17a. The Duel

[Content Feedback]

(1) What difficulty levels and game versions have you played the scenario on?
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

[Vendrick]

(1) Invasion, 1.18
(2) 3
(3) Clear
(4) Excellent
(5) Killing Mal-Ravanal (without the Sentinel Shield and Yetiburger)
(6) 8
(7) I feel like Mal-Ravanal's cheap tactics are actually less cheap than turning up with party of anti-Undead units stocked with items and AMLAs. It's quite an easy win, but it works well as a finale in combination with the previous scenario.

The bonus dialogue for the loyal units and Heroes is good.

Mal-Ravanal's fun as a villain and Dacyn banishing Mal-Ravanal is really good.
Dacyn's final scene is excellent. I genuinely thought the ending was heading for Dacyn meeting the same fate as Ravan which adds weight to Dacyn's final moment of quiet heroism.

The epilogue:
Owaec isn't essential, and the conflict is laid to rest in the Drowned Plains but since their conflict is a throughline for the campaign, Owaec not having a line acknowledging Dacyn's fate is a shame.

Overall campaign thoughts:

Spoiler:

I liked EI before and this is an improvement across the board, I rank revised EI among the best campaigns in Wesnoth.

Custom AMLAs:
I think +8HP is the best option on most units. A unit doesn't do any damage if it dies, and the bonus HP lets the player get more aggressive with the unit. The increased damage is more situationally useful.
I think I prefer it the straight +3 HP advancement overall.

If expanded to other campaigns, the +8 HP might need scaled to base unit HP. Units like Spectres with 36 or 39 HP are considerably more powerful already.
It's a buff to Level 2 units which is fine for something like the Javelineer that barely has a niche, but probably excessive on something that's really good like the Goblin Pillager (I would have had several 65+ HP Goblin Pillagers in my last SotBE run).

Difficulty Scaling:
Revised EI feels similar in difficulty to the other Expert difficult campaigns (at least on 1.16). I don't think this is a bad thing, but it is a break from mainline conventions.

I like that the campaign's a significant challenge for experienced players, but the wider difficulty range might also make it harder for players to "break-in" to higher difficulty levels.

Scenario Design:
The scenarios' all benefit from distinct themes which complement the gameplay well. There's a distinct on focus on each scenario having a narrative that makes them all standout from each other.

I really like the bonus objectives implemented in Soradoc and Eleventh Hour. They aren't very easy to achieve, but they add some welcome strategic complexity and allow for increased difficult without making the scenario inaccessible.

The Item System:
I really like EI's item system.
The pickup and drop system is really flexible and intuitive, and it doesn't require the player to have foreknowledge to get good value from the items.
The corresponding item trait makes them easy to find in the recall list.
I was initially concerned the items would would dominate the campaign, but they are fairly restrained in terms of power and scope. The only item I have reservations about is the Sentinel Shield, mostly because the AI is baffled by it.

Branching paths:
My only reservation about the difficulty labels and better rewards on the harder branching paths is that a player that chooses Easy paths early will actually increase the difficulty of the mandatory harder scenarios later. The campaign is designed to accomodate this, but it feels a little like a campaign being harder on Easy than on Normal.

The branching paths having labels is a distinct improvement though.

[Dalas120]

Campaign maker here - just want to say that I've read all your feedback and I really appreciate all the time you've put into playing and reviewing EI! If there's anything specific you'd like changed for 1.20, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[Vendrick]

Good to know the feedback's somewhat useful. The campaign really is one of the best.

I have a handful of minor issues/tweaks I'll get around to opening on Github (things like civilians being able to block recruitment in Eleventh Hour).
(In my last All-In playthrough, Mal-Ravanal spawned in the top right and spent multiple turns capturing villages (unflagged when the leader switched) rather than advancing - is that behaviour intended?)
Most of the feedback is pretty minor stuff.
Off the top of my head:
I'd say potentially dropping a level or two from the Necromancer and his bodyguards at Soradoc depending on difficulty.
Some of the map design / terrain features in Ill Humours and Castle in the Ice might mislead the player. (Specifically: the right-most villages in Ill-Humours (expensive to acquire) and the gold pile to the left in Castle in the Ice (presumably only significantly profitable if collected by a Walking Corpse)).

I believe Terraent and his knights are intended to be better rewards than Hahid but I'm not actually sure they are that much stronger relative to the difficulty of acquiring them (even once the Survivor trait fix is pushed). Terraent and his knights perform better in the scenarios immediately afterwards and in Spoils of War, but Hahid has two extremely useful potions in the Wildlands arc and is surprisingly useful even in All-In.

The only scenario that whiffs is the Drowned Plains (but I'm not certain I'm even taking the right approach to it (last attempt finished Turn 60 with ~270 gold carryover and 2x Horsemen and Mage recruits)). My impression is that the scenario is under too much pressure from different design goals. It might benefit from being just being shorter or split into two scenarios eg. Reduce the amount of "walking" by cutting the Undead dragon keep and it turning up after the Undead clansmen are destroyed.

Thanks for all your work on the campaign.