Shadows of Deception 0.5.3 [Wesnoth 1.12]

[vultraz]

Description

This campaign is an indirect prequel to Invasion from the Unknown and After the Storm, both created by shadowm.

A shadow lengthens across the land; a faceless evil plots to overthrow the Empire. No one holds all the pieces. The fate of a kingdom rests in the hands of a despairing few, but will they be able to tell friend from foe?

This campaign is a half-RPG, half regular style Wesnoth campaign, incorporating several custom gameplay elements as well as your typical battle scenarios.

Intermediate level, 2 episodes planned, with 6/12 scenarios completed of the first

Downloading

You can download this campaign from the 1.12 add-on server, or manually [url=hhttp://files.wesnoth.org/addons/1.12/NX-RPG.tar.bz2]here[/url].

If you're interested in the latest development version, you can clone the campaign's GitHub repository. Please read the included readme file if you do this, as there are some things you will need to do. Keep in mind that doing this will give you a copy of the campaign that could break at any time, so using the version from the add-on server is recommended.

Both versions are playable on 1.11.11 or later only!

NOTE: As a result of some poor planning, while the name of this campaign is Shadows of Deception and appears on the add-on server as such, the folder downloaded, and the name appearing on error messages, will be NX-RPG. This will be corrected during the 1.13/1.14 release cycle.

Good luck and enjoy!

[Anonymissimus]

Checked out the first scenario.
-Used debug mode to turn off the turn limit and help me in a few other situations as well. Actually, it doesn't make much sense to me to set a turn limit at all in such RPG. In slash'em (well-known RPG which this addon gives me a great feeling of ) the only real chance you have to survive is running away to heal and upgrade and then come back to take on the fight which was too difficult. This is only possible without time limit. Just remove any sources of infinite income and experience. It's difficult enough via the fights.
-It looks as if I should've been able to use the key to open doors, that didn't work. Unless I'm actually too dumb to figure it out.
-Upon leveling the resistances upgrades of the sorceress got lost (not quite sure).
-It looks as if the scenario should have ended when moving out of the cave to the signpost or the bridge, this didn't happen.
-The sorceress etc cost upkeep that should probably not happen since it's been a player character in MP which never cost upkeep.
-The "continue your move after a fight" feature only works for the player character, not for the other heros as it very likely does in multiplayer.
-The stderr log spams a lot of evil stuff (at every side turn for instance) such as
error engine: failed to auto-store $unit at (-999,-999)
error engine: failed to auto-store $unit at (0,0)
error engine: Formula in WML string cannot be evaluated due to Unrecognized token
--> "Galamor . shop . rfrleft |Galamor.shop.rblleft|Galamor.shop.rimleft|Galamor.shop.rprleft|Galamor.shop.racleft|Galamor.shop.ralleft|"
20111215 01:32:40 error engine: Formula in WML string cannot be evaluated due to Unrecognized token
which tend to be severe bugs. Could be something of the above however.

[vultraz]

First off, thanks for talking a look at it

On to the issues:

-Used debug mode to turn off the turn limit and help me in a few other situations as well. Actually, it doesn't make much sense to me to set a turn limit at all in such RPG. In slash'em (well-known RPG which this addon gives me a great feeling of ) the only real chance you have to survive is running away to heal and upgrade and then come back to take on the fight which was too difficult. This is only possible without time limit. Just remove any sources of infinite income and experience. It's difficult enough via the fights.

So are you saying remove the continuos attacking, as well as turn limit?

-It looks as if I should've been able to use the key to open doors, that didn't work. Unless I'm actually too dumb to figure it out.

Uh...yeah...I realized that the key system is still a bit flawed. There's an event that only fires if you have Norethial and Galamor and the key, but I should make it better. Should be in the next release.

-Upon leveling the resistances upgrades of the sorceress got lost (not quite sure).

Hummm....I'll look into it

-The sorceress etc cost upkeep that should probably not happen since it's been a player character in MP which never cost upkeep.

Ah...must make Norethial and Galamor loyal

-The stderr log spams a lot of evil stuff (at every side turn for instance) such as
error engine: failed to auto-store $unit at (-999,-999)
error engine: failed to auto-store $unit at (0,0)
error engine: Formula in WML string cannot be evaluated due to Unrecognized token
--> "Galamor . shop . rfrleft |Galamor.shop.rblleft|Galamor.shop.rimleft|Galamor.shop.rprleft|Galamor.shop.racleft|Galamor.shop.ralleft|"
20111215 01:32:40 error engine: Formula in WML string cannot be evaluated due to Unrecognized token
which tend to be severe bugs. Could be something of the above however.

Espreon said I could ignore some (eh the "error engine: failed to auto-store $unit at (-999,-999)", but I dunno about the Unrecognized Token one. What is that anyway?

And again, thanks for checking it out I'll try to get a new release out as soon as I can.

[Anonymissimus]

So are you saying remove the continuos attacking, as well as turn limit?

Well it feels more RPG-ish to not have a turn limit I'd say. Based on my experience with RPGs (which is basically nethack and its variant slash'em only). In those the continuous attacking does exist nonetheless though, I thought you might want to remove it to not spit infinite experience at the player. The leveling in slash'em works differenty though, the more experienced you already are, the slower you advance further, so the many low-level kills you can get by xp farming is not so effective. For a wesnoth RGP this may mean that you need to increase the unit's max_experience more on each leveling. Also, since it is singleplayer now, there's no need to force people to play it in a certain time. And you need to rebalance it in any case, since the player has no way to move the other units until he's found them.

Espreon said I could ignore some (eh the "error engine: failed to auto-store $unit at (-999,-999)"

IMHO thou shalt not ignore any stderr warnings or errors. Such messages can be caused by using the string "unit" as a variable name, which you should not since the engine confuses it with the magic variable "unit", even in events which don't have such variable. Other than that "failed to auto-store $var" is certainly something a wml author should worry about.

[vultraz]

Aggghhh...why haven't I replied to this before....anyway:

Well it feels more RPG-ish to not have a turn limit I'd say. Based on my experience with RPGs (which is basically nethack and its variant slash'em only). In those the continuous attacking does exist nonetheless though, I thought you might want to remove it to not spit infinite experience at the player.

I decided to remove continuos attacking for now (there will be ways to acquire it in later scenarios), except when destroying a gate. Can't make the player waste a move destroying a gate, can we , especially when they only have two are three units.

And you need to rebalance it in any case, since the player has no way to move the other units until he's found them.

Well...that's sorta the point. You play from Rhyan's point of view, and he doesn't know where the other two are. (Internally, they don't even exist until the gates in front of their prisons are destroyed).

IMHO thou shalt not ignore any stderr warnings or errors. Such messages can be caused by using the string "unit" as a variable name, which you should not since the engine confuses it with the magic variable "unit", even in events which don't have such variable. Other than that "failed to auto-store $var" is certainly something a wml author should worry about.

Hum...I'll look into it. I'm trying to make it run clean in wmllint; guess a clean stderr isn't something I thought about much before.

In a more general vein, fortunately neither I nor this campaign is dead. I unfortunately wasn't able to finish the custom inventory GUI dialog, nor the shop, by the time of 1.10's release, though. The shop because I was working on the inventory, and the inventory because of certain limitations to the lua GUI code. I'm hoping the relevant features will be added soon, but even then they won't become widely available until the first 1.11 (at least) release. I should probably continue working on the old (as in, the one that came with 0.2.5) one, and keep the new one for 1.11.
I'm also facing some difficulties with scenario and map balancing/modification for scenarios 1 and 2 (which is in the UMC Dev repo). They're bothering me, and I'm trying to get them to a place where I like them, either with better plotlines, better maps, or both (preferably the latter). Hopefully I can get this done soon so I can continue with scenario 3 and the shop and inventory. Looks like it might be another couple months before another release; I was hoping to avoid that.

Once again, thanks to everyone who's played, contributed (including those I've pillaged - er, 'borrowed' - code from ), and assisted me. And for the (at the time of this post) 3229 downloads off the add-on server.

[Mabuse]

hey vultraz,

i just dl'ed you NX-RPG and must say it looks nice so far. (choosing the character classes atm)
good job.

btw, if you had troubles finding out the meaning of some variables in the enhancement-shop, they were controlling the increasing prices of upgrades with each buy
(and also to keep track of how many items of each type you bought)


EDIT:
-------
Having taken a deeper look i must say that your work is inspiring.
i like the gates for example.
also some of the terrain you use is interesting and i might use it as well.

even more important it gave me some ideas that will save me a fu**ing ton of time
(for future projects). the maps look also interesting.

good luck with this project, its a pity that it is in single player only though.
if i can help you in any way let me know it

[vultraz]

Thank you for the feedback Mabuse; makes me twan to work faster. Really glad you like it. Still have a LONG way to go before it's finished, though.
Oh and as for the gates, I pillaged those from IftU and AtS

[vultraz]

I promised I wouldn't take months to get another release out...and yet....months have passed. Unfortunately...said release is still not ready; I'm hoping it will be before the month is out. I'm currently working on adding custom GUI dialogs and progressing with scenario 3. Hehe... So, to anyone who's wondering when and where the next release it, let me assure you I'm not dead and it's coming...sometime...hopefully...

Oh and while I'm here...a little teaser...

[vultraz]

And...finally...

Version 0.2.8a is out!

Changelog for this version:

Code: Select all

Version 0.2.8a
--------------
* Music
  * Changed the name of the music pack addon to 'NX-Music' for consistency

Version 0.2.8
-----------------
* Scenarios
  * P1S1 - Awakening:
    * Some misc fixes and balancing
    * Updated map
    * Better dialog
  * P1S2 - Unknown Land
    * New scenario

* General Code
  * General macro updates
  * Added a maintainer mode
  * Made wmllint run (almost) clean on the add-on
  * Added a mainline-strings.cfg file
  * Made {RECALL_(CHARACTER)} macros actually work.
  * RPG systems
    * Improved item pickup code
    * Improved character development code to go alone with the new dialog
    * Made {SHOP_LABELS} work
    * Added base for quests

* Lua
  * Worked some bugs out of the [check_for_character] function
  * New WML tags: [check_inventory], [add_status_icon]
  * GUI
    * Updated inventory dialog
    * Added new character development dialog (still locked)
    * Added new nx help dialog (still needs help topics)

* Sound Effects
  * Added gate hit and die/fall sounds

* Music
  * Moved the music to a separate addon, NX_Music, for faster upload and download times.
    The addon is an optional dependency. This makes it easier for people with slower
    internet speeds to download this campaign. All changelog entries related to music
    henceforth relate to said NX_Music addon.
  * Added new tracks:
    * Snowfall (from AtS)
    * The High King's March (from AtS)
    * Zhaytee Tragedy (from TEG)
    * Land of Adventure (from ABI)

* Graphics
  * Fixed ugly border around impassible mountains when rain is in use
  * Updated the custom TOD images for the rainy schedule
  * Made rainy schedule use a slightly darker lighting than the normal schedule
  * Removed/relocated lots of images
  * Added light rain variant images and code, and raindrop images (no code yet)
  * Various updated images for the shop, etc. Also removed unnecessary ones.
  * Terrain
    * Allowed overlays on Dark Castles and Keeps
    * Made Dark Castles transition nicely with other terrains
    * Fixed bug where Volcanic Abyss terrain didn't display correctly
  * Units
    * Added unit image for Gates. This fixes an "Image not found" error that appeared 
      when the were selected.
    * New or updated unit graphics: Leech, Skeleton Rider, Bone Knight, and Death Baron,
      Northguard Fighter, Northguard Warrior, Northguard Deathblade, Northguard Archer,
      Northguard Silverbow

* Units
  * Made Rhyan a trapper
  * New units: Leech, Skeleton Rider, Bone Knight, and Death Baron, (from IftU) 
    Northguard Fighter, Northguard Warrior, Northguard Deathblade (custom)

As you can see, tons of changes in this version, but only one new scenario unfortunately. Still, hopefully after I get most of the core features down pat I can crank out scens faster. Hehe.

Also, you may notice a few units with the name Northguard. This is a custom faction that I'm designing for use in this campaign (pillage the name from soem old sprites of Zero's from 2010 ), with the unit art being made by myself, articticdude, and Zerovirus.

Another thing is that music will henceforth be kept in a separate add-on, NX-Music. This allows for faster download and upload times, plus it looks cooler being in it's own pack

Anyway, hopefully the next release won't be months from now (but it probably will..so...). And as always, comments and critique welcome. Enjoy.

EDIT: small bug found my artisticdude: in scen1, a lua error will pop up. Ignore it; it's something to do with the new character development dialog which isn't enabled in this release, so I'll leave it for now unless it seems to mess anything else up.

[vultraz]

Version 0.2.9 is out

Changelog for this version:

Code: Select all

Version 0.2.9
-------------
* Scenarios
  * E1S1
    * Redesigned the corridor at the beginning, plus some other misc map tweaks
    * Improved some dialog
    * Make shroud clear in a straighter line when the first gates are knocked down
    * Made use of some of the new custom WML tags
    * Made use of locked gate terrains
  * E1S2
    * Fixed a bug where the sound source didn't play

* Lua
  * Fixed some translatability issues
  * Fixed an error in [check_inventory] that appeared every time you killed a unit
  * Allowed [check_inventory]'s filter to fallback to 'id = $unit.id' if no [filter] tag
    is found
  * Allowed [check_inventory] to set the var 'has_(item)' and exit if no [then] tag
    is found
  * Fixed a bug that caused [add_status_icon] to fail when used
  * Split [add_status_icon] into two functions: an internal lua function for access in lua 
    files and a wml_actions frontend for use in WML files
  * New WML tags: [setup_gates], [unlock_gates]. The former is a replacement for
    {DOOR_TILES_TO_UNITS}, the latter converts locked gates to regular gates
  * GUI
    * Fixed some errors that prevented the character development dialog from opening
    * The character development dialog now sets a trait for the selected class and trait
      and sets the selected alignment when exiting via the 'Done' button
    * Used a unit's name for strings using said value that are displayed to the player
      instead of unit.id
    * Unlocked the new character development dialog. This replaces the old system, and
      has different class choices

* Graphics
  * Terrains
    * New or updated terrains: Fake Shroud, Locked Gate, Stone Floor
    * New terrain graphics macro: {TRANSITION_OVERLAY_L}

* General code
  * General macro updates and additions
  * Killed the {INITIATE_SCEN_VARS} stuff
  * Updated the gettext-helper file (mainline-strings.cfg)
  * Fixed a bug that causes pre processor errors when a macro from mainline-strings.cfg
    is used in a editor-loaded file

Can't believe I got so much done in 10 days; usually my releases come every 6 months or something.

Anyway, the big thing about this release is the completion of the new GUI2 character development dialog. It replaces the one [message] based system, but had a few mods, most noticeably the class choices. They are now alike with those in the SX-RPG addon, and my custom ones (eg, Elementalist) will become special in-game skills.

Also fixed a slew of lua errors and added functionality.

Last but not least, you will notice that E1S1 looks different! That's because the lame hallway outside the opening gates has been replaced by a cooler one.

All comments welcome.

[Crow_T]

just started this, one early bug: The liminal ability info is cut off, you can't see what the specials are

Spoiler:

I got this error after I got the dwarf when trying to access my inventory- worked fine pre-dwarf.

using 1.10.2 on 64bit 'nix

[vultraz]

just started this, one early bug: The liminal ability info is cut off, you can't see what the specials are

Actually, that's just a case of me not figuring out what specials to give the Liminal alignment

I'll look into the inventory thing; thanks for reporting it

[vultraz]

Ok, inventory bug fixed, along with a few other nasty bugs. The trunk version in the wesnoth-umc-dev repo has the fixes. I'm not sure of I should make a release now, or wait and get some more fixes. Seems I keep finding tons of bugs...

[Sneezy]

Hi-- downloaded 0.2.9, and started scenario #1, Easy, on BfW 1.10.0 running on win2k sp4.
Things went okay for 30 turns or so; I visited the shop, bought a few things,
found the dwarf, dealt with a problem nearby.

Picked up the lock pick, then found the elf-sorceress.
During the elf encounter, there was an LUA error just after Galamor says "(chuckles)"

Here is a screen shot:

Spoiler:

After that, Rhyan cannot access his inventory. There is an error at the start of each turn.
Can't make any more progress.
Was looking pretty good up to that point.
--sneezy

[vultraz]

Hm...yes, I'm pretty sure I fixed that in trunk too. It'll be in the next release.