GCI/Playtesting/Liberty/Easy

Preamble

This is a test of "Liberty" campaign of Wesnoth on Peasant (Easy) difficulty.

For reference purposes the following has been quoted from the guideline page:

1. What difficulty levels and what version of Wesnoth 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?
8. Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
9. If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?

Scenario 1: The Raid

1. Peasant (Easy) Difficulty. Version 1.9.2.
2. Difficulty level: 2. Not too difficult, especially since the villagers in the town help out once the raiders get near.
3. Mostly clear objectives. The leader charging straight at the village caught be by surprise, although in retrospective, I should paid more attention to the instructions.
4. Very interesting story, especially the introduction. I am left wondering how they'll attempt to obtain liberty.
5. No major challenges.
6. Fun: 4. Although there is not much to say at this point.
7. No changes needed.
8. None.
9. I thought the WML was very well commented, I could understand the intention of each block of code with a quick browse.

Scenario 2: Civil Disobedience

1. Peasant (Easy) Difficulty. Version 1.9.2.
2. Difficulty: 3-4.
3. Objectives were clear.
4. The story is interesting and fits well with what has been established so far.
5. No major challenges.
6. Fun: 5.
7. No changes needed.
8. None.
9. Very well commented code.

Scenario 3: A Strategy of Hope

1. Peasant (Easy) Difficulty. Version 1.9.2.
2. Difficulty: 3. Slightly too easy.
3. Very clear objectives.
4. Storyline was clear.
5. No significant challenges.
6. Fun: 4.
7. The system for giving your ally orders, although interesting, needs some improvement; the options for commands given seemed unintuitive, I could not tell whether telling it to defend means that it protects my base or my leader (I expected the former, but my ally seemed to be trying for the latter). Also, the difficulty of this scenario seems to be too easy, I expected more of a challenge at this point.
8. None.
9. Looks good.

Scenario 4: Unlawful Orders

1. Peasant (Easy) Difficulty. Version 1.9.2.
2. Difficulty: 4-5. Still easier than I'd expect at this level.
3. Objectives very clear.
4. The storyline was very interesting and engaging. I did not expect the enemy's sudden transformation into undead, and I'm curious as to who inflicted this "curse" on them.
5. No major challenges.
6. Fun: 6.
7. No changes needed.
8. None.
9. The WML was clear up to the Special event where the enemies changed to undead. There are several blocks of nested "if...else" structures and it became difficult to discern what each block was testing without reading deeply into the code. I would suggest adding comments in-line with each block to clarify this.

Scenario 5: Hide and Seek

1. Peasant (Easy) Difficulty. Version 1.9.2.
2. Difficulty: 6. This difficulty is appropriate.
3. Objectives were clear.
4. Storyline is still very interesting, this scenario added suspense.
5. The largest challenge I found was escaping from the enemy after you they start chasing after you.
6. Fun: 8. I thought this was a unique twist to the gameplay.
7. No changes needed.
8. I almost had to restart after being caught as Harper was going to die but I got lucky and he survived long enough for Baldras to finish off the pursuers.
9. Looks good, the block of comments in the middle clarifies the random guard placement algorithm a lot.

Bugs

The bug tracker seems to be down right now, so I'll report these at a later date.

1. Dialogue typo: During the dialogue after you see Hans, Baldras says "I haven’t run this much in years. If you were to ask me to infiltrate a heavily guarded city relying on nothing but the cover of darkness and my wits, I would say you were crazy.". The first line has a grammatical error; it should be either "haven't ran this much" or "haven't had to run this much".
2. Inconsistent story bug: When you first meet Hans, he introduces himself and tells you to follow him. Later when you complete the campaign, he says that if they hurry they may be able cross the Grey Woods without any trouble. The problem is that if you go to the sign through the eastern side of the map, it is possible to end up missing the introductory dialogue with Hans. This makes his second comment odd when he appears out of nowhere without introducing himself. I would suggest checking for whether the player has seen the previous dialogue when they reach the sign, and if not have Hans run up to the characters and comment on their speed (or perhaps how they even eluded him) and then continue from there.

Scenario 6: The Grey Woods

1. Peasant (Easy) Difficulty. Version 1.9.2.
2. Difficulty: 8. This is one of the tougher scenarios, although not unexpectedly so.
3. Objectives were clear.
4. Storyline was average and did not stand out.
5. The hardest challenge was the battle with the lich at the end. The impassable terrain and mountains slowed down my units and made attacking him harder.
6. Fun: 3. The fight at the end was frustrating and the overall scenario did not spark much excitement.
7. I don't think there is much that can be done without radically altering the scenario. Perhaps consider adding a couple more lines of dialogue or some special events, or even giving the enemy a wider variety of units -- I only fought one wraith, which the enemy had as a starting unit, and a WC from one of my dead units; the rest were all skeletons -- so the fighting does not feel as repetitive.
8. Accidentally got Baldras killed during the end battle because I was attacking too aggressively with him.
9. Code is clear.

Scenario 7: The Hunters

1. Peasant (Easy) Difficulty. Version 1.9.2.
2. Difficulty: 6.
3. The objectives felt slightly ambiguous. Although it did not affect the gameplay itself, it was disconcerting. I was under the impression, from the introductory dialogue, that I would face waves of enemies and that I would have to weaken or slow them down long enough for the defenders in the nearby castle to set up a defence.
4. Storyline is still interesting.
5. No significant challenges.
6. Fun: 6.
7. No changes needed.
8. None.
9. Looks good. I noticed the easter egg for when a unit steps on fire.

Scenario 8: Glory

1. Peasant (Easy) Difficulty. Version 1.9.2.
2. Difficulty: 5.
3. Objectives were very clear.
4. Storyline was excellent, a very fitting end to this campaign.
5. None.
6. Fun: 9.
7. No changes needed.
8. None.
9. Code looks good.

Scenario 9: Epilogue

Bugs

1. Text typo: There seems to be an extraneous question mark on the last line in Relana's letter.

Summary

This campaign appears to be one of the better ones; there is very little that needs to be changed. I found testing it very enjoyable, and I especially liked how the storyline and characters develop. Overall, "Liberty" is an excellent addition to the Wesnoth world. --S.Lee94 01:45, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Update: I've submitted the spelling/gramatical errors and storyline inconsistencies to their respective pages. --S.Lee94 02:36, 3 December 2010 (UTC)