War and Home - Campaign for 1.16

[hopelight]

This is the beginning of a 1.16 campaign, a tale of a rookie wesnothian officer and the part he, along with those he meets on his way, plays in a war against a new orcish onslaught. (yes I am copypasting the same exact description everywhere, why do you ask...).

You play as loyalists (rapidly joined by elves) against mostly orcs and bandits (and at times undead).

Can be played with either 1 or 2 players but the amount of testing I can do is limited for multiplayer (computers are having fits).

Changelog

1.0

1.0.0

• Added the last 6 scenarios (4 battles) including epilogue

• Removed peasants from recall list post-scenario 1 if the enemy leader was killed (was already removed the rest of the time)

• Modified scenario 2 so allied leaders will be saved with their xp before dying

• Fixed scenario 8's victory conditions (defeating all enemy leaders is meant to be impossible)

• Added orcish corpses in scenario 20 and 21

• Fixed some carryover/gold problem in scenario 38

• Fixed some spelling/grammar/language errors

0.9

0.9.1

• Added updated japanese translations

• Fixed a few writing errors

• Fixed bug in scenario 11 where overwritten variables would lead to the orcs appearing right away

• Made the Elvish High Lady and Elvish Sovereign

• Added her intended movement set to the Winter Shyde

• Fixed the master at arms in Elensefar becoming a marshal on the scenario-intro pictures

• Scenario 34: swapped starting villages for side 3-4

• Scenario 37: Moved orcish unit out of water

0.9.0

• Added 5 scenarios (3 battles)

• Modified scenarios 11 and 19 so that the player loses if an enemy unit gets between theirs and the docks (for scenarios 11, it only applies to the orcs)

0.8

0.8.1

• Added updated Japanese translation

0.8.0

• Added 2 scenarios (2 battles)

• Added "custom" portraits to some important orc leaders (vanilla alternate grunt images, but boss-looking ones)

0.7

• Added 5 scenarios (2 battles)

• Added a way to see the credits

• Rebalanced gold in scenarios 22 to 26

• Added the changelogs to the actual campaign files (instead of just on the forums)

0.6

0.6.1

• Fixed name of Japanese translation file (should have done some checking myself but was stupid...)

• Fixed the enemy gold amount being unintentionally way too high on Easy difficulty in the last added scenario.

0.6.0

• Added 6 scenarios after the previous ones (4 battles, 2 talk-only)

• Added Japanese translation for previous scenarios

• Used a variation of Iris Morelle's "erathan" portrait for Haldar

0.5

0.5.2

• Used Iris Morelle's "Elvish Avatar" sprite for the Winter Shyde

• Added music

• Added a French translation

• Added a warning that this is the last time old saves (pre 0.2.0) still at the early scenarios might work

• Added explicit GPL licensing

• Did some more translation fixing and slight dialogue edits

• Made scenario 1 through 3 slightly easier on Hard

0.5.1

• Fixed a few translation strings

0.5.0

• Added 3 scenarios (2 battles) after the existing ones

0.4

0.4.0

• Added 4 scenarios (3 battles) after the existing ones

0.3

0.3.6

• Fixed the first scenario setup...

0.3.5

• Added 3 scenarios (3 battles) after the existing ones

• Made the ART_LICENSE file clearer

0.3.0

• Added 4 scenarios (3 battles, 1 talk-only) after the existing ones

• Modified the setup for the "waiting" scenario

• Slightly rebalanced the first few levels

0.2

0.2.0

• Added a first scenario to "spread out" the character introductions

• Added two new scenarios after the initial three

• Tweaked the other scenarios (added a fade to black if you beat all three enemies during the port level, tweaked dialogues)

0.1

0.1.3

• Fixed potential problems of missing scenarios

0.1.2

• Fixed carryover problems (from using "waiting scenarios").

0.1.1

• Scenario 1:
  • It adds water on either side of the bridge to make it easier to cross that way if you so choose and it adds 6 turns to the turn limit (comes down to about 60 gold on top of what would have been gained if you finished on the same turn before, so 24 gold on the next scenario, about one more unit which also makes it slightly easier).

• Scenario 3:
  • The enemy assassin leader (Orcish Slayer) cannot take the enemy keep on turn 1 (doesn't start next to it anymore) so lesser likelihood of the allied leader stealing your keep afterwards).
  • The other enemy assassins start farther away from you (takes 2 turns for them to reach your units) so less likelihood of many units getting poisoned at the same time.

0.1.0

• Initial release (Scenario 1, Scenario 2, Scenario 3)

The first full version is done, with 44 scenarios (do note, while there are many, they are generally relatively short).

It has almost exclusively been tested on normal and the other difficulties are almost only basic gold changes, thus I advise playing on normal.

I would appreciate feedback on pretty much any part of it, but more specifically on these points:
- The writing (it is wordy at the beginning but should be less so as it goes on), particularly the lines of the shock trooper (Caror). I feel like I am failing at giving him a light "farmboy" kind of voice.
- The difficulty, specifically gold, Easy and Hard, and how doable the campaign is in multiplayer.

Future plans are to fix bugs, add a few items or other things like that, to take the feedback into account, update it for 1.18 and then to maybe modify it to handle the deaths of main characters.

Some general info and thanks:
I have played this game since I was 5, making it pretty much the first videogame I have ever played and one of those I like the most.
If I can give back a little by making a campaign or 2, why not do so.
I have no idea how long my motivation will last, but it has gone on for far more then usual, so let's take that as a good sign.
I hope you'll enjoy it at least as much as I did making it (making the maps and coding the WMl that is, not playtesting... playtesting is hell).

I am probably forgetting something important, either in this post or in the actual add-on but I have been sitting on it for almost a week so at this point it's going out into the wild and I shall deal with whatever I have forgotten when it pops back up.

[white_haired_uncle]

I played on normal, and found it to be quite difficult, though I had a horrible run of luck. The turn limit in S1 may be a bit low, if you have bad luck (as in can't score a single hit three turns in a row on the stupid bridge) it's going to be nearly impossible to reach the NE leader.

S3 was particularly annoying. One of my leaders got seriously injured and poisoned on turn 1, then my "ally" kept grabbing all the villages so she couldn't heal.

[hopelight]

Well, first of all, thanks for having played this stub of a campaign.

For the first scenario, the idea on my end was more to use the bridge as a way to draw most of the enemy away from their leaders while your troops on the left cross the shoals and a few men loop around on the right.
I think I'll look into adding shallow water the whole way on each side of the bridge to make it simpler to cross if someone chooses to.
That being said, that would still probably be a difficult way to push so I am unsure if I want to facilitate it (and it would potentially make it harder to draw them in without getting overwhelmed). I'll have to test it out.

For the third scenario the idea was to have the allied leader concentrate on the north so you should have had villages "free" (not blocked by the AI) in the southern half of the map. I'll test the AI some more to see if it remains in the upper half and potentially add a few villages on the southern side because there might not be enough (and I'll look into whether reducing the number of assassins would be better).

Apart from that, thanks for the feedback and hope you liked it nonetheless!

[white_haired_uncle]

Well, first of all, thanks for having played this stub of a campaign.

For the first scenario, the idea on my end was more to use the bridge as a way to draw most of the enemy away from their leaders while your troops on the left cross the shoals and a few men loop around on the right.
I think I'll look into adding shallow water the whole way on each side of the bridge to make it simpler to cross if someone chooses to.
That being said, that would still probably be a difficult way to push so I am unsure if I want to facilitate it (and it would potentially make it harder to draw them in without getting overwhelmed). I'll have to test it out.

For the third scenario the idea was to have the allied leader concentrate on the north so you should have had villages "free" (not blocked by the AI) in the southern half of the map. I'll test the AI some more to see if it remains in the upper half and potentially add a few villages on the southern side because there might not be enough (and I'll look into whether reducing the number of assassins would be better).

Apart from that, thanks for the feedback and hope you liked it nonetheless!

S1: That's pretty much what I ended up doing, but I thought it was just kind of a fluke since I was also having a run of bad luck in the west. Once I finally got out of the water I only had a few turns left to take out both leaders and their new recruits.

S3: My leader had 1HP left and poisoned at the beginning of turn 2. Not sure how I would head south when there are a bunch of enemies down there. I just tried it out again and had a little better luck (though I really don't care for a scenario where all of my leaders get poisoned on turn 1), as she didn't take as much damage and we actually killed one of the assassins on the first turn. You might want to try a test where you don't attack at all on turn 1 and go easy on turn 2 to simulate how a very short run of bad luck can send this scenario south very quickly (several of your units and your allies poisoned at the same time, and enemies in your territory you have to avoid).

[winkr7]

I played on easy and got beat by sc1. I bocked the bridge with one heavy infantry and tried to cross the ford. I almost got across but the green lady rand down to the shore and said something witty and killed my heavy infantry.

You introduce 5 characters at the start, which is prolly too many to identify with. 2 clearly discernable characters is easier to follow.

yours
winkr7

[hopelight]

S3: My leader had 1HP left and poisoned at the beginning of turn 2. Not sure how I would head south when there are a bunch of enemies down there. I just tried it out again and had a little better luck (though I really don't care for a scenario where all of my leaders get poisoned on turn 1), as she didn't take as much damage and we actually killed one of the assassins on the first turn. You might want to try a test where you don't attack at all on turn 1 and go easy on turn 2 to simulate how a very short run of bad luck can send this scenario south very quickly (several of your units and your allies poisoned at the same time, and enemies in your territory you have to avoid).

Thanks for the advice on testing and the clarifications, I see what you mean on the annoyance front, will probably test on reducing the amount of assassins/placing them farther away/maybe replacing some with other unit types.

I played on easy and got beat by sc1. I bocked the bridge with one heavy infantry and tried to cross the ford. I almost got across but the green lady rand down to the shore and said something witty and killed my heavy infantry.

You introduce 5 characters at the start, which is prolly too many to identify with. 2 clearly discernable characters is easier to follow.

Thanks for the info on easy and for the "pace" of character introductions. I'll try to see how I could make it more reasonably spread out (though I fear it 's better if the 4 "trainees" remain there) and the generals are secondary characters, so I'll try and work on their intros, maybe reduce it (however, they were mostly meant as "announcers").

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

EDIT: idea that just popped in my head (obviously just after I had closed my browser...): for the character rate, which was also something that had slightly bothered me during planning, adding a smaller intro before the first scenario of the lieutenant and the shock trooper (I honestly know them by their portraits), say, defending their village for 1-2 days (i.e: 6-12 turns) before one of the generals arrive could make the introductions smoother.

[hopelight]

Well, update out (version 0.1.1).

Spoiler:

• Scenario 1:
  • It adds water on either side of the bridge to make it easier to cross that way if you so choose and it adds 6 turns to the turn limit (comes down to about 60 gold on top of what would have been gained if you finished on the same turn before, so 24 gold on the next scenario, about one more unit which also makes it slightly easier).

• Scenario 3:
  • The enemy assassin leader (Orcish Slayer) cannot take the enemy keep on turn 1 (doesn't start next to it anymore) so lesser likelihood of the allied leader stealing your keep afterwards).
  • The other enemy assassins start farther away from you (takes 2 turns for them to reach your units) so less likelihood of many units getting poisoned at the same time.

Let's hope it works and solves a few of the existing problems.

EDIT:

Might as well add it on the same post since it's a small update: 0.1.2
Would highly advise reloading at the end of the Road to Lintanir

Spoiler:

Attempt at fixing a few problems with the "waiting for new updates scenario" (mainly carryover).

About 0.1.3 as well:

Spoiler:

Fix to compatibility problems introduced in the last update

[hopelight]

I'll suppose a "major" update warrants a double post.

Version 0.2.0 is out, adding an intro scenario to spread out the character introductions and there are also two added scenarios after the initial three.

I would appreciate some feedback on it all to help me make it better.
I would particularly like to know about the talking at the end of the 6th (final) scenario whether it might be better to put it in story text.

On a sidenote, I noticed that not specifying any scenario music would mean said scenario is now silent (I thought it would play the default playlist...) so I'll also work on specifying the tracks for each scenario (I already intended to do that, it has just taken on a "greater level of urgency", let's say...).

So, I'll conclude by saying Merry Christmas, seeing as that's basically my present to the community (though seeing the time of posting, I doubt anyone will have the time to play it before the 26th ).

[Konrad2]

S1
There is no music.

S2
Again, no music.

S3
No music, and probably not doable on hard.

[hopelight]

Thanks for the feedback!

There is no music.

What I meant was the priority has been bumped a few notches up, it's not in yet (I thought at the beginning it would put the default playlist if I didn't specify any or something but I noticed I was mistaken).

probably not doable on hard.

I'll look at the replays, try to rebalance it for hard (and in general, if I think it's needed).

[Tarcil]

Tried scenario 1 and reloaded it 6 times and always got the peasants being killed. How do you supposed to keep them alive by all those ruffians? Maybe adding one more soldier?

[hopelight]

Tried scenario 1 and reloaded it 6 times and always got the peasants being killed. How do you supposed to keep them alive by all those ruffians? Maybe adding one more soldier?

When I tested it I could reliably win that scenario by sticking the peasants in the forest north for the first turn, letting the two guards soak up the attacks as they're both in castles and on the second turn counter-attack and reduce the number of ruffians enough so that they're no concern on the next enemy turn.

That being said, I'll see about reducing the number of enemy ruffians.

[Tarcil]

Okay, with this strategy it worked. ^^

[hopelight]

Well, another update another post.

Version 0.3.0 is out and contains 4 more scenarios, 3 battles and one talk-only.

It also has some slight balancing fixes.

Do tell me if stuff is broken.

[hopelight]

Let's do the same for the next update.

0.3.5 out now with three more scenarios.

Again, tell me if stuff doesn't work!

EDIT:
0.3.6 out directly after because I put a test scenario as first when you start a new campaign, thus immediately ruining the DnD joke I tried to make with versioning...