New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Discussion of all aspects of multiplayer development: unit balancing, map development, server development, and so forth.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

ckarai
Posts: 35
Joined: March 26th, 2008, 3:57 pm

New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by ckarai »

Hello!

My wife and me like playing Wesnoth together, that's why I started to create a multiplayer campaign (Return from Captivity) for 2 cooperating players. I uploaded now the first 3 scenarios. As my native language is not English, feel free to correct the mistakes in the texts. I'll fix it as soon as I can.

1st scenario: escaping from the prison
- the two players should leave the prison (4 other units can also be rescued, 2 white mage, 1 dwarf steelclad, and 1 elf hero)
- the players cannot recruit any units in this scenario
- don't hesitate too much as the 3-level trolls and orcs will start pursuing you after the 30th turn
- the orcs and trolls are just for frightening the players, as I slowed down the trolls by one, so their speed is the same as yours.

2nd scenario: defeat the outlaw troups
- after getting away from the prison the players are surrounded by orcs, trolls, drakes, undeads and bandits
- each of them is stronger than the players, and they are in one team
- there is a cave in the middle of the map, and the entrances of this cave can be easily defended, even if the enemies outnumber the players
- in the cave there are 2 other enemies, which are not so strong as the ones outside, so they can be defeated
- the power of enemies will dissolve by using some magic in the cave

3rd scenario: leaving the island (on which the prison is located)
- the leaders of the players have to reach the ships on the other side of the river
- take care of the tide on the river, the units in deep water will be drown (except mermen)
- one should start crossing the river when the water reaches its highest level

- flooding rules:
-- every sand which is adjacent to deep / shallow water, will be shallow water
-- every shallow water which is adjacent to deep water, will be deep water
-- every shallow water which neighbours are all shallow waters, will be deep water

- flood / 1
Image

- flood / 2
Image

- flood / 3
Image

- flood / 4
Image
Sangel
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 2232
Joined: March 26th, 2004, 10:58 pm
Location: New York, New York

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by Sangel »

Looks intriguing - I like the screenshots of the flooding in progress. Cooperative campaigns have been a steady request for Wesnoth for years, so I expect this will prove quite popular once word gets around. :D
"Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
ckarai
Posts: 35
Joined: March 26th, 2008, 3:57 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by ckarai »

> so I expect this will prove quite popular once word gets around. :D

I hope so. I'm thinking on the 4th scenario called 'Save the Forest'.

The enemies are orcs and woodcutter units.
If they move onto a village / forest tile, they will destroy it, and the team will earn money.
The more forest / village they destroy, the more money they earn.

The best strategy would be to kill the woodcutters otherwise the enemy could earn 5-6000 gold and will surely win the battle.

The problem is, that the woodcutter units require formula AI, which is implemented only in the new development version of Wesnoth.
Sangel
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 2232
Joined: March 26th, 2004, 10:58 pm
Location: New York, New York

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by Sangel »

Ah, yes, I seem to recall you posting in one of the AI threads. I must admit that the intricacies of python and formula AIs are a bit beyond me, but it's always good to see people taking advantage of the very latest engine features.

Come to think of it, my younger brother likes playing skirmishes against the computer with one of his friends. This campaign might be just his cup of tea - I'll point it out to him.
"Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Sangel
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 2232
Joined: March 26th, 2004, 10:58 pm
Location: New York, New York

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by Sangel »

Well, my little brother and his friend just gave the campaign a try. In six attempts, they did not manage to get past the first level. One attempt failed on the first bat (are there more?), four failed at the third wave of ants (just after the bat), and one attempt failed at the first wave of saurians (are there more?) - ouch.

Bad luck is definitely a possibility, but there doesn't seem to be much room for tactics at the moment. About the only decisions of consequence are whether or not to attack the scorpion (or let it attack you until it dies; avoiding poison), and which hexes to fight on (cave or dirt). There's very little leeway for resting, as the guards start to chase you after a point.

I believe you might have tuned the first scenario to too high a difficulty level.
After writing the above, it turned out that exploring a little off the beaten track resulted in the support of White Mages. This makes the scenario vastly easier.

You might want to hint at this with some text. Perhaps, if the characters reach a certain point (say, the first bat) without freeing the White Mages, you could have one of them say something along the lines of:
"If we continue at this rate we'll fall in battle before we ever reach the surface. Some of our cellmates were good at healing - perhaps we can find a way to free them?"
"Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
ckarai
Posts: 35
Joined: March 26th, 2008, 3:57 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by ckarai »

You might want to hint at this with some text. Perhaps, if the characters reach a certain point (say, the first bat) without freeing the White Mages, you could have one of them say something along the lines of:
"If we continue at this rate we'll fall in battle before we ever reach the surface. Some of our cellmates were good at healing - perhaps we can find a way to free them?"
Very good idea. I'll fix it.
ckarai
Posts: 35
Joined: March 26th, 2008, 3:57 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by ckarai »

ckarai wrote: Very good idea. I'll fix it.
Done.
Alpha
Posts: 33
Joined: June 14th, 2004, 3:17 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by Alpha »

Hi there, this is Sangel's brother. :D

Let me first respond by telling you how glad I am you made this campaign, as I love the idea and hope you will continue with it. I'd also like to point out benefit of how you centered the first scenario around the single leaders (apart from the mages), as it really personalizes the campaign and the leaders involved.

While at first I thought the first scenario impossible, after actually reading this thread I discovered the ability to free the two white mages also being held prisoner. This indeed as my brother said made the scenario VASTLY easier and more enjoyable. I'm sure I probably should have attempted to free the other prisoners in some way, however I still have to say that I didn't think it was that obvious that it was possible from what your are presented within the game. I'm glad you've added some text that will help reinforce that, it'll certainly make the campaign more friendly to first-timers. :)

I have encountered difficulties with the second scenario though. I was playing the first scenario with a friend over the multiplayer server, and during that scenario the game played fine. Once we had finished, I hit the end scenario button, and the second scenario loaded, so I believed everything had happened as planned, however half-way through the first turn, my friend was kicked from the game and given an error message along the lines of "Game out of sync" or something to that like. We then restarted the game, loading from the save made at the start of the second scenario, and before the game even started I was given an error message again telling me the game had failed to load due to some "recall unit issue with side 4" or something along those lines. We then decided as a last attempt to load from the end of the first scenario and finish that one, proceeding on to the second again, and encountered the same problem as stated previously with the game out of sync.

I have no idea whether these issues are related to my or my friend's computer specifically, or whether they are directly related to the campaign itself, I just thought I'd bring them to your attention, and see whether anyone has any advice on the matter.

Thanks,
Alpha
Always remember you are unique, just like everyone else! :)
ckarai
Posts: 35
Joined: March 26th, 2008, 3:57 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by ckarai »

Alpha wrote: I have encountered difficulties with the second scenario though. I was playing the first scenario with a friend over the multiplayer server, and during that scenario the game played fine. Once we had finished, I hit the end scenario button, and the second scenario loaded, so I believed everything had happened as planned, however half-way through the first turn, my friend was kicked from the game and given an error message along the lines of "Game out of sync" or something to that like. We then restarted the game, loading from the save made at the start of the second scenario, and before the game even started I was given an error message again telling me the game had failed to load due to some "recall unit issue with side 4" or something along those lines. We then decided as a last attempt to load from the end of the first scenario and finish that one, proceeding on to the second again, and encountered the same problem as stated previously with the game out of sync.

I have no idea whether these issues are related to my or my friend's computer specifically, or whether they are directly related to the campaign itself, I just thought I'd bring them to your attention, and see whether anyone has any advice on the matter.

Thanks,
Alpha
I also experienced this behaviour. If you play this scenario on one computer only (local multiplayer mode), it'll work.

I don't know whether it is a wesnoth multiplayer error, or I made something wrong in the WML.
ckarai
Posts: 35
Joined: March 26th, 2008, 3:57 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by ckarai »

I've tried it on one machine with more users, communicating on localhost, running local wesnothd. It works well.

I used the 1.4.0 stable version.

Are you using both wesnoth 1.4.x?
The campaign is correctly installed on both computers?
nataS
Posts: 166
Joined: January 28th, 2008, 3:21 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by nataS »

I had out of sync issues two times too. It was at the first map, after a few turns the other player claimed it was my turn. While in my game it was still his. We restarted, but the same happened, so I gave up. Also I believe there are a bit many prison guards? That seems a bit unrealistic, other then that the map looked nice - but we never got further then a few turns. I like the idea of a cooperative campaign a lot. Oh and I'm using 1.4.1 not sure about the other player.
User avatar
Sapient
Inactive Developer
Posts: 4453
Joined: November 26th, 2005, 7:41 am
Contact:

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by Sapient »

Try filing a bug report with the exact steps to duplicate the problem
bugs.wesnoth.org
http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/User:Sapient... "Looks like your skills saved us again. Uh, well at least, they saved Soarin's apple pie."
ckarai
Posts: 35
Joined: March 26th, 2008, 3:57 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by ckarai »

I've released the 0.2 version of "Return from Captivity".

- bugfixes
- 1 new scenario: "The Land of the Drakes".

The elves and dwarves have to cross the land of the drakes.
- if you don't want to die, then please avoid the long passage which leads from the start point to the end point
- there is a temple in the middle of the screen, this is important for opening the walls and getting out of this level

Have a good game!

I'm working on the 6th scenario: "The frozen river".
csarmi
Posts: 288
Joined: August 13th, 2007, 1:57 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by csarmi »

Your campaign is incompatible with 1.5.6 it seems. I managed to fix the deprecated WML's in the unit files myself, but I'm not really sure what else is wrong. Next error got had something to do with recruiting...

Yea I found the problem there too. Saurians can recruit only healers and scouts as of 1.5.6 and std recruitment pattern is fighter, fighter, archer I believe. So I'M not sure if that AI actually gets to recruit or no, but error messages were generated so I edited recruitment_pattern=scout,scout, healer
ckarai
Posts: 35
Joined: March 26th, 2008, 3:57 pm

Re: New campaign: Return from Captivity, for 2 players

Post by ckarai »

Thanks for the report. To tell the truth I haven't checked the first scenarios with 1.5.6.

I'll fix it as soon as I can.
Post Reply