The Rootless

[WLFobe]

I guess I'm not very good with puzzles, but in The Dark scenario I can't get into the room to the west of the start point. I have a character sitting on all four bales (and it makes an odd noise), and one at door. No luck. I add two characters at the north door. Doesn't help. And I don't have any characters whose name starts and ends with "N".

So, I'm missing something. Is it a red herring? Some 4th level monster? An additional character?

[Anekron]

It's just a silly easter egg, you don't have to even solve the puzzle to progress.

There's a hint in the middle of the skull piles.

Spoiler:

You just connect the piles in the shape of N. The sounds serve as a hint that you do it (in)correctly. You start from the lower left progressing to upper right.

[Gitanomad_X]

I just wanted to say that this is an excellent campaign, both in terms of the storyline and the challenges involved. It's also nice to see things from an orc's perspective again… (SOTB).

[Anekron]

So glad to read that! It gives me motivation to continue with the development, since I still have more features planned for the full release (meant for 1.18).

[Anekron]

Patch 1.0.4

• Mounted Slayer and Mounted Nightblade now get the correct descriptions
• removed skirmisher special note from Elvish Zealot since he lacks the ability
• fixed a typo that prevented one of the music files from playing in The Rootless

This is likely one of the final updates for the 1.16 version of the campaign; I'm now focusing on the 1.18 port which will add more features.

[Konrad2]

1.17.26 wesnoth, 1.1.25+ version of the campaign, just the replays
-> feedback was provided on discord

Spoiler:

Rootless-The Siege replay 20240221-173136.gz

S1

(25.66 KiB) Downloaded 37 times

Rootless-The Hunt replay 20240221-181604.gz

S2

(37.29 KiB) Downloaded 26 times

Rootless-The Deal replay 20240221-185605.gz

S3

(45.57 KiB) Downloaded 23 times

Rootless-The Dark replay 20240225-215838.gz

S4
undead not destroyed, not too many units dead

(47.81 KiB) Downloaded 18 times

Rootless-The Deep replay 20240228-182824 undead yes many dead no.gz

S5b

(53.93 KiB) Downloaded 23 times

Rootless-The Fire replay 20240228-190837.gz

just dying, not much to see here :D

(42.12 KiB) Downloaded 18 times

Rootless-The Fire replay 20240303-215247.gz

S5a

(46.19 KiB) Downloaded 23 times

Rootless-The Rootless replay 20240306-192303.gz

S6

(69 KiB) Downloaded 29 times

Rootless-The Truth replay 20240310-220329.gz

(106.63 KiB) Downloaded 19 times

Rootless-The End replay 20240415-171847.gz

(6.07 KiB) Downloaded 3 times

Rootless-The Ghoul replay 20240310-231111.gz

(54.03 KiB) Downloaded 25 times

[Refumee]

Hello Anekron,

I saw, that one in your missions you got deep saurians. Coincidental I also got deep saurians in my UMC.
Maybe you want to use them, if you want.

[Anekron]

Hi! My saurians are technically just recolored vanilla sprites (not even custom units), since they are under the influence of mushrooms in the deep caves. They're not there for long enough to become as distinct from the "normal" ones as your units are, so I'm not sure if that would fit. That being said, I really like especially the line with the hammers and how they would increase the enemy variety with a more powerful impact atack. Hmm...

Will definitely check Vendraxis Prophecy at some point, looks very cool.

[Anekron]

If you're on the brand new Wesnoth 1.18, the campaign is already available there. Its 1.1.X branch is still considered beta at this point, with some polishing and feature additions yet to be implemented. That being said, it's much improved from the old 1.0.4b of the 1.16 server.

The full release 1.2.0 is planned for March 30th and I'll publish the full changelog along with it.

[Anekron]

Changes from 1.0.4b:

Across the scenarios

• 27 achievements added
• activated bonestack image updated
• converted images and portraits to webp
• added frozen status
• removed the backported 1.17 features
• added the Great Ogre advancement
• updated the maps with 1.18 terrain types
• all Stuurg lines rewritten
• many typos and grammar errors ironed out
• added The End, the cutscene-only epilogue
• corrected and expanded unit descriptions
• phased out some unneeded units
• replaced Fog Clearer with RTL Blank to ensure future compatibility
• improved various death dialogue
• 2 new hints
• removed Nightblade compatibility code for Arshag

The Siege

• improved the story
• added more gold on Easy
• the southern leader now only becomes hostile after the relevant dialogue plays
• improved the dialogue
• Toruk's temporary plot armour removed
• Toruk now moves next to Arshag when joining player's side
• Elensefar's defenders now spawn with randomized XP and HP
• the attacking orcs are now visibly damaged

The Hunt

• improved the story
• Morvin can now recruit Fencers
• getting the wolves becomes an optional objective
• you can now lose all the wolves without being defeated
• RTL Young Wolf unit removed
• young trait added
• the hunting bit now finishes after the player ends his turn 10 instead of before
• Morvin now visibly carries an item
• Morvin's side is no longer hidden after he appears
• Wolf Riders made recruitable; relevant dialogue adjusted to reflect that
• replaced the schedule code after a game bug got fixed

The Deal

• improved the story
• various dialogue improvements
• turn limit now more forgiving on Easy
• the Yeti stays poisoned if poisoned in the first turn of being awake
• Birmaglost is less likely to suicide attack and his side gets more defensive
• Birmaglost gets more gold & income on Hard
• fire attack now has to be explicitly used on the sleeping Yeti to trigger the unique interaction
• the Yeti now attacks even if poisoned

The Dark

• shortened the story
• lengthened the opening cutscene
• improved the objectives, early finish bonus now available if the curse is lifted
• skeletons rising in the curse cutscene are now animated when they appear
• troll cutscene now triggers as soon as the undead are cleared
• trolls now retain their purple TC for a bit even after joining the player
• gohere markers are now clearly visible in the shroud
• the unit talking with Linaera now has unique lines for each possible race
• it is now better explained what doing the ritual will influence in the campaign
• the ritual is now more visually complex and it visibly burns all undead on the map
• if Arshag decides not to go to the specific tunnel, player can now undo the move
• added a funny event for when a hostile ghoul appears if the easter egg was discovered

The Fire

• enemy gold reduced on Hard
• Marshinar's drakes won't run, even if nearly dying
• added the option to simply kill all drakes
• unique interaction between Burp and the ghost added
• improved the duel so it always plays correctly and actually damages the participants
• fixed the bug where outpost labels would appear even if the guardian is already dead

The Deep

• various dialogue improvements
• removed the RTL Wounded Saurian Spearthrower unit, reworked how Nale appears
• the dreams are now determined by player's performance in previous scenarios instead of being random
• Arshag and Toruk recover their MP and attacks after clearing the first dream
• ghosts and illusions now properly face each other while talking
• side 1 Ghost entering the dream gets properly detected now
• dream units can no longer advance

The Rootless

• player gold reduced on Hard
• Clerila's income increased on Hard
• fixed a bug where the player could lose Toruk and Stuurg to the frost trap
• shroud now gets removed if the loyal naga discovers her kin in the lake
• added a line explaining the fate of saurians if player went through the Deep
• frozen unit visual reworked; now they won't play idle & flying animations
• added dialogue to the unfrozen units
• prevented Frost Stoat from dropping fur if it dies around the ring
• added an unique line to Shamans when they get close to the ring
• wolf messenger now returns
• added Toruk's funeral cutscene
• a new zombie animal event now randomly triggers when capturing Clerila's villages
• dark will ability now has a correct description on all difficulties

The Truth

• player gold reduced on Hard
• the player gets coastal villages if they have nagas on the recall list
• Vethian can now rebel if you kill Tasien with your starting army
• added more dialogue to the elvish leaders
• improved the last stand cutscene

The Ghoul (bonus scenario)

• made the scenario easier on Normal and Hard
• added Konrad2 and Hejnewar as recallable
• various funny bits tweaked

Acknowledgements

Major thanks to Konrad2, Mirion, ForestDragon, sevu, Durzi and other WMG members who helped with testing, suggested new features and helped me with WML and Lua. A second big thank you to Konrad2 for streaming the entire campaign recently, it was awesome!

[Anekron]

Patches 1.2.1 & 1.2.2 & 1.2.3

Quick fix of an oversight that caused "The Fire" to always follow "The Dark", even if the player decided to go through the deep tunnels. Also fixes the dialogue about saurians always triggering in "The Rootless", regardless of S5 choice. 1.2.3 fixes two other important "The Rootless" issues, one of which is gamebreaking.

If you've started your playthrough on 1.2.0 and are yet to play "The Dark", please update immediately. If your save is already broken, please send it to me on Discord or upload it here and I'll fix it for you, so you don't have to replay. I apologise for the instability and will test new features more thoroughly in the future.

[Refumee]

Hi! My saurians are technically just recolored vanilla sprites (not even custom units), since they are under the influence of mushrooms in the deep caves. They're not there for long enough to become as distinct from the "normal" ones as your units are, so I'm not sure if that would fit. That being said, I really like especially the line with the hammers and how they would increase the enemy variety with a more powerful impact atack. Hmm...

Will definitely check Vendraxis Prophecy at some point, looks very cool.

Makes sense.
I also got the cannon guy in green, and if you like the armor hammer guy. I can convert them back to green, if you wanna use him.

Your doing a great job
Sadly I don't have time right now, to play campaigns.(wonder why? I'm porting campaigns?)
Anyway, looking forward to play your campaign in the future.

[holypaladin]

Can wolves follow us from eating pig's flesh instead of goblin's? It's so sad to see companions being eaten to tame wild beasts

[holypaladin]

In final scenario I was a little suprised from the fact woses and mermans supports elves there. I don't know how was with woses on Greatland that time (propably existed but I doubt were just part of elvish army) but mermans were rather allies of humans and were not in close relations with elves

[Anekron]

Good points! I wanted to keep the core of the scenarios close to vanilla to better teach new players the basics, but I agree it might not make much sense lore-wise. Thanks for playing the campaign, I'll think on what to do with merfolk & woses.

With the wolves I wanted to add a bit of dark humour and showcase how orcs see poor gobos as replaceable. Using piglet meat instead is a cool suggestion, though I don't want to complicate things too much for the player...