Big epic campaigns, Wesnoth 2.0 or 3.0 and general epicness - aka "the next big thing" (just discussion though!)

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shevegen
Posts: 497
Joined: June 3rd, 2004, 4:35 pm

Big epic campaigns, Wesnoth 2.0 or 3.0 and general epicness - aka "the next big thing" (just discussion though!)

Post by shevegen »

So ... this thread or the topic is a little bit chaotic. I'll explain it in a moment, but I think it is best
to explain the CONTEXT first.

I have been on and off in regards to wesnoth; I think I was inactive for several years too. Anyway.

Many wesnoth folks, in particular the older ones, probably played many different campaigns.

Many campaigns use unique ideas. I don't want to give a complete overview but just to help
us remember let's just mention a few:

- rain effects for some more dynamics
- extra unique abilities or features
- unique equipment or rewards
- Different combat types (e. g. lesser berserk)
- Even the ideas of heroes on a mount (I like the sexy dwarf riding on a bear the most, that's a mount in my book)

And so on and so forth.

Some of these features are pretty nice. For instance, on that legend of the invincibles or
whatever the name was where you can fight Belzebub and his flies, I like to have halberd
dudes or whatever the name with the feature "struggle". So first I tend to slow him, then
I struggle him down, then I hit him with stronger units that profit from damage auras and
so forth. Things like that.

Or we have a storyline-setting like in To Lands unknown where we have like a unique world,
unique monsters, storyline, new abilities and units (summoners with their powerful circles)
and so on.

I think in many ways the latter is what keeps wesnoth interesting. To experiment with new
things and try them.

We also have other threads such as "what were you to do if you'd have a million cash to
use for wesnoth" or something like that.

There is also Google's summer of code and smaller ideas (such as the recent idea for
add-ons to control AI in a more flexible manner, e. g. in particular to prevent allied
leader units to go on a suicide forward run and then lose the scenario in the next
turn because they overcommitted :P ).

So, this thread is mostly about that. What cool ideas would be worth exploring?
Or as an extension to existing ones?
If you have some ideas just mention them.

People always have interesting ideas. Some years ago someone tried to build
a campaign that mostly focused on naval combat, e. g. where you had different
ship types that would participate in fighting. I liked that idea. It reminded me a bit
of the old battle isle series. So out with the crazy-cool ideas! Perhaps some ideas
are indeed totally novel and others may pick up on them. Like that one campaign
where you had dancing witches or something and the progression was via different
dance types for different effects.

There is a secondary focus for this thread, though, and that is ... more along the
lines of "if we'd have a gazillion of cash". Kind of, if we could get together the
top ten programmers of wesnoth from all times, the top ten artists, the top ten
storywriters and so forth and get them FOCUSED on just one epic campaign,
with a time frame that is managable, say 1-3 years or so. How would that campaign
look?

Obviously it would need someone who would be able to drive something forward
for at the least some time span, say, 6 months or something like that (3 years
is probably too high for any single individual, burn out can always happen,
reallife gets in the way, and so forth). What kind of campaign would it be? What
story elements and where would it be?

I was actually kind of thinking that the next "logical" path could be in main wesnoth,
like "what happened 20 years lateron". Like that "the adventures of Grog" as the
aftermath. Kind of have a storyline for all the old heroes (if they still are alive),
perhaps some had kids, whatever, and to continue from there. But make it a
grand campaign, like a meta-campaign, perhaps with different side storylines
too with fewer scenarios. The idea would not just be about one big storyline,
but to also feature and showcase new ideas and changes. Perhaps allow for
a more varied play - e. g. keep the simplicity focus, but allow users to also
play via extra-features, extra-progressions and so forth. So kind of offer multiple
ways to play that campaign too. And have it epic in general. A bit like "to lands
unknown", but a bit more solidly based in the main wesnoth storyline, as a
continuation effort, as well as to showcase what wesnoth can do.

In the process, also fix a few of the smaller issues, including the UI. For
instance, searching the encyclopedia should be simpler; or pop-ups with
information could perhaps be moved, as widgets and have a scroll bar.
(I think right now if there are too many features, the drop-down widget
does not show all of them; at the bottom there is more info but not
seen. I noticed this only in the legends of the invincibles where you kind
of stack up tons of features due to items, and then you can not really
see all of them if there are too many. That's what I mean with some UI
improvements. But also equipment handling in general, the UI is a
little bit klunky to use and kind of basic. It would be nice if the UI could
have more variety. As well as the editor could include such things for
campaign development and such.)

Anyway. This is mostly meant as an idea, and thread for discussion,
but who knows, perhaps in a few years there could be new epic campaigns
and new game features or at the least modest changes towards these. I
kind of feel that a LOT of wesnoth is driven in some way or another based
on campaigns. Even when old people retire, sometimes new folks take over
campaigns and improve on them, so it's a bit like "passing the torch" to
a newer generation.
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