Ascension

[redbeard2]

I'm new to the forums, but have played Wesnoth for a few years, and decided to take a crack at making my own campaign. I am entirely self-taught on coding via Wesnoth, so I'm not doing any fancy coding, but have tried to adapt code from mostly mainline campaigns and The Final Exam to create my campaign Ascension.

It follows the exploits of Brurbar, (seen in Legend of Wesmere very briefly), as the Orcs prepare their second invasion, capture the Northlands, and begin their attack on the Elves. Includes a lot of mentions relevant to other campaigns, hopefully I didn't mess my lore up too badly.

Let me know if the file is even openable, as said, I am a complete newby to any coding, so be forgiving of any errors.

I have looked into uploading onto the add-on page, but I'm unclear on what the pbl file is, the other add-ons I looked at didn't have something clearly labelled as such, I'm probably missing something obvious, a template is usually more helpful than a description, and I couldn't find a template.

Any constructive feedback would be good, hopefully the campaign is playable in the attachment, and, of course, fun.

[white_haired_uncle]

Did you mean to omit turn limits? On the first scenario, I can just grab up all the villages and play indefinitely, building up gold and slowly advancing my leader.

There's not much carryover, but 20% of infinity is still a pretty big number.

[redbeard2]

I haven’t included that yet, figuring out how many turns to put in is something to be updated later, but will eventually be included

[redbeard2]

Also have not included mualtiple difficulties, but something else that may be included but doing so well will take thought

[white_haired_uncle]

I played the first scenario for like 25 turns. By turn 20 I felt I was clearly cheating, but wanted to see if there were any interesting unit advancements, AMLAs, etc. I suspect 14 is reasonable for normal difficulty, 16 leaves room for some bad luck, and I'd probably start with 18 as it's better for players to suggest that the turn limit is too high than to start with it too low and have some quit.

But that's just my opinion having played it once, not taking it very seriously. Also, I'm assuming the campaign is meant to be easy/average. If it's meant to be expert, there's a pretty simple strategy that probably makes 14 turns pretty generous.

S02: Probably don't want "02_Shoot..." as the scenario name=, it just looks weird. Cool scenario, a bit easy if you catch on quick, but fun. Took me 23 turns, though I played it pretty conservatively, and had a lot of trouble actually hitting the assassin leader. I suspect I'll regret leaving him for last.

Krag-Ubor is getting kind of annoying. I have to keep him alive, yet he's kind of weak, has no ranged attack, etc. I hope something is going to happen with him (like taming a wolf to ride, giving him a chance for advancement(s) while retaining his leadership???) and he won't just be a liability the whole campaign.

When I started S02, I was disappointed that my goblins cost 20 to recall, making even the ones I advanced worthless IMO. At the time, I worried that I'd end up with a huge recall list of worthless fodder. I have no point to make here, just an observation.

[redbeard2]

The intended difficulty is intermediate, though that can be hard for me to gauge as I walk into it with complete map knowledge. Yeah, recalling won’t happen until you get orcish units. I try to make it clear in dialogue, but if you move brurbar to enemy keeps he takes over that faction, if anyone is left alive, and expands his recruit list (which expands next scenario in any case). I will eventually replay and see how many turns are reasonable, but I appreciate suggestions. I will note that in general running out of time is my least favorite way to lose a scenario.

Yes, Krag-Ubor gets a wolf next scenario. I try to always shield him with a bunch of level zeros otherwise he’d get picked off easily, his leadership pushes for that anyway.

[Lord-Knightmare]

Hello, I started playing your campaign.

First scenario was okay. I suppose there will be some turn limit at some point, I guess? Otherwise, I would be farming XP.
Second scenario was okay. I did struggle a bit when the bulk of side 2 came at me but managed it.

Third scenario, so I try to load the start of scenario of save but the game says "scenario does not exist". Weirdly, the autosave loaded but not the start of scenario save.

[redbeard2]

Hello, I started playing your campaign.

First scenario was okay. I suppose there will be some turn limit at some point, I guess? Otherwise, I would be farming XP.
Second scenario was okay. I did struggle a bit when the bulk of side 2 came at me but managed it.

Third scenario, so I try to load the start of scenario of save but the game says "scenario does not exist". Weirdly, the autosave loaded but not the start of scenario save.

You aren't the first to ask about turn limits, indeed they will come eventually, suggested turn limits would be appreciated. I will say I hate losing due to strict time limits, but they exist for a reason, of course, so at least a limit that will prevent abusing gold farming. I just wanted to get the scenarios out there for review as soon as they seemed playable to me. I haven't had that 3rd scenario trouble myself, if it doesn't open at all let me know, I'll try to review what the problem is, if possible. I need to at some point replay them all, but I got a bit fatigued doing so making them work...

[redbeard2]

Hello, I started playing your campaign.

First scenario was okay. I suppose there will be some turn limit at some point, I guess? Otherwise, I would be farming XP.
Second scenario was okay. I did struggle a bit when the bulk of side 2 came at me but managed it.

Third scenario, so I try to load the start of scenario of save but the game says "scenario does not exist". Weirdly, the autosave loaded but not the start of scenario save.

by the way I know you made a campaign focusing on Crenalu, well I include Crenalu quite a bit mid-campaign, hope that isn't any sort of issue in enjoyability how I portray him. I included a different mage portrait as I didn't want him to be so frail looking, it's not the look I'm going for for him at this stage in his career

[white_haired_uncle]

So Krag loses his leadership, but he's now "Captain"?

BTW, I can load the start of scenario for S03 just fine.

S03 has the same naming "problem" as 02.

Some errors. The hero-leader image thing is annoying. It's a pretty well known issue, but I don't remember the fix. Something to do with how you make a unit into a leader or hero or whatnot, that changed around 1.14, you probably copied some old (not properly updated) code? The unit in question appears at the start of S03 if that helps.

Code: Select all

20231221 16:17:22 warning config: add-on 'Ascension' has no _info.cfg; cannot read version info
20231221 16:41:45 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'Name' discarded.
20231221 16:41:45 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'Name' discarded.
20231221 16:41:45 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'Name' discarded.
20231221 16:41:45 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'Name' discarded.
20231221 16:41:45 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'Name' discarded.
20231221 16:41:45 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'Name' discarded.
20231221 16:41:45 warning unit: Unknown attribute 'Name' discarded.
20231222 10:49:46 error display: could not open image 'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-top.png'
20231222 10:49:46 error display: could not open image 'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-bottom.png'
20231222 10:50:30 error display: could not open image 'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-selected-top.png'
20231222 10:50:30 error display: could not open image 'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-selected-bottom.png'
20231222 11:57:41 error display: could not open image 'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-top.png'
20231222 11:57:41 error display: could not open image 'misc/ellipse-hero-leader-bottom.png'

[redbeard2]

I think it is that for Brurbar there's a section that is [leader] [/leader], I don't see it on many campaigns but was on one I copied from, as you suspected, I can try axing that, it should make that go away. I, by the way, have never gotten that error at all, so It's hard for me to exactly trouble-shoot it but that's my best guess. I was terrified to take anything away once I got it to work AT ALL (which took over a year to do), but maybe I can try it.

Yeah, leadership goes away for Krag-Ubor, I guess given he supposedly is a big guy in the Orc Army it would be not crazy to have a second guy with leadership if you think it's a jarring change. MUCH later in the campaign there are a couple of scenarios with a Fire Dragon, who is a level 5 leader, and also a Shadow mage shows up who would have leadership, but it didn't make sense in the story so I took it away.

[white_haired_uncle]

Check this out: viewtopic.php?p=658905#p658905

I think it's odd that Krag loses leadership when he gains a wolf, especially when called Captain. It just doesn't make sense, as leadership isn't a skill one forgets. Of course, if you explained that he was new to riding a wolf and could no longer concentrate on also being a leader, I could buy that. And if he later got his leadership back, probably as part of an advancement, well that would make sense (to me, at least).

S01:

Code: Select all

                [village]
                        x=34
                        y=18
                [/village]
error: [village] points to a non-village location 34,18

S03: 24 turns, though I was milking XP at the end until my ally finished off the human leader for me.

S04: 20231222 15:05:47 error display: could not open image 'portraits/orc/seaorc.png'

S04: This looks weird:

Code: Select all

        [message]
            sound=horn-signals/horn-8.ogg
            image="portraits/goblins/rouser-2.png"
        [/message]

S05: Is there a missing moveto for 20,5? Finished in 17 turns. I was in no hurry, the leader ran out of the keep, I hit it with poison, surrounded it and camped on any nearby villages, and watched it die.

S06: In the intro, why is only "Elvish" capitalized? No race should be capitalized IMO, but we can at least be consistent (in theory, pretty much no one is).

[redbeard2]

Consistency in capitalization is a very valid thing to check, if standard is no capitalization, I can change that. The other elements I’ll have to open it up and review code that I can see if I can fix. Thanks for feedback, I hope, at least, it is fun to play

[white_haired_uncle]

S06: 33 turns. Turn after turn after turn of missing pretty much every one of my attacks.

S07: 27 turns. Didn't seem like that many, I guess they were each pretty quick.

S08: As I play this, I realize that without a turn limit, I'm playing very differently than I would if there was one. So when I post results, they aren't going to be much help in determining what the limits should be. I think you may need to just set some limits or you may not get good feedback. -- Who is lobo? Again, that weird horn+empty message. 60 turns. I HATE thunderbuggers!

S09: 18 turns, with a bit of luck for once. Objectives are incorrect.

If Tabin can't die, shouldn't he have a hero/whatever icon?

[redbeard2]

Lobo was an old name for Krag-Ubor before I changed it, I guess one slipped through my revisions.

The horn thing is lifted from a map in Legend of Wesmere, I want to make it stop staying Brurbar, but haven't figured out how. I will do a replay myself and include turn limits, I guess I'm not the type to change my playstyle, but plenty of people are, so I can just wing it and put in a best guess, I might be a bit generous at least at first and see how that goes. Kingdom of Dorth is going to be long in any case...I'm probably going to make that one a map with blacked out map, as most, though not all, cave maps are.

One thing I was wondering about is a map of the North without the cities on it. Much of the activity in the middle of the campaign takes place in the Northlands, the same area as Son of the Black Eye, but the cities being there would be nonsense. If this exists, it could be nice to have.