The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Celtic_Minstrel
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The Black Cross of Aleron (formerly Besieged Druids)

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

So, having downloaded Wesnoth a month or so ago, I decided I'd like to try my hand at making a campaign. I thought up a story hook and what I thought would be an interesting quirk, and started coding (if WML counts as coding). At this point, the campaign is "complete" in the sense that it is beatable, but it is not "finished" since it still needs some work in several other areas. I haven't verified that it is beatable in the "worst-case" scenario with regards to significant events that affect things later on. I also don't think it's well-balanced at present; my preference would be for it to be an intermediate-level campaign, but the one person to have played it so far says it's probably expert-level even after I've toned down a lot of things.

Anyway, the storyline (such as it is) is that you are a druid with lots of shamans-in-training, and the school is attacked by goblins, leading to a quest to track down the source of this incursion and put an end to it. Some of your students dabble in non-druidic arts and as such have unusual abilities. Others are overachievers who are unusually good at their druidic arts.

The campaign has 9 scenarios.* The title is a little misleading since it's more of a description of the first scenario than the campaign as a whole.

Areas that need work include:
  • Graphics. The most serious issue here is that there are two pairs of units that are different but look identical. A lesser issue is that most of the unit overlays are ugly. A nicer worldmap is required (I may try my hand at this eventually). There may be other issues as well.
  • Translation-friendliness. The campaign is not at all translation-ready since I haven't sprinkled #textdomain in all the appropriate places. Also, the declared textdomain has a space for some reason, which might cause a problem? At least, I'm sure I've seen it somewhere (in error messages or savegames) cut off at the space. I did this, but haven't yes marked it as translatable in the _server.pbl for some reason.
  • Balance. This is especially an issue in the climax scenarios, and also the final scenarios which may seem too easy after the climax.
  • Music. The scenarios don't play any music; I need to go through and select the tracks to play. This is low priority for me, though if anyone has any suggestions I'll take them.
  • Dialogue. As it is I think much of the dialogue is too cheesy.
  • Names. I'm not particularly attached to any of the character names (except Ariandela and to a lesser extent the big bad), and some more place-names might be good. That said, most non-leader characters have generated names, so this is really only a minor issue.
  • Credits. I haven't set up the end-of-campaign credits screen yet; currently credits are in a text file in the campaign folder.
  • Probably other stuff I've temporarily forgotten which will be added to this list when I remember it.
The campaign can be downloaded from the add-ons server. If you want the latest experimental code you can grab it from GitLab.

*The choose_level dialogue will list an additional 3, two of which are minor variants of those 9 and one of which is a debug scenario accessible in no other way.

Final note: if there's anything anyone thinks should have been included in this post that wasn't, let me know.
Last edited by Celtic_Minstrel on March 14th, 2023, 1:04 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by TheScribe »

Hmm, I'll have to try it tomorrow. But anyway, if you wanted help on any of those things listed I'd be happy to help with the names, balance, and possibly the dialouge.

P.S. To add an addon to the addons server do as follows:
1. open the addons server
2. scroll to the bottom of the addons list
3. select the button that says "publish addon 'insert name here'"

Same for updating addons. :)
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by doofus-01 »

If you aren't ready to have the thing translated yet, you can specify that in the PBL (publish(?) file): http://wiki.wesnoth.org/PblWML
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

TheScribe wrote:1. open the addons server
This is the only part of your instructions that I don't fully understand, though I imagine I could figure it out fairly quickly with a wiki search or something. (I vaguely recall seeing something about this somewhere on there.)

Having just read the add-on server rules, I'm slightly put off by the requirement of GPL; given a choice, I probably would've chosen something more like the BSD license (or a CC licence, if that's appropriate for such a project; I'm unsure whether it would be). Still, it's not a major issue.
doofus-01 wrote:If you aren't ready to have the thing translated yet, you can specify that in the PBL (publish(?) file): http://wiki.wesnoth.org/PblWML
I assume you mean the "translations" key? I still feel like having it translation-ready is something that should be done before putting it on the add-ons server... not sure why to be honest...
TheScribe wrote:But anyway, if you wanted help on any of those things listed I'd be happy to help with the names, balance, and possibly the dialouge.)
Any help is welcome. :) Of those three I'd say balance is highest priority and names lowest. In my opinion, most of the preset elf names are decent (with one notable exception), and most of the enemy leader names are decent (except orcs/goblins), but perhaps some of the loyal units could use preset names.
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by TheScribe »

To be honest, names are the easiest things for me. But I'll start on balancing first, as it's a higher priority.

And what I meant by opening the addons server is this:
1. run wesnoth
2. hit the button that says addons server (same thing to download addons)
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

TheScribe wrote:And what I meant by opening the addons server is this:
1. run wesnoth
2. hit the button that says addons server (same thing to download addons)
Huh, that's somehow a lot easier than I expected. It could stand to be a little easier to find, though; maybe put it at the top of the list instead of the bottom (especially since it takes so long to scroll all the way to the bottom).

Even if you're focusing on balance, feel free to make suggestions for names and dialogue if anything happens to come to you! :)

EDIT: Just finished setting up a git repository for this. I should've done that three weeks ago, but better late than never?
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Groggy_Dice »

Celtic_Minstrel wrote:Having just read the add-on server rules, I'm slightly put off by the requirement of GPL; given a choice, I probably would've chosen something more like the BSD license (or a CC licence, if that's appropriate for such a project; I'm unsure whether it would be). Still, it's not a major issue.
Although there is a requirement that uploads to the server must be GPL, it is not required that they be licensed under the GPL exclusively. Feel free to add a note to your add-on dual-licensing it with any other license you may wish. (If you reuse any graphics or such in your folder, you would have to note that they were excluded, since you wouldn't have the right to determine the license to other people's material.)

EDIT: Except, if your storyline uses Wesnoth storyline elements, it would probably count as a derivative work, and you wouldn't have authority to license it under a contradictory license (which BSD and CC would be). If you just used Wesnoth units, but not the Wesnoth setting, I don't know. If you came up with your own units also, and were just using the engine, I think you could argue that you had enough separation to be an independent work. But I'm not a lawyer, maybe the Wesnoth legal team should be giving the advice here.
Celtic_Minstrel wrote:EDIT: Just finished setting up a git repository for this. I should've done that three weeks ago, but better late than never?
Are you aware of UMC-Dev? It uses Subversion instead, but it is another repository for user projects. (It wouldn't be surprising if you hadn't heard of it; for example, the wiki's "Useful Links" page doesn't include any links to any of the UMC-Dev-related sites.)
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UMC Timeline (Dec) | List of Unported UMC (Dec) | wmllint++ (Feb)
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Groggy_Dice wrote:Although there is a requirement that uploads to the server must be GPL, it is not required that they be licensed under the GPL exclusively. Feel free to add a note to your add-on dual-licensing it with any other license you may wish. (If you reuse any graphics or such in your folder, you would have to note that they were excluded, since you wouldn't have the right to determine the license to other people's material.)

EDIT: Except, if your storyline uses Wesnoth storyline elements, it would probably count as a derivative work, and you wouldn't have authority to license it under a contradictory license (which BSD and CC would be). If you just used Wesnoth units, but not the Wesnoth setting, I don't know. If you came up with your own units also, and were just using the engine, I think you could argue that you had enough separation to be an independent work. But I'm not a lawyer, maybe the Wesnoth legal team should be giving the advice here.
Uh, okay. This sounds pretty complicated. :P I haven't referenced any of the storylines from any mainline campaigns, for example. I've used some graphics from other campaigns though (Elvish Citizen currently is the only one, though I'm not sure who created it).
Groggy_Dice wrote:
Celtic_Minstrel wrote:EDIT: Just finished setting up a git repository for this. I should've done that three weeks ago, but better late than never?
Are you aware of UMC-Dev? It uses Subversion instead, but it is another repository for user projects. (It wouldn't be surprising if you hadn't heard of it; for example, the wiki's "Useful Links" page doesn't include any links to any of the UMC-Dev-related sites.)
Well, it's mostly just for myself so that I have version tracking in case I do break something really badly. I'd probably only publish the repository if this thing became popular enough for multiple people to want commit rights, which is something that would kinda surprise me.

I did read about UMC-Dev somewhere, though. There was a link to it somewhere on the wiki. If for some reason I chose to publish it there, I'm pretty sure it's possible to convert the repository.
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

New version on the add-ons server. Changes are mostly aesthetic.
Spoiler:
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by TheScribe »

One thing, the 'mighty' trait and the firststrike ability don't have a symbol on the top right corner like the other bonuses initiates get. It's a little annoying to not notice that...

EDIT: same with the 'hardy' trait. :wink:
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Off the top of my head, there are six features that lack an overlay:
Spoiler:
I can add one for these if you think it's that important; there are some (seemingly unused) icons in core that would suit them.

Anyway, new version on the add-ons server! Changes:
Spoiler:
Last edited by Celtic_Minstrel on August 13th, 2012, 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Behold, a sprite!
Image

Basically I took one of ShadowMaster's concepts for Elynia, grafted the Shyde's floating legs on, and did some minor recolouring. It uh... works better than I expected, actually, considering that the skirt was drawn for a pose more like that of the Elvish Hero. Though it certainly still needs work.

On an unrelated note, would it be a bad idea to use Chantal's portraits for the leader? The shift from the default druid portrait to the shyde is a little jarring for a character that speaks frequently; the two portraits don't really look like they could be the same person to me.
Last edited by Celtic_Minstrel on August 13th, 2012, 8:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Adamant14 »

(1) Number or Name of the scenario.
02 Dank Tunnels

(2) What difficulty level have you played the scenario on?
There is only one.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
The objectives say reach the end of the tunnel, but that is not enough, the id=chiefdruid must reacht the end to win the scenario.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialogue and storyline? What can be added to make the story clearer / more interesting?
Pretty clear.

(5) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
2 (I finished with more than 1000 gold, and started the next scenario with 700gold)

(6) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I needed 72 turns to reach the end. Not because of the enemy, only because the elves are so damn slow on cave floor.

(7) Did you cheat? And why?
No

(8) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
5
The main reason why its only a 5, is that after 20 turns I had seen only two enemies.
I only moved my units forward, and nothing happened meanwhile.
And I recruited to much units because I expected more enemies.

(9) Was there a bug in the scenario?
No.

(10) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the campaign to make it more fun?
- Change the map, so the player needs 10-20 turns less to cross the cave.

- Make the rats more aggressive. (they almost didn't attack)
Spoiler:
Note:
Spoiler:
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Thanks!
Adamant14 wrote:The objectives say reach the end of the tunnel, but that is not enough, the id=chiefdruid must reacht the end to win the scenario.
Good point, I should make that more clear.
Adamant14 wrote:2 (I finished with more than 1000 gold, and started the next scenario with 700gold)
Hm, probably a good idea to reduce the carryover percentage from this scenario, then.
Adamant14 wrote:I needed 72 turns to reach the end. Not because of the enemy, only because the elves are so damn slow on cave floor.
Adamant14 wrote:- Change the map, so the player needs 10-20 turns less to cross the cave.
Right, more dirt and mushrooms, then.
Adamant14 wrote:The main reason why its only a 5, is that after 20 turns I had seen only two enemies.
I only moved my units forward, and nothing happened meanwhile.
And I recruited to much units because I expected more enemies.
I suppose I could add a few bats or something in the initial stretch...
Adamant14 wrote:- Make the rats more aggressive. (they almost didn't attack)
Yeah, they do seem to be somewhat afraid of your stronger characters. For some obscure reason I didn't think of increasing their aggression.
Adamant14 wrote:
Spoiler:
I'd prefer the former, but that means I need to find a decent portrait.
Adamant14 wrote:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Am I to understand that you didn't get into a situation where the floor was packed with enemies? If so, that's good; it has happened to me before, and I've been trying to tweak things so that it's less likely to happen.
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Re: Besieged Druids campaign

Post by Adamant14 »

Celtic_Minstrel wrote:
Adamant14 wrote:
Spoiler:
I'd prefer the former, but that means I need to find a decent portrait.
Do you know that there are two dwarf-fighter portraits in core?

Code: Select all

		[unit]
			type=Dwarvish Fighter
			x,y=23,20
			id=healthy_dwarf_brother
			experience=10
			placement=map_passable
			{IS_LOYAL}
			[modifications]
				{TRAIT_LOYAL}
			[/modifications]
		[/unit]
		[unit]
			type=Dwarvish Fighter
			x,y=23,20
			id=wounded_dwarf_brother
			profile="portraits/dwarves/fighter-2.png"                  ### add here the different portrait
			experience=20
			hitpoints=5
			placement=map_passable
			{IS_LOYAL}
			[modifications]
				{TRAIT_LOYAL}
			[/modifications]
		[/unit]
Adamant14 wrote:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
I also would make the way down shorter (less hexes to go).
Celtic_Minstrel wrote:Am I to understand that you didn't get into a situation where the floor was packed with enemies? If so, that's good; it has happened to me before, and I've been trying to tweak things so that it's less likely to happen.
Yes, flooded was only the green area in the middle of the cave. But it was OK, not to much units on the map.
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