A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Wussel
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Wussel »

I really like that open structure with lots of endings.

From reading this thread I expected great art and WML Code and boring maps.

The maps are actually looking good. They are however to large in general. There are guidelines somewhere which say basically: Make lots of small maps mostly.

WML Code is actually hot. Lots of nice ideas.

The art looks like skillfully utilization of photos, filters and closing the gaps with flat colors. Technical very professional done.

There are some sillies on this forum, who like to harass people for any picture source of any mushroom you utilized. So be prepared in case you did not do all the scaled and blended things from scratch by yourself.

Update Bug Report:
Spoiler:
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Aetheric
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Aetheric »

Hi,

Actually, the portraits look photo quality because I made them at insanely high resolution. The original of the pony rider is about 10k x 15k. The head of Vanya's cobra 1000x1000 and ends up around 60x60 in the final portrait. The eyes in the cat eye icon are about 500x500 each. The mushwose portrait went through about a dozen iterations before I settled on something. Dameos's unit pic is about 5000x5000. The quality comes from spending a phenomenal amount of time on them. Of course, the older ones (Kaltheor and Bren-Jon) are pasted together, from back when I hadn't figured out how to do art yet, but I'll redo them eventually.

As for details about how I do them, it's a mix of things. I do cheat and start with makehuman to get my initial "person" for the human portraits. The faces and body coming from makehuman are not very human though; I tweak them quite a lot on gimp. Plus, it can't do earlier ages than late teens, so I had to "youthify" the portrait quite a bit to get Foulmouth. Hair is made from pre-existing strands and the gimp cage transform tool, coloured and shaded using layers. Snakes, vines, leaves, etc. can all be made once and tweaked in crazy ways through cage transforms and layers. (If you have a recent version of linux, gimp cage transform crashes though.) Clothing is made by hand using a combination of gimp filters and gimp tools, with heavy use of multiple layers. Some of my images have >300 layers. There are a few bits stolen from public domain images, including the t-rex head, eagle head, mars (the background for the meteor crash), and one of Anosia's human skulls. The rest were made slowly over the course of many hours for the past five years.

Also, you can see the progression of my artistic skill over the years:

1. Kaltheor - stolen from existing portraits
2. Bren-Jon, Rakkon - 75% made from scratch
3. Kyra, Akinu - hadn't figured out shading yet
3. Anea spellsinger, Mindra, Tiana - early successful portraits
4. Vanya, Thrinia, Anea pony rider - recent portraits, near professional quality

I'm still figuring out landscapes. That's why the "On the Precipice" has such a bad backdrop. Also, I'm redoing the pony rider at poster resolution as a present for a friend.
Last edited by Aetheric on January 30th, 2018, 8:25 pm, edited 3 times in total.
-Aetheric
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Aetheric
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Aetheric »

Xara wrote:
No. As you have seen, I've never chosen Mindra. It just doesn't make sense to choose Elf after that prologue.
Xara,

Don't you ever want to be the bad guy?

Besides, you could always double-cross Mindra later on if you decide to "go good." Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
-Aetheric
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Aetheric
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Aetheric »

From posts thus far, this is my plan for the next month or three of free time:

1. Go through the Rakkon maps, and a few others, removing unused parts of the map, improving mobility, and ensuring there are at least three ways to win any battle.

2. Add the Khalifate and Nyxa story paths. These will be reached by choosing Rakkon, refusing The Earl, and refusing The Order. After Kaltheor "rescues" you, you can choose to be swept up by Nyxa, Khalid Aalamgeer, or stay with Kaltheor. These story arcs will require adding portraits for Nyxa, Aalamgeer, and necromancer Anea. (I'm thinking red dress with black highlights, horns, glowing red eyes, a scythe, and a cute little metal skull earring.)

3. In the prison discussion, Mindra will confess to being a member of the clan that killed Ani, and wanting to atone. This makes it more likely that the player will choose Mindra. Though, honestly, I cannot understand why you wouldn't want to be evil.

4. Graphical changelog. The campaign will keep track of the last version you played. If you start a new game, it will give you a menu-style view of the changes, and let you select one to view details. This way, if someone comes back to the campaign after updating, they'll learn about the new story arcs they can reach.

I'm not going to redo existing portraits for a while. Men are too hard to draw.
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Xara
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Xara »

It's not about being a bad guy. Mindra's mother killed Anea's grandma, so she doesn't feel very helpful to me. It feels like some ugly surprise awaits.
It pronounces Sha'ha, not Zara.

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Wussel
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Wussel »

Well there is no need to pick Mindra. I am guessing people just pick her because they want a spell caster over a peasant or duelist. Then they end up with an evil witch. Better read every word next time! :D

Speaking of every word: What happened to my bug report of having to play a scenario twice?
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Aetheric
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Aetheric »

Hi,

I'm working on the list of things I mentioned. I haven't decided how I want to handle the bug you found. I might make it so that the user can change their mind and go back to save the elves, bypassing the redundant scenarios and going straight to the amarant. Alternatively, I can just not let them go back. I'll figure out the best way once I finish adding the Khalifate and Nyxa scenarios. I'm adding 27 scenarios of which I've finished 11; it is going quickly because the scenarios are all planned out in advance.

As for Mindra, it is critical for the user to be able to pick her because, at present, about half of the campaign is only reachable by picking Mindra. Even once I finish the campaign, one third will require picking Mindra. Her "betrayal" of you is in a more subtle way that killing you: she tricks you into destroying your grandmother's legacy on your own. You can trick her back, saving Ani's legacy, and even kill Mindra if you want. Though, in most battles against Mindra, she usually swears revenge and sneaks away after her defeat.

I'm modifying the campaign so Mindra does a better job of making the case for her rescue, even admitting her parentage. Once you reach the Elvish Council, she has a private conversation with you where she explains that many of the women in her family have schizophrenia, including herself, her daughter, and her mother.

At the rate I'm going, I should have this new version by the end of February, if not sooner.
-Aetheric
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ForestDragon
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by ForestDragon »

started actually playing the campaign, and it's simply brilliant! :D It's very clear that you put a lot of effort into this. small bugreport, though: is it intentional that Mindra (and possibly the other freed allies) cost upkeep?
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Ravana
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Ravana »

Z8_Dying_Together is missing.
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Aetheric
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Aetheric »

Hi,

Updates and responses. I think I'll have another release in about two weeks, near the end of February.

BUG FIXES and CLARIFICATIONS

MINDRA LOYAL - Mindra is disloyal, so she doesn't have the "loyal" trait. Rakkon and Bren-Jon are loyal. As far as I can remember, Mindra is the only hero in the entire campaign without the loyal trait.
DYING TOGETHER - Z8 should be VZb. Now fixed.
RECYCLING PARENTING SCENARIO - this happened because the Y1_Elf_In_Trouble flag was not set. I now set it in the Y1_Elf_In_Trouble scenario, so such a bug is no longer possible.
BAD MAPS - I've fixed some of the worst offenders. Some of the maps were tedious because it took ~15 turns to get across them. Now, in most cases, your faster units can cross the maps in ~7 turns.

PLANNED UPDATES and [progress%]

SCHIZOPHRENIC ELVES - Mindra admits that her entire family line is schizophrenic. Her actions, and her mothers, are due to psychotic episodes and imagined terrors. It also explains Tiana's strange behaviour.
IMPROVED WARRIOR QUEEN - the fencer, duellist, and warrior queen units are improved. The Warrior Queen has numerous AMLA.
STORY ARC: KHALIFATE EXODUS - [90%] This story arc is available after Kaltheor "rescues" you from The Order. Two possible endings. You get to find out the origin of Matina here.
STORY ARC: NYXA'S NEW TOY - [20%] This is available if you refuse the Khalifate's help. One more possible ending. I've added Nyxa's portrait for this.
WITCH ANEA - [90%] a new unit type for Anea, available when she joins Nyxa. L3, has three attacks: Kiss of Death, Ode to Terror, and a scythe. Kindof a mix of Master at Arms and Necromancer. Has a portrait where she wears all red, and has a scythe. AMLA add new specials to her kiss attack, and boost attack power of other attacks.

There are a variety of smaller changes to units, portraits, sounds, and scenarios.
-Aetheric
sreesreearul
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by sreesreearul »

I finished Ani's Legacy couple of weeks ago and AniQ a few days back. I must say that the tales are well constructed. Will try to write in detail some time later. So far I have played only one path and
Spoiler:
Can I get to other endings, by not starting over but starting from a previous save?

Edit : I can :).
Spoiler:
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Vulpine
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Vulpine »

I just finished a play-through. Bad news; everybody died :(
I really liked the campaign. It was nice being able to just throw my leaders into the fracas and get them killed, not having to worry about losing.
I did notice a couple of typos though:
One foot in my mouth, and one in the grave; that's the way I like it, and that's the way it'll stay.
[shameless_advertising]
Also the author of Elvish Incursion, a short little prologue.
[/shameless_advertising]
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Aetheric
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Aetheric »

Hi,

A good general rule when playing or developing BfW campaigns is to save in the screen after the battle ends, and also at any critical decision points (like just before you meet Vorg). Ani's Legacy is a bit odd in that you can reach the same scenario multiple different ways, but that savegame approach works for the most part.
-Aetheric
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Aetheric
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by Aetheric »

Responding to queries about morale points. Generally, I scored morale based mainly on the intended or easily predictable results from your decisions. Larger, indirect, effects count for about as much as smaller but still evil decisions. For example, letting the world be destroyed due to bad decisions counts for about as much as genociding the Khalifate. Why? Although armageddon kills everyone, killing thousands of Khalifate children to appease your new masters is a direct and intentional evil. That being said, the morale points could probably still use some tweaking.
-Aetheric
sreesreearul
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Re: A Sangine Tale (Ani's Legacy, Ani's Quest)

Post by sreesreearul »

Bug Report: Playing with Rakkon. After meeting the Earl I went and Killed Kalethor playing the scenario silver lake. It was followed by killing of some horseback riders and Patricide, naturally this should have resulted in Anea's coronation but instead eternal darkness repeated again followed by matricide. I thought it will end there but instead patricide and the scenario repeated once again. So in short I ended up playing both Matricide and Patricide twice in a single playthrough.
Last edited by sreesreearul on March 8th, 2018, 6:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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