SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.15/1.16)

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scio-nullus
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SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.15/1.16)

Post by scio-nullus »

Mercenary Band, a single-player campaign for 1.14.
Dependencies: War of Legends
Authours: I wrote everything and drew all maps. The Aragwaith faction is from Lord_Knightmare's War of Legends.

In a time of strife before the fall, a new group of humans entered the Great Continent. The Aragwaith travel in mercenary bands, selling their services to help resolve disputes. This is the story of one band, and how they founded the Aragwaith kingdom on the Great Continent.
Hero Description
Spoiler:
Scenario Description
Spoiler:
V 0.0.4 - You have less turns for some scenarios, as otherwise I had ridiculous amounts of gold even on Hard mode, making the Resist until End of Turns scenario very boring.
Last edited by scio-nullus on July 5th, 2021, 10:15 am, edited 8 times in total.
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"W3 M4K3 OUR OWN LUCK, 4ND YOU'R3 4BOUT TO PROV3 TH4T"
I am the author of Mercenary Band, an Aragwaith Campaign for 1.15.x
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Hi!
Thank you for using War of Legends as a dependency! :D
So, I downloaded it and I am playing it.
I got pass the first scenario on normal with 2 losses and the only problem was the defeat condition for the death of the Strongbow hero did not trigger. I didn't pay attention to his name, so might have mistook him for the elven hero.
RNG is still a [censored] for the faction, i must say. That warlord one-shotted my Pikemen. The Naga were really, really annoying: village grabbing and cutting me off from reinforcing my main attack squad.

Mods used: XP bank

I will play the rest tomorrow and give more feedback. Till then, I am glad that someone finally made an Aragwaith campaign again! It's been so long...
Creator of "War of Legends"
Creator of the Isle of Mists survival scenario.
Maintainer of Forward They Cried
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scio-nullus
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by scio-nullus »

Thank you for playing my campaign!

The main thing I found in general is that you can't go wrong with swordsman spam (Spearman if you have more gold). In scenario 3 I recruited about 30 :-) and made 4 or 5 guards. Guards are useful for the 'Resist until end of turns' scenario, the protection ability means I used them at the bridges.
Appears I forgot [endlevel] for everyone but Madreddoc the leader.

Should I make the shaman hero's village more prominent? (Did you find her? She lives in the village on the island half way to the naga island. If not you'll be hard pressed in S4 which has very annoying undead. Also dialogue might not work.)
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"W3 M4K3 OUR OWN LUCK, 4ND YOU'R3 4BOUT TO PROV3 TH4T"
I am the author of Mercenary Band, an Aragwaith Campaign for 1.15.x
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Should I make the shaman hero's village more prominent? (Did you find her? She lives in the village on the island half way to the naga island.
I did, but not intentionally. Was planning to use that village as a defence point and moved a Pikeman there. Got the shaman and levelled her into a Druid, as the Aragwaith healer/mage unit isn't really that sturdy.
The main thing I found in general is that you can't go wrong with swordsman spam (Spearman if you have more gold). In scenario 3 I recruited about 30 :-) and made 4 or 5 guards.
My first try in scenario 3 ended in frustration. Have to try again tomorrow. Those Orc warriors one-shotted whatever spearmen/swordsmen on the field and even depleted my lvl 3 guardian. :(
If not you'll be hard pressed in S4 which has very annoying undead.
Spoiler:
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Creator of the Isle of Mists survival scenario.
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by scio-nullus »

That is the point of the Shaman's village. I was wondering if I should make her more obvious and eventually decided that no, any reasonable Wesnoth player would capture that village. I mean, who wouldn't?

Do you think I should make it obvious that I put an Impassable Overlay around the shaman and therefore the Naga cannot get her while she is in the water? Otherwise you would presumably believe that she is very vulnerable as she has 0% defense and you might end up compromising your defensive position. Then again, you can just use [Ctrl] + [V] to work out she is unreachable unless the unit on the village is killed.

The way I dealt with the orc warriors was the Flagbearer leader + Archers, then retreating them in favour of swordsmen. I also find that Guards and Shield Guards are about the most useful unit in this campaign, they have good defense against undead and charging units.
Spoiler:
I found that the best way to complete a scenario early (in later scenarios) was to use the Sylph + Sorceress combination. The Sylph captures a village near the keep, the enemy leader comes out and attacks, and then the Sorceress teleports in and they finish them off.

I don't know whether the decision to level her into a druid was good, there are some annoying undead scenarios and also a Resist until End of Turns scenario. So you're swapping only having fragile healers for only having fragile anti-Undead magicians.
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"W3 M4K3 OUR OWN LUCK, 4ND YOU'R3 4BOUT TO PROV3 TH4T"
I am the author of Mercenary Band, an Aragwaith Campaign for 1.15.x
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by Konrad2 »

S1
There is a '.' missing when the Naga talks/whispers/thinks about keeping gold in reserve (at the scenario start).
There is no 'Turns run out' or 'strongbow hero dies' or 'Elvish Shaman dies' defeat condition in the scenario objectives.

EDIT:
S2
Why would the player want to hold that ruined keep?

EDIT 2:
S2
The scenario ends if you defeat the Saurian leader, even if the trolls are still alive.
There is no 'Turns run out' or 'strongbow hero dies' or 'Elvish Shaman dies' defeat condition in the scenario objectives.

S3
There is no 'Turns run out' or 'strongbow hero dies' or 'Elvish Shaman dies' defeat condition in the scenario objectives.
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by white_haired_uncle »

lua error at the beginning of S5

1.14.7

Also, in S10 "Dwarvish Guard" doesn't exist messages.

Interesting, sometimes frustrating, mix of units. I failed to level them up properly, but some of the scenarios like S2 and S9 I finished 40+ turns early, so I had plenty of gold to buy cannon fodder.

I played on easy. There were a couple levels where I struggled to survive the first few turns, but generally I'd say it was quite easy. If I had played better, levelling up more units and protecting them once they had, it may have been too easy, IMO (or at least a lot easier than other campaigns played on easy).

EDIT: Oh yeah, missing images...
'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-nozoc-bottom.png'
'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-nozoc-top.png'
'units/human-aragwaithi/adept-heal.png'
'units/human-aragwaithi/slayer-attack1-ranged-e.png'
'units/human-aragwaithi/slayer-attack4-ranged-n.png'
'units/human-aragwaithi/slayer-attack6.png'
'units/human-aragwaithi/strongbow-sword-1.png'
'units/human-aragwaithi/strongbow-sword-5.png'
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MB-Siege of Elense.gz
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Speak softly, and carry Doombringer.
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by Konrad2 »

S4, Ambush in the Night
Is it intended that the green undead rush at me from all over the map? I don't see how I'm supposed to deal with 45 revenants without sacrificing my whole army and getting lucky.

EDIT:
Fine, it's possible. Still, is it intended? (Reading on of the spoiler comments: Yeah, apparently. Huh.)

S5, Siege of Elense

Code: Select all

<Lua error>	lua/core.lua:425: [scroll_to] not supported at scenario toplevel
			stack traceback:
				[C]: in funtion '.error'
				lua/core.lua:425: in function <lua/core.lua:413
Also, no turns run out/any of your important unit dies excpet your leader lose conditions. I guess they are missing everywhere.

EDIT 2:
There are now replay topics for your campaign.

EDIT 3:
S4
The scenario objectives tell you to defeat enemy leaders. But there is only one leader.
Attachments
MB-Ambush in the Night replay.gz
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MB-Ambush in the Night Turn 9.gz
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scio-nullus
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by scio-nullus »

Konrad2 wrote: June 12th, 2019, 9:30 pm S1
There is no 'Turns run out' or 'strongbow hero dies' or 'Elvish Shaman dies' defeat condition in the scenario objectives.
That's odd, I thought I fixed that. EDIT: You mean the objectives, I'll do those this evening.
Konrad2 wrote: June 12th, 2019, 9:30 pm S2
The scenario ends if you defeat the Saurian leader, even if the trolls are still alive.
The trolls are not blocking the road, so they are a bonus objective.

The units are not mine, they are Lord_Knightmare's. I am sorry that they are hard to play with, it is intentional. I think I have fixed stuff now though. I made less Revenants. I didn't play it through on Hard, I am sorry if it is too hard. The way I got through it comparatively easily is to spam swordsmen and level them all into Guards. Guards are about the most useful unit in this campaign.

Updated on server.
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"W3 M4K3 OUR OWN LUCK, 4ND YOU'R3 4BOUT TO PROV3 TH4T"
I am the author of Mercenary Band, an Aragwaith Campaign for 1.15.x
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by Konrad2 »

S5, Siege of Elense

Code: Select all

<Lua error>	lua/core.lua:425: [scroll_to] not supported at scenario toplevel
			stack traceback:
				[C]: in funtion '.error'
				lua/core.lua:425: in function <lua/core.lua:413
This bug still exists in 0.6

EDIT:
Elves in Danger
Wesnothians -> Wesnothians.

EDIT 2:
Orc Horde
Is it intentional that the goblins have only 50 gold instead of maybe 150?

EDIT 3:
Cavalrymen
<Invalid WML found> Unit-type "Dwarvish Guard" doesn't exist.

EDIT 4:
I'm really drawing a line at S11 (The Treaty). This is by no means fun. Or reasonable from the story point of view.
I haven't tried throwing every veteran I have at them, but even if I did win like that, it would leave me without any kind of units for the next scenario and probably broke too. I just can't keep up with the rate of spawning revenants. ._. (Playing on hard.)

I suggest redesigning the castle/Treaty room. For now it makes no sense that there is this convenient room in the middle of the swamp. So how opening up the room a bit more, make my keep part of it and make it all look more 'makeshift', so you can actually see that this stuff was build just now for this meeting? That way the diplomats are actually in danger as well.
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by scio-nullus »

- Everything is fixed apart from S5. I searched the code and it has no mention of [scroll_to]. I believe that it is a consequence of some other code, and it is being called by core.lua as referenced in your error.
- I have not made the diplomats more endangered, but I have made the castle more makeshift. Because I do not know how to write an AI which will not let them move and make suicidal attacks.
- The number of spawning revenants has decreased. I have also added a reminder in S12 that it is the last scenario, aside from the epilogue.
0.7 is out.
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"W3 M4K3 OUR OWN LUCK, 4ND YOU'R3 4BOUT TO PROV3 TH4T"
I am the author of Mercenary Band, an Aragwaith Campaign for 1.15.x
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by Konrad2 »

S11
It's 4 days, not 3. (24 turns vs 18 turns)
(The scenario is indeed possible to win on hard now, if you have 1000 gold.)
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by AOW »

Interesting melee, campaign easy and fun.

If your make the dialogue more vivid, it will be more brilliant, for example, the reason for the Vagrancy of Madreddoc&Sengir, the desire of soldiers to settle down in the mercenary career. lots of gold can express such a topic well.
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by Poison »

Please fix episode "Ambush in the Night", not sure what the intended purpose is but this is by no means fun. I think I can do it, not sure if I'm willing to though.
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Re: SP Campaign - Mercenary Band (for 1.14)

Post by egallager »

I managed to beat this campaign with some edits; my edits can be found here: https://github.com/cooljeanius/wesnoth_ ... enary_Band
The biggest annoyance was probably getting ambushed by Revenants in swamps so much. Other than that, though, it was good to play a campaign that stars the Aragwaithi the full way thru rather than having them just be a side faction like they are in other UMC campaigns. I'm looking forward to the campaign receiving some additional polish and eventually reaching a 1.0.0 release!
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