The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Helmet
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The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Helmet »

"The Pool of Ek"
BfW version 1.15
5 scenarios, small maps

(1) What difficulty level did you play the campaign on?

(2) How difficult did you find the campaign? (1-10)

(3) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the campaign?

(4) What were your major challenges in beating the campaign?

(5) How fun do you think the campaign is? (1-10)

Thank you for your time.
Author of:
DIY Campaign, Confederacy of Swamp Creatures: Big Battle 1, Confederacy of Swamp Creatures: Big Battle 2, Frogfolk Delivery Service, The Pool of Ek.
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Hello, I am playing your campaign in Normal difficulty, Wesnoth 1.15.8
I have reached the scenario "Fairy Ring"...and I am very confused right now...
What exactly do you want me to do here? The objectives are not very concise.
I tried placing 6 units of the race of Shroomkin around the hex labelled "Pool of Ek" but nothing happens.
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Okay, I have finished it on Normal difficulty (got passed my previous problem by re-reading the entire scenario dialogue and all)
(1) What difficulty level did you play the campaign on?

(2) How difficult did you find the campaign? (1-10)

(3) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the campaign?

(4) What were your major challenges in beating the campaign?

(5) How fun do you think the campaign is? (1-10)
  • 1. Normal, 1.15.8
  • 2. 5
  • 3. Very Concise. Intriguing story and detailing.
  • 4. The deteriorating village gold more or less.
  • 5. 12/10 (I haven't enjoyed a UMC campaign for a while now so this one made a really good impression on me)
Okay, first of all...I have immensely enjoyed your campaign. The customised units and abilities were really fascinating to level up and play with. I liked how the characters developed over the span of the campaign and the plot.
Replays
TPoE-Scenario 1 replay 20210105-153418.gz
(20.81 KiB) Downloaded 182 times
TPoE-Scenario 2 replay 20210105-155357.gz
(27.92 KiB) Downloaded 185 times
TPoE-Scenario 3 replay 20210105-161425.gz
(33.11 KiB) Downloaded 203 times
TPoE-Scenario 4 replay 20210105-163433.gz
(30.75 KiB) Downloaded 191 times
TPoE-Scenario 5 replay 20210105-164942.gz
(36.04 KiB) Downloaded 187 times
Encountered Bugs
  • In Scenario 5, Vortagh spawned on a lava chasm hex.
  • in Scenario 1, Tentacles of the Deep had their submerged ability removed but were still hidden and were visible if hovered over with a mouse.
  • in Scenario 2, you get to recruit "Cumbers" but trying to view the unit's description using d results in nothing happening. Also, when trying to the view the unit's help page, it causes the help menu to Crash...
Last edited by Lord-Knightmare on January 5th, 2021, 2:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Konrad2
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Konrad2 »

Will add your questions after finishing the campaign.

S1
During the first turn the Tentacles of the Deep are 'invisible', as in they have no sprite. They are visible from the 2nd turn onwards.

Can the assigned hex of a defender be different from the hex they start on? Graawmok starts on 13,3 but immediatly moves to the Orcish Village on 18,2.

It would be a nice touch if Chained (the Scorpion) earned some fighting xp for attacking the Orcish Assasin.

The 'you don't have enough time left to flag the village' message is one turn early.

S2
The hex our hero stands on is labeled Elvish Castle, even before the scenery changes.

Cumbers are unable to earn xp. (Missing AMLA macro?)

...there is apparently no help entry for the Cumber?

S5
Shroomlings created by fungal plague have green hats instead of purple ones. Same for Shroomlings that are created by the spores in the air.

When Vorthag says that he'll try to attack without harming Moho, there is one space too much between 'I' and 'will'.

Upon checking the last ledge your unit says that the necromancer is not here, and then the event of you finding the necromancer happens.

It would be nice to know that my flying units can't check a ledge.

Vorthag spawns on a lava hex.


How about renaming the scenarios to their actual names instead of 'Scenario x'?


(1) What difficulty level did you play the campaign on?
Hard

(2) How difficult did you find the campaign? (1-10)
8, partially due to not being used to the units.

(3) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the campaign?
Clear.

(4) What were your major challenges in beating the campaign?
Not getting lost in playing around with the new units and instead focusing on beating the scenario.

(5) How fun do you think the campaign is? (1-10)
8, it is very unique.
Attachments
TPoE-Scenario 1 replay 20210105-153520.gz
(23.87 KiB) Downloaded 197 times
TPoE-Scenario 2 replay 20210105-155229.gz
(27.92 KiB) Downloaded 194 times
TPoE-Scenario 3 replay 20210105-161650.gz
(35.14 KiB) Downloaded 198 times
TPoE-Scenario 4 replay 20210105-163131.gz
(28.78 KiB) Downloaded 200 times
TPoE-Scenario 5 replay 20210105-172050.gz
(38.49 KiB) Downloaded 197 times
Ziffid saying Mohos line S3
Ziffid saying Mohos line S3
When Ziffid dies in the first scenario
When Ziffid dies in the first scenario
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WhiteWolf
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by WhiteWolf »

It looks very promising, congrats on the publishing :)
I'll provide feedback to your questions when I find some time to play.

For now, a few first-minute observations: after installation the add-on is 100 MB in size - that's huge for a small campaign.
I had to check what's making it this big - and it's your awesome intro :) It's very cool, but it's over 60 MB because the images are png. If you compare it to other such intro scenes (like the one by inferno8, which your campaign also ships for some reason), which is in jpeg - that's just 1 MB.
Generally speaking every image that doesn't contain a transparency channel should be jpeg, because pngs add up fast in size. I really recommend running some conversion tool to convert the intro into jpeg. It'll save you over 60 MB of package size.

By the way, that intro is so good it deserves to be on fullscreen, don't you think? ;) You can do that by:
Spoiler:
Main UMC campaigns: The Ravagers - now for 1.16, with new bugs!
Old UMC works: The Underness Series, consisting of 5 parts: The Desolation of Karlag, The Blind Sentinel, The Stone of the North, The Invasion Of The Western Cavalry, Fingerbone of Destiny
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Helmet »

Lord-Knightmare wrote: January 5th, 2021, 11:20 am I have immensely enjoyed your campaign. The customised units and abilities were really fascinating to level up and play with. I liked how the characters developed over the span of the campaign and the plot.
Thank you for the feedback and replays. I addressed your observations about the lava, tentacles, and cumbers. Thanks.
Konrad2 wrote: January 5th, 2021, 2:06 pm Will add your questions after finishing the campaign.
(5) How fun do you think the campaign is? (1-10)
8, it is very unique.
Thanks for the feedback, Konrad2.

I fixed the mistakes in the screenshots. Thanks.

I also clarified the role of a Defender, gave the scorpion XP, moved the player warning into the subsequent turn, fixed the castle label, added a note to the Cumber page stating they don't gain XP, fixed the bug that kept the cumber description from displaying, deleted the extra space in a sentence, and added a helpful note stating that Xendari aren't capable of pulling Vortagh out of the pit.
WhiteWolf wrote: January 5th, 2021, 4:15 pm It looks very promising, congrats on the publishing :)
Thank you.
WhiteWolf wrote: January 5th, 2021, 4:15 pm By the way, that intro is so good it deserves to be on fullscreen, don't you think? ;) You can do that by...

Generally speaking every image that doesn't contain a transparency channel should be jpeg...
Fullscreen implemented. Thank you for the code, WhiteWolf. It looks much better! Also, the frames of animation for the intro are now jpegs, so the file size is less than half of what it had been. Thanks for that idea. Uploading the corrected version went much faster.
Author of:
DIY Campaign, Confederacy of Swamp Creatures: Big Battle 1, Confederacy of Swamp Creatures: Big Battle 2, Frogfolk Delivery Service, The Pool of Ek.
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Konrad2 »

FTR I want to point out the scenario names again. 'Scenario 1' is not a great name. :(
(Especially so since you did think up nice scenario names.)
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Helmet »

Konrad2 wrote: January 6th, 2021, 9:55 am FTR I want to point out the scenario names again. 'Scenario 1' is not a great name. :(
(Especially so since you did think up nice scenario names.)
Excellent idea, I just added it. Thanks.
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DIY Campaign, Confederacy of Swamp Creatures: Big Battle 1, Confederacy of Swamp Creatures: Big Battle 2, Frogfolk Delivery Service, The Pool of Ek.
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by WhiteWolf »

A bug I noticed on the first scenario: on easy mode, if you skip the intro dialogue, then Boolzak only gets a loyal crown overlay, instead of the silver hero crown. If I don't skip the dialogue he gets the correct one though.
(Yeah, I'm playing on easy now. I tried on normal initially but gave up after 3 tries, couldn't beat the scenario - but that's because I'm a terrible player :D )
Main UMC campaigns: The Ravagers - now for 1.16, with new bugs!
Old UMC works: The Underness Series, consisting of 5 parts: The Desolation of Karlag, The Blind Sentinel, The Stone of the North, The Invasion Of The Western Cavalry, Fingerbone of Destiny
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Helmet »

WhiteWolf wrote: January 6th, 2021, 11:56 pm A bug I noticed on the first scenario: on easy mode, if you skip the intro dialogue, then Boolzak only gets a loyal crown overlay, instead of the silver hero crown. If I don't skip the dialogue he gets the correct one though.
(Yeah, I'm playing on easy now. I tried on normal initially but gave up after 3 tries, couldn't beat the scenario - but that's because I'm a terrible player :D )
Boolzak's silver hero crown fixed. Thanks.

Here are some tips that will help anyone beat Level 1 on all difficulties...
Spoiler:
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DIY Campaign, Confederacy of Swamp Creatures: Big Battle 1, Confederacy of Swamp Creatures: Big Battle 2, Frogfolk Delivery Service, The Pool of Ek.
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by inferno8 »

(1) What difficulty level did you play the campaign on?
Normal - I usually do my first run on normal difficulty to have the most optimal experience.

(2) How difficult did you find the campaign? (1-10)
5 - the campaign is balanced but there were some "irregularities" in terms of difficulty, for example scenario #4 was too easy compared to others.

(3) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the campaign?
The story was simple yet entertaining. It is hard to achieve something like that in a short campaign, but in my opinion you did a great job. The characters were interesting as well and had their purpose. Dialogs were fun to read - and I mean really! :lol: This is one of the best aspects of this campaign. Of course some lines may sound silly at times, but in the end they make characters very adorable and overall feel just "right".

(4) What were your major challenges in beating the campaign?
A tactical aspect of the campaign was a major challenge to me, especially that you (as a player) are given a set of unfamiliar units, which you must learn how to use first. But at the same time this whole challenge quickly turns out to be really entertaining once you get familiar with units. And the process happens in a good way. The units are not overloaded with abilities and are specialized in their roles. After scenario #2 I knew exactly what to recruit and when to get an advantage on a battlefield.

(5) How fun do you think the campaign is? (1-10)
9.5/10 - it is one of the greatest mini-campaigns I've ever played. Despite being only 5-scenarios long, it is very detailed, coherent, entertaining and fun to play. The custom units add a lot of flavor and have very cute animations! They feel so natural, especially dragonflies and a frogman shooting his slingshot - well done! Also I really liked the victory animation of frogmen.

To sum up, I think the campaign is not meant for those seeking something truly epic, but it delivers exactly what it was meant to deliver - a good, fast-paced, several scenarios long campaign for those who just want to relax and try something new and of high quality. On that score The Pool of Ek is second to none :)

Pros:
- it offers everything you'd expect from a high quality mini-campaign
- a simple yet intriguing story with well designed characters
- horizontal maps (if you play in full hd you can see an entire map in every scenario - no vertical scrolling)
- an interesting income system (the longer it takes for you to finish a scenario, the less gold you get from villages)
- animated custom units
- fancy multihex terrain elements

Cons:
- custom units under your command (some vanilla players may not like it)
- some scenarios may seem easier that others, if you play them right
- lack of portraits (but it is not a big deal)

Here are my suggestions on how to improve this great campaign:
Spoiler:
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by vghetto »

The campaign doesn't load. Make sure all paths are case sensitive.
I guess everyone who have tried it so far are windows users.
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Konrad2 »

Can I mayhaps convince to put me (and any other playtester that wants/you deem appropriate) into the credits? :D
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by vghetto »

Not sure if this is something that mainline developers are interested in looking at and addressing.

The attached Konrad2 Lord-Knightmare scenario 5 replay aborts wesnoth 1.15.9 with the following message:

Code: Select all

wesnoth-1.15: /home/amnesia/src/wesnoth/build/wesnoth/src/replay.cpp:586: config &replay::add_command(): Assertion `at_end()' failed.
Aborted
pool of ek version is 1.1.2
I ran the following command on the scenarios folder to make it work on linux.

Code: Select all

sed -i 's/the_pool_of_ek/The_Pool_of_Ek/g' *.cfg
Edit: Lord-Knightmare's rather
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Re: The Pool of Ek [SP Campaign] v1.15

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

The attached Lord-Knightmare scenario 5 replay aborts wesnoth 1.15.9 with the following message:
Edit: Lord-Knightmare's rather
In my defense, all my replays do not work after having upgraded to 1.15.9. I get some "Syncing Error" pop-up and "Quit Game" option displayed.
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