Guardian Order 0.0.4+ dev thread

[xbriannova]

Hello people, here in this new thread of mine I will detail the development of my campaign, which is now poised to reach version 0.0.4. The lists and news section here will be updated using editing. New posts won't be used unless the first post has ran out of space. Feel free to provide feedback of my campaign, Guardian Order, here and pretty much talk about anything regarding it here.

Art thread: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 28&start=0

Text thread: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=26547

Things to do by 0.0.4 and beyond:
- More images for the units to animate them.
- Complete unit tree.
- Continue creating the later scenarios.
- Refine game dialogues.
- Refine scenario coding.
- Refine game balance for each scenario.
- Refine differences between each diffculty for them to be more distinct and fun.
- Add in a system to penalise loss of both Guardian and peasant/royalist lives.
- Possible branching for the campaign.
- Allow the player to make important decisions in terms of dialogue choices as well as more substantial ones. Such decisions will impact the player's journey as Sir Buckanwald greatly.
- Add a system to allow the player to allow/disallow his friends to advise him.
- There might be several name changes in store for the characters.
- A bonus system allowing players to choose additional war assets at the beginning of each scenario.

Things introduced in 0.0.3 over 0.0.2:
- Completely new units such as the Order Crossbowman and Order Cataphracts.
- Units rebalanced.
- A major overhaul of new unit images totaling around 20 image files.
- Scenario 3 and 4 added with 5 inside, but not in working condition.
- Improved dialogue.
- Story refined for better logical sense and literary quality.

Things introduced in 0.0.3h over 0.0.3:
- Numerous WML code bugs are fixed to allow a smooth playthrough of the campaign.
-Slight unit balancing.
-Untested efforts to make scenario 5 more playable. Though, scenario 5 is still not playable due to many unentered as well as untested codes.

News:

(1st September 2009)- This thread has been created.

(1st September 2009)- A problem regarding error 'unknown scenario '01_Harvestia_Struck' has come to my attention. Version 0.0.3b released to no avail to quell the error. More effort is being made to solve this. In the meantime, stay close to this thread .

(2nd September 2009 midnight)- The string of problems that prevents the campaign from even playing has been solved. Version 0.0.3f has been released to combat this error. Download it and you'd be able to enjoy the fruits of my labour. Thanks!

(2nd September 2009)- 0.0.3g is released to deal with certain outdated WML codes.

(3rd September 2009)- 0.0.3h is released to fully update WML codes. Inevitably, a few changes are also included, such as a slight decrease in the damage done by the Order Phalanxes' primary attack.

(8th September 2009)- Progress Report. I've completed many prototype level 2 units, I've managed to code scenario 5,6,7. Scenario 7 code is not finished. No progress made in the art department. No improvements made to previous scenarios.

(20th September 2009)- Progress Report. More prototype level 2 units completed. Scenario 7 code roughly done. Some progress made in art department including misc unit images that may not be used. No improvements made to previous scenarios.

(18th December 2009)- Progress Report. A few days ago, I've resumed working on the campaign. Improved on some level 2 units and I've created totally new ones. I'm adding a bonus system into the campaign, in which you would get to choose at the beginning what additional 'stuff' is given to you. I chose to use the word 'stuff' because it is not restricted to just one category of bonuses such as units although it might appear to be so in some scenarios.

I have finally been posted into a camp. Chances are, I might have some time to spend but it doesn't matter. I'm resuming my work on this campaign. I'll update the thread as much as I can and a new version will be released soon.

[xbriannova]

reserved

[xbriannova]

reserved

[Velensk]

When I downloaded this campaign, it showed up not once but twice in the campaign list. Neither was playable as starting the first scenario in either of them resulted in an unknown scenario message.

[xbriannova]

Hmm that's odd I'll look into that.

[melinath]

You need to delete the nonstandard Guardian_Order.cfg file that's in add-ons/

[xbriannova]

Hmm... I tried that and downloaded my own campaign but it still didn't work. Looks like my campaign's still far from being fully released. Well, at least you guys saw my artwork at the difficulty list and campaign list XD. I'll find a way to fix this. Thanks for telling me. What a bummer though, I thought I've managed to solve all the problems stopping me from releasing my stuff.

EDIT: Just when I thought I fixed the problem another error popped up... I've never seen such a thing before, check it out:

EDIT EDIT: HAH! Never thought this idiot over here who typed this could solve a WML problem on his own! Apparently, the problem is that my understanding of WML is outdated. It was the directory in the _main.cfg and scenario files that caused this problem with the odd error. In the past, before 1.7, it was supposed to be like @campaign/mycampaign/scenario and now its @add-ons/mycampaign/scenario. The problem is fixed after like six tries. You guys should be able to play it. I'll announce the good news .

[Velensk]

Still not letting me into the first scenario.

[xbriannova]

Hmm weird. Its working after I downloaded it. I'll wait for more people to check out my campaign first and see what happens. In the meantime, there are several things you could do to ascertain what's going on:

1)Check the version of the Guardian Order campaign. Its version 0.03f that's supposed to fix the major league bug. Maybe the add-on server's a little slow to update?

2)Check the version of your Battle for Wesnoth game. Maybe somehow, by some freak of chance, you might be using 1.6. The reason why it didn't work is because I was using outdated directories in my _main file and scenario files.

3)If everythings fine, then I'm going back to the drawing board. It'd be harder to fix this bug because its not as apparent.

[melinath]

Works fine on my computer, except that you need to change

Code: Select all

[binary_path]
    path=add-ons/Guardian_Order
[/binary_path]

to

Code: Select all

[binary_path]
    path=data/add-ons/Guardian_Order
[/binary_path]

in _main.cfg so that the images will work.

(And you may as well remove the redundant [binary_path] tag inside the ifdef while you're at it.)

[xbriannova]

Oh dear, my knowledge of WML is really outdated . Alright, this problem is fixed and hopefully, it'd eliminate all the troubles that some people, including Velensk, are facing when they tried to play my campaign.

Haha, its version 0.0.3g now. That's 7 versions in 12 hours XD. Not that most of them worked XD.

[AI]

It should even be {~addons/...}, @ has been deprecated for a while, and I finally removed it for 1.7.4, though I left the error message (check your stderr!) in for obvious reasons.

[Velensk]

Well now the art is working for me, however when I attempt to open it I still get unknown scenario and the first scenarios id.

[xbriannova]

Okay I think I know what's wrong. I'm just going to put two and two together. The problem might be that I'm using @ instead of ~ for the directories. As @ no longer works from 1.7.4 onwards, players who use 1.7.4 cannot run my campaign. I assume you, Velensk, is using 1.7.4. You know, I didn't know 1.7.4 was released. My my how fast time flies . It seems like only yesterday that 1.7.3 was released.

I'm downloading 1.7.4. Expect the next version soon . I'm gonna release it under 1.7.4.

EDIT: Hmm all of a sudden I can't connect to the add-on server. Weird. Remote Host Disconnect? I cannot understand what that means. I guess I'll just wait. In the meantime,

Cheers .

[Velensk]

It's working now, I'll edit this post to provide feedback when I have some.

EDIT: No comment on story background.

Your dialogue does not do much to endear our protagonist to us. Also, avoid giving the players tactical advice. Not only should they not need it, but they also might have their own plan for action. For example, I found it worked better when I pulled back from the fort rather than trying to hold it, that way the assassin would move into range of the units I recruited.

The village flags are annoying. I understand that it’s cool to get custom flags when you can, however it would be best to wait till you have higher quality flags. The problem is that I’d much rather look at an ordinary white flag than the image you provide which clashes with the background.

We have both loyalist and order units available. It makes it kind of hard for you to establish this order as a separate faction.

I’m still having problems with the order as a faction. The primary traits as I see it is that their basic units are slow, expensive, and do more damage to more types of enemies than their loyalist counterparts. They have a slight gimmick in that they have a lvl1 leader and some level 0s that can take advantage of it but overall I’d still much rather just use the loyalist units who are more generally effective despite being less versatile and powerful. (though it would have been hard to kill the assassin so quickly if I had not recruited some order units near the start) Also, I was a bit annoyed by the complete lack of cavalry units available for recruit.

The dialogue that appears when you attack a lawful enemy needs to be rewritten so that it does not say that your opponents equipment is part of the local militia.

Villains banter seemed to serve no purpose but to make him less credible.

Record of attempts at the first scenario: on second hardest difficulty
1st try: gaurd at the bridge was poisoned on turn one then killed on turn 2. This lead too me fighting against a large army in the open and getting crushed.

2nd try: withdrew guard recruited different order units. Was able to kill assassin on turn 3 and push back to the bridge. Was forced off the bridge at night. Fought a rough battle in the open where the archer leveled up. However my only remaining units were order units and I was unable to get them to the enemy leader in time to kill him

3rd try: killed the leader on turn 2 with a bit of luck (he killed 2 of my militia I lead against him which left a slot for the other one then my leader. Took the fort held the fort, massacred huge numbers of enemies, finished him off in the last few turns.

‘I am hesitant to take lives’ says the archer who has already reached level 2.

Regardless of the lore involved, referring to any female as Sir is incorrect.

Not finished the second scenario.