idea what to expect. It was said that the entrance to the dungeon can be at every place. I started exploring the area and splitted my few units and then that troll with the helm appeared with many strong units so I had to restart the scenario and concentrated on the battle instead. In the end it was not about finding the dungeon because it appeared just after the defeated troll.
The labirinth was not very interesting for me tactically. I want to mention that at some point my goblin rider was teleported to the isolated room with nothing founded there and then just to the beginning. What this for I have no idea, I just reloaded because did not wanted to waste time returning back.
The most scenario I tactically like from these 4 is that with the werewolf pack. You have to recruit your units carefully given that one of them have a backstab ability and another have a berserk. I coudnt afford recruiting both level3 spirit birds around Alariel because one of them would be inevitable killed by berserker. So I recalled 1 lvl2 green tiger and a recruited a dragonfly. I deliberately recruited a dragonfly with hope that beserker would attack it and would be slowered and this really worked. A berserker werewolf badly wounded by Alariel was killed by a dragonfly, that was funny. I was afraid he would still attack Alariel.

I look forward to continue enjoying the storyline and providing my tactical feedback.
Attachments
AlarJour-Cry_Werewolf_replay.gz
(32.81 KiB) Downloaded 348 times
AlarJour-The_Labyrinth_replay.gz
(40.35 KiB) Downloaded 338 times
AlarJour-Dragon's_Tail_Moun..._replay.gz
(35.46 KiB) Downloaded 368 times
AlarJour-Abbydon_Waste_replay.gz
(30.49 KiB) Downloaded 355 times
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FaeLord
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by FaeLord »

Thanks for the comments, Aldarisvet. I'll definitely take a look at the replays and use the data to improve future versions. I am going to do some re-working of the labyrinth at some point. I will not have any time to dedicate to revamping my campaigns for the new Wesnoth version until after the summer though.
Wesnoth stole my summer . . . again.
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Aldarisvet
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Aldarisvet »

Hi, Faelord!

It needed to be a year to pass for I got some mood for playing Wesnoth again.
Finally I was able to find a time to finish your campaign.

I put two replays here.
Plain_of_glass replay saved normally, but for some reason the game failed to save replays for Land_of_Eternal_Night and Dark_Arena.
I was able to get replay for Dark_Arena from autosaves but I totally lost replay for Land_of_Eternal_Night.

I must say that Plain_of_glass was really hard in terms of possiblity to pass it. Not in terms of strategy. You just have to put your units in proper defensive line and also put units within this line in certain order so healers would do their work at the best way. I mean many of your scenarios looks the same - you have to resist the first wave, then finish the leader.

The problem with Wesnoth that in case when you fight with few high level units against few high level units really too much depends on RNG. Wesnoth RNG really disbalances battles such as this. I had to reload several times to find a proper unit positioning but I have no illusions - would I get substancial unluck, even my 'optimal' defensive line would fail for sure. After I defeated the first wave of the enemy I suddenly understood that I have so few turns left so I hurried to the enemy castle. Normally I wouldnt be able to kill the witch but she stupidly left the castle. I was able to kill her with great luck in turn 17, but for sure I would be able to do that in turn 18.

The tactics in the Land_of_Eternal_Night is the same but it was easier than previous one. As alwyas, you just need to get a proper defensive position. I used a southern pack of hills for it. The enemy split his forces into 2 parts - one to south and one to north. So northen forces wasted a time while coming around. A troll was enough to kill all coming from north (skeletons with swords and that fat guys). Spiders was a biggest problem in south.

Concerning the last scenario - for level 4 Alariel it was really impossible for playing without reloads. Not only demon is stronger but he can heal without limit while you coming for him. Only reloads helped me to get healing instead of harming on that runes. Luckily while fighting with demon I understood that I can level up eventually so I relied only on level up at the end. I was slowing him just to get XP from fights. And level up to level5 came right in the moment, before he was able to kill Alariel.

In general I must say that you make very beautiful scenarios but the problem is that Wesnoth's gameplay is quite the same all the time. It does not matter that you put some new units and some new ground. The principles all the same so you get used to it. And lame RNG make it even worse. Finally, when you play on hard difficulties, the only thing you have to rely is AI's stupidness. If you do this, that it is not so hard, but you no more have enjoyment from the game itself. Only form the storyline which is really a gem in the case of this campaign. But for my taste it ended with a bit too sweet way. I would prefer more dramatism at the end.

P.S. I would highly recommend for you to put your campaigns on 1.14 server, where an audience from Steam would be able to play them.
Attachments
AlarJour-Plain_of_Glass_replay.gz
(47.79 KiB) Downloaded 251 times
AlarJour-Dark_Arena_replay.gz
(46.79 KiB) Downloaded 267 times
facebook.com/wesnothian/ - everyday something new about Wesnoth
My campaign:A Whim of Fate, also see it's prequel Zombies:Introduction
Art thread:Mostly frankenstains
Can-ned_Food
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Can-ned_Food »

There are a few things which make 1-12 not very compatible with 1-14 … if you know what those are, go ahead and make the changes, then upload AJ as maintainer pro tempore. So far as I know, Faelord hasn't said that he doesn't want AJ uploaded until he makes the revisions which he has planned — leastways, he hasn't said anything of the sort here or to me in private message.

I did already mention the inability to save replays in those scenarios — my comment was probably overlooked. I expect it was done to make the transition to succeeding scenario more timely…? But, of course, it does prevent saving replays manually or automatically.
Personally, I only do so at the end of a noninteractive scenario.

Here's a suggested workaround for those dramatic battles between leaders: use an [event] to implement the so–called ‘saving throws’. Could be conditional so that it only intervenes when a protagonist is defending and so that it only occurs once — once per scenario or once per protagonist.

IMHO, a campaign with an excellent story, a story which works on a personal level, like this one, doesn't need a “Hard” difficulty level. The normal difficulty should provide exactly as much danger as the story would require. If you wanted to provide additional challenge for players who think that they need it, name it Unnecessary Risk or something…
However, as Faelord has mentioned the possibility of adding a difficulty mode which emphasizes combat for those who want it, adding extra waves of enemies and increasing the turn limits and whatnot, that difficulty mode could be named Combat Focus … or something…

P.S. I liked the ending! It was a bizarre and unexpected twist to me. Rather strange, but in a funny way.
Major_Swampy
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Major_Swampy »

I just finished this campaign in 3 days, but in scenario Dragon's High Mountains IIRC; makes me using debug next scenario, IDK how to get find Labyrinth Entrance. I've tried many times, but sadly not found. :( Maybe it's a bug or not?
Spoiler:
Anyway, that's my overall stats but I'm giving rating UMC 6/10. But thanks for making this good campaign and I'll miss Alariel and the other characters.
Sorry for my english, I'm not english native.
Regards, Swampy.

(Already mastered the LotI as 4 times until the end, so wanna me to play it again!?)
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Sadaharu
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2 (SP for 1.12)

Post by Sadaharu »

In Dragon's Tail Mountains the exit is invisible until you walk onto the tiles next to it. It's approximately north of
Spoiler:
Use a flying unit or Grindle to find it while you vanquish the enemies. Usually you have to get to within a tile or two of it to find it.
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egallager
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Re: Alariel's Journey: A Faerie Tale 1.0.2-2 (SP for 1.16)

Post by egallager »

So, having this addon installed on 1.16 causes the following error when opening the map editor:

Code: Select all

The following add-on had errors and could not be loaded:
    /Users/ericgallager/Library/Containers/org.wesnoth.Wesnoth/Data/Library/Application Support/Wesnoth_1.16/data/add-ons/Alariels_Journey/_main.cfg

Please report this to the author or maintainer of this add-on.

Details:

    Macro/file 'UTP_AR_GENERIC_SINGLE_PLFB' is missing
    at ~add-ons/Alariels_Journey/utils/aj_terrains.cfg:48
        included from ~add-ons/Alariels_Journey/_main.cfg:89
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