The Tale of Crelanu

[Lord-Knightmare]

I wanted to make a campaign related to Wesnoth history and the result is:
The Tale of Crelanu

Story:

This is a campaign about Crelanu, how he arrived in wesnoth, how he completed his book, and how he became one of Haldric I's advisers and how was he later banished from Wesnoth and the campaign ends with him and his apprentice arriving in the mountains of Thoria.

Main Characters:
Crelanu
He is the protagnist. He uses a custom unit. He is experienced in lightning magic.
Aquagar
He is Crelanu's apprentice. He's the guys who you kill in Legend of Wesmere. He refers himself as the drake wizard of Mogoroth (at the time of LoW).
Olurf
Yes, this is the same dwarf, who helped Kalenz.
Thursagan
What? A campaign couldn't be epic without the greatest runemaster of them all!
Alduin
A member of the council of Arch Magi, founder of Alduin Magic Academy.

Recurring Cast
King Haldric I
Queen Jessenne I

Story:

A rough draft.

rough storyline.rtf

(2.37 KiB) Downloaded 949 times

What I need help with

Additional Information about Crelanu. His past or mentionable deeds.
Story Map (probably the one used in legend of wesmere). I read the article about the trackplacer but couldn't understand a thing.....
Portraits:
Crelanu (He is way younger than the crelanu who appears in LoW.)
Aquagar
Olurf (He is younger than he was in LoW)
Queen Jessene (in a queen's dress)
Alduin
Thursagan (Younger)
PM me if you want to help out.

I have made a storyline and this campaign is going to be about >12 scenarios. Development of the campaign will begin sometime in August.

Art Thread
Development Thread: This is the development thread.

[MasterofGlerum]

It sounds like a great idea. I've often thought that a campaign about Crelanu would be good. Unfortunately, I can't help with the art, as it is my own weak point.

[ducklord_time]

My 2c:

In LoW and DM (which his book also comes into), I don't remember much suggesting Crelanu was unusually good with lightning magic. What he did seem to be unusually skilled at/experienced with was potions (his book described holy water and the invisibility potion) and things relating to magical corruption and liches (identifying magical corruption in Haldric, one of his potions was made from part of a lich and had magical corruption as a side effect, and someone used his book to become a lich). I assumed those were his specialty.

[Lord-Knightmare]

My 2c:

In LoW and DM (which his book also comes into), I don't remember much suggesting Crelanu was unusually good with lightning magic. What he did seem to be unusually skilled at/experienced with was potions (his book described holy water and the invisibility potion) and things relating to magical corruption and liches (identifying magical corruption in Haldric, one of his potions was made from part of a lich and had magical corruption as a side effect, and someone used his book to become a lich). I assumed those were his specialty.

In LoW, Crelanu appears as a Elder Mage (lightning magical range, so I thought he was experience in that magic.)
Campaign is on the 1.9 add-on server.

The campaign is almost completed with a few scenarios to go.

I wonder why I'm not getting a bit of feedback, has anyone even played this campaign yet?

[Great_Mage_Atari]

Good idea. Can't wait to see how it all works out.

[Sneezy]

Hi-- a quick note to say that I've finished up through "Securing the Valley," and it's been enjoyable so far. I'm playing on Easy (i.e., first time through), and it feels about right: a problem here & there, some issues to deal with here & there, but no insurmountable difficulties. Gold hasn't been a huge problem, and the heros and other units have advanced.

"Defense of Weldyn" deserves special praise. It was quite a melee, and was one of the few times that I've seen a couple of allies behave reasonably intelligently. There was less of the typical, pointless rushing hither & yon (some, but not as much; most units moved forward and attacked, and a few had sense enough to retreat & heal when necessary). Even the bosses ran out to help, but got out of harm's way before they got too badly injured.

So far, I'm liking it. About the only character-development criticism I can offer is: Crelanu is kind of pushy in requesting (demanding?) a seat on the council. Maybe something along the lines of "I've reached a point in my training where my colleagues think etc...etc..."

Keep up the good work! These early scenarios seem nicely thought-out.
--sneezy

[Lord-Knightmare]

Hi-- a quick note to say that I've finished up through "Securing the Valley," and it's been enjoyable so far. I'm playing on Easy (i.e., first time through), and it feels about right: a problem here & there, some issues to deal with here & there, but no insurmountable difficulties. Gold hasn't been a huge problem, and the heros and other units have advanced.

"Defense of Weldyn" deserves special praise. It was quite a melee, and was one of the few times that I've seen a couple of allies behave reasonably intelligently. There was less of the typical, pointless rushing hither & yon (some, but not as much; most units moved forward and attacked, and a few had sense enough to retreat & heal when necessary). Even the bosses ran out to help, but got out of harm's way before they got too badly injured.

So far, I'm liking it. About the only character-development criticism I can offer is: Crelanu is kind of pushy in requesting (demanding?) a seat on the council. Maybe something along the lines of "I've reached a point in my training where my colleagues think etc...etc..."

Keep up the good work! These early scenarios seem nicely thought-out.
--sneezy

Thanks for the feedback.

Do you really think Crelanu is that demanding? Well as the campaign is still in development...I will look into that.

"Defense of Weldyn" - I too find the scenario weird. Haldric's forces just go suicide on the orcs while I find the Wesfolk doing all the dirty work....
Maybe I should set Haldric to defensive.

Anyways, I'm almost done with the tenth secnario...so please expect an update soon.

Can anyone help on this....

Code: Select all

#textdomain wesnoth-TtoC
[scenario]
    id="Entrance_to_the_Nest"
    name="Entrance to the Nest"
    next_scenario="Nest_of_the_Dead"
    mqp_data="{~add-ons/The_Tale_of_Crelanu/maps/10_Entrance_to_the_Nest.map}"

   {TURNS 24 23 22}

   {DEFAULT_SCHEDULE_DUSK}
   {DEFAULT_MUSIC_PLAYLIST}

   [story]
      [part]
         music="underground.ogg"
         story="Time seem to be frozen as our heroes travelled the underground caves. The darkness was too much for the mages whose staffs seem to be completely useless in providing light, forcing them all to rely to the trained eyes of the dwarf scouts."
      [/part]
      [part]
         story="After traveling for three weeks, our heroes reached the entrance by nightfall..."
      [/part]
  [/story]

  [side]
     side=1
     team_name="good"
     user_team_name="Loyalists"
     type="Mage of Storms"
     id="Crelanu"
     name="Crelanu"
     canrecruit=yes
     controller="human"
     {GOLD 150 120 100}
     {FLAG_VARIANT loyalist}
  [/side]

# No recruit limitations...No holding them back!

  [side]
    side=2
    team_name="undead"
    user_team_name="Undead"
    type="Death Knight"
    id="Knight of Valor"
    name="Knight of Valor"
    canrecruit=yes
    controller=ai
    recruit="Revenant,Bone Shooter,Skeleton,Skeleton Archer,Chocobone"
    {GOLD 60 65 70}
 [/side]

 {STARTING_VILLAGES_ALL 2}

#Ghosts and Ghouls - they finally appear!

 [side]
    side=3
    team_name="undead"
    user_team_name="Undead"
    type="Spectre"
    id="Spectre of Souls"
    name="Spectre of Souls"
    canrecruit=yes
    controller=ai
    recruit="Wraith,Ghost,Ghoul,Shadow,Necrophage"
    {GOLD 120 130 140}
 [/side]

 [side]
    side=4
    team_name="trolls"
    user_team_name="Trolls"
    type="Great Troll"
    id="Troll Chief"
    name="Troll Chief"
    canrecruit=yes
    controller=ai
    recruit="Troll Whelp,Troll,Troll Shaman,Troll Rocklobber"
    {GOLD 120 130 140}
 [/side]

 [side]
    side=5
    team_name="undead"
    user_team_name="Undead"
    type="Deathblade"
    id="Blades of Wesmere"
    name="Blades of Wesmere"
    canrecruit=yes
    controller=ai
    recruit="Skeleton,Skeleton Archer"
    {GOLD 120 130 140}
 [/side]

 [side]
    side=6
    team_name="undead"
    user_team_name="Undead"
    type="Draug"
    id="Undead Guard"
    name="Undead Guard"
    canrecruit=yes
    controller=ai
    recruit="Skeleton,Skeleton Archer"
    {GOLD 120 130 140}
 [/side]

 {CRELANU_DEATH_EVENT}
 {AQUAGAR_DEATH_EVENT}
 {THURSAGAN_DEATH_EVENT}
 {OLURF_DEATH_EVENT}

 victory_when_enemies_defeated=yes

 [event]
   name=enemies defeated
   [message]
      speaker="Thursagan"
      message="These undead are crushed, so lets march inside. I can't wait to crush some more bones."
   [/message]
 [/event]

 [event]
    name=victory
    [endlevel]
       result=victory
       {NEW_GOLD_CARRYOVER 40}
    [/endlevel]
 [/event]

 [event]
    name=prestart

    {CLEAR_VARIABLE prisoners_to_free}
    [recall]
       id=Aquagar
    [/recall]
    [recall]
       id=Olurf
    [/recall]
    [recall]
       id=Thursagan
    [/recall]
    
    #Some Undead guards. Draugs mostly

    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 11 7}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 11 8}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 12 7}
    {GUARDIAN}

    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 12 9}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 13 10}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 15 11}
    {GUARDIAN}

    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 16 11}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 18 11}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 23 10}
    {GUARDIAN}

    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 20 11}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 21 11}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 24 9}
    {GUARDIAN}

    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 24 6}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 24 7}
    {GUARDIAN}
    {GENERIC_UNIT 2 "Draug" 25 7}
    {GUARDIAN}

  [/event]

  [event]
     name=start
     [message]
        speaker="Olurf"
        message="Well, here we are. The Undead Nest, or the entrance to it mostly."
     [/message]
     [message]
        speaker="Thursagan"
        message="Its bashing time!"
     [/message]
     [message]
        speaker="Aquagar"
        message="Its time to bring the rain! The rain of fire!"
     [/message]

     [objectives]
         [objective]
            description="Defeat all enemy leaders"
            condition="win"
         [/objective]
         [objective]
            description="Death of Crelanu"
            condition="lose"
         [/objective]  
         [objective]
            description="Death of Aquagar"
            condition="lose"
         [/objective]  
         [objective]
            description="Death of Olurf"
            condition="lose"
         [/objective]
         [objective]
            description="Death of Thursagan"
            condition="lose"
         [/objective] 
         {TURNS_RUN_OUT}

         [gold_carryover]
            bonus=yes
            carryover_percentage=40
         [/gold_carryover]

     [/objectives]
  [/event]

  {TIME_OVER_DEFEAT_EVENT}

[/scenario]

I keep getting the message load_game_failed: Map not found

[Crendgrim]

Code: Select all

mqp_data=

[Lord-Knightmare]

Code: Select all

mqp_data=

Thank you very much.....
I failed to noticed it because of the pressure coding scenario 8 and 9 and making the map of 11.
But its fixed now..

And v0.0.6 is uploaded with 11 scenarios, please update your add-ons....

Note: If anybody finds scenario 11 super hard, please notify me ASAP, because I think 1 vs 9 sides is a bit too much too handle. Anyways I'm play testing that scenario.

[Lord-Knightmare]

Sorry for the double post.....but I just had to do it.
The campaign is completed and all scenarios are balanced.

Spoiler:

The main difficulty in the last battle scenario is the shortage of gold. So try to have at least 6 Specters.

[chak_abhi]

The game map in scenario 12 (Troll Prison) couldn't be loaded due to presence of illegal tile in map--Gd^Fetd. Please fix the error. (I use BfW 1.9.5).

[blueknight1758]

Sounds to me like the map was created using a newer version of weanoth than 1.9.5 so he could put different terrain in or you could update wesnoth.

[chak_abhi]

The game map in scenario 12 (Troll Prison) couldn't be loaded due to presence of illegal tile in map--Gd^Fetd. Please fix the error. (I use BfW 1.9.5).

I have fixed that myself.

[chak_abhi]

Hi, I have played the whole campaign in BfW 1.9.5 on "Normal" difficulty. Overall it is a good campaign, but I would like to give a thorough review unlike most players.

1. The Escape Quite good, placement of enemy troops was compatible with the difficulty. The only problem lies with the story--how did Crelanu and his men actually steal a ship from the orcs? There were no patrols on the port but ships are supposed to be well guarded. The story can be placed like this--the refugees stole a boat and set sail for the Great Continent being well aware of the great risks of such a journey.

2. Bay of Pearls Good as it is, no changes needed.

3. Defense of Weldyn Portrayal of Weldyn is okay, the city inspite of being the capital is not yet fortified, as it has been just built. The most annoying thing is that Haldric's forces behave in a bizarre manner. Instead of keeping themselves in a pack they spread out in 2s or 3s towards the enemy camps and get slaughtered without putting any good fight. It would be better if these are a mix of L1s & L2s instead of all L2s. Moreover the number of red mages are to be reduced. It was Jessene who helped me a bit.

4. Council at Weldyn Story only, all right.

5. Securing the Valley All right, no changes needed.

6. Blackwater Port Foolish scenario. If you want the orc leader to be invincible it would be better to give him more gold or higher base income or both. I defeated him quite easily. Or you can use

Code: Select all

{FORCE_CHANCE_TO_HIT side=1 id="orc leader" 0 ()}

. But I feel it is not necessary, rather it will be better to award an early finish bonus to the player if he/she can defeat the orc.

7. Orcish Base The first challenging scenario, but correct in essentials. No suggestions here.

8. A New Assignment Story only, all right.

9. War in the North Quite boring. None of the units except the Nightgaunts could navigate the terrain quickly, and you have to keep patience for a long time to gain the upper hand. This is the scenario where Haldric should be using mages. However both allies were helping. The elves almost single-handedly destroyed the undead!

10. The Dwarves Nice one, no changes needed.

11. Undead Prison Wonderful scenario, the gameplay was really good. No changes needed.

12. Entrance to the Nest Good as it is.

13. Nest of the Dead Very good scenario. However there is a deficit in the storyline. What is the origin of such a powerful ancient lich? He must have been a human. Why did he embrace unlife? How did he gain such power so as to build a strong base in the northlands where dwarves and trolls were ready to fight him?

14. Captured Poor storyline. Trolls usually do not attack humans unless provoked by orcs. Why did they take Crelanu and his men prisoners?

15. Troll Prison Again poor storyline. How did Crelanu manage to place magical runes at places he never visited in person? Really stupid. Gameplay was so-so.

16. Haldric's Court Story only. Okay as it is.

17. Taking the Ruby Good gameplay but poor storyline. Haldric was supposed to keep the ruby with him always being infatuated with its power. Instead he kept is locked in a chest guarded by a lot of soldiers, most of whom are L1s! The Ruby's evil power can affect the bearer only. And even if it is kept in a secret chamber, it should be guarded by L2 or L3 soldiers. Anyway the gameplay was good, and one can learn to level up ghosts here. There is also problem with the WML, which I will elaborate later.

18. Banishment Story only, good as it is.

19. Old Friends Very good gameplay. However it will be better if the water serpents show up only when a unit (not Gryphon or Gryphon Rider) steps on the water, and the Yeti shows up only when a unit steps on the opposite bank. The behaviour of Olurf is inappropriate. He should at least have enquired why Crelanu and his men were banished.

20. Claiming Home Wonderful scenario.Storyline is good and the gameplay is very much enjoyable. Nice way to end the campaign.

Now the other issues are:

1. Crelanu would be better off with 4 levels, the L4 being named like "Cyclonic Mage" or so. He may be given additional powers like an additional arcane attack (would be very useful in the last scenario against fire-resistant drakes) or ability to heal (may come handy) or leadership (really needed as you have no such units).

2. Aquagar is always designed as a fire-mage, so the WML should be written such that he can only advance along the red mage line, otherwise it looks stupid. (Don't ask me how, please seek advice from experts!)

3. A serious mistake in the WML gets exposed in the scenarios "Taking the Ruby" and "Old Friends", where mages and dwarves respectively can't be recalled properly. If you use your present code only a single mage or dwarf is recalled. The correct WML for storing should read as:

Code: Select all

[store_unit]
[filter]
side=1
type=Mage, White Mage, Mage of Light, Red Mage, Arch  Mage, Silver Mage, Great Mage
[filter]
variable=stored_mages
kill=yes
[/store_unit]

and for recalling them in a later scenario:

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{FOREACH stored_mages g}
            {VARIABLE stored_mages[$g].x "recall"}
            {VARIABLE stored_mages[$g].y "recall"}

            [unstore_unit]
                variable=stored_mages[$g]
            [/unstore_unit]
        {NEXT g}
    {CLEAR_VARIABLE stored_mages}

4. The fire guardians are virtually useless, these are expensive, have poor defences, no magical attack and cannot level up. It will be better if Crelanu can summon something else, like ghouls for example.

5. The troll leaders always tend to recruit a large number of Troll Shamans, which are useless against drakes and not so useful against dwarves (think of the last scenario). You can use the following code:

Code: Select all

[ai]
recruitment_ignore_bad_combat=yes
[/ai]

6. The difficulty levels are not well balanced. There is little difference between the starting gold among the levels. This makes the gameplay much less challenging in the highest difficulty. However, as this is a new campaign I hope this issue will be resolved as more and more players try this out.

Overall the campaign is good and I sincerely hope that with the corrections it will attain great success in the domain of Wesnoth. Good luck!

[Lord-Knightmare]

@chak_abhi: Thanks for the feedback and thank you for helping out the recall list problem...I took the code from Delfador's Memoirs, it worked there.
About scenarios:
15: Troll Shamans was bane to me when I played the scenario. They just blasted up my dwarf ally, and made me lose my Specters
14,3,2,etc...: I will look into those issues (Note...I only refer to the playable scenarios)

11x Captured: In earlier scenarios, Crelanu slayed of two troll leaders, who were in fact brothers and a third brother (High Troll chieftain) ordered them to be impriosned. Luckily they (Crelanu) escaped before the chieftain met his brothers killers