The Bees Journey

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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KameRamen
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The Bees Journey

Post by KameRamen »

That summer, the hornets invasion destroyed the Kingdom of Bees. You, the princess, must lead the bees on their journey to rebuild the homeland.
This thread is currently unused. A new topic is here: <viewtopic.php?t=57357>
Last edited by KameRamen on March 2nd, 2024, 10:50 pm, edited 39 times in total.
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Dragon-Friend
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by Dragon-Friend »

I have not played your campaign yet, (just downloaded it now.) but as a beekeeper, I feel that I must point out that your 'princess' and 'queen' bee portraits are not queens. They are worker bees with their pollen sacks filled. I will post some of the illustrations from my bee-keeping book to show the difference between drones, workers, and queens so you can correct this misunderstanding.
Queen marked with red, drone with blue, but only one drone is marked.
Queen marked with red, drone with blue, but only one drone is marked.
Your campaign sounds very interesting so I look forward to playing it!
'Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men.' Aragorn to Eomer The Lord of the Rings
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Helmet
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by Helmet »

Wesnoth-KameRamen wrote: December 3rd, 2022, 6:41 am This is the development thread for the campaign The Bees Journey.
I lost in the first scenario on turn 5. The enemies killed Melissa IX. I played on Normal difficulty, and made it about halfway to the signpost. If I try again, I will play on Easy.
Dragon-Friend wrote: December 4th, 2022, 12:36 am...I feel that I must point out that your 'princess' and 'queen' bee portraits are not queens...
But they must be queens, because they had little crowns on their heads. :D
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KameRamen
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by KameRamen »

Dragon-Friend wrote: December 4th, 2022, 12:36 am I have not played your campaign yet, (just downloaded it now.) but as a beekeeper, I feel that I must point out that your 'princess' and 'queen' bee portraits are not queens. They are worker bees with their pollen sacks filled. I will post some of the illustrations from my bee-keeping book to show the difference between drones, workers, and queens so you can correct this misunderstanding.
Bee types.png

Your campaign sounds very interesting so I look forward to playing it!
Hello, Dragon-Friend.

Thank you for your valuable advice!
I did not expect to receive advice from beekeeper.

I will try to modify the portrait as soon as possible (I would like to crop it from an image of the real queen bee if possible, but unfortunately I don't have a photo of her...)

It is still incomplete, but I hope you enjoy it :D
Last edited by Wesnoth-KameRamen on March 2nd, 2024, 4:42 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Kame means turtle in Japanese. I chose this name because I love turtles and ramen.
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by KameRamen »

Helmet wrote: December 4th, 2022, 1:34 am
Wesnoth-KameRamen wrote: December 3rd, 2022, 6:41 am This is the development thread for the campaign The Bees Journey.
I lost in the first scenario on turn 5. The enemies killed Melissa IX. I played on Normal difficulty, and made it about halfway to the signpost. If I try again, I will play on Easy.
Dragon-Friend wrote: December 4th, 2022, 12:36 am...I feel that I must point out that your 'princess' and 'queen' bee portraits are not queens...
But they must be queens, because they had little crowns on their heads. :D
Hi, Helmet. Thank you for playing!
Scenario 01 is the first difficult part of the game, and the problem is that it depends on your luck whether you can clear it or not.
The strategy is to first advance directly north with the entire army, then jointly with Melissa's army, beat the hornets, and after clearing the hornets to some extent, head for the signpost at once. Even so, it may be hard without save load.

Thank you also for following up on the portrait :D
Please keep the feedback coming!
Last edited by KameRamen on March 2nd, 2024, 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by Helmet »

Wesnoth-KameRamen wrote: December 4th, 2022, 5:49 am Scenario 01 is the first difficult part of the game, and the problem is that it depends on your luck whether you can clear it or not.
The strategy is to first advance directly north with the entire army, then jointly with Melissa's army, beat the hornets, and after clearing the hornets to some extent, head for the signpost at once. Even so, it may be hard without a save load.

Thank you also for following up on the portrait :D
Please keep the feedback coming!
I took your advice and beat the scenario. Thanks for the help.

I have a suggestion. Maybe the objective should not be "Escape!"
I lost the first time because I headed straight for the signpost, which was a huge mistake. Maybe the objective should be "Help Melissa IX fight the hornets."

Then, on turn 7, when Melissa IX says, "Run!" the signpost appears and the objective changes to "Escape!"

One more idea...

When I was about to win, Melissa IX attacked the reinforcements, all by herself. Maybe you can add some code that would make her not attack the reinforcements? Perhaps she could go to her keep and stay there. It would've been tragic if I was about to win and she charged the enemy and got herself killed.

Anyhow, it was fun and challenging. Attached is the replay.
Attachments
TBJ-Beginning of the Fate replay 20221205-111918.gz
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(21.22 KiB) Downloaded 39 times
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by Helmet »

I finished scenarios 2 and 3.

I was worried about the mysterious cage in the lake. That was an interesting development.

Scenario 3 looked unbeatable, so I made the enemy fight in the swamp and that helped, and I leveled-up some bees, and that helped a lot.

I enjoyed both scenarios. I'm having fun with my wacky bee army. :)
Attachments
TBJ-Skirmish on the Sea replay 20221205-135339.gz
Normal
(20.79 KiB) Downloaded 40 times
TBJ-The Zombie Zoo replay 20221205-181625.gz
Normal
(45.09 KiB) Downloaded 39 times
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by Atreides »

Hi, I've also played scen 1. Finished it on easy, but I did not use the given strategy so I'll include the replay for reference.

As regards the dialogue there are, as you said English is not your native tongue, a few oddities. : ) So far (S1 + 1/2 of S2) there have been no typos or mispellings however. As for the oddities, there are quite a few so I can not really list them. Perhaps they can be left as is since none actually affect gameplay or maybe some native speaker could go through the files, fix them and submit them to you for your approval. I think I saw that there are 20 scens? Could be quite a task.

As for what I think (so far) I have to say I quite like it. The scenarios seem well designed and quite original. Technically no flaws found aside from a unit or two that has silent attacks (hornets?). The art is nice, kind of reminds me of cartoons with bees I saw as a kid. Talking bees are not new to me as it happens. : )
Attachments
TBJ-Beginning of the Fate Aufzeichnung abspielen 20221205-220213.gz
S1 replay on easy
(24.29 KiB) Downloaded 44 times
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KameRamen
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by KameRamen »

Helmet wrote: December 6th, 2022, 12:43 am I finished scenarios 2 and 3.

I was worried about the mysterious cage in the lake. That was an interesting development.

Scenario 3 looked unbeatable, so I made the enemy fight in the swamp and that helped, and I leveled-up some bees, and that helped a lot.

I enjoyed both scenarios. I'm having fun with my wacky bee army. :)
Hi, Helmet.

Thanks for playing through scenario 01-03!
Thanks also for the replay.
Sure would be better to change the goals for scenario 01 midstream! And it's practically "repel the hornets" until turn 7.

I too, also thought it was a bit of a problem that Melissa was running into the enemy all by herself. However, I would like to fix it if I could, but I'm not sure I have the programming skills to do that.
Last edited by KameRamen on March 2nd, 2024, 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kame means turtle in Japanese. I chose this name because I love turtles and ramen.
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by KameRamen »

Atreides wrote: December 6th, 2022, 3:31 am Hi, I've also played scen 1. Finished it on easy, but I did not use the given strategy so I'll include the replay for reference.

As regards the dialogue there are, as you said English is not your native tongue, a few oddities. : ) So far (S1 + 1/2 of S2) there have been no typos or mispellings however. As for the oddities, there are quite a few so I can not really list them. Perhaps they can be left as is since none actually affect gameplay or maybe some native speaker could go through the files, fix them and submit them to you for your approval. I think I saw that there are 20 scens? Could be quite a task.

As for what I think (so far) I have to say I quite like it. The scenarios seem well designed and quite original. Technically no flaws found aside from a unit or two that has silent attacks (hornets?). The art is nice, kind of reminds me of cartoons with bees I saw as a kid. Talking bees are not new to me as it happens. : )
Hi, Atreides.
I just watched the replay and was very surprised by strategy I would never have thought of.

The English text is machine translated from Japanese to English, so I think there are quite a few mistakes. I am particularly concerned about the second half of the scenario because the story is forced.
It would be helpful if you could inform us of any obvious incorrectness in the English text. (Of course, we would be very grateful if you could make a list, but it's quite large...)
Last edited by KameRamen on March 2nd, 2024, 10:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Hello, it's me.

So, I sampled this one and I think it's quite good. A lot better than the recent ones I sampled the last 2 months.
I like how this is a campaign that gives players entirely new units to play with instead of re-shuffling loyals and elves.

I attached the replays of the first 3 scenarios.

Scenario 1 might have an exploit if you pre-place units on the zone where the reinforcements show up, allowing insta-leader assassinations.
One bug I noticed is that in Scenario 2, the drake's image is shown inside the cage and makes it look empty.

I am at the 4th scenario, and will resume on another weekend.
Attachments
TBJ-The Zombie Zoo replay 20221206-190222.gz
(37.31 KiB) Downloaded 39 times
TBJ-Skirmish on the Sea replay 20221206-145457.gz
(18.36 KiB) Downloaded 41 times
TBJ-Beginning of the Fate replay 20221206-142310.gz
(19.72 KiB) Downloaded 37 times
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by Helmet »

I played a few more scenarios. They were all enjoyable.

"The Winter" has a couple errors. In the objectives displayed for turn 1, the text identifies a unit that I must keep alive, but I haven't met him yet.

When the updated objectives appears for turn 5, the text states "21 turns left," but there are actually 25 turns left.

I have lost a lot of high-level units! I think I need to use "Show Enemy Moves" more often. There always seems to be an enemy unit somewhere that escaped my notice. :shock:
Attachments
TBJ-In a Port replay 20221206-001748.gz
(28.77 KiB) Downloaded 43 times
TBJ-Arrival to the Lagos Island replay 20221206-083600.gz
(29.17 KiB) Downloaded 34 times
TBJ-Mary's in a Trap replay 20221206-101711.gz
(49.51 KiB) Downloaded 40 times
TBJ-Overcoming the Sorrow replay 20221206-133150.gz
(34 KiB) Downloaded 34 times
TBJ-The Winter replay 20221206-164953.gz
(46.78 KiB) Downloaded 36 times
Last edited by Helmet on December 7th, 2022, 2:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by Helmet »

I was defeated in the 10th scenario. It was fun, but I'm going to call it quits. I don't think I can beat this level. I lost too many powerful units last level, so I'm lacking firepower.

Good game! I hope you make some more. :)
Attachments
TBJ-The Dragon and Ninjas replay 20221206-195227.gz
(42.65 KiB) Downloaded 41 times
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by KameRamen »

Lord-Knightmare wrote: December 6th, 2022, 11:16 am Hello, it's me.

So, I sampled this one and I think it's quite good. A lot better than the recent ones I sampled the last 2 months.
I like how this is a campaign that gives players entirely new units to play with instead of re-shuffling loyals and elves.

I attached the replays of the first 3 scenarios.

Scenario 1 might have an exploit if you pre-place units on the zone where the reinforcements show up, allowing insta-leader assassinations.
One bug I noticed is that in Scenario 2, the drake's image is shown inside the cage and makes it look empty.

I am at the 4th scenario, and will resume on another weekend.
Hello, Lord-Knightmare. There are still many problems with the new unit, but I hope you enjoy it.
Indeed, scenario 01 might allow such cheat. Thanks also for the bug report. I would like to improve it if I could, but with my current programming skills ... What should I do?
We are now working on v1.0.3 based on everyone's feedback :D
Last edited by KameRamen on March 2nd, 2024, 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Bees Journey

Post by KameRamen »

Helmet wrote: December 7th, 2022, 2:02 am I was defeated in the 10th scenario. It was fun, but I'm going to call it quits. I don't think I can beat this level. I lost too many powerful units last level, so I'm lacking firepower.

Good game! I hope you make some more. :)
Hi, Helmet. Thanks for the feedback!
We have now released v1.0.3 with improvements and difficulty adjustments based on everyone's feedback. If you like, you can update to this and try again.
Just for reference, I am attaching replay of my test play (v1.0.3)
Attachments
TBJ-The Winter replay 20221207-134530.gz
(41.61 KiB) Downloaded 45 times
TBJ-The Dragon and Ninjas replay 20221207-140356.gz
(41.07 KiB) Downloaded 40 times
Last edited by KameRamen on March 2nd, 2024, 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kame means turtle in Japanese. I chose this name because I love turtles and ramen.
Author of The Bees Journey and A Starry Forest
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