GCI/Playtesting/The Eastern Invasion/Normal
In general:
Please get an artist to remake the characters. The icons look really bad (portrait ones for text)
Also, the "shock" ability on the horse-hero does not work.
Scenario 1:
A pretty interesting scenario. I understood the objectives, though I think a counter would be useful in the objective screen(XX turns left). Dialogue clear, no grammar mistakes or other.
Fun: 6
Difficulty: 6
Scenario 2
The signpost in the middle of the map is really confusing. I thought it was the way out! If that shall happen, I think it would be best to reveal the exit so I am not confused. And I think that maybe a lone troll should guard the treasure chest, because otherwise, the gold is "free". No dialogue or objective issue, apart from teh signpost,
Fun: 8
Difficulty: 7
Scenario 3.
Of moderate difficulty. No issues with dialogue, but it should be made clearer that the center baddie does not count as an enemy leader.
Fun: 6
Difficulty: 7
The undead border patrol:
A wee bit difficult. No issue with dialogue or objective.
Fun: 7
Difficulty: 7.5
Mal-Ravanal's Capital:
A nice mission. A bit difficult, I guess. Dialogue was clear. So was objective.
Fun: 8
Difficulty: 7
Northern Outpost:
Not that difficult a mission. Understood the dialogue and scenario. No issues.
Fun: 7.5
Difficulty: 7.5
Undead Crossing:
Dialogue clear. Objectives clear. No bugs or other issues.
Fun: 8
Difficulty: 6.5
The Crossing
Dialogue and objectives clear. However, I think that there is an issue because if I kill all the orcs before both characters come to shore, I have to wait until my other character comes to shore and then the dialogue that appears makes the assumption there are orcs alive. Perhaps the horse hero should have better water movement, because he only moves one tile a turn, meaning that it takes at least 10 turns to get to shore.
Fun: 7
Difficulty: 6.5
Training the ogres:
Mission seems totally random. Perhaps training the ogres should be an optional scenario? Also: it would be nice to know how many turns are left. No other issues.
Fun: 9. A unique mission.
Difficulty: 6.
Xenophobia:
A good scenario. I think that the orcs should get a bit more men, because elven pathfinders managed to take out their leader. Maybe a bodyguard of one lvl 2 on defensive AI? Otherwise great scenario. I think that there needs to be more villages on the plain to sieze, as I was in debt by the end of the scenario.
Fun: 7.5
Difficulty; 6
Lake Vrug:
Good scenario. I think that the initial onslaught of griffons was a little too harsh. Perhaps it should be lessened and one griffon should be removed, or the keep size should decrease by one. Also, I think that there should be another bridge to the valley W of the starting valley. In addition, it is all about the initial onslaught. After that ends, it is really easy. Maybe the enemies should get more villages so that there can be a challenge when I finish with the initial onslaught.
Fun: 6.5
Difficulty: 7.5
Captured:
Great scenario. Fun and unique. No issues. Maybe a guard to the exit would help, saying something when I reach him, because it is kind of strange that the exit is unguarded.
Fun: 10
Difficulty: 7.5
Escape:
I only have an AI issue here, in that when I tried to defeat the AI, which I did, whenever I got one person in range of the leader, they attacked, even though they were in clear range of most of my army, which killed them and allowed me to succeed without having to run for it. Maybe the AI leaders should be stationary, and also maybe it should be easier for me to escape so I do not have to kill the AI leaders to win.
Fun: 8
DIfficulty: 7
The Dragon:
Fun, but kind of easy, maybe becasue of all my mages. A good scenario. I think that what needs to be done is to give the dragon the regenerate trait, because otherwise his running way is ineffective, as I will usually catch up. Maybe give the undead dragon a little ranged attack too? Something like "Death Breath". Doesn't have to be really powerful. Because that is the dragon's major weakness. Also add more ambushers.
Fun: 9
Difficulty: 6
Getting to the city:
Pretty easy if the first leader is defeated in time, as the next two troops do not get there on time. I would get the middle leader to train a keep of ghosts or other flying beasts to delay my troops until they get to the city. Also, maybe label the city as such, like the torture room of the prison was.
Fun: 7.5
Difficulty: 6.5
The siege:
Kind of difficult. I think that it would be a much better scenario if bats and shadows/ghouls could not be trained, and instead lvl 3s could, because it is difficult to repel all 3 gate assaults simultaneously. Thus, I would remove bats and shadows/ghouls from teh recruit list, replacing them with other lvl 3s, and increase the gold alloted to them. It ends up being less like a siege and more like a cityfight. Maybe also decrease keep sizes but increase gold so that a solid flow of units happens, which can overwhelm me at the begginning
Fun: 8
Difficulty: 7
The duel:
A great scenario. It is a bit easy though. No major issues. Also, it would be helpful to understand what the section to the NW does. I think it should be removed, since I have never found the need to use it, and neither has Mal-Ravanal.
Fun: 10
Difficulty: 6
The other ending:
Difficult, especially after the siege, where I lost a lot of units. I think that it would be great if the enemies couldnt train ghost/shadows/ghouls. Really difficult, especially compared to the duel.
Fun: 7
Difficulty: 9
BUG: When I got to the Northeastern lich, his name was revealed, but there was no dialogue by the mage telling me that he was not Mal-Ravandral, and so I thought he was.
PREVIOUS PERSONS'S WORK:
First, I'd like to start off by saying that I have not played a Wesnoth campaign before, so maybe I wasn't the most qualified to do this bug sweep, but I have played many games and can suggest a few gameplay and interface changes, not familiar with code so I'm also not sure what is doable or not, but I feel I represent the average gamer and their wishes.
QUESTIONS
1. I played through The Eastern Invasion on Normal difficulty, 1.9.2
2. 7/10 I found the scenario very difficult, each scenario requiring ATLEAST more than one try (except for Two Paths)
3. Occasionally my overall objective was confusing (Escape Tunnel, thought I had to fight through the trolls to reach the end, thought the southern corridor where the Dwarves lived was a dead end), but most of the time I knew what I had to do.
4. The dialog was actually alot higher quality than what I wouldve thought of a free game (no offense, but they tend to not have a very good reputation). I did enjoy how all the different factions didnt just automatically team up with you and leave and most of the time actually showed stubbornness, not saying it was flawless, I thought it was absolutely stupid just how quickly the goblins and undead befriend each other to fight off a 'common enemy' aka the player, while it did make for a good mission, no faction would ever strike a ceasefire that fast and the goblins really wouldve made more sense to keep fighting the undead, possibly with the aid of the humans. A small band of guards is not at all on the same scale as the entire undead army, the undead are obviously the bigger threat here. It was also a little confusing about all the names and locations, but I'm willing to let that one slide by lack of experience with the game.
5. I found it difficult to level my units, the tutorial never really explained what units were more effective against what units (ie. pierce vs undead, etc), I was also unaware that you could replay levels. I guess that wouldve helped, but I just wish I couldve been told that.
6. I give this scenario another 7/10, it's fun and a strategic challenge for the mind, but at moments its a little irritating with difficulty or other certain aspects.
7. Definitely ELABORATE on the tutorial for interface! I did not understand what half the buttons or numbers really meant. Also, it would be nicer if you would be told what the strengths and weakness' of your units were, often times I would send units I thought would be effective, but then they would get crushed (first mission, I spammed spearmen)
8. The death of a critical unit, usually a hero where the game would force you to restart, but also my levelled units, whenever my strong units died I would rewind a few turns. Often times I just dont use my critical units, because I don't want to suddenly get sniped when a really strong unit appears out of nowhere and kills my heroes.
Just some general things that I would like to see improved upon:
The tutorial does a good job at teaching you the mechanics, but it would be helpful if there was a map of the interface and what each button and piece of information displayed meant. It was a little frustrating not knowing what something did or what these percentages actually meant, there may have been a layout map, but it never brought it up.