The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

[Kanzil]

The leader one. Some drake names: Ryrthem, Est'kal, Falkor, Karragr, Mirras, Ko'saltha, Oharesi, Kogbaror, Urorchaur.

[TheScribe]

Did you want me to start on easy difficulty?

And I agree about the leader starting as level three making it overpowered.

[Celtic_Minstrel]

You can start with whichever difficulty you want. If there's a good chance that I might change the leader back, it may be pointless to start on easy; on the other hand, starting on easy could prove that it's not overpowered after all, so I dunno. I haven't tried playing through the campaign since these changes (last playthrough was roughly on 0.4).

[TheScribe]

I'll go ahead and start with easy, just to go in order. (A little OCD never hurt anybody, right?)

[Faerie_Storm]

I'll test it on hard.

[Sneezy]

Hi-- playing on BfW 1.10.0, campaign ver. 1.0.0, Medium difficulty, on win2k SP4 platform.

Played first 6 scenarios on ver. 0.3, and knew I'd made some mistakes, so backed up and restarted after upgrading to 1.0.0. I'm just now starting Along the Coast, but thought I'd pass along a couple of comments.

The behavior of the potions is a nice improvement. Not all units need it, and now the player decides who gets it.

I like the improvements you made to the map for Watery Tunnels. Also, the surprise shows up early, and there is now sufficient room for a melee. There are still some choke points, but this version feels much better. The placement of the necklace is better now, too.

Spoiler:

In Watery Tunnels, I had some trouble with the whirlpool. It worked okay going in, but I couldn't get my trident-equipped merman-hunter **back out** of the small chamber. He picked up the object, went back to where he appeared on the way in, and nothing happened. Wandered all along the walls, and didn't find an exit. Can you suggest what I missed, or did wrong?

It would have been nice, and useful, to use him in combat, but he was confined in his little private jail.

Things are proceeding pretty well so far. The mix of characters is interesting, and the random traits on the initiates is an nice complication. Will send more comments later.
Regards,
--sneezy

[Celtic_Minstrel]

Spoiler:

In Watery Tunnels, I had some trouble with the whirlpool. It worked okay going in, but I couldn't get my trident-equipped merman-hunter **back out** of the small chamber. He picked up the object, went back to where he appeared on the way in, and nothing happened. Wandered all along the walls, and didn't find an exit. Can you suggest what I missed, or did wrong?

It would have been nice, and useful, to use him in combat, but he was confined in his little private jail.

In theory he should simply be able to leave the way he came in, and hexes outside that chamber should be shown as reachable when you select him (not necessarily in one turn, but still). If that's not the case, it's a bug which I'll have to fix; it's entirely possible that I could've messed up one of the coordinate changes in conjunction with implementing the new map.

I'm just now starting Along the Coast, but thought I'd pass along a couple of comments.

I've had one person say that this scenario is too hard on Hard difficulty, so I'd like to hear other peoples' opinions on that (whatever the difficulty setting).

[TheScribe]

Okay, sorry for the delay on balancing. Some comments on the first scenario:

Scenario 1:

I'm on Easy difficulty. Having your leader start out as level three is overpowered, IMO, for an intermediate campaign. Other than that the only thing was that it was a little too easy. (for an intermediate level, that is)

Scenario 2:

Still on Easy. The new map is SO much better.

Seems balanced enough, aside from being a little too easy. But since the main objective is to get somewhere, not to kill everybody, this level doesn't really need to be changed, IMO.

Question:

Is saving the merman in scenario 3 intended to be impossible?

[nuorc]

I just finished the campaign & I love it!

Question:

Is saving the merman in scenario 3 intended to be impossible?

Spoiler:

Playing on easy, after the third try I figured so.

Nitpicking

Just some stuff I'm throwing at you, maybe you find some useful.

The trackmaps are pretty good, but I think with a little polishing they could look just as good as mainline (full screen, title, ornamental border).

Special faerie-glow: maybe bigger halo like MoL?

Goblins!!!: I missed some introduction of Erendor as this special character (victory condition).

Dank Tunnels: The vision felt peculiar, but maybe that was intended.

Along the coast: from Turn 12 a wml error occured which persisted until the end of the campaign:
<Invalid WML found> [scatter_units] not supported

Into the Dread Marsh: I had no turn 1??? And I somehow missed how Graktar (the neutral ally) became my not-to-let-die ally.

Reclaiming the Citadel: when I closed in, I thought the enemies were defending somewhat cleverly, but before that a large portion of them did useless running up and down north/south; although I did try to slowly encircle/choke, I don't know if this was intended. And I really missed some victory dialog. (Leader:"We killed everyone, let's rejoice & live happily ever after!" Bunch of faeries rejoice.)

Overall I thought it was a very nice playing experience, with a natural feeling flow of events; I'm not a fan of tomato surprises... It felt a tad too easy even for easy difficulty (but that's alright) and I think I had hundreds of gold too much on ~75% of scenarios. Next time I'll recruit more fresh Initiates earlier...

[TheScribe]

Spoiler:

Playing on easy, after the third try I figured so.

Spoiler:

Well, I've tried ten times...

[nuorc]

Spoiler:

Well, I've tried ten times...

Well, patient you.

[Celtic_Minstrel]

Okay, sorry for the delay on balancing. Some comments on the first scenario:

Scenario 1:

I'm on Easy difficulty. Having your leader start out as level three is overpowered, IMO, for an intermediate campaign. Other than that the only thing was that it was a little too easy. (for an intermediate level, that is)

Scenario 2:

Still on Easy. The new map is SO much better.

Seems balanced enough, aside from being a little too easy. But since the main objective is to get somewhere, not to kill everybody, this level doesn't really need to be changed, IMO.

Question:

Is saving the merman in scenario 3 intended to be impossible?

Answers:

I was a little dubious about making the leader level 3, so I'll probably go ahead and revert that part. Do you think making Erendor level 3 would have the same sort of general effect?

And yes, saving the merman is supposed to be impossible. That's kinda why he's neither red nor teal.

Nitpicking

Goblins!!!: I missed some introduction of Erendor as this special character (victory condition).

What do you mean?

Dank Tunnels: The vision felt peculiar, but maybe that was intended.

Sorry, what felt peculiar?

Along the coast: from Turn 12 a wml error occured which persisted until the end of the campaign:
<Invalid WML found> [scatter_units] not supported

Uh... that's not good, because if [scatter_units] wasn't working it implies you weren't facing undead in that scenario which would probably make it rather easier than it's supposed to be. Did you do any reloading in the scenario? Maybe the preload event is missing something.

Into the Dread Marsh: I had no turn 1??? And I somehow missed how Graktar (the neutral ally) became my not-to-let-die ally.

No turn 1 was intentional, but what do you mean by the second part? You didn't understand why he had to be kept alive?

And I really missed some victory dialog. (Leader:"We killed everyone, let's rejoice & live happily ever after!" Bunch of faeries rejoice.)

Yes, more of this would be very good. Incidentally, who did you fight in this last scenario?

Overall I thought it was a very nice playing experience, with a natural feeling flow of events; I'm not a fan of tomato surprises...

Should this be taken to mean that you didn't notice any, or that you're complaining that there are some?

I think I had hundreds of gold too much on ~75% of scenarios.

Okay, so I guess I need to figure out what do do about this... reducing gold carryover percentage a bit?

[TheScribe]

Spoiler:

And yes, saving the merman is supposed to be impossible.

Spoiler:

Then I'd reccomend removing the cannot die overlay...

[nuorc]

Sorry for the late reply...

Nitpicking

Goblins!!!: I missed some introduction of Erendor as this special character (victory condition).

What do you mean?

I thought a little introduction would have been nice, if he's not a regular elf. Why do I lose if he dies?

Dank Tunnels: The vision felt peculiar, but maybe that was intended.

Sorry, what felt peculiar?

The vision. It felt like units didn't have their regular sight sometimes, but instead like I had to advance a unit beyond x,y to see certain sections of the map.

Along the coast: from Turn 12 a wml error occured which persisted until the end of the campaign:
<Invalid WML found> [scatter_units] not supported

Uh... that's not good, because if [scatter_units] wasn't working it implies you weren't facing undead in that scenario which would probably make it rather easier than it's supposed to be. Did you do any reloading in the scenario? Maybe the preload event is missing something.

I might have reloaded on that scenario, I'm not sure. There were undead from the beginning...? When I watch the replay it gives errors from turn 10, I'm attaching it. Should there have been additional undead each time the message appeared? Also in later scenarios?

Graktar (the neutral ally) became my not-to-let-die ally.

You didn't understand why he had to be kept alive?

Yes. (Maybe it was explained in an earlier scenario and I missed/forgot it...)

And I really missed some victory dialog. (Leader:"We killed everyone, let's rejoice & live happily ever after!" Bunch of faeries rejoice.)

Yes, more of this would be very good. Incidentally, who did you fight in this last scenario?

Hajak et. al.

Overall I thought it was a very nice playing experience, with a natural feeling flow of events; I'm not a fan of tomato surprises...

Should this be taken to mean that you didn't notice any, or that you're complaining that there are some?

I think it's fine as it is, didn't notice anything I'd consider tomato.

I think I had hundreds of gold too much on ~75% of scenarios.

Okay, so I guess I need to figure out what do do about this... reducing gold carryover percentage a bit?

I'm not sure. In 2 or 3 scenarios it would have sucked to have less gold; also, if I was supposed to have more enemies due to the [scatter_units] issue, I might have needed more gold.

EDIT To make my comment a little more substantial I've just looked up my starting gold:

Spoiler:

DruSi-Dank Tunnels Turn 1: 836g
DruSi-Orcs in the Port Turn 1: 823g
DruSi-Watery Tunnels Turn 1: 1053g
DruSi-Along the coast Turn 1: 593g
DruSi-Into the Dread Marsh Turn 2: 355g
DruSi-Descent into the Ch... Turn1: 1316g
DruSi-The Journey Home Turn 1: 1531g
DruSi-Reclaiming the Citadel Turn1: 1534g

But if I am the only one "complaining" about too much gold, don't bother...

[TheScribe]

Scenario 3:

Spoiler:

I just grabbed the ring at the village at 3,25 with Earendil. She's now talking to herself as if she were two people...