Posted by licker on 2014-03-24 22:43:53

You so should have Rick Rolled us, really...

Posted by Cavetroll on 2014-03-24 23:06:39

Looks interesting. Will have to read more.

Posted by happygrue on 2014-03-24 23:19:40

It's a great game! And free!

Posted by the_Sage on 2014-03-25 00:06:29

Meh. Generic hex turn-based game. Didn't really do much for me.

Posted by happygrue on 2014-03-25 01:50:59

Generic strikes me as an odd word choice. I'm biased, but I don't think it's generic at all. It's got strong singleplayer and multiplayer communities and tons of user made content. Here are the the units that come standard with the game: http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/mainline/en_US/mainline.html And you can easily make your own units and eras or scenarios (and many people do, even some BB inspired spinoffs have existed over the years). If you mean the look of it is somewhat generic, then maybe you have some point - but there's quite a lot there if you dig a little. Did you give it much of a try, Sage?

Posted by harvestmouse on 2014-03-25 02:21:04

Looks interesting, what's the max amount of units on one side? Looking at the size of the sprites, you could easily use gameboy sprites for it.

Generic's fine, if you enjoy it.

Posted by Luohghcra on 2014-03-25 03:13:58

I've been playing this for years and just recently loaded it onto my tablet.
I don't think it's terribly generic - there are a lot of different scenarios and as happygrue notes there is scope for scenarios that are not specifically 'fantasy'.
harvest - I think I see where you're going with that and I like it. Let me know if you do something with the idea, I'd be super interested!

Posted by MattDakka on 2014-03-25 05:21:20

I've been playing Wesnoth for some years, and, while it's a great game, it has big flaws as well in my opinion:
1) No true ranged units (both melee and ranged attacks can only affect the adjacent hex, not further). While some claim it's a feature to balance things, this lack of true ranged attack may turn the games into a camping fest, with players trying to get the best spots and waiting for their opponents to attack them in an unfavourable position. Even when the game is not a camping fest, the lack of true ranged limits your tactical options a lot, especially in small maps.
2) Lack of variety: only 6 default factions, with a quite limited choice of troops. True, there are player-made additional factions (you can easily download them from the add-ons server) but they are very unbalanced, some to the point of being broken. So long as you play a human players vs AI survival you're fine, but when you try to play multiplayer the unbalance will spoil your games.
3) Excessive influence of the terrain on the outcome of the fights: in Wesnoth each hex represents a kind of terrain, and some units can have up to 70% evasion chance on a terrain, this leads to the approach "find the best spot and stick to it", some races are very affected by the terrains, and the tactics, after you play for a while on the multiplayer maps, get old quickly (move the mermaid unit into the water village, move the troll to the mountain, and so on).
4) Leavers: leaving a multiplayer game has no consequences at all, so in most of cases multiplayer games won't end by playing them, but because your opponents/allies quit for some reason (rage, bad moves, bad luck, or simply they got bored).
These are just some flaws, but I don't want to bash Wesnoth, try it and judge it by yourself.

Posted by happygrue on 2014-03-25 15:21:24

Well, we could quibble but why bother. Now that it's flaws have been laid bare you might want to give this generic game a miss. After all, flawed games are for chumps! ;)

(I jest! It's free and worth a try at the very least!)

Posted by MattDakka on 2014-03-25 16:25:06

It for sure worth a try, not a bad game, but it could be way better with some tweaks.