The Devil's Flute - version 0.1.4c

[alex_kr]

lipk

So,if I'll stand my ground long enough,eventually all members of my recall list will arrive?The problem is,most of it consist of level 1...maybe I should just re-load last turn of the previous scenario and dismiss most of them.
Thanks for the fast answer,I will try my best
PS:Cheating is NEVER an option.
PPS:Iron Maiden sure gives motivation to anyone to do anything))listening to Dream of Mirrors solo part right now.IT"S TIME TO ROCK!!!

[lipk]

So,if I'll stand my ground long enough,eventually all members of my recall list will arrive?

Errr... not exactly. On Hard, you'll get exactly 2 units in turns 1, 5, 9, 13 and 17. That makes up a total of 10 units. If it's not enough to beat the scenario and you don't want to cheat (which is something I do welcome), you might want to replay scenario 3. It's a lot easier once you know all the surprises beforehand and take them into account. You might be able to get some level threes and a lot of level twos this way. And don't give up, scenario 6 is the last one which is more or less balanced, after that the campaign becomes ridiculously easy

[Heindal]

Just finished your campaign. Good story and nice scenario design. If you could add some pictures and background images in the storyline, the campaign would be perfect. Extra amla would be nice too, but are no musthaves as this campaign has shown.

I wanted to add two tiny little things that can be changed: when Creona receives the grenades, you should set the object to silent, otherwise an empty message appears. In the last level, some of my units stuck when I reached the circle with all three heroes. They were trapped in the void - its not a big deal, but I wanted to mention it. It was the only time that units were trapped in this campaign.

One more wording thing: When Basyl tells Creona about Meryl it appears that you mixed up "He's" with "His". I'm not quite sure which scenario it was.
Maybe 4 or 5.

[lipk]

I'm glad you liked it.

Just finished your campaign. Good story and nice scenario design. If you could add some pictures and background images in the storyline, the campaign would be perfect. Extra amla would be nice too, but are no musthaves as this campaign has shown.

I'd like to have story images, too, but I just couldn't find proper images which are consistent in style as well. For me, it's everything or nothing.

I wanted to add two tiny little things that can be changed: when Creona receives the grenades, you should set the object to silent, otherwise an empty message appears.

I thought I did that. Anyways, I will make sure that it's fixed.

They were trapped in the void - its not a big deal, but I wanted to mention it. It was the only time that units were trapped in this campaign.

Yeah, that has been already reported multiple times. It's being worked on... are it least I'm aware that it should be worked on.

One more wording thing: When Basyl tells Creona about Meryl it appears that you mixed up "He's" with "His". I'm not quite sure which scenario it was.
Maybe 4 or 5.

Will look it up, thanks for reporting.

[MetalKing]

TDF is a funny Campaign I like for fresh Ideas. Eg. the Cave-Matter with switching Runes to set the Path I like due to its Nature of Adventure. I did hope to recruit directly in the Pub some Guys resp. some special Guys. Nice Campaign IMO.

I will try the new Version

[tr0ll]

Hi! I really liked playing this campaign (in 1.11.0). I am attaching some suggestions for changes in the text. Some are spelling, some grammar, some to make the dialogue more idiomatic english. There is a bit of overlap with the above comments by other players, but i hope the diff format will be useful to you.

[tr0ll]

part 2 of text suggestions (the forum will not let me attach more than 5 at once)

[lipk]

Thanks! I'll look into it, however, a full text revision is already in the works, so it's possible that they won't get included in any actual release. But either way, it'll be good for me to learn from

[homunculus]

played the campaign on normal difficulty, was quite entertaining, with a consistent level of mild situational humor throughout the campaign.

(i am not an english-speaker, so the text suggestions might be wrong)
01:
"[...]and got the Wesnothian King to lay one of the greatest bounties ever seen on her head."
from what i understand about related phrases (i may be wrong), it sounds like the bounty was visible on creona's head.
"[...]and got the Wesnothian King to lay on her head one of the greatest bounties ever seen."

02:
the statement about the team being weakened sounded overly sentimental as i had several level 2 units in the recall list, so the team had really become stronger.
what's wrong with just recruiting some more people for a job?

the first room door appeared open in the start before i moved near it, but there was shadow in the room, and when i moved next to it, nothing happened, unlike with the other doors.
there was some confusion, because i couldn't enter the merman's room without visiting the dwarf.
the dwarf's words were in the list of all answers, though.
looked in script and found that there was not two but just one location to open the door.
when i moved unit on that hex, the shadow was cleared, and it was ok, but the point of the puzzle was lost.

03:
northernmost hex of creona's camp is not usable.

could benefit from analogy with carrying the book in "descent into darkness" scenario "alone at last".
the teleporting (they were animated as movement, i know) nagas and saurians were rather unpleasant tomato surprises in my opinion.

"Big part of the city's defense structures are now nothing more than underwater ruins. On the other side, the flood seems to be exhausted now - it just silently pours over the streets."
i think the expression is "on the other hand".

04:
Creona is on her way to hide in the northlands, but is not really secretive about herself while talking to a stranger.

06:
if i push a zombie onto my own unit, my unit gets not pushed but destroyed.

07
"Have you listened to our mother's benevolent warnings, you wouldn't have ended up like this. I'm going to return to my home now to mourn you for a year."
i think it should be:
"Had you listened[...]"

"Basyl! My poor, errand brother!"
should be:
"[...]errant brother!"

"No, this way we can leave your garden."
i guess you meant:
"No, this way we can get past city guards."

08:
is the ghost leader (the wraith) supposed to leave its keep to capture a village, and then come out in the open to the 3 hex camp which gets completely blocked by skeletons so the wraith cannot recruit at all?
if it is, then there could also be some dialog about it.
wraith: why are you blocking my keep?
skeletons: because you left your post at the gate.

grenades to creona at a later turn than the start was a little tomato surprise, because i had already distributed the holy water to units that didn't have a good attack type against undead.
and in the next scenario it looked like i lost some arcane damages because i didn't give them all to creona, basyl and merlyn (i didn't find the arcane damage unit in my recall list).

09:
the initial message about not recruiting too much was bit confusing, i guess it was more about upkeep really.
one of my units appeared over the edge at coordinates (24, 9).

edit: corrected typos in "the first room door appeared open in the start before i moved near it, but there was shadow in the room".

[lipk]

Thanks for your comments!

"[...]and got the Wesnothian King to lay one of the greatest bounties ever seen on her head."
from what i understand about related phrases (i may be wrong), it sounds like the bounty was visible on creona's head.
"[...]and got the Wesnothian King to lay on her head one of the greatest bounties ever seen."

I'm not sure about that one, the current phrasing is already a replacement suggested by someone with better English skills than me.

the statement about the team being weakened sounded overly sentimental as i had several level 2 units in the recall list, so the team had really become stronger.
what's wrong with just recruiting some more people for a job?

You have a point there, I may modify the text.

the first room door appeared open in the start ()but there was shadow in the roll, and when i moved next to it, nothing happened, unlike with the other doors.
looked in script and found that there was not two but just one location to open the door.
when i moved unit on that hex, the shadow was cleared, and it was ok except the door.
there was some confusion, because i couldn't enter the merman's room without visiting the dwarf.
the dwarf's words were in the list of all answers, though.
looked in script and found that there was not two but just one location to open the door.
when i moved unit on that hex, the shadow was cleared, and it was ok, but the point of the puzzle was lost.

Yeah, that puzzle is rather buggy, the best fix would be a complete rewrite. Hopefully I can get myself to do it somewhen.

could benefit from analogy with carrying the book in "descent into darkness" scenario "alone at last".

What do you mean?

"Big part of the city's defense structures are now nothing more than underwater ruins. On the other side, the flood seems to be exhausted now - it just silently pours over the streets."
i think the expression is "on the other hand".
...
"Have you listened to our mother's benevolent warnings, you wouldn't have ended up like this. I'm going to return to my home now to mourn you for a year."
i think it should be:
"Had you listened[...]"
...
"Basyl! My poor, errand brother!"
should be:
"[...]errant brother!"

Ok.

Creona is on her way to hide in the northlands, but is not really secretive about herself while talking to a stranger.

Hehe, true. On the other hand, Jack isn't talking like "who are you", but rather "ah, you're Creona, right?". There's not point in denying her identity, really.

if i push a zombie onto my own unit, my unit gets not pushed but destroyed.

Hmmm, that shouldn't happen. What is your Wesnoth version?

"No, this way we can leave your garden."
i guess you meant:
"No, this way we can get past city guards."

I meant what I wrote, I don't really understand what's wrong with that sentence.

is the ghost leader (the wraith) supposed to leave its keep to capture a village, and then come out in the open to the 3 hex camp which gets completely blocked by skeletons so the wraith cannot recruit at all?
if it is, then there could also be some dialog about it.
wraith: why are you blocking my keep?
skeletons: because you left your post at the gate.

Nope, it's definitely not intentional. Again, which release are you playing on?

the initial message about not recruiting too much was bit confusing, i guess it was more about upkeep really.

I don't know, I would really hate to navigate ~20 units through that puzzle. You would either have to wait a lot for slower ones or leave them behind.

one of my units appeared over the edge at coordinates (24, 9).

This is a known bug, I'm "working" on it.

the teleporting (they were animated as movement, i know) nagas and saurians were rather unpleasant tomato surprises in my opinion.
...
grenades to creona at a later turn than the start was a little tomato surprise, because i had already distributed the holy water to units that didn't have a good attack type against undead.

Others have complained about tomato surprises as well. Frankly, I can't help it - I'd simply hate to sacrifice plot elements for the sake of balance

and in the next scenario it looked like i lost some arcane damages because i didn't give them all to creona, basyl and merlyn (i didn't find the arcane damage unit in my recall list)..

You mean that your arcane units surely got lost or you just didn't find them? (The arcane attack should be visible in the recall dialog).

I'm happy you enjoyed the campaign!

[homunculus]

game version 1.11.0.

checked things again, and to a considerable extent my previous post is indeed confusion on my part:

02:
the first door (to the dwarf) appeared open because of the placement relative to walls (there probably is no north-south direction of the door image).
the door would appear "more closed" if it was one hex south-east.
and the whole first visit part could be scripted as a cutscene, so you wouldn't need to deal with the complications at all.

06:
my unit was destroyed when i pushed the walking dead towards it because my unit was pushed out of the map.
tried both cases and indeed my units move, and when i push creona out of the map the game ends with defeat (which is also a good thing in that case).

09:
about creona confirming her identity to jack, after thinking a bit more about it, i came to the same conclusion as the dialog currently says.
somehow, i didn't pay enough attention to the "hmmmmm..." part while playing.

then i thought that maybe the words of jack could be different: "are you the lady known for her talent at helping people in need, for a certain fee? creona by the name, aren't you?" (maybe it could be made to sound even more like a prostitute)
but that would be too smooth for jack, considering what the dialog develops into.

(those were the cases where i am sure i was needlessly confused)

03:
about the tomato surprises here:
the nagas are ridiculously far away and they didn't do much before the teleport in the flood event.
maybe the nagas could be closer from the start, and could reach the battle because of better movement in the water without such teleport, though not sure if that would work.
or the naga leader could say at the previous turn: "the city is about to get flooded, prepare to relocate upstream."
the saurian teleport was less of a problem because it didn't result in instant death of any of my units.

could benefit from analogy with carrying the book in "descent into darkness" scenario "alone at last".

What do you mean?

in that scenario, the book appeared as a halo on unit that carried it, and dropped on the ground to be picked up again when the carrying unit died.
having played descent into darkness i was a bit surprised at someone else killing the wizard resulting in instant defeat.

looking at the script, i saw: "Great! The flute is now in safe."
could be: "Great! We have secured ourselves the flute."

06:
"I have a bad feeling that we won't get our well-merited relax!"
could be: "[...]our well deserved rest!"

07:

"No, this way we can leave your garden."
i guess you meant:
"No, this way we can get past city guards."

I meant what I wrote, I don't really understand what's wrong with that sentence.

i see no garden there, neither a garden for growing vegetables nor a garden for growing flowers.
is there supposed to be a garden somewhere?
if it is meant like: "this way to get out of the door of your house" it sounds bit inappropriate to say "this way" for basyl in the first place, as it is not basyl's house (or the suddenly implied invisible garden around the house).
pointing in some other direction but the main gate to leave the town would be expected, though.

and there was this thing about the name merlyn, is it merlyn and not merlin because it was supposed to look similar to basyl?

08:
"Just through my dead body."
as far as i know, the expression is: "Over my dead body."

09:

the initial message about not recruiting too much was bit confusing, i guess it was more about upkeep really.

I don't know, I would really hate to navigate ~20 units through that puzzle. You would either have to wait a lot for slower ones or leave them behind.

after reading that message, i didn't recruit anything at all.
this is because i thought the circle rune would probably turn into a camp when i fulfill the objective of reaching it.
it was much quicker when i recruited a few fugitives to help me out along the way to the circle, and much easier to deal with amadeus.
the initial camp could be smaller, though.

some general thoughts:
maybe my difficulty level was too low, but the game did not force me to slip through enemy main front using the skirmisher ability (except a bit in "agent jack" maybe).
and also, i didn't notice much benefit from the fugitive's hide ability either.
if such things would have been rewarded more, it would probably have added more special flavor to the campaign.

I'm happy you enjoyed the campaign!

well, yeah, it did feel very refreshing, and as if the story had been specifically designed to meet my personal preferences and was very good at achieving that.
(meaning, things like the 06 map needing three moves for noticing zombies is not in the story category)

[Mngwa]

Hello

I really liked the campaign, especially the sense of humour and the main characters. I had quite a problem with last scenario though, the Danse Macabre. I wasn't able to make it through. The description says "get them to the magic circle at the end of abyss". Where the hell is that? On my side there are just runes that move separate island but still I couldn't pass the abyss anyhow. I will gladly play another game of you, but those "logic" parts really bug me.

[Heindal]

Hello Mngwa,

as far as I remember you have to:

Spoiler:

Move one of your hero units (and some other units as well ) to one of the rune tiles. Each time you get on a rune, 'bridges' between the 'islands' will be either destroyed or created. So by stepping on a rune you are able to move with the hero and the other units around him to the next island, while the others have to stay behind, taking other ways. Now the tricky thing is, you have to split up your group from the start, as their are two rune tiles in the first section. But only if you activate all rune tiles on the map you will be able to reach the final location, therefore you will be forced to split up your group of heroes several times.

[gooby]

Spoiler for Anyguest's Inn:

Spoiler:

Let the integers 1 to 4 (inclusive) each represent "Room n contains Bruggwy". So for example, 2 represents "Bruggy is in Room 2". Then, in order, the guests in the rooms say

1. 2 or 3
2. Not 2
3. 1 or 4
4. If not 3, then 2

Logically, the statements from Rooms 1, 2, and 4 are consistent. They don't disagree with each other. The statement from Room 4 can be rewriiten as 3 or 2. So, given 2 or 3, 3 or 2 (same thing as before), and not 2, the room in question must be 3. And indeed the statement from that room, 1 or 4, cannot be reconciled with the other claims.

[Mngwa]

Hello Mngwa,

as far as I remember you have to:

Spoiler:

Move one of your hero units (and some other units as well ) to one of the rune tiles. Each time you get on a rune, 'bridges' between the 'islands' will be either destroyed or created. So by stepping on a rune you are able to move with the hero and the other units around him to the next island, while the others have to stay behind, taking other ways. Now the tricky thing is, you have to split up your group from the start, as their are two rune tiles in the first section. But only if you activate all rune tiles on the map you will be able to reach the final location, therefore you will be forced to split up your group of heroes several times.

Hi

Thank for reply, but I figured that one out. I had all three heros on the upper side of the map, but I didnt know what to do next. I didnt find anything to cross the abyss. It doesnt matter anyway because I went into amok and deleted the saves after x hours trying.