Invasion from the Unknown (1.9.99) for Wesnoth 1.4

[docrock]

started with 0.2.3 on BfW 1.3.9 again on medium difficulty (the one which is called "difficult") to make faster progress. just finished it. some stats and thoughts:
- finished in turn 15 with 788 gold for next scenario
- units after scenario: 7x archer, 2x druid (yep, advanced them), 5x fighter, 5x hunter, leader (still a fighter)
- strategy: immediately go for the unoccupied village at (20,22). recruit only 2x shaman + hunters on first turn, spread out and build diagonal line of defense from the village to the mountains, continue recruiting archers and fighters and an occasional hunter the next turns, move line of defense so u always attack and defend from good terrain and enemy attacks from sand or grassland, where this is not possible cycle units around the shamans and the village for them to heal, first kill the horses with archers then slow the infantry with the hunters and defend with the fighters, after first attack wave is gone send one group down and one to the right with a little support in the middle, then kill the enemy leaders and whatever support they bring in and dont forget to take the villages in the southwest before the last leader goes down. of coz, it is imperative to level the shamans to get the better healing and give them some survivability for the next scenarios.
- thoughts: the first attack wave is tricky, as u have to kill the riders and at the same time withstand the infantry on not-so-good terrain (grassland). after that it's just slow-shoot-finish because the enemy imho recruits not enough ranged units which makes them easy prey for the hunter-archer-combo with shamans and fighters to finish them off.

[docrock]

finished scenario 2 "forced from home" now.
-made it to the caves by turn 7 with 283 gold for next level
-units after scenario: 7x archer, 2x druid, 5x fighter, 16x hunter, 1x scout, 1x sorceress, leader (still fighter ...)
-strategy: recall everything, then recruit only hunters, leave castle with heroes at end of turn 2 for the caves, build an arrowhead defense down left and below the castle from east to west, pull back defense formation by 2-3 hexes each turn when enemy arrives, kill compressed enemies in turn 7 with all-out assault to get all those nice xp for the newly recruited hunters, then move heroes into cave
-thoughts: using hunters here is good for slowing the enemy down and getting a nice wave of lvl2 and 3 enemy by turn 7 or 8 assembled at the frontline, besides that, as we are going into caves, looking at the movement of elves in caves hunters are plainly the fastest to get

[docrock]

finished "horrors from the depth"
-end turn was 49 with 1456 gold for next scenario
-units after scenario (not counting undead): leader (elvish captain by now), 1x enchantress (analia), 5x hunter, 2x shyde, 1x sorceress, 11x trapper
-strategy: recall only hunters till money runs out, defeat small-scalle opponents, recruit additional shaman and recall more hunters at first castle, then just went in and slowed everything down, feed kills to the casters, finish good ole mal keshar with 3x trapper + sorceress
-the tricky part is to not get stuck at the river, a quick breakthrough here is what counts, also good to attack from three sides after the river

[docrock]

made it "over the sands"
-needed 38 turns with 1884 gold for next scenario
-units at end of scenario: 1x ancient lich (mal keshar), 2x enchantress (analia + 1 other), 1x marshall (galas), 2x shyde, 1x ghost, 9x skeleton archer, 12x wraith
-strategy: recall only elven casters, recruit ghosts + skeleton archers (i just did like that dehydration mechanism was already there), used the speedy units (galas, ghosts, shydes) to go north and kill the orc then had them turn west and cross the map while the slow units (enchantresses, skeleton archers) used the gap in the mountains to cross diagonally, used leveled ghosts for scouting the unknown areas, the normal ghosts to get the kills
-thoughts: i wonder what all those empty space and the unused castles are for ..., besides that the skeleton archers are a menace to wolves, scorpions and ogres, just make sure to heal them, while the ghosts nicely deal with mudcrawlers and the like, as always stay away from orcish archers with ur undead and try to overwhelm them in one turn, actually i think this is doable completely without the archers on ghosts alone, but i wanted at least some balance for my undead for later scenarios

[docrock]

and there it is again, the dreaded recall-list bug, noticed that at the beginning of "crossfire" all units which had been in use last scenario (except the heroes) were doubled in the recall-list

[Iris]

and there it is again, the dreaded recall-list bug, noticed that at the beginning of "crossfire" all units which had been in use last scenario (except the heroes) were doubled in the recall-list

That's even more interesting, as those scenarios don't use any recall list modification code at all. I must investigate the cause. I guess it's up to me to fix it before 1.3.10 is out.

The gold amounts you are getting are fearsome, and this morning I was just rebalancing that. It will require play-testing that I'm not yet ready to do, and clean-up of 1.3.9+SVN-specific code and maps, though.

I might get to merge parts in the 0.2.x line this afternoon, but I don't promise anything.

BTW, thanks for the reports, they will help me do the balancing a lot.

[Iris]

Uploaded 0.3.0-beta1 (0.2.70) to the campaign server a few minutes ago.

So what's news?

Version 0.2.70:
2007-11-02:
- General:
* Bump campaign version: 0.2.3 to 0.2.70.
- i18n:
* Export to Wescamp
* Added translations: Spanish - ?? (Shadow Master)

2007-11-01:
- General:
* Added fallback music loader code in case the music pack is not installed
* Added a system to notify the code about music pack installation state
* Temporarily commented 1.3.9+SVN-specific "Outermap support" code by Mordante
* Temporarily commented 1.3.9+SVN-specific "store_side extension" code by Shadow Master
- Graphics:
* Updated/recolored base frames: Death Baron
- Units:
* Added units:
+ Converted Sidhe Spirit Warrior line to Elvish Spirits.
- Scenarios:
* 01 - Border Patrol
+ Code clean-up
+ Enemies are injected gold in later turns, amount of gold based on difficulty.
+ Reduced turn limit from {QUANTITY 45 44 42} to {QUANTITY 34 33 32}
* 02 - Forced from Home
+ Reduced minimum gold amount from 400 to <default>
+ Reduced income from {QUANTITY 10 8 5} to {3 2 0}
* 03 - Horrors from the Depths
+ Reduced minimum gold amount from 250 to <default>
+ Reduced income from 6 to <default>
* 04 - Over the Sands
+ Reduced income from {QUANTITY 4 4 3} to <default>
* 05 - Crossfire
+ Changed music from 'wanderer.ogg' to 'loyalists.ogg'.
+ Reduced income from {QUANTITY 6 5 4} to <default>
* 07 - The Elf and Goliath
+ Simplified recall-blocking algorithm; should workaround the recall
list duplication bug.
* 08 - Errand of Hope
+ Code clean-up
* 09 - The Library
+ Reduced income from 2 to <default>
* 10 - The Source of Light
+ Reduced income from {QUANTITY 2 2 1} to <default>
* 11 - Strike on Knalga
+ Reduced income from {QUANTITY 2 2 1} to <default>
* 12 - post interlude
+ Changed music from 'main_menu_new.ogg' to 'revelation.ogg'.
* 13 - Face your Fate
+ Simplified recall-blocking algorithm; should workaround the recall
list duplication bug.
* 14 - Bye and Behold
+ Code clean-up
* 15 - Interlude part 2
+ Marked as Finished
* 16 - Dealing with Orcs
+ Started code
+ Finished map (uses Outermap support)

2007-10-30:
- General:
* Use 1.3.9+SVN-specific code by Mordante to bump minimal version requirement
* Use 1.3.9+SVN-specific code by Shadow Master to bump minimal version requirement
- Units:
* Added units:
+ Imported Sidhe Spirit Warrior line from EE for testing (with graphics).

Note: the Elvish Spirits are not available after scenario 7 due to a known bug that will be solved next release, when I have time.

Note 2: The map for scenario 16 was removed, so you can't see it anymore. It's intended.

I did many gold balancing, but unfortunately, I have only had time to fix 1 balancing issue reported by docrock. Next time, I'll probably have all of them fixed.

Enjoy!

EDIT: about the musicpack, I changed the mechanism to pick up tunes that are not available in 1.3.9 under /data/core/music, by checking a symbol defined by the musicpack's config file. So, the only way to get the custom music working again would be to:

a) Manually hack Invasion_from_the_Unknown_Musicpack.cfg adding:

Code: Select all

#define INSTALLED_IFTU_MUSICPACK
#enddef

b) Redownloading the Musicpack after I say here that it's safe to do - I'm experiencing some internet connection problems here with the 11 MB I'm uploading. EDIT: it's safe now. I have just finished uploading the monster.

[Jami]

I've gotta say, I'm really impressed with the current status of your capaign. Aside from the slightly excess amound of gold that the player recives from the turn bonuses (particularily on the RPG levels. The third level in the caves comes to mind... 70 turns is nearly double the time required to pass it on easy. On meduim I was able to finish it in 49 turns.) makes it somewhat too easy at points.

If you would like, I could clean up your story text and dialogue somewhat. A lot of your text is somewhat awkward in english (probably because it isn't your first language. ^^), and although it's understandable... it can be reworked somewhat. I'm a fairly decent writer and I'd be more than willing to help if you would like.

I will include a text file with a redone version of the intro. (Just the intro for the first scenerio. obviously)

[docrock]

righty, with current release again then:
"border patrol", turn 15, 517 gold for next
-units: 7x elvish archer, 1x druid, 6x elvish fighter (including galas), 6x elvish hunter, 2x elvish shaman
-strategy: unchanged, xcept to recruit one more shaman and an additional archer to cope with increased difficulty
-thoughts: was kinda harder, but still with continued pressing one can overwhelm them too easily coz the ai is spreading units too far and does not coordinate between assault and caster units, which could maybe be automated by first having the ai to recruit a whole bunch of (slow on the terrain) casters and then the regular horses, invaders and sort of, which would then arrive as one wave at the player, making them much harder to handle and thereby extending turns the player needs and so cutting his gold for next scenario, well, and also, i dunno wml much but maybe there is something like "preferred terrain" as an option for the ai which would make them go into the hills and forests instead of getting them slaughtered on sand, still, this is one hell of a good story and really delivers kinda feelin for the campaign, bit more pressure on the player and it would be fine on standard difficulty, thanx for ur great work

edit: "horrors from the depths"
-finished on turn 6 with 332 gold for next (or well, or whatever be the defined starting gold ... which turned out to be 100, lol)
-surviving units (yes actually, pressure is a bit harder now): 7x elvish archer, 1x elvish druid, 6x elvish fighter (still including galas), 10x elvish hunter, 1x elvish scout (oh how i would like to work those horses into salami by now), 2x elvish shaman, 1x elvish sorceress (analia), 1x elvish trapper
-strategy: unchanged
-thoughts: much harder now, u really gotta run, which makes the whole thing kinda more realistic, still u can get a good outcome by moving smart which is good, finished one turn earlier now even

edit: lol, u wouldn't believe it, now recall list doubles from here on ...

[Iris]

I've gotta say, I'm really impressed with the current status of your capaign. Aside from the slightly excess amound of gold that the player recives from the turn bonuses (particularily on the RPG levels. The third level in the caves comes to mind... 70 turns is nearly double the time required to pass it on easy. On meduim I was able to finish it in 49 turns.) makes it somewhat too easy at points.

If you would like, I could clean up your story text and dialogue somewhat. A lot of your text is somewhat awkward in english (probably because it isn't your first language. ^^), and although it's understandable... it can be reworked somewhat. I'm a fairly decent writer and I'd be more than willing to help if you would like.

I will include a text file with a redone version of the intro. (Just the intro for the first scenerio. obviously)

Sure, go ahead, I appreciate it. After seeing how a developer is developing (redundance) a campaign specifically for mainline, I got inspiration for making this darn thing "mainline-quality". I'll include your first text revision in the next... revision.

And about the turn limits, well, people complained me about the limit being too low, and I raised it, but it seems I exaggerated a bit (perhaps a lot :p).

docrock: perhaps you could try to post your progress in a single post, by editing it. So I could keep an eye on it more easily and carry it to home easily. Thanks for the time.

EDIT: wait... preferred terrain? I was not aware of it being implemented on AI. This could make my minions a lot more smart against the player...

[zhenlan]

Just wanted you to know - this is one of the most enjoyable campaigns that I've played thus far in several years. So thanks for writing this.

That aside, I've noticed many errors in the script that the characters say each level; some are typos others can be reworded to fit the situation more.

I can clean that up for you if you'd like. But there are some parts where I have no idea what the intended message is so that's going to need some clarification from you.

--

Oh and yes the gold is insane - it's a massacre every level.

The Zhukov doctrine. You can't go wrong with it.

[Deliverator]

edit: "horrors from the depths"
-finished on turn 6 with 332 gold for next (or well, or whatever be the defined starting gold ... which turned out to be 100, lol)

Err, I assume you mean turn 60-something?

Matt

[docrock]

edit: "horrors from the depths"
-finished on turn 6 with 332 gold for next (or well, or whatever be the defined starting gold ... which turned out to be 100, lol)

Err, I assume you mean turn 60-something?

Matt

doh, of coz this was meant to be "forced from home"

[Jami]

Story intro revisions for "Forced from home", "Horrors from the Depths", and "Over the Sands"

[Iris]

Thanks Although we aware you have got competition, I shall update the text in the campaign according to which one:

a) fits better the general plot
b) fits the general style
c) is more 'mainline-quality'

BTW, I'm delaying 0.3.0-beta2 waiting for Wesnoth's 1.3.10 release, which should be this week or the next.