SotA S2 Dark Business: Add additional note about villages and guardhouse

[max-torch]

Text Issues: Typos, grammar mistakes, suggested improvements

• English
• Secrets of the Ancients S2 Dark Business

First Issue

When the Guardhouse is in the player's possession the ability to recruit skeletons is granted. And this ability is lost if the guardhouse is recaptured by the enemy. The exact details of this may not be obvious. For example, I thought you needed to have any of your units actually occupying the guardhouse to gain the ability - I didn't know the condition was that it merely had to be in your possession.

Existing text

This is the instruction we get about this:
message= _ "I would do better if I had weapons, and I bet I can find some in the guardhouse. Go take it, my companions."
and
message= _ "You can now recruit skeletons and skeleton archers!"

Proposal

Let's make it clear that you gain the ability when the guardhouse is in your possession. Add more notes to the Objectives (new note highlighted bold):
[note]
description= _ "Right-click on a grave adjacent to your leader to raise a unit."
[/note]
[note]
description= _ "Each grave can be used only once."
[/note]
[note]
description= _ "This scenario takes place entirely at night."
[/note]
[note]
description= _ "You will gain an advantage if the village labeled 'Guardhouse' is in your possession."
[/note]

Second Issue

You are given the option to recruit or recall a bat, for 20 gold. It's not clear why if you don't realize there are villages outside of the graveyard. If you like, you can make this dialog only appear on easy and normal difficulty.

Existing text

        speaker=Ardonna
        message= _ "Hey, come back! I didn’t mean to frighten you."
    [/message]
    [message]
        speaker=Ardonna
        message= _ "Maybe I could attract it if I jingled some coins."

Proposal

        speaker=Ardonna
        message= _ "Hey, come back! I didn’t mean to frighten you."
    [/message]
    [message]
        speaker=Ardonna
        message= _ "Maybe I could attract it if I jingled some coins. (There are villages outside of the graveyard)."

Reference Image

[cooljeanius]

I don't think "(There are villages outside of the graveyard)" necessarily makes sense for Ardonna to say; I think that would make more sense as a narrator message, or a hint in the objectives
(I didn't notice them either, tbh)

[max-torch]

I don't think "(There are villages outside of the graveyard)" necessarily makes sense for Ardonna to say; I think that would make more sense as a narrator message, or a hint in the objectives
(I didn't notice them either, tbh)

I put it in parentheses to try to indicate that it was some kind of meta-text. You're right it could be better as a separate narrator message perhaps.

[Wedge009]

Definitely a narrator hint.

[max-torch]

I'm requesting clarification of the design intent here. Do we want all players to know about the villages or are they easter eggs hidden in plain sight? It doesn't seriously affect balance as far as I know.

The inclusion of the bat (if you have an existing bat it's even a recalled bat), and the fact that there is no shroud or fog in the scenario does make me suspect all players are meant to use the bat to get the villages since the bat can't really survive in combat here.

However, the villages in the south west which are not really occupiable since they are only halfway in and halfway out of the map can make one think all the villages are just design elements.

[stevecotton]

I think recalling the bat just to take the villages would disadvantage the player - they pay 20 gold now, and have +6 income around 5 turns later, on a map where the player's recruits are all level 0 until they take the guardhouse. For this reason, I'm against adding a hint recommending it.

[cooljeanius]

I think recalling the bat just to take the villages would disadvantage the player - they pay 20 gold now, and have +6 income around 5 turns later, on a map where the player's recruits are all level 0 until they take the guardhouse. For this reason, I'm against adding a hint recommending it.

The wording @max-torch suggested didn't actually explicitly recommend capturing them, all it did was note that the villages are there. Also recalling the bat wouldn't be just to take the villages; the player could still bring it back into the graveyard after it's done capturing them.

[max-torch]

Merely hinting the villages are there comes very close to saying, and could even already imply, that they should be captured.

[max-torch]

I'm now leaning towards not mentioning the villages because it does not seriously affect balance even if completely ignored on the hardest difficulty. And because it would be confusing to draw attention to them while some "decorative" uncapturable villages exist also.