Red Winter (Loyalist Campaign)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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StrangerThanFiction
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Re: Red Winter [Revised, WIP]

Post by StrangerThanFiction »

Thanks, Sire, I'd really appreciate it. I've barely scratched the surface of the campaigns I've installed, so it'll be a while before I get to it. I just wanted to mention it in case I was the only one having this difficulty and in case someone else ran into the same problem.
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Sire
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Re: Red Winter [Revised, WIP]

Post by Sire »

Well, I just checked the add-ons server for Wesnoth 1.12.2 and managed to find Red Winter on there. It appeared in the campaigns, but when I downloaded it and attempted to play the campaign, it seems that I uploaded a buggy mess...

So, a new version has been released on the 1.12.2 add-ons server. I don't know why the campaign I uploaded long ago was not working completely, but in either case, here's the fixed version.

I haven't had time to properly playtest the campaign however, so if there are any further problems aside from start-up, please let me know.

0.0.6a Changelog
- Fixes various wml errors preventing campaigns from starting-
Current Projects: [Sire's Scenarios] || [Red Winter Reborn]
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tamanegi
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Re: Red Winter [Revised, WIP]

Post by tamanegi »

Hi.

The actual problem maybe case-sensivity in filenames on non-Windows environment. In short, you should rename _main.CFG to _main.cfg. It will solve the problem reported by StrangerThanFiction. There seem to be some other minor case-sensitivity problems in the scenario files... (ex. {FLAG_VARIANT Loyalist} should be {FLAG_VARIANT loyalist})
Discord: @tamanegi
It is true that we cannot be free from bugs, but at least let our bugs not always the same...
A Group in a War: my first campaign, An Independence War: and the sequel
StrangerThanFiction
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Re: Red Winter [Revised, WIP]

Post by StrangerThanFiction »

tamanegi wrote:The actual problem maybe case-sensivity in filenames on non-Windows environment. In short, you should rename _main.CFG to _main.cfg. It will solve the problem reported by StrangerThanFiction. There seem to be some other minor case-sensitivity problems in the scenario files... (ex. {FLAG_VARIANT Loyalist} should be {FLAG_VARIANT loyalist})
This solved the problem. Thanks.

And thanks, @Sire, for the update.
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Sire
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Re: Red Winter [WIP]

Post by Sire »

After a(nother) long hiatus, I have resumed development on Red Winter. The major changes are that Scenario Two has been polished and rebalanced and that the Third Scenario is practically complete and ready to play. Scenarios Four through Six are still incomplete.

While this campaign has a short number of total scenarios, each scenario is almost a full adventure in itself with battle events, music, and all sorts of things going on to prevent the battle from getting too dull.

I must warn players that Scenario Three is rather difficult, any feedback on this scenario and on the campaign in general is much appreciated! In addition, I am looking for a different name for the barony that this campaign takes place in (its current name is Winterfell, and that does not seem Wesnoth-ish enough). If there are any suggestions, please post them here!

To download Red Winter, obtain it from the Add-On's server for Wesnoth 1.12.x branch. (I tested and played the campaign on 1.12.4.)
Changelog 0.0.7:
Current Projects: [Sire's Scenarios] || [Red Winter Reborn]
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Sire
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Re: Red Winter [WIP]

Post by Sire »

Development Update - August 24th, 2015

I had hoped to be finished with Scenario Four by today, however, development time always seems to be longer than originally anticipated. Hopefully I'll be able to release it by next week instead.

Scenario Four takes place in the Esterian Woods, a home for Elves living near the Estmark Hills. It is under siege when the player arrives, and one of the core mechanics of this scenario is to awaken the Ancients to beat back the invasion, which are essentially heavily modified Ancient Woses. The player wins when all enemy leaders are slain.

However, Scenario Four comes off the back of Scenario Three, the Fall of Estlyn, which is meant to be a difficult scenario (especially considering one must break through enemy lines to win). Currently, each scenario of Red Winter plays like...

Scenario One: Defense Mission (Map Control, No Recruits until turn x, survive until turn x)
Scenario Two: Dungeon Crawler -> Battle (Underground, Lava Chasms & Bridges, Enemy Fliers, Pursuers)
Scenario Three: Defense Mission -> Escape (City Defense, Leader must reach Escape Point [past enemy lines])
Scenario Four: Control Points (Awaken the Ancients to turn the tide of battle)
Scenario Five: Battle (Slay all enemy leaders, the normal battle modifications)
Scenario Six: Siege (Slay the primary leader, normal battle modifications)

As I have been playtesting Scenario Four, I was wondering how to make it interesting compared to to the other scenarios. It does rely on Control Points as well as usage of custom traits for one invading faction, but I wanted there to be more than that.

One thought was to make the Esterian Elves turn on the player after the invaders have been repelled, but after testing the scenario I decided against this as the southern invading force took out the Esterian leader on turn 7 during one round. Instead, I plan to make the first "defeat" of the leader be scripted and "part of the plan", where the units guarding the capital are unshackled (they initially have a move of 0), and the leader retreats (with full HP) to the player starting position to recruit some more units. However, should the Elf leader be defeated again, it is game over.

So, now Scenario Four has control points, custom traits, and "second wind" mechanic. I'll need to playtest it further, but I am considering adding another invasion wave (represented by adding more gold to the surviving invasion leaders), to keep tensions high (and to allow the player to use the Ancients, because by the time the player awakens a few, the initial invasion force is probably already dealt with).

Needless to say, Red Winter has a lot of battle events going on throughout each scenario, which adds to development time. There is no simple "Recruit and recall units, defeat the bad guy", as there is always something else going on. For now, I'll attach a changelog of what I managed to get done, and I'll update or release something next week regarding this campaign!
0.0.8 Changelog (Not Yet Implemented):
Current Projects: [Sire's Scenarios] || [Red Winter Reborn]
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Sire
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Re: Red Winter [WIP]

Post by Sire »

Version 0.0.8 Release - August 29th, 2015

It seems I have a knack for making crazy and hard scenarios. I guess this is what happens when one goes above the normal power level of Wesnoth as it can be difficult to determine what gold value is appropriate for these scenarios. Of course, tried-and-true playtesting will work instead of theoretical gold values, but the theory stuff should save some time, right?

Anyways, I have completed development of Scenario Four, and while it is finished and should work properly, I did not properly beat the level before release (as its difficulty can be quite varied depending on performance in Scenario Three - I was testing it at bare minimum). Needless to say, it will likely require a good amount of rebalance work when feedback is posted.

As with all releases, I have the Changelog within this post for easy viewing. However, future development of Red Winter will be slowed due to university classes starting up again. I will attempt to keep with the weekly updates, but overall progress will be slower due to university work taking precedence over Wesnoth.

With that said, I hope you enjoy the latest version of Red Winter! As always, all feedback is appreciated, even this early in the development process.
Changelog 0.0.8:
Current Projects: [Sire's Scenarios] || [Red Winter Reborn]
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Sire
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Re: Red Winter

Post by Sire »

Developmental Update - September 7th, 2015

I only really need to do some final touches with Scenario Five to consider it done, but another week of polishing and testing won't go to waste. The lament of wanting to work on something, yet real life responsibilities take over...

However, despite the progress, I am starting to get to the point where I really need a pixel artist. While I can cobble something together by splicing unit sprites (I think they are called Frankensteins here) or hand-waving custom sprites through story, my plans for the final encounter requires a large, custom unit sprite (160x200) that is outside my skill level. If anyone is willing to assist me on that matter, please send a PM and I will send further details.

At any rate, that's it for this developmental update. Next week should be the release of 0.0.9, so I'll see you then!
Changelong 0.0.9 (Not Yet Implemented):
Current Projects: [Sire's Scenarios] || [Red Winter Reborn]
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Inky
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Re: Red Winter

Post by Inky »

Red Winter v 0.0.8 (Wesnoth v 1.12.4)

I normally don't like massive battles, but your campaign is the exception. I love the custom traits and the unique dialogue that the characters have in every scenario. And you have put so much effort into making every scenario's gameplay unique, and adding events so it stays interesting.

Difficulty: I played on Normal / Classic mode. I found scenario 1 to be hard, scenario 2 easy, scenario 3 medium, and scenario 4 very hard.

More details (I see there have been some changes, so not all of this will be relevant):

S1 Red Winter:
RW-Red_Winter_replay.gz
(111.73 KiB) Downloaded 267 times
Spoiler:
S2 Halls of Ruin:
RW-Halls_of_Ruin_replay.gz
(97.4 KiB) Downloaded 288 times
Spoiler:
S3 Fall of Estlyn
RW-Fall_of_Estlyn_replay.gz
(138.52 KiB) Downloaded 304 times
Spoiler:
S4 Esterian Woods
RW-Esterian_Woods_replay.gz
(124.63 KiB) Downloaded 301 times
Spoiler:
General Notes:
-It would help with planning if the objectives stated whether there was an early finish bonus, and what the gold carrover system is (80%). I think only Scenario 3 tells you that there is no carryover.

-I feel like the campaign gives you so many level 3 loyals that there is no incentive to recruit and try to level your own units. For me a large part of the fun of Wesnoth campaigns is the process of carefully building up a powerful army. Reusing the same level 3 units which were given to you just doesn't feel as rewarding as if you level the units yourself. I know using high level units is a deliberate design choice though. Maybe doing something like turning the council's bonus traits into AMLA bonuses would give more of a sense of progression.

I really enjoyed the scenarios so far. They are unique, fun, and your dialogue (especially among the council members) is a joy to read. Thanks for a truly excellent campaign so far, and looking forward to the rest!
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Sire
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Re: Red Winter

Post by Sire »

@ Inky

Congratulations on beating both Scenario One and Four! It is good news to know that Scenario One can have an early finish on Normal difficulty. Your victory on Scenario Four is also impressive, as I released that scenario as an unbalanced mess instead of a more refined product.

As for commentary on the feedback...
Scenario One:
Scenario Two:
Scenario Three:
Scenario Four:
General Comments:
Thank you so much for the feedback. Hopefully I'll be able to fix some of these concerns in the next update!
Current Projects: [Sire's Scenarios] || [Red Winter Reborn]
Elendil
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Re: Red Winter

Post by Elendil »

Hey!
Do the super good feedback/impression of inky, I decided to give a try to the campaign. So I really just started 1h or 2 ago, but I must say it: the first scenario looks awesome! If the rest of campaign is done that way, it'd be sooo good. At least it's promising.

Playing on 1.12.4, in Easy mode. I force myself to not use the saved states to abuse the RNG.

Some few remarks, tho (already :o).
Spoiler:
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Sire
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Re: Red Winter

Post by Sire »

@ Elendil

Responses are in spoilers just in case.
Responses:
Current Projects: [Sire's Scenarios] || [Red Winter Reborn]
Elendil
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Re: Red Winter

Post by Elendil »

What fooled me what this part.
Spoiler:
Ok then for the shock troopers. Going out of their keep makes it harder in the King Pass (which is not something bad), tho.

Edit: also, what does the trait Undomitable do? Vanrir the Iron Mauler has it, but I can't find any description of the trait. I'm assuming that's linked to his ability to regenerate?

2nd edit: in scenario 3, Fall of Estlyn, the soldiers of Covos will still do their dialogue ("who is elyra? treason general?") even if Covos is dead. But as he's dead, he's not talking so we only got half of the dialogue. Maybe it could be possible to replace him by one random soldier, acting as the general/commander, if he's dead?

3rd edit: ok, so I finish the 4 scenarii available, and I must say that's a great story :) Congratulations!

Scenario 3:
- overall, I felt like the scenario was a bit too easy. Maybe it was because it was on easy mode, but I believe it could benefit from some tuning, maybe by lowering the amount of gold of our ally? His units did a really good job tbh, and were cleaning up everything I weakened, and served as sandbag. Too much for the enemy to be a threat.
- the southern front is a bit weak, imo. Especially because outlaws, weirdly enough, want to cross the river to attack the small donjon where Covos will attack, instead of going on the snow to attack the south wall. Seems like the outlaws/humans really don't like the snow terrain and prefer to go in the water rather than the snow.
- cf below the issue with Covos dialogue when he's dead.
- I felt like Elyra' soldiers weren't super uber strong, but on the other hand, they have a crazy mobility! 6/7 mouvement while I got 4 to 6 (infantry). I feel like the situation should be a bit reversed: they are elite guard (and blessed by whoever is Elyra/Lasoreth) so they should be stronger. On the other hand, their mobility is... a lot. I don't know if it's too much or not, but might be worse having a loot at that.
- the uprising of the peasants is really nice :)

Scenario 4:
- overall a bit too easy too
- don't feel like the Ancients have a big impact on the war. Maybe it is just me, or just my game but I never managed to make them reach the frontline. Either cause it's too far, or cause the enemy is already dead by now.
- the bridge event surprised me a bit, although I was expecting something. I got stuck on the island with Vanrir (what a beast, in this campaign) and Aethac, with some enemies/friends, that was a nice moment (hard cause they were only 2 and I had to rush the silver mage/the elf healer, so nice moment).

Overall remarks:
- I really like that in some scenarii, namely scenario 1 and 3, we have different possibilities on how to play it: i.e. in 1, either we defend and try to halt them here, or we gather at a reinforced place, ... 1 end, different way to get it. On the other hand, in scenario 2 and 4, there is no real choice to make/there is almost only one way to do it :hmm:
- Most of the scenario are a bit similar: we have to wait for the main part of the enemy army, tank it and then, it's over, no more difficulty. That gives us scenarii with nice starts, super intense and amazing middle game and suuuuuper long and boring end game. Typically, the last 10 or 15 turns in almost every scenario, there is almost no action. You have killed all enemies' units/the main army, the opponents have no more gold so they can't recruit or just 1 unit here and there, and you have to finish the scenario by doing this or going there, so you spend the last turns just moving units from a place to another, with some sporadic fight.
- the story telling/narration in this series is really amazing, and the series managed to surprise me more than once. Really really nice, I'm looking forward to scenario 5 and 6.
- some units have special traits, and we have no idea what it does cause there is no description/can't find the trait in the description (i.e. indomitable, war regeneration, ...).
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Sire
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Re: Red Winter

Post by Sire »

@ Elendil

Regarding traits and abilities, you should be able to mouse over them and then a description will pop up explaining what it does. Specially in Vanrir's case, it gives him extra HP and gives some background on why he has Regeneration.

Scenario Three Comments
- The incomplete dialogue that occurs when Covos is dead should hopefully be fixed in the upcoming release, but it is not high on the priority list. Scenario Three has received some rebalancing changes so that the player does not have almost double the minimum amount of gold for the scenario (which I base my balancing on).
- Elyra's forces recieve +2 move due to the pursuit trait, but the ??? trait in general gives +10% HP, gives baseline resistances (all 0%), and increases all attacks by one. Perhaps I should make the HP increase by 20%...

Scenario Four Comments
- In my current dev build, I have buffed the Ancients. They now have 5 Move instead of 4, and now have 200 baseline HP instead of 100.
-- While I want the Ancients to be powerful, I want the player to use multiple Ancients and not just one. So, balancing them must be done with care.

General Comments:
- Scenario Two is meant to be a little linear. I originally wanted a dungeon crawler set in an ancient dwarven city, but I was never happy with any of my map designs. So, I ended up with the current scenario and am pretty happy on how it is.
- As for Scenario Four, the intent was for the player to want and use the Ancients, but technically the player does not have to (and the Lady can die without losing the scenario).
- I agree with the "burn out" phase near the end of these scenarios, but one could argue that also occurs in normal Wesnoth as well. Once the main army is beaten, for the most part it is simply a matter of slaying the leader.
- Thanks for the kind comments about the story! It is good news to hear that players enjoy the storyline I have created for Red Winter.
Current Projects: [Sire's Scenarios] || [Red Winter Reborn]
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Inky
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Re: Red Winter

Post by Inky »

Hi Sire, thanks for the detailed reply!
And hi Elendil, thanks for the nice comment :)

About scenario 1:
I like the first scenario the way it is too - in fact it's my favorite because of the constant challenges and the absolutely awesome map design (that map is a work of art! And I like how you put labels on the map locations - it's little things like this that really add flavor to the setting). My comments about my difficulties in the center battle were only meant as a summary of what happened in my playthrough.

Actually, I was also under the mistaken impression that I was supposed to investigate the shadow spire (I just never got the chance because of all the enemies flooding the center). The turn 10 dialogue among outlaws about the spire ("It would be wise to check it out, but something tells me to stay as far away as possible.") seems to imply that the player should explore there but be prepared for something to happen.

About gold carryover / balancing:
I think it's pretty safe to assume that the player has more than the minimum gold, and a good amount of veterans. Many Wesnoth scenarios are impossible with min. gold/no recalls, since finishing quick enough for a good gold carryover and with enough veterans alive is just part of the strategy.
So while it's nice for a scenario to be possible with min. gold/recalls, to balance the scenarios around this will probably make them too easy.

Some more typos:
Spoiler:
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