Shrouded Factions

Samantha · Post by **Samantha** » December 21st, 2007, 6:03 pm

When I play Wesnoth I often just feel like playing with a certain faction for whatever reason. The problem with this is I also like playing with fog-of-war and when one plays with fog-of-war and selects a faction the player puts themselves at a very severe disadvantage.

My idea is to have it as an option when creating a game to "shroud factions" or some such terminology which would make it so that the selected faction is only visible to the player in control of that faction. Other players could just see it as "User Faction" or some other placeholder. If the host changes a faction for someone else it could either be visible to both the host and the user or else just revert to the "User Faction" for everyone immediately.

I think this would greatly increase the fun factor for people, like me, who like to play different factions depending on our mood. Also, in team battles this could allow teams to choose factions which complement each other well without revealing what those factions are to the opponent.

Post by **Baufo** » December 21st, 2007, 8:57 pm

No. If you choose your faction you have the advantage of getting the faction you want.
Furthermore I think it makes Wesnoth very interesting that good players usually do not choose their faction.

Anyways, I remember that there was a threat about exactly the same topic some time ago. Do a little search.

deoxy · Post by **deoxy** » December 21st, 2007, 10:09 pm

I know that Wesnoth Philosophy is "options are bad", but I'd really like this option (set by game creator) - "allow hidden factions", or something.

Yes, I know it's not going to happen; just voicing my (not so important) opinion.

Post by **Aethaeryn** » December 22nd, 2007, 12:30 am

deoxy wrote:I know that Wesnoth Philosophy is "options are bad", but I'd really like this option (set by game creator) - "allow hidden factions", or something.

Yes, I know it's not going to happen; just voicing my (not so important) opinion.

I actually think that the philosophy of most open source games, including Wesnoth, is more like that if the feature is not important you should get someone to do all the work and submit a patch, which means that if no developer likes it enough you better know C++.

Post by **Viliam** » December 24th, 2007, 9:40 am

deoxy wrote:I'd really like this option (set by game creator) - "allow hidden factions", or something.

I think it would be better to set (by game creator) "Hide selected factions" for everyone. All players' factions would not be displayed to anyone - there is no need for each player to individually select the "hidden faction", because in such situation everyone would select it; or those who do not, would put themselves to disadvantage.

JW · Post by JW » December 24th, 2007, 10:58 am

Actually, I think this is a decent idea. Just like there is an option for no fog, there should be an option for this.

Obviously, experienced players would not use this setting, just as they don't use no shroud.

I see no reason why this shouldn't be available for newbies though.

-edit-
ps, make the default setting "races visible" obviously, so people would actually havbe to chang it every time if they wanted to do it.

Post by **CIB** » December 24th, 2007, 1:29 pm

Baufo wrote:Furthermore I think it makes Wesnoth very interesting that good players usually do not choose their faction.

It makes Wesnoth interesting that good players don't care for roleplaying? Huh?

Post by **Baufo** » December 24th, 2007, 1:41 pm

CIB wrote:
Baufo wrote:Furthermore I think it makes Wesnoth very interesting that good players usually do not choose their faction.
It makes Wesnoth interesting that good players don't care for roleplaying? Huh?

In what way does role play feeling influence the quality of the gameplay itself?

Post by **CIB** » December 24th, 2007, 1:50 pm

Baufo wrote: In what way does role play feeling influence the quality of the gameplay itself?

By being more fun for some people..? Roleplaying is not good in general, but some people like it - Why discourage them to identify themselves with a faction?

JW · Post by JW » December 24th, 2007, 2:04 pm

This suggestion has nothing to do with "roleplaying." Let's actually talk about the proposal instead of getting off-topic with tangential ideas please.

Can anyone see the point I was making above?

Post by **Thrawn** » December 24th, 2007, 3:31 pm

I get your point--and I like the idea.

@Baufo et al: I don't think that word means what you think it does (roleplaying). Role-playing has nothing to do with this. However, baufo, if there was an option for it, but make it the non-default, would you have a problem with it?

Now we just need someone who can code to actually like this idea T-T

Post by **CIB** » December 24th, 2007, 3:51 pm

Without roleplaying, a good player wouldn't have a reason to choose a certain faction, since he can play all of them. With roleplaying he has a reason, i.e. identifying himself with a faction. (by roleplaying I understand playing a game for feeling part of it, once you care for the story, characters etc. you care for roleplaying IMO)

Aethaeryn (User Page) · Post by **Aethaeryn** » December 24th, 2007, 5:04 pm

CIB: While I've agreed with you in the past, I still don't see your point.

I do like this feature as an option set by the host (hidden factions) because an interesting side-effect would be that we'd have people stop complaining about "random except <...>" options. Options are good, as long as they're really simple and add a new dynamic to gameplay.

Post by **CIB** » December 24th, 2007, 5:18 pm

Aethaeryn wrote:CIB: While I've agreed with you in the past, I still don't see your point.

My point is, that players being encouraged to choose a random faction doesn't make Wesnoth any better. (Thus this is no reason for not adding that option.)

Aethaeryn (User Page) · Post by **Aethaeryn** » December 24th, 2007, 5:36 pm

CIB wrote:
Aethaeryn wrote:CIB: While I've agreed with you in the past, I still don't see your point.
My point is, that players being encouraged to choose a random faction doesn't make Wesnoth any better. (Thus this is no reason for not adding that option.)

I sort of agree, then. I personally would love to get more practice with drakes, but if I don't go random against a player who goes random, they have a massive tactical advantage (and most good players go random).