Just a question since I recently discover this game: if I download my version from itch.io and a friend of mine on Steam can we still play together or do we need to download it from the same source?
P.S. dowloading the latest beta for Windows, looking forward to play it.
I played this game when I was in elementary school and now I'm a university student. About 12-13 years have passed. Now I found the game of my childhood again and I like the fact that it is still being developed. I was very touched when I saw this game. My childhood memories came to my mind. I missed this game so much. Thank you for still developing it.
Odd numbered versions (1.17, 1.19, etc) are development/beta versions which get new features and content but may break things between releases. Even numbered versions (1.16, 1.18, etc) are stable releases which will mostly just be translation updates, bug fixes, etc. 1.17 was worked on for a couple years and eventually released as 1.18. 1.19 will also likely be worked on for a couple years and will eventually become 1.20. And so on.
It’s on Steam or Flathub, since those provide a runtime with the necessary dependencies for Wesnoth to run. itch.io doesn’t provide such a runtime and we don’t want to have to deal with providing them ourselves, so a Linux version isn’t available here.
This is a really excellent tactical game. The combat is superb in detail, with an excellent mix of rewarding strategy atop visceral satisfaction or dejection from the RNG.
Even past that though, the storylines are immensely varied. There are really superbly diverse campaigns. There are all sorts of combinations of massive armies, squad tactics, nation shaking conflicts, and personal scale campaigns.
Hey guys.. this is a retro classic. It was the original "masterworks" tactical RPG, but it was Linux only for most of its lifespan. If you haven't heard of it, that's why. It's finally been ported to Windows, so count that as a blessing, I guess.
I'm rather sick of Windoze myself, but it is kind of cool to have Battle for Wesnoth on a Win platform after all of these years. I guess if you give Windoze enough time, you can beat on it hard enough that it can run anything. :D
Mmm.. I imagine it was ported to Mac about two days after they converted to a Linux based OS. If there was a Windows port that long ago, I never heard of it.. but it's not impossible.
Well, that was a very interesting strategy game! ♟️
To be honest, this isn't the kind of game I play very often because I'm worried that I might get showered with way too much information but in this game, how to play was pretty straight forward. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty weak at the start when I was owned by a dummy but then, when I got the hang of it, it was pretty interesting.
I'd say the most satisfying part about this was specially to figure out a way to use your environment the right way and crush your enemy using your brain instead of just raw strength. Love the archers by the way! 💖
Feedback (to go even further beyond!!!):
I... don't have anything to add here? Lol I'm using a template to rate games so, this feedback section is here but honestly, as I was playing, I never had a feeling of "Damnit! I wish this thing was different..." Everything just, felt right to me...? Maybe I'm not used to this genre enough to see the flaws or maybe I didn't play long enough but, I haven't found anything wrong honestly. 👌
Last word:
That was a great experience! Keep up the good work guys! 💪
Hello!
First of all, I wanted to sincerely thank you for your absolutely amazing work on this beautiful game! It’s one of my favourite games of all-time, and it’s probably the only one turn-based game I absolutely love (I prefer real-time in general).
I can’t put enough how many memorable moments I had with BfW, this game being also my entry to modding back in 2012, which I love greatly.
One question I have about BfW current status/future: is there a chance for it getting Linux version?
There is a Linux version actually (Flatpak, Steam, as well as often being packaged by individual distros).
There isn’t a Linux version on itch.io since it would require either for us to include all Wesnoth’s dependencies as part of the download (which is a pain) or require players to download all the required dependencies themselves (also bad). Flatpak and Steam on the other hand provide all the dependencies that Wesnoth needs as part of their respective runtime environments, which makes it much easier to provide just “a Linux version” there.
Might ask this on the forum, GitHub, or Discord later, but can Wesnoth maybe come with an installer again, like it did on SourceForge?
It's a tiny detail, but I have to admit I miss it... made the game feel more professional, for it to have a customized multi-language game install wizard that walked you through installing the game, and even made Start menu and Desktop shortcuts for you. There's also the issue of accessibility-- I was a child when I first started playing Wesnoth, and it might have taken a lot longer for me to be able to really install new versions of Wesnoth on my own if it didn't come with an installer to do all the hard file-location-finding for me. It could also be harder for less tech-savvy people to place somewhere on their computer without an installer, if they're used to mobile file systems. Also, for some reason, my computer took way longer to extract the files manually into the Wesnoth folder I created than the old installer ever did when making its own, so using an installer might speed things up there, too. Do consider bringing the installer back, please! It never stopped being cool.
The installers do still exist actually and are created for each version - see here. The issue is that the installer tends to cause issues with antivirus software because it’s unsigned and getting a proper signing certificate would be a lot of time and effort (explanation here), so the link to it was taken off the website main page. The reason being that people won’t have issues with antivirus if it’s launched via the itch.io client, though my understanding is anyone downloading the standalone zip is likely to have the same antivirus issue when running wesnoth.exe as they would with the installer.
The release announcement posts on the Wesnoth forums do also still have a link to the installer.
The Battle for Wesnoth is the most overrated game of all time. The only thing that has improved about the game in the past 15 years is the file size and hardware requirements. The AI is not good at all.
Dude.. it's the same game. It's a retro classic. Nobody is forking around with the AI or anything. I think there was a content pack added abut a decade ago, but that's it. This was the original "masterworks" RPG. It still is a masterpiece. Most people haven't heard of it because it was Linux only for most of its lifespan.
I was just looking for some random strategy game to pass the time, but I ended up liking this one way more than I expected! The art style is a really cool blend of pixel art for the maps and animations but full art for the character portraits, which really sells the Fire Emblem vibe. I was surprised at how many campaigns there were as well, right now I've only done the tutorial and first one but I'll be doing the others definitely. Good job!
I remember playing this when it first was released. Stopped and decided to see if it was still being developed. I'm going to start the missions again. Memories from almost 20 years ago. Thank you so much.
YOOOOO didnt expect BfW to turn up here, espacially after all these years, on the popular section!
HOURS upon hours of fun with custom maps and campaigns, even if the RNG of the single units attacks sometimes really F***ed me over xD cant wait to give it another go with some friends!!
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I’m so glad I randomly remembered this game exists. It’s been so long, and I missed it.
But please. I’m begging you for an official Android version. The unofficial version is from clear back in 1.14.
It’s a work in progress over at https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/7707. Though it’s not yet usable and there’s no ETA for when it’d be ready.
Hey, at least you’re working on it.
Just a question since I recently discover this game: if I download my version from itch.io and a friend of mine on Steam can we still play together or do we need to download it from the same source?
P.S. dowloading the latest beta for Windows, looking forward to play it.
The download source doesn’t matter.
I played this game when I was in elementary school and now I'm a university student. About 12-13 years have passed. Now I found the game of my childhood again and I like the fact that it is still being developed. I was very touched when I saw this game. My childhood memories came to my mind. I missed this game so much. Thank you for still developing it.
Why did 1.19.2 -> 1.18.2? o_o
Odd numbered versions (1.17, 1.19, etc) are development/beta versions which get new features and content but may break things between releases. Even numbered versions (1.16, 1.18, etc) are stable releases which will mostly just be translation updates, bug fixes, etc. 1.17 was worked on for a couple years and eventually released as 1.18. 1.19 will also likely be worked on for a couple years and will eventually become 1.20. And so on.
Just remembered this nostalgic game, can't wait to replay it!
Cool game love it
Where is linux version?
It’s on Steam or Flathub, since those provide a runtime with the necessary dependencies for Wesnoth to run. itch.io doesn’t provide such a runtime and we don’t want to have to deal with providing them ourselves, so a Linux version isn’t available here.
Been playing for so many years now. Finally able to contribute! Thank you SO MUCH for all of the good times!
The new update is fire !
Thank you for still improving Wesnoth in each update !
I grew up playing this game, I played it with my father on a bad PC I had. This game is certainly a gem.
This is a really excellent tactical game. The combat is superb in detail, with an excellent mix of rewarding strategy atop visceral satisfaction or dejection from the RNG.
Even past that though, the storylines are immensely varied. There are really superbly diverse campaigns. There are all sorts of combinations of massive armies, squad tactics, nation shaking conflicts, and personal scale campaigns.
Love this Game!
Hey guys.. this is a retro classic. It was the original "masterworks" tactical RPG, but it was Linux only for most of its lifespan. If you haven't heard of it, that's why. It's finally been ported to Windows, so count that as a blessing, I guess.
I'm rather sick of Windoze myself, but it is kind of cool to have Battle for Wesnoth on a Win platform after all of these years. I guess if you give Windoze enough time, you can beat on it hard enough that it can run anything. :D
It's been on Windows and Mac since like 2005/2006 or something. It didn't take long to get ports.
Mmm.. I imagine it was ported to Mac about two days after they converted to a Linux based OS. If there was a Windows port that long ago, I never heard of it.. but it's not impossible.
We even still have the installers available for those early versions at https://sourceforge.net/projects/wesnoth/files/wesnoth-1.0/
No guarantee they still work with modern versions of Windows though, of course.
I've played the game since the 2000 on Windows. What you're talking about?
Overall:
Well, that was a very interesting strategy game! ♟️
To be honest, this isn't the kind of game I play very often because I'm worried that I might get showered with way too much information but in this game, how to play was pretty straight forward. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty weak at the start when I was owned by a dummy but then, when I got the hang of it, it was pretty interesting.
I'd say the most satisfying part about this was specially to figure out a way to use your environment the right way and crush your enemy using your brain instead of just raw strength. Love the archers by the way! 💖
Feedback (to go even further beyond!!!):
I... don't have anything to add here? Lol I'm using a template to rate games so, this feedback section is here but honestly, as I was playing, I never had a feeling of "Damnit! I wish this thing was different..." Everything just, felt right to me...? Maybe I'm not used to this genre enough to see the flaws or maybe I didn't play long enough but, I haven't found anything wrong honestly. 👌
Last word:
That was a great experience! Keep up the good work guys! 💪
Hello! First of all, I wanted to sincerely thank you for your absolutely amazing work on this beautiful game! It’s one of my favourite games of all-time, and it’s probably the only one turn-based game I absolutely love (I prefer real-time in general). I can’t put enough how many memorable moments I had with BfW, this game being also my entry to modding back in 2012, which I love greatly.
One question I have about BfW current status/future: is there a chance for it getting Linux version?
There is a Linux version actually (Flatpak, Steam, as well as often being packaged by individual distros).
There isn’t a Linux version on itch.io since it would require either for us to include all Wesnoth’s dependencies as part of the download (which is a pain) or require players to download all the required dependencies themselves (also bad). Flatpak and Steam on the other hand provide all the dependencies that Wesnoth needs as part of their respective runtime environments, which makes it much easier to provide just “a Linux version” there.
Might ask this on the forum, GitHub, or Discord later, but can Wesnoth maybe come with an installer again, like it did on SourceForge?
It's a tiny detail, but I have to admit I miss it... made the game feel more professional, for it to have a customized multi-language game install wizard that walked you through installing the game, and even made Start menu and Desktop shortcuts for you. There's also the issue of accessibility-- I was a child when I first started playing Wesnoth, and it might have taken a lot longer for me to be able to really install new versions of Wesnoth on my own if it didn't come with an installer to do all the hard file-location-finding for me. It could also be harder for less tech-savvy people to place somewhere on their computer without an installer, if they're used to mobile file systems. Also, for some reason, my computer took way longer to extract the files manually into the Wesnoth folder I created than the old installer ever did when making its own, so using an installer might speed things up there, too. Do consider bringing the installer back, please! It never stopped being cool.
The installers do still exist actually and are created for each version - see here. The issue is that the installer tends to cause issues with antivirus software because it’s unsigned and getting a proper signing certificate would be a lot of time and effort (explanation here), so the link to it was taken off the website main page. The reason being that people won’t have issues with antivirus if it’s launched via the itch.io client, though my understanding is anyone downloading the standalone zip is likely to have the same antivirus issue when running wesnoth.exe as they would with the installer.
The release announcement posts on the Wesnoth forums do also still have a link to the installer.
The Battle for Wesnoth is the most overrated game of all time. The only thing that has improved about the game in the past 15 years is the file size and hardware requirements. The AI is not good at all.
Dude.. it's the same game. It's a retro classic. Nobody is forking around with the AI or anything. I think there was a content pack added abut a decade ago, but that's it. This was the original "masterworks" RPG. It still is a masterpiece. Most people haven't heard of it because it was Linux only for most of its lifespan.
I was just looking for some random strategy game to pass the time, but I ended up liking this one way more than I expected! The art style is a really cool blend of pixel art for the maps and animations but full art for the character portraits, which really sells the Fire Emblem vibe. I was surprised at how many campaigns there were as well, right now I've only done the tutorial and first one but I'll be doing the others definitely. Good job!
Extremely fun game. Even my friends who usually don't like computer games, like to play "Wesnoth".
I remember playing this when it first was released. Stopped and decided to see if it was still being developed. I'm going to start the missions again. Memories from almost 20 years ago. Thank you so much.
I didn't know this was on Itch! I literally just clicked on the "random games" function and I was shocked when this came up. Great game!
Great game, a fusion of great ideas with superb design!
This is such an old game and still fun to play todaaay!
One of the greatest games of all time. Proof that open source can deliver!
Wow! A legendary game on itch.io.
YOOOOO didnt expect BfW to turn up here, espacially after all these years, on the popular section!
HOURS upon hours of fun with custom maps and campaigns, even if the RNG of the single units attacks sometimes really F***ed me over xD cant wait to give it another go with some friends!!