Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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EvilEarl
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Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by EvilEarl »

I am currently in the process of making a new campaign (my first attempt) called "Ultimate Unsung Hero".

The basic story behind this is that the main character is an experiment created by a group of the Ancients (I mean the fallen race that made the Shaxthals in the Invasion from the Unknown campaign, but I forgot if they were given a name) for the sole purpose of destroying Yechagnoth in the future. He is made to be immortal and to command both sides of the Union, making him more of a twilight person, along with being able to utilize the three forms of magic (fire, ice and arcane) and to have great physical skill. The Ancients intend to send him into the world from their dimensional lab via the Gate of Storms (mentioned and destroyed in the Flight to Freedom campaign) as soon as it opens. He enters the world and witnesses the creation of the orcs, and seeks to destroy them after seeing their brutality. He chases the orcs and destroys the bloodline of supreme leadership skills, ending with one that becomes a lich. He ends up involuntary using the power of the Union in an ultimate fighting form, destroys the orc-lich, and gets caught in a volcanic eruption.

He gets encased and rock and launched to Green Isle where he remains unconscious until Burin the Lost (the dwarf from the Rise of Wesnoth) digs him out. They part ways and the hero begins to follow Prince Haldric's tracks (on recommendation from the Wose) but doesn't catch up. He witness the fall of Clearwater Port and Southbay and vows revenge on the orcs and undead who have plagued Green Isle. He destroys a large portion of the orcish army but becomes unconscious again when he falls into an abyss after destroying a skeletal giant that Lich-Lord Jevyan was planning to use against Haldric.

He washes up on the Isle of Alduin about 22 years before Heir to the Throne begins. He helps repel a Naga assault and King Garad, impressed by his combat abilities and system of morals, quickly trains him up to be a general for Wesnoth. He trains his own elite force and after a while he goes off alone to investigate why he can't sense the Gate of Storms anymore (recently destroyed by Malakar's drakes from Flight to Freedom) and relocates the destruction site. He eventually finds Morogor and works out diplomatic peace between the Drakes and Wesnoth. On his way back he hears about the death of King Garad and Prince Eldred. He decides to take what of his special force is still loyal and goes into hiding while making some mild assaults on Ashviere. When he hears about Konrad, he decides to protect the rebel army from some of Ashviere's larger attacks and doesn't reveal himself until Ashviere is defeated by Konrad and Li'sar.

The hero helps maintain peace in Wesnoth but becomes unconcious for a long time after another bout with a super-undead. He is found and woken up about a century before Wesnoth becomes the way it is in Under the Burning Suns and helps drive back the darkness in the world. Then he personally supervises the creation of the second Sun by the setting a mountain in orbit after making it glow extremely bright. Darkness recedes even more and the King becomes arrogant and overconfident, demanding that a third sun becomes raised. But in his impatience he orders the next mountain to be launched before the hero can inspect and supervise. The mountain falls on Weldyn and the hero desperately tries to hold back the disasters that follow, including a solar flare that turned much of the Great Continent to desert. He eventually decides to try to help other races survive until the world recovers, but becomes busy fighting a large bulk of the Armies of Chaos. He keeps fighting until the destruction of the Shadow Master greatly weakens the Armies (strangely, his force of the Union turns out to be a separate one from what Elynia and Mal-Keshar used in the Invasion From the Unknown and remains unaffected when that Union is broken).

He eventually finds Galas, Elynia and Mal-Keshar on Quenoth Isle and with their help determines that Yechagnoth has moved into the second sun to be able to closely influence the planet. They gather an army of various races and the hero uses the intended third sun as a means of leaving the atmosphere and destroying Yechagnoth. They hunt down Yechagnoth and the hero destroys him while the others eradicate the entire mountain of enemies. They then decide it would be best to destroy the second sun to help the world recover. The hero, now having full mastery of the Union, leaves to search the stars for the fate of his creators.


The campaign is probably going to be rather large (I have already made 43 maps, but I will cut away some unimportant scenarios) and the system will be somewhat complex. With many units exceeding level 5 and the main character making the most advancement (probably from level 0 to level10, and level 15 and up when using the Union at full capacity).

I would like to know if this would interfere with the storyline of Wesnoth, although it seems to just fill in some of the blanks in the history around some campaigns. I am mostly concerned if there is a planned part 3 for the Invasion of the Unknown that would clash with this. I should be able to do all of the programming and map-making, but I will probably have to get some help with art after everything else is done.

So give me your feedback on this idea please. :)
Current Project:
Insane Hermit
That second campaign will probably become a book instead, or a movie or a game or something. Sorry guys.
michchar
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by michchar »

Well, you could try looking at the stickied post on top of this forum called the Coordinated User-made Content Development Project (with SVN) (Sorry I don't know how to make a link, but its easy to find) if you want to make sure that you don't interfere with other established content.
I would give feedback about the campaign but its too late for me right now, so I'll do it later.
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by Iris »

This is such a spoilerific post that those who haven't played IftU yet definitively should not read it. Really.

That said...
EvilEarl wrote:an experiment created by a group of the Ancients (I mean the fallen race that made the Shaxthals in the Invasion from the Unknown campaign, but I forgot if they were given a name) for the sole purpose of destroying Yechagnoth in the future. He is made to be immortal and to command both sides of the Union, making him more of a twilight person, along with being able to utilize the three forms of magic (fire, ice and arcane) and to have great physical skill. The Ancients intend to send him into the world from their dimensional lab via the Gate of Storms (mentioned and destroyed in the Flight to Freedom campaign) as soon as it opens. He enters the world and witnesses the creation of the orcs, and seeks to destroy them after seeing their brutality. He chases the orcs and destroys the bloodline of supreme leadership skills, ending with one that becomes a lich. He ends up involuntary using the power of the Union in an ultimate fighting form, destroys the orc-lich, and gets caught in a volcanic eruption.
First of all, the "Ancients" are named in the Library glyphs in IftU (I want to get rid of those soon as well...) as the "Argazars"/"Argazar people", although now I know that the latter is not quite correct English. Secondly, their bloodlines were cut - no creature on Irdya by the time of IftU, except a few of the first-generation shaxthals left, are descendants of the Argazar folk. Some glyphs in the Heart have parts of the story of the fall of these people.

I deliberately introduced them for the sole purpose of explaining the source of the technological revolution started by the Chaos Empire; prior to the Fall, the old Second* Empire of Wesnoth didn't really acquire the previous knowledge required for all this stuff that later empowered the dark armies. They got their technology by stealing some from the dwarves (scenario 8-9 cutscene), and from the excavations and research led by Shadow Master, Elyssa and the Iron Triad. Going into more detail about the Argazars would be bad IMO, and a waste of time. I feel that some things in the world of the game of Wesnoth should just let be, and not be explained in detail. WINR, after all.

Despite all of this, I "know" that the Argazar folk weren't technologically advanced/godly enough to do inter-dimensional traveling. Most importantly, if they had been capable of foreseeing the future to such degree, they'd not have even designed the Shaxthals or get stuck in that stupid war in the first place. Irdya would be under their control, rather than under the factions you're already familiarized with, and their civilization's remains would never have been buried by the forces of nature many, many milleniums before what you would call the main timespan of Irdya.
Glyph at (17,28) in scenario 9 wrote:These crystals were created by us, the Argazars, so that future generations would learn of our past and present. Most information was gathered by us, from even more ancient scrolls, stones and ruins.
The prophecy of the Union was taken from elsewhere long before their time, and the name "Yechnagoth" or the related creatures were probably not known back then.
[...] he personally supervises the creation of the second Sun [...] next mountain to be launched before the hero can inspect and supervise [...] becomes busy fighting a large bulk of the Armies of Chaos. He keeps fighting until the destruction of the Shadow Master greatly weakens the Armies (strangely, his force of the Union turns out to be a separate one from what Elynia and Mal-Keshar used in the Invasion From the Unknown and remains unaffected when that Union is broken).
Elynia has a lot to say in scenario 10 about what really happened around the day the second sun (Naia) was raised. And she witnessed the moment of the Fall, sort of. Her version is, as I wrote it, the absolute truth about the events.

Also, a little excerpt from one of the files that are not in IftU's release distribution, but which are in the SVN repository from the Wesnoth-UMC-Dev project and I sometimes remember to update: (dates are not definitive)

Code: Select all

4. 1799-???? YW: The Fall
-------------------------

* 1799 YW (start):
  - Wesmere's trade routes are abolished, and all political relations to the
    outer world, cut off.
  - Dantair of Wesnoth demands the creation of Gaia, the third sun.

- The third sun falls back to ground, over the capital of the Empire.
- Massive volcano eruptions and a great cataclysm ensue on entire Irdya.
- Large civilizations are disbanded by the natural disaster.
- The pollution created by the volcanoes and the fallen sun causes cyclic
  darkness periods on the whole world, and toxic chemicals spread and destroy
  the remaining vegetation and part of the survivors' population.
- Global warming. Rivers flood the land until the last bits of snow melt.
- Races fight not only each other, but also among themselves, for the scarce
  basic resources left.
- Humans of the former Empire, as well as orcs of the major tribes, downgrade
  into barbarians.
- Inhabitants of the lands controlled by the Northern Alliance initiate an
  exodus to the Far North. This includes the last well-organized orcish tribes.
- Dwarves retreat into the depths of Knalga.
- A survivor member of the High Council of Archmagi finds Zocthanol Isle in
  middle of open ocean.
Also, the time span between the Fall and the destruction of the Heart is at least more than a thousand years.

(Side note: Argan's death at the end of IftU does weaken the Chaos armies because they can no longer summon demons and imps like bread and butter for their troops, and one of the main shaxthal breeding facilities has been destroyed. However, the Iron Triad under their new leader can, and will wage a psychological war against the Alliance while mass-production of shaxthals at a hidden breeding facility is improved, and the two components required for the so-called "ultimate weapon" are gathered. One of them is a living being.)
They then decide it would be best to destroy the second sun to help the world recover.
This is not going to happen, at least in the UtBS-IftU-AtS-TE continuity, which I hope can become (at least partially) canon some day. The creation of the second sun required great powers. It took a long time to the world to get used to Naia. Destroying it would probably do more harm than good (putting aside physics here; in RL, inserting a sun in a solar system is impossible/extremely harmful, let alone talk about destroying one of those...).
The campaign is probably going to be rather large (I have already made 43 maps, but I will cut away some unimportant scenarios) and the system will be somewhat complex. With many units exceeding level 5 and the main character making the most advancement (probably from level 0 to level10, and level 15 and up when using the Union at full capacity).
You know, IftU was originally intended to be 30 scenarios long. I actually managed to make that many scenarios and distribute them for a few releases, but in exchange I got more than a couple of filler scenarios with very little dialogue or contribution to the plot whatsoever, extra unit types that never made much sense; too much WML to maintain and stats to balance, and a campaign that I could barely play to the end. The current 13/13 scenarios layout wasn't an arbitrary one.

In other words: unless you have unlimited spare time, creativity and inspiration sources, you are a hardcore Wesnoth player and are willing to literally sacrifice your sanity in the process, do not go above the 20 scenarios barrier. Epic-length campaigns tend to not work for their authors, or players. Eric already knew that.
I would like to know if this would interfere [...]
Well... not only you are filling gaps that didn't exist/matter in the first place, but you are filling them with Ninja-Pirate-Zombie-Robots. I mean, it's so overloaded with stuff you probably considered "cool" at the moment you thought about it, that the final product is not "cool" at all.
michchar wrote:Well, you could try looking at the stickied post [...] if you want to make sure that you don't interfere with other established content.
Uh, that's a completely unrelated project. We are not some sort of UMC reviewers / QA, unless it's UMC hosted in our repository that's being prepared for inclusion of mainline. You may want to read the first post of that thread before assuming what its purpose is...
The point being?
Author of the unofficial UtBS sequels Invasion from the Unknown and After the Storm.
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Darkaros
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by Darkaros »

The amount of full-length Wesnoth synergy makes my had spin... We already have a (Not yet... but hopefully soon)mainline story about an...
IftU Spoiler:
And now we stick in another hero who is described a lot like the terminator? I see why KISS was invented. :P
Don't let this dissuade you, though. While I abhor the thought of this getting close to mainline, it sounds fun to play!
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by Iris »

Darkaros wrote:
Sub Spoiler:
Hey, come on! It's just that they are smarter than the other species and flee to peaceful locations out of reach of these crazy UMC writers.

Specially Turin.

;)
Author of the unofficial UtBS sequels Invasion from the Unknown and After the Storm.
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Darkaros
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by Darkaros »

Just kinda sad how there's only one mainline campaign with a (secondary) Drake main character, and the only two Drake-based campaigns (Flight to Freedom and another one on 1.4 Add-Ons) are apparently abandoned.
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by Turuk »

Darkaros wrote: Just kinda sad how there's only one mainline campaign with a (secondary) Drake main character, and the only two Drake-based campaigns (Flight to Freedom and another one on 1.4 Add-Ons) are apparently abandoned.
Well, when campaigns are abandoned, other users are free to step up and take them over.
Mainline Maintainer: AOI, DM, NR, TB and THoT.
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by EvilEarl »

Now that I think about it, I don't want to be writing 50+ scenarios for a campaign. Maybe I will start with small things like map packs and minor campaigns before I shoot for something that I hope goes to mainline someday.

I will just probably modify some of my favorite maps for multi-player use and keep them in case I want them for a future project. I thought I was gonna go too far with that much history of Wesnoth involved and clash on several details.

I highly doubt I will ever consider (let alone start overthinking) something this big again. I was always suspicious why most campaigns are less than 20 scenarios. So I will probably keep out of stuff as complex as the Invasion From the Unknown storyline.

I'll probably start off with a small map pack (5 or 10 maps) that I will finish in a few weeks (maybe sooner). But thanks for giving me reasons to stop before I went too far with this. (43 maps, what was I thinking?). :hmm:
Current Project:
Insane Hermit
That second campaign will probably become a book instead, or a movie or a game or something. Sorry guys.
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by Turuk »

EvilEarl wrote:I'll probably start off with a small map pack (5 or 10 maps) that I will finish in a few weeks (maybe sooner). But thanks for giving me reasons to stop before I went too far with this. (43 maps, what was I thinking?).
It is okay to have big goals, as having something to shoot for will often provide a user with motivation to get their project to a high level of completion. Users have demonstrated here that it is easy to knock out even 15-20 scenarios quickly if they are simple, but often when one has a specific story in mind that they want to tell and is not just making a campaign to make one, each scenario tends to be much more complex.

Not only that, but often the WML causes hiccups for the writer and so they will get bogged down in a scenario here and there, sucking away from their motivation as one piece of work takes way longer than they thought it would. Interest wanes from other users at the lack of a finished product, and the author can often feel like he is working on developing a campaign that no one cares about anymore.

You are better off, as you suggested, working on one or two small campaigns that demonstrate good gameplay and an interesting storyline, so that users know that your larger works are worth waiting for, and you may even find them offering to help out in various ways.
Mainline Maintainer: AOI, DM, NR, TB and THoT.
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
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Re: Ultimate Unsung Hero (Development)

Post by michchar »

Uh, that's a completely unrelated project. We are not some sort of UMC reviewers / QA, unless it's UMC hosted in our repository that's being prepared for inclusion of mainline. You may want to read the first post of that thread before assuming what its purpose is...
Oh, if the coordinated user thing was a completely separate project, sorry, my bad, I didnt really understand much, other than the title :oops:
That's what I get for replying so quickly while sleep-deprived.
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