The Bearer of Waters (SP Dunefolk campaign for 1.18 & 1.19)

[revansurik]

Hi everyone! It's been a(nother) long while, but I'd like to present you my newest campaign...

The Bearer of Waters

When change is wrought upon the land
Fiery heavens crush the small and the great
Wider grow the seas of sand
And oases no longer the thirst sate

But in the past may salvation be sought
In the depths of myth and memory
When forefathers the desert fought
And emerged through veils of victory

Fly, then, on the wings of the bold
With the Dunes' sons and daughters
Into the mists of eras untold
To return as the Bearer of Waters...



As the thread's title suggests, it's a campaign centred on the Dunefolk; it has 26-29 scenarios, 3 of which are dialogue-only and 3 entirely optional.

Choices you make throughout the story lead to unique possibilities and consequences, and you can equip your units with special items to be found across certain scenarios (similar to Eastern Invasion).

Downloading the 'Aquarius Music Pack' is not mandatory, but strongly recommended.


Map of the southern Great Continent (with references to other Dunefolk-centred campaigns)

As always, I'd love to hear your feedback! What did you think of the narrative, the gameplay, the balacing, and the scenario design? What do you think could be improved?

[Konrad2]

S2
I fully expected greens units to either leave the battle or turn to my side once I accomplish the optional objective. At least story wise it doesn't make sense for them to keep fighting (me).

[revansurik]

S2
I fully expected greens units to either leave the battle or turn to my side once I accomplish the optional objective. At least story wise it doesn't make sense for them to keep fighting (me).

Thanks for the feedback!
Yes, they were supposed to have disappeared once Zaina surrendered, I must've forgotten to 'kill' her side once she did

[Konrad2]

S3
orders Now I am
-> orders. Now I am

(fun fact, you forgot to take care of the +2 income in this scenario, so I can earn old in S3)

(very much less fun fact, carryover of 40% is applied at the end of the scenario)

S4
Mansur, the loyal Dune Soldier 'recruited' in S3, has 5 traits. (strong, intelligent, loyal, loyal, strong)
Looks like you added 'loyal, strong' instead of replacing the previous traits..?

TBoW-Heat of the Night-Auto-Save1.gz

Mansur

(94.51 KiB) Downloaded 6 times

S6
If my ally has currently no Rider unit, part of the dialogue is missing when discovering them. (Makes sense because you assign the scout role to this unit line, but it sucks for the story)

I think it's a bit unfortunate that the drakes have the same teamcolor as my allies.

so they may pray on my people
-> so they may prey on my people


Fairuzas AMLA:
profficient
-> proficient

S7
sweeps it away
-> sweeps it away.

Context: I first scouted the shipwreck, then encountered the naga. After encountering the naga, my objectives are to investigate the shipwreck to the west (already did that) and to investigate the camp to the east.

TBoW-Dead Men's Tales-Auto-Save15.gz

odd objectives

(162.23 KiB) Downloaded 16 times

The Dune Luminary I rescued is left behind when I take the boat to finish off the Corsair.

TBoW-Dead Men's Tales-Auto-Save32.gz

lonely Dune Luminary

(181.63 KiB) Downloaded 20 times

S8
Why does 'Stormy Dawn' benefit lawful units more than 'Stormy Day'?

It would make sense story wise if the prisoners did not spawn with full health. (Fits better the 'you are not in a shape to fight' narrative)

S10
I think something went wrong with unstoring my rescued allies. I rescued all of the prisoners in S9, but now I only get 2 allied units?

TBoW-Iron Storm.gz

(48.56 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

TBoW-Iron Storm-Auto-Save1.gz

(175.03 KiB) Downloaded 10 times

Amine's Shield (item)
According to the description the item shines with a powerful light such that during the night adjacent units fight like it's daytime. It 'only' turns night into dawn and dawn into day, so description is inaccurate or the implementation is wrong.

S11
It would make sense/enhance the story if units that get 'hit' by the fire breath take damage.

S12
Again, drakes and Sultanas troops have the same teamcolor.


Fairuzas AMLA
When picking feather touch, and afterwards picking the AMLA that enhances my melee hit chance, the 'slow, precision' of feather touch is replaced with 'precision'

TBoW-Dead Men's Tales Turn 29.gz

advance Fairuza once to check

(184.15 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

Same thing happens to her ranged slow when upgrading hit chance for ranged


Last Flower of the Ancients
1) Why is there no lose condition for the drakes reaching the cave first?
2) Why do the golems not switch to being allies once I reach the cave. :C

Last Flower of the Ancients, Camp
Maybe the light of wisdom guide you
-> May the light of wisdom guide you


Secrets of the Abyss
The allied merfolk have 'Selsebil Guardians' as teamname.

Spoiler:

Two things to heighten the tension at the end: Change the music when discovering Bahamut, and make Bahamut attack instead of running away. As it is, Bahamut just feels like any other Sea Monster, instead of actually special.

Achievement: Recruiting Nereus awards the 'recruit all special companions' even though I didn't recruit the Naga. (Maybe they exclude one another? Unclear)

Emerald Hell
The 'Robyn is still inside' dialogue doesn't trigger.

When discovering the King Roc, my ship appears on the map. Nothing stopping it from just leaving / now I have to protect it. Is that intentional?

Suggestion: Please make it possible for anyone to pick up the items in Emerald Hell, and let them be equipped in the next scenario. As it is, you need to now 10-15 turns in advance where to send which unit to be allowed to pick up these items. Which makes for a very annoying first run in that scenario when you realize you need to backtrack half the scenario.

TBoW-Emerald Hell-Auto-Save21.gz

ship and items

(234.01 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

Echoes of the Winds
The enemy scorpions have the attack special 'poison, magic, poison' -> poison being redundant (likely weapon specials got appended instead of replacing)

Crystal Desert
The ghosts and monsters don't leave the hex they start in. So no attacks or ambushes.
Also, the ice ghosts have the melee specials 'drain, slow, drain' -> drain being redundant (likely weapon specials got appended instead of replacing)


Taking a break of the campaign for a bit.

Replays

Spoiler:

TBoW-Eyes like Yours replay 20260201-214440.gz

(27.55 KiB) Downloaded 6 times

TBoW-Greater than Gold replay 20260201-221752.gz

(49.6 KiB) Downloaded 4 times

TBoW-Heat of the Night replay 20260204-054110.gz

(79.14 KiB) Downloaded 8 times

TBoW-The Shadows Unveiled replay 20260204-131825.gz

(78.33 KiB) Downloaded 20 times

TBoW-The Feather and the Sword replay 20260204-172839.gz

(113.5 KiB) Downloaded 11 times

TBoW-Dead Men's Tales Battle on the Waves replay 20260204-174837.gz

(73.48 KiB) Downloaded 7 times

TBoW-Dead Men's Tales replay 20260204-232343.gz

(122.67 KiB) Downloaded 14 times

TBoW-Flowers of Evil replay 20260204-234402.gz

(93.3 KiB) Downloaded 8 times

TBoW-Iron Storm replay 20260205-003012.gz

(119.11 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

TBoW-Duet in the Woods replay 20260205-114125.gz

(113.8 KiB) Downloaded 4 times

TBoW-Queen's Gates replay 20260205-120125.gz

(117.29 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

TBoW-Echoes of the Waves replay 20260205-135122.gz

(149.32 KiB) Downloaded 4 times

TBoW-Last Flower of the Ancients replay 20260205-232016.gz

(173.82 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

TBoW-Secrets of the Abyss replay 20260206-113729.gz

(120.16 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

TBoW-Emerald Hell replay 20260206-164810.gz

(141.62 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

[ZIM]

Hello, I have a question to ask, is it intended for the eminents to not appear as a playable unit despite being stated in the objective to be one of the loss condition should one of them die?

[lhybrideur]

Yes and

Spoiler:

they are actually sometimes playable under some conditions

[ZIM]

Yes and

Spoiler:

they are actually sometimes playable under some conditions

Thanks for the answer, I've thought it's a bug or something

[Otdoy]

A wonderful campaign! Sorry, I don't have much specific to say after the first playthrough, other than bossfights were too easy. In Temple of Souls, I ran into a bug where, having once switched Selke to her mer-shape, any later attempt to do so would trigger the right-click menu correctly but her sprite would not display correctly and of course, her landing on the target pad would not activate the cut scene. I had to start the scenario over again. Thank you for this lovely campaign!!

[linberson]

Hi,

I am enjoying the campaign, thank you for creating it. The level up mechanisms are quite fun and I also like the story.

I encountered a possible bug.

Temple of Souls

objective: find a human tomb with fadlan

I went and killed the corrupted mage/ the priestess and the scenario advanced, which I guess is not the intention.

[levante]

In The Golden Horde, I kill Eminent Suleyman and all enemies disappear but it doesn't trigger a victory.

Apart from that I've been enjoying the campaign so far.

Edit: solved it by quitting Wesnoth and starting the scenario from the beginning.

[revansurik]

Version 1.0.2 is out!

Code: Select all

Changelog v. 1.0.2

Scenarios
- Greater than Gold: if Zaina is convinced to withdraw, her whole side also disappears.
- The Phoenix City: fixed Mansur's duplicated traits; carryover gold now at 100%
- The Feather and the Sword: Drake side now has a different colour than allies
- Flowers of Evil: rescued allies no longer have full HP
- Iron Storm: all rescued allies from previous scenario should now appear
- Duet in the Woods: Drake enemy spawns with a proper team of bodyguards
- Emerald Hell: The Revenge should no longer be movable or vulnerable to enemy attacks

- Units
- Nerfed Dwarvish Airscout and Dragonwing a little
- Fairuza's "Feather's Touch" attack no longer has 'precision'; 'featherblade' amla should no longer overrides other weapon specials

Miscelanea
- various typos corrected

[Kyezoar]

In The Golden Horde, I kill Eminent Suleyman and all enemies disappear but it doesn't trigger a victory.

Apart from that I've been enjoying the campaign so far.

Edit: solved it by quitting Wesnoth and starting the scenario from the beginning.

I've come across this same bug, is there anyway to fix this without completely starting from scratch? Since I have no idea why this is happening.

And I don't feel good about using debug to force the map into a win condition. That works but I feel like I'm missing out on something important

[revansurik]

In The Golden Horde, I kill Eminent Suleyman and all enemies disappear but it doesn't trigger a victory.

Apart from that I've been enjoying the campaign so far.

Edit: solved it by quitting Wesnoth and starting the scenario from the beginning.

I've come across this same bug, is there anyway to fix this without completely starting from scratch? Since I have no idea why this is happening.

And I don't feel good about using debug to force the map into a win condition. That works but I feel like I'm missing out on something important

Seems like I overlooked this bug
I'll give it a look as soon as I can, just a questions:
- which version are you playing (1.18 or 1.19)?
- did you defeat any other enemy leader before defeating Suleyman? If yes, which?
- when you defeated Suleyman, did you get his 'last breath' message? Also, after he disappeared, did you get the conversation between the heroes (where they discuss what to do next)?

[Kyezoar]

In The Golden Horde, I kill Eminent Suleyman and all enemies disappear but it doesn't trigger a victory.

Apart from that I've been enjoying the campaign so far.

Edit: solved it by quitting Wesnoth and starting the scenario from the beginning.

I've come across this same bug, is there anyway to fix this without completely starting from scratch? Since I have no idea why this is happening.

And I don't feel good about using debug to force the map into a win condition. That works but I feel like I'm missing out on something important

Seems like I overlooked this bug
I'll give it a look as soon as I can, just a questions:
- which version are you playing (1.18 or 1.19)?
- did you defeat any other enemy leader before defeating Suleyman? If yes, which?
- when you defeated Suleyman, did you get his 'last breath' message? Also, after he disappeared, did you get the conversation between the heroes (where they discuss what to do next)?

Hi! Big fan of your work.

Anyway uh:
I am playing on the most recent version of 1.18, whatever Steam defaults to since that's how I'm playing Wesnoth
I did technically beat the elf leader using Robyn, but others booked it after defeating enough of their units sans the Drake Leader and the "other guy" that shows after like 10 turns I think? Suleyman just randomly walked out into the field so I took the opportunity to fry his ass.
When I did get Suleyman I did get the convo before he passed but once that "other guy" says "retreat" the convo ends and only all of my and my allies units are left. I tried breaking the dam to see if that would fix anything but that didn't see to do anything.

[Konrad2]

Crystal Desert
The ghosts and monsters don't leave the hex they start in. So no attacks or ambushes.
Also, the ice ghosts have the melee specials 'drain, slow, drain' -> drain being redundant (likely weapon specials got appended instead of replacing)

I didn't see this being adressed in the changelog of the last update. Is this still bugged, or did you fix it but forgot to put it in the changelog?