Red Winter (Loyalist Campaign)

[Sire]

Version 0.0.9 has been released! The major highlights are the polishing and balancing changes to scenarios Three and Four, as well as scenario Five being playable (but incomplete, play at own risk!)

For further details, check the changelog!

Changelog 0.0.9:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Announcements:
- The major focus for 0.0.9 is various polishing and balancing changes, especially to scenarios Three and Four.
- Scenario Five is still undergoing development and is incomplete. However, it is playable, but play at own risk! (Hint: Remember Scenario Two? That has something to do with Scenario Five!)

Known Bugs:
- Even if the player has no Ancients in Scenario Four, their victory dialogue segment will still play.
- The "Fearless" trait appears twice for units who already have Fearless if they survive the Fall of Estlyn.

Fixes:
- In Scenario Four, the bridges now appear broken during the event, not after.
- Red Winter custom units have learned to acknowledge pain outside of death and now have hit sounds. They also have expanded descriptions and attack sounds.

- Scenario One Fixes
-- Rhade should now have proper attack and death dialogues depending on his variant.
-- The early victory dialogue should be fixed.

- Scenario Three Fixes
-- The Master Bowman now is properly under Covos’ banner when he spawns.
-- Covos’ messengers now spawn off to the side to lessen the likelihood of the spot being taken when they appear.
-- Elyra’s Forces now properly have full HP when they arrive.
-- The Bandit Leader now has his own ID.

- Pictures!
-- During campaign selection, there is now a (temporary) campaign image! Yay!
-- Scenarios One to Three have received some temporary story art!
-- The temporary map has been updated to fix the border.
-- The “Baron” sprite has been touched up slightly and has received rough ranged attack and defense animations, based off Loyalist Generals.
-- The “Commander” unit has received a rough sword attack animation, based off Loyalist Royal Guards. As the “Warlord” unit currently shares the commander’s sprite, it has also received this update.

Revisions:
- There have been minor dialogue fixes and revisions throughout the campaign. (Special Thanks to Inky for catching so many!)
- The Three Elves in Scenario One now have unique IDs and locked traits.
- Elyra now has more HP.
- ??? trait units now have 20% more HP, instead of 10%, in addition to the other modifications.
- Aleria’s Peerless trait now gives her +8 HP, instead of +3 HP, in addition to the other modifications.

- Scenario Three Changes
-- Starting gold values have been increased. The numbers below are for Normal difficulty. Overall, the ratio now favors the enemy slightly more than before.
--- Player: 400 + 700 = 1100 || Now: 600 + 800 = 1400
--- Enemy: 500 + 500 + 500 = 1500 || Now: 700 + 700 + 700 = 2100
-- The player no longer has bonus income on all difficulties.
-- Elyra’s forces now should prioritize Mycen and Aethac.
-- When Elyra arrives, Gywn’s forces should prioritize fighting Elyra.
-- After a certain event, the wall Javelineers abandon their posts to attack. (They gain movement points.)
-- The special event has been fixed and modified.

- Scenario Four Changes
-- If the player still has the three Elves from Scenario One, they will automatically be recalled in this chapter.
-- The Starting Goblins have been upgraded. Spearmen became Impalers while the Rouser was replaced by an Orcish Ruler. In addition, this side no longer recruits Goblin Rousers.
-- The Naga now spawn with one Sea Serpent on all difficulties.
-- On Hard Mode, enemy leaders have bodyguards to discourage assassination attempts.
-- Orc forces will now desecrate the terrain as they advance (they will destroy forest tiles.) On Easy Difficulty, the hostile Elves will also desecrate the terrain, but otherwise the Elves and Naga do not engage in desecration. (Special Thanks to Turuk and nemaara whose original code was adapted for this scenario.)
-- Nyldur’s forces now have increased bonus income (15, 10, 5 -> 30, 25, 25)
-- Ancient Guardians have been buffed.
--- They now have 5 Move, up from 4.
--- They have increased HP (100 -> 200 || Star has +50 HP, War has +100 HP)
--- The Ancient of Lore has been relocated. There has been minor map modifications to accommodate.
--- The Two Avengers originally guarding the Ancient of Lore have been demoted to Rangers and now help guard the Elvish Lady. They are under the player’s control.

General Discussion:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I decided to keep the Baron and Commander sprites, so I ended up trying to create some rough animations for them so they are not lifeless on the battlefield. However, they could probably still use some more polishing (especially the Baron sprite), so if anyone wants to help, let me know!

As for Scenarios Three and Four, I still think they need to be tweaked some more. Even with Three’s gold raise, it also raises the gold of the player which brings up the problem of recall costs. Since Red Winter relies on high level units, it requires much more gold than normal scenarios if there are to be a decent amount of enemy units on the field.

Essentially, the player can be getting Tier 2 and Tier 3 units for a fraction of the cost that the AI must pay for to field them. (Recall Cost: 20 Gold || Tier 2 Loyalist Unit: 25-40 Gold || Tier 3 Loyalist Unit: 43-58 Gold)

However, on the flip side, should the player lose a lot of units, these scenarios can become a lot more difficult, especially when the AI starts to recruit Tier 3 units. Even the with aid of the Council, while powerful, they are not invincible. There is also the cause for concern for players who may deliberately abuse this mechanic (they know there is high minimum gold and the tier cost disparity, so they spend as much money as possible to lessen the difficulty of the next chapter by recalling.) Of course, not much can be done about that, but if this becomes the sole strategy to beating Red Winter, balancing will need to be looked at further.

Long story short, balancing Red Winter still has a way to go…

Scenario Four, Night to Day Mechanic:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Back to Scenario Four, a part of me wants to change how the player turns it from night to day.

Currently, all the player needs to do is wake up the Ancient of Lore. He is difficult to get to, but is not impossible to awaken during the early moments of the conflict after his relocation.

Instead, I was thinking about having the player awaken any three Ancients to turn it into day. (The common combos would probably be Wisdom, Star, and Life or Lore, Wisdom, and Star) This way, the player does not have to completely rely on awakening one hard to get Ancient. This change also the threat of night longer as if the player wakes Lore early (as in on turn 4 or so), it makes the rest of the mission too easy, especially if the Ancient of Lore decides it wants to be an assassin.

* * * * *
@ Inky

Thanks for the additional feedback and finding the typos! However, I will be keeping the line "I never eaten this much in ages!", as it is supposed to represent a lower class soldier partaking in a massive feast.

* * * * *

Anyways, that’s all the updates I have on Red Winter. While I hope to have Scenario Five finished by next week, I can make no promises.

Until next week (or when I respond to feedback),
- Sire

[Inky]

Hello, I've replayed the new versions of S3 and S4 (I'll probably wait until S5 is completed to play it)

S3 Fall of Estlyn

Spoiler:

742 starting gold

Due to the increased enemy gold it takes me several more turns to kill Covos, although I still manage to assassinate the southern orc on turn 9. Elyra's forces came very close to reaching me (they were only one turn away) so there was definitely more pressure at the end. Although they never reached me, it should be noted that I took advantage of my knowledge of the scenario and started moving units east as soon as possible.

Finished turn 29; lost a shocktrooper, halberdier, and paladin (the paladin only being lost due to forgetting to ctrl+v). I get very lucky on certain turns though and definitely should have lost several more (even the shocktroopers I recruited as cannon fodder managed to live).

Several restarts (to scenario start only) due to losing council members.

Note: I do not find it likely that Elyra will ever kill Mycen. In both my replays she stays in the north while the other units surround Mycen.

RW-Fall_of_Estlyn_replay2.gz

S3 Normal difficulty

(142.87 KiB) Downloaded 309 times

(to anyone watching these replays - I recommend checking skip animation or turning the speed way up in preferences)

S4 Esterian Woods

Spoiler:

I like the new location of the Ancient of Lore - it's now possible to awaken it before the reinforcements arrive on turn 18. About awakening it early, I don't think it is possible with all the sea serpents etc. around.

I definitely found the Ancients much more helpful this time, due to the +1 move. I awakened the ancient of wisdom first, then stars, then lore.

I end up retreating all the way to the starting keep so that I can get the elves onto the 40% flat terrain, and so I wouldn't have to fight the elves/trolls at the same time since the elves move much faster through forest.

Finished turn 26; lost the Marshal. No saveloading, but I get lucky again and several units survive despite bad play.

Note: There should probably just be no gold carryover to S5 - you won't end this scenario with more than S5's minimum (800) unless you deliberately take a long time.

RW-Esterian_Woods_replay2.gz

S4 Normal difficulty

(143.15 KiB) Downloaded 285 times

There is also the cause for concern for players who may deliberately abuse this mechanic (they know there is high minimum gold and the tier cost disparity, so they spend as much money as possible to lessen the difficulty of the next chapter by recalling.)

How about just changing the price of recruits to 20g? This would let the players who have lost a lot of units to also get lvl 2 units for 20 gold, without them having to recruit them in the previous scenario. Of course it would still be more advantageous to recall due to higher level, and loyal and valiant traits. This way you could balance each scenario under the assumption that the player has a full list of recalls.

What I do think can be abused is that S4 (Esterian Woods) has no turn limit and no pressure at the end (like S3) so if the player has the patience they can level units indefinitely.

---

I'm enjoying the updates; thanks for your continued hard work in updating the campaign!

[Sire]

@ Inky

Thanks again for the feedback!

Feedback Responses:

Scenario Three looks good, but I'll have to find a way for Elyra to be able to attack and defeat Mycen. While that is a secret event, it probably could use some help in triggering it.

As for Scenario Four, in my initial test I did manage to wake up the Ancient of Lore early (but this was without the single Sea Serpent that I added in after the fact). I'll also add a note for gold carryover as well as add a turn limit.

Recruiting new units for 20 gold sounds like a possibility. I'll look into it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Developmental Update - September 21st, 2015

Not much progress has been made last week as I decided to devote my free time to playing games instead of working on Red Winter. It's nice to play some Super Mario Maker, Shovel Knight's Plague of Shadows expansion, as well as revisit the Legend of the Invincibles campaign for BoW.

Perhaps this week I can make some progress, but no promises!
- Sire

Changelog 0.0.10 (Not Yet Implemented):

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Announcements:
- None at present.

Known Bugs:
- Even if the player has no Ancients in Scenario Four, their victory dialogue segment will still play.

Fixes:
- Early Bonus and Gold Carryover have been properly addressed with the proper code instead of the makeshift “notes”.
- In Scenario Three, put more emphasis for Gywn’s AI to focus on Elyra.

Revisions:
- No general revisions as of present.

- Scenario Three
-- When escaping, Council Members now have unique dialogue
-- When escaping, Heavy Infantry units now gain Unstoppable instead of Valiant and Fearless. (This is done as some Heavy Infantry units can spawn with the Fearless trait.)
--- Valiant: Loyal, +5 HP, +2 Damage (Generic, All Units)
--- Unstoppable: Loyal, +5 HP, +1 Move, +5 Damage (Heavy Infantry Line Only, Includes Vanrir)

[Sire]

Developmental Update - September 29th, 2015

Another slow week for development on Red Winter. While I did manage to code in most of my "makeshift potion shop" in for Scenario Five, not much else has been done regarding further development on the campaign. Needless to say, I will not be attaching a "changelog" for this update as very little has been done.

Such is the fate of responsibilities. At least there's always time, right?
- Sire

[Sire]

Developmental Update - October 6th, 2015

Some progress has been made! Most efforts last week has been toward Scenario Five and tinkering around with my makeshift shop, and if all goes according to plan, I should be able to release 0.0.10 next week.

Scenario Five features four main factions fighting on a massive battlefield with the usual Red Winter modifications. Each faction has some sort of mechanic that they use (Super Unit, Map Control, Massive Army, and for the player, Potions!) to make the scenario a little more interesting. The purpose of this map is to let the player go crazy with the recall list and temporarily make them even more powerful with potions. Scenario Six will be the finale, and I have some plans for some sort of epilogue, "text-heavy" chapter after that. Otherwise, aside from needing sprites, portraits, and story art, this campaign will be practically finished!

A part of me is toying around with the idea to make additional campaigns, one for each main faction (aside from the Khalifate as I currently do not know how to incorporate them in the storyline, as well as write something suitable for that faction). However, the plans I have in mind require two new custom factions to be created, and as I have nothing in the art department, any form of continuation at the present is unlikely.

Instead, the other part of me wants to work on a side campaign that is essentially just a mission pack. It features characters and story elements from BoW mainline, but features scripted scenarios similar in the vein like I did for Red Winter. As a mission pack, most scenarios are independent of one another and it allows players to explore events mentioned in mainline, but are not part of any campaign. For example, the Betrayal at the Ford of Abez, the fight between Delfador and Eldred, and even the initial confrontation against the Orcish Warlord from A Tale of Two Brothers. The benefits of this is that I am just using art assets that already exist, so I can focus purely on the story and gameplay. There is also no real pressure to finish anything as I can work on scenarios one at a time, and that I can always just add more scenarios as additional inspiration kicks in.

Anyways, with all that text out of the way, that is about it for this developmental update. Thank you for reading,
- Sire

Changelog 0.0.10 (Not Yet Implemented):

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Announcements:
- Scenario Five has been further developed.

Known Bugs:
- Even if the player has no Ancients in Scenario Four, their victory dialogue segment will still play.

Fixes:
- Early Bonus and Gold Carryover have been properly addressed with the proper code instead of the makeshift “notes”.
- In Scenario Three, put more emphasis for Gywn’s AI to focus on Elyra.
- Added “facing” for some units to increase immersion.

Revisions:
- Covos’ unique trait now gives him +25 HP, up from +15.

- Scenario Three
-- Morgrim’s unique trait now appears in this scenario. It also now grants +2 Attacks, up from +1 Attack.
-- When escaping, Council Members now have unique dialogue
-- When escaping, Heavy Infantry units now gain Unstoppable instead of Valiant and Fearless. (This is done as some Heavy Infantry units can spawn with the Fearless trait.)
--- Valiant: Loyal, +5 HP, +2 Damage (Generic, All Units)
--- Unstoppable: Loyal, +5 HP, +1 Move, +5 Damage (Heavy Infantry Line Only, Includes Vanrir)

- Scenario Four
-- Now has a Turn Limit of 40
-- The Orc and Naga Leaders now have Strong and Resilient traits.

[Sire]

New Release: 0.0.10 - October 13th, 2015

A little late, but Scenario Five of Red Winter has finally been released!

Of course, like all scenarios, it can always use more balancing, polishing, and improvement. Specifically, it could probably use some more work during the "late game", as after the initial (overwhelming) forces are dealt with, the scenario transforms into moving your units across the map to slay the enemy leaders chilling out at their respective bases.

Either way, I hope you will enjoy this latest update to Red Winter. Thank you for playing.
-Sire

Changelog 0.0.10:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Announcements:
- At long last, Scenario Five is now ready! Take your elite warriors can face down your adversaries in the largest battle in the campaign! (The final battle will not be as big as this one. Large battles may be nice in terms of story and spectacle, but gameplay wise they can begin to drag rather quickly...)

Known Bugs:
- Even if the player has no Ancients in Scenario Four, their victory dialogue segment will still play.

Fixes:
- Early Bonus and Gold Carryover have been properly addressed with the proper code instead of the makeshift “notes”.
- In Scenario Three, put more emphasis for Gywn’s AI to focus on Elyra.
- Added “facing” for some units to increase immersion.

Revisions:
- Covos’ unique trait now gives him +25 HP, up from +15.

- Scenario Three
-- Morgrim’s unique trait now appears in this scenario. It also now grants +2 Attacks, up from +1 Attack.
-- When escaping, Council Members now have unique dialogue
-- When escaping, Heavy Infantry units now gain Unstoppable instead of Valiant and Fearless. (This is done as some Heavy Infantry units can spawn with the Fearless trait.)
--- Valiant: Loyal, +5 HP, +2 Damage (Generic, All Units)
--- Unstoppable: Loyal, +5 HP, +1 Move, +5 Damage (Heavy Infantry Line Only, Includes Vanrir)

- Scenario Four
-- Now has a Turn Limit of 40
-- The Orc and Naga Leaders now have Strong and Resilient traits.

[Sire]

Developmental Update - October 20th, 2015

No progress has been made during the last week as I refocused my efforts to other projects.

I expect Red Winter's development to be slowed down, but still hope to release a "finished" version (completely playable, all text and dialogue in) before the end of the year. After that, it will mostly be the matter of all the extra artwork, balancing, and polishing needed to fully "complete" the campaign.

However, I am probably going to split Scenario Five into two parts, essentially the lower half of the map and the upper half. This cuts down on waiting on AI turns and allows the player to be more focused at the task at hand, and also allows for more personalized events instead of the semi-generic ones I have now. This should also help with the pacing of the campaign as well.

When I resume development, it will likely be on revamping Scenario Five (parts one and two) instead of jumping into the finale that is Scenario 6 and the epilogue. Hopefully, if all goes well, everything will be done before the end of the year.

Thank you for reading this latest developmental update,
- Sire

[Sire]

Developmental Update - November 2nd, 2015 - Development On Hold

Once again, I have made no progress toward further development of Red Winter, and foresee not making any progress for quite some time. In addition to focusing my efforts on other projects, my time will be limited in the month of November as University work has to take priority over these projects.

All that said, I still aim to finish Red Winter before the end of the year, in December, but I do not expect much progress to be made during this month. I hope to update this thread again with an actual release of Red Winter when it is ready.

Thank you for playing,
- Sire

[Joulupukki]

Hi Sire ur campaing is awesome and I am here beacuse in fall of Estlyn I reached the escape point with Aethac but the scenario did not end there and when I put Aethac next to escape point scenario ended but Aethac died and in next scenario he isnt there anymore.I won the the fourth campaing without Aethac but story suffers without him and in return to estlyn theres no one exept for that mechanical dwarf.I know ur busy right now but plz fix this problem as soon as u can so I can play ur awesome campaing.And sorry for my bad english.

[Sire]

@ Joulupukki

Thank you for reporting the bug. This bug appeared when I changed a few elements of the code regarding the escape, mainly to allow the Heavy Infantryman line different traits and to allow unique escape dialogue for the heroes.

I uploaded a hotfix to the Add-Ons server that should fix this problem. Please report if there are any more issues.

Once again, thank you for reporting the bug. I hope you enjoy the campaign,
- Sire

[Joulupukki]

Hi again sire.Fall of estlyn didnt seem to work when I updated it.I tried to play it again but the same thing happened what I told u before.Do I have to start campaing again or just scenario.

[Sire]

@ Joulupukki

Try playing from the end of Scenario Two instead of loading up an existing Scenario Three save file. When I did a quick test again, it worked properly.

What should happen is...

1: The player moves all or most of his units to the escape point.
2: The player moves Aethac to the escape point.
3: Aethac is put to the recall list and everyone left on the battlefield dies.
4: Aethac successfully appears in the next scenario, alongside any survivors (most appearing in the recall list).

[Sire]

Developmental Update - December 14th, 2015 - Development Resumed

At last, I have some proper time to sit down and continue working on this campaign.

As I may have stated previously, the goal was to originally release version 1.0.0 before the end of the year, meaning a finished campaign (a revamped Scenario Five and the finale, Scenario Six, as well as an epilogue). While I'll try to meet my original deadline goal, I may have to cut out the proper long epilogue for the next release. This does not mean I will not add an epilogue whatsoever, but my current priority is finishing up the campaign and making it stable and playable. All that will be left after the release is balancing, bug fixes, and polishing up any rough spots for the campaign.

Now, why the revamp to Scenario Five? The problem with the original is while it sounds nice on paper (a large battle that wraps up a good amount of character arcs), in terms of Wesnoth pacing, big battles is not something BoW excels at. While I am used to the slog of running units across multiplayer in Random Maps, the pacing does slow down immensely near the end of the game once the tide is turned. So, to remedy this issue, I have split Scenario Five into two parts, one that focuses on dealing with Mogrim on the bottom half of the original map, and the second part dealing with Mal Rudrick and Covos on the top half. Of course, I'll toss in my usual modifications and mechanics in an attempt to make the battle more interesting.

Luckily, Scenario Six (the finale) is relatively straightforward, save for two important events that happen near the start and end of the battle. If you have played the campaign and have been reading my other posts on the forums, what will happen should be fairly obvious.

Anyways, at any rate, back to work. Depending on my progress, I may release the revamped Scenario Five next week and Scenario Six the week thereafter. We shall see what happens.

Thank you for playing,
- Sire

[Sire]

Developmental Update - December 28th, 2015

Well, so much for making plans, as it almost always seems that something happens every time I decide to set time aside to actively work on something I care about. Suffering from illnesses suck, especially during the holidays.

However, Red Winter is still under development to be completed, but just not on my original deadline of "before the end of 2015". Hopefully I'll be able to finish the gameplay elements and scenarios soon, but there never seems to be much certainty these days...

Thank you for reading,
- Sire

[Sire]

New Release: 0.0.11 - April 24rd, 2016

Sometimes keeping these developmental logs is depressing as the last "main release" was back in October (Oct 13th of 2015 specifically). At any rate, here's a new release of Red Winter!

The main focus of this update is the revamped Scenario Five, which is now broken down to two separate parts. This is a "Test Version Release", meaning that most of the intended gameplay and dialogue are present, but there will likely be balance issues. Scenario Five (both parts) is meant to be difficult and to clean up your recall list to prepare your units for the finale in Scenario Six (still in development).

One of the major things I'll need to do is to properly sit down and test the campaign start to finish. It is clear that the earlier missions are much more polished and refined in comparison to the later ones, and the sense of "player progression" and "campaign difficulty" is something that will likely need to be looked at.

As always, here is the changelog. Note that the changelog will contain spoilers, so read at your own risk!

I hope you enjoy the update,
- Sire

Changelog 0.0.11:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Announcements:
- Scenario Five: Revamped Edition has been released for testing! This revamp splits Scenario Five into two parts. Note that this is a test version, most of the intended gameplay should be present, but there may be balance issues and bugs.

Known Bugs:
- Even if the player has no Ancients in Scenario Four, their victory dialogue segment will still play.
- Killing all enemy leaders early in Scenario Three results in an early victory.
- There is no dialogue or explanation for a “Time Over” defeat.

Fixes:
- The Ancient of Wisdom and Ancient of Lore now use the Wose Shaman sprite from Delfador’s Memoirs.

Revisions:
- Scenario Five
-- Now split into two separate parts. The first deals with Morgrim and Covos’ rearguard, while the second deals with Mal Rudrick and Covos proper.
-- This was done as “massive, massive battles” do not seem to translate well into Wesnoth gameplay, so it is better to make two “smaller, epic battles” than “one, large march of a battle”.

Future Planning:
- Restructure Immortal & Classic mode code. Specifically, add +20 gold per fallen council member in Classic. (Current balancing is around having all Council Members present for each scenario, so choosing Immortal is highly recommended.)
- Check for “Tomato Surprises” and give appropriate warnings. This is defined as “If you had knowledge of this event, it changes the way you play the scenario from then on”. Give hints or remove entirely.
-- Mal Rudrick’s Departure (Scenario One), Estlyn Defiance (Scenario Three) // There may be others not listed, please notify the author if he has missed any.

Polishing:
- Change the name of the barony of Winterfell to something more fitting to the world of Wesnoth.
- In Scenario Five - Part One, have extra dialogue should the brothers reach the Alchemist Shop.
- Create a “Valiant” Icon for units who gain the valiant trait.
- Expand on how Aethac gets his “Champion” trait (and why his sword now does Fire Damage).