FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is Battle for Wesnoth?

Battle for Wesnoth is a fantasy turn-based strategy game.

What license is the game distributed under?

The project is distributed under the GPL. All contributors retain copyright on the portions of the project that they contribute.

How to get informed about new releases?

Subscribe to new releases at Freshmeat.

A new version is out, but where is the download for [Windows, Mac OS, etc.]?

The downloads are NOT part of the official project. The BFW team only releases the game's source code. Binary executables or applications are always contributed by community volunteers. If not for these volunteers, there would never be any downloads for us to enjoy. The volunteers compile the game and upload it on their own time, and sometimes they cannot do this in a timely fashion (or at all, at times) Although there are usual packagers designated for each operating system, there are times when other members of the community are asked to step in and contribute when the usual people cannot.

Every time a new version is released, the usual volunteers are always notified by the project leaders. Please refrain from making forum posts asking where your download is because it doesn't help anything - the packagers already know, and they will get to it as soon as they can. In the past, the Windows and Mac communities have come together to produce home-grown unofficial builds for the community to use, and the renewed interest in community and learning how to compile is generally a good thing.

Why does Wesnoth not have my favorite feature?

Because we are building this game for ourselves and for our preferences, not for you. If you like the game as we like it - that is good. If you hate the game - that is also fine. So what is the point of asking for ideas? Because the developers are just common people, although we come up with many ideas, our players certainly do as well, and often ones we don't think of ourselves. If a player comes up with an idea we like - we might implement it. Not because you asked for it - we do it because we like the feature. At the moment there will be no features added because of the feature freeze in preparation for the release of v1.0. But after the release, there will be many new things again. You are free to re-use any work in Wesnoth, as long as you follow the rules of the GPL, to build the game that you like. Don't expect us to build that game for you. Building this game is our hobby, not our profession - you did not pay us to make it; rather, we are the ones who have paid for it, in time and labor.

Do you want help making this game? How can I help?

Yes, we want your help. Whether you're a programmer, artist, musician, writer, translator, level designer, playtester, or just have some great suggestions, you're welcome to contribute. How? You can:

• join the Project
• share your point of view at the Forum
• talk with us on IRC
• report bugs you find at ReportingBugs
• update the wiki
• play against us via the Multiplayer menu
• vote for Wesnoth at your favorite gaming web site
• Spread the word!

What are the system requirements?

We are not completely certain, but an x86 running at 600MHz with 128MB RAM should be adequate. Slower machines will have trouble scrolling large maps or processing AI turns with many units. See the forum thread about minimum and recommended system requirements.

I'm bored; how do I speed the game up?

There are several preferences you can change to shorten the time that the AI takes to make its moves. "Accelerated Speed" will make units move and fight faster. "Skip AI Moves" will not show the AI's units moving from hex to hex. Finally, you can turn off all combat animations via the "Show Combat" option on the Advanced tab.

My computer is too slow; how do I speed the game up?

First, turn off the music and sound effects. Turning off the color cursors will make your cursor respond faster. If scrolling the map is slow, run the game in "Full Screen" mode, not in a window. Turn off combat animations via the "Show Combat" option on the Advanced tab. You can try turning off halos and combat results, but this might make gameplay more difficult.

Gameplay and Controls

How do I learn to play?

If you just want to jump right in, start the game and play the tutorial. If you like reading documentation, see WesnothManual, which is also distributed as a PDF file. At any time while playing, you can select help from the menu button (or hit F1). The online help is quite extensive and provides information on terrains, weapons, traits, abilities, units and a good overview of how to play.

My unit leveled up but didn't improve. What happened?

This is called "After Maximum Level Advancement" or AMLA for short. While most level 0, 1, and 2 units can advance, some cannot. However, some level 3 units can advance to level 4, or even 5. You can see whether a unit can advance further by right clicking and selecting "description."

After a unit reaches the highest level it can get, every time it gains 100 experience it gains 3 hitpoints. It does not heal when this happens. This is a minor bonus so that experience gained by maxed out units is not altogether wasted. It is generally better to give experience to lower level units, rather than continue to advanced units that have reached their maximum level.

If the unit in question is the Necrophage, this is not a bug. The Necrophage eats the corpses of the dead, allowing it to periodically completely heal. Leveling into itself is how this is carried out.

I tried to trap an enemy with several weak units, but it still escaped. What happened?

Most units exert a zone of control (or ZOC). IF an enemy moves into one of the six adjacent hexes, the zone of control will prevent it from moving any farther. However some weak units are level 0, meaning they are so weak that they do not have a ZOC. You can still surround an enemy unit entirely with level 0 units to keep it from escaping, but if there is any gap in your ranks, it could escape.

Also, some units have the "skirmish" ability, which allows them to ignore ZOCs.

How can I see where an enemy unit can move next turn?

During you turn you can click on an enemy unit. Wesnoth will highlight all the hexes the unit can move to in the next turn. This is useful when trying to arrange your units to block an enemy's movement.

There's too much luck in this game!

Sooner or later, you will become frustrated when your archmage with four 70% attacks misses all four times. This does not mean that the AI is cheating or the random number generator is futzed. It means you are noticing negative random events more than positive ones. During the development of the game, many mathematicians have done sophisticated statistical analysis of the combat system. Likewise, programmers have examined the random number generator. Wesnoth has been deliberately designed so that the streaks of "bad" and "good" luck are part of the gameplay.

Note that saving your game right before a combat, and restoring and trying again, will often generate the same result. This is expected, because the random number generator is "seeded".

Since Wesnoth is GPLed, it is possible that, after the 1.0 release, a new development team will "fork" the source and produce a version more like Heroes of Might & Magic, with no randomness. Until then, don't charge with your horsemen against rock trolls at night...

The (random unit) is overpowered/underpowered!

The development team has spent years tweaking the units in the game. Each unit has had its gold cost, attack types, combat damage, defensive values, resistances, upgrade paths, and other stats carefully scrutinized and loudly discussed in the forum. However, the game code and the units were being modified right up until the 1.0 release, so some unbalanced units may have slipped through.

If you have evidence to back up your claim, search the forum for past discussions about this unit, and then try posting.

The (random scenario) is too hard/easy!

See above answer about random units.

What do the different difficulty levels do?

(So far all I have noticed is that it seems easier to get gold on Easy. Could someone else please provide a comprehensive answer? --Tap)

Maps, Scenarios and Campaigns

How do I beat scenario _______ ?

If you are stuck on a scenario in a campaign, you'll probably find a walkthrough at MainlineScenarios. Or check out the "Strategies and Tips" forum at http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

Are there any tools to help me create maps and scenarios?

Yes, there is a tool called wesnoth_editor. It is a normal map-editor that should be a good help for creating the plain maps. For creating the scenarios there already is a scenario-editor included in the mac build. But this editor is rather outdated and it exists only for MacOS X. At the moment some community members are working on creating a nice and working scenario editor. You can have a look at the forum post about this tool. You will also find more info at CampGen.

How do I download user campaigns?

Choose "Campaigns" in the main Wesnoth menu. Then scroll down to the bottom and choose "Get More Campaigns...". This connects you to the campaign server. In the campaign server you can view a list of all available campaigns and download them, as well as posting or deleting your own campaigns. If you are behind a firewall you may not be able to connect the the campaign server; in this case try contacting the author of the campaign via the forums to see if there is another way you can get the campaign.

I already created a campaign and published it on the campaign server. How can I get translations for the campaign?

Just have a look at WesCamp. This project is the easiest way to get translations for your campaign. All the info you need you can find at WesCamp.

How do I place an object or unit on my map with the map editor?

You can't. You need to make a multiplayer scenario file. There are more details on the maps page.

Multiplayer

How to find players for multiplayer game?

Hang around for a while on multiplayer servers and you might find someone to play with. If you observe other people playing you will get informed when someone joins the servers. Maybe you find someone willing to play in the irc channel dedicated to mp: #wesnoth-mp at irc.freenode.net. You can also join #wesnoth at irc.freenode.net.