WF - Wild Frontiers [SP Campaign]

[vghetto]

Hi,

I just uploaded version 1.8.1 and it will show the image of the new unit.
In the prior versions, there was a cap on the well to just 1. So building one well would have given you all three.

Anyway here's the order in the latest version.
Second Armorer gives a Sergeant.
Second Blacksmith gives Fencer.
The order for the wells is 1 Fighter, 2 Hunter, 3 Initiate.
After that you can build more wells from the main menu.
Thanks

Edit: I stupidly introduced a bug a in 1.8.1. The bug has to do with the side 9 ally retreat and rendezvous to tavern commands. 1.8.2 hopefully fixes them.
The change will make the allies cluster as close as possible around the tavern. Before this change, they would have queued up in a long line.
This change will also affect the market caravan and the route it takes going to the windmill.

[weewah]

Ok, I tried out Hard on v1.8.2, wesnoth v1.15.5.

I don't like it .

The reason: AI is too smart. Or rather, too cowardly. Every enemy unit, whether its animals or bandits or orcs, will run away as soon as its hp is low, while its allies block the way forward. So I stab the bandit leader a few times, it runs away, by the time I kill its allies and catch up, it already got itself eaten by a wild animal. So I get no kill xp AND no bounty .

The start is also annoying, especially bats: they attack you, you shoot them with arrows, they run away so you can't kill them, and so you just lost some health/turns and got 0 xp.

WF-A New Beginning replay 20201024-230111.gz

(192.06 KiB) Downloaded 165 times

WF-Summer of Dreams-Auto-Save24.gz

(371.94 KiB) Downloaded 176 times

Reloaded/retried summer so so many times to get the bounties before the enemy leaders killed themselves.
I think I will try again, and this time build two stables ASAP for horsemen. No enemy is gonna run away with low hp!

[vghetto]

The reason: AI is too smart. Or rather, too cowardly. Every enemy unit, whether its animals or bandits or orcs, will run away as soon as its hp is low, while its allies block the way forward. So I stab the bandit leader a few times, it runs away, by the time I kill its allies and catch up, it already got itself eaten by a wild animal. So I get no kill xp AND no bounty .

I think this is a new feature of 1.15.
It has to do with the CA called Retreat Injured which has a very high CA score. https://wiki.wesnoth.org/RCA_AI#The_Can ... the_RCA_AI

This is also why the allied Sergeant (the one you noticed) didn't head for the village directly. It retreated first and then went to the village the following turn.
The WF custom CA that sends the units to the villages has a much lower CA score, so default wesnoth retreat will take precedence.

Mind you, WF has increased aggression and decreased caution from the default which is 0.4 and 0.25 respectively! The aggression in WF is 0.8, while the caution is 0.2.
The allies aggression is 0.1 and caution is 1.0. It's good they fight at all in all honesty

Oh, a note about testing on wesnoth 1.15.5. I've included the new unit Cave Bear. They need 1.15.6 to work and I'm not doing checks for exact version numbers. I only check for greater than or less than 1.15.0. So, I don't know what might happen when they start spawning in year 2.

attached replay git commit is:
git branch replay 9f179eb
-----

For the upcoming WF version, the map size will be reduced from 72 x 72 to 66 x 66. I'm still playtesting this and it looks good. It will make the game snappier. What do you think? Is this a welcomed change?

I'm not satisfied with the default goto micro ai and it's use_straight_line flag. I want the ai to start off with use_straight_line=no and if the unit doesn't move, fallback to use_straight_line=yes. I think i'll need to write a custom goto for that, but i'm not sure if I can pull it off. The goto micro ai lua looks more complicated than the others that I've changed.
If I can't pull it, i'll revert the market caravan to use_straight_line=no but keep tavern retreat to use_straight_line=yes

Edit: hmm, this just might work, in wf_goto, comment out AH.checked_stopunit_moves(ai, best_unit) while keeping avoid_enemy=1 and add another vanilla goto mai with a lower score and set use_straight_line to yes.

Edit 2: ok, I got it to work. Unless anyone objects to the map shrink (66 x 66) I'll upload 1.9.0 tormorrow.

Edit 3: ugh, I think i got it wrong with the Sergeant and retreat precedence. Coward has a higher precedence than Retreat Injured. So it will go to a village right away. zone_guardian has a lower precedence than retreating. It will favor retreating over what WF calls "Resume guardian duties", this is the mode which is not fallback, tavern, sentry or coward. This is the default mode in which side 9 spawns. sorry about the mix up.
fallback is not a micro ai, it is essentially default ai with the high caution and low aggression, so Retreat Injured might happen first for them. the default ai for side 9 also sets movement goals that keeps them moving towards enemies as soon as they spawn.

[weewah]

Is there a way to at least make it so the enemy leaders cannot run away? Other troops may desert and flee, but leaders fight on.

Because right now, the gameplay really annoys me . I essentially have to choose between three strategies that all suck.

Strategy 1: Ignore the Bounty.

Advantages:

• Get to actually recruit slow but powerful troops like Heavy Infantryman, Spearman, and Mage.

• Troops can stay in base, ready to defend against other enemies.

• Lots of artifacts from missed bounties, I guess. These aren't very useful though, since they seem to be cursed quite often, or potions, which are all meh or bad. (Seriously, stoneskin is eww, animal nature can let your troop die to any lucky enemy because berserk is the auto counterattack option, and why in the world would I want a potion that darkens as a loyalist fighting orcs and necromancers?! )

Disadvantages:

• No bounty, no money.

I will probably try this next.


Strategy 2: Chase the Bounty.

Advantages:

• Get to actually recruit slow but powerful troops like Heavy Infantryman, Spearman, and Mage.

Disadvantages:

• Still sometimes let the enemy leader get killed by a wild animal, losing the bounty.

• Waste turns chasing enemy, so bounty received later.

• Troops have to chase the enemies to the edge of the map, leaving your base very very undefended should enemies then approach from the other directions.

• New enemies can spawn ON TOP of your troops that have chased the previous enemy leader to the map edge. RIP your troops in that case.

(This is what you see in the replay.)


Strategy 3: Trap the Bounty.

Advantages:

• Lots of bounty money.

• Troops can stay in base, ready to defend against other enemies.

Disadvantages:

• Have to recruit fast but weak troops like Cavalryman, Fencer, and Horseman to quickly run behind the enemy forces to trap them.

• These units will be massacred by Necromancers.

I suppose that, technically, there is a fourth strategy where I don't attack the enemy leader until all his minions are dead. But this either allows my allies to murder the leader and steal my bounty, or forces me to send away my allies and lets the enemy leader freely rampage about and kill my troops without any retaliation. It also delays when I receive the bounty, so the resulting money is worth less even if it is technically more.

...might be worth it.

Edit: Ok I am downloading 1.15.6 and trying the fourth strategy. Time to micromanage AI allies so they don't steal my bounty.

[vghetto]

Hi,

First of, your thorough testing and feedback to WF is freaking awesome. I wish every mod gets a weewah tester. Thank you!

Is there a way to at least make it so the enemy leaders cannot run away? Other troops may desert and flee, but leaders fight on.

hmm, I don't know.
You can't set the aggression or caution individually. They affect the side as a whole.
Maybe, if I make the leaders use the assassin micro ai. They would ignore other enemies and animals and focus on your side. I'll have to test this first to see if it would work, but I have a gut feeling that the enemy turns would take longer time to execute because of all of the possible paths calculations.

For now what I could do is increase their side's aggression and decrease their caution to 0.9 and 0.1. Hard only. Maybe that would do the trick.

Remember the defaults are 0.4 and 0.25, so I'm pushing them to the edge. Have you tried the mainline scenarios in 1.15? They should behave the same way, meaning smarter and more "cowardly". I don't think this behavior is specific to WF.

• Lots of artifacts from missed bounties, I guess. These aren't very useful though, since they seem to be cursed quite often, or potions, which are all meh or bad. (Seriously, stoneskin is eww, animal nature can let your troop die to any lucky enemy because berserk is the auto counterattack option, and why in the world would I want a potion that darkens as a loyalist fighting orcs and necromancers?! )

On easy and normal, the chance of cursed is 1/3. On hard the chance is 1/2. I could change that and improve the chances for uncursed items to be 3/4 for all difficulties.

Question: Should I drop stoneskin from the game?

Darkens can be handy because later on you could recruit chaotic units, like rogue mage, etc. It is annoying for loyalists, yes. but I don't think I'll drop it yet.

I'm not sure why the default counter-attack is berserk. It is the second defined attack and lower than the first attack. Anyway, I'll drop the berserk special and replace it with slow. This means WF no longer has a berserk item, except for recruitable dwarves.

• New enemies can spawn ON TOP of your troops that have chased the previous enemy leader to the map edge. RIP your troops in that case.

The enemy spawns randomly at radius 1 to 5 from the map edges. Unless they can't find a valid spawning place, then they could spawn almost anywhere or further in.

Edit: Ok I am downloading 1.15.6 and trying the fourth strategy. Time to micromanage AI allies so they don't steal my bounty.

Build a lighthouse and use it to control all the allies in one go, instead of individually.
The "rendezvous at tavern" command should be very handy in getting them not steal your kills.
Remember, the coward flag gets reset when they land on a village, so they will resume attacking if healthy enough, but the rendezvous at tavern will not attack at all. Or at least I think they shouldn't.

Let me know of what you think of the proposed changes. And where are the replays?!! I enjoy them so much, they are better and more entertaining than watching tv!

Edit: Oh, simple_attack for the leaders is another possible solution.

Edit2: Next version will have a secret level in the spring. Somewhere on the map, the melting snow will clear up an abandoned mine entrance on one of the hills. Accessing it will send you to an underground randomly generated cave. For now the cave is a rip off the sceptre of fire scenario. The enemy is an old friend of CotF

[weewah]

Question: Should I drop stoneskin from the game?

I have never found a good use for it. It takes a long time for the unit to get to the enemy, so its not a good attacker. It can't really defend against necromancers or elves, because the arcane attacks will destroy it. And even if it does survive, it can't run away at night and come back at day with the rest of your forces.

The best use is probably to just station it near the east signpost to fight dwarves, who have no arcane attacks. But dwarves are very scary so I never summon them.

I'm not sure why the default counter-attack is berserk. It is the second defined attack and lower than the first attack. Anyway, I'll drop the berserk special and replace it with slow. This means WF no longer has a berserk item, except for recruitable dwarves.

I asked and it seems that counterattacks are chosen based on what would be most likely to kill the attacker. Naturally berserk is almost always more likely, so it tends to get chosen all the time.

Build a lighthouse and use it to control all the allies in one go, instead of individually.

A lighthouse costs more than a farm. So I rather build another farm and command each ally one by one.
I suppose it would let me call in more allies though.

Edit: If sub-scenarios like caves can be implemented, how about adding another sub-scenario that requires a lighthouse? Every season, one of the four signposts is randomly selected. If there is (1) a library, (2) a lighthouse with vision range on the signpost, and (3) a lighthouse with vision range on your hero, then early in the season, this event will trigger:

*Screen focuses on the signpost lighthouse.*
(If possible, make the lighthouse flash?)
*Screen focuses on the hero lighthouse.*
(If possible, make the lighthouse flash?)
Fool: ...is that?
Advisor: My lord, it seems a nearby fief has sent out an urgent call for help! It seems they are in a dire situation, and will soon be under attack from <random raiders> <spymaster style report on raider strength> (strength should grow quickly based on number of seasons past.)
Advisor: We are far closer to them than anyone else, should we respond?

Tutorial Delfador: A nearby fief has sent out an urgent call for help! Right click each unit you wish to send to their aid, and select the Send Aid option. At the end of this turn, if you have selected any units, a new sub-scenario will begin where you fight off the raiders. The number of turns you take to fight off the <Raiders type> will determine how many turns it will take before your troops return (spawn from the signpost around your lighthouse (or where it was)). Your hero cannot be chosen.

(Expedition time = 2 * random number from 2 to 5 + turns taken in new scenario.)

If you select a side 9 unit, they will say "Lord <name>, we were ordered to protect your lands. Should your territory be attacked while we are absent, our heads could roll for disobedience!"

At the end of your turn, if you have not selected any troops, this happens:

Hero: Not this time <Advisor>, our troops are still needed here.
Cynic: Well said! This land is still not secure. If we were leave it poorly defended, it will soon be us sending out a call for help!

Otherwise, this happens:

Hero: Of course! How could we stand by and watch our fellow humans be slaughtered by <Raider type>?
Advisor: Indeed, our troops will set out at once.

*Selected troops despawn, game state is saved.*

The new scenario:

Another city. (You can take the city layouts and troop distributions from other player's replays . They will be side 1 while you are side 9.)
Spawn the raiders anywhere that is not within 5 tiles of a farm. (Don't pick a map where farms cover everywhere.)
Spawn your troops around the lighthouse (must be one on the new map, otherwise how did they call for help?) that is near the signpost on the opposite side of the signpost on your own map.

You have 100 gold and no upkeep (the allied city will pay for it). No income either.
You cannot capture farms.
Your peasant workers, if you sent any, cannot build any buildings. (They can still change terrain, cutting/planting trees, flattening hills, diverting streams, building forts, etc.)

After all <Raiders> are killed, you will receive gold = (# of farms not burnt) * [10/8/5] (easy/medium/hard).
The number of farms at first should be 10-40 for year 1, and +20 per year with a cap of 70-100 farms in year 4+.
You receive the gold in the main scenario on the turn your troops return.

You could also have different outcomes:

1. Glorious Success: >80% farms not burnt. 2x gold reward.
2. Successful Defense: >40% farms not burnt. No bonus or penalty.
3. Hollow Victory: Troops survive, but less than <=40% farms not burnt. No gold reward, the city needs it to rebuild.
4. Valiant Sacrifice: All your troops are dead, <=20% of <Raider strength> remains. No gold reward, receive (# years) loyal random loyalist units: they are some of the few survivors who saw your troop's heroic sacrifice, and want to spend the rest of their life repaying the favor.
5. A Hope Too Small: All your troops are dead, >20% of <Raider strength> remains. No rewards whatsoever. You did not send enough troops to make a difference.

The "rendezvous at tavern" command should be very handy in getting them not steal your kills.
Remember, the coward flag gets reset when they land on a village, so they will resume attacking if healthy enough, but the rendezvous at tavern will not attack at all. Or at least I think they shouldn't.

I quite like the coward flag actually, because I usually just want the allies to go away for a few turns while I grab my bounty. When I use rendezvous at tavern, sometimes I forget those allies even exist so they just sit at the tavern for a season or two until I remember to tell them to resume guardian duties lol.

Let me know of what you think of the proposed changes.

I have no thoughts on map shrinking. It's just 3 tiles closer to every edge, so I don't expect too much of a difference.

And where are the replays?!! I enjoy them so much, they are better and more entertaining than watching tv!

Here's two seasons of v1.9.0 on wesnoth v1.5.6:

WF-A New Beginning replay 20201028-084238.gz

(194.05 KiB) Downloaded 180 times

WF-Summer of Dreams replay 20201028-215526.gz

(264.49 KiB) Downloaded 165 times

Why are level 2 wild animals spawning even in season 1? Not exactly complaining, since a level 2 elder wose singlehandedly wrecked half the orc army for me, but still, odd.

And cave bear is very scary. It mauled my troops, then ran away when I tried to kill it. 6mp without being slowed by forests/hills/mountains makes it really hard to chase down.

Also is there a way to make it so different orc leaders don't share gold? The eastern orcs had basically run out of gold, so I sent a small force to kill the leader and get my bounty. But then the northern orcs spawned and suddenly the eastern orcs had money to recruit troops again. I burned down the castle ASAP, but it was too late, my small force was overwhelmed and spent the rest of summer running in terror/burning in troll shaman flames.

Not a high priority, I can just prepare for that next time.

[vghetto]

And cave bear is very scary. It mauled my troops, then ran away when I tried to kill it. 6mp without being slowed by forests/hills/mountains makes it really hard to chase down.

I think the stats for the new units is not final, you can post your feedback about the cave bear here https://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52894

I implemented the fief stuff but not in the complexity described in the post. It is a straight up random map with one of the standard faction leaders as an enemy. Very simple.
You get a keep with castle tiles, your current recall/recruit list and your hero.
This call for help happens in the autumn, but you need to have a lighthouse built before turn 3 to trigger.
Any units you recruit or recall over there will be added to your recall list once you're back.
Workers can't build over there, mages can't cast. a normal 1v1 scenario.
You get a gold reward around a 1000 on defeating the leader.

About the orcs, that is the side's gold. Every new orc leader adds new gold to the side, the amount is based on the number of built villages as usual. Can't do much about it

As for the level 2 animals, I tweaked how animals spawn. getting a level 2 animal on the first year should be very rare. 5% chance. After the first year that chance becomes for the level 3 animals.

I'll upload the new version once I look at your replay. Haven't gotten a chance to see them yet. Thanks

git branch replay 4dd26ed

------

Edit: watched the replay, way too many level 2.

List of changes in 1.9.1

* Sub-scenarios Fief and Cave. Both randomly generated maps. Access in the spring and autumn. Stand down any units that you want to take with you. The rest get left behind. This includes your Advisor, Cynic, Fool ...
* Aggression and Caution changed to 0.9 and 0.1 on hard.
* The enemy leader that can't recruit (side 3,4,6,7) all use the simple_attack micro_ai which focuses on going after side 1 units over attacking other sides and animals. No guarantee on not getting killed.
* Changed berserk Animal potion into Slow
* removed stoneskin from the game
* Spawned artifacts at the start of the game are ALL uncursed.
* Dead drops might be cursed with a chance of 1/4

Edit2: on version 1.9.3 the player's original gold amount gets stashed away and you start the sub-scenario with 100-150 gold.
The fief now has 2 enemy leaders to defeat + an empty castle that the player can use.
Victory on the sub-scenario gives 1000-1500 depending on difficulty

[weewah]

Question: I noticed that you can no longer recall units that you order to stand down. Is this intentional?

I ask because I have too many high leveled spearmen right now and can't pay for their upkeep. And its autumn so they aren't very useful against the necromancers anyway. So I want them to stand down, but I don't want them to disappear entirely with all the XP I fed into them.

[vghetto]

Question: I noticed that you can no longer recall units that you order to stand down. Is this intentional?

You can't recall them on the same turn in which they stood down. You can recall them on the following turn.

Now that this is mentioned, on the next version the recall list will be healed by 4 instead of 2 on every turn.

Oh, if you still don't see them the following turn then something has gone horribly wrong

[weewah]

WF-Autumn of Gold-Auto-Save27.gz

(393.14 KiB) Downloaded 156 times

Do not like Necromancers
Do not like them at all.

Especially after my ally killstealed the leader and stole my bounty . I'm sad now .

I have also come to the realization that it is cheaper to let the necromancer burn my villages than kill my units, so I absolutely should only attack in the day, even if I have to give up much of the city.

I think the main problem is that necromancers spawn in one big blob of death. So even though I can kill a bunch of them each turn, there are plenty of survivors remaining nearby, ready to mob my units to death.

Can necromancer raids be changed such that they spawn all along the edge of the map rather than just at the signpost? That way they wouldn't be in a giant lethal blob of death.

[vghetto]

Can necromancer raids be changed such that they spawn all along the edge of the map rather than just at the signpost? That way they wouldn't be in a giant lethal blob of death.

Hmm, I don't know. They are a blob because unlike the orcs, they get to recruit in one go. Should the undead be given a castle to slow them down? Like the orcs.

In the upcoming version, I updated the unit costs to match the changes done in 1.15. More importantly I changed how much recruiting gold the enemy gets. This is an example for when there are a hundred villages are on the map. Ownership does not matter.
Previously, this would have been 510 gold on the hard difficulty.

Code: Select all

                        # For 100 farms, the enemy recruiting gold will be:
                        # Easy Gold: 180 = 0.75 * ( 40 + 2 * 100)
                        # Normal Gold: 300 = 1.25 * ( 40 + 2 * 100)
                        # Hard Gold: 360 = 1.5 * ( 40 + 2 * 100)

These can be tweaked in utils/game_parameters.cfg

Edit: Latest version, necromancers get a keep! ... more often than not. Winter undead don't get a keep.

[weewah]

So I tested the Fief thing on 1.9.5, and there are a few issues.

• I did not know I needed to send a unit to the signpost, that wasted a few turns. Could some kind of tutorial message be added?

• The fief mission started mid-turn. How does that work? What happens after I complete the mission? Do I get to replay that turn? Do my units then get to move twice in one turn, once before and once after the mission? What about the AI turns?

• When the fief mission started, all my constructions were canceled by Winter Storms. This was on turn 7ish, so I am fairly sure this is a bug, unless doing the fief mission somehow brings winter early.

• The unit that is sent to the signpost is not actually brought along on the mission. (What was the point of that unit reaching the signpost then?) How about just letting that one unit spawn at to your leader at the start of the mission?

• The gold amount you start with is actually the gold amount you currently have when you start the mission. I had only 100 gold, that let me recruit/recall only 5 units. Did not know I needed to save gold lol.

Also can Lighthouse please receive more max hp. Like, at least 20?

I built one at the end of summer, and immediately after I built it a wolf spawned near it and then WRECKED it.

[vghetto]

So I tested the Fief thing on 1.9.5, and there are a few issues.

Sorry for the frequent daily updates, latest is 1.9.6

• I did not know I needed to send a unit to the signpost, that wasted a few turns. Could some kind of tutorial message be added?

Sure.

• The fief mission started mid-turn. How does that work? What happens after I complete the mission? Do I get to replay that turn? Do my units then get to move twice in one turn, once before and once after the mission? What about the AI turns?

Not sure what you mean by that.
Edit: Ah, I think i get it. Yeah probably. I'll make the mission start at the end of the turn.

• When the fief mission started, all my constructions were canceled by Winter Storms. This was on turn 7ish, so I am fairly sure this is a bug, unless doing the fief mission somehow brings winter early.

Going on to the fief or the cave will end the current season. Completing the fief would have started winter with all the units exactly where they were left, including the one at the signpost.
Likewise completing the cave sub scenario. It would end the spring scenario and start the summer season on returning.

• The unit that is sent to the signpost is not actually brought along on the mission. (What was the point of that unit reaching the signpost then?) How about just letting that one unit spawn at to your leader at the start of the mission?

Hmm, I don't want to allow specific units to go (those that can't stand down, mainly). It might mess up things on their return. I'll look into this but no promises.

• The gold amount you start with is actually the gold amount you currently have when you start the mission. I had only 100 gold, that let me recruit/recall only 5 units. Did not know I needed to save gold lol.

You don't get to take the city treasury with you The 100 is extra gold given to you, and whatever you earn in the end gets added to the city gold. What starting gold do you recommend to have? Besides didn't you suggest something like this above?
Oh, In the sub-scenarios you can go in the negative, that is fine, and you can't eat mushrooms! Think of these scenarios as having regular vanilla wesnoth mechanics, except for achieving loyal on amla.

Also can Lighthouse please receive more max hp. Like, at least 20?

Lighthouses are tricky, they are supposed to be buildings, and buildings get destroyed in one turn by the enemy. Unfortunately I don't know how to make the animals not destroy them. Maybe make them invulnerable during side 2 turn. I'll look into it.

[weewah]

Going on to the fief or the cave will end the current season. Completing the fief would have started winter with all the units exactly where they were left, including the one at the signpost.
Likewise completing the cave sub scenario. It would end the spring scenario and start the summer season on returning.

Ohhhh!
That answered so so many questions I had.

You don't get to take the city treasury with you The 100 is extra gold given to you, and whatever you earn in the end gets added to the city gold. What starting gold do you recommend to have? Besides didn't you suggest something like this above?

Yes but I was thinking that the units sent just appear for free, instead of needing to be recalled. So that 100 gold was for building forts. 100 gold is okay though, considering the enemies are also a lot weaker than I was thinking (just two leaders with 175 starting gold each).

I was thinking you would spawn into a chaotic mess of many many enemies and animals and allies scattered all over the place, and have to use only the troops you sent (no new recruits, because this isn't your city) to defeat the enemies. That way it would be Wild Frontiers instead of Vanilla Wesnoth.


EDIT:

Lighthouses are tricky, they are supposed to be buildings, and buildings get destroyed in one turn by the enemy. Unfortunately I don't know how to make the animals not destroy them. Maybe make them invulnerable during side 2 turn. I'll look into it.

They don't get destroyed in one turn right now though, since it is possible to miss an attack on the lighthouse.

How about the opposite direction? Give Lighthouse 50 max hp and a dummy "destructible"/"burnable" trait. Then add an event that triggers whenever the lighthouse is attacked, and checks the attacker's side/race/etc. If the attacker is one of those burning units, kill the lighthouse.

[vghetto]

Ok, I uploaded yet another update. In this one the lighthouse gets petrified during the turn of side 2,3,6. This way they won't be drawn towards it or try to attack it. The other sides will attack it.
You can stand down all of the units except for the caravan and the prisoner. This means the advisor and friends can go with you to the sub-scenario.
Role assignment for the advisor,cynic,fool turned out to be semi-broken this entire time, so it should be fixed now
I increased the gold a little for the fief and gave you some elvish units as assistants. Yes they had to be elves to stay in the spirit of vanilla wesnoth I know you don't like them
Some tutorial messages when fief or cave events are triggered.
You have to press end turn after answering the question to go to the sub-scenario, it won't happen right away.
The poor guy/gal that reaches the signpost/mine will be left behind, unless they still have some movement points to get them back to a castle tile and stand down.