Death is a Circle (0.2.0)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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AI
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by AI »

I'd like to point something about about the use of 'Mal', it's not a generic prefix for a lich's name, but reserved for the followers of Mal-Ravanal, see Turin's post about it. Unfortunately even mainline does this in DiD and UtBS.
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orcish_orc
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by orcish_orc »

I'm back and will continue working on DiaC, uh, maybe tomorrow.
AI wrote:I'd like to point something about about the use of 'Mal', it's not a generic prefix for a lich's name, but reserved for the followers of Mal-Ravanal.
Oh dear. Not sure what to change it to.
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Orcish Shyde
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by Orcish Shyde »

The Mal prefix gets used in DiD because the user used to be Malin Keshar; it's a logical shortening. More to the point, we don't know when DiD takes place; for all I know Mal-Ravanal could have taken his prefix from Mal Keshar. Given that Volk's whole plan in DiD is to learn how to become a lich, my theory on the matter is that Mal Keshar was the first lich to form since the downfall of Lich-Lord Jevyan, based on the fact that Volk had to resort to attacking a Wesnothian city to get the book that would make his apprentice a lich. But I digress.

The Mal prefix may have been invented by Malin Keshar, or by Ravanal, but that doesn't mean offshoots and imitators of Ravanal's cult couldn't use it. Mal M'Brin from TSG is probably the worst mainline offender because he used to be an elf, but I'd say any organised group of human necromancers would be justified in imitating Mal-Ravanal's prefix.
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by AI »

Orcish Shyde wrote:The Mal prefix may have been invented by Malin Keshar, or by Ravanal, but that doesn't mean offshoots and imitators of Ravanal's cult couldn't use it. Mal M'Brin from TSG is probably the worst mainline offender because he used to be an elf, but I'd say any organised group of human necromancers would be justified in imitating Mal-Ravanal's prefix.
Actually, it was used to imply that Ravanal's influence had spread that far south and Mebrin had actually become part of the cult. (TSG is set shortly before EI)

Taking the prefix as imitation sounds plausible, but this can of course only occur *after* EI and then probably only for those who have similar goals. (a mage who becomes a lich so he can study forever probably doesn't want to be associated with a cult hell-bent on the death of all living beings)
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Orcish Shyde
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by Orcish Shyde »

AI wrote:
Orcish Shyde wrote:Taking the prefix as imitation sounds plausible, but this can of course only occur *after* EI and then probably only for those who have similar goals. (a mage who becomes a lich so he can study forever probably doesn't want to be associated with a cult hell-bent on the death of all living beings)
Or after DiD, in imitation of Mal Keshar, who rediscovered how to become a lich and used his power in a quest that would have given necromancy a good name if Drogan wasn't such a jerk.

If Mal M'brin's meant to have renamed himself to be one of Mal-Ravanal's cult, then first, he should have got a 3-syllable name, possibly a 4-syllable name as he's an Ancient Lich in the bandit path; second, even not accounting for that, it should've been Mal-M'brin.

As for the motivations of Ravanal's cult, OK, I never got through enough of EI to get an explanation. Mainly because I hated the campaign for saddling you with Owaec... and not giving you enough turns to kill that troll and gryphon after Xenophobia... and having that search for the assassin on Owaec's intro level... and making you choose which of your best troops die in Evacuation... OK, I'll shut up now.
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by AI »

Yeah, it doesn't fit entirely, obviously the writer of TSG didn't listen to turin closely enough. ;)
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by jani »

when is 0.2 coming any idea?
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by orcish_orc »

jani wrote:when is 0.2 coming any idea?
Fear not I am working on it!

I get the feeling I'm rather slow, seeing some campaign authors write new scenarios so often...
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Turuk
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by Turuk »

Do not worry about it. Everyone knows that people have other responsibilities in this odd thing called "real life", and so some people may take longer to get stuff done then others. I would not think that you are really taking that long, if you look at some campaign threads, it took them months to get it all together. So just keep at it. :)
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Orcish Shyde
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by Orcish Shyde »

Commentary...

1) Tried playing, and while I like how Mal Festo is lacking in either Malin Keshar's tragedy or Gwiti Ha'atel's bastardry, I couldn't get to, what is it, scenario 5, after the necromancers are done talking? Attempting it got me the following message:
"The game could not be loaded: load_game_failed: Invalid starting position (-999,-999) for the leader of side 4."
I'm running version 1.4.5 on Ubuntu 8.10.

2) The first level should be edited a little. I managed it with 1 turn to spare, but my last 4 turns were nothing but Mal Festo walking towards the signpost with all the mages and the Paladin dead. Maybe you weren't intending for me to treat my WCs as cannonfodder; either way, if all enemies are dead Mal Festo should just say something like "Now that's settled, my way back should be clear" and trigger a win event.
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Turuk
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by Turuk »

Orcish Shyde wrote:2) The first level should be edited a little. I managed it with 1 turn to spare, but my last 4 turns were nothing but Mal Festo walking towards the signpost with all the mages and the Paladin dead. Maybe you weren't intending for me to treat my WCs as cannonfodder; either way, if all enemies are dead Mal Festo should just say something like "Now that's settled, my way back should be clear" and trigger a win event.
Orcish Shyde raises a good point that stands for a couple of levels in the campaign. No player likes to defeat all their enemies and then have to spend turns walking (and losing gold). So I would either make it so it ends if there are no enemies, or make more enemies to convey a sense of urgency to the player, giving them a reason to keep running to the signposts.
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by orcish_orc »

I've uploaded a fix to allow victory by killing all enemies in scenario 1; however the web interface does not seem to reflect it.

How long does it take for uploads to the campaign server appear on the web interface?
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by AI »

Instantly, did you bump the version number in the PBL?
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orcish_orc
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by orcish_orc »

Oops. Did not do that.
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Re: Death is a Circle

Post by orcish_orc »

Version 0.2.0 has been uploaded.

Changes:

*Increased enemy starting gold in scenario 1
*Increased number of turns in scenario 2
*Increased number of enemies in scenario 3

I think scenario 3 is too easy now.

But now that it is finished I can move on to working on new scenarios again ^^
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