Knights of the Silver Spire - Campaign for 1.16

[hopelight]

The story of the Knights of the Silver Spire and their battles against the evil Crimson Duke to keep the Northlands safe.

(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios, 3 endings).

This is a singleplayer campaign brought about by the unit description for the Merfolk Diviner and my wish for a smaller campaign than the main one I was wworking on to test out some backend stuff. It took far more time than expected but hey, it's done now.

Leave comments/criticism here!

Also, do tell if stuff is broken, as it probably is when I goof up...

[Lord-Knightmare]

Hello, I noticed your campaign having WoL as a dependency and gave it a go...Pretty good.

Scenario 1

• Nice starting scenario. Horseback campaign!
• The enemy was very numerous but I think it's justified since vampires are known to hoard a lot of human cattle in their territories for blood farming.
• Won by luck on hardest.

Scenario 2

• Hmm...I think the Mounted Fighters are overpriced...since it's from my era/add-on, I will reduce price from 25 to maybe 21? How does that sound?
• Pretty challenging. It's cool that the low turn limit forces a very aggressive tactic.

Scenario 3

• Ah, I suppose extra_recruitment multi-leaders thing for side 1 is from War and Home?
• are the soulless being recruited here supposed to be land/none variant? Feels they should have been swimmer variants

Scenario 4

• Same comment about Soulless as stated in the previous scenario. I think they were supposed to be swimmer variants
• Outlaw units fell quite easily. WoL has many outlaw units available. Perhaps add those to the recruitment pool for the enemy outlaw sides?

Scenario 5

• Cutscene Scenario. So, wont say much. Nice plot reveal.

Scenario 6

• I did enjoy being pressurised by vampires here. Good fight.
• I won in a rather comedic manner though.

[Lord-Knightmare]

Part 2 of 2.

Shores of the Avalynne

• I suppose this scenario dictates which ending I get and depends on my choice? Seems like it
• Did all three BTW

Soothing Sight

• I think I got this 3 times. each a different time so I dont know which replay got uploaded since they are all identically named.

Light in the Dark

• I suppose this scenario ended quite fast since the Sword Dancer vampire did not recruit anything besides level 0s
• I do suppose I am not supposed to get this one since the condition of this scenario unlocking is rather impossible XD. Debugged it to see what it was like.

Death amongst the tress

• Pretty easy final scenario.
• The vampire Methusalem died to elves alone.
• All i did was give a little nudge by lowering this great vampire's HP a bit with my Paladin and another level 3

Dawn over Dorest

• I suppose the scenario's ToD setup was mistimed as it started during the day and Loyalists clobbered them clean
• Got lucky on the enemy leader kill. Luring him out of the keep and then assaulted him from all sides.

[Konrad2]

Just to be sure, this campaign is not related to 'The Knights of the Silver Spire' which can be found on 1.10, it's merely inspired by the same line?

(Earlier than 1.10)

[Lord-Knightmare]

Just to be sure, this campaign is not related to 'The Knights of the Silver Spire' which can be found on 1.10, it's merely inspired by the same line?

(Earlier than 1.10)

Seems to be 2 unrelated campaigns with the same name and same origin inspiration.

[hopelight]

Hello, I noticed your campaign having WoL as a dependency and gave it a go...Pretty good.

Well first of all, thanks for the feedback, glad you liked it!

Hmm...I think the Mounted Fighters are overpriced...since it's from my era/add-on, I will reduce price from 25 to maybe 21? How does that sound?

I used the *vanilla* unit (from Eastern Invasion) so I'll probably see as well on my end, it's true they do cost a lot... But then again, I don't know, I shouldn't have made a campaign with high-cost high-risk units only, it was a bad idea for my sanity...

Ah, I suppose extra_recruitment multi-leaders thing for side 1 is from War and Home?

Not sure what you mean, was there a problem in the campaign?

are the soulless being recruited here supposed to be land/none variant? Feels they should have been swimmer variants

I thought soulless could swim in deep water in "vanilla", was I wrong?

Outlaw units fell quite easily. WoL has many outlaw units available. Perhaps add those to the recruitment pool for the enemy outlaw sides?

Will look, for now I had used vanilla.

I suppose this scenario dictates which ending I get and depends on my choice? Seems like it

Yep, it's the "crossroads" point.

I suppose this scenario ended quite fast since the Sword Dancer vampire did not recruit anything besides level 0s
I do suppose I am not supposed to get this one since the condition of this scenario unlocking is rather impossible XD. Debugged it to see what it was like.

It's meant to be *somewhat* possible (though it's not easy), I don't remember how I managed to do it.
I'll see if adding a few level 1 to his recruit pool wouldn't make it better (survivors from the main vampire forces).

Pretty easy final scenario.
The vampire Methusalem died to elves alone.
All i did was give a little nudge by lowering this great vampire's HP a bit with my Paladin and another level 3

I'll look, in my tests the vampire wins if the elves are alone (no human help) but I might need to boost his chances.

I suppose the scenario's ToD setup was mistimed as it started during the day and Loyalists clobbered them clean

Did I mention I hate balancing?
The ToD was intended (in the scenario before you "broke the fell artifact" so now it's day) but the clobbering didn't happen when I played...

Just to be sure, this campaign is not related to 'The Knights of the Silver Spire' which can be found on 1.10, it's merely inspired by the same line?
(Earlier than 1.10)

Had no idea the other one existed (seems like it was sadly left unfinished, so I doubt I'll change the campaign's name unless advised to).

Well, I think that proves the importance of flavour text. Some throwaway line inspired two people years apart, that's something

[Lord-Knightmare]

I used the *vanilla* unit (from Eastern Invasion) so I'll probably see as well on my end, it's true they do cost a lot... But then again, I don't know, I shouldn't have made a campaign with high-cost high-risk units only, it was a bad idea for my sanity...

Yeah, I noticed it later on that the WoL-one had Cavalry -> Mounted Cavalry -> Cataphract as the IDs
and it's cheaper than (19G). may be use that?

I thought soulless could swim in deep water in "vanilla", was I wrong?

It sort of can...but gets like 10% dodge so they just feedback merfolk with XP.

[hopelight]

Yeah, I noticed it later on that the WoL-one had Cavalry -> Mounted Cavalry -> Cataphract as the IDs
and it's cheaper than (19G). may be use that?

I'll see, though I might decide to keep the current version (and rebalance it) to have both campaign "versions" use the same unit.

It sort of can...but gets like 10% dodge so they just feedback merfolk with XP.

I'll see what to do about that.

[Wszebor]

The whole Campaing is pretty fun, my only complain is that it's too brief, in every sense....


The very harsh turn limit forces rather heavyhanded tactics, dunno why every scenario should be this short? No time to heal, regroup, just charge and hope for good RNG.

Also, I've reached the last scenario before I could even advance new unit (mounted warrior) to the 3rd level. Or see all vampire units. Kinda wasteful.

[Konrad2]

S3
its was. -> it was.


Epilogue
frontier. would -> frontier, would


My one gripe: How did they recognize Vampires on sight, a being so rare that it appears only once in mainline? (And not as the kind of vampire that can infect others.)

Alight from all Sides
The Bloody Baron says something along the lines that he is far older than the Merfolk. But actually, he was human until recently, so, he is probably at most 40 years old..?

Death amongst the Trees
here! more -> here! More

Replays

Spoiler:

KotSS-Another Patrol replay 20221119-223857.gz

(11.34 KiB) Downloaded 93 times

KotSS-Bandit Camp replay 20221119-224258.gz

(12.76 KiB) Downloaded 129 times

KotSS-Merfolk Party replay 20221119-224811.gz

(16.71 KiB) Downloaded 89 times

KotSS-Temple Assault replay 20221119-225406.gz

(19.42 KiB) Downloaded 95 times

KotSS-Shadows Rise replay 20221119-225811.gz

(20.51 KiB) Downloaded 98 times

KotSS-Shore of the Avalynne replay 20221119-230032.gz

Me ded

(20.61 KiB) Downloaded 85 times

KotSS-Light in the Dark replay 20221119-230525.gz

(19.08 KiB) Downloaded 96 times

KotSS-Dawn over Dorest replay 20221119-230818.gz

(27.02 KiB) Downloaded 103 times

KotSS-Shore of the Avalynne replay 20221119-231324.gz

Baron ded

(20.06 KiB) Downloaded 92 times

KotSS-Death Amongst The Trees replay 20221119-231655.gz

(33.7 KiB) Downloaded 83 times

KotSS-Shore of the Avalynne replay 20221119-231856.gz

Duke ded

(20.63 KiB) Downloaded 90 times

KotSS-Alight From All Sides replay 20221119-232148.gz

(20.34 KiB) Downloaded 114 times

[hopelight]

The whole Campaing is pretty fun, my only complain is that it's too brief, in every sense....


The very harsh turn limit forces rather heavyhanded tactics, dunno why every scenario should be this short? No time to heal, regroup, just charge and hope for good RNG.

Also, I've reached the last scenario before I could even advance new unit (mounted warrior) to the 3rd level. Or see all vampire units. Kinda wasteful.

Well, thanks for the feedback.

Regarding the "harsh" turn limits, it's more that the scenarios are meant to be short and small (I had played a campaign that I really liked, but when nearing the end, I would sigh whenever a new scenario started and it was "defeat 3 enemy leaders" once more).
Giving a longer turn limit would mean making the campaign far harder to balance and make interesting, as there would be quite a high likelihood of people finishing early every time.
The thing is though, I'm bad at using cavalry in this game, so balancing it is hard.

That being said, I'll take it into account whenever I end up updating this campaign, so thanks for the feedback.

My one gripe: How did they recognize Vampires on sight, a being so rare that it appears only once in mainline? (And not as the kind of vampire that can infect others.)

I'll be honest, I considered them more as "no mainline campaign has talked about them" (don't know if The Rise of Wesnoth actually establishes them as rare, haven't made it that far in the campaign) and something that paladins and holy warriors would be somewhat aware of.
His reaction to the light (disguise being stripped away) is supposed to be an indication to the characters of who he is.

Alight from all Sides
The Bloody Baron says something along the lines that he is far older than the Merfolk. But actually, he was human until recently, so, he is probably at most 40 years old..?

I wanted to lean more into the "vampires are an ancient race" trope and so the merfolks are fighting beings that, on average, are far older than them.
That being said, I could probably have him say he is older than the town he rules.
I don't think I've shown him having been a human not long ago however, or have I said something to that effect in the story? (Also, I do think they are immortal in "Wesnoth" lore, no?)

In any case, thanks for the typo lists, they'll be corrected whenever the next update happens.

[Konrad2]

My one gripe: How did they recognize Vampires on sight, a being so rare that it appears only once in mainline? (And not as the kind of vampire that can infect others.)

I'll be honest, I considered them more as "no mainline campaign has talked about them" (don't know if The Rise of Wesnoth actually establishes them as rare, haven't made it that far in the campaign) and something that paladins and holy warriors would be somewhat aware of.
His reaction to the light (disguise being stripped away) is supposed to be an indication to the characters of who he is.

Alight from all Sides
The Bloody Baron says something along the lines that he is far older than the Merfolk. But actually, he was human until recently, so, he is probably at most 40 years old..?

I wanted to lean more into the "vampires are an ancient race" trope and so the merfolks are fighting beings that, on average, are far older than them.
That being said, I could probably have him say he is older than the town he rules.
I don't think I've shown him having been a human not long ago however, or have I said something to that effect in the story? (Also, I do think they are immortal in "Wesnoth" lore, no?)

In any case, thanks for the typo lists, they'll be corrected whenever the next update happens.

I've checked out TRoWs Vampire Queen just now (the unit called 'Vampire Lady'), and she seems to be the only mention of Vampires. I wouldn't say that TRoW itself establishes them as rare, but only TRoW mentioning them, and them never being mentioned again anywhere at all, that establishes them as rare.
edit: 'Vampire' Bats being called such does imply though that at least as some point people knew about vampires.


I realize I misread the power of the 'dark artifact'. I somehow assumed it was used to turn the people into vampires (including the duke), and that the night timezone was a bonus, not that the night timezone is it's only effect. (Meaning it's not an evil artifact by its effect, its a pun. )

[chee]

Hello.
I created ja.po and ja.mo for Japanese translation based on the pot included in your campaign package.
I will upload them here so you can use them if you like.
If it is in the same location as fr.po, it will be recognized.

But ...... 1 item in that pot does not match current .cfg file, so you might want to fix the pot.
That item is as follows.
_main.cfg, line 23 :

Code: Select all

"(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios, 3 endings)."

packaged pot file :

Code: Select all

"(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios)."

I guess the current French translation by fr.po does not replace this part either.
This time ja.po and ja.mo have already been modified to match _main.cfg.

ja-translationFiles-for1.0.0.zip

(54.85 KiB) Downloaded 91 times

Thank you.

[hopelight]

Hello.
I created ja.po and ja.mo for Japanese translation based on the pot included in your campaign package.
I will upload them here so you can use them if you like.
If it is in the same location as fr.po, it will be recognized.

But ...... 1 item in that pot does not match current .cfg file, so you might want to fix the pot.
That item is as follows.
_main.cfg, line 23 :

Code: Select all

"(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios, 3 endings)."

packaged pot file :

Code: Select all

"(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios)."

I guess the current French translation by fr.po does not replace this part either.
This time ja.po and ja.mo have already been modified to match _main.cfg.
ja-translationFiles-for1.0.0.zip
Thank you.

Thank you very much! Credits-wise, did yabuki assist here as well?

EDIT: The "(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios, 3 endings)." should already be in the same translation "line" as the rest of the description (I think it's that way in french as well), are you sure there is a problem?

[chee]

Thank you very much! Credits-wise, did yabuki assist here as well?

Unfortunately, this translation file was created by me alone.

EDIT: The "(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios, 3 endings)." should already be in the same translation "line" as the rest of the description (I think it's that way in french as well), are you sure there is a problem?

Current _main.cfg's description of line21-23 is

Code: Select all

    description= _ "The story of the Knights of the Silver Spire and their battles against the evil Crimson Duke to keep the Northlands safe.
    
(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios, 3 endings)."

but, current POT(v.1.0.0 / Jul 26 2022 on addon server) file has a description of

Code: Select all

The story of the Knights of the Silver Spire and their battles against the evil Crimson Duke to keep the Northlands safe.
    
(Intermediate level, 9 scenarios).

and,similarly, fr.po looks like this

Code: Select all

L'histoire des Chevaliers de la Tour d'Argent et de leur combat contre le maléfique Duc Pourpre pour garder le Nord sûr.

(Niveau intermédiaire, 9 scénarios).

So when I set the Wesnoth's language to French on my PC and view the campaign list, the right side of the screen is still displayed in English.

Therefore, I'm thinking the current POT needs to be updated.

Edit: (I may have misunderstood your question. If so, I am sorry. So, what I write below may be completely missing the point.)
The "line number" written in the POT file (like "#: knights_of_the_silver_spire\_main.cfg:23" ) , as you know, are not directly related to the translation. They are written as hints/comments for translators to refer to the source files. The only thing that matters is that the "description"s in *.cfg and the "msgid" in the POT file po file are the same.