Chronic Logic

i'm using a wyvern, with a vampiric relic, and an artificer.

I get fairly frequently a crash that ends the game.

what happens is the game just comes to a halt, and i get the message in the
chat window that the AI has won.  but the main game screen is just frozen,
with no indicator there.

in these cases, the AI has not actually won either.
I am not 100%, but it appears to be when the computer is close to winning,
but the auto-attack on approach of the wyvern has killed the incoming unit.

artificer:  I'd love to see this piece get some sort of enhancement.

Someone else mentioned maybe they could stun at a limited distance.

maybe they could alternatively limit motion? slow down a player (entrap?) so they move one less space per turn for a turn?
casting range of like 4?

perhaps they should also be able to "de-mechanize", turn an inorganic unit back to organic.  (not buildings of course)

and against an inorganic unit, they should have some power to either destroy completely (disassemble power?)
or massively weaken.  within a short range though, maybe two?  so they could take out golems, or siege units, or  any other clockworks.  i would say destroy at range 2 (similar power to a summoner that can capture at range 2, that seems to work well for that piece).  if they could only weaken an inorganic, maybe remove shields, or decrease life?  perhaps range 4 would work well.

another alternative, maybe the artificer could lay mines?  might be an interesting addition.

last alternative. they could almost be like an inorganic priest unit.  (they already act as an inorganic "healer") so why not instead of destroy (disassemble power) they could take control of an enemy inorganic unit?  since its best if this unit only has one action, the take control would have to have some range, perhaps 4.  but it could be limited in how many it could control at once.  i would say one, maybe two units.


wyvern: this is another piece that just doesn't seem to live up to its potential.

i agree with others that have mentioned, egg hatching should be shortened to 2 turns.
but perhaps total egg production should be limited over the course of a game? (maybe 5 eggs per wyvern?)

against the AI, the unlimited attack upon approach is fantastic, but against players, this seems too overpowered.  perhaps this should be limited to neighborhood of 2-4 attacks? (this is, if the egg hatching time were reduced). 

another option is keep the unlimited attack, but perhaps this should be distance of only 1 space.  not sure the rationale that this creature can get you at two spaces away. (again, i would only do this if the egg hatching time is reduced)

if space of counter attack is reduced, i might add one more power to this beastie as a balance.

if power remains the same, i might suggest giving it two attacks, instead of the one.
 
another option with this critter, although this would be a lot more programming work, would be neat if it could build a nest.  so all eggs have to be laid there.  wyvern has to go feed, but once it feeds, it can choose where to build its nest.  nest then would work like a barracks.  but maybe these should be wyverlings?  not able to reproduce themselves, but capable of eating and attacking like the parent.  maybe 2 less life.  production would be two wyverlings per "clutch".  so upon first feeding, and making the nest, it could produce two wyverlings, over the next two turns.  you could then be limited to total of two wyverlings per time.  if one gets killed, you would need to have the main wyvern feed again, and return to nest, to recharge egg production.

i know this sounds like a lot of overhead, but it could be really interesting, and it makes it sort of more like a real bird (or dragon-like thing) might do this.
 

absolutely!!!  start AI with only a few units at low levels, this would help the novice player immensely.  only send units against them which they have in their "bank" would also be good.

i could see giving novice players a little more time, but how to implement this with the new ranking system is not clear to me.  might have to be un-related to rank, and just time since account creation or something like that.

that said, i am very against increasing the time limit.  the beauty of this game is that you have to figure out your moves in limited time.  most of the time, this is not much of a problem (for seasoned players).  increasing the time limit would kill p vs p live games.  people think this game is boring now, imagine having to wait another half a minute for someone to make their moves and it would become dreadfull.  that said, giving players who want to take forever as an option for both would be fine too, but it would have to be mutual. 

to me, the real problem in getting people to get into this game is the lack of a meaningful rewards system.  about the only reward before was obtaining a higher rank.  although i was in support of the new ranking system, now that its been implemented, i feel like the one last reward for this game is now gone, as the new ranking seems nearly meaningless to me with so few players around.  (by the way, the ranks don't even fit on the scroll window anymore, which is annoying to say the least).  when a newb logs on too, the ranking makes no sense at all.  what the heck is 1000?  why is there another number by the name?  there needs to be some up top explanation right there when you log on or something.  not clear to me now how long the rankings last, or what i am even trying to accomplish. 

most new players also want to play solo.  very few want to play against another person at first until they have some solo experience.  so its this solo experience that needs work.  again, it needs a better reward system.  not just gold, but some sort of achievements.  an example would be if relics could only be obtained through certain achievements, not by purchasing them.  or some way to upgrade your units in some other fashion.  or just even obtaining more advanced units.    also, the solo AI needs to be retooled somehow to make that much more interesting.  some sort of scenarios or something like that would make it more meaningful.  something to keep the newb interested.   

i love wesnoth.  turn based. and rpg, all in one. and free.
lots of incentive to keep playing, as you keep units as they power up.

i agree. this is a great idea. and incentive to keep playing.

i think the game lacks incentives.

Gold is ok, but having to win battles to "unlock" characters would work better, i think.
(that's how a lot of other games work, and unlocking features or characters is always a good "hook")

Particularly, solo mode is boring after a fairly short time.  Needs some sort of scenarios or something could help. 

I see a lot of new players come on, play only a few games, and never return.

Relics might be a nice set that have to be "unlocked" via some sort of level achievement.

I think someone else already posted the idea that as you advance against solo, a nice incentive might be to increase your "allowance" for army building (but just for the solo mode, and perhaps even coop).

Otherwise, even now, i feel little incentive to play solo; with the latest upgrades, the AI is damned near impossible to make much progress against.

I am in favor of a new ranking system, although, I am not in favor of resetting the current ranks.

However, there are a lot of players that play extremely rarely.  I would suggest perhaps in the new ranking system, there be some sort of way that rank decays over time.  Perhaps you would need to play at least one game for rank, every 30 days, or else your rank decreases by 1.  This would slowly make room for more lower ranked (higher number rank, i mean) players to advance.  So in a way, this would sort of "reset" the ranks, but slowly.

It would also make it so higher ranked players would not dodge games (not that most do) by just playing invite for no rank, by requiring a certain amount of ranked games to be played.