The War of the Dragon

[Velensk]

You are not thinking of courtiers. They can float. Someone has already mentioned this (oddly enough by mentioning that you could reach all the critical points), and I've corected the maps so that if you have lost all your courtiers you can reach it.

Djinns and Genies are not entirly distinct, however I've always been under the impression that they were two simular, but not identical creature, and Efreet are in the same boat. Being myths, the lines have blurred over time, and very over author. One book I read had Djinns being the males, Genies being the females, and Efreet being high ranking djinns who control the sand storms. Another has Efreet as being evil, Djinns as being not evil (though selfish), and Genies as being good. And some stories completly ignore one more more of the names.

However in essence, A Djinn is a powerful spirit capable of strong magic. In most stories I've read, they are bound to a master who either freed them, or whoes ansestor preformed some service for them.

[Turuk]

That was me, as there is a little water way off to the right as you travel that leads around to the fire elemental, and can be traversed by a non-flying unit.

What you're thinking of is the word Jinn in Arabic. It is commonly mistaken as djinn, and when One Thousand and One Nights, or more commonly known as Arabian Nights, came to Europe, it was translated by a number of countries. The French did not know what to make of the word jinn, and so they took the Latin genius for myth, and used the word genie. It has since become dominant in the English language.

When you read One Thousand and One Nights, there are multiple types of Jinn, with Marid being the strongest, and then Ifrit (which is where Efreet come from) being the second in power.

The idea that "genies" are bound to a lamp is a common Western misconception based on popular culture. The actual story of Aladdin contains two jinn, a lesser one who lives in a ring and a greater one who is bound to the lamp. However, when making the movie, they wrote out the smaller jinn, replacing it with *drumroll* ...a flying carpet. But the point is that the lesser jinn helps Aladdin because it wants to, and the greater one because it is bound to by the lamp. One of the main characteristics of jinn is that they are supernatural beings or spirits who have free will.

[t3st3r]

You are not thinking of courtiers. They can float. Someone has already mentioned this (oddly enough by mentioning that you could reach all the critical points), and I've corected the maps so that if you have lost all your courtiers you can reach it.

Uhm, then it could be good idea to give hint that couriers are great for such tasks. Otherwise ... when playing with shroud and fog it is unknown for me how rough terrain is and how many enemies I will encounter. Those flying crystals are good for scouting due to low price and good movement and defense in any terrain. So I did not recalled couriers and rather hired few of these flying crystals. I found fire elemental but surely crystal was not capable to match conditions. Couriers are quite weak, have poor defense and not as universal in scouting. So I did not recalled any on this map and rather resorted to hiring few crystals.

Djinns and Genies are not entirly distinct, however I've always been under the impression that they were two simular, but not identical creature, and Efreet are in the same boat.

I never heard about different types of genies. In Russian language I'm aware about of Genies and Efreets (in Russian Genie sounds like "Djinn" but when "Djinn" translated to English, word "Genie" is usually used). I'm was not aware about different "genies". Actually not a big deal since there is "Drakes" in Wesnoth who partially resembles "Dragons". So I really not see any prob's with Djinns.

Being myths, the lines have blurred over time, and very over author. One book I read had Djinns being the males, Genies being the females, and Efreet being high ranking djinns who control the sand storms. Another has Efreet as being evil, Djinns as being not evil (though selfish), and Genies as being good. And some stories completly ignore one more more of the names.

Huh... I was not aware about such things. in English I encountered only "Genies" word. However I see no real prob's with this.

However, when making the movie, they wrote out the smaller jinn, replacing it with *drumroll* ...a flying carpet.

Hmm... in Russian translations (and even quite old ones from USSR times) there is flying carpet exists for unknown reasons. So, it is not movie makers to blame I guess. I'm doubt that movie makers capable of inventing flying carpets on their own. They probably just encountered same story version I'd read. It looks like this version of story quite popular.

[Velensk]

I didn't think I needed too. Courtiers float, so they can move over water. I thought it was rather obvious. Even if it's not, that is something I'm going to leave the player to find out.

Don't dismiss courtiers, they are quite usefull at times, and their lvled up forms have either good offensive power/speed, or a great deal of toughness. Their floating move-type may not allow them to go over rough terrain faster than crystals, but for everything else (including water) they are faster, tougher, have a ranged attack, and can lvl up beyound lvl 1.

[docrock]

so, i played "Broken Bridge" like 10 times with varying tactics. in 6 of 10 tries i lost due to Hawkens death. in 2 more it was close. he is an annoyance. i tried with recruiting shards. tried with recalling couriers. did everything to get to that castle and to protect him. yet those hammer-swinging little rats kill him with 2-3 strokes hit one turn before i even get there. and for god's sake, he doesn't recruit anything useful even if he has the gold. i got him once with 34 gold left and he did not even recruit a spearman. that might be a bug in the ai, but for sure, he needs some overhauling. just too unstable imho.

[Turuk]

I'll go back and replay it then to see if I just had good luck, but I won on my first play through. I made it to the castle in time to hold up the red forces, as well as push back the orange and black.

Part of it is sending your fastest units down the middle, but also sending some to the side so that instead of streaming towards Hawkin, some of the red and black forces move towards yours. Black went after me almost entirely, I caught red with my forces in the western grasslands in front of the castle, and orange was still stuck in the river and fighting Hawkin's troops.

[Velensk]

I've just played through it a couple times myself, and none of them had that problem. I asume you're talking about Hawken dieing in the first 6 turns, correct?

[t3st3r]

so, i played "Broken Bridge" like 10 times with varying tactics.

Hmm... strange. I had no major problems on this map (difficulty = normal). The only thing is that I need to hurry up a bit but I had some fast and powerful warriors so there was no real problems with this . Arrived "just in time" to save AI ass and while arriving, I delayed some enemies from kicking AI ass rather forcing it to fight with me. Arrived exactly when friendly AI has started to run out of soldiers so I arrived just in time to wipe out remaining enemies.

P.S. AI (especially friendly one) sometimes could perform stupid actions like attacking in bad conditions(suicidal attacks or attacks with bad loss vs gain ratio or simple bad time of day and horde of enemies vs few soldiers and poor defense). As far as I know there is options to tweak so AI will rather stick to defending it's leader if there is danger. Maybe AI should be tweaked a bit? However I had no troubles on this map at all, just because I kept 1st priority to arrive in time, so first kicks to AIs on the way were from fast soldiers and then they continued to move further while slower warriors eliminated remaining enemies...

[docrock]

I asume you're talking about Hawken dieing in the first 6 turns, correct?

exactly. the dude insists on hopping into the water most of the times for me followed by being hammered. guess i'll replay and try to get faster units this time.

[Velensk]

Err.... there is something wrong with your machine, or version or something. Hawken has the passive leader AI algorithim on him, and shouldn't move at all. He should stay on his castle. I had thought that you were talking about him getting all his troops killed and the enemy swarming him before you could arrive, but that sounds like a diffrent problem.

[Turuk]

Just to double check, I did a quick replay of that scenario and I noted that as well.

Even when moving to get a kill or to heal on a village would benefit him, Hawken never budges. I've also never had the problem of him using just melee attacks, which I think was noted earlier. I saw him use his ranged spell a number of times.

[docrock]

interestingly, i removed BfW 1.4.5 and did a clean install with 1.4.6 and the current version of your campaign and replayed from beginning on default difficulty. now everything Hawken worked like a charm and he did not show suicidal behaviour or a tendency to go swimming in the middle of battle.

[Velensk]

Alright, I've got a question for anyone testing my campain. So far most of the feedback has been on the first five senarios (including the one where you recruit), this is fine, but the problem is that those are the ones I've tested the most (The way under in particular has many hours of testing on it, because it gave me trouble, but I couldn't shake the feeling it was possible without loseing everyone). The ones I realy needed feedback for, where the last three whom I've only been through once, and only got through because of the craziest of luck. I'd replay those lvls myself if my saves hadn't been deleted. Does anyone have anything else to say about those three?

I've finished creating the senario after Battle with the unseen, and most of the one after that, but I've been hoping I could get more feedback before getting to deep, because another monster senario comes after that one.

[Turuk]

Have not gotten that far yet, but it's first on my to do list and I will get back to you with what you need.

Are you just trying to assess difficulty, potential bugs, anything like that?

[Velensk]

Both. I realy do not expect anyone to have the kind of luck I did on the fleeing the dragon senario, and I want my campain to be possible without excessive luck, but at the same time I want it to be very hard. Also would help if you tell me how many turns you get on Lisaundras stand.