Wiki in need of an overhaul
The title says it all. Basically, I feel the wiki could use a great deal of work in putting into shape. For example, updating the WML parts and putting the WML reference upfront, updates and the strategy sections (which I and a couple people are working on already), updates on links and support stuff, and general maintenance.
Now since school is starting, I obviously will not have the time to work on them all. Of course I’m slowly progressing on the strategy bits, but the entire wiki I believe needs an overhaul. Also, I don’t believe in my WML yet, so I’m definitely not up for updating the WML section.
Well, I don’t know, really. Thus is just a hope of mine that I wish will be fulfilled one day 
Filed under: Battle for Wesnoth | 2 Comments
Tags: Wesnoth, wiki
A Rough Life
And so, another UMC! Elvish_Hunter just ported Jacques_Fol’s ‘A Rough Life’ to 1.8, so I decided to give it a try. The story was a little, uh, cliché? I mean, the dialogue itself was fine, but the story in general just seems a little, ugh. Gameplay-wise it was a delight, but hard. Though RIPLIB was running rampant throughout Jacques’s transformations.
Nothing really much to say. Obviously the boss levels were more difficult. All in all it’s a nice but difficult campaign; unusual in its gameplay, but fun nonetheless. I’m giving it a 4 out of 5 stars.
Filed under: Battle for Wesnoth | Leave a Comment
Tags: campaign, Elvish_Hunter, Jacques_Fol
The Sceptre of Fire
Ok, I just finished the SoF. Was good in the beginning, climaxed at episode 6, and then went major downhill. In general the campaign had good gameplay elements and innovative map design, but the campaign’s story wasn’t all that convincing, and didn’t quite fit with campaigns like LoW.
The last two scenarios were disappointing. Really. Why did I recall all my level 3′s? I could have finished with a handful of level ones! The enemies were pathetic, and dwarves rock in caves.
Anyhow, I finished with something like 4 lords, 2 runemasters, 2 explorers, 1 dragonguard, maxed out heroes and lots of level 1 and 2 units. It was more than enough for the whole campaign. I don’t think Thursagan used the scepter even once! The key units really are the runemasters, since they tear through just about anything.
The best scenario would probably be ‘Towards the Caves’. The campaign climaxed at that point and then just went downhill. I don’t know, but the last couple scenarios need to be re-thought a bit.
This campaign gets 3.5 out of 5 stars. Good gameplay bits and technically precise, but could use some work in the story and re-conceptualization of the last scenarios.
Filed under: Battle for Wesnoth | Leave a Comment
Tags: campaign
Breaking Ground
The add-on written by Gambit. Yes. It’s on the 1.8 add-on server right now.
Basically, you recruit harvesters to ‘break’ the ground for income/gold. Every hex completely broken and thus becoming a chasm, awards the player 1 income. Harvesters break the ground around them and the hex they are standing on, so when the harvester breaks its own hex into a chasm, it dies. This proves to be an interesting aspect of the game, as it not only generates money and an interesting play style, it speeds up the game. Why? Because the map constantly gets smaller as everyone begins to break the ground. Typical games last around 30 minutes to an hour; much less than competing UMC MP add-ons.
Since harvesters cannot move, you have soldiers to move one hex at a time to ‘capture’ hexes, which then allows you to build harvesters on them. But as harvesters will totally destroy all the units around them, they must be built carefully. So when you get an army of soldiers in one place, what do you do? Attack! You can send your soldiers into enemy territory to take over their hexes. But at the same time, they can send soldiers to your territory as well. Soldiers are designed to be so that the attackers will probably will the particular hex, as every unit has firststrike, berserk, and 0% defense, thus making it that soldiers that attack will kill. But there are some defense things you can take advantage of:
Harvesters – In fact, they are great defensive tools in themselves as they can destroy any hex when placed properly (they can self-destruct as well) making it possible to block off the enemies’ invasions.
Upgraded Soldiers – You can upgrade soldiers to get more strikes and hitpoints, which can help you stand against an invasion. But note that attacking soldiers can upgrade too.
Archers – These fulfill the role of both defensive and offensive. They can shoot hexes from six hexes away, but each shot costs quite a sum. They can also destroy hexes to block off a bridge for example.
Offensively, you have one aid:
Gliders – They can take a soldier anywhere and immediately insta-kill the unit they land on. This prevents stalemates from happening, so they also cost quite a sum.
The goal is to destroy everybody else’s units and break the map. It proves to be a fun add-on! There is another level of strategy present, as your units can move only one hex at a time. You can’t break up your territory so much that you can’t maneuver, but you need income. Thus it is a very interesting balance of these aspects. This gets a 4.5 of 5 stars. Good job, Gambit!
Filed under: Battle for Wesnoth | 2 Comments
Tags: Gambit, multiplayer
The Hammer of Thursagan
Okay, I’ve played through THoT. It was my first dwarf-only campaign. The campaign was much easier than I expected, I finished up the last scenario in about an hour (and a half, maybe) and finished the rest two days later. I played on Normal difficulty, by the way.
By far the most difficult scenario was the last. No doubt about it. But the most interesting scenario would have to be Invaders. Bandits, orcs, dwarves, what fun! Hacking, slashing, hacking, slashing, KABOOM! Yeah, that was a Thunderguard shooting a poor orc to death. :p
Since the main enemy of the campaign was mostly orcs and trolls until the end where it was dwarves and undead, it was a breeze. Tearing through endless amounts of orcs with just a couple steelclads and somehow making through it is strangely very satisfying.
Due to the sturdy build of the dwarves, I took almost no losses, even in the last scenario. The biggie was when I suicided my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on Karrag, which killed him instantly. It was the last move of the campaign anyhow.
I liked the story. It was sweet and simple. The masked dwarves made you wonder, “Huh?” and the Karrag part finally made sense, although I think he could have been a little evil-er.
In the end, I can’t see how this campaign is placed after EI. Definitely it’s easier. In all, it’s nice campaign with a compelling story. But for those who want to sit through difficult scenarios and fight through it to earn a worthy victory, the campaign doesn’t quite get that, except for maybe the last scenario. So yeah, 4 out of 5 stars. You should play it, it’s nice.
Filed under: Battle for Wesnoth | Leave a Comment
Tags: campaign
Eastern Invasion
So I just finished playing Eastern Invasion on Normal difficulty. By far, the most difficult scenarios were Mal Ravanal’s Capital and Weldyn under attack. In the end, I think I had all the main characters maxed out, plus two Royal Guards, three Iron Maulers, a Mage of Light, an Arch Mage, a Silver Mage, two Grand Knights, a Cavalier, a Paladin, and a score of Ogres and Knights. I went through the second half of the campaign just recalling the same units. Yes, a good number of them had Holy Amulets.
I took the Eastern path in an Unexpected Appearance, and led myself to get the knights and paladin. I also took the duel, which was much easier than I had expected.
The gameplay in general was interesting, especially Evacuation. Attacking everything at once is, in fact, an effective strategy, which I proved in that scenario. Since most of my attacks were at day, I think I only lost a Shock Trooper. Other interesting scenarios were Xenophobia and Lake Vrug. It did get rather boring towered the end, since it was just undead that I was facing.
Dialogue, frankly, didn’t appeal to me. It wasn’t bad or anything, it just wasn’t special. Really, it was just a bunch of whiners fleeing from the undead, and then fighting them. Don’t really know though.
So general, I’d rate this campaign 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s an interesting campaign, and it does teach you a few lessons on how to play against undead. But a good bit of dialogue could use some polishing and some scenarios more interesting.
That’s all. Bye.
Filed under: Battle for Wesnoth | Leave a Comment
Tags: campaign
Wishful thinking
The default factions in MP are balanced. We all know that. Even though those occasional stupid whining noobs come to the forums and complain, default is balanced. Period.
What I do wish for though, is for more eras to be included in core, not default. For example, Age of Heroes is core, not default. It’s shipped with the game, but not default multiplayer. I know this is basically huge pressure on the art department, but then again, this is just wishful thinking.
I’ve heard on the forums that the Kalifate is on it’s way to becoming mainline, but I honestly think 6 factions is almost too many. Too many factions make it much more difficult to balance, and especially having 7, an odd number, would make it awkward in a sense. But I do think it should go into core. There are several eras, I think, that have potential to become mainline. Some factions in Extended Era (not all), some factions in Era of Myths, some factions in Turin’s eras, and the new Battle for Meridia era. Just for them to be shipped with the game so also UMC developers can just use the game rather than make a dependency. Yes I know most of them aren’t ready yet, but I assume they will be soon.
Just a thought. Comment below on your response!
Filed under: Battle for Wesnoth | 2 Comments
Tags: MP eras, multiplayer
Hello world!
Hello. Welcome to the monochrome.
I go by two nicks: monochrome/monochromatic and elvish_sovereign/e_s; I consider them as alter egos and you may see me using even both 
. I’m a 16-year-old teenager who somehow stumbled onto the game Battle for Wesnoth something around two-and-a-half/three years ago, around the 1.4/1.5 stage in development. After getting enticed with the game for almost a year, and upon the release of 1.6, I decided to lurk on the forums. Soon after, I opened an account on there, and quickly began what almost every newbie wanted to do: write a campaign.
To keep things short, the campaign never really took flight. It’s buried in the 1.6 add-on list somewhere, but yeah. I may go back someday and pick that up, because honestly I think it was a good storyline. Anyhow, I’m currently working on a campaign on the 1.8 server: Promised Land. It features goblins in a short but interesting 9 scenario campaign. It’s not the easiest thing either. I will blog about updates and changes on that campaign. And thanks to A-Red for storyline help, artisticdude, bera, and Monroid for doing the artwork and Luke the Flaming, shadowmaster, and zookeeper for WML assistance. The campaign is currently about halfway finished, and I do intend to finish before summer ends.
Other stuff: I, with a bunch of people of the Wesnoth forums are compling together a series of strategy guides to complement and finish the great “How to Play…” series by JW. I have a compilation of MP maps on the add-on server. That’s about all for now.
I am learning C++ as of now; having almost no experience of coding from before, it might take me a while, but I’ll learn it. Otherwise, besides dabbling in just about everything and making messes of myself as I go, I’m just your normal teenager.
Oh, yes. I use Mac. I just do. It has the capabilities of Unix and a beautiful UI. Period.
If you’d like to tell me something, just comment below or on any post. Or else find me on IRC (elvish_sovereign/e_s-iOS, occasionally monochromatic), email (elvish.sovereign@gmail.com), or Twitter (the_monochrome). So if you want to tell me something, you have no excuse not too. More details on the ‘Contact’ page. Thanks.
Filed under: Announcements | 1 Comment
Tags: Battle for Wesnoth, C++, campaign, How to Play, mappack, Promised Land
