ability: night delayer

Elven · Post by **Elven** » February 6th, 2008, 12:53 pm

this ability is... i think that too much fantasy, but...

great power for undead or orcs...

what about one very expensive unit, what can make night much longer?

without this unit:
sunrise
day
day
evening
night
night

with this unit:
sunrise
day
evening
night
night
night

db0 · Post by **db0** » February 6th, 2008, 12:58 pm

overpowered

TruePurple · Post by **TruePurple** » February 6th, 2008, 1:10 pm

Like db0 said, plus would probably be very very hard to script without much benefit.

mameluke · Post by **mameluke** » February 6th, 2008, 1:26 pm

Nice idea for campaigns.
But I don't make a campaign, so I don't have need of it

I can think of several nice scenarios in campaigns.
E.g. free this unit from the enemy, that it get's dark. Then fight big battles against actually stronger army in the longer nights.

Post by **irrevenant** » February 6th, 2008, 8:33 pm

It would be basically impossible to balance for MP as people have said.

For campaign, there are a lot of possibilities re: the time-of-day cycle. eg. A 'sacred temple' village in the centre of the map, which changes the time to night or day depending on which faction holds it (actually, that one should work for MP too).

Or you could have the unit you're talking about, only they have to be rescued rather than purchased. (Balancing the game after that would be tricky, though).

Post by **irrevenant** » February 7th, 2008, 7:34 am

This idea:
1. is not going to happen in mainline,
2. has been brought to the attention of anyone who might like to run with it in a user-made faction.

As such, this thread has served it's purpose and:

Locked

Post by **irrevenant** » February 7th, 2008, 7:16 pm

I've been advised that this isn't actually possible for UMC creators to do because WML doesn't support it.

As such I'm unlocking this thread so that there can be discussion over whether or not it's a good idea to modify the engine so that the time-of-day cycle can be changed on the fly (currently it can't be).

Unlocked

Post by **thespaceinvader** » February 7th, 2008, 7:41 pm

I think it would a be a nice idea - allowing differing scale of game time per turn - instead of having one turn be around 4 hours, you could have each turn be 12 hours (day-night-day-night), or half an hour, to allow your scenario to take place over differing time scales or you could set up a system of longer nights to shorter days or vice versa to establish a location.

Or have i missed something and the above is already possible (i seem to recall one of the DiD's scenarios being all-night, and of course UtBS has a totally different day-night cycle)? I have a feeling i might have. If that's the case, ignore me =D

Post by **CIB** » February 7th, 2008, 7:42 pm

Since you can also give different terrain different ToD, have halos, etc. it would make sense to be able to modify ToD in general.

http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/User:Ken_Oh · Post by **Ken_Oh** » February 7th, 2008, 7:53 pm

I'm pretty sure this is already possible. Not really to make it officially day one turn later, but you could at least change the time of day for the whole map on specific turns.

Karo · Post by **Karo** » February 7th, 2008, 8:11 pm

thespaceinvader wrote:I think it would a be a nice idea - allowing differing scale of game time per turn - instead of having one turn be around 4 hours, you could have each turn be 12 hours (day-night-day-night), or half an hour, to allow your scenario to take place over differing time scales or you could set up a system of longer nights to shorter days or vice versa to establish a location.

Or have i missed something and the above is already possible (i seem to recall one of the DiD's scenarios being all-night, and of course UtBS has a totally different day-night cycle)? I have a feeling i might have. If that's the case, ignore me =D

UtBS also has a scenario (A Stirring in the Night) that starts of normally, then halts on The Long Dark (4) for much of the Scenario. A UMC would probably need its own time macros (which don't look that hard) and include an event with the unit that triggers the shift in ToD. Of course, the event should also include a death clause (for lack of a better term) that will restore the ToD cycle back to its normal progression in the event of the unit's death.

Post by **CIB** » February 7th, 2008, 8:11 pm

@Ken OH
How so?

UtBS also has a scenario (A Stirring in the Night) that starts of normally, then halts on The Long Dark (4) for much of the Scenario.

The ToD isn't changed dynamically there.

Post by **zookeeper** » February 7th, 2008, 8:16 pm

You can make the schedule of a scenario be anything you want. But you cannot change it mid-scenario. That's how it is currently.

Chris NS · Post by **Chris NS** » February 7th, 2008, 8:19 pm

For what it's worth, I wanted to have a WML event where a lighthouse switched on, with the same TOD effect that the lighthouse has in Clearwater Port in TROW, but found I couldn't. So I wouldn't mind the capability to change TOD mid-game.

Bear in mind that a TOD-delaying unit in multiplayer would be near-impossible to balance though.

Post by **Dave** » February 7th, 2008, 9:20 pm

Yes you currently can't dynamically modify the time of day.

Allowing dynamic time of day would potentially be fairly complicated.

I tend to think the presence of a unit on the map making night longer seems kinda....bizarre. It'd be better to have it as some kind of 'objective' that if you control you can influence how the tod goes..