Conquest Minus

[SlowThinker]

Conquest Minus 3.0.7

Changes that affect the game mechanics:

• Spectres cannot board ships anymore.

Changes that don't affect the game mechanics:

• The game lobby settings are more foolproof now, also 'Use map settings' needn't be checked on.
• Handicap games are possible: you can shift the starting gold of individual players by adjusting their 'income' in the game lobby (the income itself is not affected)

A new map:

• Conquest Liquergue with teleports

Edit: Conquest Xanthor is corrupted in 3.0.7, it will be repaired in 3.0.8 (you can use xanthor.cfg from 3.0.6 if you want to play it)

[SlowThinker]

Types of Conquest (Minus) games

Team games (1 vs 1, 2 vs 2 and so on)
The capitol mode:

1 vs 1 games may be very unbalanced if one side starts in a corner and the other one in the center. This is why 1 vs 1 games are best played on maps with teleports (teleports usually cause the map has no real center) or on special maps designed for 1 vs 1 games (Lotrando, Dative, Poland 1 vs 1).
You can still play 1 vs 1 on "normal" maps, but both players should control more sides. For example Pasarganta is popular with 4 vs 4 (each player controls 4 sides): this map is very large, and so with 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3 it may still be very unbalanced.

The all-villages mode:

no special notes

Mirror team games
If you want a fair and balanced contest that doesn't depend on the initial spawns, you can start two mirrored games:
In the very beginning of turn 1 of the first game, before the militia jumps into the pool, save the game (by 'Menu/Save Game' or ctrl-s). Then load that savefile in the game lobby and start the second game simultaneously:
This way you get two games with equal spawns, but swapped teams.
If both players win one game then the player who won faster (i.e. killed all enemy units faster) wins.

A little drawback of Mirror Games is both players know the starting positions of the opponent, including the types of Neutrals. Therefore both games are supposed to be played synchronically, so that one side doesn't get an advantage of a better map knowledge.

A note: an explanation of the term 'Game Start' can be found here: Pre-made Game Starts.

FFA (free-for-all) games
(these notes are common for both capitol and all-villages modes)

Players should agree on house rules in the beginning, otherwise the game might end in disputes.
Here are some examples of house rules:

FFA rules - "impaired NAP-break"

A diplomacy (NAPs (non-agression pacts), alliances, trades ...) are possible, but they are only temporary, eventually only 1 player can win
any diplomatic agreements are possible,
for example "NAP 3tw" (3-turn warning) means any player can end the nap, but must warn 3 turns in advance: the player that will be attacked gets 3 his full turns to prepare
unless specified otherwise, the side that declared the war (=ended the NAP) attacks first, but cannot take enemy villages the first turn of the war
unless specified otherwise, a hex between NAPped sides belongs to the side that owns the closest village.
NAPs and other agreements must be honoured, no backstabbing
no private talks (like via skype or IM) are allowed

FFA rules - "no diplomacy"

eventually only 1 player can win
no diplomacy is allowed: no diplomatic talks (including "talks" via labels and other means); of course this implies no NAPs. No disclosure of any info about the game status
of course an unspoken diplomacy is possible (like cumulating/not cumulating units near other's villages)

Singleplayer games
The capitol mode:

your goal is to conquer whole map as fast as possible. Your only enemy are the Neutral units (who neither move nor initiate an attack).
You may try a given map several times and try to improve your result, or compare your result with another player(s) ...

A special singleplayer game is "Test your strength". If you finish it then you will get a report.

(SP games have no sense with the all-villages mode.)

Games vs. an active computer player (artificial intelligence - AI)
These games are not possible with "Conquest Minus".
Some kind of an active AI is possible with "Conquest" (maintained by Mabuse, see this post).

_____________________________________________
How to host a Conquest Minus game

You don't have to fill all slots by players - any number of players is possible. In the game lobby let unused slots empty.
For details read the game intro.

Next part and the attachments are obsolete, valid only for versions prior to 3.1

Obsolete:

choice of the era

eras to be used with Conquest Minus scenarios:

• scenarios without kalifa units - Default Era
• scenarios with kalifa/ukian/darkblood units - Ageless Era (you can start these scenarios with Default era too, but Ageless era is a way how to assure all players have all the needed units installed and won't be kicked at the game start)

(Scenarios with kalifa/ukian/darkblood units show a warning before the game starts.)

Additional notes about Ageless Era
You may want not to install the large (almost 40 MB) Ageless Era, also because 'too much WML' may slow down Wesnoth and hide some scenarios from the list:
In that case you can use the attachment: it contains the part of Ageless Era (1,3 MB) which is needed for Conquest Minus (and old/original Conquest) games. Warning: it won't work with non-Conquest games that require Ageless Era.
You need to unpack the attachment to the same directory where the Conquest- or Ageless_Era sub-directories are located. (For details read the article 'How to install an additional Conquest map' in Conquestopedia.)

shift of the starting gold (3.0.7 and above)

You can shift the starting gold of players by shifting 'Income' from 'Normal' up or down. (It has no effect to the player's income. And manipulating with 'Gold' has no effect to the starting gold.)
This way you can for example create a handicap game, or raise starting gold of all players by 10...

gold per village

The default value is 1, and it is recomended not to change it.

[goblinlord]

I'm missing the time where were only one Conquest. The first version was good enought.

[SlowThinker]

goblinlord, you mean 1.0? You can upload it to the add-on server and maintain it.

[Lich_Lord]

I'm proud to announce that my giant 301 village map will be coming to conquest- very soon! Only a little bit more testing and balancing is needed to perfect it for play. This map is combination of four maps: Samrock, Torath, Gagarna, and Burgoth (I don't think Burgoth has been released yet either, but it will be soon).
WARNING: This map is extra huge, it will take at least 12 hours to finish it on capital mode, maybe a few hours less on standard mode.

In order to reduce time spent expanding and preparing for war (really, who wants to spend 5 hours killing AI ), this map will probably have at least one or two realms mode variants. They will probably be introduced in a month or two after the map has been tested more.

Here's a small screen shot of the map:

Pasarganta.png (36.68 KiB) Viewed 6338 times

[goblinlord]

@Slow
I thnk it is because last summer i often palyed with 6 player now u play only one vs one and i dont like the new features in other versions only fortifications are a good idea.

[SlowThinker]

Conquest Minus 3.0.8

Changes that affect the game mechanics:

• none

Changes that don't affect the game mechanics:

• "Standard Mode" has been renamed to "All-villages Mode"
• Starting gold for "All-villages Mode" has been changed. Now it is determined by a formula and it depends on number of villages on the map, on the average starting bonus of the map and on number of players.
• The distribution of human villages in the capitol mode has been improved, and if a distribution fails then additional attempts are performed. This mechanism handles these problems:
  the "Europe bug" (i.e. no red units may be be distributed on small maps) and the "Far East bug" (i.e. only 1 or 2 units may be distributed on maps where villages are far apart)

A new map:

• Conquest Pasarganta, the Lich_Lord's giant map

Changes of maps:

• Conquest- Xanthor was corrupted in 3.0.7 - it is repaired now.
• Conquest- Surdmark (teleports, long distances) ver. 1.2
  • a ford Fargundy-Carolas has been added
  • the Siznak-Herull road is slower (a Rockbound Cave added)
  • the teleport at Nobade has been moved by one hex
  • the teleports in Sicca has been moved
  • the terrain near the Morton's teleport has been changed
  • Impassable Mountains have been added near the Herull/Miggle teleport
• Conquest- Surdmark (teleports, short distances) ver. 1.5
  • a ford Fargundy-Carolas has been added
  • the teleport at Nobade/Darp has been moved 1 hex
• Conquest- Liquergue (teleports) ver. 1.1
  • various terrain changes near teleports
• the bonuses of all maps of the Pasarganta group are unified now
• Conquest- Lotrando ver. 1.22
  • the mountain pass between Foggy Mtn. and Kirkwood (near Istanael) got wider
  • terrain changes around Morbak (Foggy Mtn.), Lisutene (Kirkwood)

[SlowThinker]

Lich, this is an example why I think

• Yargford's bonus is too high
• Yargford-carolas is too advantageous for the fliers
• Trileka's bonus is too high

[SlowThinker]

Conquest Minus 3.0.9

Changes that affect the game mechanics:

• edit: Neutrals (the white AI) never attack

Changes that don't affect the game mechanics:

• Board/unboard has been improved (now it doesn't blink and the fog is always revealed for allied sides)
• The only problem with the fog is the case a freshly recruited unit doesn't move: then fog around this unit is not revealed for allied sides. This problem cannot be fixed completely due to an incorrect behaviour of Wesnoth, but Conquest Minus 3.0.9 reveals fog when the next player starts his turn.

New maps:

• Three new maps have been added: Burgoth, Algernon, Catoh. All these maps belong to the Pasarganta group and were made by Lich_Lord.

Changes of maps:

• Conquest- Surdmark (teleports, long distances) ver. 1.3
  • a missing village has been added to New Calron
  • the coastal reef at Carolas has been changed to a ford (it corresponds to the Pasarganta map)
  • the route from Jo to Yargford is faster now, because one hill has been replaced by a flat terrain (it corresponds to the Liquergue map)
• Conquest- Surdmark (teleports, short distances) ver. 1.6
  • the coastal reef at Carolas has been changed to a ford (it corresponds to the Pasarganta map)
  • the route from Jo to Yargford is faster now, because one hill has been replaced by a flat terrain (it corresponds to the Liquergue map)
• Conquest- Liquergue (teleports) ver. 1.2
  • The western teleport at Deglatia has been changed

Bonuses of all maps of the Pasarganta group are unified now, but the map terrain is not unified in every detail, there are terrain differences between Yo-Yargford, between Fargundy-Carolas, and between Zimyar-Restless. (The terrain of maps with teleports is unified)

[SlowThinker]

Conquest Minus 3.0.10

3.0.10 is equal to 3.0.9, except in the Scenario Objective window there is a note that the team of Neutrals (AI) never attacks.

Explanation: I didn't intend to prevent Neutrals from attacking in 3.0.9, the prevention remained in the code by a mistake. Anyway I planned this change in some future version, and so I decided to preserve it now.

[SlowThinker]

Conquest Minus 3.0.11

Changes that affect the game mechanics:

• none

Changes that don't affect the game mechanics:

• "Show Boarded Unit" is accessible also to allied sides.
• "Show Heal Cost" is accessible to any side that sees the wounded unit.

[SlowThinker]

Conquest Minus 3.0.12

Changes that affect the game mechanics:

• none

Changes that don't affect the game mechanics:

• Singleplayer games in the capitol mode are possible: just take side 1 and let other sides empty.

Changes of maps:

• Conquest- Dative version 1.2: the bonus of Center has been increased to 4

[SlowThinker]

Various threads related to Conquest (all Conquest variants)

Main threads
Conquest 1.0 - Now on the 1.6 Add-on Server
Conquest 2.0 - on 1.8 server
Extra Conquest Maps by Gwledig
Conquest Minus (this thread)

Replays
Conquest Replays
Conquest 1.1 AAR/Review

FFA rules/ettiquette
Conquest Etiquette - Understood Rulls of Playing Conquest
"1-winner only" games (Conquest etc.)
Conquest Club
Diplomacy Era

Other
Gameplay differences between Conquest<-->standard Wesnoth
Lord of the Rings Conquest

[SlowThinker]

How can I help?

• you can post your feedback to this thread: what you like/dislike, what should be improved...
• Help noobs: play a game and in the in-game chat explain in details your thinking so that noobs can learn from the replay. You can create more games: one that explains very basics (like recruiting, use of ships, bonuses, workers), another one that explains basic principles (take region bonuses one by one, how to cover villages, don't build units that need three turns to reach any battle, 5 militias are weaker than one 5g horse), another one that explains advanced principles ...
  (If you know WML then you can also write a tutorial (like the one accessible from the main Wesnoth menu))
• you can help with ladder for Conquest
• you can organize a tournament: you can try to ressurect this one or you can start a new one.
• you can create new Conquest maps or improve existing ones (some abandoned maps are here).
• From Ageless era you can copy missing sounds and animations of kalifa, darkblood and ukian units. It is not necessary to know WML for this task.
• you can create a new terrain (read next post: Next goal: to get rid of the Ageless Era). You don't need to know WML for this, but you need to study Custom Terrain Tutorial planning . (Please contact me if you are willing to do it.)
• if you know WML/lua, you can write some parts of the code, especially the code independent from the core: for example an AI for Conquest or a new game mode (then contact me please). (FYI in past neila started a work at a new mode, and Conscience and then neila announced an interest to write an AI.)

[SlowThinker]

Next goal: to get rid of the Ageless Era

Conquest Minus maps with kalifa units require the Ageless Era, and this is not desirable: in order to play/observe games people must install Ageless Era, which is quite large and buggy.

Wesnoth 1.9 (the Development Release) added units from the Khalifate Era to the core. So I decided to replace Kalifa units (from the Ageless Era) by human mainline units (from the Deafult Era) temporarily. (This replacement will affect pictures, animations and sounds).
And once Wesnoth 1.10 is released (probably not in 2011), these human mainline units will be replaced by the mainline Khalifate units.

Along with the Kalifa->Human unit replacement I plan these changes:

• to change all units to lower level units (again this change will affect their pictures, animations and sounds only), so that more expensive units may be added in the future
• to decrease the speed of the 15g, 20g and 25g infantry units from 8 to 7 (the reason: simplicity)
• to decrease defense of all mounted units in villages to 40%
• to improve the movement of the Cuttle Fish
• to raise the defense of the troll in the village to 60% (and maybe on a flat terrain to 40%)
• to reduce the power of kalifa and elven units: I will reduce the defense of elves/forest to 50%, kalifa/hills to 50% and kalifa/sand to 40%
  
  next changes require somebody helps and creates new terrains:
• to create a special terrain unique for elves, kalifa, orcs, humans, all with 60% and 1 movecost for the home race, and 40% and 2 movecost for other land races. For example for elves it could be an existing type of a forest (but then I would have to edit the maps and remove it), best would be a new graphics of a forest with spiked poles around.
  This solution will allow map makers to decide whether they want the better defense in some areas (but the current maps won't use these new types of terrain, by default elves will have a 50% defense on all forests on all curent maps)
  (Maybe also a terrain with a 70% defense should be added, so that "fighting for terrain" becomes a part of the game(?))
• to limit the power of fliers: I have got some suggestions from players, like to make all fliers slower in water, but that would change the way of playing on existing maps too much. So I want to add/edit this terrain:
  impassable for fliers:
  • a volcano, movecost 1 for land units
  • a deep water with a volcano
  • a shallow water with a volcano
  • a ford with a volcano
  movecost 2 or 3 for fliers:
  • a mushroom, movecost 1 for land units (fliers dislike the vapours of mushrooms .. or do you have any better idea?)
  • a deep water with a geyser
  • a shallow water with a geyser
  • a ford with a geyser
  This solution won't affect existing maps, but will allow map makers to edit their existing/new maps and limit the fliers

Your feedback is welcome, especially your disagreement and complaints.