A Little Adventure (SP campaign for 1.18)

[Argesilao]

Hi everyone!

I open this post to announce that it was be posted, on the official add-ons server, a new campaign named: A Little Adventure.

How the name said is a short campaign that can be completed finishing six scenario; there are only two level of difficulty; it may be played with BfW 1.12 e 1.13 and it's all in english, or something similar (isn't my native language and I'm afraid that's very evident).

Is the story of a young Wesnothians Sergeant sent to command a small garrison in a small town in the very far east of the Wesnoth Kingdom.

The only real innovation are the She Ogre, that means the female counterpart of the Young Ogre, that raised level like the Matronly Ogresses;

Also, the Ogre can raise to the level 3 like Great Ogre, and this is a well-knowed production of Eagle_11.

Please tell me, in this post, any problem you may encounter playing the campaign!

And that's all folk!

Versione 3.3.0
Some balacement adjustment in the first two levels

[skeptical_troll]

Hi Argesilao! I quickly played through the first two scenarios. I'm liking the premises of the story and the overall style, and I hope to read more about the legendary Piegafetta later on

I first tried to play on 'difficult' (wesnoth 1.13.8 ) but found the first scenario impossible to beat. Maybe it's me but I don't know how to survive the first night with so few units (most of which cannot ZOC) against two strong attacks of chaotic enemies from two different directions. I tried rushing during the first day but it was just suicidal, nor I can see places where to retreat to. I switched to normal and everything went smooth, even with some bad luck, so I feel that there is too much difference between the two difficulty levels. I ended up killing outlaws, but I wasn't far from killing orcs either.

The second scenario (orc branch, played also on normal) was good. A possible improvement you may consider is to reduce the distance between the two encampments (starting position/orcs) and the initial passive-staring turns. This would also reduce the final crowling towards the enemy leader, which happens when the battle is basically over. Just a suggestion, it is fine as is.

Attached my replays.

Some stylistic comments, take them as you like:

Spoiler:

as much as I appreciate modesty, I think a more informative title would be more captivating to players. I'm not enough into the story to propose something sensible, but I imagine something like 'the Pioneers of the Lost Route' or 'the Rebirth of the Amber Road', you get the idea.

Even if english it's not your native language (I suspect it's the same as mine given the sentence constructions and some of the proper names you use ), I like the general writing style. It's worth the extra effort of polishing it, because it can turn out good. In particular I think the initial story is a bit lengthy and would benefit from some trimming. If you don't want to do so, at lest split it into more parts. In alternative, let the characters reveal some of those facts during the scenarios, if it's fitting. I personally don't mind reading, but many could be discouraged by starting off with such a long introduction.

[Argesilao]

I first tried to play on 'difficult' (wesnoth 1.13.8 ) but found the first scenario impossible to beat. Maybe it's me but I don't know how to survive the first night with so few units (most of which cannot ZOC) against two strong attacks of chaotic enemies from two different directions. I tried rushing during the first day but it was just suicidal, nor I can see places where to retreat to. I switched to normal and everything went smooth, even with some bad luck, so I feel that there is too much difference between the two difficulty levels. I ended up killing outlaws, but I wasn't far from killing orcs either.

It seems I have to work on the difficulty balance of the campaign! I conceived it thinking a lower level of medium/challenging difficulty and a higher level very difficult, but the higher level is, in effect, a nightmare; I'll make changes in the next version.

The second scenario (orc branch, played also on normal) was good. A possible improvement you may consider is to reduce the distance between the two encampments (starting position/orcs) and the initial passive-staring turns. This would also reduce the final crowling towards the enemy leader, which happens when the battle is basically over. Just a suggestion, it is fine as is.

The distance between the humans encampent and the orcish village is functional to the narration.

as much as I appreciate modesty, I think a more informative title would be more captivating to players. I'm not enough into the story to propose something sensible, but I imagine something like 'the Pioneers of the Lost Route' or 'the Rebirth of the Amber Road', you get the idea.

My magnificence prevents me from being modest, and then, If I change the name of the campaign I have to change the final phrases of Glauco, that's the best thing of the entire campaign

In particular I think the initial story is a bit lengthy and would benefit from some trimming. If you don't want to do so, at lest split it into more parts. In alternative, let the characters reveal some of those facts during the scenarios, if it's fitting. I personally don't mind reading, but many could be discouraged by starting off with such a long introduction.

This is another thing that I'll have to face when I'll make the next version of the campaign; unfortunately the lenghty prologue is necessary, because the whole campaign is placed in an unknow territory for the wesnoth player, so I have to introduce the context geographically and historically; I'll must think something about this.

I take advantage of this post to communicate, to those interested, that an almost identical copy of the campaign, but only in Italian and for BfW 1.12, is available in the download section of the site Wesnoth Italian Forum.

Every feedback is always welcome

[zepko]

Hi! I have played all but the last scenario. First of all, the premises intrigue me, an expedition to unknown lands, reaching the sea in the east. Then I have to agree with skeptical_troll: I tried the highest difficulty and I was badly beaten multiple times in the first scenario. At the easy level I could go through them smoothly (although the last scenario looks somewhat nasty... we'll see...).

The second scenario (bandits branch) was the one I liked less. The idea is fine, but there is basically no challenge there because you have to face one enemy at a time with multiple of your units. I think that the enemies should remain in the villages until discovered, not come out to attack. And maybe some villages might spawn more than a single unit. The enemy leader never attacked after being discovered, although he could have dealt big damage. And I would have liked to get some of my veterans from the first scenario recalled, instead of new units.

From the third scenario I started to encounter an annoying problem related to villages: some of my units could not enter villages (which were marked as impassable with 0% defense). I noticed this at first with the gryphon, then in the later scenarios it happened also to other units without a recognizable pattern. This happened even after restarting the game, but if I try to restart scenarios now it does not happen anymore... I don't think it depends on your campaign, no idea...
Anyway the scenario is nice.

Scenario 4. Fine, although scenarios with periodically respawning enemies are not my favorite I lost track of the turn count and I could have probably spared a few more turns.

Scenario 5. The best one so far, enjoyed it (apart from the annoying village bug!).

Scenario 6. Played only a few turns. Does not look good so far, I might have to restart it.

There is an error in the path for the images of the female Ogre, so the animations are not shown. It should be

Code: Select all

units/new_ogres/she-ogre-idle1.png

while it is

Code: Select all

units/elves-wood/she-ogre-idle1.png

Overall a nice enjoyable campaign. I don't mind the long descriptions at the beginning either, but some players might skip them. I agree that you could let the characters tell some of the history in the scenarios, maybe when they reach the different locations along the river.
Also, a map showing the journey of the characters would be nice. There was an old map of the eastern part of the continent somewhere on the forum, but I can't find it right now...

[Argesilao]

The second scenario (bandits branch) was the one I liked less. The idea is fine, but there is basically no challenge there because you have to face one enemy at a time with multiple of your units. I think that the enemies should remain in the villages until discovered, not come out to attack. And maybe some villages might spawn more than a single unit. The enemy leader never attacked after being discovered, although he could have dealt big damage. And I would have liked to get some of my veterans from the first scenario recalled, instead of new units.

I've always had some doubts about how it works this scenario; I'm already changing it, and in the next version it will be necessary to visit a village tiles to have the outing of one or more bandit; to make an example, less or more, like works the scenario Northern Outpost in the campaign Eastern Invasion. In any case it will be only a small increase of the bandits number, I conceive it like a small search and destroy scenario.

From the third scenario I started to encounter an annoying problem related to villages: some of my units could not enter villages (which were marked as impassable with 0% defense). I noticed this at first with the gryphon, then in the later scenarios it happened also to other units without a recognizable pattern. This happened even after restarting the game, but if I try to restart scenarios now it does not happen anymore... I don't think it depends on your campaign, no idea...  

It would seem the typical drawback from data overflow; but I didn't find anything, in the campaign code, that could have caused it. So, ma opinion is … boh!

Also, a map showing the journey of the characters would be nice. There was an old map of the eastern part of the continent somewhere on the forum, but I can't find it right now...

That's an embarassing problem! I saw the map you are talking about, but I saw it after to have created the campaign, and that map and the campaign don't match. Well, I can make a my own map, and was be the first thing that I thought when I created this campaign more than an year ago, but this intentions, with the time, is slipped down in the priority stairs; better don't hold breath waiting for it .

There is an error in the path for the images of the female Ogre, so the animations are not shown. It should be

And thanks to your advice I found a similar error for the Matronly Ogresse! Two Pidgeons with an error report

The next version with the first corrections is coming soon!

[pauxlo]

In the first (and second, if so) scenario, the orcs have the same team color (red) as my own troops (the bandits are green). This is a bit confusing, maybe one of the sides should get a different color? (Strangely, there is a green banner near the orc encampment.)

[Argesilao]

In the first (and second, if so) scenario, the orcs have the same team color (red) as my own troops (the bandits are green). This is a bit confusing, maybe one of the sides should get a different color? (Strangely, there is a green banner near the orc encampment.)

The more strange things are that the orcish flags on villages are of the right color (lightgreen)
I setted the orcish side color with color=lightgreen and it works for the flags but not for the units.
However, Now I set the color like green and flags and units have the same color.

Thanks for your advice

[Inky]

The latest version of the campaign doesn't load due to a missing opening brace in line 79 of 02a_Battle_with_the_Bandits.cfg.

I gave the first scenario a try on hard, but got destroyed by the orc/bandit swarm during the first night. The problem is you need several level 0s to kill a level 1 enemy even with leadership, but only one level 1 enemy to kill a level 0 especially at night. Maybe it could be made a bit easier still?

[Argesilao]

The latest version of the campaign doesn't load due to a missing opening brace in line 79 of 02a_Battle_with_the_Bandits.cfg.

fixed

I gave the first scenario a try on hard, but got destroyed by the orc/bandit swarm during the first night. The problem is you need several level 0s to kill a level 1 enemy even with leadership, but only one level 1 enemy to kill a level 0 especially at night. Maybe it could be made a bit easier still?

For now I set to 100 the starting gold of the human player side, both for normal and difficult difficulty; it allowed the human player to recruit almost five or more units; in future I'll think something about this; suggestion are welcome.

[Argesilao]

Hi

Released the 3.2.0 version with the Italian translation.

That's all

[Konstantine]

Hi all,
Just popped in to let you all know that this is another UMC that I like a lot... so thanks to Argesilao, I got the OK to edit the English version.
From what he tells me, this is one of his earliest campaigns and I love the setting, a lonely almost forgotten outpost, commanded by a lowly sergeant, suddenly finds itself in the thick of action and facing a powerful foe...
This appeals to me on a personal level and I'm really looking forward to helping out here.

[tr0ll]

A great story and challenging game!

ALA-The Last Battle replay.gz

close battle

(48.46 KiB) Downloaded 637 times

Btw the typo in the path "units/elves-wood" still appears once in units/She_Ogre.cfg .

There are also strange error messages upon loading every scenario:

Code: Select all

warning unit: Unknown attribute 'controller' discarded.

The SideWML wiki says controller is required but the game engine seems to be associating it with a unit instead. I wonder if this is an artefact of older version of WML.

[Argesilao]

Btw the typo in the path "units/elves-wood" still appears once in units/She_Ogre.cfg .

Fixed;

There are also strange error messages upon loading every scenario:

Code: Select all

warning unit: Unknown attribute 'controller' discarded.

The SideWML wiki says controller is required but the game engine seems to be associating it with a unit instead. I wonder if this is an artefact of older version of WML.

Fixed!
I did this campaign a couple of years ago when I was a beginner with the wml; this is a fossil of those times

Thanks to you for played my campaigns and for the feedbacks!

every feedback it's a step towards the perfection!

[tr0ll]

Indeed I will try the other path against the orcs first, when the next version is released.

[denispir]

Was eager to start and play A Little Adventure, but could not find it on the add-on server !