New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

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Dave
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New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by Dave »

To celebrate the upcoming release of Wesnoth 2000, we've decided to add a new faction to the game.

This will probably be a slightly controversial choice, but we've decided that the Wesnoth Canon should include the story of a loosely organized group of nomads, known as the Olof Rilpa, or simply 'Rilpa' (named of course after the mysterious aunt of Romulus in the story of the founding of Rome).

The Rilpa are traveling wagon people, providing entertainment services at various towns they stop at. However, with the rise of Asheviere, they decide to take up arms and fight.

We've decided to introduce a number of interesting mechanics for the Rilpa faction. Firstly, we have their powerful warrior, the minotaur:

Image

Still wearing the clothes of his trade the minotaur has taken up arms to fight. Since many people are afraid of clowns AND afraid of minotaurs, this unit has a special 'fear' ability. Only fearless units can retaliate against its attacks!

Next we have this satyr unit, which introduces an especially interesting mechanic:

Image

Whenever the satyr attacks it gets to kick the ball it's on under the unit it's attacking. This unit must then balance on the ball -- passing a random check each turn (dextrous units get a bonus to this check) -- and if it fails it falls off the ball and loses half its hitpoints! Then, when it attacks another unit, it may kick the ball under them. This will add a completely new dynamic to the game.

Next we have their scouting unit, the caravan:

Image

This unit has "Fortune Telling" abilities -- there is a fortune teller inside the caravan of course. This means that when it attacks you get to see the outcome of the attacks!

Finally, or course, the Rilpa use various creatures in their normal trade, and collect many types of odd specimens. Here we have the cat-caterpillar:

Image

Now of course, a creature like this has lots of feet/claws, so it gets lots of attacks! In fact, this is also part of a trial of a new randomness mitigation factor -- giving units many more, weaker attacks, so they never get very lucky or unlucky. This creature has a 0.2-100 attack! Yes, 100 attacks, but each one only does just 0.2 damage! To mitigate the power of this many attacks, on 25% of its attacks it has a 40% chance to heal 1 hitpoint, 70% of the time.

The Olof Rilpa faction is available on the add-on server now! Please try it out and give us your feedback.

David
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by StDrake »

Dave wrote: The Olof Rilpa
Ekhm! The Sloof Rilpa! Oh come on, how can the lead dev be such a bad typist! outrageous!

so does anyone still use that old calendar where it's not today?

putting aside calendar stuff, that's some pretty neat sprite outlines! is there anywhere we could find more? :D
Last edited by StDrake on April 1st, 2011, 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by jb »

This one has been under the radar for quite some time. Just a few clarifications. I'm afraid Dave jumped the gun on a few of the final stats.

But testing will be the final judge.

Currently the Rilpa are a bit weak vs. the elves. The Satyr's special attack is almost useless vs Dextrous units. However, the MInotaur's fear seems to effect them even more so than any other faction. This really puts the elves at a disadvantage when playing vs Rilpa.

As for the Cat-Caterpillar, it's damage type was changed to blade damage, instead of impact. This results in a change of (0.2/attack) to (0.125/attack) as oppossed to (0.28/attack). It only makes sense since the heal ability negates the Undead trait to some degree. It's simple, when you think about it.

Feedback is critical in balancing new units. As always, provide replays when possible.
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8680
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by 8680 »

Dave wrote:The Olof Rilpa faction is available on the add-on server now! Please try it out and give us your feedback.
I can't find it. Then again, today being what it is, that may be a good thing.
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by monochromatic »

8680 wrote:
Dave wrote:The Olof Rilpa faction is available on the add-on server now! Please try it out and give us your feedback.
I can't find it. Then again, today being what it is, that may be a good thing.
What do you mean? It's on the add-on server for sure! Testing it now. They rock, the Rilpa! :D
I do have a minor complaint though. Ever since I've been using Minotaurs, the AI always killed them with their Ghouls. The RNG sucks! Devs, you HAVE to nerf the Ghouls. Make them like 20 gold and remove the poison! Why? Because, I say so. You want replays? [censored] replays. You want to please users, not replay analysts! I don't want to submit a replay, I'm sure this a change everyone would want!
Last edited by monochromatic on April 1st, 2011, 6:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by Doc Paterson »

Some quick feedback:

Satyr rush is, generally speaking, very strong, though I hesitate to say it's OP. I couldn't find any way to counter it on Freelands, but found it a little more manageable on Den of Onis.

Haven't tried it yet, but can you confirm rumors that the satyr defense will be 70 on the "wood floor" terrain (only currently in 1.9x)? If you think that it will be important to the faction's general balance, I'll try to incorporate more wood floor into the maps.
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by StDrake »

There was a little bug in the minotaur, I hope this fixes it:
Spoiler:
Like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick ass with!
Don't like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick their asses! So everyone's happy :)
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by 8680 »

monochromatic wrote:What do you mean? It's on the add-on server for sure! Testing it now. They rock, the Rilpa! :D
I checked again and I still can't find it. Maybe you could post it here so I can try it?
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by StDrake »

It's there, but some bug makes it invisible if you don't have AFD set correctly
Like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick ass with!
Don't like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick their asses! So everyone's happy :)
Felinian faction is part of the Beyond Southern Hells era
kitties need sprites! art topic here
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by Dave »

Thanks for all the positive responses!

As an additional incentive to get people to try it out, I have the details on an additional unit, the faction's scout unit -- the caravan:

Image

Now this unit's special ability is "fortune telling" (very flavorful -- there's a fortune teller inside the wagon!) -- when it attacks you will be told the outcome of the attack before you choose whether to attack or not!
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by thespaceinvader »

You're a little late...
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by Dave »

Doc Paterson wrote: Haven't tried it yet, but can you confirm rumors that the satyr defense will be 70 on the "wood floor" terrain (only currently in 1.9x)? If you think that it will be important to the faction's general balance, I'll try to incorporate more wood floor into the maps.
Yes I think incorporating more wood floor like this would be useful in general. Thank you for considering new factions when balancing maps!
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by StDrake »

Dave wrote:([..]there's a fortune teller inside the wagon!)
I dare not ask how (s)he got in there..
Like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick ass with!
Don't like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick their asses! So everyone's happy :)
Felinian faction is part of the Beyond Southern Hells era
kitties need sprites! art topic here
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by Iris »

Dave wrote:To celebrate the upcoming release of Wesnoth 2000, we've decided to add a new faction to the game.
I am not happy about this unilateral decision taken without the consent of some of the other active core developers.

Also, “2000” is a poor branding decision. Year 2000 occurred approximately 11 years ago. If anything, it should be 3000.
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Re: New Faction for Inclusion in Wesnoth 2000

Post by Dave »

shadowmaster wrote: Also, “2000” is a poor branding decision. Year 2000 occurred approximately 11 years ago. If anything, it should be 3000.
It refers to the year 2000 in Wesnoth. Also this decision was made very carefully, in consultation with a brilliant developer who is going to have the new title Lord of Version Naming -- can you add that as a title on the forums please? Then we also need "Version Naming Developer" for developers who help this Lord of Version Naming with the naming choices.

David
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