Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Feedback for the mainline campaign Heir to the Throne.

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Poison
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Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by Poison »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

1.14.7, Champion (Challenging), 154 starting gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

5, near the leader is very hard the rest is a walk to the park. Simyr did everything by himself on the left side.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Clear.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Not to fry everyone with Delfador, muhahahahaha.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

9, the battle here is very pleasant.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Not much to add here.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

No although i got somewhat lucky with Haldiel.
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Zrevnur
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Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by Zrevnur »

Content Feedback wrote: September 3rd, 2004, 11:26 pm (1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.14.9 Challenging (in Ironman mode), played many times
Content Feedback wrote: September 3rd, 2004, 11:26 pm (2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) [1]
1. The only danger is pointlessly tactically screwing up which is a general danger in BfW no matter the overall difficulty of the scenario.
This is basically a training and preparation scenario for 'Bay of Pearls' and 'Siege of Elensefar'. 'Bay of Pearls' needs to be beaten quickly to have gold for 'Siege of Elensefar'.
Content Feedback wrote: September 3rd, 2004, 11:26 pm (3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear.
Content Feedback wrote: September 3rd, 2004, 11:26 pm (4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Ok.
Content Feedback wrote: September 3rd, 2004, 11:26 pm (5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? [2]
None.
Content Feedback wrote: September 3rd, 2004, 11:26 pm (6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
5. Positive is that its relatively early in the campaign so individual units matter more yet. But its also too easy which makes it somewhat of a chore.
Content Feedback wrote: September 3rd, 2004, 11:26 pm (7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Increase difficulty.
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Lord-Knightmare
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Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Content Feedback wrote: September 3rd, 2004, 11:26 pm (1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) [1]
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? [2]
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

[1] preferably, this should be rated relative to other scenarios in the campaign, such that the easiest scenario in the campaign is rated '1', and the most difficult '10'. i.e. even if you didn't think the campaign is very hard, you should still rate the hardest scenario '10'.
[2] this question has been adjusted from previous surveys for clarity.
1. Normal/1.15.12+dev
2. 5/10
3. crystal clear
4. 7/10
5. Nothing really.
6. 8/10
7. It's good as it is.
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Atreides
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Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by Atreides »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Standard I guess. Version 0.1(*)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) [1]
4

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Extremely vague. Luckily I knew from modern versions that I needed to kill the enemy leader.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Was nice. Nothing special.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? [2]
Patience to build up enough troops after collecting enough villages to have a healthy income. Started out with too little gold from first scenario. (besieged in this case)

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Well the AI could be better, it was quite suicidal and well stupid. Of course that was fun but I did feel a little guilty.

(*) OK so I've got a weird sense of humour. ; - ) Yes I really installed BfW 0.1 for Windows 98 on my old PC and am playing the campaign. The only campaign there was. It didn't even have a name yet. The scenario names do match though. Scen. 2 did not exist then though, it used to be this one. Sort of surprised how good it was but then again there would never have been a 1.16 had 0.1 not showed promise, eh?
mal_shubertal
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Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by mal_shubertal »

(1) What difficulty level and Wesnoth version have you played the scenario on?
1.16.2 Hard
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) [1]
3. Easy to beat, harder to beat quickly and get the big carryover bonus
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
very
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I like it. I like the pattern of this campaign of "go to a location relevant to a particular unit type, get a loyal unit of that type, become able to recruit those units". It gives your eclectic army a sense of history/relationships.
(5) What were your major challenges in completing the scenario?
Balancing forces on each side of the island, and deciding when to stop recruiting and move Konrad off his keep. I tended to overrecruit and have Konrad show up too late to get much xp.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10. The varied terrain, big map, lots of villages, and the way it encourages fighting on multiple fronts offers a lot of options and different strategies.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?'
I like it as is.
lujo86
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Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by lujo86 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?

1.16.8
Highest

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

Seemed like a nice introductory XP gathering scenario.

When I played it as an opportunity to level up some elven units, there was a bit of challenge in getting my core front of troops, advancing directly south through the forest, to reach the boss on time. Having the outrageously overpowered Delfador practically soloing the other approach sort of trivialized the whole thing. (well, there was an Elvish Rider, the loyal horseman from the previous scenario and the loyal mage from this one with him, but they mostly just took villages and scored last hits).

When I replayed it, my objective were to speed-level 2 loyal horsemen from map 2 (one was a kinght already) and the mage, so I recruited fewer elves, but the combination of horsemen and delfador trivialized the map completely as they just rolled through the non-forested side with ease.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

100% clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

Fair enough.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Frankly, none, other than getting across the map.
On the second run I realized that it's a good spot to level up specific units for the Siege level ahead, and this made it even easier to meet the objectives as those units had longer movement range and were extremely lethal.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

It's a bit of an XP grind, and a bit too easy, so "fun" doesn't really figure into it. It's rather bland, but then it's also kinda nice to finally be in a non-gimmicky introductory level after two false starts. So, 7 I guesS?

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

a) Well, since scenario 2 is way too gimmicky and kinda tough for an introductory scenario, the way to make this scenario more fun would be to ditch scenario 2 and move it's story into one of the lanes in this one, since horsemen are naturally good on this map due to the long distance and the semi-challenge of reaching the other side in time. The mage is also highly out of place in this map, and ought to probably show up in a different one.

This would allow the player to get horsemen in this level, have the forested "lane" be the place to march a formation of elves down for whatever objective (maybe to activate the units of an otherwise passive ally), while his horsemen can take the other path where they excell. The player could have their cake and eat it too.

b) Delfador trivializes this map hard. Just toning him down a bit would help both this map and map 1, or, alternatively, not even having him be present on this one. There aren't any overly tough units to justify his nuking power here.
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ElvishMystical0
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Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by ElvishMystical0 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Versions 1.12 to 1.16, mainly Easy and Medium.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) [1]
This is a 3-4, or maybe even a 2-3.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Crystal clear. The Orcs have taken over the Isle of Alduin and Delfador's birthplace and you have to liberate the island.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It's a standard part of the storyline, but what jars is that the island is desolate.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? [2]
Outside of Troll Whelps and Wolf Riders on hills and mountains, no major challenges as regards the enemy. My personal challenge is getting experience for ranged attacking units - Mages, Elvish Archers and Shamen. This is a persistent issue throughout the campaign but it starts for me on the Isle of Alduin.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
This is a 6 or 7. It's not a difficult scenario by any stretch of the imagination (but would be if you're new to Wesnoth) but it's the first scenario where you're not under any real pressure and can start to develop a long term strategy. The map is ideal for this because you have flat and hills in the west and flat and forest in the east.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I actually do have a suggestion here. You start out with a loyal Mage hidden in a village but he's the only one. Please keep in mind that you come into this scenario expecting some major battle on both sides of the island, but I don't think the Orcish enemy has that much gold. I think to make this scenario more interesting and fun, and more in line with the storyline, you could conceal both Mages and Orcish units in other villages. Maybe level up Elrian to a loyal White Mage and have Delfador explain to Konrad about healing and the differences between Mages and Shamen.

You would be doing the same thing as other scenarios and in other campaigns, for example in the Isle of the Damned and the Northern Outpost in the Eastern Invasion, and also you have a similar scenario in the Hammer of Thursagan. You could do the same in HTTT with the Isle of Alduin. If you're playing this scenario you are going to gather up the villages and make money anyway, and if some villages spawn either a Mage or an Orcish unit, you make the scenario a bit more challenging and encourage the player to do more than just grab villages and face Wolf Riders.

See currently if you have a couple of Elvish Scouts and say a quick Elvish Archer you can grab quite a lot of villages easily in a few turns. But if you do this you force the Orcish enemy to recruit Wolf Riders which cost 17 gold and this can mess you up long term because this is a key scenario for developing an army and getting experience. Two Wolf Riders is almost three Orcish Grunts and Troll Whelps and with two Elvish Scouts which are generally the most mobile unit in this scenario, you can get a lot of villages and a lot of gold very easily. This can affect the balance of a major part of the campaign.

But say if you have several villages which spawn loyal enemy units and say a White Mage and a Red Mage this would make the scenario a great deal more interesting and fun.
Orek
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Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by Orek »

Content Feedback wrote: (1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
(1) Challenging (=Champion=Hardest) in 1.14.17 on permadeath
(2) 5 (14th most difficult = 10th easiest)
... [Difficult] 2, 16, 14, 4, 9, 6, 5b, 10, 13, 12, 23, 8, 7, 3, 15, 17, 19c, 22, 1, 20b, 11, 24, 18 [Easy]
(3) Very clear
(4) Clear and interesting enough
(5) Balancing the number of units for both the western and eastern paths was difficult at times.
(6) 6 (10th most fun = 14th most boring)
... [Fun] 2, 1, 6, 9, 5b, 4, 16, 15, 23, 3, 12, 14, 10, 24, 13, 8, 7, 19c, 20b, 11, 17, 22, 18 [Boring]
(7) None

YouTube Link: Run 1 Run 2 Run 3
Walkthrough: HttT walkthrough (hardest, permadeath, v1.14.17) + General campaign guides (Replays for all scenarios can be downloaded from here.)
JL42
Posts: 66
Joined: December 9th, 2023, 11:19 am

Re: Scenario 3: Isle of Alduin

Post by JL42 »

What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
v. 1.16.10
Lord / Challenging
How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
1
How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very clear.
How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Very clear; moderately interesting.
What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Nothing really. Some of the enemy wolves wandered out into the central pond, so I had to backtrack a few units to prevent them from getting behind us. And the enemy leader can be mildly threatening if you're not careful in the end.
How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
5 – This is a really easy map, and is quite valuable for training up troops (as Delfador conveniently advises you at the start) – especially since the player could have made it through the previous two maps without much fighting. It moves the story along, carefully introduces the player to another new unit type (mages), and gives some easy combat practice. The lack of any significant challenge reduces the fun though.
What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It might be possible that this map is too easy, especially since I was playing it on the hardest difficulty level and nonetheless finished with 600+ gold. Could potentially remove some of the villages and give the enemy leader a bit more base funding.

It's notable to me that the opening scenarios of Heir to the Throne are waaaaay easier than other previously-listed campaigns, like Two Brothers, the South Guard, Liberty.

---------------
About the Overall Campaign:

The maps and storyline here are well-made and polished, though not as completely epic as some of the other campaigns. I like that it is lengthy, giving you time to develop your army, and gradually introduces many different terrains and unit types. This seems like a great beginner campaign since it's fairly easy and the early scenarios are framed as a kind of mentoring environment for the young hero. (However, it's a bit strange that some of the basic dialogue tips, like "hey, loyal units don't require upkeep!" are just now arriving, after I've already played through several previous campaigns without that advice.) There are some glitches that can come up in the Scepter of Fire scenario, and some of the princess-related dialogue around scenarios 17–21 felt a bit confusing and unbelievable (more specific comments in the relevant threads). This campaign is very close to full marks, but due to those few lingering issues and the lack of any real epic blow-you-away maps I'm going to rate it 4 out of 5.
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