The Rise of Wesnoth

[Shade]

Sangel - Yes, yes she would look an awful lot like that. Thank you! No, I really mean it! With a suitable Mellon for my lady I should be able to whip up the rest of the frames. . .

Dave - In this case the 'Temple' is a bad candidate. It has masked villages (it's meant to feel small and claustrophobic), I wanted it to be more or less symmetrical, and it 'needs' the pool in the middle. However, I do have another underground segment coming up in the next sequence of maps. I think a random map would do quite nice there.

A wiki page for the random generator (these things should be as public as possible, not buried in a thread, IMHO) by somebody in the know would be great.

[Sangel]

The rest of the frames? You mean these?

[Shade]

Oh wow! Thanks again! That's so much better. Now I'm getting all tempted to do a 0.3.3 or speed up the 0.4.0. Thanks!

[Sangel]

No worries. This campaign is very promising, and promising campaigns deserve a little lovin' from the Art Department. Keep up the good work!

[Dave]

Just Not Going to Do It:
- 'The Orcs should arrive on the Isle by Ship'. I agree that gates are overdone, but, they are a necessity here. The Orcs in this story have to be an overwhelming, immutable force of nature.

I have no idea how well it'd fit into your campaign, and it'd be alot of re-work, but just a suggestion: what'd you think of making the main enemies in your campaign the new-fangled 'Drakonians' of Neorice's? They could be being 'bred' by a foul wizard or something.

This could give your campaign an immediate point-of-difference from all other campaigns out there, with some very well drawn and animated units.

David

[brakett]

I just played trough your campain...Wow!

This really should be bundled with the game, it already compares well to the other campains.

[Insinuator]

I have no idea how well it'd fit into your campaign, and it'd be alot of re-work, but just a suggestion: what'd you think of making the main enemies in your campaign the new-fangled 'Drakonians' of Neorice's? They could be being 'bred' by a foul wizard or something.

This could give your campaign an immediate point-of-difference from all other campaigns out there, with some very well drawn and animated units.

Dang it, don't give him ideas! I'm already half-done with a campaign prominently featuring them (just too embarrased to release it).

Oh well, if you want to I can't stop you.

[Boucman]

Insinuator, you should really post it,

release early release often is a very good principle

just look at the other campaigns discussed on the forum, not only do they have some good playtesting and balancing, they also have many bug reports and sugestions.

let us play test it, it can only help and motivate you for continuing...

I think Dave's sugestion was mainly because it seemed that no campaing using the draconians was appearing...

[Shade]

-Switching to the Drakonians. Kind of a neat idea, but: a) Lots of work b) They are only now trickling into CVS HEAD, and I build with the version in Mandrake Contrib [a few days off BfW Official] c) Have an idea for integrating my Orcs into the story why the Orcs came to 'the great continent' [see my Spoilers link]

-Thanks for the comment that you think that this should be integrated into the official BfW. That's more than a little premature, and represents a big commitment. If people think that it is good enough around the time BfW and I'm at a 1.0, well maybe. Since we're all GPL here I suppose it could just be grabbed and integrated, but still, wait for the TROW 1.0.

-Oh, and Dave, sorry if I sounded abrupt about the gates to ships thing. I kind of thought the same thing about gates, but, by lowering the verbal barrier that states sea travel is perilous in both directions it makes it more of a craps shoot as to why Haldric would want to go to 'the great continent'. If anybody has a slightly less overdone meathod of getting the orcs from point a to point b, I'm all ears. . .

-And to the guy with the draconian campaign. The best way to polish a campaign is to throw it up on these boards. I think it's because the 'Hardcore' of the 'Hardcore' go around looking for user campaigns, and with feedback things improve quickly.

[Shade]

Wow, you can't refresh the main page without a new release. Given Sangel's art, the progress I've managed to make, and the coolness to BfW .7.8 I'm going to try to push out a .4 by the end of the weekend. I'm 3/4 done two more scenarios, and I want to playtest the whole with .7.8 before I release.

[Dave]

-Thanks for the comment that you think that this should be integrated into the official BfW. That's more than a little premature, and represents a big commitment. If people think that it is good enough around the time BfW and I'm at a 1.0, well maybe. Since we're all GPL here I suppose it could just be grabbed and integrated, but still, wait for the TROW 1.0.

Your campaign has certainly made an impressive start, and if you continue to develop it, it is likely we'd want to add it to the official release.

However I'd recommend we do consider including it with the release before the campaign version reaches 1.0 -- once it's included with the official release, the number of people who try it, and thus give feedback on it, and test it, will increase greatly. That will allow you to make a higher quality 1.0 release.

David

[Shade]

Yeah, I should revise that 1.0 statement. For TROW I intend .9 to be the 1.0 without the super gloss, and super testing. I think I read the same about BfW somewhere. I'm actually trying to keep the sub version (say .3) roughly proportional to the % I'm done (say 30%). But as always, it's that last 10% and fighting off the bitrot (or wmlrot).

[Shade]

Well, I have 0.4.0 90% done, but with the AI changes I'm having to twiddle around with some things. In short I like the new AI, but it is smarter, and more methodical. I started my big play through of all ten of my scenarios (btw, I'm up to 10 scenarios), most were OK. But with the AI playing possum more, bonuses went down, that combined with the smarter AI, meant that some levels have become evisceratingly hard! Even for the guy that wrote them.

So, I'm doing some fine tuning. . . 0.4.0 will be released late tonight or tomorrow. Depending on my need for sleep. (Ironically, the later levels are fine, because they were fine tuned under the new AI)

[Shade]

NEW VERSION: 0.4.0

The Rise of Wesnoth (TROW) 0.4.0 has been released. This is a major release, but it should be backwards compatable.

FEATURES:
-3 New Maps (Clearwater Port, Fallen Lich Point, and the Sewer of Southbay)
-Sangel's Lady Outlaw images, which are very good and much appreciated.
-Extensive re-balancing for the BfW 0.7.7+ AI.
-Turns added to: A Harrowing Escape, the Midlands, and the Oldwood.
-Minor map revisions for: the Swamp of Esten.
-Added some villages to A Harrowing Escape
-Fixed my WMLized raising of the dead in the Temple of the Deep to use ghouls, so we don't 'plague' ourselves into a zombie army.
-Added a Peasant unit, graphics originally by Cedric, but modified by me.
-Spelling & Grammer fixes
-Oh and did I mention: 3 NEW MAPS

Notes:
-Yes, Clearwater Port is Supposed to be hard, even after the Temple of the deep. However: a) you only have to survive, b) I did it with 200 gold, c) the next couple of scenarios are rebuilding scenarios.
-No, I'm not happy with the Sewer of Southbay as it is, it needs something more, maybe Dave's Random Map generator. . .
-Yes, I am behind schedule. With the new AI I had to playtest all 10 Levels to make sure they were sane, and left you with enough gold. But I do like the new AI

As always feedback is appreciated.

_James

(PS - Teaser Pic & Download Follow)

[turin]

Before i download: Has the Temple of the Deep enemy leader been changed so it is not an ancient lich anymore? I hope so, since that AL was impossible to beat. He could fry a full health 3rd level unit in one turn