[Historical] Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Feedback for the mainline campaign Eastern Invasion.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

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

[Historical] Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by Content Feedback »

(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
Adam_IT
Posts: 1
Joined: October 31st, 2009, 3:37 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by Adam_IT »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium
(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?
A bit disjointed but not bad.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
was surrounded by turn 3, movement impossible.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
Could be a lot of fun if I wouldnt have to cheat to get past it (by cheat I mean have to play rounds over and over until I get the hits that are favorable)

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Either allow more higher levels from the previous scenario or increase starting gold.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Yes, surrounded by 10 lvl2s by turn 3. Wouldnt be a problem if I had more higher levels but I lost half in the previous scenario.

These two scenarios back to back make things practically impossible. I will have to go back 3 scenarios or so to generate enough higher levels to pass this one, but I don't think that is honest playing but perhaps you are trying to create a challenge for the players that are more meticulous about playing the game to a favorable outcome rather than playing for good strategy.
User avatar
Maiklas3000
Posts: 532
Joined: June 23rd, 2010, 10:43 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by Maiklas3000 »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
challenging; 1.8.3

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

(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?
ok

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
1. Realizing that I need to go slowly and carefully (due to hidden undead.)
2. Defeating Mr. dragon, but it took only 1 blast each from two level 3 mages.

(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?
The dragon comes on turn 4 to the far north. Have him come later or stay put. I was just starting to have fun killing the ambushing undead.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
A critical unit died, so I restarted from turn 1.

(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?
N/A
Attachments
EI-The_Drowned_Plains_replay.gz
(22.26 KiB) Downloaded 987 times
monochromatic
Posts: 1549
Joined: June 18th, 2009, 1:45 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by monochromatic »

Mythological wrote:(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal 1.8.3
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
1 - Something wrong with the AI? The dragon simply came towards me and never attacked me. It reached my keep and just sat there. Dunno why.
(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?
Finally something cool about Mal-Ravanal. He can raise a dragon! Wow!
(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)
1 - Fix and the AI and then we'll talk. Though the ambushes were nice.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Have a secondary enemy leader spewing out level 2s so you don't just walk up the to the dragon.
(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?
Didn't check.
Thrash
Posts: 223
Joined: June 25th, 2010, 1:54 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by Thrash »

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

1.8.3, Medium, 200 starting gold (min)

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

3. Note I saw the same buggy behavior with the dragon that others have - you find it quickly (turn 4) and then it just runs NE, parks and doesn't even attack.

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

Find dragon. Kill dragon.

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

It's a interesting diversion.

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

Moving a unit to help another unit and getting ambushed in transit is the only real danger. In general, learning to be cautious.

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

5, would have been much more so if Dragon had been not buggy.

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

Fix dragon.

(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?

The WML looks very nicely commented.
santosis
Posts: 74
Joined: October 11th, 2010, 12:04 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by santosis »

The Drowned Plains

(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 - quite easy, but I cheated my way through evacuation.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear - Find and kill the dragon.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I like the idea of the dragon, but it seemed to come out of nowhere.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
I started with many quality troops (save/loaded my way through evacuation) and 258 gold. I recalled 3 paladins, 2 shock troopers, an arch mage, and recruited two mages to level (I had no white mages).

As others have written, the dragon flew up to me. I ran into a few hidden undead chasing him, but took him down without casualties (although I almost lost a paladin). I finished 18 turns early, and carried 159 gold to the next scenario.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6; Chasing the dragon was fun, but I would have liked to search for him. I can see how this would be a great scenario to level troops.

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

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Lost a novice mage to poor strategy. Replayed the previous turn to protect him (only because I really wanted to level a white mage).
BroodKiller
Posts: 30
Joined: August 12th, 2008, 9:24 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by BroodKiller »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal 1.8.3
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
1 - Something wrong with the AI? The dragon simply came towards me and never attacked me. It reached my keep and just sat there. Dunno why.
(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?
Finally something cool about Mal-Ravanal. He can raise a dragon! Wow!
(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)
1 - Fix and the AI and then we'll talk. Though the ambushes were nice.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Have a secondary enemy leader spewing out level 2s so you don't just walk up the to the dragon.
(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?
Didn't check.
Clean...Simple...Devious...I like it
podbelski
Posts: 151
Joined: June 7th, 2011, 8:35 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by podbelski »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.9.8, top difficulty, no reloads, I've implemented a workaround-fix for the dragon!

The dragon was still bugged, looks like noone supports the campaign. I can't figure out what's exactly wrong with him - whatever I did to WML, nothing worked, this bony [censored] kept flying straight to my camp, ignoring everything the scenario developer coded him to do. Finally, I've put a single command forcing him to return to his nest at the beginning of every player's turn, so he can fly out, bite you, and return back to his nest - kinda fun :) This gave me an opportunity to walk through ambushes and level some units before killing the dragon. I've attached the modified map, enjoy.

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
"6", on the easier side. Just advance carefully, which is easier to say than do - so the probability of losing a critical unit due to recklessness or bad luck is quite high. The dragon himself is an easy target for your core units.

(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?
again I cannot "beleive" the guys, they behave like bad actors in a bad theatre. Also, it's not that clear why it's so important to kill the dragon. I'd just make them say like "sad but what can we do about these swamps? Let's spend some time here training our troops. Once we kill the dragon, we are ready to move further".

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
dealing with bigger ambushes, easy to lose a good or critical unit. Restarted a couple of times.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
I think it's very fun, given the circumstances (you need to level units and have a "relaxing" scenario). I can easily give it a "7" with my fix, and if the dragon is fixed completely it might be an "8".

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
fix the fkn dragon, improve dialogues
Attachments
13_The_Drowned_Plains.cfg
(13.23 KiB) Downloaded 800 times
EI-The_Drowned_Plains_replay.gz
(30.07 KiB) Downloaded 941 times
Last edited by podbelski on September 8th, 2011, 10:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
podbelski
Posts: 151
Joined: June 7th, 2011, 8:35 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by podbelski »

...I actually like this dragon strike-and-return feature, it makes him a bit more challenging and interesting. So IMO it's only left to stop him from constantly flying north and tweak aggression/cautiousness (maybe I've made him a bit too timid). Probably give him the regeneration ability.
line
Posts: 94
Joined: January 11th, 2012, 9:21 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by line »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.8.6, hard
211 starting gold

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5 if you just want to accomplish the objective. At least 7 if you want to gain XP with lvl 1 troops and avoid losing one of them, while beating the mission.

(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?
A dragon escaped from the animal sanctuary, bring him back. ^_^
Well, again we face facts, that seem to be quite made-up.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
All of the rescued veterans reached their highest level, so there is no sense (it's sort of wasting XP) to let them kill someone. So again it's time for heavy infantry and mages. The HI moves badly through the swamps and the mages are endangered by the highly manoeuvrable shadows and wraiths. So letting the lvl-1s gain experience and survive was the major challenge.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
The scenario serves (combined with the following) as a training camp to get some more veterans and recover from the losses. I like that, so playing it is fun!

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
First, there should be a signpost somewhere in the south that has to be reached by Gweddryn. We are hurrying to the south to make it to Weldyn in time, so this should be an overall goal. Actually the scenario does not let you know, that you are on the run to your king. Also it would better suit to the dragon’s behaviour and increase the scenario’s difficulty – getting Gweddry somewhere south with an escort because of the ambushes and otherwise kill the dragon, which sits north in your keep.
Referring to the dragon, it also occurred that he stopped in the swamps west of the mountains – but only when the hills were occupied by own troops. And the dragon does attack, but very hesitant though. So at a max he dared to attack a red mage at night.

Another idea – how about letting the dragon be able to recruit once he made it to the player’s keep? This would also allow to make the scenario more difficult and add some honour to the dragon‘s poor appearance.

One last thought: How about the dragon being the mighty ally we were looking for in the northern hills? That would immediately put sense in our earlier march to the north. The dragon used to live with the gryphoons at lake vrug (when I played that mission, the gryphoons recruited drakes, indeed). So Dacyn led us there, to ask for his support in the fight against Mal-Ravanal. (Maybe the dragon was betrayed by the gryphoons, which were offered to reign over lake vrug unimpeded by the undead – in return they helped to overwhelm the dragon and handed him over to the undead.)
Attachments
IdF-Die_überfluteten_Ebenen_Wiederholung_anzeigen.gz
(24 KiB) Downloaded 978 times
line
Posts: 94
Joined: January 11th, 2012, 9:21 pm

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by line »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on?
1.9.14, hard
224 starting gold

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Seems like the dragon bug was fixed. He stayed in his keep and attacked when I came within reach.
Attachments
IdF-Die_überfluteten_Ebenen_replay.gz
(28.76 KiB) Downloaded 869 times
User avatar
Ninjuri
Posts: 167
Joined: April 28th, 2012, 2:59 am
Location: California

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by Ninjuri »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Easy 1.10.2
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5
(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?
Skele dragon was pretty cool, reminded my of frost wyrms from WCIII.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Getting around all the swamps. None of my units liked getting their feet wet so i always had to go around and it took a little longer.
(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?
I'm not so sure about these undead hiding in swamps, they're supposed to be deep water ambush as i recall. Then again, that might make it too easy. :)
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Nope
Fate is against me.
User avatar
D-Wade
Posts: 68
Joined: February 11th, 2013, 8:04 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by D-Wade »

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.10.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
2, the undead out of the swamp were a nice idea but were simply just victims considering I had 3 mages of light (one of them being Dacyn) and Gweddry and an Halberdier with an amulet

(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?
it was okay, maybe a 7

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
none ^^ or maybe not running too far into the swamp to create an undead force against you

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9, it was fun + it was short and easy to accomplish

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
-
SBak
Posts: 78
Joined: October 8th, 2011, 1:36 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by SBak »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Easy 1.8.5 and 1.10.5

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

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very clear - defeat (destroy) the dead skeleton of a dragon.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
A bonus point for Owaec showing some other emotion than extreme pessimism. I'm in two minds as to whether Dacyn is completely off the wall or certifiably insane, given that he can accurately sense Undead enemies but has completely screwed up his name journey.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Quite literally what to do with Owaec as i didn't want the additional hassle of getting him through swamp hexes. I decided to let him sulk in the top right hand corner of the map undisturbed.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
3 - A couple of Mage recalls and a tight formation resulted in being ambushed by a Revenant, a Boneshooter and Necrophage and Dacyn becoming a Mage of Light. The cremation of the remains of the Dragon (eventually) was peaceful and sombre.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
We've gone from far too many enemies to hardly any enemies at all.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Umm yes. The Skeletal Dragon objected to the dawn cremation and bit Dacyn twice, killing him. The service was resumed with the help of The Engineer.
User avatar
Maiklas3000
Posts: 532
Joined: June 23rd, 2010, 10:43 am

Re: Scenario Review: EI 14 - The Drowned Plains

Post by Maiklas3000 »

(1) Version? Challenging on 1.11.12, 238 starting gold.
(2) Difficult? 6
(3) Clear? Yes.
(4) Dialog? Fine.
(5) Challenges? Skeletal dragon did a hit-and-run, killing one of my Paladins, then staying scarce.
(6) Fun? 8
(7) Changes? The dragon seems fixed relative to before, though now he almost eluded me.
(8) Restarts? No.
(9) WML? Good.
Attachments
EI-The_Drowned_Plains_replay.gz
(37.72 KiB) Downloaded 762 times
Locked