Descent into Darkness

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Malin Keshar
Posts: 9
Joined: March 15th, 2008, 11:45 am

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by Malin Keshar »

I don't like this campaign, sorry.

"Learn the dark arts of necromancy in order to save your people from an orcish incursion." I love this premise. Summoning undead for a noble goal remembers me of what Aragorn did in 'The Return of the King'. :)

I love downer endings.

I love the chance of recruiting & commanding my own Army of Darkness.

Scenario battles are ok. Slaying orcs and levelling up my units is as fun as usual.

But why, oh why, must Malin Keshar be such a BIG sucker? :(
JimBass
Posts: 25
Joined: April 8th, 2006, 12:11 am

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by JimBass »

I have a major crash in Descent into Darkness.

I'm running the SVN version of the game, version 25773, which was new as of 12 hours ago. At the beginning of the scenario "Return to Parthyn", when it should be the purple teams turn, the game crashes out completely. Here's the output from the console:

Code: Select all

jim@jimsworktop:~$ wesnoth
Battle for Wesnoth v1.5.0-svn (25773)
Started on Sun Apr 13 11:41:23 2008

Data at '/usr/local/share/wesnoth'
open /dev/sequencer or /dev/snd/seq: No such file or directory
Checking video mode: 1024x768x32...
setting mode to 1024x768x32
set locale to ''
set locale to ''
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file /home/jim/.wesnoth/data/units/
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BOOK2
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BOOK3
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BOOK4
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_FLOWER1
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_FLOWER2
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_FLOWER3
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_FLOWER4
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ROCK1
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ROCK2
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ROCK3
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ROCK4
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_DRAGONSTATUE
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ORNATE1
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ORNATE2
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BARREL
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_MONOLITH1
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_MONOLITH2
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_MONOLITH3
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_MONOLITH4
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_WELL
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_LEANTO
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BALL_GREEN
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BALL_BLUE
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BOX
20080413 11:41:27 error config: Could not open file data/ACT_TELEPORT
no location found for 'data/campaigns/Invasion_of_Arendia/translations', not adding textdomain
loadscreen: filesystem counter = 275
loadscreen: binarywml counter = 0
loadscreen: setconfig counter = 44
loadscreen: parser counter = 77581
20080413 11:41:43 error display: could not open image ''
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file /home/jim/.wesnoth/data/units/
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BOOK2
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BOOK3
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BOOK4
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_FLOWER1
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_FLOWER2
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_FLOWER3
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_FLOWER4
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ROCK1
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ROCK2
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ROCK3
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ROCK4
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_DRAGONSTATUE
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ORNATE1
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_ORNATE2
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BARREL
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_MONOLITH1
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_MONOLITH2
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_MONOLITH3
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_MONOLITH4
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_WELL
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_LEANTO
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BALL_GREEN
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BALL_BLUE
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ITM_BOX
20080413 11:42:01 error config: Could not open file data/ACT_TELEPORT
loadscreen: filesystem counter = 0
loadscreen: binarywml counter = 0
loadscreen: setconfig counter = 44
loadscreen: parser counter = 88628
scenario: 'Return_to_Parthyn'
next_scenario: ''
20080413 11:42:23 error engine: unit of type  not found!
20080413 11:42:23 error general: Error while playing the game: game_error: Unknown unit type ''
In the case above, the game would crash the Wesnoth application completely. I ran this again with gbt in place to catch a backtrace. When run in this way, the scenario would still crash, but it would return to the title screen rather than crashing back to the desktop.

Code: Select all

jim@jimsworktop:~$ gdb wesnoth
GNU gdb 6.8-debian
Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-linux-gnu"...
(gdb) run
Starting program: /usr/local/bin/wesnoth
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
warning: Lowest section in /usr/lib/libicudata.so.38 is .hash at 000000b4
Battle for Wesnoth v1.5.0-svn (25773)
Started on Sun Apr 13 11:47:27 2008

[New Thread 0xb64cd720 (LWP 5908)]
Data at '/usr/local/share/wesnoth'
[New Thread 0xb62c4b90 (LWP 5911)]
open /dev/sequencer or /dev/snd/seq: No such file or directory
Checking video mode: 1024x768x32...
setting mode to 1024x768x32
set locale to ''
set locale to ''
no location found for 'data/campaigns/Invasion_of_Arendia/translations', not adding textdomain
loadscreen: filesystem counter = 275
loadscreen: binarywml counter = 16457
loadscreen: setconfig counter = 44
loadscreen: parser counter = 222
20080413 11:47:40 error display: could not open image ''
loadscreen: filesystem counter = 0
loadscreen: binarywml counter = 19082
loadscreen: setconfig counter = 44
loadscreen: parser counter = 4
scenario: 'Return_to_Parthyn'
next_scenario: ''
20080413 11:47:57 error engine: unit of type  not found!
20080413 11:47:57 error general: Error while playing the game: game_error: Unknown unit type ''
[Thread 0xb62c4b90 (LWP 5911) exited]

Program exited normally.
(gdb) bt
No stack.
(gdb) run
Starting program: /usr/local/bin/wesnoth
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
warning: Lowest section in /usr/lib/libicudata.so.38 is .hash at 000000b4
Battle for Wesnoth v1.5.0-svn (25773)
Started on Sun Apr 13 11:48:17 2008

[New Thread 0xb649a720 (LWP 5912)]
Data at '/usr/local/share/wesnoth'
[New Thread 0xb6291b90 (LWP 5913)]
open /dev/sequencer or /dev/snd/seq: No such file or directory
Checking video mode: 1024x768x32...
setting mode to 1024x768x32
set locale to ''
set locale to ''
no location found for 'data/campaigns/Invasion_of_Arendia/translations', not adding textdomain
loadscreen: filesystem counter = 275
loadscreen: binarywml counter = 16457
loadscreen: setconfig counter = 44
loadscreen: parser counter = 222
20080413 11:48:31 error display: could not open image ''
loadscreen: filesystem counter = 0
loadscreen: binarywml counter = 19082
loadscreen: setconfig counter = 44
loadscreen: parser counter = 4
scenario: 'Return_to_Parthyn'
next_scenario: ''
20080413 11:48:49 error engine: unit of type  not found!
20080413 11:48:49 error general: Error while playing the game: game_error: Unknown unit type ''
bt
20080413 11:49:42 error display: could not open image ''
scenario: 'Return_to_Parthyn'
next_scenario: ''
20080413 11:49:58 error engine: unit of type  not found!
20080413 11:49:58 error general: Error while playing the game: game_error: Unknown unit type ''
[Thread 0xb6291b90 (LWP 5913) exited]

Program exited normally.
(gdb) bt
No stack.
(gdb)                                                
If you need any more info to help figure out what is happening, post back and I'll provide any info that I have.

Peace,
JimBass
Draximus Prime
Posts: 5
Joined: April 15th, 2008, 3:03 am
Location: Missouri, USA
Contact:

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by Draximus Prime »

This is not so much a problem as a comment, but I noticed that on the final level, after you become an ancient lich, it is extremely easy to win.(This is on the easiest difficulty, however). In fact, I have a replay of me winning without a single recruit or recall. Just with the main character as the ancient lich. Of course, since all my replays seem bugged... can't post it. I heard the replays were bugged for everyone though.
Pookie Pitviper
Posts: 31
Joined: October 17th, 2007, 12:15 pm
Location: Eastern USA

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by Pookie Pitviper »

Hi. Loved this campaign.

So what, exactly, did Malin do to get kicked out of mage school?

Also, in "Forever and Ever, Amen" (love the scenario title BTW, very appropriate), which groups of enemies is MK supposed to meet? I've fought rebels/Silvans, dwarves/Knalgans (?), loyalists (tricky, with those lancers), and orcs. Is there anyone I've missed (outlaws?).
It would be kind of cool to add more different enemies for MK to encounter and fight off "over the years," like lots more. (You could use this scenario as a showcase for some of your favorite non-mainline units/factions.) You could also make the enemies more powerful if Mal Keshar has already fought them once - like, the second time he fights a particular faction, they have level 3 units and more gold to start with. You could even vary the music based on who the opponent is. There's a lot of potential for fun messing-around type stuff here. I don't know how hard it is to make changes now that your campaign has been mainlined, but if it's possible, you might want to give it some thought.

Overall, excellent campaign, one of my favorites (if I haven't already made that clear!). I have you to thank for showing me the joys of necromancy. :wink:

Pookie

P.S. On a related note, how do you feel about how Mal Keshar is portrayed in IftU?
AI
Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by AI »

The reason is given in Return to Parthyn since 1.3.something, He cursed another student with boils for making fun of his countryboy accent. (teachers replied "a lifelong curse goes beyond a prank")(spoiler)
lindymon
Posts: 4
Joined: May 7th, 2008, 2:01 am

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by lindymon »

Maybe I'm simply crazy or something, but how do you become a lich in the "Decent into Darkness" scenario? I've killed the mirror, let it level up, visited every spot in the beginning cave. I don't know what to do
AI
Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by AI »

Same answer as I gave you in the other thread.

Kill yourself using the mirror. (use your sword)
Volde
Posts: 7
Joined: May 17th, 2008, 9:26 pm

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by Volde »

Like the idea of the campaign and story seems more or less logical but...

A Small Favor - Part I on hard seems a bit stupid. I have read walkthrough on the wiki and few posts here and i can`t figure it out how to win this scenario. Advice was to send shadows to kill enemy leader in one turn, sounds nice and dandy but if i don`t have shadows? Or i don`t have enough of them? Go back few scenarios and train them? Maybe but i think that campaign shouldn`t punish so hard if i decided to focus on other units. For example Rise of Wesnoth scenario "Into the deep"(sp?) was similar, it was really hell to fight there if you missed dwarf and refused help from wesfolk but i still could win it with Royal Guards and Paladins on hard. Or maybe i`m just missing something in that scenario?

Also, i tried to do a "diversion" near the south gate while my heroes were waiting in the forests north of the city, once AI spotted my bait he sent most of his troops not after them but into the forest after my heroes. Probably he got whole map revealed once he noticed my units, i don`t think it`s a good thing.
AI
Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by AI »

The AI always cheats with fog/shroud, that's inevitable.
Also, in this map it does NOT have any special priority on killing your heroes, just protecting the manor and the rest of the city.

You probably need to make your bait more convincing, since the AI doesn't care about its units on this map and you can't scare him off.
TheArchitect
Posts: 55
Joined: March 29th, 2008, 4:46 pm

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by TheArchitect »

First of all: BEST campaign, especially for undead.

I noticed a glitch that seems to take place in several of the earlier levels. I managed to save two of the loyal ghouls from the goblin level. A few levels later, after they became necrophages, I noticed that the "feeding" gave them +20 maximum hitpoints per kill instead of the normal +1. Believe me, I love having 160 hp necrophages 8) but I just thought you might like to know.
Prometheus
Posts: 117
Joined: March 15th, 2006, 10:50 am

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by Prometheus »

Brilliant ending, requires insight to win and illustrates the futility of Malin's quest.

I don't think "Forever and ever, amen" should get harder over time, as the scenario then becomes "survive as long as you can" which is a reasonable (un)life goal. I can imagine people saying "omg I went 40 rounds in FAEA beat that loser" and so on, which misses the point by a rather large margin.

For the people who complain, evidently the title wasn't enough to figure out the ending quickly enough to avoid frustration. After a few rounds, perhaps some additional indication on how to win the scenario. The victory condition is listed as "Defeat the foolish hero" and the defeat condition as "Destruction of Mal Keshar", so to that extent the player is being tricked. However don't make the win condition too obvious or everyone will figure it out right away.
MeesterDaan
Posts: 17
Joined: August 11th, 2008, 5:53 pm

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by MeesterDaan »

Mmm ... getting that book is pretty tricky ... anyone suggestions on this scenario? Turns seem to short to kill all the townfolk (playing hard level), and simply running in leads to a lot of armored guards ...

Does anyone know which x,y to run to?

Like the campaign though, nice story twist. I already slaughtered my sister. With her big mouth.

Daan
RobertWinfrey
Posts: 2
Joined: August 23rd, 2008, 6:26 am

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by RobertWinfrey »

Not sure about hard, but i played A small Favor part 1 on medium. I chose to focus across the board so only had 1 wraith. So no easy victory by mobbing the main boss.

I went with Malin, Darken, Bone Shooter, Wraith. I Would have to slog through those warriors. Both Bone Shooter and Darken were close to leveling.

Step 1. Get a guards attention, I drew him out- cued up the comp bosses huge leveled army.

Step 2. The fighting retreat. Kill as many guards and the Training Master while backing up. The point is to make his cavalry outrun the heavy infantry.

Step 3. Destroy the cavalry. I used up my leveling here. Darken starts taking plague shots and i augment my forces with walking corpses.

Step 4. Engage the Heavy Infantry. Rough. Lost my lvl 3 archer. My wraith is effectively out of the fight.

Step 5. Clean up. Few other soldiers would attack. The boss did not leave his keep as my corpse army troops by. Deal with the 2 mages and victory.

I had to fight them, and i won. Thats how i did it, but it was hard so i thought i'd post that up.
Phr0stByt3
Posts: 5
Joined: January 16th, 2008, 6:51 pm

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by Phr0stByt3 »

Well, I died on the 2nd wave of Forwever and Ever, Amen :roll: . Frankly, I wasn't careful enough throughout the campaign, didn't have any strength left after finding the book and lost everything but a lvl2 wizard getting the book away from your "mentor"... :P

Anyhow, this campaign is absolutely fantastic :D , but underdeveloped. Need more on the story of Dela :!: . Here's a thought: perhaps if you survive a wave from each type (dwarf, assassin, royal guard, orc, elf [I think that's it]) then Dela comes along (although I'm not sure how that plays into the fact that I killed her) and instead of finishing her off, you can make a dialogue decision to "end this madness" and "Rest In Peace" instead of killing her. Another interesting aspect would be if you could take her soul (as a ghost) :shock: and get revenge on those who wronged you. Therewith, you can have 3 endings: Easy - You die and the story is over; Normal - You spare Dela's life, but the consequences of your actions leaves Parthyn crippled and the story ends bittersweet; Hard - You take her soul (and maybe those of the "foolish heroes") and wage an all-out war on a combined orc-human alliance that you CAN win and the story ends with your immortal being taking the fallen souls to a place of eternal torment (evil ending, btw... :wink: ). Just some ideas. It's a great campaign as it stands though :).
Theodore Roosevelt: "Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft."

Ecclesiastes 10:2: "A wise man's heart directs him toward the right, but a foolish man's heart directs him toward the left."
Malin Keshar
Posts: 9
Joined: March 15th, 2008, 11:45 am

Re: Undead campaign: Descent into Darkness

Post by Malin Keshar »

I've not replayed DiD for months, but it still makes me feel bad, since it managed to waste an otherwise sound premise. And all we know who's to blame: curse you, George Lucas!

"The Revenge of the Phantom Clones" trilogy was about a gifted youngster who's lured into the Dark Side by a dirty old man. DiD is about a gifted youngster who's lured into the dark arts of necromancy by guess you who.

In behalf of DiD, it is hundreds of times better than the trilogy which inspired it. Bad guys are bad for real. The orcish armies, for example, pose an actual threat, unlike those pathetical droid soldiers. There's not Jar Jar Binks, there's not a cheesy love sidestory going on, and there's not Yet Another Overused Cliche prophecy about the Chosen One who'll bring balance to town. Moreover, Malin is not Anakin (plus he's not played by a wooden wannabe-an-actor, forgot his name, sorry).

Both stories are carrying the same moral: "You can't deal with darkness and get away with it". Both stories fail to delive it.

Because of an idiot plot and a cast of lame characters (calling them [censored] would be an insult to all [censored] people), "The Revenge of the Phantom Clones" was more like: "You can't behave like a jackass and get away with it".

Because of Malin's idiosincracy (like many real-life genius, Malin Keshar suffers from a notorius bipolar disorder), DiD is more like "Mood disorders will ruin your life".

My problem with Malin is that I'm unable to relate with such a character. Not to offend any manic-depressive reading these lines, but his mood changes just annoy me. I'd whish Malin to pick a characterization and stuck to it. Since his continuous switching from "destroy all orcs and everyone in my way mwarhahahahar" to "alas poor Malin nobody loves me", and back again, drives me crazy.
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