Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

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stencil
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Joined: July 15th, 2021, 11:33 pm
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Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

Post by stencil »

A week ago I finally finished all the mainline campaigns (yay!), after holding off on Dead Water for a long time. This got me thinking about what I liked best from different campaigns, which made me think that I should ask y’all what have been some of the your most memorable experiences. By memorable events I mean things like the volcanic eruption in Scepter of Fire or the collapse of Halstead in Liberty—individual things that stay with you after the campaign has ended, usually in a good way. Note that this is different than asking about your favorite campaigns; I thought the troll-skeleton battle in scenario 2 of Northern Rebirth was quite memorable, for instance, even though the campaign overall isn’t one of my favorites. I’d prefer to steer clear of highlighting things like bugs, which are memorable in a bad way, and focus on mostly positive experiences, like the kind of thing you might tell about in trying to promote the game to a friend.

With that said, what are some of your most memorable experiences in Wesnoth?

Here are some of mine:
Mainline campaigns, no spoiler tags

Liberty: _________________The collapse of Halstead
Scepter of Fire: _________The volcano eruption
Winds of Fate: ___________Burning down the elven forest
Under the Burning Suns: __Waking up in S1 with the whole village destroyed by a mysterious force
Secret of the Ancients: __Creating the ghoul
Hammer of Thursagan: _____Witnessing against the masked dwarves
Descent into Darkness: ___Fighting your own hometown
Heir to the Throne: ______The horse lord scenario on the plains
A Tale of Two Brothers: __Having an Iron Mauler join your army (amazing when I was a beginner)
User-made campaigns, individual spoiler tags
To Lands Unknown:
The Altaz Mariners:
Voyage of a Drake:
Strange Legacy RPG:
Bad Moon Rising:
Goblin's Glory:
Alariel's Journey:
Ooze Mini-Campaign:
Swamplings:
(I know many people are on Discord nowadays, but would still love to hear your thoughts!)
Thank you to everyone who has worked on this game!
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Helmet
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Re: Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

Post by Helmet »

Nifty idea!

The first ideas to pop into my head:

The awesome ship in Secrets of the Ancients...
The big battle at the end of Heir to the Throne...
The magic trident and Chocobone monsters in Dead Water...
My army being sucked toward a huge, deadly portal in To Lands Unknown...
And fighting the quintain in the Tutorial. (LOL)
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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.
gnombat
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Joined: June 10th, 2010, 8:49 pm

Re: Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

Post by gnombat »

OK, here's a list of 10 of the most memorable moments from UMC. It's going to contain lots of spoilers of course, although I've tried to avoid giving too much away.

Trinity:
Spoiler:
Saving Elensefar:
Spoiler:
Elvish Dynasty RPG:
Spoiler:
Brotherhood of Light:
Spoiler:
Into the Underworld:
Spoiler:
Invasion from the Unknown:
Spoiler:
After the Storm:
Spoiler:
Rise of the Elementalist:
Spoiler:
Flight to Freedom:
Spoiler:
A New Order:
Spoiler:
Did I say 10? I meant 20.

Brave Wings:
Spoiler:
Grnk the Mighty:
Spoiler:
Roar of the Woses:
Spoiler:
Count Kromire:
Spoiler:
War of the Dragon:
Spoiler:
Ice Age Fun:
Spoiler:
Alfhelm the Wise:
Spoiler:
The Ravagers:
Spoiler:
Swamp Witch Curse:
Spoiler:
Stone Remembers:
Spoiler:
stencil
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Joined: July 15th, 2021, 11:33 pm
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Re: Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

Post by stencil »

Ha, thanks for your responses, @Helmet! Of course, who could forget fighting the quintain? And I agree that the ship in SotA is also pretty great.

Thanks for your comments as well, @Gnombat. I was very happy to see that I have only played a couple of the UMC campaigns you reference, so I've got some good ones to look forward to. (I agree about what you mention in Elvish Dynasty RPG!)

Looking forward to hearing any other perspectives!
Thank you to everyone who has worked on this game!
mal_shubertal
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Re: Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

Post by mal_shubertal »

I'm currently working on the same goal of FINALLY finishing all the mainline campaigns, although at my current rate I won't get there until FAR into 2023. Some of my favorite moments so far are actually lines of dialogue where the characters really came alive and I felt like I LIKED them and they had real personalities, not just 'generic video game hero/villain placeholder'.

Son of the Black Eye: (Gruu) "I have a subtle plan, chief...We kill them all". And later on, Gruu again, "can I have a pony?". Then when Shan Taum basically calls Kapoue a sissy, Kapoue threatens to make a mug out of Shan Taum's skull, and Shan Taum immediately claps back with "what would you use it for, drinking mint cordial?". Like, I get that Shan Taum was the villain of this campaign, but I feel like I would be friends with him in real life just for the sick burns.

Hammer of Thursagan: Angarthing's "I AM A WITNESS!!!" speech

Liberty: Baldras responding to a very long and elaborate boast by a fancy general with just "Try it, stinker."

The South Guard: The whole final confrontation between Ethiliel and Mebrin where you really feel for her dealing with his heel turn.

Under the Burning Suns: When Kaleh tries to talk Garak out of making his Noble Sacrifice, and Garak puts him in his place and talks about how he gets to decide when to die and how to give his life meaning. I felt like in that moment I kind of 'got' Garak's character more than I did in the campaign up to that point.

The Rise of Wesnoth: Burin's intro, where he first implies that he just got so lost he literally circumnavigated the globe and then is ready to enthusiastically fight some random orcs without skipping a beat.

Gameplay-wise, maybe I'm just a masochist, but I really like the scenarios that seem impossible the first time you play them and then make you feel like a Tactical Genius once you figure out the winning strategy, sometimes even requiring you to go back and replay earlier scenarios to get the right set up. These are probably different for everyone, but for me the ones that stand out are:

Hammer of Thursagan: Forbidden Forest (especially in the new version without mages)

Heir to the Throne: Isle of the Damned, The Siege of Elensefar

Northern Rebirth: Infested Caves. When I finally pulled off the "migration strategy" on this one, I saw the game in a whole new light. I remember it felt ELEGANT, getting the timing just right and manipulating the interactions of all the AI units with my forces and each other. Now I'm stuck on Clearing the Mines, and hopefully will finish this campaign SOMEDAY, and feel like a SUPER GENIUS for doing so.

Son of the Black Eye: Siege of Barag Gor. I legit quit the game for an entire year over this scenario, it just felt unfair and impossible. After taking 12 months to cool off, then coming back, reading a bunch of forum posts, watching replays, and TRAINING, I was finally able to get it and felt like a CHAMPION.

Dark Water: Literally the first scenario, lol. You have these crummy little lvl 0 units who the enemy then turns into zombies at every opportunity, the bats are going everywhere, more zombies are showing up every turn, it's just psychologically overwhelming (which is very thematically appropriate for a child king facing an undead horde, of course). This is another one that took a lot of research to get past, and I felt like I fundamentally understood the game better aftewards.

Eastern Invasion: Evacuation.
shevegen
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Re: Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

Post by shevegen »

Hmm. For me it was mostly campaigns.

In the ... one where I keep on forgetting the name, the biggest one, Belzebub was hilarious. Once you kill
him he drops a gazillion of items. I also liked the progression system there - I recall I once built up a
halberd/scythe guy that was wiping away enemy units via a roundish attack types. Also, area effects
are pretty neat.

To Lands Unknown:
My favourite campaign still. Tons of interesting things.
- I like the summon/magic ability, like summoners summoning elements and stuff.
- The drop in that undercover item as well as the greater djinni was cool. Including enemy units.
- The hydras in a later level were a great idea too.
- The golems with their PEW PEW PEW damage were also funny. As well as the whole dialogue.

But there are other great campaigns too. I loved the progression system for different heroes, such
as that archer guy causing lasting bleeding effects. Or wyverns that could be mounted.

Many great ideas are in campaigns. It would be great if wesnoth could create one new epic
campaign per year, or perhaps per every two years. I am not saying to copy/paste To Lands
Unknown as such, but simply as a creative effort. Probably would require new people to come
onboard.

On my todo list I also have a campaign, but I have not progressed much. Reallife just sucks away
all time I have available right now and I can not say when this will change. So I am going the
slow snail pace approach - every now and then I work a bit on the background and stuff, then
I have to stop and do other things again.
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Toranks
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Re: Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

Post by Toranks »

Eastern Invasion Revised (UMC by Dallas) first mission on hardest difficulty. The objective is send any unit to the trapdoor.
This image is self descriptive and shows how close I was to being completely destroyed xD
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Re: Most memorable individual moments in Wesnoth?

Post by stencil »

Thanks for your responses, @mal_shubertal, @shevegen, and @Toranks! @Toranks, that screenshot is amazing. From the number of level 2 units you promoted on the hardest difficulty, you look like a very good player. @shevegen, I too liked the new gameplay features in Legend of the Invincibles and To Lands Unknown. And @mal_shubertal, I agree that sometimes just figuring out the right strategy on a difficult level is very rewarding. I felt the same way in the opening Dark Water scenario; another one I remember was finally learning how to retreat my troops (sometimes) to take advantage of ToD in the Blackwater Port level of Secret of the Ancients.

Happy 2023 to everyone!
Thank you to everyone who has worked on this game!
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