The Hammer of Thursagan

[tillea]

Hi,

I'm using a self-compiled (on a Debian testing machine) 1.3.10 with
campaign version 0.7 (despite _main.cfg says it is 0.2, this was the
version when I downloaded from http://wolff.to/campaigns/list.html).
After selecting the level I got this on console:

Code: Select all

$ wesnoth 
Battle for Wesnoth v1.3.10
Started on Wed Nov 21 14:14:35 2007

Checking video mode: 1280x785x32...
setting mode to 1280x785x32
set locale to ''
set locale to ''
no location found for 'data/campaigns/Imperial_Era/translations', not adding textdomain
loadscreen: filesystem counter = 335
loadscreen: binarywml counter = 14520
loadscreen: setconfig counter = 240
loadscreen: parser counter = 214
error display: could not open image 'units\merfolk\king.png'
error general: Unknown scenario: '01_At_The_East_Gate'

Kind regards and thanks for providing this campaign

Andreas.

[peet]

We've already got one powerful magical artifact in the campaign and you want to introduce a hatful more? I'm kind of dubious. But I'm listening.

Well, the other artifacts never actually have to do anything, since the bad guy already has them. He only needs the hammer to complete his spell.

You could have rumors appear during the campaign like: "I heard the tomb of King Durthain was robbed last month."

As the game goes on you could have the rumours become more ominous. Eventually someone in the campaign figures out that the bad guy is behind it all and that it's all part of a "master plan."

Peet

[Dragonchampion]

I've read the story, and I must say- it is very good. I think the Mention of Tallin near the end is excellent.

Anyways, I was thinking, why make them have masks? Why not make them look like dwarves, but with black robes, or have an "aura of evil" about them?

Just some ideas.

[esr]

...why make them have masks? Why not make them look like dwarves, but with black robes, or have an "aura of evil" about them?

The masks dramatize an idea I have about dwarvish society, which is that history and accountability and the willingness to put one's face behind one's deeds (e.g. reputation on the line when making a choice) are centrally important.

By hiding their faces, the Masked Dwarves are saying (in dwarven terms) that they refuse to be responsible for what they do.

[esr]

If you look at the map for THoT::Forbidden Forest (#9) you'll see that at the center of the forest there is an island in a lake where the three rivers meet.

The village on that island looks like it ought to be something special, containing a treasure or a magical artifact or a special encounter or something,

What useful thing might our heroes find at the center of a hostile, magical elven forest? Please help me invent a shiny thing.

[zookeeper]

What useful thing might our heroes find at the center of a hostile, magical elven forest? Please help me invent a shiny thing.

A repeating thunderstick.

[Iris]

An automatic handgun/thunderstick?

[esr]

I've decided on the shiny thing.

It will be the Book of Righteous Flame, as discussed on IRC. Gives a mage who picks it up a final-strike ability -- when he dies he goes fwoosh and takes out all nearby enemies.

[esr]

0.12 is now available on the 1.3.x server.

Now complete and (I think) reasonably well balanced at NORMAL level to scenario 9 of 13. Scenario 10 has basic WML but requires tuning and balance-testing.

The Book of Righteous Flame is now the Staff of Righteous Flame, I've tested that it can be picked up by a mage (and not picked up by a non-mage) but I haven't actually seen the final-strike effect fire yet.

[thespaceinvader]

Does it give an effect other than just upon dying? If not, then i don't really see its use unless it's a plot point as well - sacrificing a unit, particularly a (generally expensive, probably high-level by that stage) magic user (out of interest, which dwarvish magic users were you thinking of here? So far in the campaign i've only come across one, and that's one whose death is a lose condition...), is not something i'd go for, personally, so i don't see its use. Maybe if it gave a continual effect (an additional ranged attack, or maybe Illumination or somesuch... the ranged attack would be good actually - dwarvish ranged is fairly limited in the campaign so far - thundersticks are a frustrating tool...) it would be better.

[esr]

The Staff of Righteous Flame is significant because in the new version you can recruit mages after Mages and Drakes. There's a twist, though -- if all your mages die you can't recruit new ones.

[thespaceinvader]

Ah OK. In that case i definitely wouldn't let them die =P Unless i knew about the item in advance, found someone special to use it and basically suicide bombed an important enemy. Or is that what you were aiming for =P

[tsr]

I noticed a small textbug in the scenario where you fight elves (is it the one after the troll maybe?). The I don't remember exactly where (either in dialog or mission objective), you are told to get two specific units to the signpost in the _west_ while it should probably say _east_.

Other than that, I think it's a nice campaign, my only grip with it is that is a bit bland so far (kill the leaders/go to X). I'm playing on normal and maybe it's too easy for me, but the elves scenario is the first I had to restart (often I find myself overrecruiting).

The troll scenario could be made a bit more interresting, maybe adding more hills/mounatins and having the troll leader join in the battle (as it was now, I just executed the whelps on grassland and then moved in to thunderstick the leader down (wich is kind of easy since I have 60% and he's got 40% in castle).

Will comment more as I play more

[edit]
Additional comments:
The last scenario is quite fun, and to my surprise I had to kill the dwarves too. That seems not fitting with the story.
[/edit]

/tsr

[esr]

tsr, bear in mind that this is intended to be an intermediate-level campaign. I don't expect advanced players to find the NORMAL level difficult.

That said, once I get iit WML-complete I expect to be doing lots of balance testing and may push the difficulty level up a little.

[Blarumyrran]

the plot & dialogue is great. the scenario design isnt. in fact, its quite bland, as has been said. i strongly recommend:

* too many villages, imo. id remove some 1/3 of the villages in every scenario. having too many villages makes for more WW1-style constant fighting (imo boring) and less epic break-throughs with units.

* too many giant hex shaped castles. try different designs. eg in the first mission and siege of kal kartha, i would shape gates as something like this:

Code: Select all

C   C
  C
  K
  C
C   C

(C-castle, K-keep)

* 3 levels are not very tied to the plot or strategically interesting: the good-orc-&-bad-outlaws-level; the troll bridge level, and especially the following 3-orc level. i would combine them into one. eg scenario starts with a bunch of outlaws approaching the troll bridge troll (who speaks the troll bridge dialogue), and outlaws refuse to pay him toll. the troll is in the alliance (although still as dumb as trolls are), so dwarves help him out against the outlaws. or maybe give player a choice.

as many levels as possible should be tied with plot; these levels are more like "upon your travels, you encounter an enemy". well mages and drakes is such too, but that one has a refreshing match-up.

* smallening the drakes&mages map; maybe make the map y only 30, removing everything currently southward.

* in the masked-dwarf-fighter-demanding-human-to-be-given-to-him level, he only recruits fighters; it would be interesting if he recruited ulfserkers too. fighting against lots of ulfserkers mixed with fighters would be refreshing experience. his starting units should be imo berserkers too (currently ulfserkers), to give more of the-mysterious-POWERFUL-stranger impression, as high-level units denote power.