Intentionally silly campaign: Shameless Crossover Excuse

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
Orcish Shyde
Posts: 303
Joined: October 13th, 2008, 6:13 pm

Intentionally silly campaign: Shameless Crossover Excuse

Post by Orcish Shyde »

Thanks to a discussion about The Dark Hordes and how Gwiti's portraits have been borrowed by mainline campaigns, I had an idea for an entirely out of continuity, timeline screwing campaign in which Gwiti Ha'atel gets revenge for having his portraits used by other units. Obviously, this is never intended to make mainline.

Working title: Shameless Crossover Excuse.

As for scenario & plot (insofar as a plot can possibly fit in with the basic idea):

1. Gwiti Ha'atel stumbles upon that valley from Northern Rebirth. Ro'Arthian isn't there, but Ro'Sothian is, prompting an argument over the portraits between the two liches which quickly descends into a fight to the death. After winning, Gwiti realises that this means he's got the power to mess with Wesnoth's continuity, somehow.

2. Using his newfound evil magic, Gwiti travels to the final battle of Heir to the Throne, in the hope that the Dark Queen Asheviere will appreciate his assistance and thus help him avenge the use of his portraits. After killing Konrad, Li'sar, and Delfador, and turning them into walking corpses, he tries to secure Asheviere's further aid, but she declines on the basis that her portrait is pants and she needs to work towards getting a better one. Of course, should anyone make a better-looking pic for Asheviere, it wouldn't be used in this campaign.

3. Returning to the north, and further buggering the continuity, Gwiti runs into Kapou'e, who is losing badly against the elves. In return for Gwiti's assistance, Kapou'e agrees to help hunt down the remaining targets, Darken Volk and Malifor.

4. Gwiti and Kapou'e, as leaders of different factions both controlled by the player, stumble upon Darken Volk and Malifor arguing over who gets to reanimate a swamp full of corpses. Since the orcs and the Ha'atel are hostile to them both, Volk and Malifor agree to put their dispute off in favour of joining forces for an epic battle against a common foe. They lose, and Gwiti and Kapou'e part ways.

5. Finally, Gwiti assaults Mal Keshar's cave in an immature attempt to somehow prove that he's the cooler campaign protagonist. Since it's required for the campaign to advance, he wins.

6. Dialogue scenario in which Gwiti realises he's no longer in the mainline timeline anymore, and gets pissed off because this means he hasn't got rid of the people who used his portraits after all. End of campaign.
Last edited by Orcish Shyde on December 14th, 2008, 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
Shameless Crossover Excuse
Necromancer (campaign)

You are a Dwarvish Berserker: you're freaking crazy and enjoy it.
TheGreatRings
Posts: 742
Joined: January 26th, 2008, 10:39 pm
Location: On the front line of battle, defying hopeless odds

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by TheGreatRings »

I don't know. Could be good. I'll probably play it if you ever finish it.
"One man alone cannot fight the future"-
The X-files

"Send these foul beasts into the abyss"-Gandalf
User avatar
Turuk
Sithslayer
Posts: 5283
Joined: February 28th, 2007, 8:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Turuk »

If it was well-written enough to go along with the tongue-in-cheek humor the scenarios encourage, I think it could prove to be hilarious.

There is a whole gamut of little jokes that could be inserted into this. Now you just have to make it. :)
Mainline Maintainer: AOI, DM, NR, TB and THoT.
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
User avatar
Espreon
Inactive Developer
Posts: 630
Joined: June 9th, 2007, 4:08 am

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Espreon »

Heh, sounds quite funny. I would play it once you finish making a playable scenario. (Assuming you distribute it at such an early stage)
User avatar
docrock
Posts: 259
Joined: October 27th, 2007, 1:32 pm
Location: the wild southern forests of germany

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by docrock »

that could actually be great fun especially for those accustomed to the "must-have" campaigns. though i would like to see a lich by the name of Mal Bundy in there too.
Postings may contain traces of sense.
The ministry of health warns:
Living is dangerous to your health and may finally result in death.
You are a Dwarvish Berserker: you're freaking crazy and enjoy it. (100% ...)
User avatar
Orcish Shyde
Posts: 303
Joined: October 13th, 2008, 6:13 pm

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Orcish Shyde »

Right, I'm currently having an epic WML failure with the first scenario and I can't see what I'm doing wrong. It's meant to be showing my edited Dread Lich as the campaign icon but isn't, and it claims "Unknown scenario '01_That_Valley_from_Northern_Rebirth'" when I try to start it. Attached is the non-working campaign.

Mal Bundy seems like a bit of a bad pun, and you're already facing 3 liches as main enemies. Maybe Mal Keshar has Mal Bundy as his apprentice; as I recall FAEA still lets you recruit Dark Adepts, so he must have a source of people from somewhere.
Attachments
Shameless_Crossover_Excuse.tar.gz
(17.72 KiB) Downloaded 627 times
Shameless Crossover Excuse
Necromancer (campaign)

You are a Dwarvish Berserker: you're freaking crazy and enjoy it.
User avatar
docrock
Posts: 259
Joined: October 27th, 2007, 1:32 pm
Location: the wild southern forests of germany

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by docrock »

lich? did i say lich? no, of cause he has to be a DA. selling shoes to female ghouls. and really, he has to have the loyal trait.
Postings may contain traces of sense.
The ministry of health warns:
Living is dangerous to your health and may finally result in death.
You are a Dwarvish Berserker: you're freaking crazy and enjoy it. (100% ...)
User avatar
Turuk
Sithslayer
Posts: 5283
Joined: February 28th, 2007, 8:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Turuk »

I did not get far enough to fix the scenario issue, but I did identify the problem with the lich not showing up as an icon.

I will try to look into it more later.
Attachments
_main.cfg
(1.44 KiB) Downloaded 587 times
Mainline Maintainer: AOI, DM, NR, TB and THoT.
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
AI
Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by AI »

docrock wrote:lich? did i say lich? no, of cause he has to be a DA. selling shoes to female ghouls. and really, he has to have the loyal trait.
'Bundy' has two syllables, so I say he's a DS. :P
User avatar
Orcish Shyde
Posts: 303
Joined: October 13th, 2008, 6:13 pm

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Orcish Shyde »

Thanks for sorting out the image Turuk! *will check the corrected code for future reference later*

Though I don't get what you mean by "didn't get far enough to sort the scenario problem", given there's only one scenario. If you got to it at all, then it's a problem at my end only...

Meanwhile I'll have to change the plot a little. Since Darken Volk is such an unlikely name for anyone to really have even in context, I've decided you fight Volk when your undead army interrupts the Volk Family Reunion. The "Volk isn't a good surname" gag will sadly run out of steam quickly, so I plan to have only 2 of his inlaws show up, disappointed at his not having his own portrait yet, then become leaders of allied armies when Gwiti attempts to kill him.
Shameless Crossover Excuse
Necromancer (campaign)

You are a Dwarvish Berserker: you're freaking crazy and enjoy it.
User avatar
Turuk
Sithslayer
Posts: 5283
Joined: February 28th, 2007, 8:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Turuk »

Not a problem! By not sorting out the scenario problem, I did indeed mean that I could not fix the issue of making that one scenario show up. By not far enough I meant that I was not able to make enough progress with the code to make the first scenario work, I tried a few things but still no luck.

I see what you mean, what I said was a bit confusing, but no, I was not able to get it to play at all.
Mainline Maintainer: AOI, DM, NR, TB and THoT.
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
User avatar
Orcish Shyde
Posts: 303
Joined: October 13th, 2008, 6:13 pm

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Orcish Shyde »

Well, you got A Rough Life working, there must be something I'm doing wrong. Which seems odd given I ripped the code from A Simple Campaign, which _did_ work on my machine.

Yeah, the basic plot post will need to be edited, as I've decided Malifor deserves his own level too - a scenario where he and a couple of his Draugs are facing off with Mal Festo, who has hired a Death Knight called Mal Capone to hire outlaws to help him, and where - of course - Gwiti decides to attack the two other liches for using his Dread Lich pic.
Shameless Crossover Excuse
Necromancer (campaign)

You are a Dwarvish Berserker: you're freaking crazy and enjoy it.
User avatar
Turuk
Sithslayer
Posts: 5283
Joined: February 28th, 2007, 8:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Turuk »

For what it's worth, I am going to take a break from poring over A Rough Life to try and see what is acting up in your campaign. It's been bugging me since I could not figure it out the first time.

Mal Capone. A nice touch.

EDIT:

HA! Just at the limit of my frustration, as always, the WML gods see fit to smile down on me. Fixed. Works like a charm.
Attachments
Shameless_Crossover_Excuse.zip
(29.36 KiB) Downloaded 597 times
Mainline Maintainer: AOI, DM, NR, TB and THoT.
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
Skizzaltix
Posts: 1114
Joined: December 9th, 2005, 2:38 am

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Skizzaltix »

This sounds interesting--Can't wait to see it finished.

...I seem to recall that at one point I intended to make a campaign where the main characters were named after Wesnoth acronyms... Maybe I should get around to doing that.

Edit:
Oh, by the way, will Darken Volk's wealthy cousin Swagen be coming to the reunion?
User avatar
Orcish Shyde
Posts: 303
Joined: October 13th, 2008, 6:13 pm

Re: Idea for an intentionally silly campaign

Post by Orcish Shyde »

I'll DL the fixed .zip when I'm home from work. In the meantime, I find myself hoping that the latest TDH release has code for the Initiate (Gwiti) line that will work in 1.4, since I can't be bothered to try compiling 1.5 on Ubuntu right now. For some reason.

Meanwhile, the Malifor level gets changed on the drawing board yet again as I'd rather have a slightly longer job than have to attempt to imitate Taurus' big map design skills. (Besides which, large maps aren't my cup of tea even done well, although I _loved_ the final battle of SotBE).

The plot of SCE (my campaign has an official acronym, yay!) is now as stands:

1. Gwiti Ha'atel stumbles upon that valley from Northern Rebirth. Ro'Arthian isn't there, but Ro'Sothian is, prompting an argument over the portraits between the two liches which quickly descends into a fight to the death. After winning, Gwiti realises that this means he's got the power to mess with Wesnoth's continuity, somehow.

2. Using his newfound evil magic, Gwiti travels to the final battle of Heir to the Throne, in the hope that the Dark Queen Asheviere will appreciate his assistance and thus help him avenge the use of his portraits. After killing Konrad, Li'sar, and Delfador, and turning them into walking corpses, he tries to secure Asheviere's further aid, but she declines on the basis that her portrait is pants and she needs to work towards getting a better one. Of course, should anyone make a better-looking pic for Asheviere, it wouldn't be used in this campaign.

3. Returning to the north, and further buggering the continuity, Gwiti runs into Kapou'e, who is losing badly against the elves. In return for Gwiti's assistance, Kapou'e agrees to help hunt down the remaining targets: Darken Volk, Mal Festo, Mal Keshar, and Malifor.

4. Somewhere else in the north, a few centuries back, Darken Volk attends the Volk Family Reunion. As it's dying down, with only Darken, Swagen, and Petunia Volk left, Gwiti and Kapou'e lead their separate armies in a pincer maneuver to get rid of Darken. Naturally, the three Volks each have an army ready. Victory on killing Darken; early finish bonus is increased if you kill Swagen and Petunia as well. For variety's sake Swagen recruits L3 Loyalists despite being a (probably custom) L0 unit while Petunia the Red/Arch Mage chucks mudcrawlers and Drake mercenaries at you. You don't get Kapou'e in the next mission - if you didn't kill Swagen and/or Petunia, he stays behind to finish them, and if you did, he stays behind to resupply because, you know, living people need to.

5. In a clearing somewhere, Mal Festo and his undead army are trying to convince Mal Capone to lend them the services of his outlaws when Gwiti marches in, assumes the worst, and attacks them both. For some reason he has nothing but Walking Corpses to work with; fortunately, he also finds an ACME Orb of Spamming, guaranteed to increase a general's income to absurd levels for 1 scenario.

6. In the depths of winter Gwiti assaults Mal Keshar's cave in an immature attempt to somehow prove that he's the cooler campaign protagonist. Since it's required for the campaign to advance, he wins.

7. Despite his continuity changing powers Gwiti apparently still requires time to get from one place to another. For some bizarre reason he has to cross a multiplayer map to get to Malifor. Unfortunately, this map is in use at the time for a mirror match, two alliances of Rebels & Knalgans facing off against eachother, Age of Heroes style. Defeating enemy leaders is entirely optional and not recommended because using the Orb of Spamming drained Gwiti of money for this level; however, there's no turn limit, and he finds the Chest of Deus Ex Machina to get more gold from at the end of the crossing.

8. Finally, Gwiti hooks back up with Kapou'e ready to take on Malifor... who has bribed the Dark Sorcerer Mal-Bundy to take a break from exterminating all living things to help him fight off this annoying modded lich that's assassinating anyone who uses a portrait from TDH. Mal-Bundy decided to drag along his apprentices Mal-Jay and Mal-Bob, who try to sell weed to Kapou'e before the battle starts and spam WCs when he refuses to buy from them. Final battle scenario, so deserving of Taurus imitation in map size. Maybe.

9. Dialogue scenario in which Gwiti realises he's gained his continuity wrecking power by leaving the mainline continuity entirely, which annoys him quite a bit as it means that there exists a timeline where people are still using his portraits.
Shameless Crossover Excuse
Necromancer (campaign)

You are a Dwarvish Berserker: you're freaking crazy and enjoy it.
Post Reply