After Eastern Invasion

[egallager]

Will add a note to change case of "Outlaw" to my (rather lengthy) AfterEI to do list.

I'd just like to note that changing the case is just one possible solution, other solutions include rewriting it, e.g. just "4 loyal units" or, the more-specific "2 loyal footpads and 2 loyal thugs", or "4 loyal Outlaw-faction units" (or, instead of changing the text, you could change the unit types so the player is actually given 4 L2 Outlaws )

Thanks again for taking the trouble to reply and don't get rid of those diffs, I will download them eventually!

I archived them: http://web.archive.org/web/202109220358 ... 7e97f81026
http://web.archive.org/web/202109220424 ... sion/diffs

[Spannerbag]

I archived them: http://web.archive.org/web/202109220358 ... 7e97f81026
http://web.archive.org/web/202109220424 ... sion/diffs

Thanks for that, had a quick look and ended up going back over your forum posts and realised I never properly addressed your concerns with the Aitsward scenarios (the ones with those lovely mushrooms ).

When I was playtesting (on normal) I had far less of a problem.

Spoiler:

IIRC correcly I gave the boots mostly to Poachers/Trappers because of their superior mobility and defense on swamp terrain coupled with average resistances. I also gave a couple of pairs to Thieves/Rogues as these also have decent mobility on swamp terrain however their resistances are poor - but they made handy village grabbers and could backstab from flat or village terrain with a reasonable chance of surviving (at night). Where possible I backed these up with a healer (sometimes with and sometimes without boots) and occasionally Flynn's leadership. Enemies stepping onto a mushroom patch are always poisoned or slowed (sometimes both) and always lose any remaining movement. My tactics depended on that outcome (in general I would withdraw or defend if a tough unit was poisoned and not slowed, otherwise attack was usually the best option as the enemy was slowed). I found it easy to lure enemies onto mushroom patches, didn't find mobility a huge issue and didn't get bogged down very often. Neither did lose many units - but clearly your experience was very different.

There are a couple of options that would be quick and easy to implement - what do you think of these:

• Vary mushroom effects by difficulty?
  Note: mushrooms presently do far more damage to enemies than player units, this differential could also be tweaked.

• Modify mushboot properties; e.g. maybe improve movement on swamp in some/all difficulties, modify swamp defense etc.?

• Give player a hint that Poachers/Trappers are a good choice for mushroom boots?

• Reduce the number and density of mushroom patches on the map (again, maybe do this by difficulty so easier levels have fewer mushroom patches)?

These are just off the top of my head, others may occur to me in time... any other ideas or suggestions gratefully appreciated!

Have bookmarked you two diff archive links above

Cheers!
--Spannerbag

[egallager]

OK, I beat the campaign! Pretty cool final scenario! Some general feedback:

• The Dire Bats make human noises, which is kinda weird
• So, this is a general issue with Orcish Nightblades wherever they're found, but their missing "kick" icon can be fixed in UMC by giving them objects that modify their attack icons... this is something I've done in one of my own campaigns, by stealing attacks/kick.png from the "Extra Advancements for Default Era units" addon:

  

  Orcish Nightblade kick attack icon

  kick.png (7.87 KiB) Viewed 1814 times

• There's some cool music/art used in this campaign; I was wondering where you got it? The ART_LICENSE file in the main AfterEI addon just says it's "from various campaigns (core and UMC) and the graphic library" but it doesn't say which campaigns and UMC specifically, though... it also links to https://wiki.wesnoth.org/GraphicLibrary which is a dead link; it'd be better to use an archive link here instead: http://web.archive.org/web/20210111051147/http://wiki.wesnoth.org/GraphicLibrary ...also, the 2 AfterEIMusic addons don't even have their own ART_LICENSE files at all...
• There's some code in S28 that references Dwarvish Runesmiths, but it doesn't seem to be possible to actually advance your Dwarvish Fighters into Runesmiths here? You need to put ENABLE_DWARVISH_RUNESMITH in extra_defines= in your _main.cfg if that's a codepath you want players to be able to trigger...

Anyways, I've got a new diff for the final scenario: https://github.com/cooljeanius/wesnoth_mods/blob/master/campaigns/After_Eastern_Invasion/diffs/28_Solstice.diff

[egallager]

I archived them: http://web.archive.org/web/202109220358 ... 7e97f81026
http://web.archive.org/web/202109220424 ... sion/diffs

Thanks for that, had a quick look and ended up going back over your forum posts and realised I never properly addressed your concerns with the Aitsward scenarios (the ones with those lovely mushrooms ).

When I was playtesting (on normal) I had far less of a problem.

replies added inline here in bold:

IIRC correcly I gave the boots mostly to Poachers/Trappers because of their superior mobility and defense on swamp terrain coupled with average resistances. I also gave a couple of pairs to Thieves/Rogues as these also have decent mobility on swamp terrain however their resistances are poor - but they made handy village grabbers and could backstab from flat or village terrain with a reasonable chance of surviving (at night). Where possible I backed these up with a healer (sometimes with and sometimes without boots) and occasionally Flynn's leadership. Enemies stepping onto a mushroom patch are always poisoned or slowed (sometimes both) and always lose any remaining movement. My tactics depended on that outcome (in general I would withdraw or defend if a tough unit was poisoned and not slowed, otherwise attack was usually the best option as the enemy was slowed). I found it easy to lure enemies onto mushroom patches, didn't find mobility a huge issue and didn't get bogged down very often. Neither did lose many units - but clearly your experience was very different.

There are a couple of options that would be quick and easy to implement - what do you think of these:

• Vary mushroom effects by difficulty?
  Note: mushrooms presently do far more damage to enemies than player units, this differential could also be tweaked.
  Yeah, this is what I did in my own changes
• Modify mushboot properties; e.g. maybe improve movement on swamp in some/all difficulties, modify swamp defense etc.?
  Yeah that seems like a good idea.
• Give player a hint that Poachers/Trappers are a good choice for mushroom boots?
  This wouldn't really help much if the player doesn't have any Poachers/Trappers; from rereading the scenario code, it looks like the player only gets a chance to recruit Poachers with Jackery on the first turn, so if the player doesn't do that, and doesn't have any in their recall list, they miss out
• Reduce the number and density of mushroom patches on the map (again, maybe do this by difficulty so easier levels have fewer mushroom patches)?
  Sure, that could help, too

These are just off the top of my head, others may occur to me in time... any other ideas or suggestions gratefully appreciated!

Have bookmarked you two diff archive links above

Cheers!
--Spannerbag

I'd just bookmark the live versions of the links here instead of the archive links in this case, as I may continue to modify them...

[Spannerbag]

OK, I beat the campaign! Pretty cool final scenario!

Thanks, and glad you enjoyed it (not everyone did).

Some general feedback:

• The Dire Bats make human noises, which is kinda weird
• So, this is a general issue with Orcish Nightblades wherever they're found, but their missing "kick" icon can be fixed in UMC by giving them objects that modify their attack icons... this is something I've done in one of my own campaigns, by stealing attacks/kick.png from the "Extra Advancements for Default Era units" addon:
  kick.png
• There's some cool music/art used in this campaign; I was wondering where you got it? The ART_LICENSE file in the main AfterEI addon just says it's "from various campaigns (core and UMC) and the graphic library" but it doesn't say which campaigns and UMC specifically, though... it also links to https://wiki.wesnoth.org/GraphicLibrary which is a dead link; it'd be better to use an archive link here instead: http://web.archive.org/web/20210111051147/http://wiki.wesnoth.org/GraphicLibrary ...also, the 2 AfterEIMusic addons don't even have their own ART_LICENSE files at all...
• There's some code in S28 that references Dwarvish Runesmiths, but it doesn't seem to be possible to actually advance your Dwarvish Fighters into Runesmiths here? You need to put ENABLE_DWARVISH_RUNESMITH in extra_defines= in your _main.cfg if that's a codepath you want players to be able to trigger...

Anyways, I've got a new diff for the final scenario: https://github.com/cooljeanius/wesnoth_mods/blob/master/campaigns/After_Eastern_Invasion/diffs/28_Solstice.diff

Many of these questions are tough to answer fully because the various media was acquired years ago over some time from a variety of sources; Wesnoth, the (then working - yes it was that long ago) Graphic Library and freeware free to use graphics sites.
Thanks for the updated link, might revisit it for old times sake..

Trouble is, much of the artwork was kinda acquired without any clear idea of what I wanted, I was seeing what was out there and looking for ideas/inspiration (and good stuff I could pinch ) So I ended up with a random collection of images and had so many I lost track of exactly when/where I obtained them - must look at the timestamps of these, they are still lurking on my hdd somewhere...
...
... found them! From a quick skim look like I started around 2016!

Also grabbed a few sounds from freeware sites.

Music, IIRC, came from "Kill the King" by Dugi and "Mountain Witch" by IIIO_METAL (both on the 1.14 add-ons server) and other sources I forget - I think I downloaded a few music packs and went through the tracks... music is all from Wesnoth anyway.

Thanks for the heads-up about the nightblades - I never noticed that!

Yeah, Runesmiths are a horrible mess, I did them without realising ENABLE_DWARVISH_RUNESMITH existed or how it worked
It's one of the many fixes for 2.0

Thanks for the diffs - will have a look later on (bit late here now).

Cheers!
--Spannerbag

[Serkima]

Nice campaign, i enjoyed it a lot

[Spannerbag]

Nice campaign, i enjoyed it a lot

Thanks for the feedback and glad you found it fun.

I'm currently (sloooowly) wading through development of 2 new campaigns (respectively about 50% and 65% completed and playable if not balanced).
I have ideas for many more (all very different) campaigns but my next priority is to do a major re-write of AfterEI - for Wesnoth v1.18, probably, by the time I get it done
I'll probably keep the overall story line (more or less) and implement, if I can, various changes proposed by players.
I also have a few rather significant features to add

Sadly I doubt I'll be publishing anything new for awhile yet, but stuff's in the pipeline!

Thanks again for the feedback.

Cheers!
-- Spannerbag

[texabilly71]

i'm not sure if you are still monitoring this board but i'm stuck & can't figure out what the issue is. i've slogged my way through the long tail of an ending for solstice. i think i killed the boss in 13-15 steps. spent another 50 or so killing the hidden shamen & then another 15-20 to get all my leaders to the "south-east enclave" but nothing happens. i'm pretty sure i saw one guy disappear into the tent but nobody else seems to be able to follow. i assume by "south-east enclave" you mean where earl starts out & not where the spiders spawn. i'd appreciate any help from anybody. thanks!

[Spannerbag]

... i'm stuck & can't figure out what the issue is... get all my leaders to the "south-east enclave" but nothing happens...

Hi,
Yep, I still check in on this thread.
You might be going to the wrong place?
South east is bottom right - I think my wording isn't the best.

Spoiler:

From an old PM: I think the area is pretty much all non-water terrain in the region:
x=66-80
y=46-60

It's been a looong time since I did anything on AfterEI.
FWIW I do hope, one day, to do a major rewrite - but it's years off yet as I've a lot of other projects I'd like to do first (some of these will hopefully make the rewrite better/easier). Currently ploughing through a big extension to LSB then want to finish another campaign (probably for 1.20) possibly in conjunction with a resource I'm mulling over, then AfterEI is one of several other things to do if I'm still alive by then.

Anyway, please let me know if this helps or not.

Cheers!
-- Spannerbag

[texabilly71]

howdy spannerbag,
thanks for the quick reply. i'll have to check out your other campaigns. i really did enjoy this one all things considered. unfortunately i'm playing on mobile so i do not see coordinates. i do not even know where x0 or y0 are. i assume they are the bottom left corner like on a math graph but i've never been able to get coordinates to make sense counting from there. from what you are saying i'm supposed to be going here:

Spoiler:

thanks again for the game & the help. cheers!

[Spannerbag]

Ooh, I didn't know mobile players experienced a different interface (never played on android/ios).
From memory yes that spoiler looks right - can't test the actual scenario right now (don't have 1.14 any more after old pc died, never bothered to reinstall ).

EDIT: forgot to add: map co-ordinates always start with x,y=1,1 in the TOP LEFT (NE) corner and extend downwards like this:

My only other campaign that's currently published is LSB (Leafsea Burning) which I am currently about halfway through a major re-work (well, more of an extension really) for 1.18 (maybe 1.20 if things go really slowly ) following feedback (there are links to both LSB threads in my signature).

When publishing two versions of LSB I managed to mess things up so won't rush this time. It'd be helpful to know what version of Wesnoth you're playing on and what your OS is (android or ios I guess).
Afaik android players are restricted to 1.14? I'll see what I can do and how far I can backport without major surgery once the new version is published (if demand exists) and has been battered to death by players fully beta tested.

I'm not happy with the published version of LSB tbh but at that time had spent so long on it I just wanted to finish the wretched thing.

Anyway, hope my ramblings have provided some help/entertainment and hope you can finish AfterEI!

Cheers!
-- Spannerbag

[texabilly71]

thanks again for the quick response. that map is super helpful. yes, iphone & android players are stuck on 1.14. its a bummer but at least the game is there. i've gotten 10 yrs of entertainment out of it. love the open source & that there are developers like yourself out there continuing to build the world. i hate all new games. so flashy, no strategy or substance & so much in game purchases. no fun. anyway, thanks again! cheers

[Spannerbag]

thanks again for the quick response. that map is super helpful. yes, iphone & android players are stuck on 1.14.... anyway, thanks again! cheers

Glad to help/clarify.

Sad thing is that on 1.14 you're missing out on sooo much newer content (and some mainline campaigns have changed significantly since 1.14).
I've posted a query about backporting but it doesn't look too hopeful so far.

Cheers!
-- Spannerbag