Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Feedback for the mainline campaign Dead Water.

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NoQ
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by NoQ »

I wonder if it's the archer could *ride* the drake to come with you if they both survive (:
(i didn't really try, maybe it actually happens)
The Flight of Drakes, Only Death Behind, ??? (not yet sure how the third part will be called).
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by beetlenaut »

It doesn't, but you do get something nice for saving the poacher...just not yet.
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D-Wade
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by D-Wade »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Normal, 1.10.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9, I hate saurians.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I liked the moment where you freed the slaves.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Keeping your leveld units and heroes alive and surviving the first attack.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6, since LoW I absolutely hate those high defense, skirmishing Saurians equipped with melee and range and a ton of gold.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Maybe give the saurians mainly level 1 units.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
One of my heroes got stabbed to death once.
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PorkSol
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by PorkSol »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?

1.10.5 - Triton - (Nightmare) - No save/load - 166 starting gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

7.5

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

Mostly clear. I wasn't sure if it mattered how many of the slaves died.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

No complaints.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

My own tendency to underestimate the Saurians and lose concentration. I had a lot of veteran units and my bat allowed me to reach the treasure chest early on, so I was able to recall/recruit a powerful force. In the final run I slaughtered the Saurians pretty efficiently, but I had several runs where they ganged up on exposed units and killed them or where I ended up out of position when a Saurian dodged too much. I did have some good luck on the turn where my forces made initial contact with Saurian forces.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

8, but I could see it dropping to a 7 for a lot of people. The slave revolt is well done and the scenario has a good level of challenge. But I could see it becoming frustrating for people who did not have a lot of units leveled up. Saurians can be annoying to fight because of the ability to ignore zone of control and all the magical damage.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

It is fine as is, but the green leader usually charges off and gets killed before he manages to spend all of his gold. I'm guessing you are aware of this though and have balanced the difficulty with this in mind.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

Never reloaded, many restarts when I underestimated the Saurians and positioned my troops incorrectly, resulting in a key death. I was willing to accept some losses, but the Saurians usually killed somebody important.
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No save/load. Nightmare. 1.10.5
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flammstrudel
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by flammstrudel »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.10.2 Triton (difficult) – no reloads

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8/10 Several Restarts.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It was good.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The key to victory is the fact that you can lure the green leader into attacking your units before he spends all his gold (I don't know if this is intentional or not). This makes the push to the eastern swamp quite easy: I killed him in turn 3 and by this time purple and orange are still far away. I cleaned up the last scattered units and released the slaves during the next day. They can distract the enemy for one or two turns. Use them to reorganize the defense and retreat behind the southern river during the next night. Once you whittled down the saurian push you can move in for the kill. Didn't lose a single unit; but all slaves died a horrible and painful death.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10/10 I felt challenged and well entertained. A good scenario. The slave rebellion is a nice idea. Generally I don't like fighting with AI allies, they are usually a liability and detrimental to victory. But in this scenario said behavior fits perfectly. You wouldn't expect slaves to be well organized and smart anyway...

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It's good the way it is.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Loss of loyal priestess or unacceptable high losses in general.
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Ninjamestari
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by Ninjamestari »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.10.7 Triton (difficult)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8/10, a few restarts.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Pretty good.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The first time I tried I had to restart the campaign because I didn't have that many leveled units. This time I didn't skip the 2nd scenario completely and so did a lot better in this one. I wasn't able to lure the green Saurok leader out of his keep before he spent all his gold but it turned out to be ok. Lost a couple level 1 units and made some mistakes that almost got someone important killed.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10/10, I think the slaves were nice to have since they managed to kill some level 2 units. Getting a loyal drake burner was nice too.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
-

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Losing too many high level units to mistakes.
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Maiklas3000
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by Maiklas3000 »

(1) Level, version, and gold? Nightmare, 1.11.15, 237 starting gold.
(2) Difficult? (1-10) 7... I think it has been made easier since 1.9!
(3) Objectives? Clear.
(4) Dialog? Good.
(5) Challenges? Keeping my loyals alive was the biggest challenge. I almost lost 2 loyals on turn 3. I lost a (non-loyal) Priestess, but that left me with two of them, so no problem. The scenario used to be extremely tough initially, and then you had to continue to be careful as the later assault waves hit from the north. Now it is just somewhat challenging initially and then easy as you clean up the stragglers.
(6) Fun? (1-10) 8.
(7) Changes? If you changed it, maybe change it halfway back to the way it used to be to make it more of a challenge.
(8) Restarts? None. I won the first time! No save-reloads.
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by beetlenaut »

I know I didn't change it. I'm not the official maintainer, but there is nothing in the changelog either. I think the differences you are seeing are probably because of changes in the AI. We really should rebalance all the mainline campaigns for every BfW version as small changes in the AI change the difficulty, but that rarely gets done. It's a lot of work. Keep reporting though! I'm not ignoring your comments.
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Inky
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by Inky »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.10.4, Triton/difficult, 170 starting gold + 100 found

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9 - extremely difficult. (Most saurian scenarios are.)

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Good. I liked getting a drake!

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
High number of enemies; lots of unavoidable damage from oracles.
Also I completely forgot to free the poacher, good thing he's not that important.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10! The slave revolt was a really nice option.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It's great as it is.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes, 1 restart from beginning. I forgot to use the 100 gold I found! So I realized I just didn't have enough units to win in time.
The second time I used up all the gold the instant I got it and things turned out much better.

Strategy: Push hard during dawn/day; trigger revolt at dusk, which should distract the saurians enough to get you through the night. Also Cylanna gained illuminates at the beginning of this scenario which really, really helped.
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D-Wade
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by D-Wade »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.7.10 - Medium
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9 - You really have to watch out for the huge Saurian swarm and its lovely "Pfft" attacks and traits.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Crystal clear.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
10 - Nice feeling when you free the slaves and some of them actually survive to return home.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I really had to watch out to prevent swarming and killing of my leveled units. The Saurian masses are just insane.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10 - If you get the hang of it and have the right leveled units, it's challenging but still possible and lots of fun.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Perhaps reduce the number of Saurians or give the player more gold to start with?
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
First I had to replay the first three scenarios in order to prepare for this mission the right way. Leveled up some Netcasters, Enchantresses and Priestesses as well as getting Cylanna and Kai all the way up.
Later on I had to go some turns back in a few cases because I totally misplaced my units or missed some of the Saurians hiding in the swamp ^^.
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shadow12
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by shadow12 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on? Medium
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 10
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? Clear
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? clear. Dialog well written.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

Killing all the enemy kings before the last turn. Keeping the Drake alive, they kept cornering him. Dealing with wave after wave of saurians. It took me a long time to whittle them down. I freed the slaves on turn 7 (in the morning so they could fight during the day) but it was hard watching so many die. Used a lot of Citizens as bait and to keep the enemy from overwhelming me. I started with 278 gold and five lvl 2 players, ended with ten lvl 2 players and only 23 carry over gold.

On Turn 5, the Saurians had 40 troops, Kai had 19 troops.
Turn 7: saurians 26, Kai 29. (Due to the slaves help)
Turn 10: saurians 21, Kai 16.
Turn 13: saurians 13, Kai 14.
Finished on turn 27.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 9
Very creative layout with all the waterways and swamps. Like the sunken ship, freeing the slaves and freeing the two in the cages. Very creative!

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? I liked getting a free Drake.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? Yes, losing key players made me go back to prior turns.
Sometimes life unexpectedly throws a Troll or a nasty Queen Naga in your path.
sine_nomine
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by sine_nomine »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Difficult (Triton), wesnoth 1.12.4
181 starting gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
It felt like an 8.5 when I played it but I had more difficulty than I should have had.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Perfect

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Great
Was there any incentive to keep NPC slaves alive? I don't see a problem with letting them all die and I think they work well gameplay-wise as disposable units, but a line to address the fate of the slaves would be nice (or was there one only if they survived? I guess Kai doesn't mind some sacrifices, considering how I treat his citizens).

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Some prior decisions came back to haunt me here (wasting gold, not getting a enchantress, not getting much exp in scenario 2). But the biggest mistake I made was ignoring the ship (I recently found out it contains a ton of gold). I saw it and thought it looked cool, it just completely slipped my mind to investigate the hex. Nothing wrong with the scenario here, I'm just an idiot. Also I triggered the slave revolt during the first day because I wasn't really sure what it would do and wanted to use it early in case it turned out to be useless. It ended up surpassing my expectations and was a pretty neat idea.
Later on I lost my loyal brawler (I meant to put my other brawler in the corner of my formation but I confused the two) and nearly lost Gwabbo as well. My line was just stretched a little thin, but I buffered my lines by recruiting civilians from the enemy keep. Of course, I wouldn't be in such a desperate situation if I had more gold early on.
This is really the first time where leadership and illumination come into play and they're quite important in this scenario.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9.5
It might have been a bit lower if I had that gold but either way it's still a well designed fun scenario.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Nothing.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
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Konrad2
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by Konrad2 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Difficult, 1.14.1

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Perfect.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I liked it.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Figuring out how to combat the saurians without sacrificing much and when to trigger the slave revolt.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Nothing.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No.
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LordWolfDan
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by LordWolfDan »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?

- 1.14.5, Normal

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

- 8

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

- Clear

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

- Pretty good. I loved it when slaves were uprising against their slavers, plus Keshan and Siddry seem like interesting allies, shame that latter doesn't join you.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

- Saurians, saurians AND MORE DAMN SAURIANS. I HATE SAURIANS!!

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

- 6

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

- It's fine as it is

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

- No
devavrata
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Re: Scenario Review: DW 4 - Slavers

Post by devavrata »

Content Feedback wrote: August 21st, 2010, 7:26 pm(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Battle for Wesnoth 1.10.7, all four difficulty levels.
Content Feedback wrote: August 21st, 2010, 7:26 pm(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8
Content Feedback wrote: August 21st, 2010, 7:26 pm(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear.
Content Feedback wrote: August 21st, 2010, 7:26 pm(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Clear, interesting
Content Feedback wrote: August 21st, 2010, 7:26 pm(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
That skirmish ability that allows some saurians to elude control zones and attack my weakest units. It forces you into different strategies. Hands off, the biggest challenge in the whole Battle for Wesnoth game.
Content Feedback wrote: August 21st, 2010, 7:26 pm(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7
Content Feedback wrote: August 21st, 2010, 7:26 pm(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It's fine as it is.
Content Feedback wrote: August 21st, 2010, 7:26 pm(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
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