Inky's Quest - The Cuttlefish Campaign

[Telchin]

This is a thread for my cuttlefish campaign Inky's Quest. It used to be for 1.8, 1.10, 1.12 and 1.14 branches, now also for 1.16 branch! This campaign includes:

• Completed storyline, 12 scenarios
• Custom faction of various molluscs, from humble tentacles to powerful Krakens
• Sea based battles against both marine wildlife and land-dwellers
• A stupid lich who can control mushrooms
• Translations - Czech (myself), German (Drakefriend), Japanese (tamanegi), Russian (TreefeedXavier)

Original first post:

Spoiler:

Introduction
Long live Wesnoth! This is my first post on this forum, but I have played Wesnoth for about three years and I have decided to create my own campaign. As the thread title suggest, it's focused on Wesnoth cephalopodes. It may contradict Wesnoth canon as it feature sapient cuttlefish and a Pacific archipelago near Wesnoth coast, but I figured my first campaign won't be anywhere mainline standarts anyway and I wanted some morte original premise than "Elves fight Orcs for 150th time" (the originality stops here - main enemy is an undead lich... ).
Why cuttlefish?
Well, I like monsters. I tend to play the most monstrous faction in games (in Wesnoth that would be Undead and Drakes), so I decided to make a campaign about one of Wesnoth mosters. And cephalopodes are known to be the smartest invertebrates (remember that octopus that decided the football championship?), so I picked the cuttlefish as the hero of my campaign.
Is this the Inky from The Rise of Wesnoth or Dead Waters?
Well, neither. The name is taken from TRoW, beacuse it's my favorite campaign and I liked that my campaign has abbreviation IQ , but the story takes place between TRoW and the Scepter of Fire. I later found out that add-on Dead Waters also uses a cuttlefish named Inky , but it takes place about six hundred years after TRoW, so let's assume that Inky is a popular cuttlefish name...
How complete is this campaign?
The storyline is complete and it should be playable without bugs at least on the easy difficulty. However, I'm a rather bad player - I play campaigns only on the easiest difficulty and with plenty of save-loading (and even then I did'nt get far in Northern Rebirth or Son of the Black Eye ), so I'm looking for your feedback to balance it. It is supposed to be Intermediate, but I fear some scenarios might be too hard. (It's no way for begginers as it uses weird gimmicks in most scenarios).

How can you help?

• Graphics - it doesn't have any custom portraits or storyline graphics and all custom sprites are just recolored mainline sprites.
• Storyline - I consider it finished, but some dialogues may be awkward as I am not a native speaker of English.
• Balance - see above
• Other ideas

Version 1.2.4 should be translatable. This is the translation guide to make the translation easier. Potential translators should read this:

Spoiler:

Characterisation:
English is not my first language, so it's possible that the characters speak less eloquently than I intended. This is what I was going for:

• Inky - He is rather brave and smart for a young cuttlefish. "for a young cuttlefish" is the keyword here - note that he refers to the red mage in "Inky Goes Fishing" as "the hairy one with a shiny stick". He shouldn't appear smarter than say Konrad from HttT.
• Master Sea Head - MSH is meant to be sort of aquatic version of Delfador from HttT. He is older, smarter and wiser than other characters (well, Ravyan might be older, but he is dumber) and always knows where the party should go, to the point where you wonder who is the main character (that's why there is a scenario where he is absent).
• Gaaa - She speaks only by repeating her name, yet MSH seems to undertsand her. I guess you have figured it by playing the campaign.
• Mermen, Humans and Dwarves - They speak like your average campaign protagonists. They are unaware that the cuttlefish are sentient and think that they are the heroes, fighting vile sea monsters. It's just that this time you are playing as the monsters...
• Nagas and Sprazs - They ssspeak with sssnake hisssing, asss ssseen in sssome other camapignsss. Sssssssss.
• Trolls - Da Trollz speak with da bad grammarz. This may depend on your language's grammar (the more rules = more rules to break). Look how similiar broken sentences are translated in your language's translation of mainline campaigns.
• Ravyan - He is very arrogant, utterly crazy, pointlessly evil and as dumb as a brick. He is meant to be both the main villain and also a comic relief as he constantly boasts about his power, but his plans are always foiled. He is also one of few antagonist that speaks with the molluscs directly (this was partialy intended as a sign of insanity).
• Eternal Slave - He is a servant (and target for verbal abuse) of Ravyan for so long time that he doesn't remember his original name. He is fully aware how stupid his boss is, but the best he can is to grumble, as he can't disobey Ravyan and when he gets killed, Ravyan revives him.
• Drakes - They tend to speak with hissing in other campaigns, but not here, as I already had hissing Nagas and Saurians and the scenario where Drakes appear has a dialogue between two Drakes and it might be hard to read. Also, I wanted the Drakes to be honorable warriors fighting a duel for leadership and I thought that hissing might make it too silly. Use what works in your language.
• Sosarix - The second villain in the campaign that can speak with the molluscs as he is about equally crazy as Ravyan (except due to brain damage rather than lichdom). He is less powerful, but also more serious and bitter than Rayvan. Note that he speaks about his relatives as "expendable". Unlike Sprazs he doesn't hiss. This is both to make him more serious (see my comment on drakes) and to show that he is different from normal Saurians.

Individual words

• Inky, Beaky and Squiddy - These names are taken from scenario "The Rise of Wesnoth" from the campaign of same name. They are different characters as Inky's Quest takes place after TRoW, but I liked the names. Use what your translation of TRoW uses.
• Master Sea Head - "Master" is not meant in the meaning "lord", but rather "maestro", "expert" (e.g. Dwarvish Runemaster is a dwarf who has mastered usage of runes). MSH is Inky's mentor, not a boss (though he may act like that).
• Markscuttlefish - As you probably figured, this is a cuttlefish with marksman ability. Use your language's translation of marksmanship or anything that will make it clear that this is a cuttlefish focused on ranged attacks.
• Globster - This word is used for beached corpses of unknown sea monsters. I liked the sound of this word and wanted an alternative promotion for the cuttlefish, so I used it for a mutant plague-bearing cuttlefish. You might leave it in English or use whatever word makes more sense in your language.
• Trench Tentacle, Trench Hunter, Trench Kraken - This refers to sea trenches (like Mariana Trench in Pacific), deepest part of the ocean. You might replace it with deep sea or whatever makes sense in your language.
• A Mussel in Distress - This is a pun on "damsel in distress", a literary cliche of a girl in a pity situation that must be saved by male hero (e.g. Perseus saving Andromeda from a sea monster). Except instead of a girl we have a giant clam (she is refered as female in the campaign, but IIRC real giant clams are hermaphrodites).
• Lich-Lord Ravyan - This name is reference to Lich-Lord Jevyan from TRoW. Ravyan is a disciple and fanboy of Jevyan, so he presumably changed whatever his original name was to one more resembling that of his master (just like servants of Mal-Ravanal in Easter Invasion are all named Mal-something)
• Clash of the Drakes - This is another punny title. It includes two drakes fighting (i.e. clashing), there is a drake unit named clasher, and ther is also a movie "Clash of the Titans" that includes a sea monster.
• Flamy - This name is supposed to be similiar to that of Inky, Beaky and Squiddy, except referencing that he is capable of breathing fire.
• Old Lich and the Sea - This name si meant to be a reference to "Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. Try to keep the refenrence, but it's not important to the scenario's content.
• lichen-lord - This is an insult used by Inky about Ravyan, because of the lich's command over fungus. Replace "lichen" with whatever mushroom that has similiar name to lich in your language.
• Drowned Dwarves' Day - This scenario's title has aliteration in English. This probably doesn't work in other languages, so just translate it literarily.
• Bling - The Troll Shaman's name is a pun on english expression "bling bling" refering to expensive jewelery, as troll shamans have more ornate clothing than the rest of their kin. You can leave the name as it is, as it's not that diferent from normal trollish names.
• High Risk, Low Tide - The name of this scenario should retain the opposition between "High something" and "Low something". Your languge might have word for "Low Tide" that includes different adjective or no adjective at all. In that case try something like "Lot of Danger, Little of Water" or whatever combination of words makes sense in your language.
• dwarfoid - This is meant to be synonym for "humanoid", except the speaker is a dwarf, so I assume that they would compare other bipeds to themselves rather than to humans.
• Fangy the Serpent - The serpents name reference similiary named serpents in TRoW. Look up what your translation uses and make something up.
• Cave Eyestalk - Eyestalk is a monster from the scenario "Into the Depths" from the campaign The South Guard. I liked the monster's appearance, but changed its stats, so I just call it Cave Eyestalk. Look up how your language translate the original in TSG.
• Be thrice seven times cursed! - Yes, this is cursing for total of 21 times. It's meant to be over-the-top as it matches Ravyan's personality. I just slapped two "magical" numbers together.

EDIT: New feature - feedback threads for individual scenarios. Link to the list here, links to individual threads in the spoiler below.

Spoiler:

• #1 A Water Struggle
• #2 A Mussel in Distress
• #3 Inky Goes Fishing
• #4 The Haunted Ford
• #5 Clash of the Drakes
• #6 Blinded by the Mists
• #7 The Divining Pool
• #8 Changing of the Guard
• #9 Old Lich and the Sea
• #10 Drowned Dwarves' Day
• #11 High Risk, Low Tide
• #12 Burial at Sea

Please note that I'm not going to check those threads as often as this one, so don't be discouraged if I don't respond to your replayes/reviews/ideas immediately. I still appreciate your fedback, it just might take some time for me to react. You can still post questions about the campaign as whole in this thread.

EDIT: Version 1.6.1 released! Fixed typos found by Konrad2 and updated the Czech translation
EDIT: Version 1.6.0 released! This is the first version for the 1.16 branch!
EDIT: Version 1.5.8 released - fixed a bug in scenario 3
EDIT: Version 1.5.7 released - fixed some typos, no gameplay changes
EDIT: Version 1.5.6 released - changes in scenarios 7, 10, 11 and 12 (see page 17 of this thread for details)
EDIT: Version 1.5.5 released, now with a link to this thread. If you dowloaded 1.5.4 and are reading this, you don't have to download 1.5.5
EDIT: Version 1.5.4 released - change od Master Sea Head's movement, the campaign should give correct laurels for completion, fixed some bugs.
EDIT: Version 1.5.3 released - change of objectives in the 4th scenario. I'm looking for opinions if it's change for the better.
EDIT: Version 1.5.2 released -small change to dialogues in the first scenario (translations might be obsolete)
EDIT: Version 1.5.1 released - Czech and Japanese translations are updated, the rest might be obsolete.
EDIT: Version 1.5.0 released! This is the first version for the 1.14 branch!
EDIT: Version 1.4.3 released - now with Russian translation!
EDIT: Version 1.4.2 released - now with Japanese translation

[homunculus]

02 TRAIT_sTRONG
04 deaths.cfg included in a way that the game does not recognize.

then it started.
i wonder how you could start the campaign without editing those?
; )

[Wesbane]

This is not a very valuable information, but straight to point:

If you submit campaign like this specifying for what version it is designed is vital. I suspect that its current stable 1.8.x?

As for campaign itself I cant say much since I didn't play it but if it has such a twist like Ooze Mini Campaign by SpenceLack its definitely worth a try. If it has other twist then this I mentioned it can be worth a try even more. Or be at least musthave like feral for bats.

As for main enemy... Well its always up to campaign designer. For example in Hammer of Thursagan orcs are allied with dwarfs. (But final enemy is a lich too!)

And last but not least: To publish this campaign on add-on server you have to have your .pbl file name be the same as your campaign folder name. File .pbl must be outside your campaign folder. This is not specified in the wiki so I think this is the case.

Its quite important to have your creations on server since topics tends to go to lower pages if there is not too many responds.

[Telchin]

@Wesbane - Yes, I made it with 1.8.4 version. I should edit the first post to add it. The wiki mentions the .pbl file, but I'm not sure how to make one.

[Elvish_Hunter]

And last but not least: To publish this campaign on add-on server you have to have your .pbl file name be the same as your campaign folder name. File .pbl must be outside your campaign folder. This is not specified in the wiki so I think this is the case.

It is possible also to place a file called _server.pbl in your campaign folder, and it will work as well.
Anyway, at least on Linux, the images aren't shown due to wrong binary paths: in your _main.cfg you wrote

Code: Select all

"userdata/data/add-ons/Inky_Quest/images/units/cuttlefish/young-cuttlefish.png~RC(magenta>red)"
"userdata/data/add-ons/Inky_Quest/images/units/cuttlefish/kraken.png~RC(magenta>red)"
[binary_path]
    path=userdata/data/add-ons/Inky_Quest
[/binary_path]

Remove "userdata/" from each of the lines that I copied from your _main.cfg, and this will be fixed.

[Wesbane]

Pbl file is a plain text file. Its name as I already mentioned should be exactly like your campaign folder name with .pbl extension:
Here_goes_name_of_your_brand_new_campaign_folder.pbl

Below is an example of what usually can be found in such a file:

Code: Select all

title="Here goes title of your brand new campaign"
type="campaign"
icon="units/monsters/cuttlefish-something.png"
version="0.1.2"
author="Your artistic nick"
description="Ultra fantastic description for your campaign aka any informations that you find useful and will attract users not only to play it but also provide feedback"
passphrase="Yourpassword"
email="youremailaddress@host.domain"

Pbl file notes:
Game is looking for images in yourgamedirectory/data/core/images so it should be omitted.

From my experience pass phrase can be as complicated as you wish. Its good to do so since you do not have to know this password. Its just written in a file to verify that you and only you can update content you have uploaded. So don't accidentally throw it out.

More informations about this subject you can find under this address:
http://wiki.wesnoth.org/BuildingCampaignsThePBLFile

Better check it since I could explain it all wrong!

EDIT: It's for 1.8 branch. It works on my computer with version 1.8.4, not sure about other versions.

Things made for whatever revision of stable version currently 1.8.x works for any depend less this is 1.8.0 or 1.8.5

[bigkahuna]

Pbl file is a plain text file. Its name as I already mentioned should be exactly like your campaign folder name with .pbl extension:
Here_goes_name_of_your_brand_new_campaign_folder.pbl

... See the wiki again.

(On Wesnoth 1.8+, it is "_server.pbl")

On 1.8+, name your .pbl folder _server.pbl and place it INSIDE your campaign folder. Here is my .pbl file for a working example. [/shameless_half_advertising]

Code: Select all

title="Sweet Revenge"
type="campaign"
icon="units/human-outlaws/assassin-throwknife1.png"
version="0.2.1"
author="Bigkahuna"
passphrase="********"
description="After some old enemies kill his father seemingly out of spite, Rheoran is determined to get revenge at any cost.
Simultaneously, a rebellion is put into motion that could change the course of history forever.

(Intermediate level - 9 Scenarios out of ~16 planned)."
email="***********"
translate="yes"

[Telchin]

Thanks for advices, but I still haven't managed to upload it. I have text file named _server.pbl in my campaign folder and I have put the campaign folder in data/campaigns/ (as the Wiki suggest). Now when I start the game and select Add-ons in the main menu, there should be "Publish campaign" after the list of avaible add-ons (at least the wiki says so). I get the list of add-ons, but there isn't the publishing option. I have no idea what am I doing wrong.

[bigkahuna]

data/campaigns/

No. Put it in "userdata/add-ons/"

[Telchin]

@bigkahuna I have tried userdata/add-ons/, userdata/data/ and userdata/data/add-ons and still not managed it.

[bigkahuna]

Sorry. I meant "userdata/data/add-ons/".

I have no idea why yours is not working. Just place your campaign in the folder with all the other user-made add-ons, wherever it is If that doesn't work, then you have more pathing problems in your code.

[Wesbane]

... See the wiki again.

Both methods are working and this is just up to designer what he will choose.
To notice that read what Elvish_Hunter wrote or test yourself if you like.

I have tried userdata/add-ons/, userdata/data/ and userdata/data/add-ons and still not managed it.

My advice is:
Download user made content. Something small. And find out where it goes. This is the place where your campaign should go.

[homunculus]

05 has side 6 defined twice, the second side 6 should be side 7, it seems.

and if it so happens that you are ever going to refactor it, imho a bit smaller maps and less recruiting is a good thing (recruiting tends to be boring, and moving 25 units over a medium/large map can be bit tedious).
it is nice that the maps have not been epic large so far.

This is not a very valuable information, but straight to point:

If you submit campaign like this specifying for what version it is designed is vital. I suspect that its current stable 1.8.x?

As for campaign itself I cant say much since I didn't play it but if it has such a twist like Ooze Mini Campaign by SpenceLack its definitely worth a try. If it has other twist then this I mentioned it can be worth a try even more.[...]

to me it doesn't really matter if it is for 1.8 or 1.9, in 1.9 it works (except for the issues that i have found so far, which probably wouldn't work in 1.8 either).
there are just some warnings about deprecated wml, that's the main difference, i guess.
i don't really feel guilty at all for playing it in 1.9 while i should probably be playing it in 1.8.

and if you are looking for something like the ooze campaign but different, then to me it seems you might like this one.

[Telchin]

My advice is:
Download user made content. Something small. And find out where it goes. This is the place where your campaign should go.

Then it should be userdata/data/add-ons. However it still doesn't work I have at least attached uptaded zip file with fixes of few bugs you people have mentioned.

[Wesbane]

[...]to me it doesn't really matter if it is for 1.8 or 1.9, in 1.9 it works (except for the issues that i have found so far, which probably wouldn't work in 1.8 either).
there are just some warnings about deprecated wml, that's the main difference, i guess.
i don't really feel guilty at all for playing it in 1.9 while i should probably be playing it in 1.8.

and if you are looking for something like the ooze campaign but different, then to me it seems you might like this one.

I do that too. But from this you have wrote it seemed that at current stage it contains some serious bugs. And I rather prefer to play campaign then debug it. Thanks for info anyway and I will definitely try it when author will remove some of more annoying issues it contains. What hopefully was made about now?

Then it should be userdata/data/add-ons. However it still doesn't work I have at least attached uptaded zip file with fixes of few bugs you people have mentioned.

If you are sure that everything is where it should be rename _server.pbl to your campaign folder name that is Inky_Quest.pbl and place it outside campaign folder in add-ons