"Story" or "Trainer" difficulty level for mainline campaigns

[Blutkoete]

Hello!

I know my suggestion might (or will for sure) cause opposition, it's a suggestion that fits my (maybe rare) kind of player.

Suggestion in one sentence: Add a difficulty level to all mainline campaigns that's so easy you can't possibly lose.

Explanatory Statement: I love Battle of Wesnoth. I love games with a story. I don't have that much time at hand all the time, but still want to know how stories end. I start nearly all games on "easy" difficulty level, play them through, and if I liked the game and the story, I try it with a higher difficulty level (e.g. Deus Ex or the Heir of the Throne Campaign in Wesnoth). At the moment, I'm cheating by modifying the WML units code (making my starting hero a superman) of campaigns, but maybe there are others like me who are not looking for a challenge in the first place, but for a nice interactive story.

Example given, I cheated myself through "Descent Into Darkness" and decided to beat it on easy and then normal afterward because I liked the story (all units configs set back to normal of course).

I don't know if there are other people like me out there, but if, you might consider adding a "Trainer" or "I want the story without a challenge" difficulty setting for all mainline campaigns. It won't hurt normal players (they don't have to pick that "Story only, no challenge" difficulty level).

Thank you very much for reading this & making such a good game,

Blutkoete

[Gambit]

There are transcripts on the wiki.

[Blutkoete]

Yes, but that's not the same as playing it. There is a difference between playing a scenario with kind of "super powers" and just reading the dialogues in a Wiki and/or the CFG files.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Basically, you're asking for a cheat mode. I'm completely opposed to this. If you want to modify the campaigns to make such a thing, fine, but what's the point of playing a game you can't lose? We lose all pretense of even being a game if we start going down that road.

[Ferrous]

If you're having trouble beating a scenario, can't you just rewind the game back to turn x and try again?

[thespaceinvader]

Are you trying to say easy isn't easy enough?

[PeterPorty]

Well, it actually isn't easy enough, in fact I think I lost my first 10 attempts at wesnoth... anyway, I don't think this would be a good idea...I mean... if you want to just read the story, use debug system... so yeah, an even easier difficulty wouldn't be a good idea....

[Sangel]

Are you trying to say easy isn't easy enough?

I think so, yes.

For many of the mainline campaigns, the lowest level of difficulty is "Normal" or even "Challenging". This may be too high a difficulty level for some players. I can see why they'd appreciate an extra mode so that they can experience these campaigns in full.

The problem with this approach, as I see it, is that it would require the creation, balancing, and maintenance of an entirely new difficulty level for every Wesnoth scenario in every mainline campaign. Even if you're attempting to balance for "trivially easy", that's still an awful lot of work, and adds an additional maintenance burden to the mainline campaigns.

[Blutkoete]

Are you trying to say easy isn't easy enough?

Jein, as people say in German if they mean "Yes and no".

It's not that I'm not able to beat a scenario of the mainline in the "Easy" mode. But there are lots of campaigns with an interesting story, which I would like to experience without having to put too much brains in it. Some people like the challenge and the moment when they finally beat the scenario. I'm more interested in the story than in the challenge. I don't want to win instantly, but to be able to experience the story of a campaign without ... to be precise ... thinking.

Maybe it's just me, but if I want a challenge, I want a challenge. If I want a challenge, I pick a campaign with a good story and play it in medium or hard mode. If I don't want a challenge, I want the story. I'm probably not a good Wesnoth player because of that. But I would like to know how some campaigns unfold themselves.

It wouldn't need any balancing because it needn't be to be balanced. It's just that I would like to be able to enjoy the storyline of mainline campaigns without having to think too much about tactics.

Like I said: For me it's the story, not the challenge.

[thespaceinvader]

Honestly, if you want a story, read a book this is a video game, and it needs to hold some challenge, even on the easy modes.

[Hulavuta]

Hasn't anyone mentioned debug mode? It's meant for testing but can be used as a cheating system. You can spawn any kind of unit, make enemies dies with one attack even if you miss, etc.

[uzy5o]

Can't you just go to debug mode and keep using "n" to skip to the next scenario?

[Weeksy]

You can do all sorts of things if you want to, but they tend to make gameplay less fun.

[Zarel]

Can't you just go to debug mode and keep using "n" to skip to the next scenario?

You'd miss a few scripted events. Simple enough just to make your units superpowerful in debug mode.

[HomerJ]

If I am not completely mistaken, biggest difference in the difficulty levels come from opponent gold, starting gold, opponents recruitable units, turn limit. I think all of those can be very easily adjusted by debug mode, so everyone willing to look at the debug commands wiki can make any campaign as easy as he wishes.
A wikipage/ forum thread could be opened for people posting their settings which they felt comfortable with.
However, this should have to be done by the users themselves not the devs, which is often the most crucial part of a good idea.

Willkommen und viel Spass im Forum!

Greetz
HomerJ