Re: [Wesnoth-dev] Three level units

[Richard Kettering]

On Feb 13, 2005, at 5:56 AM, Hogne Håskjold wrote:
> For me this boils down to a simple question:
>
> Is it more fun to halfway into a campaign reach the level limit of my
> units, or is it more fun to be able to have my units progress through
> the entire campaign?
>
> For me it is obviously the latter.

Though I do not agree that adding more levels is the solution, I do 
heartily agree with this statement.  One of the things this, and other 
proposals for max-level-advancement make for, is a player generating 
his own 'characters' in a campaign.  It helps to accentuate the 
role-playing aspect of wesnoth by making, at significant expense, 
single units more powerful, and capable of odd things others are not - 
effectively, they become special heros unique to your playthrough of 
the campaign.  It makes for a much more personal attachment with a 
unit.

Don't underestimate the power of such attachment - piles of those dang 
tamagochi/"digital pet"-things were sold on nothing other than this 
"feeling".  :smile:

This would not make sense for a short campaign, but for a long one like 
HttT, it does work, and gives the player a personal attachment to the 
game.  It also improves replay value, by allowing a different strategy 
than the usual "orthodox" one.  A mix could also be seen, with many 
level-1 troops being supported by a few very powerful high-level 
troops.


A good deal of this "units reaching the level limit" problem could be 
solved by clever campaign design.  An idea I had for my planned 
campaign was different sets of units that would get switched out - the 
player would essentially switch between several concurrent storylines, 
which would intertwine at times.  I do not know if it is possible for a 
player to control multiple sides at the same time in a campaign - heck, 
I don't know if any of what I just suggested is currently possible.

But I thought I would mention the idea.

Heck, not to mention this, but I think it would also be neat to allow 
campaigns to branch in storyline based on the composition of a player's 
army.  You know, say, if the player has a rather large group of mages, 
perhaps they can decipher some cryptic thing he comes across, or cast a 
powerful spell.  Or perhaps the wild clansmen of the plains will find a 
natural feeling of affinity with your large group of horsemen.  Et 
cetera.

This, if we had max-level-advancement, could be taken to the point of 
actually making _speaking characters_ out of the few "super-troops" a 
player has.  Perhaps if he has special ones, they can change the path 
of the campaign somewhat?  This would add a *great* deal of replay 
value to campaigns.


This is just musing, please don't take this as a forcible jab asking 
for a feature.  I am simply noting some interesting directions it could 
be taken in.


On Feb 13, 2005, at 8:38 AM, Ben Anderman wrote:
> > Adding third level Drakes could prove difficult without Neorice, as 
> > he has a very distinctive graphical style.
> I think it's pretty likely that if requested, Neorice would probably 
> make more drakes (graphics at least.) I can't be sure of course, but I 
> think that's something that he would do.

I'm fairly confident, now, that I could emulate his style with 
acceptable accuracy.  However, this is at the absolute bottom of my 
priority list, because there is this other fellow who can draw drakes 
pretty darned well - Neorice.  I think my time is better spent doing 
other units.

I would be willing to animate any new drakes he made - though I don't 
think I can make them as well as he can, I think I am a better animator 
than he is, at least for wesnoth units.
With a number of the drakes, he seemed to cut corners just to get them 
done.  It is a whole heck of a lot harder to move the whole body of the 
drake to animate most of its moves, but it looks a lot better.

What I would like to see for the drakes:
The clasher line would have a large weapon that could be used for both 
piercing attacks, and blade attacks.  The split to the "gladiator" line 
would trade it in for a large hammer.  Both would reach level-3.

As for the flyer line, I would like to see it get a third level, and 
have marksmanship on all of its (very weak) fire attacks.  Right now it 
is rather useless in combat, being vulnerable to a common attack 
(pierce), and unlike the elven scout, who also has problems, the drake 
cannot hide himself in terrain.  This would also make him good for 
striking at mermen in the sea, or elves in the forest, two groups that 
the drakes currently have problems with.

As for the fighter line, I am not terribly sure.  New graphics would be 
in order, though.  If anything, no branch to the unit would be a 
commendable move.