[v2.0.0. - Global Rebalance] Deeds of Sir Swine - new GSE campaign!

[Mechanical]

I present to your attention the SP-campaign of the Ogre Kingdom - Deeds of Sir Swine! Campaign available on 1.16 addons server
Description: "Oh, those chivalric stories! The hero in them is always so noble, brave, fights evil, makes friends with elves, wins. Ugh! These stories aren't worth a damn, mate. And now I'll show you why...

(Pig level of difficulty, 9 scenarios)"

Features of this campaign:

- GSE lore
- nice maps
- nice story with cool images🧌
- various mission objectives⚧
- epic battles

The campaign was made with the support of the Wesnoth Modders Guild. You can join the guild through the link in the campaign description.

[Lord-Knightmare]

I played the beta version and so I copying over the feedback review from there.

1. Nice and comic campaign, being one of the few to emphasise on comedy rather than "try to make a serious tone"
2. diverse objectives
3. Has a uniquely done scenario (that bridge one)

[Helmet]

I don't have time to play the campaign right now, but I played scenario 1. After I had wounded a pig, sometimes the wolves would kill it, which I liked. It added an interesting element to the combat. I like the map, too.

[Anekron]

I also played the beta. Had some gripes, most of which should be corrected for this full release from what I've read.

The Ogre Kingdom is a fun new faction to play if you don't know GSE, the story has a lot of humour and some scenarios are a pretty neat challenge. I would definitely recommend it.

[StellarStar]

I enjoyed the faction very much. The characters were alright, the scenarios were really well done. Couldn't finish the last one on swine so I had to use debug mode.

[Helmet]

I lost on scenario 2. Easy mode is too hard, imo.

One bear can kill an undamaged unit in 1 turn, so I lost after the maximum number of dead units was reached.

Easy mode should be easy to win, not merely easier than the next difficulty level. I think the two difficulty modes should be re-named normal and hard, instead of easy and hard. I replayed it a few times to figure-out a winning strategy, but the bears are too powerful. Winning is simply replaying until the bears miss an improbable number of times in a row. I used chokepoints and knockbacked the bear into the water to lower its terrain defense, but it didn't matter.

I did not like how this map had no villages inside the cave. Sending wounded units outside the cave to heal took a long time.

Also, the ogre keeps saying "hr." It must be a noise of some sort. Is it an oink, like a pig?

[ForestDragon]

Also, the ogre keeps saying "hr." It must be a noise of some sort. Is it an oink, like a pig?

Yes, the protagonist is named Sir Swine after all

[Helmet]

Ah. Thanks.

In my mind, I pronounce "hr" as her, not like a sound made by a pig.

For the sake of clarity, might I suggest hurr, hurrgh or grunt ?

I like that Sir Swine makes noises. It adds to his personality.


By the way, the Typography Style Guide suggests parentheses around a random sound, and also italics.

Wordless Actions
When a character performs some unspoken action, such as heaving open a door, sighing, or making some other random sound, and you specifically want to cover that action in the dialogue, use the same style as for stage directions. If the action is mixed in with speech, put it in parentheses and italicize it.

"(Sigh) Very well, I'll send some troops to accompany you."
"What the...? (Gurgle) The slaves... are... uprising..."

[dwarftough]

In my mind, I pronounce "hr" as her, not like a sound made by a pig.

For the sake of clarity, might I suggest hurr, hurrgh or grunt ?

We meant this sound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_velar_fricative (English doesn't have such a sound to my knowledge) which is denoted in Russian by the letter Х (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kha_(Cyrillic) ) and usually transcribed as Kh (like in Khrushchev). And put just H to transcribe it. Didn't think about it too much tbh , the English h sound is kinda similar to kh for a Russian ear

[Helmet]

We meant this sound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_velar_fricative (English doesn't have such a sound to my knowledge) which is denoted in Russian by the letter Х...

Oh! I was wondering why "hr" was chosen. Thanks for the explanation.

[Helmet]

Last month I abandoned this campaign on scenario 2, as it was too hard. But not only because it was too hard. The 2nd scenario seemed like it hadn't been play-tested.

It probably was, but it didn't seem like it.

I like the GSE sprites, so after some time passed, I decided to give the campaign another try. Maybe the later scenarios get better, I thought. So I started the campaign over, from the beginning.

I bogged down in scenario 5. Against my better judgment, I re-started scenario 5 many, many times.

The GSE sprites deserve a fun campaign. This is not it.

[dwarftough]

I bogged down in scenario 5. Against my better judgment, I re-started scenario 5 many, many times.

What exactly caused the troubles? It was hard but we made it easier for the release, with extra turn limit and side castles

[Mechanical]

Last month I abandoned this campaign on scenario 2, as it was too hard. But not only because it was too hard. The 2nd scenario seemed like it hadn't been play-tested.

It probably was, but it didn't seem like it.

I like the GSE sprites, so after some time passed, I decided to give the campaign another try. Maybe the later scenarios get better, I thought. So I started the campaign over, from the beginning.

I bogged down in scenario 5. Against my better judgment, I re-started scenario 5 many, many times.

The GSE sprites deserve a fun campaign. This is not it.

u make me cry dude

[inferno8]

Just finished the campaign. It was very challenging on hard. Maybe even too difficult, especially in later scenarios, but in general I had fun playing it.

What I liked:
- the unique way of storytelling between scenarios. The decision to use Bard, Soldier and Northerner to convey the story was a great design choice! Very refreshing.
- great dialogues and the whole "deeds" idea
- interesting missions, especially the one with trolls and the other one with hunting the great bear.
- GSE units - it was nice to play as Ogres again
- cool Mechanical's and Kordov's art

What I didn't like:
- very challenging hard mode - I was really struggling with keeping my veterans alive the whole campaign. Ultimately I ended up with lvl1s in the final mission and had to resort to debug mode just like StellarStar.
- the scenario with trolls - while it is one of the strongest points of the campaign, I find the tunnel to be too long. There are like 3 segments right now, which in my opinion is too much. Shortening it to 2 troll segments would make the scenario much more dynamic and less repetitive.
- the "True War" scenario - it was completely pointless in my opinion. Not only we switch to a different leader with a new army, but the whole battle is rather a waste of time given the fact we need to...

Spoiler:

...lose to win

I suspect the decision to include this scenario was based on the idea to show some consequences of Swine's action, but that could be easily explained in story [parts] or by making a cutscene. Besides, the battle was too long with too many units on the map and I was very tired in the end.
- limited recruitment choice, we get trolls at some point but it would be nice to have more variety.

At the moment I'd give the campaign solid 6.5 (maybe even 7)/10 points - good job!

[ForestDragon]

Difficulty has been a pretty consistently reported issue so far. We (GSE dev team) might consider changing the current "Easy difficulty" to normal, and adding a new easy difficulty.