Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

Feedback for the mainline campaign Descent into Darkness.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
shadow12
Posts: 98
Joined: November 6th, 2015, 1:06 am

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

Post by shadow12 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Medium. Starting gold 319. Ended on turn 12 with 12 units. Lost one veteran Shadow.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 9
(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, about a boy's decent into dark magic. And now he is betrayed by his mentor.
By the way, I think Volk is a toad. Malin should give him boils! Oh wait, we kill him. Good.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? Figuring out the best strategy. Not getting killed by Gweor and a Paladin.
The key to winning was that I stationed my units (Draugs and Ghasts work great) on the island, killing the enemy when they were in the river. By turn 8 I had defeated all of DV's army, except DV. Put some skeletons and bats in the south as bait to divert the Wesnothian army when they appeared. Kept the ghosts out of the Paldin's range. Used necromancers and draugs with Malin to defeat Volk.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 9. it was fun playing with high level troops! I like surprises!
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? good as is! We just need some more villages on our side of the river so we don't finish with negative gold.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? A couple of reloads.

Strategy:
1. Recalled 10 units. (Mostly lvl 3) Plus recruited a few expendable bats and skeletons.
2. Stationed my units on the river bank. By turn 8 I had killed all enemy except Volk, who sat like a lump in his castle.
3. Moved some Necromancers, Malin, and a Draug to take out Volk in his castle.
4. On Turn 8 the Wesnothian army appears in the southwest, complete with their own castle and Gweor, a Mage of Light.
The Wesnothian Paladins (horsemen) can kill a Nightguant or Septre in one turn, so I kept the ghosts out of their range.
5. Stationed some tough units (Draugs and Ghasts) on the island. Moved skeletons and bats in the south as bait to divert the Wesnothian army. One bat made it through a whole turn in an attack from both Gweor and a Paladin! Tough little guy.
6. Volk drops the book when he is killed. I had Malin pick it up. Used a few Necromancers and Draugs to protect him on the way back. They can usually survive if hit by a Paladin. Ghosts can't.
7. At turn 11 the angry sister, Dela, shows up with a castle of her own and more troops in the north. As usual, she is not too happy with her brother.
She did not pose a threat because by turn 12 Malin made it back to his castle with the book and it was game over.
I lost only one veteran Shadow and the three that I used as bait.
Sometimes life unexpectedly throws a Troll or a nasty Queen Naga in your path.
Entengelaende
Posts: 16
Joined: June 3rd, 2014, 1:30 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

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) 9
(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? Quite interesting
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? Figuring out which units to use, especially for carrying the book
(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
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? Darken Volk's troops once got killed too fast to fight the paladins so they were after me
User avatar
Britannicus
Posts: 57
Joined: June 25th, 2017, 8:04 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

Post by Britannicus »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
Version 1.12.6, Challenging.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Decent, 6/10.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Not getting Malin killed, holding back the Paladins without incurring too many losses.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Around a 6, I guess.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Is it possible to remove the Wesnoth factions from the status list until they spawn? Because that kinda ruins the fun and the surprise for first time players imo.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Losing too many valuable units to the paladin charge.
Attachments
DiD-Alone_at_Last_replay.gz
(45.59 KiB) Downloaded 625 times
Konrad2
Forum Moderator
Posts: 3333
Joined: November 24th, 2010, 6:30 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

Post by Konrad2 »

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

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I like it, 7.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Crushing the enemies in the right order and avoiding losses against the undead and paladins.

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

(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 valuable units to the undead mage menace and the paladin charge.
Attachments
DiD-Alone at Last replay.gz
(42.33 KiB) Downloaded 629 times
LordWolfDan
Posts: 216
Joined: September 30th, 2018, 7:31 am

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

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)

- 7

(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 knew it that Darken Volk was the traitor, but I do consider him to be somehow likable villain. It seems that Malin's desires aren't a big deal to him. Now that Malin obtained the book, where is this going to lead now?

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

- Trying to stay the HELL away from paladin's forces, but I managed to escape with losing one deathblade though

(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?

- Give Dela some kind of defeat dialogue, yet have her survive this battle. Maybe she could face him off in the last stand?

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

- None
Mawmoocn
Posts: 154
Joined: March 16th, 2019, 3:54 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

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?

Clear

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

I forgot to dismiss that auto generated (useless) ghost, I hate that ghost.

Ugh... I hate that ghost which had more lines than his real sister. Not very fun (personal bias).

Well at least he mentions his sister briefly in this scenario...

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

Figuring out the strategy to do this as walkthroughs for bats don’t exist...

It was time for my Dread Bats to fly away and become Dead Bats.

Fighting undead army is worse due to bats have to fight against armies of resistant to blade damage and immune to drain.... Fighting them head-on, would cripple my bats survivability.

In the end, luring most of my enemies near the paladin keep, saved me the hassle from killing undead. Thankfully, Malin only needed to face 2-3 undead while he’s in the village waiting for the right time to move out. With bat support, it’ll be easy to run away from undead that was aimed for Malin.

(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?

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?

Dread Bats dying, I gave up on restarting for perfect no dead units as it would consume more time to do so. I lost units killing his teacher and luring undead to the paladin’s keep. The irony is that, my enemy’s deathblade is the one that killed bats instead of the paladin.

I can’t kill the undead without losing units, which made try to find an efficient way to kill most of them.

I guess I could probably kill the paladin team with a mix of high level bats and necromancers. Bats are a great shield to charging attacks especially if they have enough hit points to absorb damage.

I think I’ll restart this scenario in the future if I have enough time. I’ll probably do a kill them all approach.
Konrad2
Forum Moderator
Posts: 3333
Joined: November 24th, 2010, 6:30 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

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)

9

(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 it.

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

Getting to Darken without being destroyed. And then making it out of there.

(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?

-

Scenario stats:
Spoiler:
Attachments
DiD-Alone at Last replay 20201119-191003.gz
(50.9 KiB) Downloaded 290 times
Mawmoocn
Posts: 154
Joined: March 16th, 2019, 3:54 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

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)

10

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

Clear?
(Well killing to get a book might not be obvious? ...because you got the book without killing someone?)

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

Uhh.... sad?
I also dismissed set free the souls of all my ghosts so......

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

Uh................... killing undead....... with bats....
Coordinating the right time turn to attack his traitorous "master".

(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?

None?
Maybe no ghost "advisor" if you hate it so much?

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
  • Baiting his "master's" army.
  • Tried to kill undead....
  • Deathblade....
  • Cried to tears Accepting the final evolution of Dread Bats, which is Dead Bats.
I think I got lucky.
Also it's really funny to see Inner (name) Mage that's quick and intelligent from this replay :lol: .
Attachments
DiD-Alone at Last replay.gz
(37.87 KiB) Downloaded 286 times
mal_shubertal
Posts: 93
Joined: December 1st, 2018, 6:58 pm

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

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)
8. Those paladins are brutal.
(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 it all. Both the final falling out between Malin and Darken, and Dela showing up just in time to tell Malin off before the scenario ends. I really like Dela's last lines, where she is mocking Malin for his past superior attitude. Her showing up at just the right moment to kick him while he's down and emphasize all that he has lost really fits with the sort of tragic melodrama of this campaign.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Timing and paladins. All of my lvl 3 units (aside from Malin and Eidolon) were Draugs and Nightgaunts which use blade attacks, so I had no way to quickly push through all of Darken's high level skeletons and ghosts that were resistant to blade. This meant that I couldn't get in and out before the paladin's troops were on top of me, and then I had to pick just right time to take out Darken, so that he could first soften the other enemies for me.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9. Fighting undead with my army, that was so poorly optimized for fighting undead, was an interesting challenge that forced me to think differently. Fighting multiple paladins with an undead army was also a tough challenge. I like the occasional scenario like this late in the campaign, where you have to put some of your hard earned lvl 3 units at risk, and that prevents you from just accumulating a million lvl 3's that you can't afford to recall later.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
The scenario starts as an undead vs. undead mirror match, and Darken has literally taught you everything you know about the undead, but then he recruits NECROPHAGES? That is the worse lvl 2 unit he could recruit when he knows that all your units are immune to poison, especially since you don't have dark adepts in this campaign! For me, this just made Darken seem kind of dumb and that didn't fit for the evil mastermind who has been manipulating you for the whole campaign so far. So taking them off his recruit list would be an improvement.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
I restarted a few times because I got too aggressive and lost too many of my high level units, or took out Darken too fast and then got overrun by the loyalists.
Attachments
DiD-Alone at Last replay 20230114-160206.gz
(38.92 KiB) Downloaded 54 times
JL42
Posts: 66
Joined: December 9th, 2023, 11:19 am

Re: Scenario Review: DiD 10 - Alone at Last

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)
7
How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Generally clear. This scenario has the same issue as previous ones in regard to unexplained teleporting monoliths (it suddenly disappears and moves to a different location – seems to happen when you kill Darken; but why?). I can see that the monolith text is a bit different after it moves, but the significance is really vague – and it's frustrating when you were "saving" the other monolith to grab on your way out, and now that western one is just unexpectedly gone and you've missed your chance to visit.

I also noticed a small glitch where the objectives inaccurately say there is no early finish bonus, and they don't list defeating all enemies as a victory option. I found that if you kill all of the enemy leaders the scenario does immediately end, and you do get the substantial gold for the early finish.
How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Very clear. I thought the writing was particularly good here, especially as Malin expresses his basic fear of abandonment and need for approval. In addition to the villagers who turned their backs on him, he ought to mention the mages who cast him out half-trained. It's poignant how he careens back and forth between anger at how he was treated and desperately wanting to believe in their goodness.

Then Dela arrives and ... wow. That whole family is messed up. Makes me wonder what his parents were like.
What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The main challenge is that there are three enemies, and they are all rather powerful. Fortunately you can get them to fight each other. After a few less-than-spectacular runs (that is, getting my butt kicked) I found that the most useful strategy was to hang back a bit at the start, and then once the Paladins arrive Darken's entire army will turn around to go fight them, allowing our forces to easily advance. I also had a fair bit of carryover gold here; it would probably be a lot harder without that extra cash.
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?
The map overall seems very well-designed and balanced.

At the beginning of the scenario, when Malin and Darken exit the cave, Malin walks right on top of the monolith but doesn't bother to stop and get the bonus. This seemed slightly odd; maybe just move the monolith a bit so it doesn't happen. As I noted with previous scenarios, the whole issue with the disappearing and teleporting monoliths is really confusing and unexplained.

Malin killed Darken with his plague sword, but Darken didn't come back as a zombie. (Pout.)

---------------
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.
Post Reply