Descent into Darkness
Moderator: Forum Moderators
-
Ar-Senator
- Posts: 3
- Joined: June 9th, 2007, 8:46 pm
On A Small Favor, I could easily kill the general by getting two nightgaunts to stab him before the alarm was made, making the scenario really easy. This could be prevented by surrounding him with units to begin with.
Also on Orc War, after I killed the slurbow and one of the warlords, on the next scenario there's the dead slurbow leading the orc force... Starting on -6 hp left over from the last scenario.
Also on Orc War, after I killed the slurbow and one of the warlords, on the next scenario there's the dead slurbow leading the orc force... Starting on -6 hp left over from the last scenario.
-
WizardMagus
- Posts: 34
- Joined: September 10th, 2006, 11:06 pm
My feedback does not relate to the gameplay, which has seen enough commentary, but to the story itself. I think that this is a very powerful concept, but the storytelling could have been more compelling.
I) The intro talks about how Malin got kicked out of the mage school, came home, saw his father fall in battle, etc. Honestly, I did not feel sympathetic towards the character - we did not see or feel these things happen. I think that the beginning of the story could start earlier, for instance returning to Hal'al. It would make us a lot more sympathetic towards the character if we actually meet his father, and then struggle beside him, before watching him fall to the Orcs. Similarly, the introduction of Darken Volk and our training by him is told through the opening narration as well. I think it would be more interesting if we actually went through the missions ourselves, finding him, training under him, etc. Obviously these extra missions would necessitate changing the recruit lists, balancing, etc, but these are not insurmountable. For instance you could recruit loyalists/outlaws originally, but then lose recall access to them as soon as you meet Darken, or something along those lines.
II) The whole issue of your sister is handled very poorly. She seems to appear out of nowhere halfway through the campaign, and then gets one last appearance that conveys no emotion or anything. If we actually have missions for the intro, then we can introduce her then, along with your father. If you are all fighting the Orcs together in the beginning, watch your father die with her at your side, etc, this relationship can be a lot more compelling. She should also make more appearances - perhaps at first she might even give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe argue on your behalf, etc. Only towards the end, when you kill Drogan, will she finally accept that you are evil and attack you. And then she comes after you. There needs to be more dialogue in that ending scenario, to bring your relationship with her to a close.
III) Drogan - we really don't see much of him, either. I think it would be a lot more compelling if he is actually a childhood friend or something of the sort. Perhaps he could even be some sort of rival, or he is extremely jealous you were chosen for the mage school instead of him. This adds additional tension to the situation as well - your sister speaking on your behalf, your rival Drogan speaking against you, accusations of bias all around, etc. Then when you finally come back and kill him, it feels natural to the player, and it also finally makes the villagers and your sister side against him. Maybe your sister and Drogan are even in a relationship, or interested in each other. There are so many ways to play up the group dynamics here.
In summary - this story needs relationships. Your father, your sister, your friends, etc. This story did not feel emotionally compelling to me, even though this concept has a lot of power behind it. With perhaps a couple more missions, and more dialogue, it could turn into one of the best campaigns out there.
I) The intro talks about how Malin got kicked out of the mage school, came home, saw his father fall in battle, etc. Honestly, I did not feel sympathetic towards the character - we did not see or feel these things happen. I think that the beginning of the story could start earlier, for instance returning to Hal'al. It would make us a lot more sympathetic towards the character if we actually meet his father, and then struggle beside him, before watching him fall to the Orcs. Similarly, the introduction of Darken Volk and our training by him is told through the opening narration as well. I think it would be more interesting if we actually went through the missions ourselves, finding him, training under him, etc. Obviously these extra missions would necessitate changing the recruit lists, balancing, etc, but these are not insurmountable. For instance you could recruit loyalists/outlaws originally, but then lose recall access to them as soon as you meet Darken, or something along those lines.
II) The whole issue of your sister is handled very poorly. She seems to appear out of nowhere halfway through the campaign, and then gets one last appearance that conveys no emotion or anything. If we actually have missions for the intro, then we can introduce her then, along with your father. If you are all fighting the Orcs together in the beginning, watch your father die with her at your side, etc, this relationship can be a lot more compelling. She should also make more appearances - perhaps at first she might even give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe argue on your behalf, etc. Only towards the end, when you kill Drogan, will she finally accept that you are evil and attack you. And then she comes after you. There needs to be more dialogue in that ending scenario, to bring your relationship with her to a close.
III) Drogan - we really don't see much of him, either. I think it would be a lot more compelling if he is actually a childhood friend or something of the sort. Perhaps he could even be some sort of rival, or he is extremely jealous you were chosen for the mage school instead of him. This adds additional tension to the situation as well - your sister speaking on your behalf, your rival Drogan speaking against you, accusations of bias all around, etc. Then when you finally come back and kill him, it feels natural to the player, and it also finally makes the villagers and your sister side against him. Maybe your sister and Drogan are even in a relationship, or interested in each other. There are so many ways to play up the group dynamics here.
In summary - this story needs relationships. Your father, your sister, your friends, etc. This story did not feel emotionally compelling to me, even though this concept has a lot of power behind it. With perhaps a couple more missions, and more dialogue, it could turn into one of the best campaigns out there.
Hello, I'm having the old bug of missing book in Alone at Last. Darken has the icon of the book, but he never drops it.
I have 1.3.3, I started playing the campaign from that version.
I have attached an autosave just when you can easy kill Darken.
I have 1.3.3, I started playing the campaign from that version.
I have attached an autosave just when you can easy kill Darken.
- Attachments
-
Alone_at_Last-Auto-Save7.gz- Autosave to kill Darken
- (32.17 KiB) Downloaded 540 times
Thanks everyone for your great feedback and suggestions. I am very thankful for that. I am sorry that I currently don't have time to answer everything in detail but I read your posts carefully and think most of you have very good ideas.
This has been fixed in trunk.jdsampayo wrote:Hello, I'm having the old bug of missing book in Alone at Last. Darken has the icon of the book, but he never drops it.
I have 1.3.3, I started playing the campaign from that version.
I have attached an autosave just when you can easy kill Darken.
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. -- Oscar Wilde
-
PingPangQui
- Posts: 267
- Joined: July 18th, 2006, 11:52 am
Problem with "Descent into Darkness" in BfW vers.
Hi Baufo,
1.) It is right now impossible to finish scenario 8 without changing victory conditions in save file or 08_A_Small_Favor2.cfg
Currently the scenario will be finished when moving Malin Keshar to position 1,1 which is unaccessible. (changing it to 7,3 for instance, would work though)
2.) In the 9th scenario (when taking the book) there will be an error message which says sth. like "invalid side(4) found in unit definition". (Haven't looked at this yet - so don't know whats the problem).
Sorry for being that shortspoken - haven't much time.
1.) It is right now impossible to finish scenario 8 without changing victory conditions in save file or 08_A_Small_Favor2.cfg
Currently the scenario will be finished when moving Malin Keshar to position 1,1 which is unaccessible. (changing it to 7,3 for instance, would work though)
2.) In the 9th scenario (when taking the book) there will be an error message which says sth. like "invalid side(4) found in unit definition". (Haven't looked at this yet - so don't know whats the problem).
Sorry for being that shortspoken - haven't much time.
The Clan Antagonist.
"Larry the Cow was a bit frustrated at the current state of Linux distributions (...) until he tried Gentoo Linux" - Free Software for free people.
"Larry the Cow was a bit frustrated at the current state of Linux distributions (...) until he tried Gentoo Linux" - Free Software for free people.
Thanks again for the feedback.
Today I fixed most of the problems reported here but this:
Today I fixed most of the problems reported here but this:
I'm sorry but I can't reproduce that. There are three different passageways to 1,1 but only one of them opens randomly at the start of the scenario. Maybe you got tricked by that?PingPangQui wrote:1.) It is right now impossible to finish scenario 8 without changing victory conditions in save file or 08_A_Small_Favor2.cfg
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. -- Oscar Wilde
I have installed 1.3.4 and have same bug and I could not play futher. If I load the saved senario begin again I have to fight again an elve leader. I defeat him and have to fight again against a dwarf. How often do I have to replay this campain?Mythological wrote:The bugs in the last scenario ( including the unknown unit - "Royal Swordsman" ) have been fixed in the latest SVN and will be no more in 1.3.4 when it comes outElestel wrote: The same bug in 1.3.3.
I think is a good campaign, but the ghosts do nearly all the work.
PD: Soon, I'm going to start to translate it to Sapanish.
-
The Silent One
- Posts: 5
- Joined: June 13th, 2007, 9:19 am
This error still occurs for me (downloaded from the campaign server today), can you take a look at that, Baufo?2.) In the 9th scenario (when taking the book) there will be an error message which says sth. like "invalid side(4) found in unit definition". (Haven't looked at this yet - so don't know whats the problem).
This has already been fixed and will be in the next release.The Silent One wrote:This error still occurs for me (downloaded from the campaign server today), can you take a look at that, Baufo?2.) In the 9th scenario (when taking the book) there will be an error message which says sth. like "invalid side(4) found in unit definition". (Haven't looked at this yet - so don't know whats the problem).
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. -- Oscar Wilde
-
profundior
- Posts: 1
- Joined: July 23rd, 2007, 5:54 pm
I downloaded Battle for Wesnoth only a week or so ago, so I've only played about 4 or 5 campaigns, but this has been my favorite so far. Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb!
However, the "final" scenario is, as others have pointed out, somewhat anticlimactic. Furthermore, it's not particularly challenging. It seems like you don't even need to raise an army. Just recall a couple of Nightgaunts and send them to assassinate the Foolish Hero every time.
Still, great campaign. If only it were longer!
However, the "final" scenario is, as others have pointed out, somewhat anticlimactic. Furthermore, it's not particularly challenging. It seems like you don't even need to raise an army. Just recall a couple of Nightgaunts and send them to assassinate the Foolish Hero every time.
Still, great campaign. If only it were longer!
I for one would be very disappointed if the final scenario were changed from the endless-loop thing.
For I am Turin Turambar - Master of Doom, by doom mastered. On permanent Wesbreak. Will not respond to private messages. Sorry!
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
When will the next release be? I've run into this at the end and am rather frustrated with it....Baufo wrote:This has already been fixed and will be in the next release.The Silent One wrote: This error still occurs for me (downloaded from the campaign server today), can you take a look at that, Baufo?
Edit: I should clarify, I am running into the Royal Swordsman Bug... Can I fix that on my end? I'm on OS X and I'm having a hard time finding where the files are saved.
Last edited by jeremy2 on August 15th, 2007, 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.