Wesnoth 1.9 Brings Awesome New Features

There is no question Battle for Wesnoth is the most played turn-based strategy game on the Linux platform, being probably the most polished, full-featured and addictive game in its category. In this article I will talk about development release 1.9, plans for the upcoming 2.0 release and the brand new features offered at the time of writing. For users who will want to try this game for the first time, keep in mind that the version reviewed here is a development version, that means it will be buggy and incomplete, with a lot of features stripped down or not working. Try the stable, 1.8.4 version instead.

Wesnoth 1.9.1 development release - main window

Battle for Wesnoth gained a great deal of popularity due to many factors: it has great single player and multiplayer support (including campaigns, skirmish games vs AI for SP and online or hot seat modes for multi player), great 2D unit graphics and portraits, a gamestyle which borrows a lot of good concepts from other games, but also brings in new ideas, powerful community which contributes greatly to improving and writing various add-ons. There are also countless other features Wesnoth provides: background music licensed under a free license, support for many languages, possibility to create new maps, units, game modes, eras, terrains etc using WML (the Wesnoth Markup Language - which, by the way, is pretty easy to use and learn), configurable hotkeys, and it can be run in fullscreen or windowed mode.

In the past I have reviewed Wesnoth 1.6, and in the mean time a new stable version was released, 1.8, which also brought new campaigns and many other improvements, especially at the lobby, general game speed and unit portraits.

However, the release I'm going to talk about is development release 1.9.1, which was uploaded to SourceForge just a few days ago. 1.9 sounds very promising, especially since it will turn into Wesnoth 2.0 once it gets full-featured and stable.

Notice the new terrain changes

Currently, only a few new features are visible, like the selection hexagon which looks very neat now compared to the one in previous versions, which used a terrain-highlight style. Also, the graphical cursor is now enabled by default.


Another nice change can be observed in the several new terrains, which are more polished and blend better one in another.

The networking code has been completely rewritten, which is finally great news, because there were always connection issues in the past versions, especially with client disconnects.

Also, a new campaign is available, called 'Dead Water' and including 13 merfolk intermediate scenarios.

Dead Water campaign

Another thing about campaigns: the story at the beginning of each campaign includes now Back and Forward buttons, alongside the classic Skip button. This is surely useful if you missed some part and want to read it again.

Back and forward buttons

I'm going to talk a little about a new, very useful feature: the planning mode. Codenamed 'Whiteboard', the planning mode was developed as a GSoC 2010 project and allows you to test visually possible moves, including recruiting, attacking and recalling and check the best enemy moves for the new layout. This let's you see 'what would happen if I'd do this'. To enable the planning mode, use Shift+P or go to Actions and tick the Toggle planning mode option. To execute the planning mode, press X, to delete it, press H, and to reorder actions use PG_UP/PG_DOWN.

Considering it is still in a testing phase and there is more to add until released, I won't talk about bugs or other technical problems found. However, I'll mention here just one drawback: Wesnoth 1.9 is very slow at the moment, but hopefully this will get improved with time.


What can I say in the end? I'm a dedicated Wesnoth user and I can't wait until this turns out into a brand new and stable 2.0 release.

3 Wonderful Open-Source Games to Install After Installing Ubuntu

Battle for Wesnoth
Battle for Wesnoth is one of the most popular turn-based strategy games for Linux, if not the most popular. Completely free and open-source, it provides both singleplayer campaigns, as well as online multiplayer, hotseat or LAN support. The game takes place over various maps composed from hexes, and in each hex a unit at a time can be deployed. The player has to take advantage of various terrain types (which increase or decrease defence), use wisely the types of attack and abilities each unit has. Wesnoth currently comes with 6 factions (Loyalists, Rebels, Knalgan Alliance, Undead, Northerners and Drakes), but the add-on server has a whole bunch of custom eras and new factions.

Wesnoth 1.6.5

Scripting is handled in Wesnoth by WML, the Wesnoth Markup Language, which allows for building entire scenarios and campaigns.

Wesnoth is in a continuous change, with every new release bringing more features and gameplay innovation. The current stable release is 1.6.5, but soon 1.8 will be out, and it will include new unit portraits, WML (Wesnoth Markup Language) improvements, updated campaigns and more. 1.8 will also allow the user to directly upload user-made campaigns and scenario from in-game add-ons menu.

Dark Forecast, one of the most popular survival maps

To install Wesnoth in Ubuntu, type in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install wesnoth

SuperTux
SuperTux is a 2D jump and run Mario clone, with the difference that it uses its own maps, enemies, and the main character is... you guessed, Tux, the story taking place in Antarctica. It is licensed under the GPL and it is free of charge. SuperTux has very nice graphics, especially since it has support for software and OpenGL rendering, 26 levels and 9 types of enemies.


Except for the official website, there is also a fansite for SuperTux, with screenshots, user-made maps and a forum.

SuperTux 0.3.1

To Install SuperTux in Ubuntu, type in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install supertux

World of Padman
When it comes to Linux shooter games, there isn't only one choice. Games like Nexuiz, OpenArena or Sauerbraten were a good fit here too, but I decided upon World of Padman.

Based on the Quake 3 engine, World of Padman is a fun, cartoon-style first-person shooter with maps, weapons and characters inspired from the Padman series. It features nice, colourful graphics, popular modes like FFA, TDM or CTF, and weapons which will definitely make you laugh the first time you'll see them.

World of Padman

Although it is not included in the repositories, WoP can be easily installed like this:

- download the Linux installer and Linux patch installer from here
- make them executables:

chmod 755 padman.run
chmod 755 wop_patch_1_2.run

- and install both of them, padman.run (or worldofpadman.run, depending on the name of the file) first, and then wop_patch_1_2.run:

./padman.run
./wop_patch_1_2.run

Updated: Jan 2, 2010

Wesnoth 1.6.4 Released

Battle for Wesnoth is a fantasy turn-based strategy game for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. The current stable version is 1.6 (reviewed here), which received the latest update on July 6.

This is another bug fix release for the 1.6 stable series. According to the changelog, one of the major bug fixed was a network problem. Some other fixes or changes include updated translations and a team labels bug fix.

You can download Battle for Wesnoth from the official website and follow the instructions from here to compile and install it in Debian and Ubuntu.

Review: Battle for Wesnoth 1.6

After more than a year of constant development, The Battle for Wesnoth 1.6 was put out on March 22. This release comes with new graphics and unit portraits, a new campaign, called 'Legend of Wesmere', the possibility to log into the multiplayer with the forum account, and many, many other improvements.

Battle for Wesnoth 1.6 - main menu

For those who don't know, Battle for Wesnoth is a wonderful, completely free (licensed under the GPL) turn-based strategy game, with a huge community, developed continuously and at a fast rate.

Before proceeding with the review of 1.6, I'd like to point out that the 1.4.x series (the now old stable release) was also a very good and polished release, so what more can Wesnoth provide with this release?

First of all, one of the features which was always subject of debate on the forums was now implemented: the ability to own a nickname in the multiplayer game. You can now join the multiplayer lobby using your own username and password from the Wesnoth forums, so you won't have problems with someone else 'stealing' your nickname or identifying friends. This feature was awaited for a long time and now it's available.

Regarding the game interface, it didn't change much. The main menu has a background which resembles the one in 1.4, which looks very good anyway.

Major changes were done at the graphics, unit portraits, terrain, and the way in-game messages are displayed. Although there are still default faction units which don't have a portrait, most of them have refined portraits which now look awesome compared to the older ones used in 1.4.x. There are also new graphics for terrain like forest and villages, but all in all the way the terrain looks did not change much.

Playing vs. AI on Isar's Cross - notice the changes in the map

Most of the maps were re-done, for example the popular Isar's Cross is now larger and Fallenstar Lake (former Meteor Lake in versions pre-1.4) will need a different approach to play it in the middle of the map.

Comparing Fallenstar Lake in 1.4 vs 1.6

Regarding campaigns, 1.6 includes no less than 14 official ones, and most of them were available before only as add-ons. Also, the new campaign 'Legend of Wesmere' tells the story of Kalenz, an Elvish hero probably best known from the campaign Heir to the Throne. In one scenario, this campaign allows the AI to control one of your allied sides too.

The new Legend of Wesmere campaign

The WML (Wesnoth Markup Language) also received many improvements and the map editor can be started now from within the game's main menu. The background music hasn't changed much but that's OK since 1.4 had pretty appealing music. However, there are five new original background tracks.

Like all the default features are not enough, there are plenty of add-ons available, which definitely turn Wesnoth into an even more appealing TBS game.

This is how the new in-game dialogues look like now

All in all, this release is one step ahead for Wesnoth regarding both graphics and gameplay, and although in my opinion the difference from 1.4 to 1.6 does not seem to be as big as the changes from 1.2 to 1.4, it is definitely a good and long-awaited improvement.

Update: Here is a video of Wesnoth 1.6 on the Colosseum map:

How-To: Compile and Install Wesnoth 1.6 from Source in Debian Lenny and Ubuntu 8.10

The Battle for Wesnoth is a free turn-based strategy game licensed under the GPL. After over one year of constant development, a new stable version, 1.6, was released on March 22, 2009, featuring many graphics and gameplay improvements. To count just a few, you can now log into the multiplayer server using the username and password from the Wesnoth forums; the game includes new graphics for terrain and units (including several new portraits); a new campaign, called 'The Legend of Wesmere' is also available, and it allows the AI to control an allied side.


To compile this release of Wesnoth on Debian Lenny or Ubuntu Intrepid, you only need to follow the steps below.

Note: Ubuntu users, just prefix the commands which need root privileges with sudo.

1. Install the tools needed for compilation
Issue the following command as root:

apt-get install build-essential

2. Install the development packages needed to compile Wesnoth
First of all, make sure you have the sources repositories enabled. To do this, edit as root your /etc/apt/sources.list file and make sure you have a line which starts with deb-src, e.g.:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

Next, update your packages list as root:

apt-get update

Proceed with the installation of the needed development packages:

apt-get build-dep wesnoth
apt-get install libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl-pango-dev

3. Download the Wesnoth source tarball
Download the source code for 1.6 from the official website, here. Next, make sure the current working directory is the one where the source was saved and uncompress it:

tar -xjf wesnoth-1.6a.tar.bz2

4. Compile and install Wesnoth 1.6
Compiling and installing is simple once you followed all the steps above. Change the working directory to wesnoth-1.6a and issue the following commands:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root. Notice that you can specify another prefix and install it in your home folder as user instead of root (in this case make sure you include it in your $PATH)

./configure --prefix=/home/YOUR_USER/usr
make
make install

That should be all. You can now run Wesnoth by pressing ALT+F2 and typing wesnoth in the run dialogue box that appears.


Related articles
Review: Battle for Wesnoth 1.6
The Battle for Wesnoth 1.6 Released
Battle for Wesnoth 1.4 Review - Awesome Turn-Based Strategy Game

Updated: March 29, 2009

The Battle for Wesnoth 1.6 Released

The Battle for Wesnoth team released the new stable version of this wonderful turn-based strategy game, Battle for Wesnoth 1.6. This release was in development stage for over an year, since the (now) old stable, 1.4 was put out. You can read the full announcement on the official website, here.

Some of the new features included in this release are:
- a new campaign, called The Legend of Wesmere, which allows you to use the AI as your commander for an allied side
- one of the great features is the ability to log into the multiplayer using the username and password which you have on the forums, so there will be no more nickname stealing problems any more
- many graphics improvements and new unit portraits for several units
- the map editor can be started from the game now

Of course, these are just a few. I'll make a full review of Wesnoth 1.6 as soon as I have the time. In the meantime, you can download this release from the official website and try it for yourself.

Battle for Wesnoth - Awesome Turn-Based Strategy Game

Battle for Wesnoth is one of the most popular and played turn-based strategy (TBS) games on Linux, if not the most popular. It's a free, open-source community-driven project which has done some amazing improvements since its initial release, in 2003. It comes with wonderful concepts for gameplay, it includes great 2D artwork and music, and more important, it can keep you playing inside a fascinating universe, either online in multiplayer battles or in single-player mode in beautiful campaigns or single-map mode versus AI.

Although I never was a truly skilled player, I always enjoyed to complete a campaign, go play on the official multiplayer server or just read the forum, which actually is a great resource of strategy tips, ideas, suggestions and debates regarding playability or improvements.

Wesnoth 1.4.5 running in window mode

The development is more alive than many other open-source projects, and it is done in an open fashion on the forums. The developers are implicated there and often talk to other players and eventually listen to suggestions and add them in the development version. The stable release (currently 1.4.x) benefits of updates every few weeks or so, while the development branch (1.5.x) is also put out to the public for testing purposes.

Many add-ons are available: campaigns, factions, new maps and eras. The game comes with six default factions: Rebels, Loyalists, Drakes, Northerners, Undead and Knalgan Alliance. Each faction benefits of its own units available for recruiting; and each unit has special traits and abilities. The battle between players takes place on a hex map, and each hex can provide different defense resistance, depending on the terrain and the type of unit standing on it.

Maps included by default are well-tested and some of them gained real popularity in time due to either playability or situations which can evolve in time. For example, an interesting map is Isar's Cross, a 2vs2 map which although is small-sized, can make the game evolve into very interesting positions, where the whole game can depend on one unit, a village, or just a lost tempo during the day/night cycle. I've seen players who played this map for so long that they play it like chess: well-known combinations and movement rules for X first moves, depending on own race and the enemy's.

Of course, the most important part of the game is that it randomises a battle's result using the chance to hit, so you can't be absolutely sure what the result of a battle will be until it's over. There are strong debates back on the forums, with some players complaining this system may not be the best, but in fact it's the only thing that keeps the game entertaining. After all, a skilled player will always beat a novice player, even if the latter is 'lucky'.

Online playing is a real pleasure. There are always games which you can join, or eventually observe. Tournaments are organised often too, via the Wesnoth Ladder website.

Multiplayer lobby

Another aspect I just love is how players gather on the forum and discuss a situation or issue, accompanied by various replays, suggestions solutions or helping a new player who can't beat a scenario.

The game also provides a complete help system for gameplay and each unit. This is the basic stuff you'll need to learn in order to gain experience and skill. Of course, it needs time to master this game. I play it for maybe 2 years or so (version 1.0.2 if I recall correctly), sometimes occasionally and sometimes for a couple of days non-stop, and I still can't say I qualify more than medium-skilled. The second way of getting help is via the Wesnoth wiki, which contains invaluable information on playing the game, together with complete guides. I already mentioned the third way, which is the forums. Don't forget #wesnoth @ Freenode if you use IRC, you can chat about game aspects there too.

Isar's Cross map

Being actively developed, this game always gives me the impression of constant movement and improvement, like it's 'alive'. Release 1.4.x brought new artwork, a new and improved interface. I'm talking about real improvements: scrolling maps is gives a smooth impression, menus now have sounds when clicked, the game interface is maybe five times faster than 1.2.x, several units are now animated, transparency effects for game messages windows, and these are just a few of the great new features. New official campaigns have been introduced, and plans are to increase it even more in the next stable release.

Waterloo Sunset map

You can run Wesnoth in both fullscreen and windowed mode, using the default shortcut Ctrl+F.

Playing Wesnoth is maybe one of the most awesome gaming experiences, at least it is for me. I like to see this completely free, community-maintained project getting more and more fun and polished with each new release.

Official website
Download Battle for Wesnoth
The Forums

Compiling from source in Ubuntu 8.04 and Debian Lenny
You can compile and install the last 1.4.5 release easily on both Debian and Ubuntu.

Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file as root and make sure you have a line which starts with deb-src. Ubuntu users, make sure to precede the following command as root. For example, on Debian Lenny the line in the sources.list should look like:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

While on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron:

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main universe multiverse

Save the file, then update your packages list (also as root):

apt-get update

You will first need to fetch the dependencies as root:

apt-get build-dep wesnoth

Next, download the source tarball from the official website, here, uncompress it using:

tar -xjf wesnoth-1.4.5.tar.bz2

Then change the current working directory to wesnoth-1.4.5 and issue the following commands:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root. You can pass the ./configure script the prefix parameter, e.g. ./configure --prefix=/home/your_user/usr/, and then make install as normal user if you like. This should be all.