The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Iris
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Iris »

Can I take it over and move it to wesnoth-umc-dev svn?
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Urs
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Urs »

Shadow Master wrote:Can I take it over and move it to wesnoth-umc-dev svn?
I don't have a say in this - but that would be awesome. Perhaps this can roll into mainline again some day.

And if you do take it over - perhaps I'll actually help on the sprites. I don't suck that much anymore, plus it'll be in good hands, so it won't simply be abandoned (which can be a discouraging place for effort to go to)
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by AI »

I have no problems with it and vonHalenbach (who uploaded it to the campaign server) said he didn't want to maintain it.

If you throw it on the svn, maybe I'll help out a bit myself.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Blarumyrran »

:| now this is the kind of campaign id say will always remain crappy, even with considerable makeovers. i really hope youre not trying to push it mainline in future of _any_ distance. playing a bad guy is nice (the only opportunity for this in mainline right now is the orc campaign, i suppose), but dunno, i just couldnt enjoy this one.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Mythological »

Shadow Master wrote:Can I take it over and move it to wesnoth-umc-dev svn?
As far as I am concerned, feel free to do so, Shadow Master.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Iris »

OK, I merged it into the /branches/1.4/The_Dark_Hordes dir, and set version to 0.6.0.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Orcish Shyde »

Can't find an art thread for the other guy who was making a sprite for Gwiti.
Have to agree, giving him a past that made him sympathetic would make matters a little too similar to Descent into Darkness. If it really has to be from trainee white mage to dark initiate, I'd have him tired of the responsibilities, resentful of his treatment, and tempted by the power.

Also: I edited the Dark Adept sprite to produce something posing as a level 1 Gwiti. This being my first attempt to make a graphic fit for a professional game, I may not have hit the mark. So far I have the standing pose, and am working on the defense animation.

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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by AI »

That actually looks quite good for a first try, here's the issues there are with it:
-File format, JPEG has several issues (lack of transparency, lossy compression), so we use PNG.
-Transparency: the unit should have a transparent background, the shadow should be at 60% opacity (40% transparency)
-The shadow looks off, it's split into two parts
-Team colour: though Gwiti is the only initiate in the campaign (Nati is a deathmaster when you run into him), it's a good idea to give units team colour anyway.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Orcish Shyde »

Thanks for the advice. The shadow is basically unchanged from when I ripped the PNG from Wesnoth's game files, and the JPG format can probably be blamed on Photobucket. The latter can be solved with a better host; the former, well, I don't have Photoshop, I used the sprite editor in Game Maker Lite for the recoloring :oops:

Team colours... given the relative lack of difficulty in recoloring parts of a sprite, I think (if I ever finish the job) I can safely leave that until I've got the Initiate done.

(Have to say it, I'm stuck on Mages and Elves, leaving me in no position to add levels. Should I have got more Shadows levelled up?)
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by AI »

Orcish Shyde wrote:the JPG format can probably be blamed on Photobucket. The latter can be solved with a better host;
You can attach images to your posts.
the former, well, I don't have Photoshop, I used the sprite editor in Game Maker Lite for the recoloring :oops:
The GIMP is a good image editor. (I don't have photoshop either) If that sprite editor works for you, that's fine too. (if it's incapable of transparency, I can do some final fixups)
Team colours... given the relative lack of difficulty in recoloring parts of a sprite, I think (if I ever finish the job) I can safely leave that until I've got the Initiate done.
Sounds good
(Have to say it, I'm stuck on Mages and Elves, leaving me in no position to add levels. Should I have got more Shadows levelled up?)
Haven't played it in quite a while, but shadows could indeed be useful for assassinating the leaders.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Orcish Shyde »

I have this urge to do the next scenario for TDH, but having never edited a map before I feel certain I'd mess it up. However, I can think of a level that probably should be done first: a tiny bit of insight into Gwiti's past. Specifically: there must be a reason for him to hate Nati other than that they're both jerkasses.

I'm not thinking give his past much detail. An orphanage run by a white mage picked up a young Gwiti, sensing his magical potential, and started teaching him holy magic. This didn't go down well; the boy wanted power, and fast, and was a growing cause of concern to those who sought to raise him right.

Meanwhile, Nati had escaped whatever disaster Gwiti was found in, and was contacted by a dark spirit - hell, let's call it Leganoth. He made a pact with the Lords of Darkness, selling his soul to quickly gain more power than a normal lich could hope for. Then, Leganoth chose to let him demonstrate his worthiness by granting him a cohort of ghosts, which he used to attack the orphanage. Gwiti, seeing his brother's power, took the opportunity to flee the place while those who had cared for him vainly fought the tide.

Outside, alone and friendless, Gwiti was then contacted by the same Leganoth, who explained how Nati had gained his powers, and offered Gwiti the same deal. Resentful of his brother's newfound capabilities, and finally seeing a shortcut to the power he craved anyway, Gwiti accepted. Over the coming months he committed a number of slaughters, seeking the souls he required for his evil craft; eventually, he was banished from Wesnoth, leading to A New Chance.

Technically, the above could just be introduction text, but Descent into Darkness suffers a bit from telling you about Malin's past instead of letting you play it, and I'm not entirely sure that we want The Dark Hordes to do the same if Gwiti deserves a known past at all

EDIT: Also, it just bugs me that the Demilich has all the traits of an undead creature, when it's meant to represent Gwiti slowly changing from a living person to an undead. I'd halve the vulnerabilities and resistances because at that level, he isn't completely undead yet.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Espreon »

Seems like a decent story, however I wouldn't call necromancy evil...
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by AI »

I have just uploaded version 0.6 to the 1.5 add-on server. These are the main changes:

Code: Select all

- General:
    * Renamed Agarash to Morgorath to avoid copyright issues. (Lone Wolf)
    * Storyline improved for compatibility with IftU
- Graphics & Artwork
    * New DA line recolours by Orcish Shyde for Initiate and Deathmaster
- Scenarios:
    * 03 - Skull of Morgorath:
        + Dark Spirit Leganoth is now a hero unit
    * 05 - Inside the Tower:
        + Enemies no longer have a leader
            (and the game doesn't end at turn 2 because of this)
        + The Cold potions can be acquired by any skeletal unit, they also 
            give +50% damage and last forever
        + The map now uses the new indoor wall terrain.
    * 08x - Bridge from part 1 to part 2, may be moved to 09x later on.
    * 09 - Underground River (NEW)
- Units:
    * Initiate line made up to date (arcane attacks) and rebalanced
    * Dark Spirit now uses all its animation frames
A backport to 1.4 exists but is outdated and no longer being actively maintained.

For those who cannot access the add-on server for any reason, there the tarball can be downloaded from sourceforge or if that doesn't work, the web interface.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by Sleepwalker »

I'm sorry if this is obvious and already known but some terrain maps could really use some work


For example the rivers and roads in "The Skull of Morgorath" have a very strange appearance with holes of patches of grass (and forest!) every 3 hexes or so in them.

Some bridges are also very strangely placed leading nowhere, and there's some bridges placed over a patch of water but with some grass right next to it crossing the water effectively negating any use of putting a bridge there in the first place! It's just not logical.

There's also villages put at the unpassable edge of the map in most scenarios.

All this makes me believe the maps looked different in the beginning but was distorted when you changed the map code in some patch or something. Am i right?


Besides from the terrain though the campaign has so far been pretty fun and i wish you well improving it.
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Re: The Dark Hordes rise from the dead....again

Post by AI »

Sleepwalker wrote:I'm sorry if this is obvious and already known but some terrain maps could really use some work


For example the rivers and roads in "The Skull of Morgorath" have a very strange appearance with holes of patches of grass (and forest!) every 3 hexes or so in them.

Some bridges are also very strangely placed leading nowhere, and there's some bridges placed over a patch of water but with some grass right next to it crossing the water effectively negating any use of putting a bridge there in the first place! It's just not logical.

There's also villages put at the unpassable edge of the map in most scenarios.

All this makes me believe the maps looked different in the beginning but was distorted when you changed the map code in some patch or something. Am i right?
Yes, I'm aware of the issue, the problem is that in 1.4, the map format was changed and borders were added. Wmllint can do the conversion, but won't add borders. I can do that manually in the editor (which I did for several maps), but there was an issue with the granularity of the sliders in it.

I also think the bridges were probably originally fords. (back in 0.7 or something)

I'm trying to fix it right now. (I'll also get rid of the random caves)
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