activating all unit descriptions

[Lastmerlin]

Normally, you can only see a unit description, when you have faced the unit once ingame.

There are several possibilities to *loose* some descriptions, you have already activated
- if you upgrade wesnoth
- if you reinstall your system (what I do quite often ^^)
- if you simply have a lot of different computers you are working on, then you have the unit seen on one of the, but it is still hidden on the other one.

Is there a something I can do, to activate all possible description (some commandline option, editing some status file etc) ? I know that this is some sort of cheating. Well, I dont feel bad with this, as
- I already had most descriptions in the past
- I could easily get them back - just open a local game and level some units. I am just to lazy to do that.
- I dont like this system (just my personal taste) - if you face a new faction, the unit description is the most important source of information. Why should this be so terribly incomplete ?
If this is possible, please give me some advice how to do it.

[thespaceinvader]

The idea of them opening as you meet the units is that there would be no way for you to know what a unit is like until you meet it. It also prevents information overload.

However, if it bugs you a lot, I believe that activating the debugging tool (type :debug) will open all the descriptions.

[Jozrael]

I think there should be a way for experienced players to reactivate all their descriptions without having to use :debug, though I suppose it doesn't matter. It is aggravating, for example, upon reinstalling Wesnoth and trying to doublecheck a piece of information (what is the changed blade resistance of unit x upon levelling?) and realizing that you haven't seen it yet in game. Just a minor annoyance.

[Lastmerlin]

Thats exactly what annoys me, as I HAVE already seen all this units already - it was just another installation of wesnoth.
But to be honest - when I see a completely new faction, I also want to know what advancements are available (for example - how can I get a healer...). Information overload is no problem for me ^^

[vicza]

Thats exactly what annoys me, as I HAVE already seen all this units already - it was just another installation of wesnoth.

You can just copy your "preferences" file (userdata\preferences) to a new installation. Or only the line "encountered_units=" from it.

But to be honest - when I see a completely new faction, I also want to know what advancements are available (for example - how can I get a healer...).

I think you are right, but most developers think otherwise...

BTW, if you compile BfW yourself, just a small correction in the code helps with solving this problem.

[Akkarin345]

Thats exactly what annoys me, as I HAVE already seen all this units already - it was just another installation of wesnoth.
But to be honest - when I see a completely new faction, I also want to know what advancements are available (for example - how can I get a healer...). Information overload is no problem for me ^^

For me with a new faction thats part of the fun. Stepping into the unkown taking a stab at what the unit might evolve in to. I usually do this with camapaigns or the AI though, not with real players. I remember with Bad Moon Rising i saw the heale and thought it was okay. I only leveled 2 up into healer and the rest the archer way. Then i found the lv 3 healer was amazing so i regreated it. However, i did have archer kingdom

Anyway you can guess from the name what the unit will be like. For example with IE Sidhe i think it is pretty obvious what a stormlord does and a tracker. Also when leveling you always can see the proflie of the units you can level into and then see the name of the next level ( if there is one ).

It does get a bit annoying losing the unit descriptions though but i usually find within a week max two i have them all. Depends how much you play and if you play seriously online.

[Sapient]

If you run "wesnoth --debug" one time from the commandline, that is supposed to add all the units to the encountered list (if I remember correctly).

Also, you can go to units.wesnoth.org !

It is common for many games to have a website where you can see some statistics in advance when you are too curious or impatient to unlock it in-game.

[Akkarin345]

Once you quit the game the debug feature stops and you have to activate it again to see them all.

[Sapient]

Once you quit the game the debug feature stops and you have to activate it again to see them all.

It sounds like a regression. If it worked before, it would be considered a bug now in my view.

[Jozrael]

I would love for activating debug once to permanently unlock all the units. That would be a fine example in my mind. The problem as I see it is encountering a unit during debug doesn't actually add it to the list of encountered units.

[A Guy]

I would not. I use debug to test scenarios. I like unlocking the descriptions, and unlocking them all permanently would devalue my hard work.

[Sapient]

Guy-- use :debug command in-game instead?

[Jozrael]

Er...isn't that what we're discussing changing the function of?

[A Guy]

That's what I do already.

[Sapient]

OK, disclaimer: I have never used this feature before, so I don't know how it was supposed to work in the first place.

Having said that, you do understand that a command line parameter is a different thing from an in-game command??