"A Gryphon's Tale" campaign

[Ringcaat]

So! I've begun debugging A Gryphon's Tale and familiarizing myself with what's changed about Wesnoth since last summer. My first questions are about the stable version of Wesnoth versus the one being developed further.

Is it just me, or is v1.1.7 a lot slower than 1.0.2? It takes about 20 seconds just to start up while the scroll bar loads things, and another 40 seconds to start a new campaign or load a game. It's making debugging, always a tedious task, even more tedious. Am I going to have to upgrade my computer?

In the sticky on the subject, it's suggested that designers of new campaigns design them for the development version of Wesnoth, while people maintaining existing campaigns should stick with the stable release. What about people building incomplete existing campaigns such as mine? I don't know which version I should build for. Can anyone tell me how many players are using the old campaign server versus the new Add-Ons server? If I ignore 1.1.7+, will what I make get played by a relatively small number of people?

[turin]

In the sticky on the subject, it's suggested that designers of new campaigns design them for the development version of Wesnoth, while people maintaining existing campaigns should stick with the stable release. What about people building incomplete existing campaigns such as mine? I don't know which version I should build for. Can anyone tell me how many players are using the old campaign server versus the new Add-Ons server? If I ignore 1.1.7+, will what I make get played by a relatively small number of people?

I would ignore that sticky, since 1.2 is coming out soon and 1.0 will be REALLY out of date. Write it for 1.1.7+, and when 1.2 comes out you can decide whether to make it 1.2-compatible or 1.3+-compatible.

[scott]

So! I've begun debugging A Gryphon's Tale and familiarizing myself with what's changed about Wesnoth since last summer. My first questions are about the stable version of Wesnoth versus the one being developed further.

Is it just me, or is v1.1.7 a lot slower than 1.0.2? It takes about 20 seconds just to start up while the scroll bar loads things, and another 40 seconds to start a new campaign or load a game. It's making debugging, always a tedious task, even more tedious. Am I going to have to upgrade my computer?

In the sticky on the subject, it's suggested that designers of new campaigns design them for the development version of Wesnoth, while people maintaining existing campaigns should stick with the stable release. What about people building incomplete existing campaigns such as mine? I don't know which version I should build for. Can anyone tell me how many players are using the old campaign server versus the new Add-Ons server? If I ignore 1.1.7+, will what I make get played by a relatively small number of people?

Yes it's a lot slower. Using binary saves might help you a little bit.

1.1.7 will become 1.2, which will be the new stable release. At this point, the WML is identical between the development and [soon-to-be-released] stable versions. I think the plan is to shut down the 1.0 server once 1.2 is released... however recent reports of 1.0's continuing MP popularity might alter that. It wouldn't be an issue if 1.0 weren't so much zippier, but I think some people might object to being forced to upgrade to 1.2.

[tiertu]

Im a noob, i can admit it nd i cnt do the canyon race, how do you recall your little magic thing without ending up last, plz tell me how to do this!!!

[scott]

Im a noob, i can admit it nd i cnt do the canyon race, how do you recall your little magic thing without ending up last, plz tell me how to do this!!!

There's a thread somewhere full of hints about this campaign. I don't remember exactly, but if you recall it on the last space the fastest rival can reach on turn 1, you'll be able to pull ahead. There's another way to do it by toppling a rock somewhere but I honestly don't remember where (I always used my method).

[Ringcaat]

All right then, 1.1.7 it is! I'm going to have to get a new computer soon, no doubt.

Some of the music files I used for the campaign seem to be gone now. Has some of the music been taken out? And if so, can I find copies and include them in the campaign? The file wesnoth-7.ogg was particularly perfect for the second scenario, Zolpha Hunt.

Man, I hate Canyon Race! It's easily my least favorite of all the scenarios I made. If I fix it up I'm going to have to alter the text so that scott's method is officially a "right" answer instead of a "bug".

[torangan]

You can simply take the music files out of an older Wesnoth version and include them. Rather easy, isn't it?

[joshudson]

I still wonder if my result was also right or not.

(Send zolpha forward to capture villages, AI won't try to take them).

[Ringcaat]

joshudson: That's a clever strategy. I may leave it in as a solution, or I may not, but thanks for pointing it out.

torangan: Okay, good. I hoped it would be that easy. Do you know why some of the music files were taken out? I don't really like the new ones better. Were those files just unpopular?

General question: Why is it that my Gifted Gryphlets are no longer defending against melee, and the enemies they face are no longer defending against them? My first guess is that the marksman ability has been altered. But searching on the word 'marksman' didn't turn anything up, and the Wiki is unchanged. What's the deal here?

[zaimoni]

The aliasing of short to melee and long to ranged was deliberately broken in Wesnoth 1.1.2. However, the "range" attribute now may be an arbitrary string. Cf. the Wiki for further details.

All of the standard units were changed to consistently use melee and ranged. So a short attack no longer elicits a melee retaliation, and so on.

[Ringcaat]

A-Ha! That must be it! Thanks.

Does that mean one can use a completely different range as a way of giving a unit a kind of unmeetable sneak attack?

Here's another random question. It no longer seems to be allowable to put units on locations not on the map, like 0,0. So, now how do I put units directly into the recall list?

[BlackOpsElf]

Does that mean one can use a completely different range as a way of giving a unit a kind of unmeetable sneak attack?

I was wondering about that. Is it possible to create an attack that is neither melee nor ranged? Like, for example, call it "super-ranged" or something, so that only other units with a "super-ranged" attack could retaliate? I don't actually want to create a third range for play purposes, but it would be interesting for, say, a playable cutscene with a unit that you want to be able to kill everything with without fear of retaliation. Probably not the best example, but it is pretty late at night here... I'm sure someone else could come up with a better reason to code a third range?

Also, does the AI recognize attacks that are neither melee or ranged when it selects what attack to use? I've had times where the enemy has attacked me with short, after the 1.1.2 normalization of attack ranges. Would the AI then be able to select "super-ranged", or know that it would be a preferable range to use against non-super-ranged capable targets?

Sorry to hijack your thread with this...

[scott]

Does that mean one can use a completely different range as a way of giving a unit a kind of unmeetable sneak attack?

I was wondering about that. Is it possible to create an attack that is neither melee nor ranged? Like, for example, call it "super-ranged" or something, so that only other units with a "super-ranged" attack could retaliate? I don't actually want to create a third range for play purposes, but it would be interesting for, say, a playable cutscene with a unit that you want to be able to kill everything with without fear of retaliation. Probably not the best example, but it is pretty late at night here... I'm sure someone else could come up with a better reason to code a third range?

Also, does the AI recognize attacks that are neither melee or ranged when it selects what attack to use? I've had times where the enemy has attacked me with short, after the 1.1.2 normalization of attack ranges. Would the AI then be able to select "super-ranged", or know that it would be a preferable range to use against non-super-ranged capable targets?

Sorry to hijack your thread with this...

Ringcaat: yes
BOE: yes
It was implemented for Spacenoth, where they wanted more than 2 types of attacks for their spaceships working at incompatible ranges.

[torangan]

Like you guessed, the old music was removed because it's considered inferior and not fitting to the general gameplay of Wesnoth.

[Ringcaat]

I figured out the answer to my earlier question: if you just don't specify a location for a new unit, it goes in your recall list.

I'm working on a new campaign! I'll probably start a thread for it soon. Why a new campaign when I haven't finished the old one? Because I needed to do something relatively short and simple in order to get back into the Wesnoth groove. It isn't turning out to be quite as simple as all that, but I'd been planning on making it anyway, so I figured...

But anyhow. My issue right now is speed. Or rather, lack thereof. I'm absolutely languishing here. It's taking me 30-40 seconds to start a new campaign and even longer than that to load a game. Operations while playing are slow as well. Just starting Wesnoth takes 30 seconds. Someone mentioned using binary saves, but those are the default option and were on anyway. What are binary saves, anyhow?

Is it possible to turn off auto-saving? I'm rather annoyed by the fact that the new Wesnoth auto-saves on every single turn. It clutters up my saved game list and slows down the process of loading a game immensely. The clincher is that the new campaign I'm working on involves a huge recall list, which unfortunately means huge saved-game files. I'm hoping people with better computers than I have won't have so much trouble with it.