To Lands Unknown 3.9

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Konrad2
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by Konrad2 »

shevegen wrote: July 24th, 2021, 3:21 pm I think I missed how the campaign was created... I don't even know when it was started?
2018? Before that?
Considering that the first post of this thread is dated on 2010, I'd say it was started before 2018.
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inferno8
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by inferno8 »

shevegen wrote: July 24th, 2021, 3:21 pm If anyone who was involved in creating that campaign (To Lands Unknown) ever has the time and
hasn't done so, it would be nice for newcomers to read how the campaign was created/maintained/changed
over time. I know Inferno8 was inactive for some time (I think ... but good to see he is llurking on the
forum still). I think I missed how the campaign was created... I don't even know when it was started?
2018? Before that?
I began working on To Lands Unknown a few months after the official release of Era of Magic in 2009. I wanted TLU to be something different, something brand new. I read entire wml reference page and found this incredible article by Ayin. Then I used this knowledge to run some experiments. If I am not mistaken the stable BfW version at that time was 1.2. Here's an ancient screenshot of one of these experiments taken on 22 May 2009.
mur-alkamija.png
(As you can see, my monitor had pretty low resolution at that time (1024x768) which was the standard back then)

The multihex terrain trick was already a feature of Wesnoth 1.2 - the thing was no one tried using this feature on such a scale as I did those 12 years ago. Once I had those multihex maps working I built a story around them. I came up with ideas for different places I wanted to show, drew them as mutlihex maps and then wrote a story based on those images. Of course it was a bad idea - I should have done writing first then make maps. Nevertheless the story has evolved much in those 12 years and know I feel it is quite decent for an add-on. It took me almost a year and a half to release the initial version of the campaign in 2010.

@shevegen: If you want to learn more about TLU, see this post.
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Konrad2
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by Konrad2 »

Ka-Gatta
Items taken for 'later' leave their halo on the map.


It seems that for some units recalling them is not something you can undo. So far that seems to affect summoners and advancements, and all my magical creatures. Is that a known issue?

Tar-Tabar
gates they are -> gates are

Abyssal Rebellion
barely gives us -> barely give us
',' -> ', '
',' -> ', '
',' -> ', '

Replays
Spoiler:
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inferno8
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by inferno8 »

To Lands Unknown 3.2 Beta 2 is out!*
*only for BfW 1.15.15+ (1.16)

Do note that this is the beta version of the add-on. It needs to be thoroughly tested, before it becomes the final 3.2 release. Feel free to try this version and report any errors or "code deprecation" warnings appearing in-game. You need the latest Era of Magic, which is currently 3.4 Beta 3.

I'd like to thank Konrad2 and white_haired_uncle for feedback :) This release focuses mostly on their findings but there are also a few interesting additions/tweaks.

Known issues:
- the 'allow undo' feature has been enabled for recalling units, but it may require additional testing. Some moveto events are not supported yet.

Full changelog:

Code: Select all

Version 3.2 Beta 2
- Scenarios
	> scenario 01 - Highest Tiers:
		* Aerius puts air elementals right behind him (instead of in front of him), when escaping
		* if player manages to catch Aerius on his way to the palace doors, force chance to hit to 0
	> scenario 04 - Southern Nations:
		* tweaked ai to prevent side 2 from attacking summoners
		* temporarily disabled the jinni check message after getting Efreet
		* badass mode: Jaffar's troops actively protect the circle (removed the guardian status)
	> scenario 06 - Fire Canyon:
		* fire elementals (all lvls) trigger the enemy alarm now
	> scenario 08 - Ka-Gatta:
		* fixed halos still being visible for taken items
	> scenario 17 - Siege of Kharos:
		* reduced ai lag by turning some unimportant units into images
		* time over results in a defeat
		* decreased gold for all sides to lower the number of units on the map
		* added more gold to enemy if player or ally gets too close
		* made enemy ignore Rashti halves
	> scenario 20 - Enlightenment:
		* improved one of Mehir's lines of dialogue
	> scenario - 19 Sky Kingdom:
		* increased turn limit by 5 on easy difficulty
		* slightly reduced enemy gold amount on easy difficulty

- General
	* undoing recall is now possible (except for the last two playable scenarios)
	* improved the meditation ability description
	* minor improvements to maps
	* fixed typos

- Translations
	* updated the raw translation file
	* updated the Polish translation
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Nuka_Cola
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by Nuka_Cola »

This campaign has caught my interest in early 2014 or so and up till today it has been one of the best three campaigns I have ever played, enjoyed and loved.
Replaying it today, after so many years of development was like seeing completely new game... And my opinion has not changed. Thank you very much.
shevegen
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by shevegen »

Agreed. \o/
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iridium137
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by iridium137 »

In the first scenario, there's a message that says that your units cost no upkeep. However, it seems like leveling them up breaks this. I've attached some screenshots.
At the start, I have 4 income.
After leveling water elemental to water avatar, I go from 4 income to 2 income.
After leveling dimensional gate to air elemental, I go from 2 income to 1 income.
After leveling novice summoner to dispeller, I go from 1 income to -1 income.
Also notice that in the screenshots, I have leveled up another dispeller before, but that doesn't cost me any upkeep, but these later levelups did for some reason.
Attachments
After leveling water elemental to water avatar, I go from 4 income to 2 income.
After leveling water elemental to water avatar, I go from 4 income to 2 income.
At the start, I have 4 income.
At the start, I have 4 income.
After leveling novice summoner to dispeller, I go from 1 income to -1 income.
After leveling novice summoner to dispeller, I go from 1 income to -1 income.
After leveling dimensional gate to air elemental, I go from 2 income to 1 income.
After leveling dimensional gate to air elemental, I go from 2 income to 1 income.
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inferno8
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by inferno8 »

@iridium137: Hello and thank you for this detailed report (I really appreciate such detailed reports). The issue you encountered will be fixed in the next update :)

Speaking of updates, today I am going to talk about a very interesting feature of the upcoming TLU 3.2 Final. The whole add-on is currently in a beta stage, but there are two big features still missing. I am going to give you all a glimpse of one of those things - and this is something truly unique. Let me present you...

The completely revamped interactive TLU world map:
tlu-map-promo1.jpg
As you can see, it is no longer a flat image, but a 3d render depicting not only a map itself but the whole wooden desk too. Typically wooden desks are really, really boring, but not in TLU 8) In fact that desk ...is more important than the map itself! :D How's that even possible? Because this desk reflects player's achievements in form of various items placed on it.
Here's an example: imagine the main protagonist finding a cool artifact during his journey. This artifact will now be placed on the very desk right next to the map. But there is more to that! The wooden desk can also show unit-specific items. If you acquire a Jinni at some point, you will see a shiny golden lamp just lying there. If you advance one of your Summoners to a Grand Summoner/Heavy Summoner/Neutral Summoner - you'll get a fancy gold coin with a corresponding glowing magical circle put on top of it. But if you lose that Summoner, the coin will disappear too. If you manage to get all 3 Summoner types, you'll see 3 different coins. You can get various combinations based on the composition of your units from previous scenarios. That way the desk reflects your entire progress:
tlu-map-promo2.jpg
I am still testing this and I must say, the whole map screen has never been as cool as it is now, you will love it! ;)

All of that was possible to create thanks to a brand new feature of Battle for Wesnoth called resize_with_background introduced in 1.15.7. So I'd like to thank developers for implementing this because it opens up new possibilities for content creators to make story screens much more interesting :)

To Lands Unknown 3.2 is coming soon. Stay tuned for more updates.
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by inferno8 »

To Lands Unknown 3.2 Beta 3 is out!*
*only for BfW 1.15.15+ (1.16)

Do note that this is the beta version of the add-on. It needs to be thoroughly tested, before it becomes the final 3.2 release. Feel free to try this version and report any errors or "code deprecation" warnings appearing in-game. You need the latest Era of Magic, which is currently 3.4 Beta 4 along with its "Resources" dependency add-on versioned 1.2.1.

This is the first release to feature the new world map as well as the special system of interactive map elements reflecting players' collected items, units and story progression. This innovative feature was described in the previous post - now you have a chance to finally see it in action. I assure you it is awesome :)

If everything goes well, I will make the next release a final version of the 3.2, which will include improved story images and a few other interesting additions.

Full changelog:

Code: Select all

Version 3.2 Beta 3
- General
	* added the new world map; removed the old one
	* implemented the special system of interactive map elements reflecting players' achievements

- Scenarios
	> scenario 01 - Highest Tiers:
		* units cost no upkeep even after leveling up

- Code
	* fixed incorrect image names
	* removed a redundant quickfix for the unknown conditional bug
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by Konrad2 »

Southern Nations claims that the gold carryover in the other scenarios is 100%, which is untrue. (See 'Near the Jungle' or 'Goddess of all Rhami'.)

EDIT:
Spear of Rhami doesn't advance the unit if it's given upon a recall.

EDIT 2:
If I'm seeing this correctly, only some items show up in the interactive worldmap. Would you mind listing which items are supposed to show up, so I know if it's a bug or not when something is missing?
FTR, yes, it looks awesome so far.
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iridium137
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by iridium137 »

On Southern Nations, the AI often spends like 5-10 seconds thinking before making a move. On a big battle like this, it's quite time-consuming.
This only happens in the latest version (BfW 1.15.15, TLU 3.2 beta). I also have BfW 1.14.5 installed with TLU 3.1.3, and it doesn't happen there.
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inferno8
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by inferno8 »

iridium137 wrote: August 17th, 2021, 7:41 am On Southern Nations, the AI often spends like 5-10 seconds thinking before making a move. On a big battle like this, it's quite time-consuming.
This only happens in the latest version (BfW 1.15.15, TLU 3.2 beta). I also have BfW 1.14.5 installed with TLU 3.1.3, and it doesn't happen there.
If I am not mistaken BfW 1.15+ uses a new AI, so this might be somehow related to the lag you encountered. Interestingly the targeting AI in that scenario is set to simple_targeting=yes to reduce damage calculations, but it looks like the impact of this setting is marginal in 1.15. (Btw, the lag in Siege of Kharos was so severe in 1.15 that I had to change some units into static images to fix it) :whistle:
Konrad2 wrote: August 15th, 2021, 5:41 pm If I'm seeing this correctly, only some items show up in the interactive worldmap. Would you mind listing which items are supposed to show up, so I know if it's a bug or not when something is missing?
Not all items are supported - it would be too many of them cluttering the whole screen. But I am planning to implement a "replacement" system (in case player loses a unit with a specific artifact, it will be replaced on the map screen with another one as long as it is available). Here's the full list of supported items/units/events as of Beta 3 (18 total):
Spoiler:
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Konrad2
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by Konrad2 »

inferno8 wrote: August 17th, 2021, 9:34 am Not all items are supported - it would be too many of them cluttering the whole screen. But I am planning to implement a "replacement" system (in case player loses a unit with a specific artifact, it will be replaced on the map screen with another one as long as it is available). Here's the full list of supported items/units/events as of Beta 3 (18 total):
So far nothing seems to be missing.

Sadly, in Atiros tale before 'Defense of Saffiros' the interactive map is not used. :C It's only brought out for tracking your way on the map.
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inferno8
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by inferno8 »

Konrad2 wrote: August 17th, 2021, 10:09 amSadly, in Atiros tale before 'Defense of Saffiros' the interactive map is not used. :C It's only brought out for tracking your way on the map.
Story screens are going to receive a major overhaul in the 3.2 Final. Some of the current ones are more than 10 years old and lack high quality of other TLU assets, that's why I want to paint them from scratch. Soon I'll post some examples of the improved art, so stay tuned. ;)
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Re: To Lands Unknown - 3.2 Beta - now on GitHub!

Post by Tarcil »

This is one of the campaigns I always love to play once in a time, bc. it always change to get even better. And apart of this, I REALLY like the setting and the factions etc.
But rather I would be curious to see if the story continues. The universe is really cool and I would love to discover what Al-Kamija has to face in the Abyss...
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