Return to Noelren 0.7.6

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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pyrophorus
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Return to Noelren 0.7.6

Post by pyrophorus »

Here comes the SP campaign "Return to Noelren".

It's a rather long story, with many characters, in the first Dark Age of Wesnoth.

------- Abstract -------
In the story, Wesnoth is not the only existing world. Others exist too, sharing more or less the same geography, but inhabited by other people. Most of time, these parallels worlds don't communicate, and few powerful mages can travel from one to another.
But here, one of these powerful beeings named Jani decided to melt all these world in one, in order to masterize the universe. This results in strange and magics events, and that's why, in the wild south of Wesnoth, an ancient elves kingdom named Noelren sprang up abruptly. After sinking Wesnoth in the trouble of Dark Age, Jani expects Noelren to be sickened and driven down by this neigbourhood.
Against him and his followers named Janishaders, a few people try to resist.

First of all, the ancient family of Telshar whose mission was to manage worlds parallelism and prevent them collapsing. Unfortunately, Jani managed to kill them, except a little girl who escaped his seids. She will have trouble to recover her heirloom and reorder things.
She will be helped by a powerful necromancer and a young blacksmith met in the woods. Other will play their part too, Noelren princess and her devoted lover, strange sisters from an uncharted island, witches and outlaws, and last but not least, a rebellious party of Wesnothians leaded by the future king Garard.
At the end, all will return to order: Noelren kingdom shall vanish from the South and Garard shall be king, ending the First Dark Age.
On the road, heroes shall find unnumerous foes, treachery, strange magics, unattended help, heroic battles and strange deeds to perform.
Well... it's a story after all, and all cannot be told in few words...

Actually, I tried here to tell a story pushing WML abilities as far as I could. I tried to put at least one thing unusual and different in objectives, terrains and events in every scenario (hopefully new and exciting). There are battles of course, but not only, and I fear those are not well designed enough to please expert fighters. I hope only one will find, playing this campaign, as much fun I had writing it !

As usual, suggestions, feedback and help of various kinds are welcomed: post them in this thread.

------------ Versions: --------------
The campaign has for now 30 scenarios (38 including cut scenes and multiple files scenarios) in beta version, fully playable and (hopefully) bugfree.

--- 0.7.6 -- Wesnoth 1.10 minimum.
Not many changes in the gameplay. An English text revision has been done by Tr0ll, and this opens the road to translations. Many changes in the code too.

--- 0.7.2 -- Wesnoth 1.10 minimum.
Campaign revision ended. Some changes and minor fixes. Two cut scenes added.

--- 0.7.1 -- Wesnoth 1.10 minimum.
Campaign revision in progress. Some changes and minor fixes.

--- 0.7.0 -- Wesnoth 1.10 minimum.
Here comes version 0.7 -- Many changes have been made, mainly in main characters. They have now their particular advancement. A large code revision too, up to the end of first part. Second part improvements will comme soon, I think. Old savegames are probably still OK, but it's probably better to start at the beginning.

--- 0.6.0 -- Wesnoth 1.10 minimum.
Various improvements have been done. I have quite reached the first goal I set to myself: putting in every scenario at least one thing unusual (and hopefully new and exciting). Since there are thirty scenarios, it was not really easy.
- A group moving mode had been added in scenario "Elves' home" to shorten the exploration phases.
- A new cave crawling mode have been implemented in "Morwin Castle" (BTW you'll learn there what a pyrophorus is if you still don't).
- New unusual foes have been added in "Battle for Weldyn".

--- 0.5.0 -- Wesnoth 1.10 minimum (some new terrains are used only, so maybe latest 1.9.xx could work, untested).
Eigth scenarios added. The campaign is now complete.
A full code revision has been done, so unfortunately, savegames will not work. Anyway, an opening dialog has been set, allowing to begin directly the campaign on second part (Returning home).
Todo list (in priority order):
- Improving Gryphon Mountains and last battles with new features.
- Review units, advancements and difficulty levels (testers help is welcome).
- Improve graphics (sprites and portraits, artists help is welcome).
- Review texts and dialogs (native english speakers help is welcome).
- Some more graphics on maps.

--- 0.2.0 -- Wesnoth 1.9.4 minimum tested on 1.9.6.
Two scenario added and a placeholder at the end of the campaign (allowing to continue later from a savegame of the last scenario).
Some graphics enhancements (hopefully) and various corrections.
This version shall probably be the last one on Wesnoth 1.9. I shall move to 1.10 as soon as possible and this will take a little while.

--- 0.1.1 -- 9/10/2011 Wesnoth 1.9.4 minimum.
One scenario added. Savegames are still OK.

--- 0.1.1 -- 20/09/2011 Wesnoth 1.9.4 minimum.
Some minor corrections.
Introduction conclusion is now faster.

--- 0.1.0 -- 18/09/2011 Wesnoth 1.9.4 minimum.
Two scenarios added. Savegames are still OK.

--- 0.0.4 -- Wesnoth 1.9.4 minimum.
Adds an "online help menu" to the campaign. Players told me they were puzzled or bored with the tricks I put here and there. Contextual help shall give all the hints to those who want them.
"Errands" scenario is now working near perfectly.
Eliminates some "bag-ends" in scenarios where alternative winning strategies are possible.
Coding improvements.

--- 0.0.3 -- Wesnoth 1.9.4 minimum.
Some bug correction and various improvements.

--- 0.0.2 -- Wesnoth 1.9.4 minimum.
First publication.
Last edited by pyrophorus on March 7th, 2013, 5:14 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

In Winters Journey, I get the Invalid WML message.
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by Matherton »

In Greywoods, my main guy died and I didn't lose. I am assuming that this is not supposed to happen (though it was supposed to happen in the first scenario).
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by pyrophorus »

Thanks for your comments !
Lord-Knightmare wrote:In Winters Journey, I get the Invalid WML message.
The campaign is designed with v 1.9.4 and have been tested with 1.9.6. Which version do you use ? If the version is correct, can you tell me when the message came ? (at the very start, after some special action like lighting a fire, etc...)
Matherton wrote:In Greywoods, my main guy died and I didn't lose. I am assuming that this is not supposed to happen (though it was supposed to happen in the first scenario).
I suppose the 'main guy' you speak of is the highwayman Ecken (the recruiter), not the blacksmith. Since he is not going to come back in the first part, it's not a problem for now. But you're right, you should have been defeated !

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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by Konrad2 »

in Alnoth Island i cant find the smugglers
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

pyrophorus wrote:Thanks for your comments !
Lord-Knightmare wrote:In Winters Journey, I get the Invalid WML message.
The campaign is designed with v 1.9.4 and have been tested with 1.9.6. Which version do you use ? If the version is correct, can you tell me when the message came ? (at the very start, after some special action like lighting a fire, etc...)
I use v1.9.8
And I got the message when I was ambushed by highwaymen.
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by pyrophorus »

Konrad2 wrote:in Alnoth Island i cant find the smugglers
You must find Patti and Boney first (in the east, near a little lake, the triggering square is x=32-40, y=28-38). Next, go to the mountains in the north west (the triggering square is x=19-25, y=8-11). Wulfie runs straight to the entrance of the cave, but you have to light a campfire near of it to make the smugglers pop out.
Lord-Knightmare wrote:
I use v1.9.8
And I got the message when I was ambushed by highwaymen.
Thanks a lot. I shall see what happens.
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by Konrad2 »

i cant find a way in Alnoth Caves...
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by pyrophorus »

Konrad2 wrote:i cant find a way in Alnoth Caves...
Please, read the 'WalkThrough.txt', you should find this kind of information. The places where the dwarf can dig are slightly different (earthy cave walls). If you need time to search, leave Boney and Patti in the one hex tunnel to block the trolls. This prevents coming of the sea monsters.

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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by pyrophorus »

Konrad2 wrote:i seeked 40 turns
Well... Keep searching ! :lol2:

By the way, this thread is intended mainly for feedback and bug reporting, not online help.
The solution of the riddles is easy to find reading the WML code, even if you're not an expert.
Anyway, if you want me to answer accurately, please describe accurately what you did, where you are and what you see on screen. I'm not this kind of double sighted guy who can guess everything as if I were looking over your shoulder.
So, writing more than one sentence per post and adding "Please" and "Thanks" to your vocabulary should help, not only here, but in every Wesnoth forum.

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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by doofus-01 »

Oh, c'mon... 40 turns is a lot of time to spend, I'd be pretty frustrated too. For everyone who posts, there are probably plenty others who had the same issue. If your campaign requires reading a walkthrough.txt, there are some things that need to be worked out on your end. (Don't be offended, pyrophorus, it takes a lot of time & effort and "Rome wasn't built in a day" etc.)
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by pyrophorus »

doofus-01 wrote:Oh, c'mon... 40 turns is a lot of time to spend, I'd be pretty frustrated too. For everyone who posts, there are probably plenty others who had the same issue. If your campaign requires reading a walkthrough.txt, there are some things that need to be worked out on your end. (Don't be offended, pyrophorus, it takes a lot of time & effort and "Rome wasn't built in a day" etc.)
I don't intend to be rude, and I understand the frustration you quoted, but I can't help someone who tells only he's lost without any further indication.
By the way, there is no complex riddle in this campaign. Most of time, it's a matter of getting some unit to some place. I do know anyone (including me) can miss the simplest things, and this is why I wrote a walkthrough. IMO it is not required at all.

Thanks for your feedback,

LS
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by pyrophorus »

Hi everybody !

I just posted a new version on the add-ons server.
It corrects the errors quoted here:
- Invalid WML found in Winter Journey (thanks to Elvish_Hunter).
- Leader death not fatal in Greywoods.
and some more... :D

Have fun !

LS
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Re: Return to Noelren - a single player campaign

Post by pyrophorus »

Hi all !

No feedback today. I guess everybody is happy with the campaign (or too disgusted to complain :lol2: ) !

So I'll give my personnal feelings about it :whistle: .
1-There is still a lot of work to do on character definition: graphics of course and other features.

2-The levels are not really very different and I think many players may find all the campaign too easy and ill-balanced, particularly because many characters are over powered. I agree and would like to design the Hard level in a more common fashion (leaving the Easy as it is). Since I'm not a fight specialist, I would appreciate any suggestion about characters or scenarios.

3-The story is more or less half-way to the end in this version. I'm at a crossroad: I can try to improve the first part or complete the story as fast as possible. Feel free to give your liking (if you have some !).

4-The scenario "Errands" works not really as it should. Switching maps and units on it in the same scenario is an interesting idea (to me at least), but Wesnoth is not designed to do that. I wonder if I should better leave it more or less as it is, or redesign it in a more usual way (i.e. on a single map using tunnel effects).

Have fun !

LS
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