Journey of a Frost Mage

[bssarkar]

Hello, I was working on a new campaign and would need some feedback. I am very new to campaign development and would like to know if I'm going in the right direction.
Story :
Based on the adventures of a Water and Ice based mage (the titular Frost Mage).
(I'm quite interested in different elemental magics and noticed that Wesnoth has only Fire/Silver mages in general. I though it might be possible that some humans will also be able to harness some other elements other than Fire.)

So far there are 9 scenarios with about 12+ scenarios planned in total. I'm mainly stuck with balancing issues. Any feedback on code/storyline will also be very good. Work ongoing to scenario 9.

Note : Since 1.18 is out, please consider upgrading to it. The major focus will be on this version from now. Also, achievements aren't available in 1.16 version.

Please contact me on the discord for quicker response. (@ssarkarb on the official Battle for Wesnoth discord)
Thank you for playing and for your valuable comments!

Github : https://github.com/babaissarkar/frost-mage
Update : 0.11.4 -> S9 (beta), Full Map tracking and animations for Aqua Initiate and Aqua Mage, Achievements on 1.19 (WIP, not all achievements are added yet)

[Pentarctagon]

Uploading it to the add-ons server with this thread as the feedback topic would be good as well.

[bssarkar]

Okay, it is now available in the 1.16 add-ons server.

[Konrad2]

Lorendor and Erinna are unable to earn xp. You likely didn't define advancements for them.
Erinna needs a silver crown, so it is clear that she isn't supposed to die, same for Lorender in S1.

Defeat conditions are usually listed one by one, instead of merged into one line, so it's easier to to keep track of.

Is turns run out a defeat condition in S1? It's not listed.

Also, it would nice if the scenario objecitves had notes about early finish bonus or carry over gold.

In S2 Lorender needs a gold corwn as a leader, it's not clear who is the leader otherwise.

The entangle attack from Lorender is melee?

S2
There doesn't seem to be any reason why moving Lorender to the Elvish keep can't be a cutscene.

S3
Why are the trolls and the bandits allied? Storywise.

The notes say that my units deal arcane damage for this scenario, but you set their damage type to fire.

The amount of gold for everyone on the map is a lot.

[bssarkar]

Thanks for the detailed feedback!
1. Erinna will start leveling up normally once she gets trained in the Merfolk school. (after scenario 4) I thought giving Lorendor an advancement in this stage will make him too strong. Should I make him level 3?
2. Added silver crowns (Hero marker) to Lorendor and Erinna using

Code: Select all

{MAKE_LOYAL_HERO}

in S1. For some reason the

Code: Select all

{IS_HERO}

inside the

Code: Select all

[unit]

tags is not working.
3. Victory and defeat conditions reorganized in S1.
4. I can't find out how to add gold crown to Lorendor in S2. Tried both

Code: Select all

{MAKE_LOYAL_LEADER}

and

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[modify_unit]
       [filter]
                id=lorendor
       [/filter]
       canrecruit=yes
[/modify_unit]

but they didn't work. Any ideas?
5. Ensnare is intentionally ranged. Lorendor is powerful enough to control vines from a distance. Will that affect power balance?
6. Fixed the "arcane" damage typo. (S3)
7. Will think on the troll/bandit storyline and adjust the gold. Suggestions/links are welcome.

[Konrad2]

1. Erinna will start leveling up normally once she gets trained in the Merfolk school. (after scenario 4) I thought giving Lorendor an advancement in this stage will make him too strong. Should I make him level 3?

5. Ensnare is intentionally ranged. Lorendor is powerful enough to control vines from a distance. Will that affect power balance?

I don't know much about the implementation, so I'll leave that to others to answer.

1. I'd suggest adding a note that it is intentional that they can't level.

5. You misread my report. His ensnare is a melee attack right now, and I was asking whether that's intentional (apparently not).


Also, remember to upload changes to the add-on server instead of putting them here.
Or if you want to have an up to date version here, edit your first post instead.

[bssarkar]

Both done. The add-on is now also available on 1.14 server.

[u81640831]

There seems to be a bug in S2, I get:

Code: Select all

Invalid WML found: [if] didn't find any [then], [elseif], or [else] children.

Adding [then] tags fixes the issue.

[bssarkar]

There seems to be a bug in S2, I get:

Code: Select all

Invalid WML found: [if] didn't find any [then], [elseif], or [else] children.

Adding [then] tags fixes the issue.

Okay, I'll have a look. Sorry for the delay!

[bssarkar]

New version 0.7.0beta update on 1.16 server.
Changes : Scenario 5 (story only), Scenario 6 (beta, work in progress)
As soon as scenario 6 is completed, I'll upload it. Thanks for the support!

[bssarkar]

Version 0.7.3 is out on 1.16 server!
Changes :
1. Scenario 6 is playable. (But has balancing issue, so please let me know here if there are any problems.)
2. Some new units and modifications to existing ones.

I really need playtesters for scenario 6!

[bssarkar]

Version 0.8 of My Campaign Journey of a Frost Mage is now available on the 1.16 server.
Changes
1. Brand new scenario 7. (Story + Battle)
2. Scenario 5 map updated.
3. Scenario 6 and several units balanced.
4. AMLAs for Elvish Avenger and Sharpshooter (beta).

Please share your valuable feedback so that this campaign can grow!

[white_haired_uncle]

S1: Death of Eliel is a defeat

S2: All my elves are replaced with ones with no XP. This is really odd for the one with the gold thingy, but in general it's just misleading - in S1 it said to
protect them as they would be available later (I assume this is later).

S2, etc: Be consistent with capitalization (Orc vs human, captain vs Great Scholar, etc).

S3: objectives, messages: You seem to just assume I'll recall errina.

Spoiler:

All your elves (not sharpshooters and your leader) can do fire damage.
Need to update the objectives after defeating undead.

S4: No defeat conditions for side 1?

S7:

Spoiler:

Move Cireka next to Erinna (objectives say Cireka AND Roran).
Have you considered what happens if Lorendor, and perhaps Roran are left north of the river when Cireka moves next to Erinna??

[bssarkar]

Thanks for the detailed feedback!
Edit : Pushed version 0.8.3 to the server. Hopefully the bugs are fixed.

S1: Death of Eliel is a defeat

I missed adding it to the objective. Will fix it.

S2: All my elves are replaced with ones with no XP. This is really odd for the one with the gold thingy, but in general it's just misleading - in S1 it said to
protect them as they would be available later (I assume this is later).

Looks like a bug. I will check it. I'll also add a message mentioning that the elves are only available in the 2nd scenario and not the later ones.

S2, etc: Be consistent with capitalization (Orc vs human, captain vs Great Scholar, etc).

Okay, but will take some time to proofread everything.

S3: objectives, messages: You seem to just assume I'll recall errina.

Weird, Errina and Lorendor should be there automatically at the start of the scenario.

Spoiler:

All your elves (not sharpshooters and your leader) can do fire damage.

I missed Sharpshooters. I'll fix it. Also, I think the damage should be arcane according to the conversation.

Spoiler:

Need to update the objectives after defeating undead.

Okay.

S4: No defeat conditions for side 1?

Will be fixed.

S7:

Spoiler:

Move Cireka next to Erinna (objectives say Cireka AND Roran).
Have you considered what happens if Lorendor, and perhaps Roran are left north of the river when Cireka moves next to Erinna??

I'll add a message so that the player moves all units south of the river so that they are not locked out. Couple of dialogs might need to be adjusted.

Working on fixing the bugs.

Question from my side : How difficult/easy do you think the campaign is? You are using version 0.8.2 (latest), right?

[white_haired_uncle]

Question from my side : How difficult/easy do you think the campaign is? You are using version 0.8.2 (latest), right?

Played on mage/normal. I thought it was harder than most UMC on normal, but not overly so. Perhaps more importantly, the difficulty was consistent between scenarios. I played whatever version was on the addons server a couple days ago.

Spoiler:

I probably made it harder on myself by being too aggressive. There were plenty of turns, I could have "stayed home" and let the enemy come to me (and the undead/trolls fight it out in one scenario).

Also, since E/L can't level up, I concentrated early on advancing units like the elves who didn't carry over the XP/advancements (if you're going to fix the elves recall, that will make a difference in the difficulty). Hopefully, the drakes/mermen will be back in later scenarios, otherwise it's kind of disappointing to spend the effort to advance units to only temporary gain.

Also,

20231006 07:12:43 error display: could not open image 'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-top.png'
20231006 07:12:43 error display: could not open image 'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-bottom.png'

(known issue with how leaders/heroes are now configured as of around 1.14, known, just not known to me)

lots of these:

20231006 07:12:43 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'team_name' discarded.
20231006 07:12:43 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'recruit' discarded.
20231006 07:12:43 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'team_name' discarded.

S2:

Spoiler:

Objectives say defeat undead, but you can just go to the end of the path (related to previous note about obj's for this scenario?).