Looking for characters and story writer(s) - Mercenaries

[lii2]

I will take what you said about place names into consideration.

Not sure about project name. Will get back to you on that.

Also you realize that you can just go back to scenarios on the world map?

[Quman]

Id rather assign themes to culture/ethnic group, not to places. For example, big river is named differently by saurians, humans, and elves. You can start on human names, but I dont know which theme assign to them. Im from Slovakia, country with slavic background, and not familiar with celtic/welsh/english etc languages. I can only say I like the names used for characters (and these come from various cultures*). Whats your and Qumans opinion on this topic?

On the topic of places having different names for each race? I'll use the multiple names if we have them and there's a decent way to work them into the dialogue. Naming isn't exactly my strong suit as a writer, and coming up with appropriate names for all of the races to use would require me to mess around with linguistics a little more than I'd like to, but if we have somebody else coming up with the names I'll use them.

I think the story/characters background is centered around imperial/terrorist conflict more than needed. Id like to introduce some new faction, or expanding existing one (orcs most probably).

Sorry about that. Garret got the terrorist organization in his background because I had originally planned to give his personality and background to Logan, but when I saw that you saw Logan as a more hard-hearted individual that would be willing to sacrifice Hailey, I gave the nicer personality to the spearman and came up with something new for Logan. The conflict wasn't really important for Brenton, but I wanted to give him a doomed home village and Specere fit the bill. I'll make some changes.

Orcs are living in mountains between 5 and D, and scarcily in forest between 1 and 2. Are they just dumb, aggresive creatures serving as nameless xp sources for protagonists (as they are in many, many campaigns)? What about stealing some lore from warcraft universe? In Warcraft, orcs are intelligent, peaceful, spiritual, shamanistic race roaming grasslands, organised in nomadic tribes. Then they are tainted by demons and become brutal savages. Similar thing can happen to them there, too. They live peacefully in those mountains, herding their sheep and goats/hunting some mountainous game (they may even had some trade relations with dwarves and humans), then some external force (maybe some cult secretly controlled by dark elves) corrupts them and wants to use them as army against civilization. Of course, one tribe remains uncorrupted and is escaping them (here is theme for another campaign ). We can alter background of one of the characters: he/she lived in village formerly in coexistence, eventually attacked by orcs.

Like I said above, I just wanted Brenton's home town to be attacked by somebody. He wasn't really an important addition to the dynamic between Garret and Bane, so I'll just move his background to orc territory. I can't comment too much about your idea for the orcs, since I'm still not too familiar with the way things work in Wesnoth. Even if this is a different dimension, orcs are still orcs and I would be careful about changing anything that's already set in stone. But like I said, I'm not very familiar with the setting so I don't know whether your ideas contradict anything or not.

Moreover, what kind of people live in forests around 7? Imperial influence is not very significant in these lands.

That would depend on how magical that area of the forest is. The sorts of people that would live in a mundane forest are a bit different from the sorts of people that would live in a forest where fairies are flitting around pulling pranks. Hmm... thinking about fairies also got me thinking about unicorns, which traditionally can only be seen by virgin maidens. I'm not sure if introducing something that's only visible to virgins would be a good idea, but it's something to think about.

And one final thing: I think we advanced enough to introduce this project in the Scenario and Campaign develompment section. But in order to do that, we need a proper name for it. What are your suggestions?

A lot of stories name themselves after the most important element (Scepter of Fire is about the Scepter of Fire for example,) but in this case several of the most important elements may not be clear from the beginning. I've always been partial to names that take on new meaning after a certain element has been revealed, and such a name could be used here, but those sorts of names can be hard to come up with. Well, good ones anyway. Something like 'Worlds Away' would probably be too obvious and 'Quest for a Peaceful World' is a bit awkward.

I suppose one possible solution to the lack of good proper nouns to name the campaign after would be to have Hazael name the mission he is hiring the mercenaries for. I'm not too fond of that idea myself, though, especially since we would probably want to avoid using the word 'operation' because it feels too modern. I'll think about this more and respond later.

*For example Luciana is name with spanish feel. I imagine her father comes from settlement located southwest of imperial city (there is sea and mediterranean climate, like in Spain -> Luciana may be slightly tanned)

Are you planning for the characters to have unique sprites and portraits in the final product?

Edit: What about changing Brentons attitude? Im not sure, but maybe one hireling with "slightly" chaotic evil alignment would spice things up a little.

I'll keep that in mind when I rewrite his profile.

By the way, I noticed when I was playing your demo that everybody except for Hazael could die. There probably won't be very many players that actually complete the campaign after losing too many other characters, but losing all of the virgins in the crew would be possible, and that could ruin the story. You might either want to put a limit on how many mercenaries the player can lose, make Theresa a virgin that can't be lost, or simply have characters who die in battle return to the roster after the fight's over.

[Neuromancer]

Also you realize that you can just go back to scenarios on the world map?

Yes, Im aware of that. It will be working as intended (no going back) in beta release.

I did quick google search on our names:
Theresa: Greek
Garret: english-speaking countries/Germanic
Kara: from Cara (latin)
Aramis: Three musketeers, named after French village
Hailey: english-speaking countries
Wellen: Surname, english-speaking countries
Bane: From Branislav (slavic)
Luciana: Italian
Yveen: no info, artifical name
Wendala: no info, artifical name
Pelduras: no info, sounds tolkienish to me
Brenton: from old english
We have one greek, one latin, four german/english names, one slavic, one italian, one french, three artifical names. Basically, it cannot be messed up more than it is now So lets have the human names for places multicultural too. lii2, I think the best thing to do would be conceiving two-three names for each place as you proposed earlier. Thinking of it, saurians, drakes and nagas will get only minor space in the campaign, so they will use only a few names. Dwarves and elves can have tolkienish naming conventions.

I think the story/characters background is centered around imperial/terrorist conflict more than needed. Id like to introduce some new faction, or expanding existing one (orcs most probably).

Sorry about that. ...

My bad. When I was coming up with the world concept I didnt delve very deep into minor factions (mainly because I have no idea how to make them original and interesting) and was kinda hoping others would add some ideas to the world.

(Orcs) live peacefully in those mountains, herding their sheep and goats/hunting some mountainous game ... some external force corrupts them and wants to use them as army against civilization. ...

Even if this is a different dimension, orcs are still orcs and I would be careful about changing anything that's already set in stone.

I think I know what you mean. Im aware my idea has potential to be phantasmagorical (it is bit dippy even now) and that the elves live in woods and dwarves wield axes for good reason. On the other hand, I want to avoid creating just another tolkiens world copy. For example Dragon Age universe is messing with nearly every tolkienish stereotype (eg. throwing elves in the slums, making every single mage a potential abomination) and still is believeable fantasy themed world in which players can identify themselves. Im not aiming at Dragon Agish, Warcraftish or whatever-worldish feel. I just want to create some new, fresh world and believe it is possible while maintaining identifying factor, even in the game as wesnoth. That said, I dont want to do it at all costs. Just change a few stereotypes or use them in new way (orcs for example).

Moreover, what kind of people live in forests around 7? Imperial influence is not very significant in these lands.

That would depend on how magical that area of the forest is. The sorts of people that would live in a mundane forest are a bit different from the sorts of people that would live in a forest where fairies are flitting around pulling pranks. Hmm... thinking about fairies also got me thinking about unicorns, which traditionally can only be seen by virgin maidens. I'm not sure if introducing something that's only visible to virgins would be a good idea, but it's something to think about.

I vote for this unicorns/virgins idea expressly if used in moderation.

And one final thing: I think we advanced enough to introduce this project in the Scenario and Campaign develompment section. But in order to do that, we need a proper name for it. What are your suggestions?

I've always been partial to names that take on new meaning after a certain element has been revealed, and such a name could be used here, but those sorts of names can be hard to come up with.

Name of that kind woul be ideal, but I have no idea for it too. No rush anyway, Mercenaries are sufficient for the stage the campaign is currently in, and can be used as topic name in Scen. & Camp. dev. section if necessary. Only thing that would suffer from this eventuality is branding. Speaking of branding, it would be ideal to create some logo (or just use some nice, eloquent, memorable GNU public-licensed image) and a few catchphrases (these will probably came from Qumans work naturally).

Are you planning for the characters to have unique sprites and portraits in the final product?

Sprite for censored would be nice.
Portrait for every main character would be ideal but I do know how unrealistic is that to achieve. Core unit portraits are acceptable with difficulty for some of the characters, for some just not (eg dark adept portrait for default Wendala is like fist to the eye /dont know the english counterpart idiom to the slovak "päsť na oko"/). In case of desperation, we can even use some GNU licensed images, although probably every one of them will have different style. Another solution is to propose some unexacting yet nice-looking style and ask someone to make all of the portraits. At any rate I think character portraits are important part of the project and not having them would harm the general feel from it in significant way.

By the way, I noticed when I was playing your demo that everybody except for Hazael could die. There probably won't be very many players that actually complete the campaign after losing too many other characters, but losing all of the virgins in the crew would be possible, and that could ruin the story. You might either want to put a limit on how many mercenaries the player can lose, make Theresa a virgin that can't be lost, or simply have characters who die in battle return to the roster after the fight's over.

I thought about this when I was playtesting the prototype. I think the best way would be to return killed companions to the roster in normal difficulty as you suggested. In Hard, losing every single member of the crew equals defeat (there will be a couple of saveloads every scenario, but cmon, its hard difficulty).
Theresa doesnt sound very suitable as censoreds victim to me, but on the other hand, if we make Yveen compulsory companion (for the sake of the story), Hailey will have to be compulsory too (and vice versa). Thats total 3 compulsory characters which are robbing the game of its interactivity. On the other hand, Yveen as compulsory companion is really convinient for the gameplay reasons (only unit with slow ability). Even if we dont make Theresa compulsory, player will pick her anyway because she is level 2 and healer. If we created some new level one healer unit for her that would be unrealistic/unbalanced (+8 healing for level one character is like wtf?) + character inconsistent (she is experienced priest in her middle ages), on the other hand we need +8 heal right from the start.
So i think the question is: How many players will pick Hailey or Yveen as companions (player wont feel restricted because the two of them are sisters, right? It is a matter of course when he picks one other will follow too)? I think more than 80% of players will end up with them in the party. So, in a matter of fact, we will have 3 compulsory characters, but player will have feeling only one of them (Theresa) is compulsory (and cmon, every party needs a healer, so player will nevertheless agree with Theresa as companion). The 20% of the players population will have to do with the Theresa as hostage.

Edit: How do you rate level design? I want to make this campaign as interesting as it is possible (that means at least interesting as mainline campaigns, even better then that). Are you satisfied with aesthetics and tactical possibilities of the maps?

[Quman]

Name of that kind woul be ideal, but I have no idea for it too. No rush anyway, Mercenaries are sufficient for the stage the campaign is currently in, and can be used as topic name in Scen. & Camp. dev. section if necessary. Only thing that would suffer from this eventuality is branding. Speaking of branding, it would be ideal to create some logo (or just use some nice, eloquent, memorable GNU public-licensed image) and a few catchphrases (these will probably came from Qumans work naturally).

The first thing that comes to mind for a tag line is something Kara might say: "Between the Gar Glare and Pelduras's breath, we're the scariest mercenaries money can buy." Not all that useful. I do have a few catchphrases in mind for some of the characters (some variation of "shut up Kara" will be Aramis's,) but none of them really strike me as being useful for marketing. I guess more might come up in the actual writing.

Theresa doesnt sound very suitable as censoreds victim to me, but on the other hand, if we make Yveen compulsory companion (for the sake of the story), Hailey will have to be compulsory too (and vice versa). Thats total 3 compulsory characters which are robbing the game of its interactivity. On the other hand, Yveen as compulsory companion is really convinient for the gameplay reasons (only unit with slow ability). Even if we dont make Theresa compulsory, player will pick her anyway because she is level 2 and healer. If we created some new level one healer unit for her that would be unrealistic/unbalanced (+8 healing for level one character is like wtf?) + character inconsistent (she is experienced priest in her middle ages), on the other hand we need +8 heal right from the start.
So i think the question is: How many players will pick Hailey or Yveen as companions (player wont feel restricted because the two of them are sisters, right? It is a matter of course when he picks one other will follow too)? I think more than 80% of players will end up with them in the party. So, in a matter of fact, we will have 3 compulsory characters, but player will have feeling only one of them (Theresa) is compulsory (and cmon, every party needs a healer, so player will nevertheless agree with Theresa as companion). The 20% of the players population will have to do with the Theresa as hostage.

Luciana's younger than Theresa, and she's guaranteed to be in the party if Yveen isn't. The only reason I suggested Theresa instead of her was because the player was required to have her in the party, so it would make the most sense for her to be the one mercenary the player can't lose. Since the player can't lose any of them, though, Luciana would probably be the ideal third sacrifice.

Edit: How do you rate level design? I want to make this campaign as interesting as it is possible (that means at least interesting as mainline campaigns, even better then that). Are you satisfied with aesthetics and tactical possibilities of the maps?

I can't comment too much, since I've only tried a few of the levels and I haven't tried too many of the mainline campaigns. Mission 2 seems a bit bland, with its long stretch of grass in the center, but the random things floating out in space look pretty cool. For the record, is that level entirely fabricated by the neuromancer, or do the characters' minds have some influence on the world?

[Neuromancer]

Luciana's younger than Theresa, and she's guaranteed to be in the party if Yveen isn't. The only reason I suggested Theresa instead of her was because the player was required to have her in the party, so it would make the most sense for her to be the one mercenary the player can't lose. Since the player can't lose any of them, though, Luciana would probably be the ideal third sacrifice.

Oh, I totally forgot about Luciana. Alright then.

Mission 2 seems a bit bland, with its long stretch of grass in the center, but the random things floating out in space look pretty cool. For the record, is that level entirely fabricated by the neuromancer, or do the characters' minds have some influence on the world?

I will look into some way to make it more interesting.
Influence? You mean like when character X is in party some new island will be there (these islands can reflect characters nature... anyway thats bonus stuff)? Im thinking about this dream as completely fabricated by the neuromancer, but the characters influences offer many possibilities.. its dream, everything can happen in there.

Edit: Some additional ideas:
In current state of things, player controlled side doesnt use any resource system. Villages are used only for healing. There is no need to use such a system, but it would be nice to come up with something which gives gold some alternative use.
I never played Solid Snake series, but it seems players are quite fond of main character death sounds. I think it would be nice to have last words of characters spoken too.

Edit 2: This evil artifact seized by censored at the one of the last scenarios can be named Sanguine Phoenix. It is wooden statuette big roughly as a fist, depicting a bird. In some occasions (when using its powers, or some other special events) the bird is sheding bloody tears.
One scenario can be approached as infiltration mission. Using similar concept as scenario 5 (all characters will receive ambush ability for the first few turns /or they will have it unless they sound the alarm/), units will infiltrate some base located in the forests, rescuing (terrorist) hostages (from imperials?)/seizing some information/eradicating the whole base (explosives planting or something like that..). Maybe the whole mission 5 can be made as infiltrating instead of ambushing.

[Quman]

I have a few more comments from playing the campaign. First of all, I really like the mission with the drake cult. It looks like a great opportunity to develop some of the relationships between the characters. Secondly, I noticed that Hazael can't go past level 1, but leadership only effects units that have a lower level than the leader. You might want to do something about that.

In current state of things, player controlled side doesnt use any resource system. Villages are used only for healing. There is no need to use such a system, but it would be nice to come up with something which gives gold some alternative use.

Like adding a few shops to the world map that sell artifacts? Things like a magic spear that gives Garret an arcane attack, magic boots that allow the chosen character to walk on water as if it were flat land, or a bow that gives a flaming arrow attack to the chosen archer. You would have to be careful not to make anything too powerful, but it'd make money useful for something.

I never played Solid Snake series, but it seems players are quite fond of main character death sounds. I think it would be nice to have last words of characters spoken too.

You mean with actual voice acting?

This evil artifact seized by censored at the one of the last scenarios can be named Sanguine Phoenix. It is wooden statuette big roughly as a fist, depicting a bird. In some occasions (when using its powers, or some other special events) the bird is sheding bloody tears.

Do we have any art we can use for that?

One scenario can be approached as infiltration mission. Using similar concept as scenario 5 (all characters will receive ambush ability for the first few turns /or they will have it unless they sound the alarm/), units will infiltrate some base located in the forests, rescuing (terrorist) hostages (from imperials?)/seizing some information/eradicating the whole base (explosives planting or something like that..). Maybe the whole mission 5 can be made as infiltrating instead of ambushing.

I think dwarves are the only ones that have much in the way of explosives, so I would avoid using them if we don't have a good excuse for the mercenaries to have them. What comes to my mind for the ambush mechanic is a mission where most of the team provides a diversion while a small group with the ambush skill sneaks up a side path to complete whatever their mission happens to be. This could be used in the mission where the mercenaries put a stop to whatever the dark elves are doing with the Sanguine Phoenix, or in a mission involving one of the objectives you listed.

[Neuromancer]

Secondly, I noticed that Hazael can't go past level 1, but leadership only effects units that have a lower level than the leader. You might want to do something about that.

Aware of that, but probably would forget that later. Will be fixed in beta.

In current state of things, player controlled side doesnt use any resource system. Villages are used only for healing. There is no need to use such a system, but it would be nice to come up with something which gives gold some alternative use.

Like adding a few shops to the world map that sell artifacts? Things like a magic spear that gives Garret an arcane attack, magic boots that allow the chosen character to walk on water as if it were flat land, or a bow that gives a flaming arrow attack to the chosen archer. You would have to be careful not to make anything too powerful, but it'd make money useful for something.

Nice idea! Id reduce the gameplay impact of the items to the minimum, though; No arcane spear for Garret, maybe some +1 movement elven boots and definitely some foreign spices for Pelduras, or something what player can use to manipulate Wendalas variable, or some fairytales/legend book player can actually read (we can use some text like this ingame). Things that enhance the feel of the world, story and characters. On the other hand, it would be nice to have some items that enhance the tactical gameplay in some interesting ways (but these are hard to come up with, eg. these water-walking boots: they are disrupting the natural paths created by the maps /in scenario 9 for example/). Maybe Kara can buy some blinding dust (incapacites unit for one turn... or reduces units sight to one hex) which will be usable later in the infiltration scenario. And maybe we could indulge that spear to the Garret (and flaming bow and so on) but only in the very late stages of the game.

I never played Solid Snake series, but it seems players are quite fond of main character death sounds. I think it would be nice to have last words of characters spoken too.

You mean with actual voice acting?

Well, yes! Try out Altaz Mariners MP campaign demo located on 1.8.5. I was pleasantly surprised when I actually heard the intro to the story. If no one will sign up for that, we can use some screams from sound libraries. At any rate, this is bonus stuff.

This evil artifact seized by censored at the one of the last scenarios can be named Sanguine Phoenix. It is wooden statuette big roughly as a fist, depicting a bird. In some occasions (when using its powers, or some other special events) the bird is sheding bloody tears.

Do we have any art we can use for that?

Unfortunately, no.

I tried to do something with the flatline in dream scenario. Its hard, there has to be flat terrain suitable for corpses. I came up with this. The form is not very beautiful, so I dont know about it.
Drake cult scenario: I will make huge adjustments to the map, but the idea stays the same: the party is divided into two groups -> one smaller (2 chars probably), second bigger; groups are helping each other indirectly. Have you any ideas for this indirect support? I have only one, the obvious "step on the runes"; units in small group will open pathway for the bigger group. Maybe we could use "release the floodgates", but drakes can fly

One scenario can be approached as infiltration mission. Using similar concept as scenario 5 (all characters will receive ambush ability for the first few turns /or they will have it unless they sound the alarm/), units will infiltrate some base located in the forests, rescuing (terrorist) hostages (from imperials?)/seizing some information/eradicating the whole base (explosives planting or something like that..). Maybe the whole mission 5 can be made as infiltrating instead of ambushing.

I think dwarves are the only ones that have much in the way of explosives, so I would avoid using them if we don't have a good excuse for the mercenaries to have them.

I used the explosives planting as typical example for some mission where small group of units destroys much larger facility.

Anyways, I think its time to give the story clear shape so we can move on and actually release the first few scenarios (these on orange path) in their completed appearence. Speaking of scenarios, 0 needs complete redesign (according to the conversations there), 1 is roughly done (in means of concept, im making some tactical changes to the map), 3 is done (awaiting only mono/dialogues and some WML implementation), 5 has map for one eventuality, 8 is completely done except for dialogues only.

Edit: I have forgotten about the 8: It is missing "ok, we will pay" branch. Will the party just pay and go forth? Maybe it can be done as rather long conversation involving squabbling over actual price (the more player will haggle the price down, the more he will have to prove his point, thus expanding the span of the conversation). Anyway, the party will recieve xps at the end for their arguing skills.
Another scenario idea: Capture X villages and hold them for Y turns.
We can apply ideas from this thread to our project, but I dont think player will have many opportunities for leveling past level 3. Rather use them as items in the shops.

I plan to add some general design approaches we use in this project to the first post in order to give newcomers clear idea of what are we attempting here. Do you agree on these?
1. We aim to offer several possibilities to solve a challenge in most of the scenarios, including non-combat solutions.
Actually, I wanted to write about interactivity; about approaches that enhance the world/story/characters rather than just another +7/5 cold attack magical sword dropped by vanquished enemy leader; about varying objectives in every scenario instead the obvious "Kill enemy leader"; about vibrant characters in living world and so on, but I dont know how to summarize these into one clear concept.

Edit 2: What about giving "paths" to Luciana? I dont quite imagine her as White mage. We can offer two or three paths for her, (completely) differing from default ones (in means of lore, combat stats will stay roughly the same as are in, say, archmage line.). We even not need to use some new sprites for her. Lets say something like this:
1. Elemental mage (slows ability, fire attack)
2. Pinky mage (pinky ability, pinky attack)
These paths are just a silly example.
Or we can implement these paths independently from xps/advancements (like if Luciana will meet requirements X Y and Z /these can be I dont know... have Yveen in party, solve scenario A in diplomatic way and meet nagas in 9/ her new lore will pop out of the screen /can be taken as achievement/ and she will get some cold attack or some new ability or something like that reflecting her new path or use combination of these two approaches.
Or maybe, we can trash these and use the path idea for Yveen (Path of the Sun, of the Moon... or so).

[Quman]

Nice idea! Id reduce the gameplay impact of the items to the minimum, though; No arcane spear for Garret, maybe some +1 movement elven boots and definitely some foreign spices for Pelduras, or something what player can use to manipulate Wendalas variable, or some fairytales/legend book player can actually read (we can use some text like this ingame). Things that enhance the feel of the world, story and characters. On the other hand, it would be nice to have some items that enhance the tactical gameplay in some interesting ways (but these are hard to come up with, eg. these water-walking boots: they are disrupting the natural paths created by the maps /in scenario 9 for example/). Maybe Kara can buy some blinding dust (incapacites unit for one turn... or reduces units sight to one hex) which will be usable later in the infiltration scenario. And maybe we could indulge that spear to the Garret (and flaming bow and so on) but only in the very late stages of the game.

I guess my lack of experience with the system will prevent me from being too useful. I can propose ideas for artifacts, but I have a limited understanding of how good anything would be. I figured giving characters attacks of a different type would increase their versatility without drastically improving their overall power. The archer would be better at killing woses and zombie, and Garret would be better against magical creatures, but they would still generally have the same power level. Oh well, if I keep proposing overpowered stuff I should eventually get a better feel for how good everything is.

I tried to do something with the flatline in dream scenario. Its hard, there has to be flat terrain suitable for corpses. I came up with this. The form is not very beautiful, so I dont know about it.

I've discovered that you can use [item] to make visual stuff that has no impact on the actual game. We might be able to use something like that to create little scenes that say something about either the Neuromancer or the three dreamers in the center lane. For example, there could be corpses lying around something that looks like Kara (suppressed guilt,) or we could see zombified versions of Garret's wife and son (his worst nightmare.)

Drake cult scenario: I will make huge adjustments to the map, but the idea stays the same: the party is divided into two groups -> one smaller (2 chars probably), second bigger; groups are helping each other indirectly. Have you any ideas for this indirect support? I have only one, the obvious "step on the runes"; units in small group will open pathway for the bigger group. Maybe we could use "release the floodgates", but drakes can fly

I like the smaller group being just two people. Getting two people alone together creates a lot of options that don't exist with larger groups.

Anyway, one thing that jumps to my mind is having one of the groups inadvertently creating a diversion for the other. For example, the small group reaches a point where they can see the room ahead has too many drakes to fight, but then the large group does something that draws the attention of most of the drakes allowing the small group to advance. The smaller group may later cause a cave-in that blocks off the path the drakes are using to go from their castle to the large group, freeing them up to move away from their defensive position (probably standing on one side of a river killing drakes that come into the water or some such.)

As for releasing the floodgates, it might be better to do the reverse so the underground river shallow enough for non-dragons to cross.

Anyways, I think its time to give the story clear shape so we can move on and actually release the first few scenarios (these on orange path) in their completed appearence. Speaking of scenarios, 0 needs complete redesign (according to the conversations there), 1 is roughly done (in means of concept, im making some tactical changes to the map), 3 is done (awaiting only mono/dialogues and some WML implementation), 5 has map for one eventuality, 8 is completely done except for dialogues only.

I'll try to get you some dialogue soon. It's just going to be rough draft stuff, of course. I'm sure I'm going to come up with more ideas for characters later which I'll work into earlier scenarios, and of course there will be a lot of polishing I'll want to do later, but for now I'll try to get you something workable. Hopefully sometime this week.

I have forgotten about the 8: It is missing "ok, we will pay" branch. Will the party just pay and go forth? Maybe it can be done as rather long conversation involving squabbling over actual price (the more player will haggle the price down, the more he will have to prove his point, thus expanding the span of the conversation). Anyway, the party will recieve xps at the end for their arguing skills.

My brain's kind of fried right now, so I'll just leave this idea alone for now and think about it later. I don't want to give a yea or nay until I've got a clear idea of how I would handle that scene, and I'm too tired to think of that right now.

Another scenario idea: Capture X villages and hold them for Y turns.

That could be one of the possible victory conditions in missions where two or more sides are fighting each other. Basically, cut off everybody's gold supply so they are unable to continue fighting. Of course, we would probably need to come up with a better justification for this than the idealistic 'let's all just get along' angle. I guess we could say that Hazael wanted to end the fighting to unblock a trade route or because the fighting was happening in a populated area or something like that, but he didn't want to choose sides.

I plan to add some general design approaches we use in this project to the first post in order to give newcomers clear idea of what are we attempting here. Do you agree on these?
1. We aim to offer several possibilities to solve a challenge in most of the scenarios, including non-combat solutions.
Actually, I wanted to write about interactivity; about approaches that enhance the world/story/characters rather than just another +7/5 cold attack magical sword dropped by vanquished enemy leader; about varying objectives in every scenario instead the obvious "Kill enemy leader"; about vibrant characters in living world and so on, but I dont know how to summarize these into one clear concept.

No objections. I'll try to help you out with the concep thing when I'm less tired.

What about giving "paths" to Luciana? I dont quite imagine her as White mage. We can offer two or three paths for her, (completely) differing from default ones (in means of lore, combat stats will stay roughly the same as are in, say, archmage line.). We even not need to use some new sprites for her. Lets say something like this:
1. Elemental mage (slows ability, fire attack)
2. Pinky mage (pinky ability, pinky attack)
These paths are just a silly example.

Luciana's not the only one whose class can currently advance in a way she probably shouldn't be able to. Dark adepts are eventually able to become liches, but it shouldn't be possible for an uncorrupted Wendala to become a lich, and it would probably be best if she couldn't become a lich even if she were corrupted, since that give her a skeletal look and really mess with the way people treat her. It's not the sort of thing that should just randomly happen in the middle of a battle, and even if her becoming a lich happened in a cutscene that would still seem kind of abrupt. Somebody who was only recently corrupted shouldn't be able to become a lich.

Sorry, I rambled there. Anyway, I'm in favor of giving characters special classes that make them more unique. Even if we don't get a sprite artist it would be easy enough to create some palette swaps for them that I could do so myself.

Or we can implement these paths independently from xps/advancements (like if Luciana will meet requirements X Y and Z /these can be I dont know... have Yveen in party, solve scenario A in diplomatic way and meet nagas in 9/ her new lore will pop out of the screen /can be taken as achievement/ and she will get some cold attack or some new ability or something like that reflecting her new path or use combination of these two approaches.
Or maybe, we can trash these and use the path idea for Yveen (Path of the Sun, of the Moon... or so).

Having job advancement be completely condition based would be one thing, but mixing that with experience advancement seems like a bad idea. I have no objections to players earning special abilities for characters by meeting special conditions, but I think advancement through classes should be based either on experience or special conditions, and since gold has already lost much of its purpose I'd rather not take away the main purpose of experience.

[Neuromancer]

The archer would be better at killing woses and zombie, and Garret would be better against magical creatures, but they would still generally have the same power level.

Oh, I mistakenly identified these artifacts as some overpowered magic items. Different attack types will surely enhance gameplay. But it is still a little cheap these magical items are just laying around in shops.

I tried to do something with the flatline in dream scenario. Its hard, there has to be flat terrain suitable for corpses. I came up with this. The form is not very beautiful, so I dont know about it.

I've discovered that you can use [item] to make visual stuff that has no impact on the actual game. We might be able to use something like that to create little scenes that say something about either the Neuromancer or the three dreamers in the center lane. For example, there could be corpses lying around something that looks like Kara (suppressed guilt,) or we could see zombified versions of Garret's wife and son (his worst nightmare.)

This would probably require additional spritework and maybe even that wouldnt be enough. For example if we arrange 2 lying corpses near one village, I dont think player will comprehend these are Garrets relatives lying before his house. Maybe it can be done in this way: After scenario X, there will be cutscene depicting party members sitting around fire, eating dinner, commenting their progress, telling stories... simply they will interact between themselves. In one of these interactions Garret will tell someone about his family (of course, someone who he will consider as friend /maybe Pelduras?/). As he will be telling this, screen will shift from the campsite to the place his family lives (it can be shifting as he will continue in his narration; eg. there was this tree we planted as children, it was quite growing but eventually my neighbour cut it down /three maps will show up, depicting changes in the Garrets neighbourhood/). Now player has idea of Garrets 'hood and should recognize it later in the dream scenario when he will see it. Thinking of it, it will be necesarry to have a few of these cutscenes, because I cannot think of a way these interactions will purposely happen in normal combat scenarios. Players who will not be interested in story can of course skip these. And thinking of it even more, I suppose it would be wise to move the dream scenario to some late stages in the game (maybe somewhere between 11 and 12). It can occur right after the cutscene.
Back to the flatline. Another issue could be corpses (and characters) just walking over these pictures. I dont know whether it would look nice. One way or another, if we will not find use for these scenes on the flatline, they will surely have its place on some island. Another solution could be just make this area full of trees and so on and modifying corpses' movement points and defense as they were standing on flat terrain.

Drake cult scenario: I will make huge adjustments to the map, but the idea stays the same: the party is divided into two groups -> one smaller (2 chars probably), second bigger; groups are helping each other indirectly. Have you any ideas for this indirect support? I have only one, the obvious "step on the runes"; units in small group will open pathway for the bigger group. Maybe we could use "release the floodgates", but drakes can fly

Anyway, one thing that jumps to my mind is having one of the groups inadvertently creating a diversion for the other. For example, the small group reaches a point where they can see the room ahead has too many drakes to fight, but then the large group does something that draws the attention of most of the drakes allowing the small group to advance. The smaller group may later cause a cave-in that blocks off the path the drakes are using to go from their castle to the large group, freeing them up to move away from their defensive position (probably standing on one side of a river killing drakes that come into the water or some such.)

As for releasing the floodgates, it might be better to do the reverse so the underground river shallow enough for non-dragons to cross.

Thanks for these, I will make good use of them! Two-three more ideas like these and this scenario will be really interesting.

I'll try to get you some dialogue soon. It's just going to be rough draft stuff, of course. I'm sure I'm going to come up with more ideas for characters later which I'll work into earlier scenarios, and of course there will be a lot of polishing I'll want to do later, but for now I'll try to get you something workable. Hopefully sometime this week.

Tell me if there is case in which story-adjustments to the maps are needed.

I have forgotten about the 8: It is missing "ok, we will pay" branch. Will the party just pay and go forth? Maybe it can be done as rather long conversation involving squabbling over actual price (the more player will haggle the price down, the more he will have to prove his point, thus expanding the span of the conversation). Anyway, the party will recieve xps at the end for their arguing skills.

My brain's kind of fried right now, so I'll just leave this idea alone for now and think about it later. I don't want to give a yea or nay until I've got a clear idea of how I would handle that scene, and I'm too tired to think of that right now.

I guess we can make this haggling more interesting in this way: At some point, dwarf will ask the party to present him some meaningful argument regarding the suggested price. And player will have to choose from several possibilities which will be (for example) exactly these:
1. Consumer theory in post-keynesian economics
2. Intrinsic theory of value
3. Competitive advantage in light of Calmfors-Driffill hypothesis
The catch is, obviously, player himself will hardly understand what these means (if he isnt economist). I dont understand these either, just made them up randomly matching terms from Economic theories wiki. Eventually, player will choose one option, lets say 2. Censored will begin to speak about implications of this theory, but after a while he will just stop ("...wait...that means I should pay the higher price!"). Of course, dwarf will realize it too so in the end the player will have to pay higher price. Naturally, these examples I used are exagerrated. I think if we will place something in the context of the conversation player himself will be able to deduct the right answer (if he payed attention in his economics class ). For example inflation impliactions or supply and demand implications, or something like that. And I suppose we can even use that mad example and player will be compelled to minimize wesnoth and read something about these theories and their implications on the wiki (and we, as creators, too ).

Another scenario idea: Capture X villages and hold them for Y turns.

That could be one of the possible victory conditions in missions where two or more sides are fighting each other. Basically, cut off everybody's gold supply so they are unable to continue fighting. Of course, we would probably need to come up with a better justification for this than the idealistic 'let's all just get along' angle. I guess we could say that Hazael wanted to end the fighting to unblock a trade route or because the fighting was happening in a populated area or something like that, but he didn't want to choose sides.

I never thought of this from this perspective! I think your idea is especially suitable for the scenario where censored learns location of phoenix. As you expressed, it can be made as fight of two-three factions over some populated area*. Censored will pretend he cares about civilians, but of course he will need the ceasefire to happen to learn the location of Phoenix.

Luciana's not the only one whose class can currently advance in a way she probably shouldn't be able to. Dark adepts are eventually able to become liches, but it shouldn't be possible for an uncorrupted Wendala to become a lich, and it would probably be best if she couldn't become a lich even if she were corrupted, since that give her a skeletal look and really mess with the way people treat her. It's not the sort of thing that should just randomly happen in the middle of a battle, and even if her becoming a lich happened in a cutscene that would still seem kind of abrupt. Somebody who was only recently corrupted shouldn't be able to become a lich.

I share this point of view. I suggest this for Wendala:
1. Remove Lich advancement.
2. Strip Dark Sorcerer and Necromancer of their sprites, descriptions, and names.
Now we have only flavorless advancements. There comes the variable: In situations when it will be appropriate (these can be cutscenes I mentioned earlier), her appearance (portrait and sprite), description, and name will be updated to match her attitude. This way when she will advance midbattle only her combat stats will be changed. I think no more than four "attitudes" are manageable. I also imagine the only thing that will be changed both when she advances and will be updated is power of her attacks (overally in xp advancement and marginally in update /like +2, or -1/). I suppose these marginal updates will make her slightly more powerful then Luciana if she will be uncorrupted. And Id really like to see Wendala in her worst doing some really dark, sick, nasty things

Yes, and one more thing: I just want to say Im very happy to have you in this project and I really look forward at the time we will release this.

*I first thought about gangs fighting for domination in densely populated urban district, but this map would be uninteresting in current limitations of wesnoth engine (though it would be so cool if only there were more terrains for urban areas and multilevel maps available -> this idea is calling for creation of a brand new engine used in a brand new game. At least I will have something to do after we finish this ).

Edit: Probably should change Wendalas (necromancers) melee attack from plague to drain.
Thinking of the story, wouldnt some evil-is-sexy character be suitable? Some horny devil, warlock or succubus, that sort of thing. We can cast her in the ranks of the dark elves as some low-ranking officer (will be leader of forces player will battle in the last scenario).

[Quman]

Oh, I mistakenly identified these artifacts as some overpowered magic items. Different attack types will surely enhance gameplay. But it is still a little cheap these magical items are just laying around in shops.

I can't really think of any way around that. We'll just have to try to make the shops seem special.

This would probably require additional spritework and maybe even that wouldnt be enough. For example if we arrange 2 lying corpses near one village, I dont think player will comprehend these are Garrets relatives lying before his house.

Not their first time playing the game, but if they already know he has a wife and a son, it should be pretty obvious who the woman and boy are. If the characters comment on the scenes as they pass them it will make things even more obvious, since the characters can identify them as a woman and a boy (since most sprites we can use for the son would be easily mistaken for a man.)

Maybe it can be done in this way: After scenario X, there will be cutscene depicting party members sitting around fire, eating dinner, commenting their progress, telling stories... simply they will interact between themselves. In one of these interactions Garret will tell someone about his family (of course, someone who he will consider as friend /maybe Pelduras?/). As he will be telling this, screen will shift from the campsite to the place his family lives (it can be shifting as he will continue in his narration; eg. there was this tree we planted as children, it was quite growing but eventually my neighbour cut it down /three maps will show up, depicting changes in the Garrets neighbourhood/). Now player has idea of Garrets 'hood and should recognize it later in the dream scenario when he will see it.

No objection to having scenes outside of battle (I would have eventually suggested the same anyway,) but I have different plans for how Garret will end up revealing that he has a family than reminiscing about them to a friend. He'll still be talking to a friend when he reveals that he has a wife, but that friend will be a female who would have liked for him to be single.

And thinking of it even more, I suppose it would be wise to move the dream scenario to some late stages in the game (maybe somewhere between 11 and 12). It can occur right after the cutscene.

Including them in the dream after the player already knows he has a family kind of defeats the purpose. If the dream happens early, it hints at an element of Garret's personality that won't be fully revealed until later. If the dream comes after said revelation, all it does is reinforce something we already know. I think it's a lot more interesting the other way.

Back to the flatline. Another issue could be corpses (and characters) just walking over these pictures. I dont know whether it would look nice. One way or another, if we will not find use for these scenes on the flatline, they will surely have its place on some island. Another solution could be just make this area full of trees and so on and modifying corpses' movement points and defense as they were standing on flat terrain.

We could try making the map curve a little (as shown in the picture that should be attached.) Curving the path would make it a bit more interesting to look at, and it would make any little scenes we place out in space feel more connected to the path (either because the path juts out in the direction of the scene, or because the path is curving around the scene.)

Tell me if there is case in which story-adjustments to the maps are needed.

Will do.

I guess we can make this haggling more interesting in this way: At some point, dwarf will ask the party to present him some meaningful argument regarding the suggested price. And player will have to choose from several possibilities which will be (for example) exactly these:
1. Consumer theory in post-keynesian economics
2. Intrinsic theory of value
3. Competitive advantage in light of Calmfors-Driffill hypothesis
The catch is, obviously, player himself will hardly understand what these means (if he isnt economist). I dont understand these either, just made them up randomly matching terms from Economic theories wiki. Eventually, player will choose one option, lets say 2. Censored will begin to speak about implications of this theory, but after a while he will just stop ("...wait...that means I should pay the higher price!"). Of course, dwarf will realize it too so in the end the player will have to pay higher price. Naturally, these examples I used are exagerrated. I think if we will place something in the context of the conversation player himself will be able to deduct the right answer (if he payed attention in his economics class ). For example inflation impliactions or supply and demand implications, or something like that. And I suppose we can even use that mad example and player will be compelled to minimize wesnoth and read something about these theories and their implications on the wiki (and we, as creators, too ).

I've actually listened to a few hours of college economics lectures online, but I paid more attention to concepts than terms. Anyway, I'll keep that in mind, but for now I need to find time to get the earlier writing done.

I share this point of view. I suggest this for Wendala:
1. Remove Lich advancement.
2. Strip Dark Sorcerer and Necromancer of their sprites, descriptions, and names.
Now we have only flavorless advancements. There comes the variable: In situations when it will be appropriate (these can be cutscenes I mentioned earlier), her appearance (portrait and sprite), description, and name will be updated to match her attitude. This way when she will advance midbattle only her combat stats will be changed. I think no more than four "attitudes" are manageable. I also imagine the only thing that will be changed both when she advances and will be updated is power of her attacks (overally in xp advancement and marginally in update /like +2, or -1/). I suppose these marginal updates will make her slightly more powerful then Luciana if she will be uncorrupted. And Id really like to see Wendala in her worst doing some really dark, sick, nasty things

As I said, I'm a bit iffy about mixing experience advancement with conditional advancement. I suppose Wendala is a special case, but the idea of giving her flavorless advancements still doesn't sit well with me.

Yes, and one more thing: I just want to say Im very happy to have you in this project and I really look forward at the time we will release this.

Here's hoping college doesn't keep me too busy to do the actual work we need to get done.

Thinking of the story, wouldnt some evil-is-sexy character be suitable? Some horny devil, warlock or succubus, that sort of thing. We can cast her in the ranks of the dark elves as some low-ranking officer (will be leader of forces player will battle in the last scenario).

Are we talking about Wendala here? I don't think she should start off far enough into the dark arts to have taken on a demonic appearance, and considering how other practitioners of the dark arts don't take on demonic appearances with experience I would be reluctant to have Wendala do so, especially when I also consider the reasons I didn't want her becoming a lich. Also, joining the dark elves at the end of the campaign might also be a bit abrupt.

[Neuromancer]

No objection to having scenes outside of battle (I would have eventually suggested the same anyway,) but I have different plans for how Garret will end up revealing that he has a family than reminiscing about them to a friend. He'll still be talking to a friend when he reveals that he has a wife, but that friend will be a female who would have liked for him to be single.

Im intrigued Btw, there is this cool image (related thread), it would be a shame we didnt make some use of it... just saying

And thinking of it even more, I suppose it would be wise to move the dream scenario to some late stages in the game (maybe somewhere between 11 and 12). It can occur right after the cutscene.

Including them in the dream after the player already knows he has a family kind of defeats the purpose. If the dream happens early, it hints at an element of Garret's personality that won't be fully revealed until later. If the dream comes after said revelation, all it does is reinforce something we already know. I think it's a lot more interesting the other way.

I thought in this way: Lets move the dream scenario to the later stages of the game (because it would be unwise showing characters deep intimacies to the player right in the first scenario) and because between 11 and 12 we dont have world map anymore, we could include it right after some cutscene. Garrets past could be revealed in another (earlier) cutscene. Next time I will pay more attention to my stylistics. But I kind of like the idea player will recognize references in the dream scenario only on his/her second gameplay.

Back to the flatline. Another issue could be corpses (and characters) just walking over these pictures. I dont know whether it would look nice. One way or another, if we will not find use for these scenes on the flatline, they will surely have its place on some island. Another solution could be just make this area full of trees and so on and modifying corpses' movement points and defense as they were standing on flat terrain.

We could try making the map curve a little (as shown in the picture that should be attached.) Curving the path would make it a bit more interesting to look at, and it would make any little scenes we place out in space feel more connected to the path (either because the path juts out in the direction of the scene, or because the path is curving around the scene.)

I'd curve it normally but I was concerned about the AI handling the corpses over curved terrain. Thinking of it, AI is moving (or, as is the case, not moving) them strangely even on flat line. I have done one playtest and it seems to me curviness deviates them even little more then straight line. I will redesign the map and decrease the amount of corpses on the field and see if that will lead to better performance.

I share this point of view. I suggest this for Wendala:
1. Remove Lich advancement.
2. Strip Dark Sorcerer and Necromancer of their sprites, descriptions, and names.
Now we have only flavorless advancements. There comes the variable: In situations when it will be appropriate (these can be cutscenes I mentioned earlier), her appearance (portrait and sprite), description, and name will be updated to match her attitude. This way when she will advance midbattle only her combat stats will be changed. I think no more than four "attitudes" are manageable. I also imagine the only thing that will be changed both when she advances and will be updated is power of her attacks (overally in xp advancement and marginally in update /like +2, or -1/). I suppose these marginal updates will make her slightly more powerful then Luciana if she will be uncorrupted. And Id really like to see Wendala in her worst doing some really dark, sick, nasty things

As I said, I'm a bit iffy about mixing experience advancement with conditional advancement. I suppose Wendala is a special case, but the idea of giving her flavorless advancements still doesn't sit well with me.

I think mixing it this way preserves advantages of both systems. On regular level up, character will amplify his/her power (the core idea/incentive of leveling will be fulfilled) and in the update the flavor will be updated (as is the narration demanding). One way or another, I guess this is not on Top priorities list and can be done later. Surely there is someone who can bring another perspective to this.

Thinking of the story, wouldnt some evil-is-sexy character be suitable? Some horny devil, warlock or succubus, that sort of thing. We can cast her in the ranks of the dark elves as some low-ranking officer (will be leader of forces player will battle in the last scenario).

Are we talking about Wendala here?

I was reffering to some brand new character. Dark forces player will encounter in the campaign dont have their leader yet.

[Rowanthepreacher]

Do you still need any help?

Even if you do, do the writers need any more people sticking their noses in?

[Neuromancer]

Do you still need any help?

Ideas. Proposing, commenting, et cetera. I suppose you already read what was posted there on various topics and still needs some betterment.
You can think up names for scenarios and campaign itself if you are looking for that kind of thing.
We could use help from WML coders, artists, playtesters, etc. as soon as complete orange path will be released.

Even if you do, do the writers need any more people sticking their noses in?

I guess thats Quman's and lii2's call.

[Quman]

Sorry I haven't commented in the last few days. I had homework I really wanted to finish in time to turn in yesterday, to the point that I was too busy working on it the night before to even sleep. Naturally, I was too tired yesterday to want to do much with the computer, and when I sat down to comment today I got distracted trying to solve the problem with the walking corpses.

Im intrigued Btw, there is this cool image (related thread), it would be a shame we didnt make some use of it... just saying

We seem to be looking at this in two very different ways. You seem to come from a world where skimpy outfits are a reward, I come from a world where getting a shirt for Jack in Mass Effect 2 is a reward. Basically, I hate it when games that want me to take them seriously throw in gratuitous fanservice that either serves no purpose, or in some cases contradicts what the game is otherwise trying to tell you (for example, Samara's overly-revealing outfit doesn't match her personality.) If the lesbian makeout session serves no purpose other than fanservice, I'd rather not waste time trying to work it into the game.

I think we're also picturing very different things when I talk about one of the girls (Kara, specifically) liking him. The idea was to show certain aspects of the characters (Garret being married and faithful, Kara being attracted to the type of person Garret is.) I was vague not because I wanted you to be intrigued, but just because I didn't want to commit to writing something that may or may not work very well in a wesnoth game.

I thought in this way: Lets move the dream scenario to the later stages of the game (because it would be unwise showing characters deep intimacies to the player right in the first scenario) and because between 11 and 12 we dont have world map anymore, we could include it right after some cutscene. Garrets past could be revealed in another (earlier) cutscene. Next time I will pay more attention to my stylistics. But I kind of like the idea player will recognize references in the dream scenario only on his/her second gameplay.

I'm not talking about revealing deep intimacies, I'm talking about hinting at them. They're not going to go into long monologues about their backstory, the characters are just going to have a very brief exchange about what they're looking at, which hints at depths beyond the obvious personality traits.

I'd curve it normally but I was concerned about the AI handling the corpses over curved terrain. Thinking of it, AI is moving (or, as is the case, not moving) them strangely even on flat line. I have done one playtest and it seems to me curviness deviates them even little more then straight line. I will redesign the map and decrease the amount of corpses on the field and see if that will lead to better performance.

I assume the problem you're talking about is that a lot of corpses just stand around doing nothing instead of attacking. That problem can be fixed by adding the following under the [ai] tag for Neuromancer:

Code: Select all

		[target]
			id=Wintermute
			value=100
		[/target]

Do the same for Wintermute, but with Neuromancer as the target. I think the problem was that the ai wanted to use some of the corpses to fight the enemies on the island, and since moving to the island was impossible they simply didn't do anything.

I was reffering to some brand new character. Dark forces player will encounter in the campaign dont have their leader yet.

Okay, that makes more sense. Do you think she should have some history with Hazael, or should they be strangers? Also, should there be any connection between the dark forces and the drake cult?

As for Rowan, I have no objection to another person getting involved. Some ideas may need to be rejected, but I think it's better to reject an idea than to never hear it.

[Neuromancer]

We seem to be looking at this in two very different ways. You seem to come from a world where skimpy outfits are a reward, I come from a world where getting a shirt for Jack in Mass Effect 2 is a reward. Basically, I hate it when games that want me to take them seriously throw in gratuitous fanservice that either serves no purpose, or in some cases contradicts what the game is otherwise trying to tell you (for example, Samara's overly-revealing outfit doesn't match her personality.) If the lesbian makeout session serves no purpose other than fanservice, I'd rather not waste time trying to work it into the game.

I think we're also picturing very different things when I talk about one of the girls (Kara, specifically) liking him. The idea was to show certain aspects of the characters (Garret being married and faithful, Kara being attracted to the type of person Garret is.) I was vague not because I wanted you to be intrigued, but just because I didn't want to commit to writing something that may or may not work very well in a wesnoth game.

Oh, its not entirely like that. In short, write it the way you want and like and I will not force some gratuitous things into the work. But you agree on the dark elves leader being evil-is-sexy cliched?

I'd curve it normally but I was concerned about the AI handling the corpses over curved terrain. Thinking of it, AI is moving (or, as is the case, not moving) them strangely even on flat line. I have done one playtest and it seems to me curviness deviates them even little more then straight line. I will redesign the map and decrease the amount of corpses on the field and see if that will lead to better performance.

I assume the problem you're talking about is that a lot of corpses just stand around doing nothing instead of attacking. That problem can be fixed by adding the following under the [ai] tag for Neuromancer:

Code: Select all

		[target]
			id=Wintermute
			value=100
		[/target]

Do the same for Wintermute, but with Neuromancer as the target. I think the problem was that the ai wanted to use some of the corpses to fight the enemies on the island, and since moving to the island was impossible they simply didn't do anything.

I have done many changes to the scenario. Remade map is in attachment. There are 2 lying corpses and burned house at the center of the main island. I will focus on the space in the northwestern part of the map in time we will decide where to put the characters' nightmares. I decreased the overall amount of gold available to the sorcerers, added target tag, changed the usual day/night cycle to second watch, done some additional changes. The result is the corpses are eager to fight as they should be. I think the characters stationed on the main island are unable to reliably fight (they are usually zombified the next turn they contribute to the action). But having all 9 units on the proxy island would crowd it there more then needed. What do you think of avoid tag for main island characters?

I was reffering to some brand new character. Dark forces player will encounter in the campaign dont have their leader yet.

Okay, that makes more sense. Do you think she should have some history with Hazael, or should they be strangers?

I think of Hazael having no history with dark elves whatsover.

Also, should there be any connection between the dark forces and the drake cult?

The connection could be there. Drakes may have a tendency to impose their worldview upon other races and dark elves agents may exploit this tendency. But I think these attempts were not very succesful so far.