Switch out the undead faction
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Switch out the undead faction
Hi all,
Probably the most unsavory aspect of wesnoth from my perspective is the undead faction. Necromancy, the concept of corpses animated by evil spirits, ghosts, wraiths etc is one thing that affects my enjoyment of what is otherwise a great game. Just about every campaign contains a brush with these nasties. To this particular Christian, these elements, even parts of the "magic" thing, are something I would prefer to not be in the game.
A long time ago there was a game called Warlords by SSG. This game had similar elements, but it included a useful feature for those who disliked them. With a system preference change the undead/spirit units became other fantastic creatures, with the same stats but with a different names and descriptions.
My suggestion is to make the undead faction into the "evil" faction with twin sets of unit cfg files selectable by a game preference. One set of unit files would be the standard undead ones for those who like that sort of thing. The other would be another set with different names/descriptions. For play balance, the attributes of each unit would remain the same, only the names would be changed to protect the innocent.
I have begun this project with the 1.3.14 codebase for my own enjoyment, so I am aware of the issues involved - at least from the perspective of replacing the undead faction. Here is a list of changes I have made for my own wesnoth-light fork
1. Create new faction "Rockmen"
These evil creatures dwell deep within the earth, only venturing out rarely to the sunlit realm. Their flesh is like stone, making them generally immune to non-impact weapons (skeletal replacements). Certain rockmen are the "architects" (lich replacements) who have harnessed the elements to create fantastic machines of war (spirit replacements, mechanical race). To preserve game balance, the attributes of each rockman unit remains the same as its undead complement.
2. Slightly modify campaign text to replace undead story elements with rockmen versions. Vis the lost general, swamp of dread in HeirToTheThrone...
Point 1 above is really pretty easy, the campaigns will just work with the new units, as their ids are undead even if their names are the rockman variants. Point 2 is where things get a bit tricky as each story has "undead" elements woven into it. Possibly the scenario definition language could support testing a preference to emit two forms of text
e.g. Lisar says:
"Heh, little do they know how many EVIL_RACE_NAME have roamed the northern mountains of late!"
Thoughts?
Probably the most unsavory aspect of wesnoth from my perspective is the undead faction. Necromancy, the concept of corpses animated by evil spirits, ghosts, wraiths etc is one thing that affects my enjoyment of what is otherwise a great game. Just about every campaign contains a brush with these nasties. To this particular Christian, these elements, even parts of the "magic" thing, are something I would prefer to not be in the game.
A long time ago there was a game called Warlords by SSG. This game had similar elements, but it included a useful feature for those who disliked them. With a system preference change the undead/spirit units became other fantastic creatures, with the same stats but with a different names and descriptions.
My suggestion is to make the undead faction into the "evil" faction with twin sets of unit cfg files selectable by a game preference. One set of unit files would be the standard undead ones for those who like that sort of thing. The other would be another set with different names/descriptions. For play balance, the attributes of each unit would remain the same, only the names would be changed to protect the innocent.
I have begun this project with the 1.3.14 codebase for my own enjoyment, so I am aware of the issues involved - at least from the perspective of replacing the undead faction. Here is a list of changes I have made for my own wesnoth-light fork
1. Create new faction "Rockmen"
These evil creatures dwell deep within the earth, only venturing out rarely to the sunlit realm. Their flesh is like stone, making them generally immune to non-impact weapons (skeletal replacements). Certain rockmen are the "architects" (lich replacements) who have harnessed the elements to create fantastic machines of war (spirit replacements, mechanical race). To preserve game balance, the attributes of each rockman unit remains the same as its undead complement.
2. Slightly modify campaign text to replace undead story elements with rockmen versions. Vis the lost general, swamp of dread in HeirToTheThrone...
Point 1 above is really pretty easy, the campaigns will just work with the new units, as their ids are undead even if their names are the rockman variants. Point 2 is where things get a bit tricky as each story has "undead" elements woven into it. Possibly the scenario definition language could support testing a preference to emit two forms of text
e.g. Lisar says:
"Heh, little do they know how many EVIL_RACE_NAME have roamed the northern mountains of late!"
Thoughts?
No elf left behind