Soldier of Wesnoth: SP Campaign (Feedback and Reviews)

[revansurik]

And so, as promised, version 1.0.1 is out!

Code: Select all

Version 1.0.1:
        -------------------
        - Units:
          - Added missing hero icons to Addraryn and Elywen
          - Changed Eäreldor's resistances
        -Scenarios:
          - Damsel in Distress: Added another cavalryman to protect heroes in the beginning
          - The Dulatus Hills: Corrected wrong gender of Elyniver's gang mate Clara
          - The Soul of the Kingdom: Corrected mistake that caused Meranoic and Rhur not to appear in the following scenario.
          - Shadows in the Forest: Eärenia should now focus on defeating Dainonn
          - Soldier of Wesnoth: Corrected mistake that caused Liryn not to appear in the following scenario if he is defeated
          - The Heart in the Darkness: Reduced the Black Forest's inhabitants' gold, some changes to the map.
          - Ghosts of the Ancient: Slight changes to the map
          - The Beast of the Aethenwood: Improved the formerly horrible fight between Moran and the Assassins
          - The Reward of Loyalty: Addraryn may now recruit peasants until the arival of the chariots
          - The Wolf of Lake Vrug: Increased a little the number of undead that appears (still not The Wilderness-like, though ;-) )
          - Descent into Darkness: Slight changes to the map, added a new, though weaker, enemy side.
          - The Lion and the Dragon: Changes to the arrival time of the reinforcements, reduced gold given to player as reinforcement.
        - WML:
           - Minor changes that should not be noted while playing
        - Text:
           - Minor changes to the writing

[marecki]

I find Heart in the Darkness to be very difficult. Lvl3 faeries in particular get on my nerves, deadly and so hard to kill in forest. I went left and took down the wose leader, but as soon as I approached the undead castle got surrounded by faeries. Then there's the undead reinforcements and lvl3 undead spam. Both sides sort of ganged up on me - for some reason AIs always preferred to target my units. The fact that the lich must be killed by Moran doesn't help. I somehow won, but lost a lot of veterans, so not sure if I should even continue. Don't know if recruiting will be possible later on, so from my perspective I just lost a big part of my army with no way of getting more soldiers.

EDIT: Phew, gave it another go and won, ironman with only one casualty. I still think this one could be tweaked somehow, like maybe changing recruit lists of woses and faeries so that they mix lvl1 and 2 units. I don't mind that the scenario is hard, just that it's much more dificult than what comes before and after (for example, Return to Kerlath is a walk in the park).

[revansurik]

I find Heart in the Darkness to be very difficult. Lvl3 faeries in particular get on my nerves, deadly and so hard to kill in forest. I went left and took down the wose leader, but as soon as I approached the undead castle got surrounded by faeries. Then there's the undead reinforcements and lvl3 undead spam. Both sides sort of ganged up on me - for some reason AIs always preferred to target my units. The fact that the lich must be killed by Moran doesn't help. I somehow won, but lost a lot of veterans, so not sure if I should even continue. Don't know if recruiting will be possible later on, so from my perspective I just lost a big part of my army with no way of getting more soldiers.

EDIT: Phew, gave it another go and won, ironman with only one casualty. I still think this one could be tweaked somehow, like maybe changing recruit lists of woses and faeries so that they mix lvl1 and 2 units. I don't mind that the scenario is hard, just that it's much more dificult than what comes before and after (for example, Return to Kerlath is a walk in the park).

And I had already made the scenario less hard for v. 1.0.1... I will make the faeries attack the Death-Bringer and Aradya at the same time, to relieve the player a little; making them and the woses to recruit lvl 1 units alongside lvl 2 will only swarm the player, and, as I think we all have already learned, fighting woses in a dense forest is a nightmare

[marecki]

I read the changelog right after I posted...glad I didn't play the earlier version.

Sands of Time: I had Liryn scouting southeast when Arslan triggered. He appeared literally next to Liryn, which meant automatic loss next turn. Once you know what to expect, the scenario is easy and fun (always liked those 'hold your ground' missions). Note that the bulk of Arslan's army (more than half) moves west to cap villages - this makes the battle probably easier than it should have been.

Ghosts of the Ancient: Really nice dungeon romp. Had two paladins, so with two light mages it made for quite relaxing undead stomping (elvish ghosts never attack paladins).

Beast of Aethenwood: awesome scenario, kinda hard, but in a good way. It kinda bugs me that Sendra "kidnaps" Eareldor regardless of which side defeated him. I took him down, he should be my prisoner.

I'm pretty sure there's a dialogue mistake by the end of Reward for Loyalty (Addraryn asking and answering a question - should be a different character), but I can't find it for you, because for some reason all replays started crashing on me.

I don't particularly care for not being able to recruit, because it goes against my BtW playstyle (using mostly fodder, very few veterans), but I understand it makes sense story-wise. Still, I can't accept losses I would normally accept in a different campaign (hence me whining about Heart in the Darkness).
At Lake Vrug right now. I really like how the threads tie together, shifting allegiances, previously-introduced characters like Korra, Eareldor, or Vennyn making a comeback at various points. It shows that the whole thing was thought-out - not just a collection of maps, but a neatly woven story. Even the parts that are merely supposed to drive the story forward offer interesting gameplay; plot and gameplay mesh elegantly, which is something you don't see in every UMC. Oh, and the banter when you move specific units next to each other is a brilliant idea! (i.e. between Elyniver and the sisters). All in all, it's probably my favourite Wesnoth campaign so far. Hope the ending doesn't suck.

[revansurik]

Note that the bulk of Arslan's army (more than half) moves west to cap villages - this makes the battle probably easier than it should have been.

I thought I had already solved this problem by using village_value=0.1 in Arslan's side AI... I'll try another code...

I took him down, he should be my prisoner.

The idea is that, even if Addraryn is the one who defeats him, he's still a wanted "criminal" of Aethenwood; Addraryn only changes his mind about letting Sendra take him with her later

I'm pretty sure there's a dialogue mistake by the end of Reward for Loyalty (Addraryn asking and answering a question - should be a different character), but I can't find it for you, because for some reason all replays started crashing on me.

I probably defined a Royal Guard to say the particular line, and the game automatically chose Addraryn...

Oh, and the banter when you move specific units next to each other is a brilliant idea! (i.e. between Elyniver and the sisters).

Did you see Merina kicking Elyniver in scenario The Wolf of Lake Vrug? (I think that's the scenario)

Hope the ending doesn't suck.

I can anticipate that it is (possibly) a very unexpected ending; hope you like it

[marecki]

Um, how do you win that Lake Vrug scenario? I move a unit to the cave entrance, Liryn says we have to clear out the remaining undead, but the objective doesn't change and new undead keep spawning all the time.

[revansurik]

Um, how do you win that Lake Vrug scenario? I move a unit to the cave entrance, Liryn says we have to clear out the remaining undead, but the objective doesn't change and new undead keep spawning all the time.

After moving an unit to the cave, just kill the undead onscreen; the fact that more undead appear is a bug, I will correct it
If this doesn't work, kill the undead first and then move a unit to the cave entrance, and then warn me of this problem

[Svistwarrior273]

Five minutes ago I finished this campaign,
and I must say imho it has best story of all UMC on the add-on server.

[revansurik]

Five minutes ago I finished this campaign,
and I must say imho it has best story of all UMC on the add-on server.

I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

[Chep]

(6 Questions)1.What version of Wesnoth have you used to play this campaign?
2.How do you rate the difficulty of this campaign in general?(1-10)
3.Which portions of the campaign do you find to be too easy or too hard that may need to be rebalanced?
4.How do you find the storyline and the conversation of the campaign?
5.What changes do you think may be made to make the campaign more interesting?
6.If you know about Wesnoth Markup Language(WML),please comment on the WML of the various scenarios,stating how they may be improved.

1. I played it on BfW 1.11.6 (win)
2. Played the "medium difficulty" so far up untill the "Leaving Wesnoth" part. The Lich Fight was tough, most of the others well done, some easy...overall maybe 5 or so
3. The map before you enter the elvish caves...after fighting the initial enemy I split my army in 2 groups to cover more ground, and ended up with half my army around the level 4 guy when he spawned...well, he didn't even get to recruit anyone, making the level quite easy. I recommend spawning him with some bodyguards, possibly his first 6 recruits. Also this map and the one where you fight the Lich (sorry, I'm really bad with map names), I think there should be some sort of pop-up-text when you kill the Wose/Fairie-Leader or the Level 4 Khalif, something like "Wow, this should give us some time, but there will be more of them coming soon, so we should better hurry on"). I felt the dialogue before entering the elvish caves seemed well, funny, now that I wasn't pressed at all by the enemy and after having killed the Wose & Fairie-Leaders the recommendation to continue further south seemed weird.
4. I love this campaign. The "no-recruit"-approach is awesome (although I'd kinda love to have a red mage as well, but yeah he wouldn't be very usefull and there is basically no reason for one to be there, still). The conversations are really far above average (I did notice 1-2 tiny spelling mistakes, but hey I probably made more here in my feedback, and they weren't annoying or so)
6. I know nothing (since this answer is so short I moved it before the long "5.")
5. The first scenario has a bit of a problem, that the enemy leader is quite adventurous. Fortunately I managed to level on the goblin and goblins riders, but before even the first of my woodsmen reached the wolf leader, he came out to attack an allied archer and was then killed by my ally before I even got into the fight.
In the Heart in the Darkness (that was the name of the Lich scenario, right?) I found it quite hard to organize my attacks so that Moran got the killing blow, maybe he should get a vial of holy water sometime close to the end (maybe after realizing that no one but him should slay the lich one of the white mages offer him some or there is some close to the lichs keep or something, to give him a higher chance of succeeding.
The level in the elvish mines felt like a bonus level. I had 2 mages of light + 1 white mage with ~100 exp + 2 paladins + 2 fearless iron maulers....I recalled the duelists to grab villages, ran straight north to the obelisk chamber and recalled the mages/paladins there....and there was no challenge at all to the level. but still, it felt nice to be this super-powerful
The sudden but inevitable betrayal in the beast of aethenwood was really cool, but can be quite desastrous if you're not prepared for it. Here I'd recommend adding either some sort of "hint" from one of your units (maybe after the first blow on the "Beast" is landed) arguing that trusting these elves is a bad idea. Or adding 1 turn of "peace" after the "Beast" is first taken in custody by the Elves, before turning on each other.
Sorry, this is not in the correct order, but: I also think a second level with the "outlaw mages" might be nice. You have this whole little arc, where you try to get their help (and while they're cool, they're pretty underwhelming when compared to your legion when you meet them again) and then you have 1 scenario, where you use them untill they appear much later in the game. I know changing this might be too much, but for example another scenario with Rhu.....damn the old archer guy (I'm really bad with names) before he joins you, could fix that allowing to level them some more before they join the main army. (although that would spoil his arrival in the other scenario, but you probably find a better idea anyway)

Well, so much for now, I'll probably come back to it, once I'm through. But so far: AWESOME. Really love it. The feeling of fighting with this legion is really cool. I especially like the first scenario where you help the baron against the outlaws. You see how a real army just cuts through the outlaws rank like they were butter, compared to the (potentially) tough fights you had against outlaws when leading peasants or other outlaws. simply fun and really, really, cool.
Sorry for writing so much.

[revansurik]

Sorry for writing so much.

No problem, really,I enjoy reading longer feedbacks

2. Played the "medium difficulty" so far up untill the "Leaving Wesnoth" part. The Lich Fight was tough, most of the others well done, some easy...overall maybe 5 or so
3. The map before you enter the elvish caves...after fighting the initial enemy I split my army in 2 groups to cover more ground, and ended up with half my army around the level 4 guy when he spawned...well, he didn't even get to recruit anyone, making the level quite easy. I recommend spawning him with some bodyguards, possibly his first 6 recruits. Also this map and the one where you fight the Lich (sorry, I'm really bad with map names), I think there should be some sort of pop-up-text when you kill the Wose/Fairie-Leader or the Level 4 Khalif, something like "Wow, this should give us some time, but there will be more of them coming soon, so we should better hurry on"). I felt the dialogue before entering the elvish caves seemed well, funny, now that I wasn't pressed at all by the enemy and after having killed the Wose & Fairie-Leaders the recommendation to continue further south seemed weird.

2.Well, Liryn does say that fighting in the Black Forest would be a tough thing...
3.Um, I see... I should've foreseen that could happen I'll correct thatfor next version.

5. The first scenario has a bit of a problem, that the enemy leader is quite adventurous. Fortunately I managed to level on the goblin and goblins riders, but before even the first of my woodsmen reached the wolf leader, he came out to attack an allied archer and was then killed by my ally before I even got into the fight.
In the Heart in the Darkness (that was the name of the Lich scenario, right?) I found it quite hard to organize my attacks so that Moran got the killing blow, maybe he should get a vial of holy water sometime close to the end (maybe after realizing that no one but him should slay the lich one of the white mages offer him some or there is some close to the lichs keep or something, to give him a higher chance of succeeding.
The level in the elvish mines felt like a bonus level. I had 2 mages of light + 1 white mage with ~100 exp + 2 paladins + 2 fearless iron maulers....I recalled the duelists to grab villages, ran straight north to the obelisk chamber and recalled the mages/paladins there....and there was no challenge at all to the level. but still, it felt nice to be this super-powerful

I made the Direwolf Rider so reckless to make things a bit easier for the player, but i never expected him to be killed so easily...
About Moran... I'm actually thinking about giving him some special attacks (like a stunning shield blow; that would fit his unorthodox, pragmatic fighting style well), so I may give him a holy sword with arcane attack...
Yeah, Ghosts of the Ancient was more of a conclusion to the Oreyand mini-arc, and also served as a transition between the faraway desert scenario and the return to Wesnoth, so I decided not to make it so hard

The sudden but inevitable betrayal in the beast of aethenwood was really cool, but can be quite desastrous if you're not prepared for it. Here I'd recommend adding either some sort of "hint" from one of your units (maybe after the first blow on the "Beast" is landed) arguing that trusting these elves is a bad idea. Or adding 1 turn of "peace" after the "Beast" is first taken in custody by the Elves, before turning on each other.
Sorry, this is not in the correct order, but: I also think a second level with the "outlaw mages" might be nice. You have this whole little arc, where you try to get their help (and while they're cool, they're pretty underwhelming when compared to your legion when you meet them again) and then you have 1 scenario, where you use them untill they appear much later in the game. I know changing this might be too much, but for example another scenario with Rhu.....damn the old archer guy (I'm really bad with names) before he joins you, could fix that allowing to level them some more before they join the main army. (although that would spoil his arrival in the other scenario, but you probably find a better idea anyway)

I've actually had this problem when I played it myself recently: I left Addraryn close to the elves, and they killed him with a rain of arrows I will give a hint that the player should keep the units far from them...
An extra level would be hard to fit in, but I acknowledge this problem; I think I'll give the player lvl 2 Shadow Mages as recruits

[Chep]

okay, I just finished the "Leaving Wesnoth"-map where you fight the Horse Lord and Ceomyr. I didn't really like this one, as the high damage of the mounted units combined with the white mages to finish of your wounded Royal Halberdiers makes it very luck-dependend.
Actually what annoyed me most were the Paladins recruited by Ceomyr. I had all my 4 Royal Halberdiers for this scenario and send them against the Horse Lord, covered by 2 Mages of Light and 2-3 lvl1 bandits as "canon fodder". And (too many) other units to hold of blue at the river, which seemed the most appropriate spot. But these annoying Paladins can cross the river and attack for incredible amounts of damage on the same turn
The Necromancer did manage to kill maybe 4-5 blue units, which was more than I thought he would, but didn't really matter in this fight (since he appears at dawn and Ceomyrs troops run towards him to claim the villages there, he mostly had to fight during the day).

edit1:
finished the Swamp Level. Nice. Got Goosebumps. The Shadows are really, really frightening when they first appear during the night as one has so many "hero units" that shouldn't die... the saurians seemed rather useless (they distracted 2 of the level3-undead for ~3 turns and lost 4 skirmishers doing so). I really shouldn't have advanced 2 of my Knights to heavy infantry as Paladins are so awesome against the level4-liches and most undead. Still, cool level. But I hope the amount of Shadows/Nightgaunts(?) the enemy can recruit is limited somehow.

edit2:
Wolf of Lake Vrug. Nice level, on my first try I thought I should entrench myself and protect the town. What a mistake. My allies troops held off the undead only as long as they needed to gather and then I faced a huge army at once instead of 3-4 per turn.
That more undead keep spawning even after you seal the cave entrance is really, really annoying though. Since it was said here that this is a bug, I only killed the undead I had left when I sealed the cave entrance and then went to the next scenario via debug command. Wiping out all undead on the map and then sealing the cave seemed impossible, as each time I only had 2-3 enemies left the next wave appeared


but forget what I said about the outlaw mages earlier. since they're not of much use anyway, it is not worth changing anything there. so far there are only 3 levels where they can be used (the one where you first get them, the one where you rescue the sisters and the battle against Ceomyr) and in all three of them they've not been an important part of the battle, even though I recruited quite a few of them. and if you only need them as cannon fodder it's not worth bumping them up to level 2 units.

edit3:
"Strength of the Union": Eäreldor doesn't have a silver crown indicating he shouldn't die (I think it was like this also in the dialogue-only scenario before and he doesn't get one for the next scenarios either), and the enemy hardly recruits any troops! By the end of turn 3 he had recruited a total of 3 units. could it be that you forgot to give him any gold? So this game was over on turn 4 when 1 heavy cavalry+Liryn+1 other unit attacked the enemy leader that moved to one of the villages north of his keep - he was the first and only enemy unit killed in this scenario^^

"composed mostly by wounded soldiers" <-- I think this should be "composed mostly of" (in the introduction before the scenario "Motherland")

[marecki]

Actually, in my game the undead in Lake Vrug stopped spawning about 12-13 turns after I sealed the entrance. So, while it's definitely a serious bug, the scenario is still beatable normally (and gives lots and lots of easy experience).
(sorry revan, no feedback from me for now, still don't have time to play Wesnoth and finish this amazing campaign )

[Chep]

thanks for the info
but since all my important members of the Death-Bringers were still alive I had little need for exp (with 3 iron maulers I don't need more than 2-3 highwaymen - and you get more heavy infantry soon *yay*).
And I finally reached the scenario for which the outlaw mages are in this campaign (although by now I only have very few left)

[revansurik]

Wolf of Lake Vrug: Yes, I know there's this bug of undead spawning even after you seal the caves; I'm still to correct it though, I've currently got a lot of texts to read for university, and the little free time I have I'm using to write thesequel to my first campaign, ASong of Fire But I will release version 1.0.2 of SoW before the end of thisweek

Strength of the Union: I see, I must have forgotten to add the hero icon... about the enemy leader, what the hell When I played, he did take some time to start recruiting at large, but he actually recruited at large; I shall see what's wrong with him, maybe it has to do with recruitment_pattern...

"composed mostly by wounded soldiers" <-- I think this should be "composed mostly of" (in the introduction before the scenario "Motherland")

True, thx for pointing out

(sorry revan, no feedback from me for now, still don't have time to play Wesnoth and finish this amazing campaign )

I understand, I'm having very little time myself

And I finally reached the scenario for which the outlaw mages are in this campaign (although by now I only have very few left)

But I think they are always useful against any non-undead enemy, and you get to fight many between the scenario where they are available again, and he first battle against the Khalifa...