Voyage of a Drake: an RPG

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Samonella
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Voyage of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Samonella »

Voyage of a Drake, SP RPG for 1.14

Once there was a small village called Raplice. It was an ordinary village, full of ordinary people with ordinary lives. But when Voadar's life suddenly turned upside down, the young drake was forced to explore the community, unearth its hairy secrets, and rally the citizens to set things right.

Voyage of a Drake is a Wesnoth RPG unlike any other. Instead of focusing on collecting items or leveling skill trees, this campaign prioritizes interacting with complicated NPCs and completing puzzles, mini-games, and boss fights. Come prepared for a few hours of unique game-play and rich, abundant dialog.

---------------

This is a feedback thread for VoaDaR. Now that it's finished, I'll probably only work on it sporadically, but I'm always happy to hear ideas/advice. And if someone finds a bug, that will probably get me working right away. So let me know what you think of it, and enjoy playing!
Old post
After months of work (and even more months without work) I finally present a finished version of Voyage of a Drake! I plan to publish it on the 1.14 add-on server in about a week, so if I'll be very grateful to anyone who plays through it and gives me their thoughts/bug reports before then. But don't let possible bugs scare you off; I've tested it as thoroughly as I can without going insane, so it should be as enjoyable as it ever will be. You can download it from github. And as always, I'm happy to help if you don't know how to get it started!
Original post
This is an early release for my current project, a sort of RPG campaign. Unlike other wesnoth RPGs, this one focuses less on leveling up abilities and spells, and more on exploring an open world filled with characters you can talk to using an unique conversation system. It's unfinished, and so far impossible to win, but it is already a fairly deep world. Right now I'm just hoping to get some opinions about the campaign and game-play in general. For these reasons, it's not on the add-on server yet, so if I've caught your interest you can download it from github. If you're not sure hot to download and/or play it, I'd love to help.

If you're willing to help me out by taking a look, please read this section after playing the campaign's tutorial (the first scenario):
Details
What's finished right now:
There are several places in the campaign that you'll see someone say TODO which simply means that I have plans but haven't implemented it yet. There are also many places where a character hints that you should try doing something, but if you can't figure out how to do it or make it work, that probably means I haven't implemented it yet either.
Special things to keep an eye out for:
The biggest thing I'm worried about is latency; it might just be my slow computer but are there ever unusually long waits after things like ending your turn or selecting a unit? Also, do characters ever say things that are obviously out of place? Sometimes there's a lot of logic involved in deciding which conversations should trigger, so if someone says something that doesn't make sense, it may well be that I messed up the code somewhere and you're seeing a message that isn't where it belongs.

Other than that, I love typo/grammar fixes, and I'm open to big-picture suggestions as well. Is the campaign reasonably interesting, or do you feel like there's too much of the same things? Do you have ideas for special events or side-stories? Are any moments immersion-breaking?
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by Samonella on August 2nd, 2018, 4:42 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Inky »

Wow!!! A Wesnoth RPG, this is so awesome!
I played the tutorial (poor Meaty... :( ) and a bit of the actual scenario. It's so cool how the NPCs move around during different times of day!
It's a lot of fun, can't wait to see how this develops :)

General comments:
-I didn't notice any long waits after selecting a unit, and ending a turn usually took no more than a few seconds (it only took longer when there were a lot of NPCs moving around), and was never annoying.
-I don't think it's necessary to ask if the player wants to replay the tutorial; I can't imagine that someone would need/want to replay the whole thing in order to understand something, and even if that were the case they could just restart the campaign.
-If you lose a gladiator match you still retain the XP you got during the match, this seems pretty exploitable to me. EDIT: maybe just have it cost some gold to participate in a match.
-Maybe Voadar's AMLAs shouldn't heal him to full? AMLAing and healing during a gladiator match (or any other battle) is a pretty trivial way to win.
-There is a loooot of right clicking to talk to people. Maybe it would save a lot of clicks if moving next to a unit automatically started a conversation? (And if you move adjacent to >= 2 units, just have nothing happen and the player uses the right click menu to select whom to talk to.)

Bugs:
-Whenever you move somewhere indoors, you heal 1 HP.
-The Stolen Goods item doesn't stack (if you get 2 it only counts as 1)
-When you've heard all of Ivan's rumors and talk to him again, the top text gets cut off after "I guess I'll just" (my font size is 100% so this shouldn't be the cause)
Some typos
2_scenario.cfg line 36 grown -> groan
ivan.cfg line 76: I heard folks say your smarter than you look -> you're
klippy.cfg line 29: That's where you come it. -> in
monument_options line 66: or makes the game to easy -> too
Tetaitiel.cfg line 274: Don't miss the trill of a lifetime! -> thrill
Tetaitiel.cfg line 608: Congradulations
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Samonella »

Inky wrote:Wow!!! A Wesnoth RPG, this is so awesome!
I played the tutorial (poor Meaty... :( ) and a bit of the actual scenario. It's so cool how the NPCs move around during different times of day!
It's a lot of fun, can't wait to see how this develops :)
Well thank you very much! I wasn't expecting feedback so soon!
Individual points
Inky wrote:-I didn't notice any long waits after selecting a unit, and ending a turn usually took no more than a few seconds (it only took longer when there were a lot of NPCs moving around), and was never annoying.
Good to hear! For me there's almost a second delay after clicking units. It's trivial at first, but quite annoying after a couple dozen turns.
Inky wrote:-I don't think it's necessary to ask if the player wants to replay the tutorial; I can't imagine that someone would need/want to replay the whole thing in order to understand something, and even if that were the case they could just restart the campaign.
Good point. Right after programming something it always seems more complicated than it actually is.
Inky wrote:-If you lose a gladiator match you still retain the XP you got during the match, this seems pretty exploitable to me. EDIT: maybe just have it cost some gold to participate in a match.
Well, it already costs you for the food it takes to heal. And don't think losing a match should be waste of time, just a couple XP seems like a good thing to me. After all, in real life you learn more from losing.
Inky wrote:-Maybe Voadar's AMLAs shouldn't heal him to full? AMLAing and healing during a gladiator match (or any other battle) is a pretty trivial way to win.
Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Probably still remove slowed status, but not poisoned?
Inky wrote:-There is a loooot of right clicking to talk to people. Maybe it would save a lot of clicks if moving next to a unit automatically started a conversation? (And if you move adjacent to >= 2 units, just have nothing happen and the player uses the right click menu to select whom to talk to.)
Hm, that could work but I'd rather keep the rules simple. Would a hot-key be good enough, just point at the unit and press "t" or something?
Inky wrote:-Whenever you move somewhere indoors, you heal 1 HP.
That's strange. I think it's actually another 13.7 bug. I'll play around with it a bit more and probably report it later today.
Inky wrote:-The Stolen Goods item doesn't stack (if you get 2 it only counts as 1)
So far (and probably ever) the only thing you can do with stolen goods is sell them to Klippy, and she takes into account how many you have and where they came from. But sure, it would be good for it to show something in the inventory too, I'll add that.
Inky wrote:-When you've heard all of Ivan's rumors and talk to him again, the top text gets cut off after "I guess I'll just" (my font size is 100% so this shouldn't be the cause)
Hm, it doesn't happen for me, and I have a fairly small monitor. Does the message window fill up your entire screen?
Inky wrote:Some typos
Thanks! Though I know some flute players who sure wouldn't want to miss the trill of a lifetime.
Thanks again, this is a big help!
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Inky »

Samonella wrote: Would a hot-key be good enough, just point at the unit and press "t" or something?
That would be great! It would be much faster than having to click twice each time.
Samonella wrote:Hm, it doesn't happen for me, and I have a fairly small monitor. Does the message window fill up your entire screen?
It turns out this only happens for me in windowed mode, and works correctly in fullscreen. Probably a general wesnoth bug with the dialog boxes not scaling correctly in windowed mode :hmm:
(here's what it looks like in windowed mode)
Spoiler:
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by ForestDragon »

:Awesome: Amazing! too bad i don't have wesnoth 1.13 on my computer, otherwise i'd guarantee to play it.
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Samonella »

ForestDragon wrote::Awesome: Amazing! too bad i don't have wesnoth 1.13 on my computer, otherwise i'd guarantee to play it.
Well, it doesn't take too long to download... :whistle:

Inky:
In case you didn't see it already, I mentioned the weird message formatting (and the 1 hp heal bug, which Celtic_Minstrel already fixed) on the 1.13.7 thread.
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by ForestDragon »

Samonella wrote:
ForestDragon wrote::Awesome: Amazing! too bad i don't have wesnoth 1.13 on my computer, otherwise i'd guarantee to play it.
Well, it doesn't take too long to download... :whistle:/quote]
well, the thing is, i am on AltLinux, where bfw isn't updated to 1.13.7 yet
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Samonella »

ForestDragon wrote:well, the thing is, i am on AltLinux, where bfw isn't updated to 1.13.7 yet
Ah, that's unfortunate. Thanks for your interest anyway.
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by ForestDragon »

Samonella wrote:
ForestDragon wrote:well, the thing is, i am on AltLinux, where bfw isn't updated to 1.13.7 yet
Ah, that's unfortunate. Thanks for your interest anyway.
well, if i am not mistaken. bfw is going to be updated on AltLinux relatively soon, when it is, i'll play this campaign, and hopefully start churning out feedback.

EDIT:btw, the main thing i like about this campaign (i only read a few files inside the folder, but i guess it's enough to form a fact-based-enough opinion) is that the focus is on the story/dialogue. the fact that a lot of RPG/open world games (and other open-world add-ons, which are very rare, btw) focus too much on the gameplay, which is getting stale. while playing campaigns, i often just read the dialog, and skip to the next scenarios. btw, the language barrier for the protagonist is a very good design choice in my opinion :)
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by SFault »

Tried this one just now. I really liked this one. Usually the Wesnoth RPGs seems bit awkward but this seemed pretty smooth. I noticed some loading at the first turn but after that none. User interface was fine, but I do like the hot-key idea. I found the "Bark inquisitively" bit odd combination. Perhaps it could be hum instead of bark.

The thing I really like is the amount of NPC:s and especially that the seem to live their lives. Usually in RPGs they just stand in one place and are only for player to interact with. This also makes delivering letters more interesting when you don't know where the character is (but you can make reasonable guesses). In general it seems to emphasis more on the mood and story than fighting. I like it. Too often the RPGs are just XP hunting, leveling and flat quests.

I think the full heal at cadameron's house would be a good idea. In general the damage vs. HP gain seems quite balanced. I really don't like the games where I have to have 99 healing bottles with me to everywhere I go. If I go to forest I don't have to be worried about dying even if I have only 1 piece of meat with me. At first I thought the character was weak and gaining XP was too hard, but now I think it's ok (or maybe even bit on the easy side). After playing a while (about 200 turns) I gained nearly 70 gold without actually trying to get money. I guess it mostly came from arena and going postal. Maybe it could be harder to get money, or there could be some expensive things to buy.

I really hope that the campaign can be beaten without doing the robberies. To me they seem bit out of character and I would rather be able to finish the game without them. But then again, it takes bit of timing to be able to rob stuff so it could be nice thing to try. I think there could be like paths for the main character. So I could play as a goodie. On the other hand I could replay the campaign and be baddie. Maybe there could be some reward for not doing the robberies, like getting something from the guards or maybe joining them (which would be then impossible if you robbed someone).

I would like to see more alternatives for leveling up. Perhaps some non-combat skills that might be needed to fulfill some quest or to get certain places. And some special attacks. For example blinding breath weapon that would cause slow (but not as much of damage). This way the fights would be more tactical. When you have only one character to fight with it's pretty much just facing the opponent and changing hits.

There could also be more items/places to interact with. I would like to go exploring the map and find some item hidden in forest or launching some event when entering one of the watch towers in the village. Currently most of the events are based on talking to people, which is really nice, but I would additionally like to have bit more some location based events.

Also, there could be some casual items. For example, character could pick hay and feed it to the horses. Not that this would be a quest, but just to make the place more lively.

Here's some of the item-character combinations. Maybe someday they could launch some event.
-meat to the dog
-Curryan letter to Hob (the ex-postman)
-ale to the priest
-bloody hat to pretty much any local person

Well... I got plenty more of ideas, but I do understand that its quite pointless to post all of them when you have pile of your own still undone ;)
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Samonella »

ForestDragon wrote:btw, the main thing i like about this campaign (i only read a few files inside the folder, but i guess it's enough to form a fact-based-enough opinion) is that the focus is on the story/dialogue. the fact that a lot of RPG/open world games (and other open-world add-ons, which are very rare, btw) focus too much on the gameplay, which is getting stale. while playing campaigns, i often just read the dialog, and skip to the next scenarios. btw, the language barrier for the protagonist is a very good design choice in my opinion :)
SFault wrote:The thing I really like is the amount of NPC:s and especially that the seem to live their lives. Usually in RPGs they just stand in one place and are only for player to interact with. This also makes delivering letters more interesting when you don't know where the character is (but you can make reasonable guesses). In general it seems to emphasis more on the mood and story than fighting. I like it. Too often the RPGs are just XP hunting, leveling and flat quests.
Wow, i'm glad you guys like it. You're basically outlining my thoughts from when I was planning it! :lol: In fact, most of SFault's ideas are either already done or already planned.
SFault's feedback
SFault wrote: I found the "Bark inquisitively" bit odd combination. Perhaps it could be hum instead of bark.
Hm, I can see what you mean. Maybe "pur" or "whine?" Idk, hum is probably the best.
SFault wrote:I think the full heal at cadameron's house would be a good idea.
I had thought about this but decided not to. But hey, i'll take your advice, it'll be easy to add.
SFault wrote: I gained nearly 70 gold without actually trying to get money. I guess it mostly came from arena and going postal. Maybe it could be harder to get money, or there could be some expensive things to buy.
Yup, i took the expensive things option. I thought klippy had some offers in the version I posted, but if not, she does now. And she's not the only one. I think I'll make the arena rewards a bit less though, they should mainly be for experience anyway.
SFault wrote:I really hope that the campaign can be beaten without doing the robberies. To me they seem bit out of character and I would rather be able to finish the game without them. But then again, it takes bit of timing to be able to rob stuff so it could be nice thing to try. I think there could be like paths for the main character. So I could play as a goodie. On the other hand I could replay the campaign and be baddie. Maybe there could be some reward for not doing the robberies, like getting something from the guards or maybe joining them (which would be then impossible if you robbed someone).
They're entirely optional. Some reward for never robbing people would be good, I'll have to think about that. Also, I already have plans for two different endings, one good and one evil.
SFault wrote:I would like to see more alternatives for leveling up. Perhaps some non-combat skills that might be needed to fulfill some quest or to get certain places. And some special attacks. For example blinding breath weapon that would cause slow (but not as much of damage). This way the fights would be more tactical. When you have only one character to fight with it's pretty much just facing the opponent and changing hits.
There already is a way to get a 'slows' attack, but if you have other ideas I'd love to hear them. As for non-combat skills, you can increase movement speed, and there is one special skill that's required for a couple quests (including the game-winning ones) but again, i'm open to ideas.
SFault wrote:There could also be more items/places to interact with. I would like to go exploring the map and find some item hidden in forest or launching some event when entering one of the watch towers in the village. Currently most of the events are based on talking to people, which is really nice, but I would additionally like to have bit more some location based events.

Also, there could be some casual items. For example, character could pick hay and feed it to the horses. Not that this would be a quest, but just to make the place more lively.
These sounds like a good ideas, I'll think about how to do them.
SFault wrote:Here's some of the item-character combinations. Maybe someday they could launch some event.
-meat to the dog
Ooh, I like that one!
SFault wrote:-Curryan letter to Hob (the ex-postman)
There's already a quest wrapped around him, I don't think this could really work.
SFault wrote:-ale to the priest
:lol: When, exactly? He's always either giving a sermon, or already in the bar. I suppose he'd still appreciate a free one.
SFault wrote:-bloody hat to pretty much any local person
Yes, this will definitely happen.
SFault wrote:Well... I got plenty more of ideas, but I do understand that its quite pointless to post all of them when you have pile of your own still undone ;)
Well, i'd still like to hear them, most of my unimplemented "plans" are still only half-baked so there's lots of room for influence. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts!
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by ForestDragon »

since you seem to be open to ideas, here's one:
Spoiler:
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Re: Vengeance of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Samonella »

ForestDragon wrote:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
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Re: Voyage of a Drake: an RPG

Post by Samonella »

Scroll to the top of the page--the original post is updated. I'm super excited about this!
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Re: Voyage of a Drake: an RPG

Post by ForestDragon »

Great to see the project close to release! :D I'll give it a try if I have some time.

EDIT: btw, what do you think about making a walkthrough of the campaign on the bfw wiki?
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