Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Vulpine
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by Vulpine »

Updated! V1.1.1 is out, with minor fixes. Scenario 4 was just fine for me on normal, but I know the map and how to beat it :D I changed the starting position anyway, partially to make it easier, partially to make them closer to the edge of the forest.
One foot in my mouth, and one in the grave; that's the way I like it, and that's the way it'll stay.
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hephoto
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by hephoto »

Hello,

I did it, great prolog.

But now, I want to play the main story.
Where can I found it ?

Best regards
Hep
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Vulpine
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by Vulpine »

Hi hephoto, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The main campaign is still in development at this point. I will be sure to create a topic for it when it comes out.
Lately I haven't made much progress, so it may be some time before it is ready for testing, but I hope I can finish without too much delay.
One foot in my mouth, and one in the grave; that's the way I like it, and that's the way it'll stay.
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Also the author of Elvish Incursion, a short little prologue.
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Losthunter
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by Losthunter »

Great prologue! The first mision was harder than I expected, I really must use backstab strategy. My favourite mision was the second one - I really liked defending strategy used in this scenario. I also like characters and conversations. As I said - great prologue and I can't wait on the rest of campaing :) .
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Vulpine
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by Vulpine »

Thank you, Losthunter; if you liked the classic 'defend the fortress' scenarios then you'll love the next campaign when it comes out :D I think I probably have three too many in there.

The next campaign is coming, just really slowly right now. I'm in the middle of NaNoWriMo, which doesn't leave much time for anything else :(

The first scenario was harder than I had intended; there isn't a whole lot I can do to balance it without making it too easy short of reworking the entire thing, so I've left it alone to work on the next campaign. I might be at the point soon where I can come up with some spoiler art :geek:
One foot in my mouth, and one in the grave; that's the way I like it, and that's the way it'll stay.
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Also the author of Elvish Incursion, a short little prologue.
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Sadaharu
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by Sadaharu »

It's a nice, compact little campaign. Like any decent gamer I wish there were a few dozen more scenarios to really see how destructive Kait can become, but the option to have a few characters as in an RPG rather than simply spawning a few repeated generic units in every scenario is certainly compelling.

So, it's a prologue… I hope there's a main part as well.
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Vulpine
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by Vulpine »

Thank you; I hope there will be a main part as well :whistle:
I'm trying to keep these campaigns short and compact, yet add more characters and scenarios as well. And with so many characters it's hard to do decent AMLAs. (One of the saving graces of the prologue being so short is that I can get away with a sloppy AMLA system...)
One foot in my mouth, and one in the grave; that's the way I like it, and that's the way it'll stay.
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Also the author of Elvish Incursion, a short little prologue.
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by FaeLord »

I couldn't even make it to the town in the first scenario on easy, so that's as far as I got. I'm not even sure where the town is because I never got far enough to see it. My advice is shorten that map a bit.
Wesnoth stole my summer . . . again.
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Vulpine
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by Vulpine »

I just uploaded a quick fix. Playing through it a few times, I have concluded that it is no longer so hard to complete. I did not, however, shorten the map, not because I'm disregarding your advice; indeed, I think I should probably rework the entire scenario and shorten it as well, but this last play-through felt more or less (to me) like what I had intended. To stay and fight is to invite death, or at least a close shave, and to run is to be constantly harassed.
If it is still too hard, I don't think I have any options left for improvement other than re-working the map, despite my reluctance.

Thank you, sir, for your feedback. It is much appreciated.
One foot in my mouth, and one in the grave; that's the way I like it, and that's the way it'll stay.
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Also the author of Elvish Incursion, a short little prologue.
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Losthunter
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by Losthunter »

In my opinion it is short enough, making it even shorter could make it too easy
denispir
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by denispir »

I played the whole campaign through on one go, difficulty medium. Liked it very much, for reasons already mentionned by others: short campaign of short scenarios, rather well balanced, interesting characters, more or less finished, nice story (a bit too many or diverse elements, probably because it is a prologue introducing things to come)...

But the end was very frustrating for me: all right, it is a prologue, but I did not have the feeling of having accomplished anything clearly defined. Even for a prologue, I think there should be a quest, maybe one we discover along the first scenarios, and have to fulfill at the end.

I will post comment on 1st and 4th scenarios (I guess: the one where we need to kill Bragh).

Thank you, Denis
denispir
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by denispir »

On first scenario (played on medium difficulty) :

Side note : all of our 4 heroes have 1 movement cost in forest, contrary to the stats of their types (except indeed for Kaitlin). This should be said, and at best somehow explained & justified by the story. Because indeed they will outrun everyone else except for elves, especially in this very scenario.

It's the only scenario I had to replay, 4 times in fact (in other scenarios I only occasionally replayed a turn for optimisation, eg to have Mar level up by killing the 1st dragon), so I nearly abandoned, which would have been a pity indeed. Well, as another player has noted, with 2 characters there is no much room for tactics ;-). Also note that I am not a very good nore experienced player, but I have played from time to time for about 5 years. The trick is that, to avoid a character beeing killed, there are several conditions :
* Have (nearly) finished killing the (level 2) elven rider before the 3 wolf riders reach & attack me.
* Kill him with Wark so that he (soon) levels up.
* Go on running to avoid being caught by "pedestrian" ennemies.
* Avoid the wolves finish killing Kaitlin.
* Other ennemies will just die along the way, mostly by Wark replying their attacks and Kaitlin's poison.

On my first 3 trials, I first tried to run straight ahead, then zigzag, then at the bottom of the map. Each time, the wolf riders caught me on the turn after the elven rider fell on me, and one or the other character was killed. On my 4th trial, I ran at the top of the map, and I had one turn more after meeting the elven rider. Cannot explain that, was just so. This made the difference because Wark levelled up (or was close to) and thus could endure most of the remaining damage. But Kaitlin was still nearly dead. For any reason, all of those 4 ennemies only attack her when they can : this seems logical, since it is a raid after her, but this tactical consequence, if it is actually so, should be somehow suggested (not directly said) by dialogues or whatnot.

Finally, I agree that both characters should enter the town for us to win. Same for the fight with the bandits (also, place a signpost to be reached).

I will replay it to know a little better after reflexion...
Last edited by denispir on December 27th, 2018, 9:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
denispir
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by denispir »

On the scenario where we kill Bragh (4th?) (played on medium difficulty) :
This scenario is the only totally weak one in wy view, actually full of incoherences about characters, action, situation, story, objective...

Kaitlin knows or may know Bragh better, since they seem to come from the same area of the South. I would have her occasionnaly spread bits of information about him in previous scenarios : Bragh may be a long-time respected and recpectful tribe leader, to the point of being one of the rare ones with whom elves could have exchanges. This would better explain his sudden and full side changing. (It would also better clarify what happens with this mysterious female character, of whom I have forgotten the name.)

I would have the situation, action, and objective run so : the heroes would have to knock out (finish killing) Bragh to kidnap him. After what a brief dialog would give him the opportunity to tell us what he already does (altough better, since we would already understand the story better).

Presently, we just need to finish killing him, and nothing prevents us to do so, moreover he is nearly dead and we have 3 characters, so the turn limit may as well be 3. When I tried, I first sneaked around their camp at a distance (just beyond their reach), but found no "hole" to sneak in. Because of the turn limit approaching, I finally tried just to rush to him (from the west, since I had made a full half turn already)... and just won doing so, totally unexpectedly ! No reason, no interest, no justification, no consistence, no challenge.

The ennemy camp may be organised so : a group of ennemies around a campfire, Bragh at a distance under a big tree (because he is heavily wounded), and numerous sentinels all around. We would have to kill isolated sentinels, which is possible because we have a longer reach in forest, then sneak into the camp to hit Bragh while remaining out of reach of the main group, finally flee with him (say, for 3 turns or until the end of turns). Sentinels may be more and closer on our initial side (east), less and more distant from one another on the other side. All in all a turn limit of 12 or 15 sounds reasonable.

What do you think ?
denispir
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by denispir »

A few more notes :
  • Often ennemy sides have several units of same types, especially of the fencer line, which is troubling for me.
  • And why does the ennemy have units of so diverse "races", including from the Khalifate !?
  • Scenario 2 Raid on Xeria: was pretty enjoyable (both times I played), but there are possible improvements I guess, see separate post.
  • Scenario 4 Bandits: I won by killing the bandit leader (the main ennemy was already dead indeed), while the objective only tells to leave on our way back. Also, when not killing the bandit, since only a single unit much reach the way back, the 3 other heroes can go on fighting for fun and XP (what I did and the way I killed the bandit leader).
  • Scenario 5 Dragon: Killing the (first) dragon is too easy, especially with 2 backstab units, not to mention poison, and makes for a scenario without interest. On the other hand any hero may die (Bragh, who has least HPs, nearly died on a single attack, but since the dragon died on next turn...). Maybe add an approach toward a strange thing (noise, smell, tracks), with a couple drakes on the way, thus preparing next battle, then only find the dragon. Also, this is a good opportunity to level up either Bragh or Mar in one go...
  • Final battle: it seems that when I attack the (second) dragon, and only then, all ally units who can attack it. It is thus surrounded by 6 units in my case and indeed quickly dies. We do not really (have to) fight drakes. Maybe have the dragon first stand further, then only approach later. This would require a balance for our forces to be able to first overcome the drakes alone and kill half of them, before the dragon starts to "play".
Overall, I enjoyed that campaign very much. I played it through (twice now) just moving forward without major annoyance or problems. Actually, critics only pop up in my mind when there is a good basis... The general difficulty seems balanced for a game of intermediate level on medium difficulty. Players may have to replay once or twice some scenarios before finding correct tactics, which is fine.

I repeat that the end is frustrating for me, since I do not have the impression of having achieved some goal or quest.

The campaign name sounds just wrong after playing: no question of elvish incursion or whatnot; maybe something like "enigmatic invasion".

Finally: What about the main campaign (1 year after) ?
denispir
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Re: Elvish Incursion: A Prologue

Post by denispir »

Scenario 2 Raid on Xeria:
  • I would have the town gate work fine once, except if it's difficult or too much programming work. (Interestingly, our commando units will have a night to heal.)
  • Then, after the second day, have the gate block and the bigger battle start.
  • For any reason, it seems that ally units (on the defence towers on the gate sides, which also form castles) jump into the battle, often alone and stupidly, whenever they have to leave a place free for Baron recruitment. This is all strange. I would have some more allies, especialy from the back lines, join the battle each time there a good opportunity within their ranges.
  • Also, I would have more if not all ally forces engage in the bigger battle when the town gate is blocked open. For balance, this would require stronger ennemy forces at that time... and precisely :
  • For any reason, it seems that the ennemy has fnished recruiting initially after a few turns, but has new reinforcements at the same time as we do (Wark's outlaws). There should be some more words about all that.
All of that with appropriate dialog or messages.
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