Choose what scenario to play in Campaign Menu

[Mano]

When you are in the Campaign Menu, for each campaign, you should be able to see wich scenarios you have completed (ant the next scenario to advance in the campaign), and you should be abe to play them.
One ideia to show the scenarios is to make a map of the campaign, and display the scenarios around the map.

One way for getting the starting units and gold in that scenario is to use the information that is stored in the saved game.
Another way is each scenario having a default level of gold and "recalled units".

Note that this functionality, is already possible using the load game, and choosing from the gigantic list of saved games.
The ideia is to display in a simple interface the scenarios that the user already played, and can repeat easily, choosing them from a map of all scenarios of that campaign, rather than searching the entire list of saved games.

What do you think of this ideia?

Greetings,
Adriano Simoes.

[Sangel]

This is a good idea that would require some hard work and careful thought to come to fruition.

[Chris NS]

I've been doing this as a "cheat mode" for my campaign. The main problem is that it's actually a lot of work deciding on a default recall list for zipping straight to a particular scenario.

Best approach is that enough people say they'd find it useful, and ask nicely, a dev might look into it.

[TheArchitect]

I agree, it would definately make the game more convenient. I hate having to look through the list of saved games

[PingPangQui]

I think this has been discussed before and people liked it as far as I can remeber (couldn't find it - hopefully the search function will be activated again), though noone implemented it yet as it seems.

[pauxlo]

As I understand, this would be a filtered view of the load game dialog, listing only scenario-begin-saves ordered (or filtered) by campaign. Or did I misunderstood?

[Iris]

As I understand, this would be a filtered view of the load game dialog, listing only scenario-begin-saves ordered (or filtered) by campaign. Or did I misunderstood?

That Can Already Be Done in 1.4.x. See this:

[Sangel]

That Can Already Be Done in 1.4.x. See this:

That's not exactly what's under discussion here, though I must say it's a very handy feature.

It's also possible to use WML in a campaign to allow the user to select different scenarios. I suppose the question is: Is there any way for a campaign to interact with saved files to detect which scenarios a user is "allowed" to play and/or load a save file (with recall list) instead of just a plain scenario file?

[AI]

It would require a pretty radical departure of the current scenario/campaign system. Currently, the campaign file sets a few macros and gives control to the first scenario, the first scenario does its thing and gives control to the next scenario and so on. At any point in the campaign there is only one file in control and the campaign can branch or loop at any time. Even if you don't care about the army you're missing, you might still break scenarios by jumping right in, because you'll be missing variables or recruit options.

So, to do this, the entire campaign system would need to be overhauled OR the campaign should do so itself. (by giving you a menu to skip ahead in the first scenario)

[turin]

All you would really need to do is, when someone goes to the campaign screen and selects a campaign to play, it presents them with an option, before selecting difficulty level, of, "Start a new game or load save?", and if they select load save it goes to the loading menu with the campaign acronym being searched for. If you only want beginning-of-scenario saves to be accessible this way (which would make sense, I guess), you could do that too.

[ADmiral-N]

The scenarios would get unlocked just like the unit descriptions in the help section.

[turin]

The scenarios would get unlocked just like the unit descriptions in the help section.

Well, that would clearly not work - you usually can't play the later scenarios in a Wesnoth campaign unless you've played the beginning scenarios and leveled at least a few units, gotten some gold, etc - how would being able to unlock a scenario itself, rather than a savegame, make any sense? It can work for games like Starcraft (where I've seen this type of thing used) because there's no carryover from scenario to scenario...

[ADmiral-N]

Well, that would clearly not work

I thought it would work like this:

Another way is each scenario having a default level of gold and "recalled units".

Although with the campaign system AI described, I see how this could turn out to be a problem. But then it's also worth a redesign - thinking with common sense, every scenario should be completely independent and playable with the help of a singe giant data blob created at the end of the previous scenario, which perhaps contains things like the recall list, story variables and flags etc. etc... And there is no reason why all these data could not be set to default values, like choosing the least exciting or "secret" story branch, fill the recall list with units you don't want (bad traits) to the extent needed, give only minimal gold and so on.

As for the existing campaigns, the scenario default values could be made entirely optional. If a campaign doesn't have them, simply grey out the "choose scenario" option. Mainline and other important campaigns could be slowly adapted to use the default values.

I think it would be a great feature to have.
The 1.4 version is still new and 1.6 is far away. The time to add such new features couldn't be better.
It gives you a feeling of accomplishment to see all the scenarios in a campaign unlocked.
You can show your unlocked list to your friends and brag about your save-load skills.
You can show the more awesome scenarios to friends who are new to Wesnoth.
You can enjoy the story again without having to beat all the early scens, and you can try to find all the secrets and story branches.
Scenario selection is separated from savegame selection, just like it should be. You don't want hundreds of campaign saves clutter up your load game dialog.
You can keep your unlocked scenarios between Wesnoth versions without running into savegame incompatibilities.
You can try and beat every scenario with the crappy default settings - on hard difficulty!

[vicza]

You can enjoy the story again without having to beat all the early scens,

Story? Will there any story remain, if you can open scenarios in an arbitrary order.

The scenarios would get unlocked just like the unit descriptions in the help section.

BTW, I would be glad if this "description locking" would be removed.

[irrevenant]

BTW, I would be glad if this "description locking" would be removed.

So would a lot of people, but it's a contentious issue and majority Dev opinion (including Dave's) is that it should remain as is.