Through the Dwarven Roots (Campaign for 1.18.x)

[Ashmyr]

Any suggestions on balance, difficult, gold, recruits, turns or plot would be greatly appreciated. I appreciate the suggestions so far.

[Ashmyr]

The undead allies was a big one for sure, but also having the arcanister line and the troll ally too. And just wait until 1.15/16 when you get different mushroom terrains

Forgot to mention this.

The S2 "Unit Dialogue" can be a bit wordy so I'm gonna fix it later but the Arcansiter, while there, has been nerfed. The melee damage increases by only 3-4 iirc, but the main benefit is the ranged fire attack (6-1 for runesmiths [Arolmar is dextrous so it's higher for him] and 7-2 for runemasters) becomes Magical, and thus a lot more useful The Arcanister originally had an attack **double** that of the Runemaster so I nerfed him but the magic fire somewhat makes up for it I think.

Edit: Formatting.

[Ashmyr]

The update is mostly ready now with a buff for the Dwarvish Mage. Just waiting on a friend for dialogue still, most everything else is done.

[Ashmyr]

UPDATE:

I will have all TODOs done by the next update. However my dialogue-writers are still busy and will likely not be free until after the weekend. I apologize for the delay, but I will try and make up for it by having both S4 and S5 done, maybe S6 as well, by the new update.

[Ashmyr]

UPDATE: The next update will include

- Tunnels of Flame (DONE, but need friend to re-do dialogue)
- Fixed alchemist portrait (DONE)
- Fixed Master of Alchemy and Potion Smith sprites (DONE)
- Jeman should be a DK Guardsman now (DONE)
- The Spearman should be nerfed (DONE)
- The mage should have a slightly more powerful cold attack, with the resistances improved (DONE)
- The Spiders replaced with a lvl 2 (DONE)
- Tentacles and 2 more Fire Guardians added to S3 (DONE)
- Slight revisions on S3 map (DONE)
- Semas spawns after enemy leader is killed with the suggestion Mirion wrote (DONE)
- Undead allies die after enemy leader dies (DONE)
- Side 3 in S2 and Side 2 in S2 both avoid village terrains (DONE)
- The burial ground feels more burial ground-y. There are more skeletons now but the raiders have more income to balance this out.
- Jeman and Dulotmos have Leadership now (debating if this is too powerful -- I like giving heroes/loyal units little bonuses to make them slightly better. Arolmar's bonus is that he is Dextrous . Though I haven't thought of anything for Semas..)
- Passages in S2 are widened.
- The camera now pans to show the cave in/earthquake to the south. It goes a little faster than I'd like but I don't know how to adjust the speed.
- 2 tentacles and 2 fire guardians added to S3

The next update will probably be out Monday. If anyone has more suggestions before then, let me know. I'm debating how well the portraits actually fit the characters but for now I like them

[Lord-Knightmare]

(debating if this is too powerful -- I like giving heroes/loyal units little bonuses to make them slightly better.

Compared to what other users do. This is fine.

BTW, 6-7 posts in a row XD. LOL.

2 tentacles

Not sure how they fit into an underground lake...wait, never mind I figured it out.

The Spiders replaced with a lvl 2 (DONE)

There goes 32 XP down the drain. I could have used that for some level ups.

Suggestion: would it be possible to include experience_modifier={ON_DIFFICULTY 80 100 120} or something similar to compensate for taking away the XP from the spiders?

[Elvish_Hunter]

Though I haven't thought of anything for Semas..

An idea I just had: since he's an ulfserker, how about making him extra strong? With this I mean that, instead of the mainline strong trait (which has +1 melee and +1 hp), he should get a custom extra strong trait with +2 melee damage and +2 hitpoints.

BTW, 6-7 posts in a row XD. LOL.

Yeah. Forums work differently than Discord, and multiple posts that are just a few minutes apart are usually discouraged. Besides, even if you don't post so often we're aware that you're working on the campaign, so don't rush

[Ashmyr]

An idea I just had: since he's an ulfserker, how about making him extra strong? With this I mean that, instead of the mainline strong trait (which has +1 melee and +1 hp), he should get a custom extra strong trait with +2 melee damage and +2 hitpoints.

I could try to do that. I don't know how but I'll look at the code for some campaigns which have custom traits and figure it out. I do like making Loyal units a little better than an average unit, just with "Free" instead of one other trait. A lot of Loyal units are supposed to be "heroes" in some form after all.

Yeah. Forums work differently than Discord, and multiple posts that are just a few minutes apart are usually discouraged. Besides, even if you don't post so often we're aware that you're working on the campaign, so don't rush

Alright. I'll do better at condensing my posts into one message. If I have another idea or update I'll either wait a day or put it in the last post.

----

Also, new update:

Dulotmos, Arolmar, Semas, Jeman and Garug should all have unique death messages in a new update..though I do seem to use "Aargh" a lot, I'll see what I can do to make them more unique, lol.

[Mirion147]

An idea I just had: since he's an ulfserker, how about making him extra strong? With this I mean that, instead of the mainline strong trait (which has +1 melee and +1 hp), he should get a custom extra strong trait with +2 melee damage and +2 hitpoints.

I could try to do that. I don't know how but I'll look at the code for some campaigns which have custom traits and figure it out.

You can honestly just adjust the "strong" trait in the core/macros/traits (I think.)

Code: Select all

#define TRAIT_ULF_STRONG
    # Units with trait Ulfstrong get a +2 increment in hitpoints and melee damage.
    [trait]
        id=ulfstrong
        help_text= _ "This guy is ulfstrong!"
        [effect]
            apply_to=attack
            range=melee
            increase_damage=2
        [/effect]
        [effect]
            apply_to=hitpoints
            increase_total=2
        [/effect]
    [/trait]
#enddef

EDIT:
If you really wanted to have a field day, you could make him gain 1 dmg every time he levels up, have him start with normal strong then build up from there. But that might be overdoing it for a side-character.

[Lord-Knightmare]

The easiest way to do this is adding strong twice.

Code: Select all

[modifications]
    {TRAIT_STRONG}
    {TRAIT_STRONG}
[/modifications]

[Ashmyr]

An idea I just had: since he's an ulfserker, how about making him extra strong? With this I mean that, instead of the mainline strong trait (which has +1 melee and +1 hp), he should get a custom extra strong trait with +2 melee damage and +2 hitpoints.

I could try to do that. I don't know how but I'll look at the code for some campaigns which have custom traits and figure it out.

You can honestly just adjust the "strong" trait in the core/macros/traits (I think.)

Code: Select all

#define TRAIT_ULF_STRONG
    # Units with trait Ulfstrong get a +2 increment in hitpoints and melee damage.
    [trait]
        id=ulfstrong
        help_text= _ "This guy is ulfstrong!"
        [effect]
            apply_to=attack
            range=melee
            increase_damage=2
        [/effect]
        [effect]
            apply_to=hitpoints
            increase_total=2
        [/effect]
    [/trait]
#enddef

EDIT:
If you really wanted to have a field day, you could make him gain 1 dmg every time he levels up, have him start with normal strong then build up from there. But that might be overdoing it for a side-character.

1. I will try that, that code looks good. Hoping it'll work, the extra damage will be helpful.
2. That's just feeding but with damage instead of help, haha. And...it'd get too powerful after a while, lol, people would exploit it. Fun suggestion but no thanks.

And unrelated notes:

I have playtested the Tunnels of Flame scenario a few times and I'm not entirely confident about it -- the enemy sides run out of units a little faster than I'd like. I'm going to playtest a few more times, hopefully it'll be finished by the time my friend can edit my dialogue around Monday.

With my turn limits, I want Medium players to be able to finish with 1/3 to 1/4 of the turns left. The Tunnels scenario is turning out to finish a bit more than that. I should mention I playtest on Medium so Easy may not be too Easy and Hard may not be too Hard, I think I'll try to balance that better later. Right now though, I am really happy with S2 and I don't think I want any more changes to it. it's more or less what I want in a beginning scenario -- Not too easy, not too much of a challenge. S3 I'm happy with as well, though I'm wondering about the time limit. I haven't exactly made a campaign before, just a bunch of massive scenarios for myself, so gold and turns may be off.

[Ashmyr]

Dwarvish Kingdom 0.0.3 will be out in an hour or so! Along with the changes I listed above, Scenario 4 should be done. Scenario 5, which I originally planned to be a branching campaign path, will no longer be so -- It will just be one scenario. Hopefully the gameplay looks good, I have implemented a big last-minute change.

Also, Semas should have the extra strong trait.

Edit: The last part.

[Lord-Knightmare]

Replays

For replays, watch with PRNG enabled. Otherwise, there is a crash.

DK-Tunnels of Flame replay.gz

(31.16 KiB) Downloaded 160 times

DK-Feral Tunnels replay.gz

(20.79 KiB) Downloaded 152 times

Commentary

Scenario 2 - Feral Tunnels

• It's way easier than before and I am on Hard difficulty
• rescuing the loyal Whelp is possible now
• Those nerfed down spiders seem like someone nailed their legs to the cave floor. 4MP.
• Less XP gained than last time.
• Dwarven Flamethrower stats are unsatisfactory.

Scenario 3 - Tunnels of Flame

• Needs better name. Caverns of Flame
• Goblins? Really? Where did they even come from? Why are they so near the Drake Enclave?
• Troll Shamans vs Drakes? LOL
• What happened to the Drakes as enemies thing?
• Bat swarm? Why..just why?

[Ashmyr]

Scenario 2 - Feral Tunnels

• It's way easier than before and I am on Hard difficulty
• rescuing the loyal Whelp is possible now
• Those nerfed down spiders seem like someone nailed their legs to the cave floor. 4MP.
• Less XP gained than last time.
• Dwarven Flamethrower stats are unsatisfactory.

Spoiler:

- The nerfed spiders are intentional, per Elvish Hunter's suggestion. I might want to add 1-2 more though.
- I'll look into the flamethrower stats but the IftU stats seem overpowered.

Scenario 3 - Tunnels of Flame

• Needs better name. Caverns of Flame
• Goblins? Really? Where did they even come from? Why are they so near the Drake Enclave?
• Troll Shamans vs Drakes? LOL
• What happened to the Drakes as enemies thing?
• Bat swarm? Why..just why?

Spoiler:

- Isn't that the name of the ending Sceptre of Fire scenario?
- Goblins serve the same purpose as Rats in the last scenario. Small threat followed by big threat. I don't like the walk to the Drake Fight to be so long, so I added something in between.
- The chieftain is trying to capture the area and lava *for* the shamans, so they're there. But I get what you mean.
- Last minute changed removed Drake Enemies in favor of allies. I hope they're not too strong an ally but also not too weak.
- Bat swarm is there because of the "small threat -> large threat" thing. You can deal with them with anyone from the Runesmith or Thunderer branch.

[Mirion147]

Okay, so I did a full play through and I have some notes on multiple aspects of the campaign. Keep in mind that I went rather in-depth, but am no expert on anything so this could be ignored without incident :

Dialog:

Spoiler:

So, some of the dialog is a bit off to me. I feel like its a bit run-on sentence-ish:
"Nay. If he feels he must go then so be it. I have other advisors, we've already had so many brothers lost, I'd rather not see another fall for my foolishness."
Could be:
"Nay. If he feels he must go, then so bit. I have other advisors. We've already had so many brothers lost, I'd rather not see yet another life fall for the cost of my foolishness."

Arolmar is referenced in the first scenario as having been by the king so long that leaving him seems irrational, but is also the leading expert on the eastern cave knowing all their secrets and even what is inhabiting them within the last couple of years.

A cave-in (typo'd as "cave in", hyphened when used as a noun) is described when the map depicts the lack of floor, I would think a wall would depict a cave-in rather than a chasm. <-nitpick, but still.

"We are on the outskirts of Garhme, an old outpost that used to be inhabited by priests..."
This implies that the outpost is named Garhme. Also, this is the 2nd time (and they are mentioned one more time as well) that priests are mentioned, is this for a reason? Does this tie into the temple mentioned by the drakes? Also why is no one concerned that the priests who had been mentioned in the burial chamber scenario are nowhere to be found?

Also, apparently ancient dwarves were quite tall

A good amount of Arolmar's dialog is "butler and maid". That is, Butler: "As you know, the master is away." Maid: "Indeed, and as you know he has gone to the festival and will not return for three days hence". Then again he has better dialog then the main character who's dialog is mostly comprised of things like "We must go!" "They will fall before us!" "Let us hurry on!" He just doesn't have much of a personality. He's only goal seems like it's to accomplish his mission so he can go back on the stone couch with an ale in hand.

Nomads could be a chance to glean more deeply on a culture point of the dwarves but we're just given the term nomads.

If Dulotmos is the one that discovers the troll he responds to himself. You may want to remove the first line of dialog if Dulotmos is the one discover the troll. Also, if he dislikes trolls so much, you may want to add a begrudging message from him when the troll joins you.

I would switch out the word "leader" in the tunnels of flame for something a bit less on the nose. Commander(?) or just reference them as an adversary?

I honestly am not buying that there is a drake enclave in this cave. Even if it's for a temple (which as of now is the first time that I've heard of drakes honoring any deity). The most likely event I could believe (obviously this is just my opinion) is that they intend to hatch their eggs in the warm air of the cavern. Even so, I feel like at least giving a few sunlit spots renting the ceiling to the open air would give more to the believability of their presence.

And then gameplay:

Spoiler:

It's important to note that I have played on easy as I'm more interested in the story, that being said the burial grounds is obscenely easy, by turn 8 there are only 3 enemies left in the burial ground area, and 8 recruited in total, and then by turn 12 there are only 2 enemies left, including the enemy leader and the recruit he spawned just last turn. And this is with only 2 rounds of recruits.

While the spiders are significantly easier than they were previously, I did find it painstaking to need to spread my poisoned units so far and wide to have them on the villages, but this isn't the end of the world and is a result of fighting so many units with poison. I would think that adding maybe 1 level 3 spider would be significant. (Maybe on easy allow 1 more village in the second keep area just above the spiders though.) Even so, this was not difficult. Also, either the [event]name=moveto for the troll event needs to be extended to 21.24 or change it to a sighted event because I could definitely see the locations before the troll and serpent appeared out of nowhere. Also, you may want to adjust the troll ai. Before I miraculously went back in time so that this didn't occur, the troll attacked the serpent and killed himself even though he wasn't even next to the serpent at that point.

The goblin and bats, while slightly out of place were a bit overly easy, giving absolutely no hinderance. Similar to the troll, the glider leader of the drakes immediately attacked the troll and was brought down to 4 hp the first turn that he makes a move. Also I would argue that some of the villages should already be given to the drakes/trolls. And the drakes are wayyy stronger than the trolls right now. You could sit back and watch and the drakes would just destroy the trolls.

I apologize for how chaotic my thoughts are but I wanted to post them while I had the time. So they are not very refined/organized.