Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.14)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Wonderboy
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Joined: July 4th, 2006, 6:53 am
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Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.14)

Post by Wonderboy »

EDIT: This campaign has now been uploaded to 1.14 server.

The Dark Alliance is my second campaign. It is 10 or 11 playable scenarios depending on the branch you take. And there is actually 8 different endings.

It tells about human prince Terhar who lived two year with elves. He returns to Weldyn and hears that his older brother has died. Therefore he will be the next king. Terhars father forces him to marry a noblewoman but Terhar truly loves an elvish sorceress he met in the forest. Also 'dark alliance' threatens the kingdom.

Also the recruit list changes in every scenario (except the few last ones). That means the player will have lot of variety with the troops.

It is in the 1.7.9 campaign server. It should be quite balanced (in my testing at least). Some of the dialogue and story needs improvement though. If someone wants to help I'd really appreciate it.
Last edited by Wonderboy on September 6th, 2020, 4:56 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Campaigns that I have created (now updated to 1.14):
Bitter Revenge, The Dark Alliance, Battle Against Time, Talentless Mage
Halykos
Posts: 9
Joined: June 9th, 2009, 2:12 am

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.6)

Post by Halykos »

Nice campaign. Liked this one, too. I think there were one or two minor things to improve but I already forgot. I am just posting here because I think your work deserves some appriciation. Well done.
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Wonderboy
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Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.6)

Post by Wonderboy »

It is good to know that at least someone appreciates my efforts. It's a bit weird that unfinished campaigns get more attention than my two completed campaigns. I guess it takes time that more people play them...
Campaigns that I have created (now updated to 1.14):
Bitter Revenge, The Dark Alliance, Battle Against Time, Talentless Mage
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docrock
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Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.6)

Post by docrock »

It's a bit weird that unfinished campaigns get more attention than my two completed campaigns.
in the case of "Bitter Revenge" this might be due to it being just too finished. :wink:
seriously, i played through this one some time ago and found no flaws, bugs and nothing to complain about. good story, technically very well made. so i decided to just shut myself up for once.

back to topic, i am currently on TDA on BfW 1.6.5, default difficulty. played it through until "Confrontation", now i am a bit stalled motivation-wise. so far everything was nice and interesting and as to be expected from you technically very well made. but beginning with "The Dark Army" things tend to go a bit too much into one direction for my taste. let me explain, it's just that these scenarios, including "Dragon", are all about fighting a superior number of superior enemies on a huge map which might scare people off a bit. actually, i think i can see your point there, it appears to me that you traded in-scenario-depth for broadth of the various story-arcs.
furthermore, the number and diversity of units available to recruit and recall at that point may actually overwhelm players. i consider myself pretty experienced but even me had to think twice about what to field and when. i'd recommend tightening things up a bit at this point although i cannot give any detailed ideas how to do so at the moment.
besides that, the story is good and the story alternatives are well thought out. thanks for the lots of work you put into this and the hours of gameplay fun you give people with it. great job so far.
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Wonderboy
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Location: Finland

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.6)

Post by Wonderboy »

docrock wrote:
It's a bit weird that unfinished campaigns get more attention than my two completed campaigns.
in the case of "Bitter Revenge" this might be due to it being just too finished. :wink:
seriously, i played through this one some time ago and found no flaws, bugs and nothing to complain about. good story, technically very well made. so i decided to just shut myself up for once.

Well, it's great to get feedback. Even if it's just "nice campaign" or something like that.

Honestly, I've been thinking about making a third campaign but had no motivation because I had impression that no-one could care less about my campaigns...
back to topic, i am currently on TDA on BfW 1.6.5, default difficulty. played it through until "Confrontation", now i am a bit stalled motivation-wise. so far everything was nice and interesting and as to be expected from you technically very well made. but beginning with "The Dark Army" things tend to go a bit too much into one direction for my taste. let me explain, it's just that these scenarios, including "Dragon", are all about fighting a superior number of superior enemies on a huge map which might scare people off a bit. actually, i think i can see your point there, it appears to me that you traded in-scenario-depth for broadth of the various story-arcs.
I agree that the seven first scenarios are more interesting than the later ones. At that point the player has so many level 3 (and 4) units. I think that the only way to keep it interesting and challenging is to just have lots of enemies.

"The Dark Army" is a scenario where I wanted to show how large the army of the dark alliance is. I think it is the hardest one in the campaign. "Dragon" is inspired by a certain scenario in Northern Rebirth. I wanted a strong ally that could be rescued from a prison and what would be cooler than a fire dragon?

"Confrontation" is quite easy, I think. Recall your best warriors and use leadership of dragon to smash your enemies. After that you get to choose from three different last scenarios. That is another large battle.

Also I don't think the maps are huge. They are smaller than 40x40. Granted, the earlier maps are smaller but there has to be some room for all of those troops. I try to make my maps as small as possible. Some campaigns have ridiculously large maps that really frustrate me.
furthermore, the number and diversity of units available to recruit and recall at that point may actually overwhelm players. i consider myself pretty experienced but even me had to think twice about what to field and when. i'd recommend tightening things up a bit at this point although i cannot give any detailed ideas how to do so at the moment.
I think that it is part of fun to choose what to recruit/recall. I've tried many possible combinations . As for tightening things up... well I have no idea either.
besides that, the story is good and the story alternatives are well thought out. thanks for the lots of work you put into this and the hours of gameplay fun you give people with it. great job so far.
Thanks. I can make maps and scenarios quite fast. It took me only one and half week to actually create the campaign. I used much more time playtesting and balancing. I really don't want to release half-finished stuff.
Campaigns that I have created (now updated to 1.14):
Bitter Revenge, The Dark Alliance, Battle Against Time, Talentless Mage
Halykos
Posts: 9
Joined: June 9th, 2009, 2:12 am

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.6)

Post by Halykos »

Hi, it's me again and yes I am stalking your forums.

How about you make a third campaign because I was really a good boy and I deserve it. Just this time you'll mention in the campaign description that you would really like some feedback, positiv and negative. This way you'll at least know whether the players are ungrateful bastards or just thoughtless slackers. Or I'll just send you nude pictures of my ex-girlfriend as a token of appiciation (which is just a joke because I don't have any. Otherwise I totally would.).
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Wonderboy
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Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.7/1.8)

Post by Wonderboy »

The Dark Alliance has been uploaded to 1.7.9 add-on server.
Campaigns that I have created (now updated to 1.14):
Bitter Revenge, The Dark Alliance, Battle Against Time, Talentless Mage
sv75
Posts: 24
Joined: December 9th, 2008, 9:42 am

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.7/1.8)

Post by sv75 »

Wesnoth 1.8beta3
TDA 1.0.1

Scenario 11b.

Bug occurs after pressing "end turn".

20100112 21:14:47 error general: An error due to possibly invalid WML occurred
The error message is :
Unknown unit type : Hunter while scoring units.

When reporting the bug please include the following error message :
Condition '(enemy_info != unit_type_data::types().end())' failed at ai/default/ai.cpp:1352 in function 'get_combat_score_vs'.
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Wonderboy
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Location: Finland

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.7/1.8)

Post by Wonderboy »

Thanks for reporting the bug. I just uploaded new version (1.0.2) that should fix the problem.
Campaigns that I have created (now updated to 1.14):
Bitter Revenge, The Dark Alliance, Battle Against Time, Talentless Mage
chak_abhi
Posts: 347
Joined: June 24th, 2010, 3:37 pm

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.7/1.8)

Post by chak_abhi »

I cannot frame any workable strategy to get past the scenario "the dark army".I'm posting an autosave of turn 1.Can anyone please help?
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_TDA-08a_The_Dark_Army-Auto-Save1.gz
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Wonderboy
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Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.7/1.8)

Post by Wonderboy »

That scenario can be really challenging. I made it a bit easier and uploaded new version (1.0.3) to the add-on server.

You should probably move your units to southeast hills/mountains. Trolls and dwarves are good. Cycle your troops when necessary.
Campaigns that I have created (now updated to 1.14):
Bitter Revenge, The Dark Alliance, Battle Against Time, Talentless Mage
chak_abhi
Posts: 347
Joined: June 24th, 2010, 3:37 pm

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.7/1.8)

Post by chak_abhi »

Wonderboy wrote:That scenario can be really challenging. I made it a bit easier and uploaded new version (1.0.3) to the add-on server.

You should probably move your units to southeast hills/mountains. Trolls and dwarves are good. Cycle your troops when necessary.
Thanks a lot for the hint.I tried it that way and succeeded.However I had only 177 starting gold,for which I had to play with only 10 units,so rotating troops wasn't an option.I lost 1 ogre(who had leveled up in this very scenario) and my only orcish warlord.I have also played the next 2 scenarios,which are cakewalks compared to the one in which I was stuck.I think that the last scenario won't cause much trouble.

However I have some objections regarding the storyline at the end.You have got to select between 3--abandoning your beloved friend Melaniel,or to ditch Sarah & return to the forest,and to assassinate Sarah.I do not think that any one is appropriate.The first one is quite brutal,as it will mean that Terhar uses Melaniel for bodily pleasure and then leaves her in a devastated state.The second is also unsuitable.In medieval times marriage was considered to be a sacred bond (as it is still in some countries) and couldn't be broken at will.There was no harm in being forced into marriage by ones parents.The third is most cruel and evil.Why on earth will Terhar get Sarah murdered?Sarah had done no wrong,she had stuck loyally with him like a good wife till the very end.I personally think that without her help it would have been impossible to win in most scenarios.
So I have an alternate idea.In medieval times it was quite natural for a king to have more than a wife,rather it was virtually impossible to find a king with a single wife.So why can't Terhar just marry Melaniel and live happily with his 2 wives?There should be no obstacle to this.The last scenario may be devised as the remnants of the dark alliance attack Weldyn and get routed (resembling the scenario "Return to the forest"),and the epilogue should read Terhar led a blissful life and undid the many evils committed by the dark alliance.This may be the course of events if Terhar had not accepted the darkblade.
On the other hand,if he had accepted the darkblade he will definitely turn evil.In this case he will be given a choice between abandoning Melaniel or assassinating Sarah,and the next scenario will be the ones you have nicely designed.
However you are the one to take the final decision,as it is your campaign,not mine.But I think that following my idea won't take away the fun of the campaign.
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Wonderboy
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Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.7/1.8)

Post by Wonderboy »

"The Dark Army" has always been the hardest scenario in the campaign. It propably still is.

I wanted all the choices to be "bad". I think it's more interesting that way. Also Melaniel and Sarah (or Evelyn if your choose her) hate each other.
Campaigns that I have created (now updated to 1.14):
Bitter Revenge, The Dark Alliance, Battle Against Time, Talentless Mage
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domingo
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Joined: August 11th, 2008, 8:42 pm

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.7/1.8)

Post by domingo »

Good campaign, I like it ! ;) But my end was sad... !
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Zendruo
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Location: Howrah, West Bengal, India

Re: Campaign: The Dark Alliance (1.12)

Post by Zendruo »

I made a few changes in the game to make it compatible to the newer version of the games, but faced some problems, i.e. invalid map, invalid action of delay etc.. BTW thank you Wonderboy for a good plot and good game. I think I can give the updated version quickly. :wink: :wink:
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