Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Feedback for the mainline campaign The Hammer of Thursagan.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
Content Feedback
Battle for Wesnoth
Location: Wesnoth.org
Contact:

Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by Content Feedback »

The Hammer of Thursagan, scenario 8.

(1) What difficulty levels 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?
Mainline Campaigns: Scenario FeedbackDevelopment & Overall Feedback
User-made Add-ons: Feedback
Einar
Posts: 2
Joined: September 4th, 2008, 1:42 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by Einar »

1.I played this on medium.
2. It seemed a good level of challenge - about a 6.
3. Quite clear. The changing objective was handled quite well.
4. Exceptionally good dialogue. The cry of "I am a witness!" is one of the more memorable scenes in my playing of Wesnoth so far.
5. The berserkers. I love this class of enemy, but it did keep killing my mages =) Nice challenge, that.
6. Oh, very fun. Call it a 9.
7. I would have liked to see a little conversation with Ollin in the aftermath. He's a minor NPC, but part of a very dramatic chain of events, and I'd have liked to have seen his plot brought to a little more of a resolution (possibly in a sequel?)
8. Not a loss, though I will admit to reloading when my mages all died. I really shouldn't have, but I really wanted to see this campaign's plot to the end, so I thought I'd best keep 'em around for what was ahead =)
User avatar
Turuk
Sithslayer
Posts: 5283
Joined: February 28th, 2007, 8:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by Turuk »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Lord (Challenging) 1.5.7

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
7. Money was tight, but I still managed to have enough troops to crush the enemy (8 vs 25). Only issue is that I just squeaked by the turn limit, so no gold going into the next scenario may or may not prove to be an issue. Sheer number of troops was daunting but holding them at the bridge made them easy pickings.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Crystal, I like how they change based on the actions of the masked dwarf.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
As noted above, the "I am a witness" bit is very good, speaks to the culture of the dwarves and that there is a whole dwarven kingdom with rules and laws that the player cannot see with Wesnoth's battle snapshots.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Making it in by the turn limit. Once I saw I was getting close I pushed forward and managed to finish fine, but it was tight.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8. Dialogue helps, but the nature of the map where few must taken down many and you have to strategically choose where to engage the dwarves is a nice touch.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Not much really, good as it is.

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

(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?
Looks fine to me.
Mainline Maintainer: AOI, DM, NR, TB and THoT.
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
cph
Posts: 129
Joined: May 12th, 2007, 4:29 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by cph »

(1) Lord, 1.8.1.
(2) 5
(3) Clear.
(4) Okay.
(5) The time limit and the enemy income. Just grabbing space in the enemy camp in particular was hard, as the enemy were able to recruit 2-3 units per turn. The initial wave of ulfserkers forces careful deployment early on.
(6) 7 - it's a good pitched battle, and the masked dwarf graphics are a nice touch.
(7) -
(8) No.
User avatar
Maiklas3000
Posts: 532
Joined: June 23rd, 2010, 10:43 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by Maiklas3000 »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Hard, i.e., challenging, i.e., Lord, 1.8.3, 116 gold (80 is minimum.)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
9

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

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I agree with Turuk: weird in a good way.

Nitpick: "Take that for my family" should be "Take this for my family," or else the line should occur after the attack.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Surviving is somewhat difficult, and killing the leader on time (18 turns on hard) is more difficult.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9. I like when I can see the genius of the author, and when I can beat the scenario only with a good strategy.

(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?
I made several attempts to win from turn 1:

1. I tried making a stand on the mountains by the stronghold. The AI dilly-dallied until it had overwhelming numbers, then it kicked my ass.
2. I tried making a stand on northern side of the riverbank. This didn't work for reasons I still don't understand.
3. I tried making a stand at the bridge. This worked well, but due to a dragonguarder who sizzled at the critical moment, I failed to win on turn 18, the last turn.
4. I tried making a stand at the bridge again, but with the intention to press forward as quickly as possible. I did an "ole". It was like "oh, you want the western riverbank? Okay, you can have it, I'll take your eastern riverbank, so I can kill your leader." I rotated around the enemy as he rotated around me, and then I rushed on for the leader assassination, which occurred on turn 16.

(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?
Done very well.
Attachments
THoT-Fear_replay.gz
(24.95 KiB) Downloaded 1439 times
monochromatic
Posts: 1549
Joined: June 18th, 2009, 1:45 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by monochromatic »

Mythological wrote:The Hammer of Thursagan, scenario 8.

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal 1.8.3
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6 - more difficult than it seems. Needs careful planning with what to do with the ulfserkers and thunderers.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Say something about the village being in the east.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
As always, Angarthing was awesome here.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Ulfserkers and Thunderers wearing down my troops.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7 - a change, fighting something dwarves aren't accustomed to fighting.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
What'd be really cool, is to have the player rescue a couple humans from a small group of masked dwarves, and then have the humans tell the player about the masked dwarf leader.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
An ulf ulfing down one unit too many.
(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?
Didn't check.
Thrash
Posts: 223
Joined: June 25th, 2010, 1:54 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by Thrash »

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

1.8.3, Medium, 224 starting gold

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

4

Side note: In general, I'm finding this campaign too easy on Medium. I should have played on hard. Don't know if I'm just getting better or the campaign needs a little balancing.

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

"Find inhabitants" wasn't real clear, but stumbling into a village makes it trivial. For grins, I re-played without taking a village just to see what would happen and apparently nothing triggers the "find inhabitant" event otherwise, so you find yourself fighting dwarves with no explanation (and I'm guessing the closing dialog makes no sense, though I didn't play to end). I agree this isn't very likely as taking villages is the logical thing to do, but perhaps the inhabitants should pop out regardless around turn 5 just to catch this.

Otherwise clear.

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

Well above average.

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

None really. Once I got the west bank, it was pretty easy with terrain to finish off the attackers and then push to the leader.

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

8. Fun fighting dwarves.

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

Give enemy some 2nd level units.

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

No.

(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?

Well done.

One possible bug: It seems like when the masked dwarves are being attacked, their masks come off during the event (i.e. a unmasked image is used for a brief period of time).
Attachments
THoT-Fear_replay.gz
(24.56 KiB) Downloaded 1065 times
User avatar
turin
Lord of the East
Posts: 11662
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 7:17 pm
Location: Texas
Contact:

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by turin »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Hard 1.9+svn

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
3. Another easy grind.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
I was actually somewhat surprised to not have to protect Ollin... and then he suicide-charged... that was weird, and confused me for a bit.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I like the development of the Witness, uh, stuff. Not sure what I think of the rest of the dialogue.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
None.

(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?
Don't have four Ulfserkers charge into a horde of steelclads! That's just mass suicide and free XP for me! I would replace them with two Steelclads or something -- you can't add too much, since the scenario can take 18 turns, but free XP just isn't the way to to go.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No,
For I am Turin Turambar - Master of Doom, by doom mastered. On permanent Wesbreak. Will not respond to private messages. Sorry!
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
santosis
Posts: 74
Joined: October 11th, 2010, 12:04 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by santosis »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Got it, kill the naughty dwarf.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
It works, bad guy seems proper despicable. I also appreciated the witness dialogue, it feels natural.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I spent all my gold recruiting two keeps worth of troops. I mixed in a few level 2's and recruited a fresh mage (got the final kill and is close to level 2). I also leveled the other novice mage into a white mage.

I led all my troops to the river and controlled the shore. I wiped them out without casualty (one reset for poor strategy, left the griffin exposed).

I finished in round 12/24, with negative 41 gold. I will carry 46 gold over to the next scenario (gulp, perhaps I over-recruited?)

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
7 - Good ole fashioned stomp fest.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Can't really think of any.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Dead griffin.
Yrth
Posts: 25
Joined: November 8th, 2010, 4:26 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by Yrth »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Hard, 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6, again enough gold and a good strategy is essential

(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 good, dramatic dialog

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Developing the right strategy, don´t be defensive, just head east with your army, keep them together, dispatch the vanguard one by one, the main army will hit you just at the bridge where you are in a good position, advance further asap

(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 proposal

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Building a defensive stance even at a favourable location is not a good idea, you will get overwhelmed

(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?
...
BubbleScreen
Posts: 43
Joined: January 24th, 2010, 6:19 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by BubbleScreen »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.8.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
4

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
No problem, though it's sort of silly to have the fog instantly disappear. Maybe a masked dwarf messenger comes and demands the head of Ollin? (but then as turin says, Ollin throws his life away which is odd)

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I like the witness stuff! But these masked dwarves seem rather less impressive than the foreshadowing made them out to be.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Moving quickly to get gold. I got held up at the bridge, so, I crossed south of the bridge to hit their flank. But the outcome was never truly in doubt.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Tactically, 5. Now it's Dwarves-vs-Dwarves. Make it a 6 thanks to the witness stuff.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
- Make Ollin not suicidally charge the dwarves, but run away or something. Because why would he go from cowering in a house to throwing away his life?
- Have the ulfserkers be less stupid.
- Maybe have the masked dwarves enter a village, burn it to a ground, and said village spawns a peasant who gets killed.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
User avatar
tr0ll
Posts: 551
Joined: June 11th, 2006, 8:13 pm
Location: canada

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by tr0ll »

1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.9.6

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
4

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
9. Agree about fog disappearing and Ollin charging to his death. Are we supposed to save him?

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
8

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Leveling some mages and guards.

(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?
Add some investigation dialogue as they find out more about masked dwarves from intact villages peasants or burnt down ones.
Sprinkle some villagers around, give a bonus for saving them. Leave one mage (if any) at end of scene to take care of them.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No

(9)
podbelski
Posts: 151
Joined: June 7th, 2011, 8:35 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by podbelski »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.9.6, Hard, 146gp, no reloads

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
"5" if you have enough gold (like I did), "6" if it's the minimum. You overwhelm enemy in units strength, so you just need good tactics to steadily crush them on time. If there were like 25 turns then I'm not giving more than "3" to it.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
liked it, much better than starting dialogs in previous and next scenario

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
"8", liked everything

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
good as is. One-two additional 2nd level units to the enemy will make first clash more challenging
Attachments
THoT-Fear_replay.gz
(28.32 KiB) Downloaded 929 times
User avatar
PorkSol
Posts: 56
Joined: August 23rd, 2011, 2:10 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by PorkSol »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on? Hard, 1.9.8, 112 gp, no save load
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 6.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? I didn't actually notice the "find the inhabitants" objective, but I captured a village immediately so it wasn't an issue.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? Above average.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? Figuring out what type of scenario this is. Initially I thought was going to be more of a breather scenario, so I recruited some level ones to try and level up and brought out the gryphon to try and make money. I was quite shocked by the number of recruits the masked dwarf spewed out. I ended up going with mostly level 3s on my final run, but I was at least able to level the mage and two fighters. Hopefully I don't need bonus gold on the next map!
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 7, plus half of a point for the dialog so 7.5
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? see #5
Attachments
THoT-Fear_replay.gz
Hard, 1.9.8, no save load
(28.91 KiB) Downloaded 879 times
User avatar
Ninjuri
Posts: 167
Joined: April 28th, 2012, 2:59 am
Location: California

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 8 - Fear

Post by Ninjuri »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal 1.10.2
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
100%
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Pretty good, now i know what the orcs were talking about when they mentioned the masked ones, i had originally thought they were talking about bandits. I am now curious as to how the storyline will unfold and am regretting that i'm going to bed left in suspense. :P
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
This one had some of the same problems as the previous, (which i rated as 8 difficulty), though to a lesser degree. Namely, the enemy starts with both a higher starting gold, and over 10x the player's base income.

With these disadvantages i still was able to pull off a nice win with good tactics. My mages were actually in front of the rest of my troops, but i made sure to stop them just out of the ulfzerkers range, and then use gaurdsmen and fighters to create a buffer zone. This brilliantly caused the ulfzerkers to rush into a suicide.

I then made sure as top priority to level up the apprentice mage into a white mage, and used him and the witness as duel walking villages. I surrounded the witness with scratched troops, and the white mage with more heavily injured ones. It was then just a matter of time before this regenerating circle fortress got to the enemy castle for a slaughter.
(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?
Let that base income take a hit, then maybe give the enemy a few villages or something to compensate, at least then i'll know exactly why their pockets are overflowing with money.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
My mage died one time when i had the enemy leader surrounded and all his 40% chance attacks hit for some odd reason.
Fate is against me.
Post Reply