The Bees Journey - Finally Completed!

[Dragon-Friend]

This is my first time posting in the new forum!
I have made a few upgrades to the bee events and wanted to post them here.
The most major change is that now units suffer from venom before taking damage for balling. This change stops units from surviving balling and venom when the combined damage should have killed the unit. Another bug was discovered (and fixed) when I added a status icon for venom. This bug prevented some units from suffering the effects of venom after being stung (even repeatedly). Which made venom far less effective than advertised and due to this, I reduced the damage venom causes to insects. (Venom was too strong! ) This may cause balancing problems so keep that in mind, @KameRamen.

I did encounter a problem when attempting to add a status icon for balling. I do not know how to filter for adjacent units in LUA. So if anyone knows a way, please tell me. (Even if your post only says, "LUA cannot do that.")

Lastly I think that there should be some tutorial dialogue in the first scenario. Something to introduce the special abilities of bees.

[KameRamen]

Hello everyone. I am almost finished with the campaign, although much later than planned. There are still some adjustments I need to make, so please bear with me for a while (the announcement was for the end of June, but it will probably be in early July)

[KameRamen]

A happy reminder to everyone: all scenarios for The Bees Journey have been created and are now playable!
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The final structure consisted of 12 scenarios. With great pleasure I reuploaded this campaign to the 1.18 add-ons server. I continue to seek your feedback, as there is still room for adjustment!

About Version Notation

In order to restart with new determination, the version notation has been decided to be 1.0.0. I used to manage versioning by dates, so updating may be difficult due to this. In that case, please delete the campaign data and install again.

TODO

• Preparation of portrait images (bees and hornets)

• Adjustment to story and overall campaign

• Review of the final scenario

• Complete Japanese translation

Have fun!

[KameRamen]

Version 1.0.1 is now available! This is a relatively small update. There are some internal improvements and minor changes to the story dialog. Perhaps the next update will be a little later. Please have fun with the game

[KameRamen]

Hello. I am pleased to inform you that I have created an art topic.
<https://r.wesnoth.org/t58415>
I am looking for someone to help me with arts. Best regards.

[tsunami_]

I decided to play the Bees Journey again. This time, I played it on hard. I will write my thoughts down as I play.
I will write some suggestions, but you can ignore them, of course.


New sprites!!
It always makes me happy when the sprites and the portraits match. Even though, I was trying to match the sprites originally, but now they have more details, so it's even better.
Some of the units are missing sprites, I mean King Drone, Elder Bee and Cardinal Hornet, which have copied sprites. Maybe you have new ones already, but otherwise, you can use these ones which I edited for myself.

elder.png (1.43 KiB) Viewed 69 times

king.png (1.89 KiB) Viewed 69 times

cardinal.png (2.23 KiB) Viewed 69 times

S1 (Beginning of the Fate)
"A sudden invasion causes you to have to flee your home and go on a long journey" here is the classic Wesnoth opening (this is not a bad thing).
I remembered from playing last time that all my allies die very quickly. So, I recruited 5 drones and 9 bees and sent everyone towards Melissa. When the other hornets showed up I started to move to the signpost. It was easy because the hornets prefer to attack helpless drones than Marie. Although, Melissa nearly died (but she lived because of her crazy 80% defense!)
I used balling but not venom because my bees nearly always die.
** later comment **
** In this scenario and some others, you put several enemy leaders on the same "side". This means that the camera will scroll between them as they recruit. It's not really a problem, but there is a more extreme example in Legend of Wesmere: Human Alliance (or at least, was). In that scenario, the enemy leaders are at opposite corners of the map, and result is quite unwatchable. In fact, you have probably noted this problem already, since I never had the same problem in this campaign . **

S2 (Skirmish on the Sea)
I have 4 priest drones now! They are much easier to level up than bees. I killed the enemies on turn 12, but it was still worth it thanks to the extra gold.
I like the challenge of having little islands with high defense, but easily surrounded.
I levelled-up Marie, but even though she has leadership, the only attack she makes stronger is "needle", because of the very low damage.
** After playing scenario 7, I went back and checked this scenario: if you win without first rescuing Drago-chan, he will not appear. It does not fail the next scenario automatically, but the conversations stop making sense. **
** It might look better to put the cage on a sand-bank rather than floating on the water. **
** In both scenarios, you cannot see the unit in the cage. Is it intentional? **

S3 (The Dark Island)
Is that the original Wesnoth soundtrack?
This was an easy scenario. I had 180 gold vs 120 for the enemy (actually more, but 1/3 of the undead and the mermen are busy fighting). Finally, I levelled up some fire bees. When I reached the first necromancer castle, I recruited 8 drones and entangled the Lich to death very slowly.
Marie is a Queen bee now, and finally she makes Bees and drones a little bit stronger.
By the way, the save files are missing the acronym "TBJ-" which they had before.

S4 (At the Port)
Drago-chan and Kaldyn
Drones are the best bait ever, enemy leaders will always run out to eat them. Sometimes, they even survive! Works for normal enemies, too. If I think a valuable unit is in danger, I just move a drone or bee into the open, and the enemies run to it.
This scenario was easy because I had 4 fire bees all ready.

S5 (Arrival at Lagos Island)
For this scenario I sent Drago-chan, Noaille and first castle of bees to help the ants, and Kaldyn, Marie and second castle south. Really, I should have sent more better units to the ants, I lost a priest and fire bee and the ant queen had 1hp after the poison! Also, Kaldyn is very very strong and did not need much help.

S6 (The Winter)
Good scenario for getting level-ups.
I remember a dragon coming up, so I have prepared with elder bees because of their good hp.
I think this is the only time I used venom intentionally, to weaken a Wolf Rider to save my priest drone.
Fire and Sunshine Bees are still weak to fire attacks. Is it intentional?

S7 (The Dragon and the Ninjas)
I recalled my tough bees for this scenario. Luckily, the dragon is weaker than usual! I gave honey to the bear, of course, we are friendly bees! Besides I have 281 gold.
My plan worked: I baited the dragon with an elder bee, then slow him, then kill with Drago-chan and the other elder bees, win on turn 11/22. However, because of this, I did not receive the loyal ninja. Well, I will keep playing without him, but it makes sense to me that he is automatically rescued if you kill the dragon.

S8 (New Encounters)
I lost in this scenario because Fersen was fool-hardy and ran out of the castle. I had to redo my turn to try and block, and then re-load a few time so she had good luck. And she did it again later. This is very annoying! It is difficult to move the battle away from the castle. I think the quickest fix is to put her turn after both enemies'. That way, you have a chance to rescue her.
This was the most challenging scenario for me. Only Fire and Sunshine Bees can kill enemies easily, and even a single zombie spider is dangerous for a bee or drone. And of course Assault Hornets are even more dangerous.
I like the story here. That Valois, to get revenge on the hornets, control them to pave over their beautiful islands. It's quite nasty!

S9 (Reunion)
Kaldyn says something about hiding, I don't really understand, but Kaldyn destroys everything as usual, so it doesn't matter.
This is a good way to have a cutscene. Usually, cutscenes in Wesnoth are very boring (just text boxes). I will remember this idea.

S10 (The Heart)
We are coming to the end of the campaign, so, time to recall my best army. 7x Sunshine Bees + 5x priest Bees (or about to level up). First, I totally destroy Xrier (north). Then I totally destroy Aris (south). Then I win on turn 8.
Objectives say 40% carry-over, but I did not receive it? I started the next scenario with 300 gold exactly.
The time-of-day in this scenario is "cave", even outside.

S11 (Face of the Enemy)
I recall a Priest Bee at the first castle and three sunshine bees at the second. That was easily enough, scenario is very very easy.
I noticed that I am being offered "ambush" as a bonus level-up. Well, not very useful now. I give it to Kaldyn just for fun. He certainly does not need upgrades!
A Sunshine bee, on a sunny tile, with +2 ranged AMLA and Drago-chan leadership, fighting a hornet, does 17x5 damage. Ancient Lich move aside .

S12 (The Bees Journey)
At least it is obvious that you cannot kill Mal-V'lois at first.
My reinforcements were the King bee from last scenario and 4 Sunshine bees. Very good team! And both Kaldyn and Drago-chan can attack Valois once, safely. That was good planning, if you planned it.
Last 4 scenarios have been very easy, but they were all short so it's O.K. S10 might have been hard if I had worse recalls.


My own gameplay:
Overall stats were
Inflicted -0%
Taken -5%
(When I play without reloading - usually +0~5% inflicted and -0~5% taken. So, average).
I reloaded once when Marie died (with 80% defense, you get complacent sometimes), and many times to save Fersen. Once, Noaille would have died but I was very lucky.



This was a very good campaign.
I like how the faction is unique: at first very weak and fragile, but can make up for it with swarming and slows, then become quite strong.
All the bee and drone units are useful, although in my opinion there is no need for elder bees after the dragon scenario. Sunshine bees are just too good.
I really never used venom. It makes sense that the bee dies usually, realistically, but for 1 extra hp and -1 damage for one turn (and can miss) is not really worth it. Maybe if swelling causes -2 damage/hit, and effective immediately, it would be useful (this would cripple hornets). Or, maybe, my strategy for using it was just not good.
Balling was useful in the first two scenarios. I did not really use it after, but this makes sense, because my army has "out-grown" needing it. It is good flavour (venom also).
It is a bit confusing, that bees can be lawful, neutral or liminal. I only noticed half-way through and it was difficult to remember. I think you could simplify it and make drones lawful or liminal, since they are not doing much damage anyway. Or make all of them lawful, since "Sunshine Bee" sounds like a day-time unit. But maybe that would change the balance.
You could also give drones "dextrous" but remove "strong", since strong is so useless for them. If I am not mistaken, real-life drones are totally useless as labourers. Dark Adepts also cannot be strong:

Code: Select all

    id=Dark Adept
    name= _ "Dark Adept"
    gender=male,female
    race=human
    ignore_race_traits=yes
    {TRAIT_QUICK}
    {TRAIT_INTELLIGENT}
    {TRAIT_RESILIENT}
    image="units/undead-necromancers/adept.png"

By the way, my suggestions are only suggestions, you do not need to take any of them, of course .
Drago-chan was a good complementary unit, since he can always leadership the bees. Kaldyn was just strong... maybe too strong (but I think it is fine).
The campaign length was also good. I think the best length is 8-12 scenarios. More than that, the recall list becomes long and boring, and you begin to forget the plot.

fan art:

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[tsunami_]

Here, about the cages, I tried putting the "unknown unit" shadow in the cage. What do you think?

unknown-unit-shadow-moved-up.png (1.75 KiB) Viewed 64 times

cage-moved-up.png (3.03 KiB) Viewed 64 times

Code: Select all

	### added by tsunami_
        [terrain]
        	terrain=Ds
        	x=14
        	y=14
    	[/terrain]
        {PLACE_IMAGE "misc/unknown-unit-shadow-moved-up.png" 14 14}
        {PLACE_IMAGE "misc/cage-moved-up.png" 14 14}
	### end added
        #[item]
        #    x,y=14,14
        #    image=items/cage.png
        #[/item]

unknown-unit-shadow.png (1.75 KiB) Viewed 64 times

Code: Select all

	### added
        [item]
            x,y=26,25
            image=misc/unknown-unit-shadow.png
        [/item]
	### end added
        [item]
            x,y=26,25
            image=misc/cage.png
        [/item]

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