Shakespeare's Ghost (Version 1.0 on 18.0 server)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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MathBrush
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Shakespeare's Ghost (Version 1.0 on 18.0 server)

Post by MathBrush »

This is the latest entry in my series of campaigns centered around one multiplayer faction.

This one is based on the Undead faction, and is designed to gradually introduce all undead units. It allows the Ancient Lich and Death Knight upgrades, and features fights against all 7 factions.

This one was tough, since unlock some of the other factions I've made campaigns for, there are tons of high-quality undead campaigns like Descent into Darkness and Secrets of the Ancients.

So I didn't try to compete with those campaigns by adding a lot of unusual objectives or items, etc. Instead, this campaign has two unusual features:
-All dialogue is taken from Shakespeare. Occasionally names were changed, or perhaps one word, but otherwise all text is from Shakespeare.
-The first scenario has an Amulet of Possession that allows a ghost to possess another unit. This is to allow the player to, for instance, capture an Elvish Shaman and level it up with the other units. It's optional, for players who want more variety than the standard undead faction.
HoratioGhost.png
Dunefight.png
OrcishDemo.png
This is a beta version. Please let me know if you find any bugs.

Also, please let me know if you find it boring in terms of objective or feel like more text could be added. I considered having levels where:
-Instead of killing the leaders you just have to kill a 'quota' of enemies
-You have to recruit and keep 5 skeletons alive during a scenario
-Reaching a signpost instead of defeating an enemy.

However, when I was testing I had fun with just 'defeat the boss' objectives, so I didn't add the special ones. Let me know if you'd prefer them in!
Last edited by MathBrush on March 4th, 2024, 12:37 am, edited 3 times in total.
Drake Campaign: A Fiery Birth | Knalgan Alliance Campaign: Drunkards, Dwarves, and Doubloons | Dunefolk Campaign: Asheviere's Shadow | Northeners Campaign: Goblin's Glory | Undead Campaign: Shakespeare's Ghost | Rebels Campaign: Santa Must Die
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Lord-Knightmare
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.1 on 16.0 server)

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Replays Part 1
Attachments
SKG-Orcish Rebellion replay 20220110-200714.gz
(29.77 KiB) Downloaded 88 times
SKG-Karma replay 20220110-213956.gz
(42.32 KiB) Downloaded 72 times
SKG-Drunken Dwarf replay 20220110-195054.gz
(27.1 KiB) Downloaded 82 times
SKG-Drake Clash replay 20220110-194144.gz
(25.27 KiB) Downloaded 69 times
SKG-Desert Nights replay 20220110-193214.gz
(29.04 KiB) Downloaded 66 times
SKG-Chill Strength replay 20220110-185903.gz
(18.38 KiB) Downloaded 74 times
Creator of "War of Legends"
Creator of the Isle of Mists survival scenario.
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Lord-Knightmare
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.1 on 16.0 server)

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Replays Part 2 (since i dont have 6+ attachment privileges)
SKG-Valley of Bones replay 20220110-191345.gz
(22.71 KiB) Downloaded 73 times
SKG-The Ghost replay 20220110-185115.gz
(13.57 KiB) Downloaded 67 times
Remarks:
1. Fast campaign (can be done in under 2 hours)
2. Undead faction with a Spectre as leader. Cool.
3. No objective variety at all.
4. Dialogue felt a bit confusing most of the time. So, felt lost. Really lost.
5. Seeing Dunefolk with European names was weird.
4. Has some maps which make undead having a menacing advantage (vs Knalgans and vs Northerners).
6. Final scenario was okay. Could have been better.
7. Second vsLoyalists was not necessary.
8. Overall score: 4.5/10
9. perhaps vary experience_modifier= in the campaign to allow players to get a decent number of veteran units.

Commentary:
Congrats on getting the 5th of the seven done. I guess you're left with Loyalists and Rebels.
Creator of "War of Legends"
Creator of the Isle of Mists survival scenario.
Maintainer of Forward They Cried
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MathBrush
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.1 on 16.0 server)

Post by MathBrush »

Thanks for the feedback! I'll check out the replays later.

I agree with a lot of your thoughts. For me, this was my least successful campaign. I didn't know if changes (like switching up objectives) would improve it, so I think I'll try that out. I might incorporate 'normal text' story segments to make the story make more sense, but maybe not; the whole idea overall is pretty flawed. Thanks for trying it out!
Drake Campaign: A Fiery Birth | Knalgan Alliance Campaign: Drunkards, Dwarves, and Doubloons | Dunefolk Campaign: Asheviere's Shadow | Northeners Campaign: Goblin's Glory | Undead Campaign: Shakespeare's Ghost | Rebels Campaign: Santa Must Die
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.2 on 16.0 server)

Post by MathBrush »

Inspired by Knyghtmare's playthroughs and comments, I've made an update to 2.0 with the following changes:

Scenario 2-Changed to survival objective, with more gold given to enemy (and opportunity for more experience).
Scenario 3-Additional objective: keep at least 5 skeletons alive by the end of the scenario. More gold added to balance shorter previous scenario.
Scenario 4-Enemies buffed significantly. Additional objective added: defeat 12 units. Players can opt out 'early' after defeating 12 units, or continue playing to gain more experience.
Scenario 5-Alternate objective added: reach sign post behind drakes. Drakes get more gold.
Scenario 6-Beams of light added around cave. Cave split in 2, and monsters added to second cave. Additional objective: defeat monster leader for 100 XP, designed to help players get Ancient Lich (or get a different Tier 3 of interest)
Scenario 7-Several 'civilian' goblin villages set up around the map, each with its own goblin patrol. The player loses if more than 3 civilians die. Turn limit extended due to extra difficulty.
Scenario 8-Tunnels added between each enemy base, allowing much faster killing of leaders but also allowing enemy to gang up on you all at once if handled poorly.

Once one more person plays through (I did another playthrough to check it all works), I'll up it to 1.0. Thanks!
Drake Campaign: A Fiery Birth | Knalgan Alliance Campaign: Drunkards, Dwarves, and Doubloons | Dunefolk Campaign: Asheviere's Shadow | Northeners Campaign: Goblin's Glory | Undead Campaign: Shakespeare's Ghost | Rebels Campaign: Santa Must Die
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.2 on 16.0 server)

Post by Atreides »

Hi, I just started this and played scen 1. I liked it. On easy it was actually easy which is a big plus for me. I guess I'll upgrade and play on since scen 1 wasn't altered. Heh.
bubhead
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.2 on 16.0 server)

Post by bubhead »

The "don't kill goblins" scenario is super hard, because they keep attacking my liches and dying. Can you make it so the kill count doesn't work on enemy turns?
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MathBrush
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.2 on 16.0 server)

Post by MathBrush »

I think I can adjust things. What difficulty are you playing on?

The goblins can't move out of their little 'villages', so it should be able to sneak past them in between the villages. I could just delete on whole group in the middle to make it easier, especially if you were playing on a low difficulty setting.
Drake Campaign: A Fiery Birth | Knalgan Alliance Campaign: Drunkards, Dwarves, and Doubloons | Dunefolk Campaign: Asheviere's Shadow | Northeners Campaign: Goblin's Glory | Undead Campaign: Shakespeare's Ghost | Rebels Campaign: Santa Must Die
bubhead
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.2 on 16.0 server)

Post by bubhead »

I'm playing on easy mode. I realized that not all of the level 0 goblins are called village guards, so this scenario isn't actually as hard as I thought it was. I think it's playable.
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Beta version 0.2 on 16.0 server)

Post by Atreides »

bubhead wrote: March 25th, 2022, 9:43 pm I'm playing on easy mode. I realized that not all of the level 0 goblins are called village guards, so this scenario isn't actually as hard as I thought it was. I think it's playable.
Ah it probably just needs a hint in the text then to make sure first time players notice that distinction.
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MathBrush
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Version 1.0 on 16.0 server)

Post by MathBrush »

Thanks for your help; I've added some clarifying text and updated the version to 1.0, a full release.
Drake Campaign: A Fiery Birth | Knalgan Alliance Campaign: Drunkards, Dwarves, and Doubloons | Dunefolk Campaign: Asheviere's Shadow | Northeners Campaign: Goblin's Glory | Undead Campaign: Shakespeare's Ghost | Rebels Campaign: Santa Must Die
WLFobe
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Version 1.0 on 16.0 server)

Post by WLFobe »

What is everyone's favorite type to possess with the amulet that shows up in the second scenario? I used it first on a Horseman in the third, who I later raised to a Grand Knight (because a Paladin would be wrong). But I also thought about grabbing a Mage and raising it to White Mage. But I'd have to be careful to not advance it to Mage of Light, as that would actually hurt most of my units.
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Version 1.0 on 16.0 server)

Post by MathBrush »

Shakespeare's Ghost has now been published to 1.18!

This one was kind of a mess; the campaign image wasn't working, and a lot of stuff was deprecated. Playing the beginning, it was pretty frustrating, but the later part was a lot more fun.

So, I made several changes:
-In scenario 1, you had only ghosts and walking corpses against Loyalists in good terrain. I changed all of the castles to the new 'ruined castle' tile, which looks pretty cool, and I added ghouls as well as a lead up into scenario 2.
-In scenario 2, you had to hunker down and 'tank', but your new units were adepts and bats, which aren't very tanky. That's the main reason I added ghouls to scenario 1, so you could have them here, too.
-In scenario 3, I added more decorations to a fairly bland map.
-In scenario 7, I added farmland and fences to exactly mark off where each little goblin tribe is allowed to wander.

I'm definitely open to changing the Dunefolk names; all the other names are taken from Shakespeare, who of course uses primarily European names, but if there's any appropriate name from that body of work, I'll use it (or something adjacent, like a work in arabic from the 1600s would be a really cool way to get names).

@WLFobe, it's funny that you reopened this thread 2 years later on the one day I actually updated it! I really like your choice. On my first playthrough I think I got a royal guard; this time, since I was testing, I wanted to see if I could get through without using possession. Grand Knight is pretty cool!
Drake Campaign: A Fiery Birth | Knalgan Alliance Campaign: Drunkards, Dwarves, and Doubloons | Dunefolk Campaign: Asheviere's Shadow | Northeners Campaign: Goblin's Glory | Undead Campaign: Shakespeare's Ghost | Rebels Campaign: Santa Must Die
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Version 1.0 on 18.0 server)

Post by WLFobe »

I just looked and I don't see an upgrade. I have S.G. version 1.0.0, my Wesnoth is 1.16.11.
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MathBrush
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Re: Shakespeare's Ghost (Version 1.0 on 18.0 server)

Post by MathBrush »

I’ve only updated on 1.18. I actually reformatted my computer and lost all my _server.pbl files, so I don’t really have access to update the 1.16 ones anymore. I could ask the dev team for access but with 1.18 only two weeks away I’m not sure it’s worth it.
Drake Campaign: A Fiery Birth | Knalgan Alliance Campaign: Drunkards, Dwarves, and Doubloons | Dunefolk Campaign: Asheviere's Shadow | Northeners Campaign: Goblin's Glory | Undead Campaign: Shakespeare's Ghost | Rebels Campaign: Santa Must Die
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