My very first campaign "Stormtrooper"

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Szturmowiec
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My very first campaign "Stormtrooper"

Post by Szturmowiec »

Hello everyone,

I'm new on this forum, so please don't beat me too much if I do something wrong. ;)
Recently I've started to work on my own campaign and created one scenario. The first thing is, I'm not 100% sure about where to post it to see if you like it. Can I just simply create a new topic here and upload the folder or do I have to go somewhere else? The second part of my doubts is connected with legal aspects of my work. The thing is, I used, apart from main units, music and terrains, the Deorian unit from the Southern Guard campaign with all it's graphics and upgrades (I've only modified the stats a bit and of course he isn't named Deorian anymore), and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this, or do I have to ask for someone's permission? If so, who I have to ask and how? Besides that, I created it based on the add-on A Simple Campaign - the remnants of its original code can still be found in my cfg files, just in case I'd like to use them/learn something from them, so the question about usage permission also applies to this add-on. This may seem as if I'm asking stupid questions, but I'm not good at understanding law and I prefer to be safe than sorry.

Thanks in advance for all your replies.
Have a nice day.
Last edited by Szturmowiec on June 7th, 2017, 12:14 am, edited 2 times in total.
That was the hell of a firefight. And the ammunition depleted so fast... I'm pinned down by those damned machine guns and don't know what to do next.
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Bitron
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Bitron »

Welcome to the forum, Szturmowiec!

Yes, you can use mainline sprites and music in your campaign since everything is licensed under GPL. You can read more about here.
Szturmowiec wrote:The first thing is, I'm not 100% sure about where to post it to see if you like it.
Usually addons go into the addons server. You can find it ingame, look for "Add-ons" in the main menu. You should be able to upload you addon there.
Before you do that, you should have a look into the ruleset for umc addons.

If you have any further questions feel free to ask. (:
Otherwise, good luck with your campaign and have fun!
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Szturmowiec
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Szturmowiec »

Thank you very much for your explanation, but I'm still not sure about uploading. While I may as well upload it to the server, I'm not sure if it is worth it since it's only one small scenario and due to incoming exams I won't have much time to work on it for the next few weeks, but I really want to know if my effort is worth anything to others and wheter I should proceed or rather learn more about designing good quality content.
That was the hell of a firefight. And the ammunition depleted so fast... I'm pinned down by those damned machine guns and don't know what to do next.
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skeptical_troll
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by skeptical_troll »

I guess it depends what do you expect people to do. If you just want that somebody looks at your wml and give some comments on your code and events or whatever is there, you can just attach the .cfg file here. If, as I imagine, you'd like people to play it, it is much better to upload it on the server (it's not much work actually) if you want to have any chance to get feedback.
EDIT: anyway, to answer your question, you can still attach here a zip file with the folder of your add-on (which should include the main file, images etc.) and maybe somebody will download and test it. Up to you.
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Szturmowiec
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Szturmowiec »

Ok, so I'm ready to upload it to the server (I created the required pbl file, also set this topic as the topic where the feedback should go), however, when I connect to the server from the game I simply cannot find an option to publish it... Please help :cry:
That was the hell of a firefight. And the ammunition depleted so fast... I'm pinned down by those damned machine guns and don't know what to do next.
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Bitron
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Bitron »

Szturmowiec wrote:I really want to know if my effort is worth anything to others and wheter I should proceed or rather learn more about designing good quality content.
I think the best way to learn that is actually making content. (:
As skeptical_troll said, if it's about code, you can attach the .cfg file or write the code in the [code][/code] blocks, if it's not too much. There are enough people who get a picture of where you are going by reading the wml code. Otherwise, dont be afraid to upload it to the server so others can play it. You will get good feedback here and you always have the chance to improve your addons.
Szturmowiec wrote:Ok, so I'm ready to upload it to the server...
Just scroll all the way down in the addons list. There should be something like "publish <your-addons-name-here>" in a green font color.
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skeptical_troll
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by skeptical_troll »

In the list of addons you should find in green "Publish: 'name of your addon here' "
you can do a search with the filter or play around with the sorting options (like by version or number of downloads) and it should come up at the top. If it's not there, then there's probably something wrong with your pbl file
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Szturmowiec
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Szturmowiec »

Oh, I misspelled the name of the file, now it works...

Ok, so here we go! It's uploaded now, you can test it if you want. It's called "Stormtrooper".Enjoy! ^_^
That was the hell of a firefight. And the ammunition depleted so fast... I'm pinned down by those damned machine guns and don't know what to do next.
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Bitron
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Bitron »

I died. Two times. On the easiest difficulty. It was not a lie what was written there in the choose-your-difficulty box! (how is that thing called anyways?)
It is a very good attempt. I am pretty sure the people who like challenges will love it. I'm curious about the second scenario... even though I'm not quite sure I will reach it. ^^
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Szturmowiec
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Szturmowiec »

Glad you liked it. And don't worry, after five attempts I broke the enemy lines on "almost impossible" difficulty... :mrgreen: :twisted:
P.S I will try to make the second one till the end of the week, but I don't promise anything.
That was the hell of a firefight. And the ammunition depleted so fast... I'm pinned down by those damned machine guns and don't know what to do next.
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skeptical_troll
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by skeptical_troll »

It's not bad as a start, and the beginning of the story sounds interesting, but I think you've made the first scenario too difficult.

I tried a couple of time on the easiest difficulty and I don't see how to beat it without a good amount of luck (i.e. leveling quickly an intelligent ruffian for example). Level zero cannot hold ground anywhere and you start with less gold than the enemy, the map is too narrow to try to outran them and even the leader can be easily killed by a couple of units at day. It could be that I'm not finding the right strategy (I don't claim to be a great player) but I'd just note that if even the campaign creator needs five attempts to beat the first scenario at the easiest level then a lot of players may just feel frustrated and discouraged and might abandon it. Especially at the hardest level, I see that there is less gold for both you and the enemy. This will make the scenario even more luck-dependent, which is something you want to avoid. You can create some choke points around the bridge, or give more space for maneuver to add some tactical keys.

other quick comments:
The objectives are usually more precise than that: 'Break through the checkpoint' seems to suggest that you need to move the leader beyond the enemies, while you actually have to kill the enemy leader. Same for the defeat condition, although here is kind of obvious.
There is no need to specify

Code: Select all

image=portraits/deoran.png
in every [message] tag. Set the image as the profile and it will appear automatically, unless you specify something different.

good luck with the continuation of the campaign! :)
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Szturmowiec
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Szturmowiec »

Oh, I see your point. About the conditions, I will change that, but firstly i thought that "kill the enemy leader" sounds too simple and wanted something different. As for map, it is supposed to be narrow, the only alternative is the wooden bridge and it was my intention to create a battle where you have to make a straightforward charge (remember, this is not a fictional scenario, it's just encrypted with the metaphor and in real life it was a starightforward charge, trust me...). As for gold, I've already planned to change that, since naming difficulty levels "impossible" doesn't mean I want nobody to be able to beat it, after all. Besides that, I may add about 1-3 level one units depending on the difficulty level, but this concept may change... Howerver, as for now, I'd rather not change the map at all.

P.S.You're right about ruffians... On the fifth attempt my ruffian with 1 hp survived two attacks and advanced... As for the startegy, the only reasonable way for me is to avoid the central cobblestone road and stick to the forsets and hills on the sides. I won using this and by advancing rather slowly (it was a really defensive assault).
That was the hell of a firefight. And the ammunition depleted so fast... I'm pinned down by those damned machine guns and don't know what to do next.
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Bitron
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Bitron »

Szturmowiec wrote:I will change that, but firstly i thought that "kill the enemy leader" sounds too simple and wanted something different.
Sometimes, beeing simple is just the right thing to do. There are some things everyone does and I know the feeling that I want to do it another way just for differing it from the usual tongue. But note that there probably is a reason why everyone use this. <Defeat the enemy leader> simple, plain, everyone knows what to do. And it doesn't sound too bad.

As for the balancing issues, you can try giving one or two loyal Level 1 units to the players side. It would help him deal some damage/protect the zeros and it is new wml for you.
The ReferenceWML will be very helpful, promise. ;)
Also, there are a bunch of macros you can use to achieve what you want. It was very helpful when I started and it still is.
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Szturmowiec
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Szturmowiec »

OH WAIT!
I forgot to say something which may be important! Well, it all started with my frustration with RNG (as for most of the new players...). But I didn't want to simply complain, I wanted do something about it and since it's open source who would forbid me? So what did I do? I simply doubled the number of attacks for every single unit (and of course halved the damage). It didn't break the game balance for me (the interactions between diffrent units standing on a diffrent terrain were still very similar), what it did was simply reduce the randomness so I could enjoy singleplayer battles more (about the multiplaer, I'm not interested yet). And also I was testing this battle with such a setting... I can, of course, test it with the default settings, but actually I may as well use my edited units for this campaign rather than the original ones, that would definitely reduce luck dependance. Please let me know which path should I follow. :roll:
That was the hell of a firefight. And the ammunition depleted so fast... I'm pinned down by those damned machine guns and don't know what to do next.
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Re: Where to place my scenario and some legal questions

Post by Ravana »

You may use [modify_unit] to apply the strike/damage changes to all units in that scenario.

Defining new unit types would also work, but would require much more work from you.
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