New: Ooze Mini-Campaign

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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SpenceLack
Posts: 64
Joined: January 22nd, 2007, 4:29 am

Post by SpenceLack »

Thank you for all the feedback!!!

I updated the campaign to v1.0.1 on the dev server. I fixed an obscure bug with the arena, and made minor changes to music and dialogue.
After advancing, you can fight arbitrarily long in the Arena with essentially no risk, earning gold all the time. If you do it enough, this makes the last scenario relatively easy. What about giving more powerful monsters as you advance, so there is actually non-trivial risk?
I was worried about people exploiting the arena to make scenario 4 too easy. I thought about putting a limit on the number of times the arena could be used, saying something like ,"the arena has run out of monsters for you to fight." But then I thought, well, some players are going to need all the help they can get with scenario 4, so I better just leave arena usage to the player's discretion.

I did experiment with using level 2 monsters in the arena, once the player had reached level 4. It didn't work out too well though. Because the player is stuck fighting in sand with no opportunity to retreat, I wanted the arena to be consistently beatable as long as the player remembered to heal up after each fight. But using level 2 monsters, even once the player had reached level 4, made arena combat *much* more lethal. So I eventually decided to just keep it with the level 1 monsters. I'm still experimenting with it though so maybe I can come up with a better solution...
But one thing at the end the mage is very easy to kill.Maybe you will make another scenario ,where you can fight the mage
*Minor spoiler warning*
Originally the mage showed up with the Imperial cavalry on his side while the player was still fighting the orcs. That was too hard though, so I gave the player the cavalry and had the mage show up later. I think maybe the mage does need to be a bit more dangerous, I'm just worried that someone who just lost most of his units fighting the orc horde wouldn't be able beat the mage. But then, the player DID just get reinforcements, so maybe...2 additional level 2 bodyguards for the mage on Easy, 4 more bodyguards on Hard?
RandomKnight777
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Post by RandomKnight777 »

SpenceLack, your Mini Campaign made my day, and even enough to track down your topic here on the forum and register JUST to reply. :wink:

It may be small, but it is a most excellently made Campaign in my very own opinion, the story behind it was a fresh breeze in the face(in a good way) too.

Just finished it, on easiest level. Might try it on the harder level for the heck of it. <3

And about that Mage... being as Paranoid as I am, I had put a small circle of guards up at the northern entrance, a lesson learnt after the "Surprise" Naga Assault(Which also made me line up the left and right fort walls with a large amount of Woodsmen/Archers).

Do keep up the excellent work, SpenceLack!

/Random_Knight777

Note1: That idea about some more henchmen for the Mage would be a good addition, me thinks. :twisted:

Note2: The Epilogue part, it was a nice touch I might say add.
Angry Andersen
Posts: 205
Joined: September 15th, 2006, 1:22 pm

Post by Angry Andersen »

I played through the campaign yesterday and really liked it. It is quite unique and the story is great!

Combat was not very difficult (I played in hard mode). I got through the entire campaign without even loading once. But I did not see this as a weakness in the campaign, as the focus is more on the story than on battle.
HaJo
Inactive Developer
Posts: 174
Joined: August 7th, 2005, 11:52 pm
Location: DE

Post by HaJo »

This is a nice little campaign! I played v1.01 once on easy,
and are now halfway thru scenario 4 on hard.

Some remarks:

Scenario 1: the most difficult/timeconsuming monster is
the spider queen, because you can attack with only 2 units,
and she can kill one of yours each turn with her poison.
If you want to collect all the gold, you have to sit mostly idle
with the milita, waiting until the spider finally is done.

Scenario 2: The difficulty depends much on the first monsters
you get. E.g. insects are easy, and provide reinforcements,
but saurians are hard and often kill one of your units, resulting
in no gain and loss of time.

Scenario 3:
* The quintains could be a little bit more tough.
* The arena should have a bigger selection of monsters.
As is, only the drake can do some real damage.
When the hero reaches level 3, the bat and the young ogre
should be replaced with something a bit more tough.

Scenario 4:
* the key is guarding the rear with 2-4 cheap loads
of mixed peasants and woodmen.
* And of course, bringing in all the healing power
from scenario 3 is also helpful.
* At the front, just defend and heal/rotate as usual.
I'm not sure yet if poison is really cost-effective,
i.e. for 100 gold you can get a lot of fooder....
* If the player manages to defeat one wave completely,
a message "good work, but more orcs are approaching..."
would be nice.
* After the battle, there should be a dialog if the paladin
survived but Corinna has died.
Last edited by HaJo on August 3rd, 2007, 11:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-HaJo
Blarumyrran
Art Contributor
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Joined: December 7th, 2006, 8:08 pm

Post by Blarumyrran »

very nice (although, as mentioned, too short) campaign.

notes:
  • played at Hard, its too easy imho. especially the final level, i think you should lower the income somehow, or make the peasants/woodsmen/ruffians more expensive. a lot. maybe even twice or thrice more expensive. the weapon upgrades and poison cost ridiculous 100 & 150 gold, while peasants/woodsmen/ruffians swarming is so cheap (currently 100 gold = almost 17 ruffians, thats a way better use for the money than poison at any unit), so it renders the Shady Figure almost useless.
  • as said before, killing the grand mage (the Ooze creator) is also very easy, considering you have then, like, over 15 large oozes! he doesnt have a chance!
  • the arena is very tedious, basically the longer you care to practice, the stronger you get. its impossible to get killed. stronger monsters! or maybe many monsters at once! also, in case its already not so, i am for closing the arena once Master Ooze gets into an enchanteress.
HaJo
Inactive Developer
Posts: 174
Joined: August 7th, 2005, 11:52 pm
Location: DE

Post by HaJo »

Syntax_Error wrote:played at Hard, its too easy imho.
How about renaming the current "Hard" level to "Normal",
and adding a third level that is somewhat harder ?
make the peasants/woodsmen/ruffians more expensive
Just use the standard prices.
Each turn recruiting keeps our hero from joining the fight,
so recruiting gets boring after 4-5 turns anyway...

And if this wasn't the final level, the player would
not want to spend all his money...
the arena is very tedious,
Yes - some more kinds of monsters, some surprises would be nice.
But don't overdo it - storywise, it would be hard to explain lots of
high-level monsters in the arena, and then only peasants available
for defending the fort :)
i am for closing the arena once Master Ooze gets into an enchanteress.
It is better to stop training a few XP short of advancing to level 4,
so you can get one free healing during the siege.
-HaJo
SpenceLack
Posts: 64
Joined: January 22nd, 2007, 4:29 am

Post by SpenceLack »

Thank you for the great feedback! I have made an update and uploaded v1.1.1 to the public server.

What changed:
Level 1: The spider queen is now more accessible and the map is more traversable.

Level 2: The Forest Defender's starting gold was decreased. Her income was increased slightly on easy and significantly on hard. Basically this scenario was only hard at the beginning and only if the first wave of troops the Defender recruited didn't include many easy-to-kill spiders. Now her first wave will be smaller and thus easier to defeat regardless of what she recruits, but she will still be a threat in the long-term because of her increased income.

Level 3: Increased variety at the arena by adding goblin impalers and wolves as combatants, for a grand total of 7 random monsters. Now you will only be able to get up to level 3 at the arena, at which point you'll be able to fight a special battle against a level 2 monster. After that you'll lose access to the arena.

I'm pondering whether I should automatically restore the Master Ooze's hit points after each fight, rather than having the player go to the healer. This would eliminate tedium on one hand, but also eliminate the flavor of finding healing around the fort (by paying for a full-heal at the inn, getting a one-time full heal from Sithras if you accept him, getting healing from the high priest or Sir Dryden). For now I will leave it as is.

Level 4:
The upgrade costs from the Shady Character have been halved to 50 and 75 gold pieces (originally 100 and 150 gold pieces).

The mage now has significantly more bodyguards so he is not a pushover any more.

Fixed a few bits of dialogue here and there.
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Luke the Flaming
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Joined: October 18th, 2006, 6:25 pm

Post by Luke the Flaming »

Played ("easy" difficulty) and liked: interesting unusual ideas.
I especially enjoyed the third scenario (apart the training/arena: attack, end turn, repeat... go to heal, repeat all... quite boring to do so many times!).
Good work!

(... and of course, as anything you appreciate, you'd just like it to last a bit more. If you ever manage to add a scenario or two, it'd be great. But it's still a very nice mini-campaign as it it!)
O, Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
biren
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Joined: August 5th, 2007, 12:22 pm
Location: Israel

Post by biren »

Loved the campaign and the story when the ooze took over the elf.
Great :)
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DDR
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Yay!

Post by DDR »

I always wondered what a decent plague ability could do... :D
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Spiff
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Joined: August 24th, 2007, 2:47 am

Post by Spiff »

The campaign looks interesting, but version 1.0 crashed the game when I tried to load it, and I can't find an updated version on the server campaigns.westnoth.org . How can I get the campaign?
Weeksy
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Joined: January 29th, 2007, 1:05 am
Location: Oregon

Post by Weeksy »

by using wesnoth 1.3.6, the development version of wesnoth.
If enough people bang their heads against a brick wall, The brick wall will fall down
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DDR
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Post by DDR »

You should upgrade to 1.3.6, then you will find it on the 1.3.x server.
8) enjoy!
Weeksy
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Location: Oregon

Post by Weeksy »

you don't need to upgrade, you can have a dual install if you do it right, just make sure they're in different folders. And I would reccomend you keep a version of the 1.2 branch around until 1.4 comes out, as you might find some things lacking with 1.3's multiplayer content and server, or some of the main 1.3 campaigns containing big errors.
If enough people bang their heads against a brick wall, The brick wall will fall down
SpenceLack
Posts: 64
Joined: January 22nd, 2007, 4:29 am

Post by SpenceLack »

When Wesnoth v1.3.7 came out it broke the gold system of the mod (though it was still playable). I made a 1.3.7 -compatible version, and I'm posting it here. The mod is no longer on the dev server. I am working on making a version for the stable (Wesnoth v1.2.4) server.

What's new in Ooze Campaign version 1.1.2:
*Fixed the negative income bug in the first two levels that Wesnoth v1.3.7 introduced.

*The elder wose now starts invisible on level 2.

*The Corinna/Sir Dryden epilogue now has four possible outcomes depending on what happened in the mod.

Installation:

1.Unzip the zip file
2. Open up the wesnoth add-on campaign window (you can get there by running wesnoth in windowed mode and selecting Data-->User-->Reveal campaign folder from the menu).
3. Drag "Ooze_Mini_Campaign" and "Ooze_Mini_Campaign.cfg" into the window that opened up in step 2.
4. Select "Campaign" from the Wesnoth main menu screen, scroll down the list of campaigns to find the Ooze Mini-Campaign.
Attachments
Oozev1.1.2.zip
(437.68 KiB) Downloaded 601 times
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