Imperial Dynasty

So, its been over two years since I have last updated this blog and still I haven't changed much in my situation. I have, however, changed my objectives for a faction and begun to develop one which I affectionately call 'Imperial Dynasty.' Its vaguely Asian-focused, with more details in the Wesnoth forum itself here, http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=25783

I can assure you that I don't have any goals now to do the artwork for it - I know what I can and can't do. Art will be one of those things that will remain in the can't zone for a bit longer. I plan to either beg for art, or more likely, given my tastes and attitude, hire an artist.

What I can do, however, is to develop a compelling storyline and compelling dialogue. It does seem that after all my doubts and concerns, I am more of a writer than not of one in spite of my consistent fears of my own ability. Practice does lead to perfection, as they say, but there is another aspect which that quote forgets:

Practice leads to tolerance and patience.

One thing which I wanted to do for the Imperial campaign would be that a number of the scenarios should be procedurally generated from a random list. For example, an invasion into a province would require two random battle types followed by one storyline battle. For example, it would pick from the CONQUEST list:

Conquest Battle Scenarios

Take and Hold - The player must capture and hold X villages on the map from the enemy for over X number of turns. This is complicated by events that may cause villages to rebel randomly if an unit is not stationed nearby.

Decapitate - A standard Wesnoth game. Kill the enemy general, although this is complicated by the fact that the player recruiting is typically limited.

Siege/Raze - The player must destroy X targets by stationing an unit in it for more than one turn. Stationing units in catapults will destroy castle walls - victory is achieved by the destruction of all objectives.

Establish - The player must move certain special units to an apropriate coordinate and protect them from enemy attacks. Each time a special unit(like an engineer) is moved to the coordinate, it is consumed and a piece of a castle is created. Once enough castle pieces are made, the scenario ends in victory. The player loses if too many engineers are killed in transit, or if the turn limit is exceeded.

Additional special scenarios are available if the player's general has enough skill in either POWER, SPEED or SUBTLETY for Conquest. If the player's POWER dice roll greatly exceeds his opponent's, then the scenario isn't even played - it becomes an automatic victory as the enemy troops flee in terror. If the player's SPEED dice roll greatly exceeds his opponent's, then he can opt to play the Blitz scenario, where he can win simply by capturing X villages within a certain timeframe. If the player's SUBTLETY dice roll greatly exceeds his opponent's, then he can play the Divide and Conquer scenario, where the enemy is already engaged with a secondary foe.

I do realize that this could /greatly/ increase my workload and time needed for the campaign, even if it is possible. But ambition is rarely a bad thing and certainly I feel that these are good ideas well worth preserving if nothing else.