| The Battle for Wesnoth | |
|---|---|
Title screen (1.8) |
|
| Developer(s) | The Battle for Wesnoth development team |
| Designer(s) | David White and others |
| Engine | custom |
| Platform(s) | Cross-platform |
| Release date(s) | October 2, 2005 (version 1.0) |
| Latest release | 1.8.6[1] / May 13, 2011 |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Media/distribution | Internet download, Desura |
The Battle for Wesnoth, or simply Wesnoth, is a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy setting, designed by David White and first released in June 2003. In Wesnoth, the player attempts to build a powerful army by controlling villages and defeating enemies for experience. White based Wesnoth loosely on the Sega Genesis games Master of Monsters and Warsong. He wanted to create a freely-available, open source strategy game with very simple rules, but one that had strong artificial intelligence and that was challenging and fun.[2]
The Battle for Wesnoth is available under the GPL license in source form and for a variety of computer operating systems.
Contents |
The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based wargame played on a hex map. The strategy of battle involves fighting on favorable terrain, at a favorable time of day, and with enemies weak against the player's units. Other concerns are capturing villages that produce gold for unit recruitment, and positioning units to restrict enemy movement. Games of Wesnoth come both in the form of single-player campaigns and multiplayer matches.
Each unit in Wesnoth has its own strengths and weaknesses. A unit's defense is based on the terrain it stands on; elves, for example, are difficult to hit when fighting in a forest. Different types of attacks (melee and ranged), weapon types (pierce, blade, impact, arcane, cold, and fire), and a day-night cycle that alternately favors lawful and chaotic units, alter the amount of damage a unit deals and receives. Throughout the campaigns, units can advance to higher level counterparts and become more powerful.[3][4]
A central design philosophy of the game is the KISS principle; for a new idea to be accepted, it should not complicate gameplay.[5] Another important facet of the game is randomness and its manipulation: it is never certain a unit's attack will fail or succeed, only likely or unlikely. Developers have stated that the potential for a skirmish to go better or worse than expected adds excitement and strategic depth to the game.[6]
The Battle for Wesnoth takes place in a world populated by Tolkienesque races such as humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and trolls, as well as Wesnoth-specific races such as dragonlike Drakes. Campaign stories span the history and geography of the world, but most focus on the eponymous human kingdom of Wesnoth, which suffers frequent invasions of orcish raiders and the undead.
The name Wesnoth was originally developed by the game's creator as a combination of syllables that he thought would sound good as a name for a fantasy land. When the project became larger and more elaborate, the developers created a fictional etymology for the name: the inhabitants of the land of Wesnoth came from the West and North, giving Westnorth, which eventually evolved to Wesnoth. This etymology is explained in the campaign The Rise of Wesnoth.
The Battle for Wesnoth currently has six default factions to choose from:
The exact units used by the factions, and the faction names, change based on the era or the campaign. The above are the factions of the "Default" era, which is the most played one on the multiplayer servers, and its extension "Age Of Heroes".
There are also a number of user-created factions, several of which are grouped together in downloadable "Eras." For example, the Imperial Era includes the Roman-influenced Lavinians, the Marauders, and the Wild Elves, featuring completely new unit trees and abilities. However, it is quite possible to create factions that can be used in the default eras, though the amount of blessing given by the creators for each may vary.
The stable version of The Battle for Wesnoth comes with 15 campaigns, most of which have three levels of difficulty. More user-authored campaigns can be obtained in the form of add-ons stored on Wesnoth's campaign server. The list below contains the campaigns packaged with version 1.8 of the official game.
The Battle for Wesnoth has a built-in map editor, which supports features such as multiple open maps and random map generation. The editor supports all in-game terrains, as well as custom terrains created for campaigns. The time of day can be selected from one of the built-in presets or custom lighting can be created.[8]
Using any standard text editor, new campaigns can be created using what is known as Wesnoth Markup Language (WML). As its name suggests, WML is similar to HTML and other markup languages in syntax with tags defining events and sides in a scenario. However, WML has evolved from what was a simple markup/configuration language into a specialized programming language designed for easily modifying the game. Examples for the latest stable version are offered on the site's wiki.[9]
From the 1.7 development version upwards, code in Lua can be embedded in WML events which gets executed when those events fire.[10] From 1.7.14 on, Lua can also be used to create alternate (or supplemental) AI implementations.[11]
The game is programmed in C++. It is cross-platform, and runs on AmigaOS 4, BeOS, FreeBSD, Linux (including OS flavors running on GP2X and Nokia n800, n810, and n900 handheld devices), Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, MorphOS,[12] NetBSD, OpenBSD, RISC OS, iPhone OS, Solaris and Android.
Wesnoth development is decentralized due to its free and open-source nature. The officially-blessed campaigns and units bundled with the game download are often derived from content created by the community, somewhat differently from the user-generated content in proprietary games where such content, while available, is usually not incorporated into official builds of the game. The Wesnoth forums and wiki are used to develop new campaigns, including new unit types and story artwork. The game is able to download new campaigns from a central add-on server. Content featured on the official campaign server must be licensed under the GNU GPL, like the game itself.
Even when not counting this community content, the list of contributors to the official version of the game as displayed in-game contains over 550 unique entries (May 2010). Developers of the game also include well known authors from the free software and open source scene, like the co-founder of the Open Source Initiative Eric S. Raymond,[13] or Linux kernel programmer Rusty Russell.[14][15]
As of April 2010 the game is available in about 50 languages, 10 of which have more than 95% of messages translated.[16]
The art development team was founded by Francisco Muñoz, and directed by Richard Kettering with Hogne Håskjold as the director of terrain art. The current set of portraits were designed primarily by Kathrin Polikeit and Jason Lutes.[17] Most artwork is stored in the portable network graphics format and all are licensed under the GNU General Public License.[18]
The musical style of the game's soundtrack is orchestral, with a symphony of strings, brass, winds, percussion, and occasionally ethnic instruments when the game allows for it, covering a variety of genre and periods. Because the themes are based on traditional and medieval styles, the music development department rejects all music with synths, loops, drum kits, electric guitars, or any pop/rock instruments.[19] Because Wesnoth has no budget and relies completely on volunteer composers, its soundtrack is entirely synthesized.[20]
The music development team is currently headed by Mattias Westlund and includes some well-known composers like Doug Kaufman and Timothy Pinkham[21] and the game's soundtrack is licensed as free music under the GNU General Public License and rendered in the Ogg Vorbis format.[22] Because the game is constantly evolving, the current list of soundtracks evolves.[23] Most of these songs have been uploaded by their composers can be downloaded free of charge from music-sharing sites like Jamendo.
| Battle for Wesnoth mainline music | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Music | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Battle Music" | Aleksi Aubry-Carlson | 5:18 | ||||||
| 2. | "Breaking the Chains" | Mattius Westlund | 3:35 | ||||||
| 3. | "Casualties of War" | Tyler Johnson | 3:32 | ||||||
| 4. | "Defeat" | Timothy Pinkham | 0:08 | ||||||
| 5. | "Defeat" | Ryan Reilly | 0:14 | ||||||
| 6. | "Elf Lands" | Aleksi Aubry-Carlson | 0:26 | ||||||
| 7. | "Elvish Theme" | Doug Kaufman | 3:25 | ||||||
| 8. | "Frantic" | Aleksi Aubry-Carlson | 1;24 | ||||||
| 9. | "Heroes' Rite" | Doug Kaufman | 3:39 | ||||||
| 10. | "Into the Shadows" | Tyler Johnson | 3:25 | ||||||
| 11. | "Journey's End" | Mattias Westlund | 3:44 | ||||||
| 12. | "Love Theme" | Ryan Reilly | 1:35 | ||||||
| 13. | "Loyalists" | Joseph G. Toscano | 2:59 | ||||||
| 14. | "Main Theme" | Aleksi Aubry-Carlson | 0:51 | ||||||
| 15. | "Over the Northern Mountains" | Mattius Westlund | 3:33 | ||||||
| 16. | "Northerners" | Aleksi Aubry-Carlson | 5:02 | ||||||
| 17. | "Nunc Dimittis" | Jeremy Nicoll | 3:50 | ||||||
| 18. | "Revelation" | Joseph G. Toscano | 3:50 | ||||||
| 19. | "Sad" | Mattius Westlund | 1:17 | ||||||
| 20. | "Siege of Luarelmor" | Doug Kaufman | 4:22 | ||||||
| 21. | "Still Another Wanderer" | Timothy Pinkham | 4:22 | ||||||
| 22. | "Suspense" | Ryan Reilly | 5:20 | ||||||
| 23. | "The City Falls" | Doug Kaufman | 4:06 | ||||||
| 24. | "The Dangerous Symphony" | Gianmarco Leone | 5:26 | ||||||
| 25. | "The Deep Path" | Gianmarco Leone | 3:37 | ||||||
| 26. | "Transience" | Aleksi Aubry-Carlson | 0:48 | ||||||
| 27. | "Traveling Minstrels" | Mattius Westlund | 3:35 | ||||||
| 28. | "Underground" | Aleksi Aubry-Carlson | 1:52 | ||||||
| 29. | "Vengeful Pursuit" | Jeremy Nicoll | 6:00 | ||||||
| 30. | "Victory" | Timothy Pinkham | 0:05 | ||||||
| 31. | "Victory" | Ryan Reilly | 0:21 | ||||||
| Battle for Wesnoth mainline candidates | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Music | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Theme for Burin the Lost" | NotUncleDave | 0:32 | ||||||
| 2. | "Reminisce" | Jeremy Nicoll | 3:45 | ||||||
| 3. | "(Untitled)" | Doug Kaufman | 1:14 | ||||||
| 4. | "War Song" | hiro hito | 6:27 | ||||||
| 5. | "Battle Cry" | Ancestral | 4:28 | ||||||
The first development release of Wesnoth 0.1 happened on June 18, 2003. In October 2005, the game reached its 1.0 milestone release.[24] On April 1, 2010, version 1.8 was released.[25] Version 1.9 is available, but is still under development, and is still prone to crashing.[26] Various versions of Wesnoth have been downloaded from the central site over five million times.[27]
Reviews for The Battle for Wesnoth have generally been positive. In a 2006 review of version 1.1 of the game, Gametunnel rated it a 7/10, adding that "it may seem like a game that belongs in the nineties, but it is engaging and very well put together".[28]
In a 2007 review of version 1.2.6, Phoronix rated it 9/10, calling it "a must-download game for any gamer".[29]
In 2010, Full Circle Magazine reviewed the game in Podcast #4. The reviewers called Wesnoth a "very good game", calling the graphics "simple" and "easy to understand" but "dated." The reviewers called the gameplay "pure and simple", but complained about the role of chance in the game, making it an "exercise in frustration", and requiring a policy of reloading and replaying the game that turns Wesnoth into a "challenge of patience rather than brainpower."[30]
In 2010, RPGFan gave it an 88/100, mentioning that "Despite its generous price tag, BfW offers more quality and quantity than almost any commercial title available." [31]