Rustling in the Wind - Campaign

[GreenScarab]

STORY

893 YW

The Forests of Bright Shade are dying. The former sanctuary of elven race and its wose friends lies soaked by the dark powers feeding on the goodness of this place. Join Laneenfe the elvish priestess and her squad made of mysterious daredevils to overcome evil sprouted in the sacred lands of their kind.

___

WHAT IS IN THIS BAG?

- 5 BATTLE scenarios and 3 STORY only

- INTERMEDIATE DIFFICULTY level

- DIFFERENT objectives

- UNIQUE MECHANIC related to healing the forest

- ...and etc

___

CAMPAIGN WAS FULLY TESTED

[Konrad2]

Once again a great campaign hinting at more secrets that are not told. D: (Plus important events you do not get to see. :C)
I love the forest healing mechanic.

Last of its Kind
Can be won on turn 1 if you get the Staff of Rage.

Swan Song
Killing a Dark Wose with any attack by Laneenfe turns the Wose, even though it's supposed to work only with fairy fire.
I'd love a counter in the scenario objectives like x/77 forest tiles healed, x/7 Woses purified.


(Again, I'll do a grammar/typo run at some point.)

Thank you very much for the campaign.

Looking at the screenshot in your post...where do I get that second druid?

Btw, why are you using the sprite of the undead wose, instead of the 'normal' Dark Wose? Dark Wose seems more fitting.

regular.png (4.31 KiB) Viewed 7317 times

Possible achievements I can think of:
Freeing all Bloomers in S1, getting all the items, making Miinosem pray, give x units a second chance, get your Sorceress to lvl 4 before the last scenario

[GreenScarab]

Once again a great campaign hinting at more secrets that are not told. D: (Plus important events you do not get to see. :C)

Thank you for such kind words.

Maybe in the future like in Dream in the Sand I will add some plot extending scenario to show "a little" more if there is such a desire from the players.

I love the forest healing mechanic.

I worked hard on this specjal mechanic. I'm really glad that you like it.

Last of its Kind
Can be won on turn 1 if you get the Staff of Rage.

I know, I added Staff of Rage somewhat for this purpose.... I couldn't resist giving players the option of ranged berserk. Staff of Rage also functions as a "Cheat item" and is used so that if a player had a big problem passing Last of its Kind then they could use that item to defeat Jenno.

I am also thinking of adding a special achievement when the player defeats Jenno the Gatekeeper in one turn.

Swan Song
Killing a Dark Wose with any attack by Laneenfe turns the Wose, even though it's supposed to work only with fairy fire.

I know this bug well and have been thinking about how to repair it for a while now, and something feels like I won't get over it quickly.

I'd love a counter in the scenario objectives like x/77 forest tiles healed, x/7 Woses purified.

Sounds nice. I will think about it.

(Again, I'll do a grammar/typo run at some point.)

As always, I will be looking forward to that.

Thank you very much for the campaign.

I'm very happy to see that you like it, it's nice to see someone playing and enjoying it. I really worked hard to make it the best it could be, and I will still be.

Looking at the screenshot in your post...where do I get that second druid?

This is Cherry, from the initial version before I created the sprites for the Dryad unit. On the beginning the Dryad unit used as a placeholder Druid line sprites.

Btw, why are you using the sprite of the undead wose, instead of the 'normal' Dark Wose? Dark Wose seems more fitting.

I was completely unaware of this sprite, it looks wonderful. Can you tell me where I could find the rest of it?

Possible achievements I can think of:
Freeing all Bloomers in S1, getting all the items, making Miinosem pray, give x units a second chance, get your Sorceress to lvl 4 before the last scenario

I really like your ideas. I was also thinking about the achievement idea for the Core of Darkness scenario when you defeat all the Great Trees woses.

[Konrad2]

Thank you for such kind words.

Maybe in the future like in Dream in the Sand I will add some plot extending scenario to show "a little" more if there is such a desire from the players.


I know, I added Staff of Rage somewhat for this purpose.... I couldn't resist giving players the option of ranged berserk. Staff of Rage also functions as a "Cheat item" and is used so that if a player had a big problem passing Last of its Kind then they could use that item to defeat Jenno.

I am also thinking of adding a special achievement when the player defeats Jenno the Gatekeeper in one turn.

Sounds good to me. ^^

I was completely unaware of this sprite, it looks wonderful. Can you tell me where I could find the rest of it?

I got it from 'War of the Jewel'. It can also be found in 'Dawn of Thunder'. Both are add-on campaigns on 1.16.

I really like your ideas. I was also thinking about the achievement idea for the Core of Darkness scenario when you defeat all the Great Trees woses.

That one seems to be a bit harsh and too dependend on luck. The enemies will always reach at least one great tree before you do, and with a bit of luck they might actually kill it.
How about an achievement for leveling up an Ancient Wose?

[GreenScarab]

That one seems to be a bit harsh and too dependend on luck. The enemies will always reach at least one great tree before you do, and with a bit of luck they might actually kill it.

I meant, defeating all the Great Tree Woses in the Core of Darkness scenario when you need to open the gate and search for the Guardian.

How about an achievement for leveling up an Ancient Wose?

Sounds good to me.

[Konrad2]

I meant, defeating all the Great Tree Woses in the Core of Darkness scenario when you need to open the gate and search for the Guardian.

Ooooh, sure.

On that note, how about making the staff only drop on defeating the last Great Tree Wose in that scenario?

[GreenScarab]

On that note, how about making the staff only drop on defeating the last Great Tree Wose in that scenario?

That's great idea! I have included this in the new update.



The 2.0.8a update for Rustling in the Wind has just been released!!!


Changelog:

Spoiler:

• Five new achievements, based on Konrad2 ideas.
  
  At the beginning I plan to make five achievements for each of my campaigns, and as for now I have made achievements for Horn of Faith and Rustling in the Wind. I hope you will like them.

• Staff of Rage is now a Droppable Item and the player will only be able to get it after defeating all Great Tree Woses (including the Gatekeeper, which we search for and then fight before clearing it) - so the player must defeat 4 Great Tree Woses in the Core of Darkness scenario in order to gain powerful buff.

• New Sprites for: Shadow Wose, Dark Wose and Evil Sprouter (Wrath Wose still has the same Sprite, as it is the most degenerated by the evil emotions it drained up).

• Due to the new Sprites been added to the campaign and I received important feedback by Konrad2, the End Credits have been updated. I wrote from where the Dark Woses Sprites come from (campaign name and nickname of the author of the campaign) and I credited Konrad2 under the label: Major Feedback and Achievement Ideas.

[Konrad2]

... and I credited Konrad2 under the label: Major Feedback and Achievement Ideas.

Thanks

Also a small patch 2.0.2a has also been released for Born to Live!!!

I very much recommend posting this instead in the Born to Live thread. ^^

[Straff]

Thank you for this great campaign, I really like it. I like your phantasy and your new ideas. Good job. Thank you.

One little nitpick:

It grants +27 hitpoints and magical weapon specjal to melee and ranged

specjal > special

Two instances.

(specjal is a polish beer, right?)

[GreenScarab]

Thank you for this great campaign, I really like it. I like your phantasy and your new ideas. Good job. Thank you.

Thank you for the kind words. It really is incredibly motivating to see such a nice message.

One little nitpick:

It grants +27 hitpoints and magical weapon specjal to melee and ranged

specjal > special

Two instances.

Thanks for the typo report, I have released the 2.2.6 update with the fix.

(specjal is a polish beer, right?)

Yes, habit from the Polish language.

[Straff]

"The darkness of the forest sucks the life out of elves and they lose - 6 every turn if they are not on purified hexes..."

There is something else that bothers me. In the last scenario (Swan Song) all units on DARK FOREST terrain lose health points. And because this is happening in an animated way, unit by unit, it takes a very very very long time until all units are harmed animated (There are a lot of units on the map, and it takes really a lot of time).
So it would be really cool if only the visible units were being harmed animated, and all the units in fog/shroud (which most units are) would be harmed without animation. I don't know how the code would look like, somehow like:

Code: Select all

	[event]
        	name=new turn
		first_time_only=no
		
		# if unit is visible, then animate the harm effect 
		[harm_unit]
			[filter]
				[filter_location]
                    			{DARK_FOREST}
                    			# add some filter for visibility check here
					[not]
						terrain=Hh^Fds,Gs^Fds,Kv^Fds,Cv^Fds,Exos^*,Hh,Gs,Kv,Cv
					[/not]
               	 	[/filter_location]
				side=1,2,3
			[/filter]
			amount=6
			damage_type=cold
			animate=yes
		[/harm_unit]

		# if unit is in fogged/shrouded  area and not visible don't animate the harm effect
		[harm_unit]
			[filter]
				[filter_location]
                    			{DARK_FOREST}
                    			# add some filter for visibility check here
					[not]
						terrain=Hh^Fds,Gs^Fds,Kv^Fds,Cv^Fds,Exos^*,Hh,Gs,Kv,Cv
					[/not]
               	 	[/filter_location]
				side=1,2,3
			[/filter]
			amount=6
			damage_type=cold
			animate=no
		[/harm_unit]
		
    [/event]

[GreenScarab]

There is something else that bothers me. In the last scenario (Swan Song) all units on DARK FOREST terrain lose health points. And because this is happening in an animated way, unit by unit, it takes a very very very long time until all units are harmed animated (There are a lot of units on the map, and it takes really a lot of time).
So it would be really cool if only the visible units were being harmed animated, and all the units in fog/shroud (which most units are) would be harmed without animation. I don't know how the code would look like, somehow like:

I see. I'll try to do something about it.

[GreenScarab]

The new update V2.2.7 is released, and with it a small fix for the Swan Song scenario. Now only the player's side is animated when losing HP due to darkness.

Have fun

[shevegen]

So I just randomly tested this add-on. There are good things and bad things about it, IMO.

I do not want to write a discouraging review, so please consider this just my personal opinion.

I'll start with the good points:

- The art is great. Elves rule.
- I liked the idea of corrupted trees and being able to overturn the corruption. That should be kept as a theme IMO.
- The scenarios were challenging.

Now the points I disliked:

- The scenarios were challenging. (On most maps I had to restart, since I wasted too many turns; when I knew where to go and what to do it became much easier, but initially it was hard.)
- In general the maps seem too smallish to me. I'd prefer larger maps, at the least slightly larger ones. With small maps the gameplay is reduced to a linear path IMO. I don't like linear paths.
- I disliked the berserker trees a lot. This is primarily because I dislike the berserk fight-until-you-are-dead mechanic in general; I think it should not be infinite fight, but instead slow down after each round until it ends eventually. It would still deal a LOT of damage but not be until one unit is dead. But this is an aside issue about the mechanic; annoyingly it meant that the elves had to be placed so that the ambush-trees would cause as little damage as possible. Having undead healing units helps, but the weaker ones died quickly due to ambushing mega-trees. At that point I was already rather annoyed about this.
- The scenario with the dwarf that teleports and becomes invisible was annoying, in particular due to the bats, but also randomly showing up troll shamans and fire elementals ... I dislike scenarios that are chase-like where you can not recruit anything, in a cave. I hate caves in general. And what about that teleporting troll shaman? Why does that one magically show up out of nowhere? At first he spawned in the middle of the castle; I reloaded and occupied that tile, and then he teleported ... outside the castle. That's strange. In normal scenarios you have such a boss in some castle and spawning an army from there. Why are bosses suddenly spawning next to the player out of nowhere? That's really very strange to me. Did wesnoth change that much while I was inactive?

At that point I wondered about the game mechanics in this add-on actually. Usually you recruit an army and place it strategically and fight it out. This seems more like an adventure theme run-the-gauntlet and annoying mobs are spawned while doing so (bats, fast, weak but block the way). And then I am supposed to teleport through some random monoliths while not seeing the guy to be hunted down? And he is invisible too? And heals +50 hp for zero reasons? Is that really fun for a player?
- In regards to healing: I like the theme of corruption but I think losing health is a bit too problematic. Perhaps something that yields 2 hp per round could also be added without needing a forest, say, a mushroom tile or so. That could be used once per scenario. Or something like that.
- I'd like to be able to recruit more units normally. Even if the theme, say, disables this for gameplay and storyline reasoning, perhaps recruiting some young weaker fodder units would be nice that could be upgraded. Like young elves rescued from a destroyed village or something; and they later become archers etc...

So all in one I think the add-on has some good ideas, and some not-so-fun parts that could perhaps be alleviated. About the dwarf scenario I dislike that steadfast dwarves suddenly magically teleport away and we have to give chase. I'd much rather a non-teleporting dwarf but you can whack-a-doodle him down. Although I don't quite understand why they talk about going PAST him, then he is gone, and suddenly everything changes to "we must chase him down!". I rather prefer scenarios where we have to overcome some defence, rather than go on and chase down the bad guy.

[Konrad2]

S1
Trees as elves have always considered and will always onsider have feelings
word fights -> sword fights

uknown -> unknown

They run away -> They ran away

Forest healing mechanic:
recive -> receive

S2

they should have a punishment -> they should be punished

circle of hatred -> cycle of hatred
I think that with awakening of this spectres something else has woke from long sleep feeling wrath after hearing your decision Laneenfe.
has destroyed us -> did destroy us
after the death -> after their death
weaker this monsters -> weaken these monsters
far from spirits -> far from the spirits
but forest will -> but the forest will

S3
This place is flowing fear -> This place is sowing fear
an fable -> a fable
you was never -> you were never
gain wits -> gained wits
earn your hatred -> earned your hatred
canoot -> cannot
Shadow is moving -> A shadow is moving
lighten up -> lit up
that's mean -> that means
an saint -> a saint
get burn -> get burned
set him in fire -> set him on fire
lost his voice -> lose his voice
aqquire -> acquire
made it move -> make it move
Purified wose is soaking the mystical flame -> The purified wose is soaking in the mystical flame
When the stone gate fall to the ground the dark path opened in front of daredevils. Their bodies, for a moment, were freeze by the cold wind that has blowed out from the inside of the shrine.</i>"
what I am supposed -> what am I supposed
die second time -> die a second time
eyes color -> eye color
an girl compliment -> a girl a compliment
soo -> so

S4
inflected -> infected
a side this -> aside this
gnomes -> dwarves
uknown -> unknwon
an gate -> a gate

Killing the Skin Changer does not awawrd the xp.

(I sadly got tired of noting down suggestion.)

S7 Swan Song
I'd love a counter in the scenario objectives like x/77 forest tiles healed, x/7 Woses purified.
Preferably animate all the harm done by the forest to my units at the same time. I previous scenarios I had a low number of units, but now I'll have easily 20 or more. Waiting until they all done is tedious.

a prove -> proof

When I free an Elvish Bloomer from the Evil Sprouters, preferably give them a tree name, instead of an Elvish name?

an choice -> a choice
You have completed task -> You have completed a task.

Killing Woses with Laneefee always turns them, even I don't use the Faerie Fire attack.

Please add 'an enemy leader dies no by your hand' to the defeat conditions. (An Evil Sprouter killed the elvish leader and soft-locked me out of winning the scenario. Thematically it makes sense that I have to defeat them, but it would be nice to clarify it.)

(Stats will come later)