1.18 SP Campaign - Bad Moon Rising

[doofus-01]

Using a save from your replay, I did not get the crash, but I was able to reproduce the lagging. I don't know the issue, but the pointless bumbling of the orc AI has long been an issue with that scenario, I will revise it and hopefully side-step whatever is causing the lag.

Another question, someone also mentioned that Belleros doesn't heal, so should the skull ring be avoided next playthrough?

There was a bug that caused some of the skull ring effects to persist even after it was removed, it looks like it is affecting you here. I thought I had fixed it, but maybe just in the 1.17+ version. I'll make sure to check on it.

(On a side note, this is my first time seeing "XP Bank" in action - it makes for a very different play-style, no chance I'll ever get scenarios designed to account for it. No sign it is causing the problems here though.)

EDIT: Seems the lag is being caused by the micro_ai that was supposed to make the pointless wandering less bad. ca_id=orcs_seek_shelter

[Star_of_Hope]

In "Death with Dignity", a dog talked when Belleros found the Vulture's gold. The seals also had the human dialogue when escaping. Same versions as before, replay attached.

[doofus-01]

Yeah, that's been a tedious issue - every dialog needs to be filtered to make sure it isn't a dog/seal triggering it. I'd once suggested I'd replace the dogs with elves, just to avoid this, but was informed that wasn't a good idea. Probably a custom [message] tag would be best; I'm not sure if it's possible to alter the API like that, but I'll look into it.

[Star_of_Hope]

In BMR2 on the level "Huric pays a visit", the first lieutenant didn't die after being defeated in my game, so there were always 2 lieutenants in that game. After loading the level again in debug, the lieutenants keep multiplying if the one on the keep is defeated.

Wesnoth version 1.16.9, BMR2 version 1.16.4

[doofus-01]

Huric is a BfW purist, he just does that to mess with save-loaders and mod users.

... Actually, that's sort of true, but I didn't quite mean to take things that far. I think I see what to do. Thanks for reporting.

[doofus-01]

Version 1.18.0 has been uploaded to the BfW 1.18 server. This is the first upload to that server.

The two biggest changes are:

1. Help system - there is a BMR help dialog that is accessible in the context menu when mousing over a unit. Let me know if there is something missing that would have helped.
2. Enemy strength scaling - It is very difficult to balance a long campaign, and the inventory/skirmish system makes this more complicated. Best would be to have a huge selection of level 0-12 units, but that's not possible at this pay scale. Instead, I've instituted a formulaic, progressive buffing of the AI enemy units, with some UI elements. It is a work in progress, both in tuning the formulas and in visual presentation. Feedback on either aspect would be helpful.

[Konrad2]

1.17.26, Bad Moon Rising Part 1
I have no idea why, but the font of the unit information on the right side is different and/or much smaller than in other campaigns.

EDIT:
Everything has shrunk, even the menu font and buttons.
...wtf, you are somehow using the layout of 1.14 I think? Not of 1.17, that's for sure.

For S1 itself:
I do not really understand the turn limit of 60 turns. You reach the end of the tunnel in about 20 turns, so 30 turns is more than enough.
On the other hand, there are so many units slowing me down on hard, that I don't have the time to take down the guardians before the trolls arrive. ._. I'm not sure how I'd ever beat this scenario without reloading every throw. -> I think the Soulless shouldn't be present, even in hard. Without it (on normal) it's doable, but on hard it just slows you down too much.
An explanation about weight in the help or during the scenario would be great.

S4
Many Primevals spawn on cave wall.

S6
The AI buffs are out of control. This scenario hits me with 90% dmg increases on nearly every enemy, 50%+ health increases, 60-100% resistances on most dmg types on every unit. I literally can't deal with that. D: Scarrion is quite often the only one that can deal any meaningful dmg.
I also seem unable to access the context menu to adjust the values, even in debug mode.

BMR1-Payback-Auto-Save18.gz

wtf help

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BMR1-Payback-Auto-Save17.gz

probably the best I can do on hard, and I'm not even reaching Malevan

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Bad Moon Rising 2
Doesn't have the font problem.

It would be great if I could pick up more than 1 item at a time. Items stack very fast on 1 hex.

Here as well, the ai buff seems to be out of control. The second campaign scenario, and I'm dealing with 25% dmg increase on everyone. Meaning every lvl 1 unit deals as much dmg as a lvl 2 unit, while having more hp than any lvl 1 unit. <.< Straight up tanks.

BMR2-Rescue-Auto-Save8.gz

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BMR2-Rescue replay 20240226-143935.gz

(45.84 KiB) Downloaded 21 times

I won, but this kind of win is not sustainable. Especially since I had to farm 7 skirmishes beforehand to level my units. ._.

3rd campaign scenario, I'm seeing 30-50% dmg increases... No thanks.

BMR2-Forest Confrontation-Auto-Save7.gz

(92.24 KiB) Downloaded 24 times

[doofus-01]

Thanks for the quick feedback, and the replay/saves.

Everything has shrunk, even the menu font and buttons.
...wtf, you are somehow using the layout of 1.14 I think? Not of 1.17, that's for sure.

I have an idea what happened, I think this can be fixed for next time.

It would be great if I could pick up more than 1 item at a time. Items stack very fast on 1 hex.

I'll try to have that next time as well.

The AI buffs are out of control.

It went through a lot of revisions, I was happy with how it finally worked in the P2 Camp/Fort/Defend scenarios, but I guess more work is needed. I'll have to check out your saves to see what happened.

EDIT: Looks like cut-scene animations got broken somehow. Another thing to fix, if possible.
EDIT2: The animations issue is an engine bug, see #8524 and #8525

S4
Many Primevals spawn on cave wall.

Not sure what this is referring to, couldn't reproduce.

[doofus-01]

I just uploaded version 1.18.1 to the BfW 1.18 server.

I think I've fixed the Part 1 theme issues. Also, moving to a pile of gear now allows you to grab it all at once (no more shuffling dogs).

I made some changes to the AI enemy scaling, but after seeing Konrad2's saves, I'm not confident I have this right or will ever get this right. I'm not a good player, but I'm more familiar with all this than the average player, so maybe I'm too harsh.

To that end, the right-click "Progression Scaling" dialog allows you to adjust the enemy scaling. Depending on where the enemy unit is defined, you may need to reload the last turn or load the start of scenario for the adjustments to take effect.

If anyone has feedback on what values are good for a given scenario, it would be appreciated.

[Konrad2]

Fun fact, you are using the old dwarvish lord with 5-2 ranged as the ghost for altos.

[RainerT]

Hi,

Every few years I come back to Wesnoth and still like it. It must have been at least 10 years ago that I played this campaign. Time for a revisit.

So far I like campaign, but I have a few issues. I'm playing 1.16.4 on BfW 1.16, therefor I'm not sure, if everything is still relevant for 1.18 and I didn't read the complete thread, in case things were mentioned before.

• The 'Skull Ring' artifact has a bug or if this is a feature, I call it strange . When I remove it from a unit the resistance bonus is gone, but it still can't heal. The effect seems to be permanent, because I went into an ambush and the unit still couldn't be healed, even if the ring was remove in the previous scenario.

• In the Rescue scenario when the ladies appear, you get a loyal hawkeye. Since you already get a level 2 bowman with Raenna, it would be more suitable to have a loyal seeress, especially with the quick trait she is perfect for the job, while quick is not so sexy for a hawkeye. The scenario is quite tough, so a bit healing out of the box is quite welcomed and won't spoil it.

• Reanna is for a 'main' character quite underwhelming. You need several times more experience, just to come near the fighting potential of a deadeye. Nightstalk and marksman are nice features, but not that great to equalize the low power. The only reasons to use her are, you get her for free in most scenarios and she is loyal. Wouldn't it be a good idea to give give her a decent upgrade to level 3 and than all the AMLA options?

• I'm currently at The Pit scenario and this is one these, which I hate in Wesnoth campaigns . You have to keep an NPC leader alive and rely completely on your luck, because he might be already dead before you have even a chance to reach him. In the current run I was really fast and reached the the orc leaders keep at turn 16, but he is already half dead and since he doesn't stay in the castle even being below 50% hitpoints, he is going to die within the next few turns. I'm playing normal difficulty by the way. You should have a few more turns to reach the castle and at least he should act defensive, even if this not very orc like .

[doofus-01]

Every few years I come back to Wesnoth and still like it. It must have been at least 10 years ago that I played this campaign. Time for a revisit.

Welcome back.

• The skull ring was in large part an engine bug, I need to look into whether it is fixed or I really need to work around it by now
• That's a good point, but then she might need more fleshing out at a character. Maybe giving some of the level 1 archers more XP out of the box can help get healers on the map quickly
• This probably hasn't changed much, but my thinking was that she can retreat and survive somewhat reliably, so is a good scout or screening force, and as a level 2, she gets a boost from leadership when everyone is clustered up. I try to keep this from being a band of superheroes out on a romp, but the balance is still a work in progress (and probably always will be).
• I'm not sure what you are referring to, I don't remember the allied orc as particularly threatened. Maybe something went off the rails in a way I didn't anticipate. That's always a danger when releasing these things without a field of beta-testers (and not even mainline has that). If you have a save-file where you are about to lose because of killed NPC leader, I'll see if there is anything I can fix.

[doofus-01]

1.18.2 has been released to the BfW 1.18 server. This was mostly a bug-fix:
1. The HP displayed in the world map "Marching Formation" dialog displays the actual hitpoints and poison status again.
2. Replays should work in most cases

The first real scenario in P2 has had a slight update - this scenario was quite old and primitive. Still is, but hopefully the loyalist->ukian transformation is a bit more convincing.

EDIT: And I had to upload 1.18.2.1 as a fix to walk back some MP sync stuff for the shop dialogs that wasn't fully thought through. What does MP have to do with this? Replays.

[Valinor]

Hey there, I have been a fan of this campaign for quite a while but I find it very difficult, especially the early scenario's. In forest confrontation (the one where you have to rush to the river) is the loyalist leader supposed to have 20 base income? Because I am inevitably swarmed under by him recruiting 2-4 units per turn, I tried roaming the main map for a while to try to build my recall list but it hasn't really helped, maybe I need to wait till I have level 3 healers?

[doofus-01]

Hey there, I have been a fan of this campaign for quite a while but I find it very difficult, especially the early scenario's. In forest confrontation (the one where you have to rush to the river) is the loyalist leader supposed to have 20 base income? Because I am inevitably swarmed under by him recruiting 2-4 units per turn, I tried roaming the main map for a while to try to build my recall list but it hasn't really helped, maybe I need to wait till I have level 3 healers?

Hi Valinor,

Thanks for letting me know your experience with this. The high Loyalist income is intentional to keep the pressure up even after breaking the front line; I tried to compensate with lower starting gold, and was able to win without much Worldmap grinding, but maybe more can be done with those numbers.

Alternatively, I could do something with the empty area in the northern foothills; I think it's currently a flytrap for AI cavalry to chase dogs around in circles, but there could be some better sort of bonus for the player up there.

I'll try to have something new in that scenario for next time. Since replays should work now, I'll post my play-through of it, whatever "it" ends up being.