Sceptre of Life, version 0.12.1

[opensourcejunkie]

Okay, so I've got the first two scenarios working in 1.5. I rounded out some edges in scenario 2 while I was at it, specifically fixing that loophole that lastjuan found, among other things. I changed up the enemy a bit as well, so I may need some rebalancing tips. The campaign is on the 1.5 server now, and I won't be maintaining a 1.4 branch (too much hassle when you gotta update the entire thing by hand)

More updated scenarios to come,
--OSJ

Edit: There'll probably be a whole slew of bugs as I learn the nuances of 1.5; feel free to post them all here! There are a couple which actually reflect 1.5.7 bugs, though, so ignore the following:
1) incorrect profile pictures
2) missing dialogue (all dialogue should be present if using the <enter> key to advance. If you are pressing enter, then any missing dialogue is probably my fault, and feel free to report it)

[lastjuan]

At the start of the second scenario the narrator says:

So Derril departed once more, leaving Aeryn and Karah to tend the wounded[...]

I don't how to say it , but Karah is dead... About the loophole, I'm going to test it later... [Edited Jan18 0:33] Well, a very nice and elegant solution so no more big money bonus.... Well, you see... a agressive approach still works, but further tweaks should be evil

[opensourcejunkie]

At the start of the second scenario the narrator says:
Quote:
So Derril departed once more, leaving Aeryn and Karah to tend the wounded[...]


I don't how to say it , but Karah is dead...

*grins*. Yeah, I was wondering if that would be confusing. I was trying to portray things from Derril's perspective; he thought he was leaving both Aeryn && Karah, not knowing that she had died in the previous battle. Since it's confusing, I'll try to reword it; thanks for the heads up.

a agressive approach still works, but further tweaks should be evil

You're still able to get up there in 8 turns, and kill off the rest of the baddies in the fortress? I'm impressed . Any suggestion on how I tweak it to eliminate any realistic chance of this power play?

Thanks for the feedback,
--OSJ

[lastjuan]

You're still able to get up there in 8 turns, and kill off the rest of the baddies in the fortress? I'm impressed . Any suggestion on how I tweak it to eliminate any realistic chance of this power play?

You are physic or what ? Yeah, I had finished the scenario in eight turns, but I don't see that as a bad thing. For starters, it wasn't the piece of cake that it was with the previous version (I could include a replay, in case that you are interested). NOTE: if you feel like it's going to spoil this campgain thread I could send it to you directly.

Are you worried about the players having too much gold in the next scenarios? Put a limit like 350 or 400 in the next scenario and solved!

Do you feel like the players should play defensively until Smyrna arrives? Forbade the player of crossing the river. But if you do that you should know:

-At least I know a player which just sucks playing defensively. If there are more out there, they are going to be as frustrated as I was and they would eventually leave the campgain alone, specially since is only the second scenario (the emotional investement is not that high even with the epic first scenario). [RANT WARNING] I'm going to give you a couple of examples of dreadful scenarios from the mainline campaigns that I found distateful and had got me to leave the campgains alone (not to speak the things that I would like to do to the creators):

1) Infested Caves (Northern Rebirth): with a good amount of gold I couldn't kill any of the factions, much less to finish it. What is the point of that? Yeah you had designed a very difficult scenario. <sarcasm>That's great!</sarcasm> But if you aren't that great of a player you are OUT. Permantly. For ever. The message is loud and clear.

2) Evacuation (Eastern Invasion): so after after 10 or eleven missions you had a big and nice recall list. Well, said goodbye to most of them because I feel that the following scenarios should be too easier with them. So, I'm punished. <sarcasm> Thank you!</sarcasm>

Are you planning to go in that direction? If the answer is yes, I already tell you what I think (and feel). If the answer is no then you had some choices trying to avoid such a quick victory:

-At least in my strategy, the Silver Mage is capital to kill the boss enemy. You could change it for an Arch mage instead. The drawback is that you also punish the players that play defensively.
-In the map, there is a village near the signpost, I had used it to to approach the Silver Mage to the enemy camp. Without it, it's going to be harder to do it. I don't see any drawback for the defensive players.
- Put the enemy camp further away from the players ford. If the payer troops had to advance more turns before arriving to the enemies camp, they are going to suffer more losses. It's even possible that you cannot longer reach it with enough forces to kill the enemy leader by yourself. The drawback is that you give more time to the defensive player to put his units when he wants them.

Sorry for the long post (and rant) . But I really like the storyline of this campaign and I'd love to see it on the mainline. From what I had saw so far, it's worthy of that honor. Just my two cents.

[TrashMan]

1) Infested Caves (Northern Rebirth): with a good amount of gold I couldn't kill any of the factions, much less to finish it. What is the point of that? Yeah you had designed a very difficult scenario. <sarcasm>That's great!</sarcasm> But if you aren't that great of a player you are OUT. Permantly. For ever. The message is loud and clear.

Footpads and ruffians/bandits. They are great for holding positions due to high defense and blunt damage (vs. undead)


that said - very nice scenario. I especially liked the season changing/river rising

[opensourcejunkie]

Sorry for the long post (and rant) :oops: :oops: . But I really like the storyline of this campaign and I'd love to see it on the mainline. From what I had saw so far, it's worthy of that honor. Just my two cents.

Thanks! that's an encouragement :-).

To put it succinctly, my purpose in writing SoL is primarily to tell a story; providing compelling gameplay is secondary. So, anything that hinders the story from advancing (such as an excessively challenging scenario) needs to be corrected.

With Politician's Blunder, I'm really only trying to thwart the aggressive player because of technical/storyline reasons. I need the elves to rescue Derril/Aeryn. I could write a victory script that brings the elves in at the end if the player beats the scenario before they come. But the storyline would be clunky, and it's a bit of added work, too.

So mostly, I just want to force the player to play defensively this scenario until Eriad/Elrial step into the picture. That isn't too much to ask, right? Most of the scenarios are offensive ones, so players who do better defensively should have their chance to shine ;-).

But concerning the difficulty, I don't want to punish the poorer player; in fact, I'm not such a hot player myself. The campaign will be balanced for an easier difficulty, but still, my goal is not so much challenge as it is story.

So let me ask you, now that I've variegated the recruit list of the direwolf, do you think he has too much of an edge? I'm having a tough time beating it myself (at least without saveloading)

@Trashman:

that said - very nice scenario. I especially liked the season changing/river rising

Thanks!

--OSJ

[lastjuan]

With Politician's Blunder, I'm really only trying to thwart the aggressive player because of technical/storyline reasons. I need the elves to rescue Derril/Aeryn. I could write a victory script that brings the elves in at the end if the player beats the scenario before they come. But the storyline would be clunky, and it's a bit of added work, too.

So mostly, I just want to force the player to play defensively this scenario until Eriad/Elrial step into the picture. That isn't too much to ask, right? Most of the scenarios are offensive ones, so players who do better defensively should have their chance to shine .

I'm a fool. I should be realized that from a strict narrative point of view it makes no sense my agressive victories. I will try to give a honest defensive try and I would give you my opinion (not that useful IMHO).

So let me ask you, now that I've variegated the recruit list of the direwolf, do you think he has too much of an edge? I'm having a tough time beating it myself (at least without saveloading)

Actually, from what I saw he recruited less units than I remember and overall less Slayers.

[opensourcejunkie]

you're not a fool - you're a genius for finding the flaws in my software . And it's true, he does recruit fewer units; the units he does recruit, however, are more often level 2's. (and yeah, I specifically numbered the number of slayers he was allowed to recruit, 'cause they make the level so much harder.)

Edit: Scenario 3 is converted and rebalanced for 1.5; it's on the server now.

Edit: Scenario 4 is converted; no rebalancing necessary. It's on the server now.

[lastjuan]

I just finished scenario 2 playing defensively with no losses, so I think that is easy doable (now you would have to suffer the comments from the upper-half of comunity). Most of my units didn't level up but are very near so that is good too

Now to beat scenario 3 with less money than usual...

Edit: It's great that I could recall both of Elrial's Guards. They would be very useful later. Were they available before?

Greetings lastjuan

PD: I think that you are now in version 0.8.4, aren't you ?

[opensourcejunkie]

I just finished scenario 2 playing defensively with no losses, so I think that is easy doable (now you would have to suffer the comments from the upper-half of comunity). Most of my units didn't level up but are very near so that is good too :eng: :eng:

Well, actually, scenario 2 is the one people complain about the most (complain that it's too difficult), so hopefully it'll be all right now.

Now to beat scenario 3 with less money than usual...

Yeah, with the amounto of money that many villages would generate with 30+ turns to go, I can only imagine how rich you became ;-).

Edit: It's great that I could recall both of Elrial's Guards. They would be very useful later. Were they available before?

They were, but they were non-loyal scouts. Basically, I changed them to loyal fighters in response to your suggestion that I start to give the player more elves a little earlier. I don't want to give unrestricted recruiting of elves until scenario 5 (as before), but I thought that perhaps two loyal fighters might help to give the army a boost. I've also added recruitment of higher level elves like we discussed before; hopefully that'll be enough.

PD: I think that you are now in version 0.8.4, aren't you :P :P ?

Uhh, oops :-). I often forget to update the forum post title :-]

I should be finished with scenario 5 today, and possibly scenario 6.
--OSJ

Edit: Scenario 5 is converted and rebalanced for 1.5; it's on the server now.

[pinguinsteve]

Hi just wanted to say, that i managed scenario 2 with no losses and 2 lvlups, personally i think its challenging but not too difficult.

Just my 2c

[opensourcejunkie]

awesome,tx. (now I'm up to 4 cents!!! :-)
--OSJ

Edit Scenario 6 is up on the server; there's still a bug I'm waiting to fix though.

[lastjuan]

They were, but they were non-loyal scouts. Basically, I changed them to loyal fighters in response to your suggestion that I start to give the player more elves a little earlier. I don't want to give unrestricted recruiting of elves until scenario 5 (as before), but I thought that perhaps two loyal fighters might help to give the army a boost. I've also added recruitment of higher level elves like we discussed before; hopefully that'll be enough.

They are great ! Very useful, because both of them have taken the Captain path . The leadership trait is very useful in the first stages of builiding an elfish army. Also, this is the first time that I had reached the AMLAS for Aeryn. I'd be great if you could explain them a little because I didn't know what to make of them. About the recruitment, when Derryl finished with the saurians I had more than enough units to recruit any. BTW, in Alone Time why I have to recall Burin? It seems a bit strange because it won't happen in any other scenarios.

[opensourcejunkie]

Mm, I had one go to captain, and one to hero myself; man I love those heroes! Raw PoWeR!!! (yet still the elegant elves we all love :-)

Also, this is the first time that I had reached the AMLAS for Aeryn. I'd be great if you could explain them a little because I didn't know what to make of them.

Ooh, that's not a good sign; I'll have to work on rewording them. Here's a preliminary rewording; the words in parentheses tell you what the amla option does:

Code: Select all

Healing Runes (+3 Max HP bonus, Full Heal)
Steadfast Runes (+ability steadfast)
Combat Training (+1 damage to punch)

About the recruitment, when Derryl finished with the saurians I had more than enough units to recruit any.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think it's because I gave Derril (potentially) more starting units than he had before, so more of the level 1 elves he recruited survived. Derril's increased units came because I thought it would make more sense if units from Derril's guard which died in previous scenarios were replaced with new level 2 units for this scenario, so that his guard is back up to 10. But, I didn't subtract any of his gold; perhaps I should do so to account for the ridiculous unit boost we have in this version.

As an aside, the units that Eriad automatically "recruits" once Derril leaves aren't free units; they're paid for by the player. He just gets to recruit them off of the player's turn (to prevent getting slaughtered by orcs), if necessary.

BTW, in Alone Time why I have to recall Burin? It seems a bit strange because it won't happen in any other scenarios.

Yeah, I guess that is a little odd. Basically, the major goal of Alone Time was to give Aeryn && Elrial a little, well, alone time to begin getting comfortable with each-other, and starting up a little romance. I originally had Burin recalled automatically, but I felt that he was almost a third wheel, especially in the beginning parts. So one option was to send him with Derril && Eriad to start the battle at Etheran's Crossing. But Burin is something of a ridiculously loyal friend to Elrial, and in my mind, he probably wouldn't leave her side (she's the whole reason he's come on this excursion anyway). So, the other option was to simply not recall him, and let him play a back-burner role in the scenario.

Mm, I have an idea, though; maybe I'll recall him a couple turns in (if the player hasn't already), and throw in some dialogue about nobody waking him up, or something. I'll have to think about it; what do you think?

--OSJ

Edit: Scenario 7 is up on the server.

[opensourcejunkie]

Okay, the conversion to 1.5 is complete; scenario 8 is finished and roughly balanced as well. I started a rough draft on scenario 9's map; any feedback on it well be most appreciated :-)

Thanks!
--OSJ