Hordes of the Other World: a multiplayer LotI

[dwarftough]

I installed the new HotOW 1.1.0 for Wesnoth 1.16 on Mac, but could not get it to create a new game.

“Failed to create scenario” was the error that presented, after I selected Hordes of the Other World in multiplayer local game, and chose “Create Game”.

Also, it was still describing a 200x200 map in the documentation for the add-on.

Did you choose it in Scenarios or in Multiplayer campaigns tab?

[bolderaft]

OOOH! I didn’t notice the dropdown having those options. I corrected that, and the can now see the new version. It’s working!!!

[bolderaft]

So far it's been really fun. No issues so far, and it's must faster than the other 200x200 versions I had been playing. I'm still only about 25 turns in.

Other differences I've noticed so far:

* The faction choices at start are very different. In the prior version, Efraim had been asigned orcs; Lethalia had humans and mages; Argan had mages and humans; Stormider had drakes and saurians; Delly had dwarves and thieves. Later I learned it was possible to select factions on the multiplayer scenarios on the 200x200 map. I do much prefer the faction choices assigned on this newest version, because there aren't so many "dead end" unit types that max out at level 2 or 3. I was especially excited to see that Stormrider can have generals. It's almost a different game now, playing with elves and humans.
* No error messages appearing during play
* Teleportation back to castles MIGHT be a little more permissive. I've noticed that I can teleport all the leader/teams back to their original castles, without being blocked due to crowding. In previous versions, it seemed like I had to clear a lot of space around castles before being able to teleport back. I'm not completely sure the exact number of hexes.
* No additional "free" attackss after leveling up, which I had noticed only in the much older version of HotOW.
* StormRider lost that permanent retention of potions; ie, he handles potions normally in this version
* Crafting magic armor now seems to work more consistently with LotI, where the main body armor provides higher physical resistances than helms, gauntlets and boots. On the 200x200 versions, body armor wasn't any better than helms, gauntlets, boots.

[bolderaft]

Still having fun with it! The Prelude took around 80 turns, and now I'm early in Act I. So far, I haven't noticed any bugs, and have really appreciated how much easier it is to teleport to castles, even with some friendly units occupying castle hexes. Also, I like how the newer version is very clear about how many hexes away enemies must be from a castle to block teleportation.

[dwarftough]

On the 200x200 versions, body armor wasn't any better than helms, gauntlets, boots.

I think that was a bug in LotI and afaik only in interface. Anyway, it was fixed.

About factions, the fixed layout was supposed in the first version as well but it wasn't properly declared in the code so you could choose era and you got units from the era.

Teleport in 200x200 I think didn't even work. At least it was completely unusuable: one your unit too close and you're blocked

[bolderaft]

> Teleport in 200x200 I think didn't even work. At least it was completely unusuable: one your unit too close and you're blocked

It was much harder to use, but I did use it a lot. It was essential getting a foothold in Act II (the one for Wesnoth 1.14.13), as I kept having to teleport in and out volleys of attackers, who weren't strong enough to defend against the Act II hordes.

In that 1.14.13 HotOW 200x200 version, the Act I enemies were mostly conventional units, and the Act II appearance of hordes of corrupted elves and orcs were just devastating. The only way I could make any progress was through lots of teleportation, and a lot of swapping of the best magic items. For a long time, every turn, I had to teleport the team back to the Act I map, and swap all their magic items back into storage, in readiness for the next team. Using that method, I was able to keep the Act II starting keep clear enough for landing.

[bolderaft]

HotOW has continued to be really fun for me. Even broken into separate maps for each act, each map is still really huge, with a lot to do on each map. The hordes keep coming, allowing for some really deep level grinding. It's fun seeing how advanced each unit type can become, with interesting combinations of legacies and books.

I'm still in the same game that I started two months ago, playing a little bit almost every day, and it's been consistently fun. Currently wrapping up Act 2.

[dwarftough]

Really nice to see that you like it!

I completed HotOW once, back on 1.14 I want to check that everything works, I think it took me no longer than a week, but I played several hours a day at least and with a focused effort to finish it and to see if there are any show-stopping bugs. Although I think in 1.16 the current version has more spawns of enemies, I ported some more spawns that were intended in the original LotI version

[bolderaft]

Yep, there are a LOT of spawns, especially in particular areas, that seem unrelated to any of the bosses. I noticed in the caves of Act I that it was very easy to get ambushed by spawns, because the spawning could happen in-between allied turns. It might look like Lethalia's group was well-fortified at the end of her turn, but while my attention was elsewhere dealing with other allies, trolls or undead would appear unnoticed surrounding Lethalia's elves, and after the end of Delly's turn, they attacked immediately inflicting unexpected casualties.

Once I learned to adapt to that, the reliable spawning because a source of training, and I chose to delay exiting the caves of Act I, until I felt that all the teams were strong enough to handle the ravening hordes sure to bear down in Act II. It paid off.

My play style has been maybe 20-30 minutes per session, once or twice each day when time allowed. It can be hard not to zone out and play for hours, because it's a really addictive game. Keeping within those limits makes it a healthier hobby for me.

[bolderaft]

> I think it took me no longer than a week, but I played several hours a day at least and with a focused effort to finish it and to see if there are any show-stopping bugs.

Thank you for doing that! It really shows. HotOW has become very solid, and I would recommend it to other Wesnoth players who like the LotI framework. I think that the fun is not just from level grinding for the sake of itself, but from developing all the interesting possibilities from combinations and permutations of capabilities that can be developed to create interesting individual units which are sometimes needed to unblock seemingly insurmountable challenges. There's also the intermittent reward aspect, which I guess feeds some sort of brain-craving in players to make it addictive for us.

[bolderaft]

I think HotOW is such a fun iteration of Lotl, because the maps are so huge that it encourages new styles and strategies beyond just getting past an individual scenario in a campaign. Each act is almost like its own campaign, a large unknown region presents new challenges for players more experienced with smaller and more self-contained maps.

The Wesnoth AI is pretty weak, overall. One of my friends complains about it bitterly, and only wants to play Wesnoth against other humans. But, HotOW helps counteract this imbalance through sheer volume and power intensity of adversaries. It make sense for them to act stupidly, blindly attacking like zombies, because their numbers are so vast.

I think if the Wesnoth AI behaved more intelligently, this game would be extremely hard to beat. But, it's hard enough as-is to keep player units alive long enough to be able to stand against the onslaught of powerful adversaries. I think it gets much easier, though, with higher character advancement. Looking foward to Act III! I'm almost there.