[TOT] TES The Stormcloak Rebellion -Alpha opened

[Dadais]

Why are you trying to maintain two versions of this scenario? I don't see any benefit to doing so, since TOTPP is free.

Truth is, the current scenario plan doesn't reallly need TotPP 18 to run fine, and I began building it for totPP15.
Facing sometimes difficulties with my Cov2ToTpp install, I'm reluctant to abandon one somehow working. personnal bias I guess.
Furthermore, well, I have to admit sticking a little to ToTpp15 allows me not to take time gluing gigas of pictures to dl left an right, and concentrate more on the lua part.

The MAJOR upgrade envisionned howether needs a feature not implemented yet anyway to feel smooth (changing not only terrains.bmp but also cities.bmp and units.bmp in direct via lua to generate day/night alternance, having some changes using lua).
So, my (bad ?) idea was to propose a first working version, which is not yet done, to begin polishing the final one (proposing I hope that major feature), validating or not features, gameplay, balance and events, and add during that time few features allowed by ToTpp18(or more) to prepare the Big future version ?

 

[Dadais]

Played with stormcloak.

Found the jagged crown after 6 turns,
Balgruuf joined the empire.

Now turn 13, repelled imperial pressure near dawnstar, strengthened The Rift and Eastmarch, digging in dwemer ruins.
Falmer gives down one strong resistance, in the mean time saved position in Falkreath and launched an assault in Whiterun !

 

[Dadais]

Just cheated to check globally, Forsworn and Imperials have one fiercefight.

On the bad points, Imperials and Forsworns don't seem to use transporters, thus ignoring the underworld ?

 

[JPetroski]

On the bad points, Imperials and Forsworns don't seem to use transporters, thus ignoring the underworld ?

Unfortunately I have next to no experience with AI behaviors on transporters. I'm not totally certain who would, as most of the folks who enjoy the base game seem to enjoy MGE. The only potential solution I can offer is to check the tile (can you see if it has a transporter?) and if the AI happens to be on it, either force it below, or give it a chance to be forced below, depending on what you think is best.

 

[Dadais]

Unfortunately I have next to no experience with AI behaviors on transporters. I'm not totally certain who would, as most of the folks who enjoy the base game seem to enjoy MGE. The only potential solution I can offer is to check the tile (can you see if it has a transporter?) and if the AI happens to be on it, either force it below, or give it a chance to be forced below, depending on what you think is best.

I'll see. After all, i'm already preventing AI AND human players from locking a transporter's side.

As I took some time out of Lua code, test playing, or helping mme, had some clear though about the current system.

I'd like you to refrein from testing it John, time for me to equilibrate production/policies/othergeneration.

At the moment, I feel too much units are given for free to players, particulary major power, when building them is meeningless considering their cost. On the other hand, building costs should be rethough (some more expansive, other less), and policies' gains shall be bigger.

Seemingly bug-free at the moment, I'll try to upload an update this weekend.

 

[Dadais]

Here are the last files for the Alpha version to dl.

Took advantage of the vast unit review to nerf hunters' stats, add a defensive projectile bonus, and correct the target function (used for that option AND IA) which didn't check for map differences.

Edith: Detached files, now found here.

 

[Dadais]

Ho god. Left an idiot error in Lua.
Thus is the corrected event file.

 

[Dadais]

Found and corrected potential issues with Forsworn victory condition and new camps placements,as well as one strange bug (without consequences) with after-fight projectiles.
Not affecting gameplay, changes will be posted later.
Found an issue with catapult movepoint, setting it to 1 to solve it.

Also found finaly reachmen culture songs from ESO, not as rich as others, yet depicting them, giving them their unique sounds.

I'm wondering about giving chances to main AI getting free "camps" when they lost some, considering how they lack protective sense towards them ?
To be pondered, depends on how you people feel about that.

At the moment, working on the exploration option, defining explorations natures (loot, harvest, encounter), chances and rewards considering terrain and for some choices.

 

[Dadais]

Imperial playthrough, turn 23.

Jagged crown event got triggered on 19th turn only, by imperial.
Balgruuf then joined the imperial.

I guess policies differences and camps number differences play a great part in the slaugther ongoing for the last 5 or 6 turns.

Windhelm is not far.

Nor is Riften.

No Lua bug detected at this point.
Raised the catapult projectile (burning oil) movepoint to 2. That's one true siege engine now.

Having thoughts about nerfing spells and arrows attack values, raising up all projectiles firepower in the mean time.
Feral werewolf defense shall be lowered too.
I'll add concept description in "describe.txt" about "Camps" (giving unit, buildable with tech and automatically placed) and "Commanders" (giving bonus units to ennemies when killed)
Some small cities tend to disapear in hunger. I shall add a little line in Lua code to prevent that.

Once these minor changes are done,
I'll end these first tests and go full on Lua code, getting exploration functionnal, then creating some special events/mysteries based on the rpg quests.

 

[JPetroski]

I'm going to keep holding off until you give the green light.

 

[Dadais]

I'm going to keep holding off until you give the green light.

Light shall be green with these files .

I also granted chances for IA to get back lost camps.

Now building exploration and going for the final first release,
in wait for the second release with the ability to changes city and unit graphics too to introduce night and day gameplay.

Any review is welcome, so it could be polished before release .

 

[Dadais]

Ho, nearly forgot !

Todo by now before final first release :
-'Thalmor' Prisoners processions to catch (or bring policy bonus to Thalmor).
-Thalmor specific policies to help either Stormcloaks or Imperial (if IA, given sometime considering a strengh estimation)
-Companion ambushes on players' silver hands
-Dragonborn specificities and corresponding chances to catch him
-Serana's quest
-Special quests
-Enrich the scenario victory/defeat messages
-Change icebergs and rapids owner from barbs to TheWild

-Exploration

*After review
-Complete unit section in describe.txt with lua build restrictions
-Add Opening message with Objectives of the played tribe.
-Revise Guard Strength&Cost
-Build a ReadMe file

Began working on sail exploration and a nord name list to pick in.

 

[JPetroski]

I've jumped in a bit and played for a few turns as the Imperials - I'm having good fun!

I've noticed that the Forswarn are completely overrunning the west and I'll have to do something about that. Unfortunately most of my forces are in the east, along with General Tullius who led a successful naval invasion of Dawnstar that was backed up by two armies advancing from both sides.

The map is a lot of fun to play on and has such variety. I don't understand everything about the scenario but let's see how things go.

My general plan:

-hold in the west as best I can, build up naval forces to try and sail to (or as close to--I don't know what icebergs are out there) the Stormcloak stronghold at Windhelm as possible. I did clear out Stony Creek Cave to hopefully give my camp nearby a breather and build up forces to advance on Windhelm from the south as well. I don't know if it is the right decision or not, but I want to focus on the Stormcloak's first.

Question: how do I get more battle mages? The description doesn't say how and I've noticed I can't build them in my best cities (I haven't looked everywhere though).

Great fun so far. Well done!

 

[Dadais]

Question: how do I get more battle mages?

You're right, this info (as for guards an talos priests) is missing.

Apprentice and battlemage need someone to learn from, namely the "court mage" improvement .
Guess Blue Palace and Understone Keep shall have one right at the beginning.

 

[JPetroski]

I must say this scenario has a very unique "feel" to it that I think many people would enjoy. The Forsworn uprising is causing me considerable issues (Markarth is completely cut off) but I am going to stick with my strategy of "Ulfric First."

I can see why you went through the trouble of updating the civlopedia for civ advances - I'd be completely lost without it so I'm glad you did the documentation. I'm not certain I totally understand what everything does but I'll let you know if my expectations were different than reality after I research a few.

You've made a fun and intriguing scenario that probably has the same opportunities, to an extent, that OTR and MM did. What i mean by that is, this is, and isn't "civ," so getting folks comfy with what is happening is going to be paramount. Again, it's a little too early to tell about that but I would *highly* suggest a readme. If you want people to have the option of creating and discovering stuff then you don't have to list every last detail and stat but I do think some high level guidance would be helpful. Frankly, however, the discovery and adventure is what made TES so cool and I think you've done a nice job of matching that feel. It'll be a balance but a readme with "hints" or "clues" might work.

 

[Dadais]

I must say this scenario has a very unique "feel" to it that I think many people would enjoy.

That's only the scenario main structure yet !

The Forsworn uprising is causing me considerable issues (Markarth is completely cut off) but I am going to stick with my strategy of "Ulfric First."

Have you manage to keep the strategic Left Hand, or is the hold capital besieged ?

--

Ships exploration is defined, now traducting it in Lua code !

 

[JPetroski]

I see my naval transport might not be the safest way for unique units! Good to know, but the legionnaires are going to have to rough it!

If by left hand you mean Marketh, I still have that. They have taken some cities near it though. I'm at work and can't check but we'll see if it can hold.

Also - it's not totally understandable - is there a reason I would *not* want to build the better hold guard units? For example, are they restricted where they can go in any way, or? They aren't that worse of a price than the legions and I'm trying to figure out if having the extra point in defense (the legion) vs. attack (the guard) is more worthwhile. I do see that my forces are attacked frequently in the field so I've been building legions for the most part (also due to role play) but I wasn't sure if there's something holding me back from building the better attackers or not.

 

[Dadais]

I see my naval transport might not be the safest way for unique units!

Exploration shall stay an active action. No more risk on a carefull transport then

is there a reason I would *not* want to build the better hold guard units? For example, are they restricted where they can go in any way, or? They aren't that worse of a price than the legions and I'm trying to figure out if having the extra point in defense (the legion) vs. attack (the guard) is more worthwhile. I do see that my forces are attacked frequently in the field so I've been building legions for the most part (also due to role play) but I wasn't sure if there's something holding me back from building the better attackers or not.

The guard is supposed to be more polyvalent while his production is restricted to cities with a Guards' Barrack.
On the other side, the Legionnaire may hold the advantage to be upgradable into a captain.

You point something right howether, and Guard Attack/Cost shall be pondered again, considering his comparaison with both legionnaires/iceveins and bowmen/marksmen.

 

[Dadais]

Building exploration, currently developping Thalmor particularities.


In their two main cities, altmer units exploring (which will be most AI behaviour) shall grant them policy progress directly or indirectly*, helping them achieve either classic policies either some reserved policies aimed to help either Imperial either Stormcloak in an attempt to keep the status quo thus claim time victory.

*: Indirectly, they may earn a prisonner unit on the map, which on stormcloak turn shall become barbs -to be attackable by them until victory liberating the prisonner into a stormcloak unit-then be back as Thalmor, with aim to bring it back to a thalmor city for a big policy progress boost. AI may teleport this unit each turn rather than moving it. Guess a domain 3 unit or the "override impassable terrain" option shall be needed to avoid some bottleneck ? Maybe another solution ?

Then, took time before sleeping yesterday to alter few units, two for small graphical corrections, namely ice wolves - heroes, and the prisonner to figure its situation. Here's the teaser for this final release, someday !

 

[JPetroski]

This is the kind of scenario that makes me want to play TES, and that is the kind of game that makes me want to play this scenario.

I'm not sure how far along you are in development - I've been clearing out a lot of dungeons just so that I don't (presumably) have to deal with monsters coming out from them, but I'm not sure if you had many more things planned for them as well. I can give basic feedback about gameplay/feel/balance but I'm not sure I want to go "too" far into the scenario if it still has much to do.

I do think it balances well and I like how I get reinforcements from camps and my enemies do as well, meaning that finding and destroying this is paramount. You get enough units "by event" that you can concentrate on building the ones you really want/need/desire for your particular strategy in your cities (for example, my strategy is to rule the waves and launch an amphibious attack on the rebels, so I am building a lot of ships in/near Solitude.

As I've mentioned, the Forsworn are giving me grief. I feel as though I could push them back if I made that my priority. I don't feel as though I can conquer both them and the rebels at the same time, so I like that balance. This is definitely "fun" and when it is done, I'd love to just give it a shot 1 vs 1 with you if you wanted to test if it could be played PBEM.

Some minor feedback on what is a great game:

-I have at least some idea of what is going on as I'm a fan of the game this is based on. Others may be completely clueless. Techs like trade, or allowing for the diplomacy menu to show, might help alleviate this.
-I have no idea how to get any of the neutral cities over to my side.
-Playing as the imperials, I feel that their color and the barbarian color is too close and hard to differentiate.
-You may want to make the pollution icon invisible within the city.
-There does seem to be some terrain that has the lower purple section with a wrong color as it shows up in some cities.
-I think you'd do well to have a "munition fail message" for units that have less than 1 mp remaining. I've lost a few by not noticing this, and just pressing forward with the attack assuming it would be an arrow.
-I think that (at least for the human player / isHuman) you should have a pop up box for the animals that are killed and the reward that one gets. I didn't even notice that I was making money going after them. If you have an extra slot to give hunters special arrows you might consider only allowing them to collect this fee to give them more reason for being built. As it stands, any unit gets the money. Not sure if you could tell that an arrow was created by the hunter to get away without the extra slot - you're far more advanced at lua than me.

Anyway, brilliant start and as you can see most "issues" I've found are truly minor/easy fixes. This is a well-built scenario already and I can't wait to see it "finished" (if there is such a thing with lua lol).