The Sun Engineers - Add-on campaign

[lord_cangrand]

Hello! I just tried writing a new campaign for wesnoth and I think it’s time to release it to get some feedback.

The campaign follows the story of the engineers tending to Naia, the second sun. It tries to give a new spin to the time of the Fall from a very different perspective, and gives an origin story to Yechnagoth. It also features wannabe deep reflections on death, free will, and the meaning of life, because why not.

The recruit list is mainly a reskin of the Dunefolk faction, including new unit descriptions. There are 12 playable scenarios.

I’d be happy for any feedback you can give me! In particular, I’d like to hear your opinion on:

General difficulty – I playtested it on Normal and it seemed fine but I’m not sure about easy or hard, also I’m quite an expert player so that might impact my judgements.

The last scenario – I want to make it a genuinely nail-biting final battle also for expert players, but I keep bouncing between impossibly hard and relatively easy. I played and replayed it so much I have nightmares about it while sleeping, so any outside feedback would be really appreciated.

Gameplay enjoyability – It isn't the most creative campaign gameplay-wise, but I’d like to know whether it actually gets boring or not. Suggestions are welcome!

Dialogues (1) – I wanted to explore the reflections of the characters and the campaign’s themes, so there are a lot of dialogues, and they can be long. Don’t play it if you just want to skim them and jump from a scenario to the next. That said, I'd like to make them as compelling as possible and not just a speedbump between scenarios.

Dialogues (2) – English is not my native language, so I struggled to mimic a high fantasy language. I often gave in to using abbreviations (ex. didn’t) because I felt the prose would be too verbose otherwise. Any help or opinion would be appreciated.

Plot – Was it clear? Was it compelling? Were there plot holes? Did they all sound like entitled pricks?

Lore – It shouldn’t clash with anything in canon, but it does clash with other user-made campaigns, especially with After the Storm on Yechnagoth’s nature. I love that campaign and I simply think that user-made content can have multiple canons, but if it’s a huge deal I can change the plot and create a different villain.

Thanks!

[Lord-Knightmare]

Scenario 4 "Change of Plans" is missing its map file.

[lord_cangrand]

Thank you, there was a remnant of an old scenario that I then deleted in an [endlevel] tag. Now everything seems to work correctly

[lord_cangrand]

Also corrected a missing variable in scenario 10, just uploaded the updated version to the server

[Lord-Knightmare]

I am starting the The Gardens right now. After the update.

Now, is it intentional I have a Yeshnallah in my recall list? Seems like I should not and its a bug.

[Otdoy]

This is a.... fascinating campaign. The lore is very creative. Spirits made into flesh who serve as immortal guardians to an artificial sun? The birth of Yechnagoth? You tied it together very well. It was fascinating to witness Yechnagoth eating a soul, deep underground. (Consuming one or two more might add to the horror.)

I was a bit disappointed that there was only one 'flashback' to early Dolith. It would have been cool to witness Dolith meeting (and freeing?) Yeshnalla from the caves. One almost feels like you were planning this maybe. No biggie, the story tells it well. Also, where did all these spirits come from, and what motivated them to take human, immortal form? Aren't they immortal on Irdya already? Why go live on a boring sun.

There was a lot of emotion in the writing. The philosophical evolution within the main characters is excellent. The dialogue does get a bit tedious at times... but I guess it mirrors these spirits' long and tedious lives

As for gameplay, it was fine, a bit difficult at times. I had trouble with the flying undead in the second-to-last scenario. Good thing there weren't that many. It might be interesting to be able to summon Wisps? With their arcane attack they are a good counter to flying undead. And it might fit the lore? As spirits that might not have regenerated into human form, but still try to be useful. Just a random idea, for a crazy campaign.

Thank you very much! Had a lot of fun.

[lord_cangrand]

I am starting the The Gardens right now. After the update.

Now, is it intentional I have a Yeshnallah in my recall list? Seems like I should not and its a bug.

Ah yes, must be a bug, I will correct it as soon as I manage. Thanks for the tip! I've been told about another bug later on close to the end but which is also not gamebreaking, so it should be possible to finish the campaign at least.

This is a.... fascinating campaign. The lore is very creative. Spirits made into flesh who serve as immortal guardians to an artificial sun? The birth of Yechnagoth? You tied it together very well. It was fascinating to witness Yechnagoth eating a soul, deep underground. (Consuming one or two more might add to the horror.)

Thanks a lot! If I can I ask you, did you have in mind something more like consuming some more souls in the same scene together, or rather having more scenes through the scenarios?

I was a bit disappointed that there was only one 'flashback' to early Dolith. It would have been cool to witness Dolith meeting (and freeing?) Yeshnalla from the caves. One almost feels like you were planning this maybe. No biggie, the story tells it well. Also, where did all these spirits come from, and what motivated them to take human, immortal form? Aren't they immortal on Irdya already? Why go live on a boring sun.

I think I might add one more flashback, honestly I didn't want to burn out before finishing the campaign with too many scenarios, but now that it's done I can add other stuff. They wanted to take human form to escape from the constraints of life as a spirit (be one with nature, forfeit your free will, etc.) and the only way to do so without conflicting with their mission (uphold the balance of nature) was to help build Naia. If it wasn't that clear I might want to deepen that with another flashback, also the yeshnallah idea might be nice.

As for gameplay, it was fine, a bit difficult at times. I had trouble with the flying undead in the second-to-last scenario. Good thing there weren't that many. It might be interesting to be able to summon Wisps? With their arcane attack they are a good counter to flying undead. And it might fit the lore? As spirits that might not have regenerated into human form, but still try to be useful. Just a random idea, for a crazy campaign.

Can I ask you at what difficulty you played it? To have an idea if the undead might need a bit of additional touch. Regarding the wisps it would be amazing, but I'll think about it because then it would open the problem of why they're not all in non-human forms.

Thanks for the feedback a lot! Glad you had fun

[Otdoy]

If I can I ask you, did you have in mind something more like consuming some more souls in the same scene together, or rather having more scenes through the scenarios?

Yeah, just having one or two more captives next to her, writhing then screaming in agony. Would add some horror loll

I think I might add one more flashback

I had a daydream thinking about Yesh/Yech and how Dolith originally found her sobbing, deep underground. I imagined Yesh stuck in some twisty room, seemingly cornered by those nasty blue-green bity things that we see in Invasion from the Unknown and at the very end of Under the Burning Suns. To Dolith, she seems like someone who needs to be saved (but we know better!) This might tie in with your excellent concept of this creature being a duality, of wanting to be loved, but especially wanting to be alive and strong. It's like a bad alien seed. I like how just before the end of the last scenario, it goes back to crying. I almost expected Dolith to ask, "What are you, really?" Thank you for the excellent writing, I'm sure it will be a source of inspiration for future mainline lore.

Can I ask you at what difficulty you played it?

I played at the regular difficulty. I enjoy the tactics of the game but I can get frustrated when scenario set-ups and the stupid AI conspire to wipe out my hard earned veterans. Please ignore my comment, I took care of the flying undead, it's probably just fine as it is.

[lord_cangrand]

I had a daydream thinking about Yesh/Yech and how Dolith originally found her sobbing, deep underground. I imagined Yesh stuck in some twisty room, seemingly cornered by those nasty blue-green bity things that we see in Invasion from the Unknown and at the very end of Under the Burning Suns. To Dolith, she seems like someone who needs to be saved (but we know better!) This might tie in with your excellent concept of this creature being a duality, of wanting to be loved, but especially wanting to be alive and strong. It's like a bad alien seed. I like how just before the end of the last scenario, it goes back to crying. I almost expected Dolith to ask, "What are you, really?" Thank you for the excellent writing, I'm sure it will be a source of inspiration for future mainline lore.

This is a very interesting idea, it would need to not conflict with the fact that she's essentially a spirit like all others and just accidentally stumped into being a villain, but it could be an interesting scenario and another callback to the mainline lore. I'll think about it for a 2.0 version. Thanks a lot for your feedback!

[lord_cangrand]

By the way, the new version is ready on the add-on server with all the bugs (hopefully) addressed (so finally version 1.0!), if anybody wants to give it a try! I should also be more reactive on the forum from now on

[holypaladin]

Finished playing campaining few days ago. I was suprised by one scenario where Dolith become forest spirit (elf?) and fight with river spirit (merman?). How should I understand it? Is that just Dolith's imagination or she moved somewhere?

[lord_cangrand]

Finished playing campaining few days ago. I was suprised by one scenario where Dolith become forest spirit (elf?) and fight with river spirit (merman?). How should I understand it? Is that just Dolith's imagination or she moved somewhere?

It was supposed to be a flashback from before Naia was built, which reveals that

Spoiler:

Dolith was behind the construction of Naia and that all its inhabitants are not humans but actually spirits.

Theoretically the idea is that she relives it by dreaming while she and Arran are fleeing and she collapses due to fatigue. Admittedly the sprites are the same as elves and mermaids because I'm not an artist, so I tried to change the name and description of the units to make clear who they are, together with the dialogue. If it wasn't clear at all I think I could make her collapse at the end of the previous scenario (8) rather than just have her reference that she had a nightmare at the beginning of scenario 10.

Could I ask you also at what difficulty you played it and how you found it in terms of gameplay? Thanks!

[holypaladin]

Finished playing campaining few days ago. I was suprised by one scenario where Dolith become forest spirit (elf?) and fight with river spirit (merman?). How should I understand it? Is that just Dolith's imagination or she moved somewhere?

It was supposed to be a flashback from before Naia was built, which reveals that

Spoiler:

Dolith was behind the construction of Naia and that all its inhabitants are not humans but actually spirits.

Theoretically the idea is that she relives it by dreaming while she and Arran are fleeing and she collapses due to fatigue. Admittedly the sprites are the same as elves and mermaids because I'm not an artist, so I tried to change the name and description of the units to make clear who they are, together with the dialogue. If it wasn't clear at all I think I could make her collapse at the end of the previous scenario (8) rather than just have her reference that she had a nightmare at the beginning of scenario 10.

Could I ask you also at what difficulty you played it and how you found it in terms of gameplay? Thanks!

I've played on easy difficulty (or maybe normal) Thank You for expaining, now campaining plot is more clear for me. So if I understood well action is on Naia which is not only sun but also a place for living and our units looking like dunefolk are spirits, I understood well?

[lord_cangrand]

Yeah, more than "a place for living" it's because people are needed to maintain and steer some of its magic systems