Is there a way to turn off time remaining?

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AzureDrag0n1
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Is there a way to turn off time remaining?

Post by AzureDrag0n1 »

Sometimes in some campaigns I find the time limit to be too low. Especially when you fight large armies and have more than 1 opponent and have only some 30 turns to do so.
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Iris
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Post by Iris »

It's part of the strategy. It was initially very hard for me to learn to build an army to defeat 3 enemies in less than 30 turns, but now I've learned the value of recalling, placing units on strategical map locations (elves on wood, for example, dwarves on mountains and hills), distracting the enemy and killing the enemy leader by surprise.

BTW, I'm sure you meant "turns left" not "time left". "time left" only applies to multiplayer games in which you might have set a certain amount of time per turn.
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AzureDrag0n1
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Post by AzureDrag0n1 »

It is still rather annoying sometimes when I have to punch through and take risks to defeat 3 opponents. Thats basically 10 turns to kill one foe who has a bigger army than you. How realistic is it to expect to defeat a foe combined arms enemy in a few days? I mean how many turns is one day annyway? You can be owning the pants off of them and are about to add the killing blow when the game ends due to time out.

However I did learn just how powerful the vampire bat is in campaign though. This single unit can cripple several opponents at once due to them chasing it all over the map. I would not mind the time limit so much if it wasn't for the randomness.

In a game like Advance wars I could kill 3 opponents in 15 days but there is much less luck and randomnes in it so I can do precise calculations on exaclty how much force is required to at whatever location. In this game you need overkill because sometimes even if their chance to survive is 5% it happens very often. 1 in 20 chance. So a goblin surrounded on all sides can take 2 turns to kill or more. I really don't want to reload just for better luck and a perfect game.

Basically the luck ruins the turns remaining aspect. How realistic is it to have 4 cavalry defeated by 1 weaker unit being beat on? It happens too often.
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Chris NS
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Post by Chris NS »

Basically the luck ruins the turns remaining aspect. How realistic is it to have 4 cavalry defeated by 1 weaker unit being beat on? It happens too often.

Main mainline scenarios give a reason why turns running out spells defeat. It might be that after the allotted time, reinforcements turn up, or they way ahead might be cut off. If you send half your forces after one minor enemy and ignore taking out your primary target, the is perfectly realistic and you only have yourself to blame.

Here's a helpful hint: if you can't kill a stray vampire bat without losing the scenario, let it go.[/i]
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Post by NeoPhile »

AzureDrag0n1 wrote:It is still rather annoying sometimes when I have to punch through and take risks to defeat 3 opponents. Thats basically 10 turns to kill one foe who has a bigger army than you. How realistic is it to expect to defeat a foe combined arms enemy in a few days? I mean how many turns is one day annyway? You can be owning the pants off of them and are about to add the killing blow when the game ends due to time out.
You are much smarter than the AI, so you should be able to beat his larger army with superior strategy. The vampire bat thing is a perfect example of that.
AzureDrag0n1 wrote:In a game like Advance wars I could kill 3 opponents in 15 days but there is much less luck and randomnes in it so I can do precise calculations on exaclty how much force is required to at whatever location. In this game you need overkill because sometimes even if their chance to survive is 5% it happens very often. 1 in 20 chance. So a goblin surrounded on all sides can take 2 turns to kill or more. I really don't want to reload just for better luck and a perfect game.
The randomness is part of the game, and accounting for it should be part of your strategy. To take your goblin example, how much damage is it really going to do? Do you really need to surround it, or kill it this turn? Don't forget that it could easily die when it attacks you.

Selective memory also plays a role here. You are much more likely to remember (or even notice) that goblin surviving such an onslaught than you are to remember that time your elvish fighter got all 4 hits on that orcish assassin in the forest.
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JW
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Post by JW »

Chris NS wrote:Here's a helpful hint: if you can't kill a stray vampire bat without losing the scenario, let it go.[/i]
I believe he means he uses the Bat to confuse the "not-so-smart" AI.....

...and you can edit your scenario.cfgs to up the turns allowed. It's "cheating," but if it's what you want to do, then that's how you do it.
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Post by commanderkeen »

Or try the Campaigns on an easier difficulty level. You could try Saurons less luck mod, but that only changes MP games.
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Post by Imp »

If you're not playing a mainline campaign (comes with the game - no downloading add-ons required), then it is not guaranteed to be balanced.

If you find the time limit in the mainline campaigns too difficult on Easy, you just need to play for a while and you'll improve.

While a lot of campaigns are designed so that you can kill all the enemy units for experience and then kill the leaders, some are designed so that it is very difficult to kill all the leaders. What you must remember is that once you accomplish the scenario objectives, the game is over regardless of how many enemies are left. Since most of the time it is to kill the enemy leaders, then you go for the leaders and ignore stray units if necessary, like Chris said.

A misconception a lot of new players have is that since you have 30 turns for 3 enemies you have 10 turns for one enemy. This is simply not true. Reality is, you have 12 turns to defeat 3 armies worth of enemies (they'll swarm you), 2 turns to finish off the closest enemy leader, then 3 turns to finish off the other 2 enemy leaders, and 13 turns worth of early finish bonus.

I also think you're recruiting too many cavalry.
AzureDrag0n1
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Post by AzureDrag0n1 »

Oh I can beat them but it takes so many reloads until I have favorable results. Are there any cheats for this game? I am stuck on this one map in Descent into Darkenss. The level name is Alone at Last but the map is impossible to finish even if you kill everything since the mission objective can not be completed because it does not exist on the map. Some book I have to pick up or something.

I have to do as many as 30 reloads on some maps.
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Post by Imp »

It's a good idea to try to play without reloading during the middle of a scenario at all (except for the obvious closing Wesnoth to do other things). That way you'll improve a lot faster.

As for the bug with that particular map, look for the thread on the campaign in the Scenario Development forum.
borisblue
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Post by borisblue »

to answer the question originally posed, yes you can change the turn limit:
look for the campaign scenario's cfg file, and open it with notepad. Near the top of the document you can find
{TURNS 40 32 29}

this refers to the turn limit for easy, normal and hard games respectively. Change it to anything you wish
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Post by Rhuvaen »

Without a time limit it would be impossible to design challenging scenaria vs the AI. The player would just camp in a good spot, defeat the main wave, and then march against the trickle of reinforcements against the enemy leader (and you can still find this gameplay in a lot of scenarios) - there are quite a few AI behaviours that could be exploited if the player had any chance to idle.

A time limit is needed to force the player out of the defensive - to make him work proactively towards the goal.

That said, I've seen UMC change objectives when I just thought it was over without increasing the turn limit (offending campaign: Sceptre of Fire - possibly in an earlier incarnation). You were supposed to find a runemaster on a snow-covered map against strong opposition in 24 turns. When you find him, you discover that you also have to walk him back across the map to your starting keep - within the same timeframe!

There is no insurance against bad scenario design - I usually question my own strategy first and try to adjust, but keep in mind that scenario designers are humanly prone to errors, too. :)
AzureDrag0n1 wrote:I have to do as many as 30 reloads on some maps.
I actually restart from the start (or near-start) as much as possible. Re-doing the early decision-making and maneuvering helps me to understand the flow of the scenario better to asses my strategy, and I have a chance to see where I didn't press on enough or where I missed a chance to regroup my units etc. If all you ever do is open the last autosave, then yes, you are in fact relying more on luck than understanding... :wink:
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turin
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Post by turin »

Rhuvaen wrote:That said, I've seen UMC change objectives when I just thought it was over without increasing the turn limit (offending campaign: Sceptre of Fire - possibly in an earlier incarnation). You were supposed to find a runemaster on a snow-covered map against strong opposition in 24 turns. When you find him, you discover that you also have to walk him back across the map to your starting keep - within the same timeframe!

There is no insurance against bad scenario design - I usually question my own strategy first and try to adjust, but keep in mind that scenario designers are humanly prone to errors, too. :)
:twisted:
The objectives might be slightly unclear, but I thought it was obvious that you would have to bring him back too, in the same timeframe. I might change the wording, but I will not change the gameplay.
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