The Sojournings of Grog (3.6.1 is out)

[Eros]

Version 3.6.1 of The Sojournings of Grog is available on the 1.16 add-ons server. Here there is the original post by Eros:

Hi, Welcome to the topic covering development, feedback etc for "The Sojournings of Grog" (TSoG). I am now no longert the developer of this campaign. Elvish_Hunter is the current maintainer and I am merely a humble advisor.

We are aiming for a 3.0 release for the 1.9.x series. The 3.0 release will be when we think the campaign is "done". Though this is a big undertaking we are nearly there and we hope to be releasing it shortly.

This campaign follows a "mainline policy". Though we can never dictate which and what campaigns enter mainline we are trying to make sure that this campaign fits with the guidelines as far as possible.

EDIT: Campaign feedback can now go in this topic.

Original Post:

We have posted the first chapter of a new campaign on the addon-server. It is fully playable and has 9 scenarios (7 playable and 2 story). There are no known major bugs. We would like feedback, comments, criticisms, praise, rants, etc. A new 'sane' name for the campaign is required.

Spoiler:

Grog (see: UTBS) journeys to his homeland. He has a series of adventures leeding up to a major confrontation of one of the last 'great' liches.

Please report all comments etc on this topic.

[Marz]

Posting to put my name as the co-developer of this campaign.

Also the dialogue is a WIP.

Please wipe your feet.

[StandYourGround]

I'm trying out your campaign... not bad. A nice challenge to go so far without recruiting, and you did a good job of making it very balanced...

...until the scenario "Homecoming".

Far as I can tell, the only realistic way to make this scenario beatable is remove the turn limit altogether. No matter if I try to rush past the first two dwarf leaders or fight them off, I will always arrive at Grog's village halfway through the turn limit, and I will be down to my last 10 turns before even meeting the undead leader. (i.e. if I take my time to kill the dwarf leaders, I simply arrive late, but if I rush by, I'm just as delayed fighting the dwarves that catch up to me.) My only two good fighting units were Grog and Elyssa, as the elves are simply too slow in caves. Suggestions to improve this scenario:

• Remove turn limit (a must)
• Add more elf friendly terrain or widen most of the choke-points.
• Or, add bonuses for elves to pick up that increase movement in cave terrain, perhaps magic rings dropped by defeated dwarf leaders.
• Maybe add another healer unit to Grog's elf group at the beginning of the campaign. This would make it more feasible to split the group up in two directions with a healer each, or at least allow the druid to be healed as well when villages are not available. It could even be a shaman to start with, so we have the challenge of leveling it up to be as useful as the druid.

[ydcl]

Nice campain, so far. Should I suggest "Return Grog's Home", as a "sane" title ? We doesn't need to fight all the time, just respect the "homecoming" objective.

[Deusite]

Standyourground: Believe it or not the elves already get a movement bonus Although it seems it isn't big enough. The paths were supposed to offset that slightly though, I'll look into that. It's also generally advised not to let Elyssa and Grog run off without the elves though.

I'll agree the fighter and captain are slow, 5 and not 6 MP is a big difference in a cave.

I noticed the turn limit was insane on my playtest, I didn't think to make it unlimited though because my brain broke =D

We planned to have rings of speed in a later scenario, but I'm sure I can move them here.

Can I ask what specific chokepoints you mean, and do you any saves I can look at?

Replays=1000 words

ydci: A rename will arrive in a few weeks when I see Eros again. Certainly something to do with a home will be in there.

[Eros]

I have returned!

Yes the homecoming is hard.

The trick is to leg it in the beginning and ignore the dwarves. We tried to make this obvious in the talk.

The side paths are longer I know.

We will change the turn limit (sometime before next release).

If you want you can just go straight to the next scenario as long as you pick up Krunk first.

Thanks a lot.

[docrock]

played it through on BfW 1.6.4, very nice and interesting campaign, i like the featuring of UtbS characters.
besides "Homecoming" no problems, there i had to up the turn limit to 100, then it was beatable. i generally went in the direction of building up a huge troll army over time and not using the elves at all (except in the scenario with the yetis for stopping the western orc in the open). the new lvl3 trolls just rock.
looking forward to the next parts already, great work.

[Eros]

Thanks thats what we (the developers) did.

homecoming (A2 in developer jargon) is hard but believe it or not it has been done in 71 turns without cheating! (Good work Mars )

[Marz]

Update: unlimited turn limit for the 'Homecoming'

[Halykos]

I tried to play the campaign but when I want to start the campaign I first get a runtime error and must close Wesnoth. When I restart Wesnoth and try again to begin the campaign, it tells me "unknown scenario: S1". Happens every time I download TSoG. I also already reinstalled Wesnoth (1.6.4 on Windows Vista 32 bit), all on default settings. Don't have this problem with any other campaign.

I hope your campaign sucks, so I don't miss much. Just kidding.

[wesfreak]

i also got an error message saying it was missing closing tags at X, followed by the unknown scenerio bit.

doesn't this create a time paradox, because according to the people from u.t.b.s. took the troll's side, but according to Invasion of the unknown they took the dwarf side?

[StandYourGround]

Clearly a "mirror universe". The trolls in UTBS didn't wear fancy hats, did they?

[Deusite]

You can ally with either the dwarves or trolls in UtBS. The whole idea of the campaign has to create a mirror universe. In the future, trolls have invented hats, they're clever like that.

I'll post an update for the campaign after I figure out why the server doesn't give me the option to update it.

Edit :: Version 1.0.3 is up. This fixes errors in the code that prevented a player from starting the campaign (and presumably scenario 7), as well as other small changes. Please update immediately, run along now.

[Eros]

Hi all: must apologise for errors. Version 2 with the second half should be up in under a month.

Just a few questians for feedback

1. The troll wizard, how does it perform and any ideas for improvement.
- The cold attack is a necessity. No giving away future plot but it involves drakes.
- The name "Troll Wizard" is a placeholder only and has any one got a better idea. (such as sage, magician, etc)

2. Can someone create a UTBS style portrait for Krunk. We are using the (future release) Troll Shaman one at the moment.

3. Currently we are unhappy with "The Deep Levels" (trade name A5). has anyone got any ideas.

4. We would like to add portraits to the desert elves. Would someone like to recolour the mainline elvish ones. Presumably using a filter on Adobe Photoshop.

[docrock]

The troll wizard, how does it perform and any ideas for improvement.

as stated, your new troll lvl3s just own. i liked them very much with the stats and attacks they had.
for a name: what about "Troll Occultist", would make sense to me that some of the trolls dig deeper into their holes than others and start talking to stones and performing stuff with ice (remember ice caves) and fire and that like. maybe they might even run across some dwarfish runes where they get some ideas for their magics.