The Unstoppable Legion - version 0.6.0 - but for Wesnoth 1.2

[Chris NS]

Per author's request, this is hereby locked.
-- Shadow Master

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Right you funky disco-dancing groovers. Here's my attempt at a campaign. It's three scenarios long so far, but I've got a rough idea of the entire storyline in my head. (I work on the philosophy that the best storylines in computer games are the ones that squeeze in every cliche imaginable.) Please tell me what you think of this so far, in particular with regard to balancing. Is it too easy or too hard?

Thanks / apologies to everyone who contributed to the Imperial and extended eras, because I've nicked and adapted a lot of the material.

EDIT: Oops. Forgot .cfg file. Try it now.

EDIT 2: This has now been changed to 0.1.0a. This is to correct a nasty bug that caused the bad guys to hack themselves to bits. Hopefully it should work now. The new versions now have the .cfg file included.

EDIT 3: Oh, and this is written for version 1.1.x. If you're determined to get it to work for 1.0.x, there's a workaround below.

THE MOTHER OF ALL EDITS: For some reason, people are still downloading version 0.1.0a even though I have attached later versions further on in this thread. Unless you are interested in old versions for historical reasons, go on to page two and you'll find a shiny new version 0.1.2.

[Ewan]

Unless I'm missing something (quite possible), we need the campaign .cfg file as well as the folder to install this.

[l'ultimo cruco]

...
Please tell me what you think of this so far, in particular with regard to balancing. Is it too easy or too hard?
...

Nice, very nice, so far. I liked especially the 3rd scenario, as I thought it would be impossibile to get anywhere with just horse units against skeltons, instead it worked

Played on medium

Scenario 1
ok, as it is.

scenario 2
the dark riders are the same side as the orcs, so as soon as they appear they first slaughter the dark legion units, with the bad guy (lvl 3 necromancer, can't remember his name) before finishing off your ally.
For the rest it seems ok.

scenario 3
very nice, but maybe you should give the bad guy some money when his minor ally is killed, so you have some trouble getting at him. Nice map as well.

Thanks so far, looking forward for the rest of it.

[Chris NS]

Nice, very nice, so far. I liked especially the 3rd scenario, as I thought it would be impossibile to get anywhere with just horse units against skeltons, instead it worked

Thanks for an encouraging start. Don't get too smug about the 3rd level though. On "hard" you're fighting skeleton archers.

scenario 2
the dark riders are the same side as the orcs, so as soon as they appear they first slaughter the dark legion units, with the bad guy (lvl 3 necromancer, can't remember his name) before finishing off your ally.
For the rest it seems ok.

Not sure what you meant here. The Dark Riders are very much intended as part of the ace baddie's side, and this scenario is meant to be the first one where the good guys lose. Certainly if the dark riders meets the orcs, they will fight.

I'm still wondering whether the dark riders should appear sooner. I intend for the Dark Riders to be snapping at your heels fairly quickly.

scenario 3
very nice, but maybe you should give the bad guy some money when his minor ally is killed, so you have some trouble getting at him. Nice map as well.

Thanks so far, looking forward for the rest of it.

I can see a case for that, because when Jaan Delfris tells you the fight against him won't be so easy, he'll have something to show for it. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to encourage keeping Muff Morran alive in order to avoid the reinforcements. I'll wait and see if there's a consensus before acting on that.

Thanks for the feedback. Hope to post another version when there's five scenarios.

[santi]

Nice campaign so far, but have you playtested on all levels? I tried on hard(challenging) and had problems with the 1st scenario. The point is:
1) Victor is too weak, too slow and no match for the dark fighters if he tries to run straight South
2)therefore he either has to wait, make enough kills so he levels off( without getting killed, which I do not see feasible) or take a detour east
The problems are that a) you have no control over the allies who do not help him create an opening(all troops recruited are sent north),
b) if he waits long enough for an opening or the chance for a detour,
Rufus gets killed

So it looks to me like hard is not beatable right now. Maybe a dialog to the extent "Since you are our only hope we will help you try to break through" with a subsequent transfer of command to the human player
is in order. Besides, there is no strategy value if you have no units to command and no control over the battle

[Chris NS]

I just tried playtesting on hard now and got Viktor through to the Southern fort as normal. I delibrately went easy on Dark Fighters to the south so that Viktor can get through. The key is to not take on any Dark Fighters (other than perhpas with the bow as you pass by) until you've got some recruits with you.

l'ultimo cruco: just realised what you meant by the Dark Riders being on the orcs' side. Ah, crap. It's never done that before. I can't understand why it's doing this. Help! Can anyone squish this bug? Looks like I may need to visit the WML workshop.

[santi]

ok, I'll try going straight south (after the dark figthers branch off to attack the guards), but still: Even without retaliating(the Dwarven door strategy in HttT) two dark fighters can kill Victor in 1 round. [Unlike Dwarven door, here you do not have any other units riding with Victor to take blows for him.] When I tried similar strategies, I found out they're faster than Victor and they do gang up on him fast.
Not sure what would happen if there are bandits with less hp than Victor though.

[santi]

Ok, got it, but still lose:

1) I do not get (on hard) to kill the enemy leader by turn 15. I am at a phase where the tide has turned and I have levelled the horseman, a cavalryman and Victor himself(obviously this is not achievable without fighting), yet
-if Rufus survives by move 15, sir Deoran tells Victor about no way to lead
and he loses
-in one case, Rufus was very low on hp, but I had cleared all enemies in the forest and the only enemy forces were in the enemy's keep
Instead of retreating to a village in the forest, Rufus goes straight to a village right outside the enemy's keep and gets himself killed.
So Rufus sure cannot be passive leader, but he needs more acution


The origin of the problem is that Deuterus never reveals himself. At first I thought that was because on Victor's going down I picked a fight with a dark fighter (winning 1 XP point at the expense of a few 8pts since
he cannot make quick kills later on), but even when I changed that
Deuterus never shows himself...

[Chris NS]

In order for Deuterus to appear, Viktor must attack an enemy unit after making it to the keep in the south. Simply attacking an enemy unit on the way down isn't enough - you must attack one on the way back. If you're worried about losing HP, use your bow. If Deuterus hasn't appeared by the end of the scenario, you lose no matter what (because without Deuterus you don't get offered the chance to save the world).

I am conscious of Rufus getting himself killed and I've tried to set the paramaters to offset this. However, I did want to make protecting Rufus part of the strategy of this game. If there's a consensus that on hard Rufus gets killed to easily, I'll consider changing this, but it's called "Hard" for a reason.

If Deuterus still isn't appearing, this could be a bug. I might need to see a replay. (Actually, coming to think of it, can you save replays on defeats?)

I do assure you that "hard" can be beaten though.

EDIT: Just realised something important. Are you playing Wesdnoth 1.0.x? If so, that would explain why Deuterus isn't appearing, because it uses a WML tag that only works in the 1.1.x branch. To make this work with 1.0.x, go into line 727 of "An_Unlikely_Hero.cfg" and change "attack_end" to "attack".

[santi]

ok, Victor levelled off of course after making it to the keep south. the problem was I was playing in 1.02...
Sure, hard is beatable, and protectig Rufus is fine, the only hard thing is to protect him from himself. When Victor and his forces have wiped out all the baddies from the forest and Rufus has only 1 HP left but no enemy unit can touch him, why doesn't his lay low instead of boldly go on to the attack? As far as I can see the only hard thing on hard is to defeat the enemy in 15 turns
-but on the other hand I was playing without Deuterus....

BTW sure you can save replays of defeats

[santi]

Ok, still on 1.02 hard got to kill the enemy leader on Rd15, just before Deoran was to appear. Now on scenario 2, interestingly enough the orcs try an assasination strategy(i.e. go all out for Victor) which I thought the AI only does for the 1.1 tree.(similarly it leaves its own leader open to assasination, but this is risky).
My question is when the dark riders appear, why do they slaughter the rest of Zaragorn's forces, including the leader?
Or is this again a 1.02 thing?


Nice campaign, BTW. Keep it up

[Chris NS]

My question is when the dark riders appear, why do they slaughter the rest of Zaragorn's forces, including the leader?
Or is this again a 1.02 thing?

Nope. It's a bug, fixed in 0.1.0a.

[Chris NS]

And now, introducing version 0.1.1. Now with a fourth scenario, but also significant adjustments to the second and thrid. I've not yet playtested the new scenario on anything harder than "Easy", so if you beat it on Medium or Hard, please say so.

Oh, and it probably won't be compatible with 0.1.0 so you'll have to start from scratch, I'm afraid.

[bignall]

I noticed while playing that the Bowknight has

Advances to:

so I checked the cfg to see what it was supposed to advance to, which is Arendian Bowmaster,Arendian Mounted Marksman, but I could not find any .cfg that has these in them.

[edit]
Also got an error when it was trying to advance a unit to Chaos Knight.

[Chris NS]

I noticed while playing that the Bowknight has

Advances to:

so I checked the cfg to see what it was supposed to advance to, which is Arendian Bowmaster,Arendian Mounted Marksman, but I could not find any .cfg that has these in them.

That's because I haven't yet finished the lines up to level 3 for the custom units. Hope to have that done in time for 0.1.2.

Also got an error when it was trying to advance a unit to Chaos Knight.

Oops. That's a bug. Well spotted. Fixed.

To fix it yourself, in the .cfg file change the advance to line to "Dark Warrior".