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

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

Post by Content Feedback »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
(6) 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?
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
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howwitty
Posts: 65
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by howwitty »

(1) I'm currently on Medium
(2) 5
(3) Unclear
(4) The dialogue was easy to understand and fit in with the storyline progression (good story :D)
(5) Finding the manor
(6) 8
(7) There should be a few more mages, maybe just to spice things up a bit. I like the random holy water and things.
(8) Nope.
(9) I don't even know where to find the WML...

I don't think this is the right thread, but... where is the manor???

Edit: I killed the town guard (all the human units). Is that a problem in completing the objective?
I'm tired.
miekka
Posts: 62
Joined: December 30th, 2007, 2:48 pm

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

Post by miekka »

1. easy
2. 3... it's night all the time
3. very clear, finding the point could be harder
4. Very good
5. not getting overwhelmed by some mages
6. 7, it has a lot of tension in it
7. point out the Manor better (a trapdoor doesn't sound like a common manor entrance, does it?)
8. Nope
MeesterDaan
Posts: 17
Joined: August 11th, 2008, 5:53 pm

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

Post by MeesterDaan »

(1) Hard
(2) 10. Impossible without some 200/200 necrofagi (on hard).
(3) Rather unclear.
(4) Pretty ok. I really like the whole campaign though.
(5) Squatting enormous numbers of human.
(6) 8 (once you exactly know what to do)
(7) Describe clearer how to get the book.
(8) Yes, I even had to replay the previous one to breed up some necrofagi strong enough to
complete this one.
(9) No comment.
fareley
Posts: 66
Joined: September 10th, 2008, 5:45 pm

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

Post by fareley »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
hard, 1.5.3
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10 unless i found out what to do, then it was about 4 :D
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
they weren't that clear at all. "Just stalk in there" - but how?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
they were ok
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
finding out how to do it...
Well, i never tried taking the guards off one by one (with some Ghosts), i only got that idea later. But i really liked Shadows as they are really strong when doing double damage and i had at this point 3 Shadows on my recruit list. I just went in, killed the enemies leader (i lost 1 shadow...) and then killed all the guards without major problems
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7. It can be VERY frustrating
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
maybe a hint hidden in a dialogue like "Master, a dead guard won't alarm the others"
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
yes - i often tried to defeat the enemies really big army but had no chance on hard...
(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 think it's okay. Maybe a patrol would make it a bit more realistic but it's okay the way it is
ALX23
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by ALX23 »

(1-9)generally it all quite good and clear, but there is a disbalance when the red mage gets trait quick it will likely cause a loss of an important unit.
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by beetlenaut »

I have a problem with this scenario. On hard it can either be pretty easy, or almost impossible (at least if you want enough units to survive the next scenario). It all depends on whether or not the leader lives long enough to recruit his huge castle full of nastiness. If you can assassinate him with shadows and nightguants, it's an easy walk into the manor, and you can keep your units alive. However, if they miss (I had three, and they missed on all seven strikes), you're going to lose many units, affecting the next two scenarios. Far too much depends on a few units hitting.

I recommend giving the leader a much smaller castle or a lot less gold, and adding a few more magi to the town. That would even out the difficulty, and make it less important to assassinate the leader.

(I only care about this because it seems to be the biggest flaw in an otherwise great campaign!)
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AI
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by AI »

Actually, you're *supposed* to rush in with meatshields, the assassination is just a nice trick someone managed to find.
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by beetlenaut »

AI wrote:Actually, you're *supposed* to rush in with meatshields, the assassination is just a nice trick someone managed to find.
Well, OK, but I can't rush anywhere. I have to sit and farm gold for ages in order to get enough units to keep my heroes alive. Are you sure that with the new gold system that the minimum gold is not a bit tight? Maybe it's me though. I'm willing to believe that I'm just not good enough to play it on hard. I'll keep trying.
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zookeeper
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by zookeeper »

I think how the unit carryover into the manor works needs some rethinking, since firstly it's of course impossible for the first-time player to know how many or what units would be necessary once inside, and secondly because getting in without having the enemy leader recruit a castleful is tricky and quite dependant on luck AFAIK.

Any clever ideas? Should the player just be able to recall normally inside the manor, for instance? Should the enemy leader be unable to recruit?
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beetlenaut
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by beetlenaut »

zookeeper wrote:it's of course impossible for the first-time player to know how many or what units would be necessary once inside
It would make sense for Volk to know what was coming. He could say something like: "The inside is likely to be teaming with magi. I hope we can handle that."
zookeeper wrote:and secondly because getting in without having the enemy leader recruit a castleful is tricky and quite dependant on luck AFAIK.
So maybe I'm not completely off base.
zookeeper wrote:Any clever ideas? Should the player just be able to recall normally inside the manor, for instance?
Maybe Malin could come across some bodies just inside, or even scattered throughout the level. (We have a graphic.) He can raise them into whatever undead units he wants (no DA's or bats in other words). They would be level one, and there would only as many of them as there are bodies. Say, five. So you get what you take with you, plus five level-one recruits. That, plus a hint by Volk, would make it much more fair, without making the inside a totally normal level. This could be done with option dialogs, making a keep and castle tiles not required. (Even better, non-keep recruitment tiles could be implemented for this.)
Campaigns: Dead Water,
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blue
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by blue »

1. Evoker (Challenging) 1.6.4
2. 5
3. Clear
4. Very nice
5. None
6. 6
7. None
8. I missplaced a wraith too close to the red mage at the "gate". Other than that none
Benefuchs
Posts: 54
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 9:40 pm

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

Post by Benefuchs »

(1) medium, 1.6
(2) 6
(3) the goal is rather clear, while the hint "only the ones recalled now will enter the cave" (or something like that) is not: I first thought, now would only mean the first turn.
(4) nice
(5) In my first attempt, I thought I could sneak in nearly without battle, which I couldn't. In my second attempt, I hoped the first sighting of my troops would draw the army and therefore sent two bats and two ghuls south as a bait. I had to find out that the leader's recruited troops would spread evenly, but I was lucky and one bat and one ghul leveled. In the end I entered the town after killing nearly every human.
(6) 7
(7) It's fun the way it is, but the possibility to enter rather secretly and without battle would be cool too.
(8) s. (5).
(9) N/A
batoonike
Posts: 75
Joined: January 3rd, 2009, 8:14 pm

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

Post by batoonike »

Kind of late but:

(1) "Difficult", version 2009 end something.
(2) impossible, if you dont know in the previous scenario, that you need either shadows or specters and lots of them, to beat this one. Which is absurd, since I cant possibly know beforehand, that i need to make 4-6 specters or 2+ shadows.
(3) Clear
(4) Clear and interesting
(5) Leaders get surrounded and killed if I dont have tons of high level ghosts by that time.
(6) 0, Depressing. Once you find out what you really have to do, its ok.
(7) Make it so, that it could be complited with level 1 troops, if planned correctly. The AI should send its troops to the direction that you pull them with your diversion, then it would be possible.
ozean
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Re: Scenario Review: DiD 7 - A Small Favor - Part I

Post by ozean »

I found this scenario a bit frustrating because it appears to be a stalk-at-night & take-by-surprise scenario (which would be fun!) but in reality it is a tough battle-it-out scenario. I reverted to some save loading here, because I did not want to spoil the stalking fun and build up a decent enough army to make it through a major battle.
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