Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Feedback for the mainline campaign Descent into Darkness.

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max_torch
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by max_torch »

is this a bug?
DiD-A_Small_Favor_replay_bug.gz
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Basically the spearman moved from the forest hex at 16,28 to 11,26 even though he did not see my units (gaunt and shadow invisible). And then he just stayed on that hex. Isn't it that he should not move at all if he did not see an enemy?
Or if I am wrong about this, then I would just like to clarify how a player would know how far an enemy i seeing through the fog, I wish that would be made more clear.
For the purpose of this scenario an active line of sight indicator might be a good idea
Maiklas3000 wrote: Bug: In the attached replay, you can see a humorous bug, where a Spearman guard abandons his post and retreats. He is not within strike range of my units, but I guess he knows they are there and numerous, and decides to get the hell out of Dodge (but doesn't bother to warn anybody.)
I watched the replay of Maiklas. The bug I saw and the bug he mentions are the same, except with me it happened with the southmost guard while with him it happened with a guard in the middle. So this bug has been present since 1.11.15 and now 1.12.0 I confirm it is still existing and can happen with different guards.

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.12.0, hard, minimum start gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
??? im confused if the success of my strategy is due to a design flaw or if it is in fact the "out of the box" strategy the designer wants you to apply. here is the replay
DiD-A_Small_Favor_replay.gz
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I went straight for the enemy general and assassinated him thus preventing any enemy recruits and because of that the path was clear to get all the way to the manor. But I wonder if the campaign designer intended this to be the way to win this scenario, as it is implied in the dialog that you are supposed to sneak, and cover the movement of malin and darken, but instead I just kill the leader and waltz in right through the middle bluntly.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
The objectives were clear. The mechanics of the level were not so, such as not knowing the line of sight, or that if you kill an enemy in one turn and no one saw it the enemies still don't get alerted, or that it would be night the whole time.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It seems implied in the dialog that you are supposed to sneak, and cover the movement of malin and darken but in the end I did nothing of the sort. I think it would really be better if one of the suggestions of Darken Volk is that there is not only one but in fact a number of ways to successfully enter the manor, so as not to throw off the player or force him to stick to one kind of solution.
Also I agree with what this guy said:
I didn't understand, why is it nighttime during the whole scenario and found no hint in the dialog about it.
Well, this scenario certainly feels like a commando raid which is unique for wesnoth scenarios.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Not understanding clearly the mechanics of the enemy behavior and line of sight

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Well for what it is right now, I guess I'd give it an 8, because like i said above it is unique among wesnoth scenarios because of the commando raid style.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
clarify mechanics and show enemy line of sight

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
yes several times I lost because I was overwhelmed before I could reach the manor, then I changed tactics and several times I got caught in the enemy's vision.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better? I don't know WML

Note: I am in agreement with a lot of the points of podbelski in the previous page of this thread
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nuorc
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by nuorc »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Medium, BfW 1.12.1

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10. I guess you either have to spend ages to figure out the mechanics; or look here for the hint to assassinate the leader.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Pretty clear, after I remembered that there's a different line to tell players they have only one turn to recruit.

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

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Since I'm not good at the scenario before I only get minimum gold; that's not enough for a regular attack. I also couldn't get in sneakily; once the alarm goes off all those units come at me and I will have too much losses.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
1. I believe last time I quit the campaign at this scenario. This time, after I had some failures, I looked here for help and went a scenario back to level my Shadows.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Make a sneaky approach possible.

Give an explanation for the constant night time ('Darken Volt casts a spell...').

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Massive losses...
I have a cunning plan.
czarkoff
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by czarkoff »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Easy, 1.12.2.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
3 with shadows/nightgaunts.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear, although breach of day/night cycle should be noted.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I assassinated enemy leader with nightgaunts, which didn't stop watchmen from talking to him.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Not much. By this level I already had quite strong troops, so that I could milk through enemies rather quickly and easily.

(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?
Guards could pose a bit more threat. Eg. mages could have been L2, or more heavy infantry. Most guards are pikemen, which pose little to no thread to most undead units.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
I nearly had Darken Volk dead.
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shadow12
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by shadow12 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on? Medium. Wesnoth 1.10.5, iOS iPad 1.0.4 (replay uploads and downloads not available as of yet)

Started with 170 gold. Finished turn 22/28 with 166 gold, Carry over 119. 14 units to take with to the next scenario.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 4
(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?
Very interesting story. The artwork between scenarios is beautiful.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? just figuring out the best strategy

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
10/10, very fun! I liked that it is night all the time. The fog dissipated around the Shadows and Nightguants I sent in as scouts. The ghosts moved unseen to capture villages, then kill the leader. I liked the map layout and there were plenty of villages to build up gold. I needed the gold to recall units to take with me in the following scenarios.

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

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

Recalled 8 units to start.
Sent ghosts with nightstalk around the map secretly capturing villages.
By Turn 10 had all all 20 villages.
Killed the leader with 2 Nightgaunts and a Shadow.
Recalled all of my 11 units (Dark Sorcerer, 2 Spectres, 2 Shadows, 2 Nighgaunts, 2 Nechrophages, Ghast, Draug)
Eliminated enemy. Moved Malin and Volk to the room in the mansion.
Sometimes life unexpectedly throws a Troll or a nasty Queen Naga in your path.
Entengelaende
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by Entengelaende »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on? Hard, 1.12.6
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 2
(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? Okay
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? Shadows not getting killed by the mages near the enemy leader
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 10
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? None
(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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Britannicus
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by Britannicus »

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

Challenging, Version 1.12.6

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

Once you figure it out, around 5.

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

Pretty clear.

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

Very interesting story-wise, the gameplay-hints are more confusing than helpful imo.

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

Trying to assassinate the leader, not losing units I needed for the mansion.

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

8, it's fun to have ToD advantage for a whole scenario!

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

I would say make a sneaky approach more viable, but apparently that's not the intention. :) Nothing else really.

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

Failing to assassinate the leader, subsequently losing a nightgaunt and two shadows.
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Konrad2
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by Konrad2 »

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

Challenging, Version 1.14.1 (this means the scenario is different from the 1.14.5 version, because I reported my night raid on github)

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

Maybe 4-6?

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

Pretty clear.

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

Nice, but back then I could take Tath down (which I did) and that did somewhat clash with the story.

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

Assasinating the enemies in the right order.

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

9, one does not often raid a city at night. ^^

(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?

Misjudging how far some of the enemy units can move in one turn.
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LordWolfDan
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

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)

- 6

(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?

- While there isn't much dialogue in this one, it does certainly build up this good story. I still don't trust Darken Volk after hearing out he needs a book or something.

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

- Trying not to be overswarmed by the enemy troops

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

- 5

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

- If this is supposed to be stealth scenario, then killing the enemies should not be recommended. The reason why I say this is because if the enemy does end up seeing the undead army coming, then they should swarm them and thus this could lead to defeat of Malin's army

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

- None
Mawmoocn
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by Mawmoocn »

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

1.12.6, Hard, Bat and loyal units only gameplay

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

10

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

Might be clear? not sure since you would need to fight them anyway.

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

Why didn’t Malin doubt his teacher before he arrived in this scenario?

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

Keeping Dread Bats alive. Avoiding Silver Mage before I could face him. Iron Maulers damage to bats. Leveling bats. No death objectives since I’ll need those bats later on. Separating bulk of enemy units charging towards me, this was hard because of range damage.

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

9

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

No comment

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

I actually gave up playing this scenario. Being defensive didn’t help me live longer than being aggressive. I have to kill them or they will kill my units. Trying to have no unit death, proved to be very hard with bats. You need to keep them alive since replacing them is hard to do at this part of the campaign.

After a few months, I only finished this scenario, when I become very aggressive on village hunting and positioning my leaders on the front lines to kill troublesome foes, which worked after a few scenario restarts. I replayed the scenario before this to get a bit more gold.

I think I recalled 9 Dread Bats to do the scenario and leveled up other bats to Blood Bats and eventually to a Dread Bat, for a total of 12-15 Dread Bats at the end of the scenario. I needed to control the map to do this scenario. I lacked strong veterans that could survive, because of that I have to AMLA some bats to gain more hit points.

The scenario would be harder if I didn’t use bats that have a strong trait.

I read walkthroughs, it didn’t apply as bats don’t have resistances similar to ghosts or I probably need to sacrifice units.

It’s possible to do the scenario even if there’s a unit loss. Although this would make succeeding scenarios harder...
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by Konrad2 »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

1.15.6, Summoner (Challenging)

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

4

(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 like the bonus stuff.

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

Picking my first fights against the guards.

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

9

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

-

Scenario stats:
Spoiler:
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Mawmoocn
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by Mawmoocn »

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

1.14.13, Summoner (Difficult)

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

8

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

I think even if my enemies vision is limited to 3, some units have 2 vision.
And I think the activation on intruder alert must be after your side turn because, it's not mentioned when they will get alerted.
Also that the vision limitation applies if guards aren't alerted.

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

No regrets he says, that's.... well.... ouch.
(Nice characterization for Malin. Quite sad though....)

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

Shock Trooper, Longbowman, and not to let any leveled unit die. Leveling units can also be hard.

(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?

None?
It's possible not to kill anyone here if you want but you need a sacrifice.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
  • Shock Trooper/Longbowman/Mage army.
  • Wrong recruits on first turn. (I need a damage deaing unit there)
  • Bad trait bats recruit (quick/intelligent)
  • Malin or his "master" died from trying to absorb hits from the bat killers.
  • No "retreat" option because I'll die from no turns left. (It's not an issue if you have a Ghost tank not swarmed by Ghost killers)
  • When Malin or his "master" have low hit points.
  • Bat alerted the guard accidentally because you are in the range of movement and you actually have to do it manually. So I decided to kill most of them because I need the experience.
Actually none of this is an issue if I don't alert the "guards" early as you can go the semi hidden and assassinate due to lower vision.
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The other unused branch but it was interesting to do
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mal_shubertal
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by mal_shubertal »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.16.6 Summoner (Challenging)
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
3. But I started with 273 gold, so I was just able to recruit a huge army and it was a cakewalk.
(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 like the between-scenarios depiction of Malin's inner conflict, he is not a LIKEABLE character, but I find him uncomfortably relatable, which is great for a tragic anti-hero. I also like the random comic relief of the drunk zombie, to lighten the mood.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Figuring out the line of sight rules for the enemies. The objectives screen says "enemy units have reduced vision. An enemy unit will see you if two hexes separate you from them". And this does indeed seem to apply to the loyal 'guard' units that are present at the start of the scenario. But these vision rules don't apply to the units that your enemy recruits. They can apparently see you at their normal movement range. I guess this could be explained by saying that Darken's spell is dispelled when the first enemy sees you, but this was not fully clear to me at the start. Darken says "once we're spotted, we'll have to make a run for it", which explains this in retrospect, but I think this could be made clearer. It is also weird that, after you've been 'discovered', the swarm of recruited loyalist units starts coming at you, but the remaining guard units just sit passively at their posts until you wander into their vision range. This is kind of nonsensical behavior, like, are we all fighting totally silently so these guards have NO IDEA a whole battle is going on just out of sight?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
5. Fighting against all the shocktroopers and heavy infantry was an interesting challenge and made the ghost units really shine. But the line of sight issues were distracting, and I think the huge amount of starting gold I came in with made it a little too easy.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
I would change the behavior of the enemy units to be more consistent between the 'guard' units that are present at the start of the scenario and the ones who are recruited. So, either all the enemy units have the shortened vision range for the entire scenario, or all of them have normal vision range. And I would make it so that the guard units become mobile once the enemy leader starts recruiting, to be more realistic and increase pressure on the player. I also am not sure if it was intended for players to be able to come into this scenario with as much carryover gold as I did (I started with 273), which made it very easy. I did it by just recruiting very minimally on Return to Parthyn and running for the signpost rather than fighting the orcs, thus saving a lot of my carryover gold from Schism.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
misinterpreting the enemy vision range and putting my units in vulnerable positions.
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JL42
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by JL42 »

What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
v. 1.16.10
Summoner / Challenging
How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
3
How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Generally clear. It's especially good how the dialogue explains the reduced enemy sight ranges, and notifies the player that you won't be able to recruit more troops in the upcoming scenarios.

Some of the special objectives here are really obscure, but at least the relevant points on the map are labeled, and they don't randomly blink in and out of existence like in the previous scenario. There are a few standout items sitting around in the manor that look like they should do something interesting (potion bottles etc.), but I couldn't figure out any kind of effects related to them. Same for the monoliths to the east of the manor, and the statue in the courtyard. I guess these are supposed to be just decorations, but they don't blend in very well with the background, which makes them look like points of interest.
How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The story continues to be very well-done and engaging.

In the opening description there's one odd line about "a plume of smoke rising behind him," without any other details. This kind of suggests that Parthyn has been sacked after all (?) but I don't think it is ever really explained. (If you fled the previous scenario without fighting the orcs that would make more sense, but I think most players will want to eliminate the orcs, and Malin would certainly want to do so; in that case it's really unclear what the plume of smoke is about.)
What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
There's nothing really challenging here, but it's still fun to sneak around and figure out the patrols etc. Seems like there's a good chance for the player to get spotted, if you misread the sight distances or because of the patrol movements. But that's not a huge deal because even if the guards are alerted you can fairly easily wipe out the whole town. It's good that this one is not very difficult, because carryover gold will be sorely needed for "Alone at Last."
How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7
What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
None. Maybe clean up some of the confusing map-clutter items, or figure out a way to make them blend in better.

---------------
About the Overall Campaign:

I was a bit conflicted about how to rate this campaign, because it has some elements that are just completely epically awesome, but other elements that are still glitchy and frustrating. The best parts are the overall story with its nuance and moral complexity, the final scenario concept, and the unique leveling system. A lot of the maps seem to have improved since the last time I played, with more interesting terrain and tactics and new "special objectives"; those changes seem generally great. On the downside though, the implementation of the leveling system has some confusing and frustrating aspects, some of the writing is not up to the story's overall standards, and there are numerous minor glitches, poorly placed objectives, confusing descriptions and events, confusing map clutter, etc. To avoid repetition I'll put the details of leveling issues etc. into the last scenario thread. Overall I'm going to give the campaign 5 out of 5 stars, because I think its awesomeness outweighs the lingering problems. But, it could definitely still benefit from patching up in places.
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