SURVEY: A (Hopefully) More Accurate Popularity Contest

[anakayub]

Campaigns
What is your most favorite mainline campaign? Why?
I'm not an SP campaign player.

What is your least favorite mainline campaign? Why?
I'm not an SP campaign player.

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
World Conquest. Not much of a plot, but the cooperation and "power-ups" are interesting.

What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?
Unfortunately, World Conquest is the only campaign I play.

Factions and Eras
What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
I play none other.

What is your least favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
I play none other.

What is your favorite faction? Why?
Drakes. Hard hitting + mobility.

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
Undead. Too slow as a faction.

Units
What is your favorite unit? Why?
Drake Clasher. Versatile upgrading options.

What is your least favorite unit? Why?
Fencer. Other options are almost always more desirable.

What unit makes the best leader? Why?
Tie for Drake Flare/Lieutenant. There needs to be no explanation.

What unit makes the worst leader? Why?
Shock Trooper. Never gets to the front line, and thus useless.

[Aethaeryn]

Since Hurt and Heals have gotten heavily inaccurate results recently, and since people don't usually give (good) reasoning, I decided to post a totally different thread with the intent of getting better results.

You're missing the point on what Hurt and Heal is. It's merely a game. It's not scientific and was never meant to be. I find it funny that you say the results are "inaccurate" as the results aren't meant to be scientific anyway. Hard to judge the results of H&H since there's nothing to base it upon.

In HaH threads, the discussion wasn't usually that good and it always ended when the thread got locked at the end of the game.

Correct. So I'm glad it has spawned some discussion here, as H&H is simply a game. This is good!

I suppose what I would do here is attempt to capitalize on everyone's feedback — capture this data, point out things that stand out, and discuss and propose solutions to improve Wesnoth. Otherwise, what's the point?

I'm not saying HaH is bad. Rather, I'm saying that a nice side-effect of HaH (discussion) left me desiring for more discussion and opinion. This is best done in another type of thread. This is an attempt to get many different opinions on different subjects, many of which were raised in HaH threads. This is not a game and thus surely not meant to compete with HaH, but rather to expand on it.

[ancestral]

Aethaeryn: Awesomesauce!

[A-Red]

I can't really say much about the multiplayer or UMC-related questions, and don't have much useful to say about factions or units, but I'd like to weigh in on mainline campaigns.

Favorite mainline campaign:
The Rise of Wesnoth for a fantastic variety of levels and gameplay, and for making some good use of really common enemy factions without making them feel overused. The Hammer of Thursagan for the most well-told story and the coolest boss enemy. Liberty for my single favorite level, Glory. Descent into Darkness and Son of the Black Eye for interesting protagonists, more emphasis on character development than usual, interesting player factions, good gameplay and interesting levels. UtBS because, though I haven't played it yet and reserve judgment to some extent, it attempts so many completely new things that have not been seen in any other campaigns--units, setting/terrain, radical gameplay differences...But if you have to count just one campaign for the tally, my vote goes to SotBE.

Least favorite mainline campaign:
EI because few levels offer any variety at all. EI because the whole plot revolves around the heroes running away from danger and trying to live on a secluded island when the entire kingdom is in terrible danger and they're the only ones who know why. EI because the recruit list has four to five units and practically never changes. EI because the main villain is a horrible cliche. EI because one of its levels is so frustrating that many have quit playing the campaign, including many of us who have seen every other campaign we've played through to completion. Um...I think that's all. But really, something needs to be done about it. I've seen many times more *seriously* negative feedback on these forums (and this thread) with regard to EI than any other campaign. It's continually referred to with terms like Wall Banger and Idiot Plot. Something is wrong here. I'd love to see it removed, but I'd settle for seeing some work done on improving it, or failing that, at least some better balance on Evacuation.

[Deusite]

Can't...resist...

Campaigns
What is your most favorite mainline campaign? Why?
UtBS I think. A good story and very well written. The most original campaign as well, changing objectives and changing strategies in a scenario is always welcome. I really liked The South Guard as well, it is supposed to be only a beginner campaign, and it does an excellent job at doing that. The variation in different scenario objectives is refreshing as well.

What is your least favorite mainline campaign? Why?
Northern Rebirth, simply because the first scenario is long and ridiculously hard. I never got past the second. Peasants against orcs is no fun.

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
Ooze mini-campaign. It combines a lot of different genres. Survival, RPG and killing.

What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?
dunno

Factions and Eras
What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
Default, balanced and with shiny art. Most other eras hack in one or the other.

What is your least favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
dunno

What is your favorite faction? Why?
Drakes, extra über shiny art and big attacks. A shame about the undead though, dark adepts are almost too good. Trying to win against the undead with Ageless is impossible. Dark Sorcerer spam = fail

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
Loyalists seem a bit bland to me.

Units
What is your favorite unit? Why?
Watching a Yeti kill a level 2 skeleton with one hit is deeply satisfying.

What is your least favorite unit? Why?
Those godamn bats. *insert link to TV tropes here*

What unit makes the best leader? Why?
Elvish Captain. Leadership and good attacks, what else?

What unit makes the worst leader? Why?
Saurian Soothsayer/Oracle. Their hitpoints are pitiful, dismal and pitiful. Their attacks aren't especially strong either.

[Krellja]

Campaigns
What is your most favorite mainline campaign? Why?
HttT. This is maybe not very originell. I'm a semi-noob, played until now only six mainline campains. I just like the story and getting a variety of higt level units to recall. Hmm, I didn't like the underground levels so much.

What is your least favorite mainline campaign? Why?
None yet.

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
The ooze campaign. Nice idea and a quite wide variety of units in the last scenario. And the role-playig part was unusual but fun.

What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?
Story of th wose. At first I thought it being nice to play a wose campaign. But wose going underground? No. Or at least: Not for more than one scenario.

Factions and Eras
Did not play MP yet. All scenarios I played were default ers.
What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
What is your least favorite era (Default counts)? Why?

What is your favorite faction? Why?
No favorite yet.

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
No real dislikes yet.

Units
What is your favorite unit? Why?
I make heavy use of paladin, so they are probably my favorite units. I like their arcane attack.
My favorite scouts are grypon master. Fast and still quite tough.

What is your least favorite unit? Why?
Lancers. I do not understand those units. Why take these and not head for Paladins?

What unit makes the best leader? Why?
No idea.
What unit makes the worst leader? Why?
No idea

[MrEPIC]

Campaigns
What is your most favorite mainline campaign? Why?
My favorite mainline campaign is Legend of Wesmere, because some of the battles are fun and unique (the invisibility and the yetis come to mind) and the story is interesting.

What is your least favorite mainline campaign? Why?
My least favorite mainline campaign is Eastern Invasion, because the mage is a sissy and most of the battles are just kill the enemy leader. Oh, and the level where you need to blow up the bridge is horribly difficult.

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
My favorite add-on campaign is (excluding my 3 player multiplayer campaign The Haunted Woods) World Conquest. Although it lacks a story, the random generation of the scenarios is a plus which increases its replay value. However, if I could include my own, then The Haunted Woods would be my favorite, thanks to its interesting dialogue, hard but not impossible battles, and branches which also increase replayability.

What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?
I am unsure on this.

Factions and Eras

What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
Default era is definitely my favorite because of its good graphics and balance, and because I find it to be rapidly improving.

What is your least favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
My least favorite era is Era of Myths, because although it has been under development for a long time, the graphics are unpolished and it is not very balanced.

What is your favorite faction? Why?
This one is tough. I guess Knalgans are my favorite faction, due to the toughness and good movement of the dwarves combined with the cheapness and mobility of the outlaws and the variety of special abilities including berserk, steadfast, and backstab. The only disadvantage is a lack of a magical attack.

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
My least favorite faction is Northerners, not by much, but I dislike how much they rely the 2-strike attacks of the grunt and whelp. The ranged poison is really useful though.

Units

What is your favorite unit? Why?
My favorite unit is the thunderer because the sound and graphics on hit are so satisfying. Further, it also has good resistances and almost as many hitpoints as a fighter.

What is your least favorite unit? Why?
My least favorite unit is the goblin spearman because although its attack looks good on paper, the combination of bad traits and extremely low hp make it extremely weak, especially when a grunt only costs 3 gold more.

What unit makes the best leader? Why?
I think that the best leader is the Lieutenant. The combination of leadership, a ranged and melee attack, and 6 movepoints makes it useful on the front lines and quick getting back to base to recruit.

What unit makes the worst leader? Why?
The worst leader(s) are the saurian oracle and soothsayer. Their weaknesses and hp make it extremely easy to get killed. The defenses it receives are not much better than those of other units, and their healing is not very useful because it would force them to be too close to the front lines.

[wesfreak]

Campaigns
I'm not going to give anything for mainline campaigns because i haven't played any of them for a long time and have no particular favorite or least favorite.

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
ooze mini campaign, for its combination of genres and cool new units. the end left me wanting more. world conquest is a close second though, stopped by the lack of plot and the fact that so many people quit on before it gets to there turn. invasion into the unknown gets honorable mention.
What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?

i'd have to say brave wings, with a terrible plot (a lich invades a drake island, and midway through the fight turns all your guys to w.c. but still on your side and stay sentient for some reason. then a drake hunting party suddenly returns at the exact same turns with more guys to recruit and some more hero units who don't get turned into w.c. because they don't look into the liches eyes (i didn't even know liches had eyes....). the rest of the campaign is the new guys traveling to get a dwarven cure for undead-ness to revive the other drakes.) that, combined with gramer and spelling errors (hypocritical of me, i know) in speech and things that just don't make sense (you have to fly from an island to mainland and there fore can't recruit drake fighters, just clashers, even though clashers are the ones that don't fly.) stopped me from even bothering to finish it.

Factions and Eras
What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
probably Beem advanced. it has alot of variety with many different and interesting factions, as well as one of the only variations of undead in existence.
What is your least favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
war of chaos era, because it's too huge to possibly balance, and has a million traits that are all new and all rip offs of existing wesnoth traits. and pointless traits, like winged just because a unit can fly.
What is your favorite faction? Why?
I'd tell you but i'm not quite sure myself.
What is your least favorite faction? Why?
undead, because of their pwnage against me and my inability to use them very well
Units
What is your favorite unit? Why?
the elvish sylph, which, if I ever get it in gladiators (gambits gladiators) makes me unstoppable. slow is also nice if you want another unit to get the kill, or just want to kill something with gossamer to show off your awsome power. and it has great movement too, with its flight and good forest defense. the only downside is it's only impossible to get one in multiplayer.
What is your least favorite unit? Why?
probably the bat: they are one unit that can be used extremely effectively against me, with the bothering and the village stealing and the distracting my scouts, but one of the units that i can never use correctly doing the same thing to other people.
What unit makes the best leader? Why?
often depends on the circumstances, but either elvish avenger for both melee and range, as well as ambush which helps you escape if cornered and good speed for grabbing villages in big maps, or elvish captain for leadership in smaller maps. or elvish hero for good damage in rumbles.
What unit makes the worst leader? Why?
probably a revenant. undead have too many weaknesses for my taste, and a deathblade would do better damage.

[A-Red]

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
undead, because of their pwnage against me and my inability to use them very well

Interesting - I think they're my least favorite faction for the opposite reasons - I enjoy playing as undead a fair amount (though not as much as northerners or elves), but I really dislike them as enemies. I understand they're balanced for multiplayer, but I'm more of a campaign player, and I constantly face them as enemies while hardly ever being able to use them (DiD is a fun campaign for this reason). I think I came into the game expecting them to be balanced in a radically different way from other factions--that is, intended to be weaker individually but appearing in greater numbers, with abilities or lacks thereof based on complete raging mindlessness. Instead they're balanced at about the same strength as other units (unless you use Walking Corpse spam, which is admittedly pretty fun), which I think takes away a lot from their flavor and general appeal both as playable units and *especially* as campaign enemies--to the point where I'm designing an entirely new undead faction to make up for it.

[Gambit]

Campaigns
What is your most favorite mainline campaign? Why?
UtBS. It's the most different. I like outside of the box things.

What is your least favorite mainline campaign? Why?
Two Brothers: It's too short and has no story. As a spoiled actor might say "what is my motivation?"

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
Invasion From the Unknown. Only one I've played

What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?
I guess this one also has to be IftU even though I kinda liked it for the same reasons as UtBS. why? Because it's the only one I've ever played.

Factions and Eras
What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
GEB. It's an era. And I built it with everything I love from everywhere in wesnoth. Building, cool units and abilities, epic map, auto growing trees. It has a lot of freedom. Unlike 80% of the other eras you don't just have to fight.

What is your least favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
Imperial Era. I think it has a virus because it never uninstalls and it won't delete unless I restart my PC. I've tested it many times on two different PCs.

What is your favorite faction? Why?

folletto_cavalcatore_di_anfibi_difesa.png (6.96 KiB) Viewed 4592 times

These guys. Little known italian faction which I'm surprised more UMC's haven't cannibalized. They're all fully animated and they're riding frogs and rats! They've even got man eating plants and big foots who throw trees.

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
Dwarves. They're grouchy drunk midgets and a bunch of outlaws. What's there to love?

Units
What is your favorite unit? Why?
Rebel Marksman because they dish out some serious damage and can live through the enemys next turn of retaliation to tell about it.

What is your least favorite unit? Why?
Bats. Because they're occasionally hard to get rid of.

What unit makes the best leader? Why?
Elvish Ranger because when you're losing he can hide

What unit makes the worst leader? Why?
Woses. They're slow and they catch fire.

[Cloud]

Campaigns
What is your most favorite mainline campaign? Why?
Northern Rebirth, though I've never finished it.

What is your least favorite mainline campaign? Why?
Descent into Darkness. I just don't like the characterisation really

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
Never really played any

What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?
As above

Factions and Eras
What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
Default, it's one I've added most to and I can play it with a certain pride

What is your least favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
Probably one of the bad add on factions that comes out every so often by someone with no thought process.

What is your favorite faction? Why?
Dwarves, as I've done a lot of work for them. (Though it would be the Vaeringjar if they were released)

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
Any copy/paste/edit a few stats from mainline factions.

Units
What is your favorite unit? Why?
Either the Dragonguard or Lord, due to the art I've done for them.

What is your least favorite unit? Why?
Currently the Dwarvish Guardsman displeases me, but that's probably because he hasn't got a decent attack animation... yet

What unit makes the best leader? Why?
The random leader button. More fun that way

What unit makes the worst leader? Why?
Peasant. What you expected a real leader?

[Elvish_Pillager]

Campaigns
What is your most favorite mainline campaign? Why?
Heir to the Throne, if only because I've played it so much and because so much effort has been put into balancing it. Plus, even if it's still cliche-loaded, at least its dialogue holds together without sounding disjointed or making dwarf jokes all the time.

What is your least favorite mainline campaign? Why?
Legend of Wesmere. First scenario is an HttT rip-off except that it's less interesting because your leader and sidekick are both just L1 elves. Then a ton of randomly fighting stock enemies before you're given any idea of what the plot is. Also, misleading instructions in the second scenario. (Disclaimer: Some of these may have been fixed since I played it.)

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
A New Order. Simply put, it neatly avoids ALL the standard campaign design traps. There's a plot with a genuine purpose rather than just fantasy cliche, a variety of ways it feels less linear, opportunities to affect the events rather than just winning each battle, switching leaders and recruits so that you don't end up repeating the same battle tactics with the same high level units, etc.

What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?
IIRC, it was called The Heist. It sucked. The maps were all huge, and a lot of them were gratuitous huge battles (which were also easy). There was one puzzle map that I didn't figure out, but which was pretty much impossible to fail at, so it was basically just a waste of time. Also, very little dialogue, no clear plot, and bad writing.

Factions and Eras
What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
Gotta be Era of High Sorcery, because I love throwing around spells on top of my army battles. Now, it is my own era, but I love it

What is your least favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
The Spacenoth era, yarr. No interesting abilities or movetypes! No ranged attacks! Never finished developing! Not usable on normal maps! I'm sure there are plenty of other worthless eras, but Spacenoth is the one I could come up with off the top of my head.

What is your favorite faction? Why?
Well, it used to be Undead when bats were ridiculously overpowered, then it was Undead when bats were mildly overpowered, then it was Undead when ghosts were ridiculously overpowered, then it was Undead when ghosts were mildly overpowered, and now it's Undead.

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
Drakes. They make no damn sense, and they take a lot of leeway out of map design.

Units
What is your favorite unit? Why?
Knights... they are the Swiss army knife of campaign play (when you have them). It's hard (for me) to justify naming anything but the Knight.

What is your least favorite unit? Why?
Troll Rocklobber. Not awesome when you have them, and risky to fight against. Also doesn't really do justice to Troll personality.

What unit makes the best leader? Why?
Lieutenant. Fast, decent melee and ranged to discourage enemies from attacking it, and Leadership, which is cool because you can use it mid-move and also at one hex farther than normal attacks (both of which free up the leader to move around, which is important.) Plus, they lead Loyalists, which are my second favorite faction behind Undead, because of the diversity of their recruits.

What unit makes the worst leader? Why?
Boat, because it has only one hitpoint and can't move.

Real answer: Trapper. Not fast, no special abilities, and can't function either as a tank or as a cannon in combat.

[SpenceLack]

What is your most favorite mainline campaign? Why?
Descent into Darkness because there is a lot of emphasis on storyline and character development. It's one of the few campaigns I've played in which I wanted to beat the current scenario just to see what happens next in the storyline. Northern Rebirth sort of tries this as well but I think DiD executed it better due to more screentime being devoted to fewer characters.

What is your least favorite mainline campaign? Why?
Two Brothers. It isn't a bad campaign mind you, but I felt the storyline was very weak. The last level in particular seemed tacked on for no other reason than to make the campaign longer.

What is your most favorite add-on campaign? Why?
There's a lot of good ones out there. Right now I'm playing through Dark Alliance and enjoying the nonlinear gameplay. A Rough Life had a decent story and some unconventional gameplay. I created Ooze Mini-Campaign so I definitely enjoy that. Fate of a Princess also had some nice unconventional gameplay though it was very difficult.

What is your least favorite add-on campaign? Why?
There are many add-ons on the server that won't work due to bugs.

What is your most favorite era (Default counts)? Why?
Haven't played enough of these to form an opinion.

What is your favorite faction? Why?
Elves. Everyone's got a ranged attack and decent mobility which favors the hit and run tactics I like to employ.

What is your least favorite faction? Why?
Orcs. They rely too much on brute force melee attacks. Those melee attacks do a lot of damage but you only get a few of them and if you miss you're in trouble.

What is your favorite unit? Why?
Horseman. They are great scouts, village grabbers, and blockers due to their high move and hit points. Their charge attack is devastating, particularly to missile troops.

What is your least favorite unit? Why?
Footpad. Horrible attack and defense, even at night. The only thing they are good at is scouting and thieves (who have a decent attack) can do that almost as well.

[santi]

Spencelack wrote:

"What is your least favorite unit? Why?
Footpad. Horrible attack and defense, even at night."

You should then really try to win NR 2nd scenario without them(at least on hard)
Then try with them and note the difference.

Other than that, I'm not sure what the point of this contest is: Some people detest what others like. Personally, I like long interesting campaigns, with a lot of variety in who you fight, where and why. Others find that boring. So it is important to keep both, so as to please as many as possible. If someone does not like a campaign, always remember: You don't have to play it.