A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12 and 1.14)

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gloccusv
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Joined: September 6th, 2013, 5:25 am

A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12 and 1.14)

Post by gloccusv »

To celebrate the release of BfW 1.12 I decided to write a new campaign. Current version 2.0.2 is available on the 1.14 add-on server. The previous version is still available on the 1.12 add-on server, where it has now been downloaded over 30,000 times, making it the third most downloaded single player campaign for 1.12!

A Beastly Tale

When a small village is beset by troubles, its fate rests in the hands of a young woodsman and the animals he befriends.

In this campaign you will mostly control a small force of various creatures against a variety of enemies.

(Intermediate level, 5 scenarios.)

The game is complete and playable throughout. I am fairly happy with the balance on the easiest difficulty (it is pretty easy) and I think "Normal" and "Challenging" are about right, too, but I would appreciate any advice for balancing the higher difficulties. I am only an average BfW player at best, which makes it rather difficult for me to balance "Challenging" and "Difficult" effectively. The whole campaign has now been rebalanced to make it fairer to the player.

Any advice or comments for improvements will be gratefully received.

I made the tracking map by editing the normal Wesnoth map in MSPaint, so if anyone wants to try improving it, be my guest.

Thank you in advance to anyone who plays my campaigns and even greater thanks to anyone who has any constructive criticism to offer.

Changelog:
Spoiler:
Last edited by gloccusv on September 28th, 2018, 2:13 am, edited 6 times in total.
Author of SP campaigns An Undead Incursion, A Beastly Tale and A Northern Village
and Asymmetric Widescreen theme for 1.12 & 1.14.
madformadrigals
Posts: 4
Joined: March 22nd, 2014, 2:25 pm

Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by madformadrigals »

Hello!

I've been playing this campaign and enjoying it! It's challenging, given the creatures' mostly hopeless attacks, but quite fun to play. I'm currently on the level with the necromancer in the sea. I sent my squids out to kill him and managed it without too much trouble, but now I need to leave, as my bats, rats and wolves are no match whatsoever for the drakes. However, that means leaving my (now levelled) cuttlefish behind, which seems sad. Any advice?

One small comment - you spend the first level levelling a bunch of ruffians and peasants, but you then don't ever get to use them (unless they come back in the final scenario), which seems a shame. Would be nice for that first level to have not been in vain.

Thanks again!
gloccusv
Posts: 33
Joined: September 6th, 2013, 5:25 am

Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by gloccusv »

First of all, thank you very much for taking the trouble to play and comment on this campaign. I am glad you are enjoying it!

Cuttlefish are quite resilient in the water and have a ranged attack which is particularly good against drakes, so if Grewliff can hold on long enough, some of them might be able to fight their way along the river to the southern edge of the map before he has to leave. It is probably even worth sacrificing a wolf or two if it gives the cuttlefish time to get out as poison is quite valuable in the final scenario.
Spoiler:
I think you have been a bit unlucky that the skeletons didn't weaken the drakes enough for you to get in a few cheap kills. On normal difficulty, I usually find it easier to kill all enemy units than escape to the south. Grewliff's arrows are good for damaging drakes, too. I know this isn't much help to you now and you probably don't want to replay the scenario, but I would love to hear any suggestions for improvements.

I put the necromancer's keep close enough to be attacked on turn 1, but that isn't the only way to play. On harder difficulties, it might be necessary to ignore him and just concentrate on getting to the southern map edge. He will also distract the drakes, of course.

Spoiler for the story of scenario 5:
Spoiler:
Spoiler containing gameplay information for scenario 5:
Spoiler:
Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about the campaign in general?
What difficulty level are you using? I find that the campaign plays quite differently at different difficulties.
What level is Grewliff? On normal difficulty, I usually get him to trapper by scenario 4.
Did the rats get any of your barns (villages) in the first scenario?
Did you stay to fight the elves for a few turns in scenario 3 or leave straight away?
Finally, do you think the objectives are clear and reasonable or do I need to be more explicit?

I don't mean to bombard you with questions; I'm just excited to have feedback from someone playing one of my campaigns! Good luck with the last scenario.
madformadrigals
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Joined: March 22nd, 2014, 2:25 pm

Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by madformadrigals »

I followed your advice about sending the squids along the edge of the river, and managed to get one to escape, along with one falcon, two wolves (one had levelled), two rats and three bats (two blood bats). My leader had become a trapper as you say. The main difficulty I found were the skeletons, as my troops did very little damage to them, and they levelled quickly into quite formidable opponents. I don't see how I could possibly have killed all enemies.

On the final level, I only had 6 level 1s to recall, and they seemed to get killed pretty quick the first couple of play-throughs, so I replayed and sent out two rounds of peasant spam, followed by my two "invincible" level 1s (who needed 2xp to level up). That managed to weaken them enough that I could swarm the enemy on the fourth turn and was only left with a couple of enemies on the field, and quite a few level 2 troops myself. My ally arrived turn 8 and from then it was a very easy win. I ended the game with two royal guards, a highwayman, two master bowmen, an outlaw and a bandit, with the other team having two dread bats, a direwolf, a ranger, a cuttlefish and various spam.

In answer to your questions:
I am playing on normal difficulty.
Answered above.
No, the rats didn't get any barns. Not hard to avoid them doing so.
Left straight away, as it seemed there were lots of them, and even with 6 beasts surrounding the fighter, I didn't manage to kill it in one play-through.
Mostly clear objectives, apart from that scenario 3 - "teach them a lesson" is a bit unclear I think.

Thanks again! Replay attached in case you're interested.
Attachments
ABT-Rats_and_Bats...and_W..._replay.gz
Scenario 3
(25.02 KiB) Downloaded 682 times
ABT-The_Birds_of_the_Air_an..._replay.gz
Scenario 4
(35.9 KiB) Downloaded 680 times
ABT-Rats_and_Bats_replay.gz
Scenario 2
(23.75 KiB) Downloaded 634 times
ABT-Rats!_replay.gz
Scendario 1
(18.49 KiB) Downloaded 636 times
ABT-Beasts_of_Another_Kind_replay.gz
Scenario 5
(28.57 KiB) Downloaded 673 times
gloccusv
Posts: 33
Joined: September 6th, 2013, 5:25 am

Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by gloccusv »

That is wonderful. Those replays are so helpful in showing me how someone else tackles the scenarios. With all the testing I did to get it to work to my satisfaction I got set in my ways with how I dealt with the challenges and didn't think to test other strategies.

In scenario 3, for example, I always fled on the first turn so that the elves would have to follow me out of the woods to where they are more vulnerable and then spent a couple of turns gaining experience before leaving. I will change the objective to make it clear that killing a few elves before you leave is optional.

I might also have Grewliff say something like "Maybe we can slip past the drakes while they are distracted fighting the undead" in scenario 4 to give a clue that avoiding confrontation may be desirable.

I noticed that you didn't recruit any wolves in the last scenario. Of course you didn't need them, but it occurred to me that perhaps some players might not realize that Grewliff can recruit at all, so I will add a narrator message to scenario 3 saying that he can now recruit wolves (if he can get to a keep). On the higher difficulties, having a couple of sacrificial units to lure the orc warlord out from his keep so that you can occupy it and stop him recruiting can be very helpful indeed.

I have included a replay for "birds and fish" in which I killed all enemies (normal difficulty) in case you (or anyone else) is interested in seeing how I tackle that scenario. My wolves have some experience because I killed a couple of elves in the previous scenario.

Thanks again for all your help improving A Beastly Tale. I don't suppose you would be interested in doing the same for my other campaign, An Undead Incursion? http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=39324 (that's a joke—and a shameless plug for my other campaign—I do know you're not my personal playtester!)
Attachments
ABT-The_Birds_of_the_Air_replay.gz
Bonus objective replay
(33.35 KiB) Downloaded 659 times
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Chief_Chasso
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Joined: December 15th, 2012, 2:36 am

Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by Chief_Chasso »

Hello gloccusv,
Just wanted to post some feedback. Overall, it was a pretty good campaign. Please note I'm referencing this 1-10 difficulty scale.
Spoiler:
SP Campaign: Rally For Roanic
gloccusv
Posts: 33
Joined: September 6th, 2013, 5:25 am

Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by gloccusv »

Thank you for taking the time and effort to play and review my campaigns. It really helps me improve for the future.
Spoiler:
I'm sorry you had difficulty completing the campaign. I'll be making some tweaks based on your comments, but I want to test the changes before uploading them to the server, so it may take a couple of weeks. Thank you again for your patience and support.
Author of SP campaigns An Undead Incursion, A Beastly Tale and A Northern Village
and Asymmetric Widescreen theme for 1.12 & 1.14.
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Chief_Chasso
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Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by Chief_Chasso »

Hey gloccusv, I just wanted to apologize if I came across as a little rude on my last post. I've had some time to think about it and I really do like this campaign. Anyway, I was able to finish it on easy. Below is my feedback (it's just some basic stats).
Spoiler:
Also I've attached my replays if they help. Played on 1.12.5, on easy. Thanks for making this great campaign.
Attachments
ABT-Rats!_replay.gz
S1
(15.44 KiB) Downloaded 611 times
ABT-Rats_and_Bats_replay.gz
S2
(22.1 KiB) Downloaded 670 times
ABT-Rats_and_Bats...and_W..._replay.gz
S3
(24.14 KiB) Downloaded 693 times
ABT-The_Birds_of_the_Air_an..._replay.gz
S4
(36.43 KiB) Downloaded 610 times
ABT-Beasts_of_Another_Kind_replay.gz
S5
(30.15 KiB) Downloaded 625 times
SP Campaign: Rally For Roanic
gloccusv
Posts: 33
Joined: September 6th, 2013, 5:25 am

Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by gloccusv »

Thank you for all your assistance and advice, Chief Chasso. I have just uploaded a new version with a few tweaks, mainly to scenarios 2 and 5, which should make the game a bit fairer on the higher difficulties. Full details will be in the changelog in the first post in this thread.

I can now usually win on normal without dying at all and only need to restart a few scenarios to get through on challenging. I still can't beat "Difficult" without cheating, but that is true of mainline campaigns on this difficulty setting as well. In fact, I considered removing the fourth difficulty entirely, but decided to leave it in case any more capable players than me want a harder challenge.

I'm not going to have much time to devote to Wesnoth over Christmas, but after that I'll finish Rally for Roanic and then maybe consider making a start on that Orc campaign I've been thinking about.
Author of SP campaigns An Undead Incursion, A Beastly Tale and A Northern Village
and Asymmetric Widescreen theme for 1.12 & 1.14.
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Aldarisvet
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Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by Aldarisvet »

Hi!

I played this mini-campaign at summer, and I would say I like it's atmosphere and it is quite unusual and tactically intresting. Also the idea of circling around/under some mountain in Wesnoth map is cool and original.
I played on hardest difficulty but was not able to finish it because I finished scenario 1 too fast, I got only one spearman (easely could level up more just by waiting and killing more rats, I had a time), and was not able to resist orcs in scenario 5 with peasants before the main hero arrives with his animal army.
I had no desire/time to replay it, so the thing I would complain for is that: it is unfair when after 4 scenarios you understand that you failed because you did something wrong in first scenario.
Scenario 2 is that I find most tactically intresting. And something should be made with scenario 3. Just leaving elves behind without any fight is not cool, but it is impossible to fight them, I just killed 2 elves and then retreated. Possibly the author likes elves and did not really wanted that main hero would be agressive to them, but still it is a quite senseless scenario for me.
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Inky
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Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by Inky »

A Beastly Tale v. 1.5.2 (Wesnoth 1.12.5 / difficult)

Hey, just finished playing this campaign. Hehe Grewliff...wonder if he is related to a certain someone in Dead Water who also had a strange taste for "pets." He even has cuttlefish too - I renamed one of them to Inky :D

Replays (no save loading but several restarts were needed for Scenario 2):
Spoiler:
General:
-As Aldarisvet mentions above, how you do in the last scenario really does depend a lot on how many veterans you got from the first one - maybe add dialogue or a note on the first scenario hinting that it's worthwhile to level as many units as you can.

-I wish you had more of a chance to level up all your cool creatures. Since Scenarios 3 and 4 are both running scenarios it's very hard to get much experience from them and I never got to level any of the creatures to max level. (In scenario 3 it's especially hard to do anything but just run away; maybe this could be more of a battle scenario?)

Thanks for making this campaign!
SigurdFireDragon
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Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by SigurdFireDragon »

For scenarios 2 & 5 I agree with Inky's observations and add the following:

Scenario 2 seems to depend too much on luck, even on medium.

Scenario 5 difficulty is also impacted by add that how quickly you get through scenarios 3 & 4, which determines when Grewliff's forces arrive in S5.
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marat
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Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by marat »

ru translation
Attachments
wesnoth-A_Beastly_Tale.zip
.MO+.PO for ABT (BfW 1.12)
(27.23 KiB) Downloaded 500 times
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Samonella
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Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by Samonella »

Hey, great work on an awesome mini-campaign! It was short and sweet, with interesting tactics and a nice story. I played on the "Challenging" difficulty and thought it lived up to its name.
Inky wrote: -I wish you had more of a chance to level up all your cool creatures. Since Scenarios 3 and 4 are both running scenarios it's very hard to get much experience from them and I never got to level any of the creatures to max level. (In scenario 3 it's especially hard to do anything but just run away; maybe this could be more of a battle scenario?)
I whole-heatedly agree with Inky here.

It seems like everyone thinks scenario 2 was too hard, but I didn't think so. Watching my replay, it looks like I did have some above average luck at the start, but the bigger difference maker was that I used the chasms and the goblin's poor movement to attack them from two directions instead of one. Basically, I avoided the bottleneck.
At any rate, note that making a rat "fearless" doesn't actually do anything.
ABT-Rats_and_Bats_replay.gz
(21.37 KiB) Downloaded 584 times
My only complaint is about the dialogue. Sometimes I thought things were just a bit poorly worded, or things characters said seemed unclear or out of place. Here are two examples that I remember off the top of my head:
Spoiler:
I enjoyed this campaign enough that, if you're interested, I'd be willing to rewrite all the dialogue, so you can take whatever you like and stick to your own for the rest.

Again, thanks for a great addon!
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gloccusv
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Joined: September 6th, 2013, 5:25 am

Re: A Beastly Tale (SP campaign for 1.12)

Post by gloccusv »

Thank-you to everyone who has left comments. I apologise for not responding at the time, but real-life commitments took over. I have just finished updating A Beastly Tale to 1.14, which was less than straightforward due to some unexpected changes in behaviour since 1.12. It is not available on the 1.14 add-on server. Changes are in the changelog in the first post in this thread.

If anyone notices any problems or bugs, please let me know; I promise I will be checking back here periodically.
Author of SP campaigns An Undead Incursion, A Beastly Tale and A Northern Village
and Asymmetric Widescreen theme for 1.12 & 1.14.
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