Good playing habits and settings each turn

[SigurdFireDragon]

I saw a comment somewhere that serious players have a accelerate animation setting of 4 or higher, for quicker playing of scenarios.

So, in that spirit, this thread is for efficient/effective game settings and playing habits.

Currently I have animation speed at 4. I've also left on AI moves (so I can see how the AI thinks), though I've seen that some people turn this off.

Also, I'm establishing the habit of clicking 'n' to cycle through my units right before ending the turn to see if I missed anything.

In addition, I'm playing mp maps/campaigns against AI with the ladder timer settings of 300/300/300/0 to get in the habit of being quicker about decisions and moves.

Anyone else have any thoughts on settings, hotkeys to use, turn habits or other things to be more efficient & effective playing Wesnoth?

[Maiklas3000]

I slowed down my acceleration from 3 to 2, so I could better see what was going on. In a large campaign battle, I need to see which units die. And it sometimes helps to see the damage numbers flying up during combat or the healing numbers flying up at the start of your turn. Like, if you don't already know, you can find out whether a Troll heal 8 or 10 points when it rests.

I assume you already know this, but control-v like crazy. You can also control-v while you are moving a unit, to make it easier to move it out of range (or into range) of the enemy. And of course you can select particular enemy units to see how far they can move and what their terrain bonuses would be.

Look at the possible combat results like crazy. Look at all the units that could attack. Often there is a Strong unit or similar that could have a much better distribution of results. And of course, don't take the default attack as gospel; it often pays to change the attack.

Think carefully about the order of attacks. A 33% or even 66% chance to level a unit via a kill isn't that great if it jeopardizes the unit if it fails to kill. Try to use other units first to boost its chances, and consider nerfing their attacks by selecting suboptimal attacks, if that will improve the chance of leaving the enemy alive but one blow away from death.

Think about which units you want to ship the XP to. Intelligent units are good if you need extra strength now, but at the start of a campaign non-intelligent units are a better investment.

Use halos like crazy. Run leaders up and down the line. When you have two different halos, like a leader and a Mage of Light, it gets to be a challenge to apply them both multiple times in one turn, but that will be powerful.

When I was first starting out, I tended to move each unit its full amount. However, there are many situations where you should move one unit a short ways, then another a short ways, and then maybe back to the first. Being able to juggle units in tight quarters is a valuable skill in some campaign scenarios.

Related to this is that I'm constantly using "u" (undo). If there's fog, then use planning mode instead.

When you have to move a long ways over the course of the battle, drag your cursor to see the quickest path. If it's an unfamiliar unit or terrain, the result may surprise you.

Optimize your healing. Try to maximize the total points healed each turn, but also give priority to your more valuable (or needed) units.

[beetlenaut]

I remapped Ctrl-V to just V so I can more easily hit it a dozen times per turn.

I greatly prefer intelligent units at the beginning of a campaign. Collecting experience takes longer then because you are fighting weaker units, and I want a leader and healer ASAP. (Or at least meat shields if that's what's available.)

[sadlyknight]

I also keep mine 8 to 6 so speed.

[Maiklas3000]

When the enemy has units that can disappear from sight (Shadow, Ranger, etc.), mark their locations with labels. In the attached picture, the "S3" is my annotation for a Shadow on turn 3. If it can have a quick trait, note whether it's quick. Then after it disappears you can figure out where it could be - and could not be.

[SigurdFireDragon]

Thanks for the control-V tip. I did not know that. And for the suggestion to bind it to just 'V. I've put it to good use, along with the other things here.

Another thing I've started doing is using the minimap unit coding & terrain coding toggles that were added in 1.11

I set the unit coding so that the units I haven't moved are green, the ones that are out of move black, and orange for the ones that have been partially used.

The blocky terrain coding, when I got used to it, has helped me see where the terrain changes/groups easier.

[Chris7mas]

I don't use planning, but in almost every single player or online game I used delay shroud updates, which is probably the most important command that I toggle on/off in a game. Used to be Shift+D, but now as far as I know it's unbinded so I bind it manually to Shift+D (which reminds me, I should bind some shortcuts without modifiers for other functions too but I'm too lazy for it). I find it very useful to know at a given time how the battlefield would look if you would move a unit to X,Y but also it allows to undo your move. The reason I toggle it is because in some games I'd rather discover new enemies up to a certain point.

Another simple, yet thing that I wasn't aware of until a while ago was that if I mouse-over the health text to the right panel of any unit, it will quickly show the resistances of that unit. Quickier than selecting the unit, pressing D to see its description and scrolling down.

Also, although I only had a glance at it, 1.1.15 looks like it has a very much improved and detailed right panel, with possibilities to customize the minimap as well.

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that I always press N multiple times at the end of a turn, especially in multiplayer, to cycle through all my units and see if I haven't forgot to move a unit (which can get very frustrating and important at times).

[UK1]

Planning mode is incredibly arcane and does very little that delay shroud doesn't do. In MP I use accel x 16, skip attacks, no animations, grid on, no unit sounds, and delay shroud updates unless I want to scout with a bat or something.

EDIT: That being said, Wesnoth is a game. Don't let anyone shame you for how you play.

[cookie]

I've got to agree with UK1 on majority of his post. I just don't generally use planning movement unless I am short on time or am incredibly bored to the extent that I feel I want to click something. That being said it's only used for certain moves like recruiting or in the first two turns of a map where its just village grabbing. Thus faster turns.

I use the same settings as UK, but my animations are at max. And my wesnoth sound is off aside from bell and sound effects from attacks. I find that background music makes me focus less verses music I typically listen to.

My chat log is also at max. I use the :Clear function when I feel like chat is distracting but usually having the widened chat log is helpful in keeping key movements discussed with teammate considered.

If there happens to be a creature in the map with the ambush trait or skills of that sort I press shift which makes a slow motion effect (when you're holding the button) through the duration their turn and always label a 'x' or 't' to indicate the creature is in that certain position. I don't think the turn information is necessary in the label. Rather the less or more clean layout is better for me.
^ That being said is also another reason I don't like planning mode. It clutters the screen.

Also adding on to UK1's note, I generally would turn off shroud delay too for scouting purposes. Information is key sometimes and generally I'd like to know where units are before moving them or recruiting furthermore.

These habits being said are my preferences and I'm not saying they work for everyone but generally as you continue to play, you'll come up with your own.
However I find there are some musts like not sitting too close to the screen, blinking often more than less and good posture not only better for my health, but good for my temperament which has a pretty drastic impact on my thoughts and 'strategic' mind.
Happy playing

[tekelili]

I think I must be the only Wesnoth player that never (never!!!) used delay shroud or planning mode. My reasoning was "I don´t want be able to undo, because I want to be punished for bad moves so they becomed writted forever into my mind. The way I can try to find in a pattern in moves I regreat and learn the rule behind it."

Btw, after read about labeling units with hidding abilities and have to disable accelerate speed, I still can not belive answers I got here
If that is an interesting part of game then I am not a gamer

[Turuk]

I think I must be the only Wesnoth player that never (never!!!) used delay shroud or planning mode. My reasoning was "I don´t want be able to undo, because I want to be punished for bad moves so they becomed writted forever into my mind. The way I can try to find in a pattern in moves I regreat and learn the rule behind it."

Btw, after read about labeling units with hidding abilities and have to disable accelerate speed, I still can not belive answers I got here
If that is an interesting part of game then I am not a gamer

I don't bother with delay shroud or planning, I usually know what I want to do a turn or two forward, as well as contingencies for when things don't go my way.

[Maiklas3000]

When you're in a 1-on-1 situation, where you can attack an enemy unit, and only that unit can attack you on his turn, and it's a situation like two melee units (or two ranged units), then look at the damage calculations chart to see if he can kill you on his turn if things go badly:

So here we have a duel between an Elvish Fighter and an already wounded Troll Whelp. The question is, if the Elvish Fighter melee attacks, can he be killed on his turn? Look at the left chart and subtract the bottom number from the top: 31-15=16. So, 16 is the maximum damage that can be caused, and since this is greater than 15, the elf can die. If the elf were a critical unit, he might be wise not to attack. It reminds me of the recent thought experiment here, "Bad luck or bad strategy?"

The calculation above was sort of trivial in this case, as you can also see it from the Whelp's 8-2 attack, but if the attacker had resistances, then looking at the chart saves you some work. Anyway, it's nice as a quick crosscheck, especially when it's a critical unit.

As an aside, the Elf has a ranged attack, but if the Whelp were not already wounded, then the Elf would be better off not making the ranged attack, normally. Do you see why? The Whelp would self-heal all the damage (the Elf's 3-3 bow becomes 2-3 versus a pierce-resistant Whelp), but there is another factor...

Spoiler:

If the Elf neither attacks nor moves, he will rest heal 2 points of damage. And yes, there were a lot of assumptions here, including that the Elf was non-dextrous.

If the Elf does (melee) attack first, what is the chance it will die on the Whelp's next turn, assuming it attacks and it's the same time of day? It's 16% squared. If you know the multiplication table for squares, then you know that 16 squared is 256, then move the decimal two points to the left, making 2.56%. If you don't know your squares, then you can double the percentage and then divide by 10, as an approximation: 16%*2=32%, 32%/10=3.2%, which close enough to 2.56% for your purposes. It's exactly accurate at 20% (20*2=40, 40/10=4, so 4%.)

Ah, but you say, what if the Whelp dies during his attack next turn? He can't. From the righthand chart, you can see that the Elf can do maximum of 27-11=16 points of damage to the blade-resistant Whelp. So, the Whelp can be taken down to 11 HP, but then he will regenerate to 19 HP, safely above the Elf's maximum 16 points damage. However, in general that could be a factor.

[Paulomat4]

In 1.11.15 I have started to use the new unit coding on the minimap, which saves me pressing n ten times a turn. Instead just take a look at the minimap.

[Maiklas3000]

Before you hit "end turn" (control-space), identify your most vulnerable units. If you're playing the AI, then you can try to predict which of your units will be attacked first. The first attacked are usually the ones the AI thinks it can kill, but another possibility is powerful units that can't fight back well against (or are especially vulnerable to) the chosen attack. This is mostly for learning purposes, but you can also try to protect your most vulnerable units with whatever movement or attacks you have remaining.

••••

When you have a wounded unit that is withdrawing from the front, move it one hex (or the minimum) back, instead of just moving it all the way to a village or healer. Depending on combat outcomes of other units, you might change your mind and decide to return the unit to combat. For wounded units with leadership, first make sure you get use of the leadership for any units that will no longer be adjacent after the leader moves one hex back. If you adopt this "one hex back" habit, you really need to make use of hitting "n" to cycle through your remaining units (or check the mini-map), to make sure you don't forget any wounded that have only moved one hex back. Also, remember you can use "space" to mark a unit as "done" even if it has remaining movement.

[Jabie]

I think I must be the only Wesnoth player that never (never!!!) used delay shroud or planning mode. My reasoning was "I don´t want be able to undo, because I want to be punished for bad moves so they becomed writted forever into my mind.

Delay Shroud is very useful. One slip of the fingers (especially on that wretched touchpad mice) can really scupper you on some maps, and having the option to undo is helpful in such circumstances.