The "Help Wesnoth" button, what's it do?

Post by **Zhukov** » April 14th, 2006, 12:14 pm

Well, I sort of know what it does, it asks me if I want to send "game summaries" to wesnoth.org to help "improve gameplay."
But I'm curious. What are these summary things? How do they help the game? Is it a good idea to send them?

Tomsik · Post by **Tomsik** » April 14th, 2006, 2:38 pm

I think it's used to make statistics on http://stats.wesnoth.org/

Disto · Post by **Disto** » April 14th, 2006, 2:47 pm

It's kind of depressing seeing a seed of evil was only played for the first scenario, apparently it was broken but it wasn't for me...

Ranger M · Post by **Ranger M** » April 14th, 2006, 3:42 pm

the first scenario was fiendishly hard when I played it (I passed by not figting the orcs at all, I just waited by the king and then killed him, eventually), but then again, I'm not the best player ever...

Disto · Post by **Disto** » April 14th, 2006, 3:45 pm

Ranger M wrote:the first scenario was fiendishly hard when I played it (I passed by not figting the orcs at all, I just waited by the king and then killed him, eventually), but then again, I'm not the best player ever...

Hmmm... I thought I was a bad player. Oh well, most the of the enemy will get killed by the King, and it's changed since then.

sparr · Post by **sparr** » April 14th, 2006, 4:04 pm

supposedly you can use the URL listed in that window to view your own stats, but mine always stay blank

Skippy · Post by **Skippy** » April 15th, 2006, 3:11 am

It works for me.

It also keeps track of quits and the like. So you can see how much save-scumming people do. And it's a lot. (Compare the losses/quits for a campaign against the wins, or, look at an individual player's detailed statistics.)

Given the ethos of Wesnoth about not save-loading, I think the statistics are amusing. I suspect that most of the campaigns have been designed to be way too hard for people who don't know everything about the scenarios already - they are not forgiving of mistakes (which you cannot recognise as such beforehand until you know everything about the scenario). I imagine that, if these statistics are acted on, the campaigns would see some radical change - either that or the "don't save-scum" ethos would be downplayed a bit more.

I could manage to play Angband without save-scumming... But, so far, not Wesnoth. Oh well...

Post by **Kestenvarn** » April 15th, 2006, 10:25 am

Angband is entirely balanced around the aspect of single-player permadeath, though... at least the version I played, ZAngband is. Common sense and preparation can get you pretty far, although you do run into the rare string of bad luck.

You can't really compare that type of gameplay with Wesnoth - controlling and worrying over mulitple units, heavy reliance on chance...

Post by **torangan** » April 15th, 2006, 11:32 am

Scott is already using this input to rebalance httt and trow.

scott · Post by **scott** » April 15th, 2006, 12:00 pm

Skippy wrote:It works for me.

It also keeps track of quits and the like. So you can see how much save-scumming people do. And it's a lot. (Compare the losses/quits for a campaign against the wins, or, look at an individual player's detailed statistics.)

Given the ethos of Wesnoth about not save-loading, I think the statistics are amusing. I suspect that most of the campaigns have been designed to be way too hard for people who don't know everything about the scenarios already - they are not forgiving of mistakes (which you cannot recognise as such beforehand until you know everything about the scenario). I imagine that, if these statistics are acted on, the campaigns would see some radical change - either that or the "don't save-scum" ethos would be downplayed a bit more.

I could manage to play Angband without save-scumming... But, so far, not Wesnoth. Oh well...

I think a lot of people quit after losing an important unit and go back to the beginning. That's what I do, especially in campaigns like Saving Elensefar where you can BARELY RECRUIT ANYTHING. Yeesh.

One of the interesting things we discovered was how difficult people found The Princess of Wesnoth. Lots of quits there. Sometimes when they rebalance the units for MP it has unintended side effects like making some enemies stronger. The Princess of Wesnoth used to be pretty easy, but those L2 units are really vicious. Other scenarios, like the Siege of Elensefar and Scepter of Fire, are no surprise.

Elvish_Pillager · Post by **Elvish_Pillager** » April 15th, 2006, 12:12 pm

The Princess of Wesnoth is the first scenario where you really fight mostly on grassland, AND it's only the second real scenario where you fight significant amounts of level 2 units. There are other factors that make it difficult but those are the main ones.

Oddly enough, one or two castlefuls of Elvish Scouts as cannon fodder are very helpful in this level.

Post by **Zhukov** » April 15th, 2006, 1:56 pm

Are statistics really reliable in this sort of thing? For example, if someone plays with a 'no losses policy' and restarts or loads whenever they lose a unit, wouldn't that give skewed results?

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » April 15th, 2006, 2:29 pm

Why is Two Brothers listed under Unofficial Campaigns? It came with the version I have (1.1.2a). Is it being taken out again?

-> What i might be working on · Post by **Eleazar** » April 15th, 2006, 2:55 pm

Zhukov wrote:Are statistics really reliable in this sort of thing? For example, if someone plays with a 'no losses policy' and restarts or loads whenever they lose a unit, wouldn't that give skewed results?

Sure that would effect the results, but players are unlikely to suddenly adopt such a policy only on a particular level. The statistics can be relied upon that Princess of Wesnoth (for instance) is significantly harder than previous levels.

The stats are a great tool for making campaigns more playable. Though as with any statistics, interpretation is something of an art.

JW · Post by JW » April 15th, 2006, 3:21 pm

Just don't make it too easy guys...I mean, I like the pride of being one of the few to beat HTTT on hard with no SR. You'd hate to strip me of that lofty distinction, wouldn't you?