Battle for Wesnoth News

By Lord-Knightmare

There are more than 450 add-ons available for 1.16 and this summer saw a lot of activity on the add-on server. Here are some of the highlights from what our user community has created.

[h3]Era of Magic[/h3]

An update to one of the most popular unofficial eras was released in late May. Era of Magic 3.8.3 brought us five more units and some exciting new treats, like the Mirrorshield's deflect magic ability. Now's a good time to revisit the Al-Kamija, the Kharos, and all the factions from Era of Magic.

[h3]Ashen Hearts[/h3]

This challenging campaign, which tells the history of the drakes and the secret to their inner fire, is now available for 1.16. Lead Herkarth and his people to the source of a mysterious power effecting the drakes deep in the ancient Heartfang mountains. With custom units, tricky puzzles, and easter eggs, this campaign brings much love to an under-played faction.

[h3]The Great Steppe Era[/h3]

The team behind this growing era delivered a major update (1.4), with innovative new tactics like castle-breaking, unit-pulls and long-range attacks. They have also put together a short campaign, Ogre Crusaders, if you want to cut your teeth on something longer than a single scenario.


[h3]The Unstoppable Legion[/h3]

A true classic, this add-on may be the most well-written horse-back campaign ever and it's now available for 1.16. Command a cavalry force and use your mobility to outflank and defeat an unstoppable legion of cultists, soldiers, and creatures of the night.

[h3]Eastern Europe at War[/h3]

This unique era features more than 200 historical units in more than a dozen factions inspired by 18th century warfare in Europe. A new major version was just released and the maintainers are looking for more contributors.

[h3]Struggle for Freedom[/h3]

Another classic, this elven campaign is back after several years being unmaintained. It has been rebuilt to use units from the War of Legends era, and features dungeon-crawling scenarios and small-squad gameplay.

[h3]How to play an add-on[/h3]

Follow these steps to install an add-on and play it.

1. From the main menu, click Add-ons.
2. Click Connect to join add-ons.wesnoth.org, the official add-on server.
3. Browse or search the list of add-ons.
4. Click on the add-on to read more about it.
5. Click to install the add-on.
6. Click Exit to return to the main menu.

Once your add-on is installed, you can play it like any other game of Wesnoth. Campaign add-ons can be found in the campaigns menu. Multiplayer eras and scenarios are available when you start a multiplayer game.

[h3]Got a fun idea?[/h3]

Every add-on starts with a good idea. Here's how to get started making your own maps, units, scenarios and campaigns.

• Generalized "lower terrain" similar to the mid-level in lava/chasm. Cosmetic and unwalkable versions. (PR #6927)
  

• Updated translations: Arabic, British English, Bulgarian, Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Finnish, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil)
  

• Add the pre_attack event.
  

• Implemented logging to file for Linux and macOS, and enabled it be default for Steam Linux.
  
• Fixed drake flare leadership animation over water (issue #3996)
  
• Fixed animations not clearing properly when zoomed (issues #6589, #6891, #6892)
  
• Fixed inconsistent cropping of unusually-sized item images (issue #6118)
  
• Fixed the `{IS_HERO}` macro to avoid losing the hero ellipse when a unit levels up
  
• Stored credentials are now encrypted with AES rather than RC4. This will result in credentials needing to be re-entered the first time when logging in with this version.
  

• The South Guard
  • S4: Fixed replay OOS on victory event (issue #6832)
    

• Under the Burning Suns
  • S8: Fixed replay OOS on victory event (issue #6267)
    

• World Conquest
  • Fixed Bezoar artifact being bugged and broken.
    

• New `wesnoth.interface.screen_fade` function applies an overlay colour to the game display, fading over the given duration (PR #6864).
  
• New functions have been added to register game events from Lua: `wesnoth.game_events.add`, `wesnoth.game_events.add_menu`, `wesnoth.game_events.add_repeating`, `wesnoth.game_events.add_wml`.
  • Both the action and the filter can now be a native Lua function, if needed.
    
  • All features of the `[event]` tag are available.
    
  • The primary API is `wesnoth.game_event.add` - the others are shortcuts for common use-cases.
    

• `wesnoth.game_events.fire` (renamed from `wesnoth.fire_event`) now supports passing unusual event-specific data such as damage in an attack event or previous owner in a village capture event.
  
• `wesnoth.fire_event_by_id` is renamed to `wesnoth.game_events.fire_by_id`.
  
• `wesnoth.current.event_context` now has an additional `data` attribute that contains the full event data, including the former owner in a village capture event (which was previously never exposed anywhere).
  
• `wesnoth.remove_event_handler` renamed to `wesnoth.game_events.remove` for consistency with other event functions.
  

• Increased minimum required version of SDL to 2.0.10 for non-macOS platforms.
  
• Increased minimum required version of SDL to 2.0.22 and the minimum required OS version to 10.12 for macOS due to needing the fix https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/commit/3bebdaccb7bff8c40438856081d404a7ce3def30.
  

• Large changes have been made to Wesnoth's rendering engine, enabling hardware acceleration for the majority of components and resolving many long-standing issues. Performance should be greatly increased, and CPU and GPU usage greatly decreased in almost all situations. Issues confirmed resolved: #1291, #1350, #1605, #1755, #2059, #2458, #2618, #2865, #3238, #3255, #3421, #3592, #3798, #3937, #4210, #4460, #4877, #5115, #5420, #5494.
  

• Updated translations: Arabic, British English, Czech, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Swedish
  

• Fixed Warden’s and Arbiter’s animations popping on water tiles (issue #6508)
  
• Updated some Loyalist sprites: Sergeant, Lieutenant, Swordsman, Pikeman, Royal Guard, Halberdier
  
• Animations for Nightgaunt
  

• A new interface action `[screen_fade]` provides a smooth screen fade effect which also covers units (issue #6745).
  
• Events now support filter conditions using the Wesnoth Formula Language with a new `filter_formula` key.
  
• It is now possible for variable interpolation in an event name to expand to multiple event names - the name is split on commas both before and after variable interpolation.
  
• The `[fire_event]` tag now supports a `[data]` subtag that can be used to pass any arbitrary information to the event. In particular, it supports passing damage to an attack event and former owner to a village capture event.
  

• Fixed being unable to interact with units when Scroll Lock is active (issue #6759)
  
• Fixed the addon manager UI blanking incorrectly (issue #6787)
  
• Implemented a workaround for bad SDL rectangle drawing in some versions (issue #6799)
  

• Eastern Invasion
  • S07a:
    • Better handling for side 2 (issue #4145)
      
    • Fixed Grug upkeep, added dialogue about ogres joining (issue #4145)
      

• Northern Rebirth
  • S1: Fixed Al'Tar confusing an orc for a slave (issue #6735)
    

• Under the Burning Suns
  • S5: Enforce encounter with the Cloaked Figure (issue #6364)
    

• Updated translations: Arabic, British English, Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Polish, Finnish, French
  

• Fixed Warden’s and Arbiter’s animations popping on water tiles (issue #6508)
  

• Resolved broken layout in some low-resolution configurations (issue #5620, #6544)
  

• Fixed frequent crashes occurring in multiplayer matches (issue #6863).
  
• Fixed path finding visibility bug that sometimes caused OOS errors on maps with tunnels and at least three sides that do not share vision (PR #6744)
  
• Fixed being unable to interact with units when Scroll Lock is active (issue #6759)
  
• Removing the Protect Unit Micro AI no longer causes a Lua error
  
• Fixed chance of being unscathed in damage calculation for some fights in which both units can die (issue #6590)
  
• Fixed visibility bug in ai_helper.get_attackable_enemies() for some complex filters
  
• Fixed bug in Bottleneck Micro AI involving units without moves on terrain with multiple open passages (issue #6599)
  
• Fixed error in Castle Switch CA of the Experimental AI after a leader was killed (issue #6440)
  
• Fixed error in retreat-injured CA when regenerate ability code does not include a value= key
  
• Retreat-injured CA no longer takes villages from allies
  
• Experimental AI no longer uses generic_recruit_engine: fixes a data leakage bug between Experimental AIs of different sides
  
• Experimental AI recruit rushers: include unit types from extra_recruit (issue #4924)
  
• Fix segfault when weapon is removed during attack (issues #4927 and #5914)
  
• Add no-unit error message for unit debug command (issue #6116)
  
• Significantly improve efficiency of move-to-any-enemy CA
  

• Eastern Invasion
  • S1: Fixed campfire not having a sound (issue #5766)
    
  • S07a:
    • Better handling for side 2 (issue #4145)
      
    • Fixed Grug upkeep, added dialogue about ogres joining (issue #4145)
      

• Northern Rebirth
  • S1: Fixed Al'Tar confusing an orc for a slave (issue #6735)
    

• Updated translations: Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Finnish, French, Japanese, Polish
  

• High-DPI font and image rendering is now enabled across the entire UI.
  

• wmllint automatically removes the obsolete lines `{SOUND:SLOW}` and `{SOUND:POISON}`
  
• Fixed path finding visibility bug that sometimes caused OOS errors on maps with tunnels and at least three sides that do not share vision (PR #6744)
  
• Fixed transparency of submerged units when zoomed (issue #3746)
  
• Fixed mouse input mapping problems on MacOS (issue #6715)
  
• Removing the Protect Unit Micro AI no longer causes a Lua error
  
• Fixed chance of being unscathed in damage calculation for some fights in which both units can die (issue #6590)
  
• Fixed visibility bug in ai_helper.get_attackable_enemies() for some complex filters
  
• Fixed bug in Bottleneck Micro AI involving units without moves on terrain with multiple open passages (issue #6599)
  
• Fixed error in Castle Switch CA of the Experimental AI after a leader was killed (issue #6440)