[Altered Melee] Play Test Custom Race: Flesh Weaver Cult (Finished)

[CollectorofStoriesUntold]

Edit: Uploaded to map section Custom Race: Cult of the Flesh Weavers. Thank you evevyone for your help.

Hello there, fellow hivers. I'd want to ask if anyone would be willing to play test this map. When I play maps, I tend to play defensively and stick to the same few units. I request that you stress-test it. Run roughshod over and look for exploits. Please leave a comment if you have any recommendations for possible adjustments, such as stats, abilities, and so on.
Credits and images will be added to the description upon uploading to the map section.

-Custom Race: Cult of the Flesh Weavers-

Made with Reforged: Classic graphics. This is an edit of the melee map Harvest Moon to include The Cult of the Flesh Weavers as a playable race.

To play The Flesh Weaver Cult, select Orc and click Yes at the start of the map.

The Roster:

• 3 Faction Heroes
• 11 Main Units
• 2 Alternate Units
• 5 Summoned Units
• 13 Buildings
• 45 Abilities
• 23 Upgrades

Initial defenses:

• Summonable defenders.
• Watch Tower: Defense building

Strengths:

• Powerful upgrades.
• Good Damage Resistance.
• Gains bonuses and empower spells with corpses.

Weaknesses:

• Some Corpse Reliance.
• Lower DPS.
• Requires unit composition.

Misc:

• Units are classified as undead.
• Human Construction Style
• Human Resource Collection
• Workers can heal as well as repair

Natural Hostile\Passive

• 1 Tavern Hero
• 10 Creeps Types

Changelog

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Natural

Aug 18, 2023 Version 1.0

1.0 Uploaded to Map Development

Sept 2, 2023 Version 1.1

Bugs Fixes:

• The map description now states “To play as the Flesh Weaver Cult, select Orc…” (Originally this was played through the Human race)
• Flagellants now has Acolyte soundset; Hog Pen has Pigform soundset, Charnel House has Crypt soundset; Sepulture has Temple of the damned soundset.
• Flagellants can now power build and repair.
• Giant Bats misspellings are corrected.
• Victory trigger restored. (Was missing from Melee Initialization)
• Headless Horseman now has a limit of 1. (Forgot to set its limit via trigger.)
• Witch-Hags’ Summon Flameskull now requires an upgrade. (Check Dependencies was set to False.)
• Nosferatu’s Hypnosis ability causes a crash? (This seems to be inconsistent. I had it happen once during a play test early in development. Didn’t have it happen to me in another.)
• Baroness’s Blood Boil now applies correctly.
• Sonar, Concoction, Disenchant, Hypnosis, Inflict Fear, Hot-pot, and Gluttony abilities have new visual effects
• Added Information tabs in quest log

Balance Changes:

Flagellants: Builder, Gather, and Early Healer.

• Field Sutures Hitpoints restoration increased from 1.5 to 5.0.
• Field Sutures Cooldown was increased from 0.66 to 1.5.
• Removed undead classification (Was preventing power repair/build)

Grotesque: Tank

• Hit Points increased from 600 to 800.
• Base Damage reduced from 11 to 10.
• Number of Damage Dice reduced from 2 to 1.
• Number of Dice Sides increased from 2 to 3.
• Defense Base increased from 2 to 3.
• Gold Cost increased from 160 to 175.
• Build Time increased from 28 seconds to 30.

Abhorrent: Ranged Assault / Anti Air

• Prioritize Ability removed. (Reduce mico and needed the icon slot for Fleshweaver ability)
• Hit Points Reduced from 535 to 490.
• Attack Cooldown reduced from 2.0 to 1.9.
• Number of Damage Dice increased from 1 to 2.
• Number of Dice Sides reduced from 4 to 3.
• Gold Cost reduced from 205 to 195.
• Build Time increased from 22 seconds to 25.

Wickermen: Melee DPS

• Imprison Ability now requires an upgrade.
• Imprison Ability now has 20 second cooldown.
• Burning Man Ability self damage reduced from 10 to 5.
• Hit Points Reduced from 1175 to 650. (Changed to reduce overlap with Grotesque)
• Attack Cooldown reduced from 1.9 to 1.75.
• Damage Base reduced from 32 to 30.
• Number of Dice Sides increased from 7 to 10.
• Defense Base reduced from 2 to 0.
• Gold Cost reduced from 240 to 220.
• Lumber Cost reduced from 70 to 60.
• Requirement changed from Asylum to Refugee, Saw Mill and Butchery

Undertakers: Offensive\Corpse based spellcaster

• Bone Spear ability damage reduced from 75 to 35.
• Bone Spear ability cooldown increased from 7 to 10 seconds.
• Bone Spear ability mana cost increased from 100 to 135.
• Zombie Brides spawned by the dear one ability are now affected by Exhumed Melee Weapons and Intermediate Reanimation upgrades.

Witch-Hag: Support Caster

• Concoction ability Restored Hit-points increased from 100 to 150.
• Concoction ability heal duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds.
• Added “Flameskulls summoned by this unit are dispelled.” to Ethereal Form ability tooltip.
• Disenchant ability damage dealt to summoned units reduced from 250 to 200

Corpse Carts: Support

• Generated corpse type changed to Abhorrent.

Nosferatu: Elite melee/healer

• Hypnosis ability no longer requires the Vampyric Bloodline upgrade.
• Blood Bond ability no longer requires the Vampiric Bloodline upgrade.
• Life Steal increased from 10% to 30%.

Release Malformed: Summoned Defenders

• Malformed Bandits are now affected by Exhumed Melee Weapons and Intermediate Reanimation upgrades.
• Malformed Brigands are now affected by Exhumed Ranged Weapons and Intermediate Reanimation upgrades.

Watch Tower: Defense building

• Changed projectile art

Hog Pen: Food Production

• Now has create corpse ability; Create 1 Grotesque corpse every 60 seconds

New Mechanics:

Weave Flesh: Weaves a nearby corpse into itself to gain bonuses based on the type of unit it comes from. Dropping corpses unweaves the flesh and causes the unit to lose the bonus. Corpses are targetable by abilities that affect corpses.

• Peasants, Peons, Acolytes, Flagellants - Pillage
• Footmen, Grunts, Ghouls, Huntress’ and Grotesques - 5 bonus damage.
• Rifleman, Troll Headhunter, Crypt Fiend, Archer, Abhorrents - Bonus attack speed 20%
• Knight, Tauren Warrior, Abomination, Druid of the Claw, Nosferatus - Bonus health 150
• Mortar Team, Wolf Raider - 25% extra damage to buildings
• Priest, Witch Doctor, Necromancer, Witch-Hags - 3 bonus Hitpoint Regeneration
• Sorceress, Shaman, Druid of the Talon, Undertakers - 100% bonus Mana Regeneration
• Spell Breaker, Spirit Walker, Dryad - 50% Spell Resistance
• Creeps - Bonus health 50

Sept 3, 2023 Version 1.2 (Hotfix)

Bugs Fixes:

• Imprison Ability upgrade is now researchable from Corpse Silo.

Balance Changes:

Grotesque: Tank

• Number of Damage Dice reverted from 1 to 2.

Abhorrent: Ranged Assault / Anti Air

• Attack Cooldown reduced from 1.9 to 1.8.
• Base Damage increased from 15 to 16.

Nosferatu: Elite melee/healer

• Hit Points increased from 900 to 1100.

Trebuchet: Long-range siege weaponry

• Unpack ability cooldown reduced from 15 to 0 seconds.

Hideaway

Tier 1 Primary structure. Provides 12 food. Receive gathered lumber and gold.

Trains:
- Flagellant: These men revel in their despair, despondent in all things yet have a manic need for pain as it's the only thing that gives them focus.

Has the Gather Resources, Build and Repair abilities. Can learn Steel Sutures and Field Sutures abilities. Can gain the Relentlessness upgrade. Attacks land units.

Upgrades:
- Backpack

Ability:
- Release Malformed: Summons 2 Malformed Bandits to fight for you. Has a 35 second duration

Hog Pen

Provides 10 food, which increases the maximum number of units that can be trained.

WatchTower

Defensive structure. Attacks land and air units.

Saw Mill

Serves as a drop-off point for harvested lumber. Contains upgrades for improved damage, armor and harvesting.

Research:

• Exhumed Melee Weapons, Exhumed Imbued Melee Weapons and Exhumed Cursed Melee Weapons
• Exhumed Ranged Weapons, Exhumed Imbued Ranged Weapons and Exhumed Cursed Ranged Weapons
• Intermediate Reanimation, Advanced Reanimation and Master Reanimation
• Improved Lumber Harvesting and Advanced Lumber Harvesting

Butchery

Contains research for abilities and powerful upgrades.

Research:

• Field Sutures
• Steel Sutures
• Discarded Parts
• Relentlessness
• Organized Corpses

Laboratory

Creates a shop with purchasable items. The items available depend upon what level of upgrade your Hideaway has (Hideaway, Refuge, or Asylum) and which buildings you have.

Purchasable Items:

• Potion of Invisibility
• Lesser Clarity Potion
• Scroll of Speed
• Potion of Healing
• Potion of Mana
• Scroll of Town Portal
• Vampiric Potion
• Orb of Slow

Ability:
- Overwatch: Uses its telescope to watch a 900-radius area of the map revealing the terrain and detecting invisible units. Has a 30 second duration.

Altar of Flesh

Summons Heroes. Revives slain Heroes.

Summons:
Fallen Baroness: Strength Hero, exceptional at general combat and AoE damage. Can learn Heart Strike, Blood Boil, Hemostasis, and Relish in Blood. Attacks land units.

Flayed Man: Intelligence Hero, adept at crowd control and debuffs. Can learn Flay Alive, Inflict Fear, Horrific Appearance and Summon Beholder. Attacks land and air units.

Butcher: Agility Hero, exceptional at killing individual units and good at supporting nearby friendly troops. Can learn Healing Spray, Hot-pot, Fetid Blades, and Gluttony. Attacks land units.

Charnel House

Primary troop production building.

Trains:
- Grotesques: Their heavy, decaying bulk, stitched together from the remains of humans and swine, makes them effective meat shields.

Can learn Necrophagia and Steel Sutures abilities. Can gain the Relentlessness upgrade. Attacks land units.

- Abhorrents: Sewn together from the remains of people and vultures. While bird bones are delicate, they make excellent projectiles.

Can learn Necrophagia, Steel Sutures, and Homing Projectile abilities. Can gain the Relentlessness upgrade. Attacks land and Air units.

- Harpy Vultures: A powerful, agile raptor that can tear apart prey with its formidable claws and sharp beak.

Can learn the Necrotic Mutation ability. Attacks air units.

Research:

• Necrophagia
• Homing Projectile
• Necrotic Mutation

Refuge

Tier 2 Primary structure. Provides 12 food. Receive gathered lumber and gold.

Trains:
- Flagellant: These men revel in their despair, despondent in all things yet have a manic need for pain as it's the only thing that gives them focus.

Has the Gather Resources, Build and Repair abilities. Can learn Steel Sutures and Field Sutures abilities. Can gain the Relentlessness upgrade. Attacks land units.

Upgrades:
- Backpack

Ability:
- Release Malformed: Summons 2 Malformed Bandits and 2 Malformed Brigands to fight for you. Has a 35 second duration

Hermit's Tent

Spellcaster production building.

Trains:
- Giant Bats: Experiments have artificially increased the size of these swift flying creatures, consequently improving their innate powers proportionally as well.

Has the True Sight ability. Can gain the Sonar ability.Attacks land and air units.Has Ultravison. Regenerates hit-points at night.

- Undertakers: These ostracized gravediggers have a Fascination with death. The environment of their work has left them tainted with necrotic energies warping their perceptions of life and morality. Many have sought the dark arts of Necromancy in secret.

Dark spellcaster. Has the Dear One Ability. Can initially cast Bone Armor. Can learn Bone Explosion and Bone Spear abilities. Attacks land and air units.

- Witch-Hags: Horrible witches of wicked intent and ancient origin, they are dark fey that take on the forms of ugly old women tied to foul magic and often appear in malevolent fairy tales and nightmares.

Supporting spellcasters. Can initially cast Concoction. Can learn Summon Flame Skulls, Hex and Ethereal Form abilities. Ethereal Form learns to cast Disenchant, instead of Summon Flame Skulls. Attacks land and air units.

Research:

• Sonar
• Undertaker Adept Training and Undertaker Master Training
• Witch-Hag Adept Training and Witch-Hag Master Training
• Etherealness

Corpse Silo

Mechanical troop production building.

Trains:
- Corpse Carts: These Wagons are made of rotted wood, rusted metal and diseased flesh, heaped with writhing body parts for the cult’s monstrosities.

Has the Gather Corpses and Exhume Corpses abilities. Can learn Necrotic Aura ability. Can gain the Organized Corpses upgrade. No Attack. Initially holds 4 Corpses. Generates a corpse every 60 seconds.

- Trebuchets:An evolution of mangonel and catapults, the siege engine is capable of lobbing rotting remains to devastate enemy units at ranges its predecessors couldn't meet.

Has the Unpack, Attack Range Indicator and Stakes abilities. Can gain the Reinforced Stakes and Iron Stakes upgrades.

Unpack to Attack land units and deploy stakes. Has a minimum range of 500 and a Maximum range of 2000.

- Wickermen: Vast golems made of brush and dry hay possess razor-sharp metal claws that can pierce plate armor and shred flesh from Bone. Creatures can be sacrificed by being burned alive inside the golem.

Has the Imprison ability. Can learn Burning Man ability. Attacks land units.Imprisons 1 unit.

Research:

• Necrotic Aura
• Reinforced Stakes and Iron Stakes
• Burning Man

Asylum

Tier 3 Primary structure. Provides 12 food. Receive gathered lumber and gold.
Trains:
- Flagellant: These men revel in their despair, despondent in all things yet have a manic need for pain as it's the only thing that gives them focus.

Has the Gather Resources, Build and Repair abilities. Can learn Steel Sutures and Field Sutures abilities. Can gain the Relentlessness upgrade. Attacks land units.

Upgrades:
- Backpack

Ability:
- Release Malformed: Summons 3 Malformed Bandits and 3 Malformed Brigands to fight for you. Has a 35 second duration

Sepulture

Elite production building.

Trains:
- Nosferatus: Artificially created vampire, with exceptional agility, toughness, and magic. Their insatiable need for others' essence inspires terror in those encountering them.

Has the Blood Bond and Hypnosis abilities. Can gain the Vampiric Blood Bloodline and Vampyric Blood Bloodline upgrades. Attacks land units.

Research:

• Vampiric Blood Bloodline
• Vampyric Blood Bloodline

Natural Hostile\Passive

Order Abby: Mercenary Camp

Creeps:
- Order Conscript: Light melee unit. Has the Defend ability. Attacks land units.

- Order Soldier: Light melee unit. Has the Defend and Critical Strike abilities. Attacks land units.

- Order Sergeant: Medium melee unit. Has the Defend, Critical Strike and Evasion abilities. Attacks land units.

- Order Crusader: Heavy melee unit. Has the Endurance Aura, Divine Shield and Holy Light abilties. Attacks land units.

- Order Huntsman: Light ranged unit. Has the Berserk Ability. Attacks land and air units.

- Order Watchman: Medium ranged unit. Has the envenomed bolts ability. Attacks land and air units.

• Order Priest: Light magic ranged unit. Has the Heal ability. |n Attacks land and air units.
• Order Conjurer: Light Magic ranged unit. Has the Frost Bolt and Frost Armor abilities. Attacks land and air units.

- Order Oracle: Medium magic ranged unit. Has the Abolish Magic, Faerie Fire and Rejuvenation abilities. Attacks land and air units.

- Order Questioner: Heavy magic ranged unit. Has the Vampiric Aura, Raise Dead, Cripple and Charm abilities. Attacks land and air units.

Altar of Blood: Hero Tavern
- Headless Horseman: Warrior Hero. Can learn Nightmare Bomb, Pumpkin Monster, Unholy Aura, and The Great Pumpkin. Attacks land units.

 

[MasterHaosis]

Wow! Very awesome! I see some of my models there

 

[ISL]

Hello!
I gave your map a small playtest, and considering that you wanted someone to "look for exploits", I focused on finding units that would be overpowered. However, from my first experience, the race initially appeared as somewhat underpowered and weak.
I did end up finding some units who could be considered "overpowered" by vanilla WC3 standards.
I have also encountered a number of bugs.

Bugs and inconveniences:

Spoiler

-Well first of all, the map description states “To play as the Flesh Weaver Cult, select Human…”

-I would change the sound set for Flagellants. It is strange to hear a peasant enthusiastically say "Yes, milord!" and then look at his deformed face.
This also applies to a lot of buildings. It is equally as strange to hear vanilla Barracks or Orc Borrow sounds coming from the buildings of this faction.

-Game crashed when I used Nosferatu’s first ability.

-Baroness’s Blood Boil is insanely inconsistent when it comes to applying Blood Plague. Sometimes it applies the debuff to only one unit, sometimes it doesn't debuff anyone at all, and sometimes it affects just 1 or 2 targets.

-Multiple Flagellants cannot be ordered to build the same building to speed up its construction.

-Giant Bats are referred to as “Gaint Bats” in the tooltips of: Ranged attack upgrade, Hermit’s Tent description.

-Some buffs and effects have vanilla SFX: Baroness’s Blood Boil, Witch-Hag’s Concoction, (there might be more that I've missed)

-Victory trigger seems to be missing. Destroying all enemy buildings does not end the game.

-Headless Horseman - You can get multiple copies of the same hero. It still has the maximum limit of 3.

-Witch-Hags’ Summon Flameskull is available without an upgrade.

Balance:

Spoiler

-There are a LOT of smart decisions and methods of preventing the race from being overpowered. However, the race ended up feeling incredibly underpowered at first, but then I discovered some unit compositions that could be considered overpowered by vanilla standards.

-Flagellants’ Field Sutures ability is a nice and creative way of providing healing for the race. However, I think the healing is way too low. To heal 300 health, a worker would need to spend 200 seconds. That is 3 entire minutes. For comparison, Healing Salve heals 400 health over 45 seconds, has 3 charges, and costs only 100 gold. Although Field Sutures is free, it requires a worker, who occupies 1 food supply, and who could be gathering wood or building structures instead.
As an in-combat heal, Field Sutures ability feels a bit irrelevant.
It is honestly better to spend time and resources on a Corpse Silo, and then get one or two Corpse Carts just so your Tier-1 units could use Cannibalize.
I find Butcher to be the best hero because of the healing and regeneration buffs that he provides.


I have playtested only a portion of the units:

1. Wickermen have good stats and are considered mechanical, which renders them immune to certain effects, but makes it impossible to heal them. The fact that they have a self-damaging ability kinda forces you to bring workers along. This serves as a smart way to counterbalance their power, but makes the process of using them a bit troublesome.
Oh, they also have Devour. With appropriate micro, mass Wickermen can be unstoppable against ground units, albeit troublesome to use. There is a reason why vanilla Kodos have terrible stats, and are amassed only against mass Tier-3 ground units. Wickerman, on the other hand, is a Tier-3 melee unit himself, who can devour other ground units. You can see how this could be an issue.

2. Abhorrent is a ranged unit with decent stats and who can be upgraded with a bouncing attack. Mass Abhorrent was the first strategy that I could win with. It was on my second playtest. I wouldn’t say that they are particularly overpowered or underpowered. It’s just that mass ranged units with AoE/Splash damage are usually OP. Vanilla huntresses are balanced by their Unarmored armor type, which is probably the weakest armor type in the game. Abhorrent has low dps, which might somewhat balance their strength.

3. Undertakers are spellcasters whose abilities revolve around using corpses for maximum effect. However, they also have Bone Spear ability on Tier-3, which is a low-range(500) spell that deals 75 damage to all enemies in a line. Needless to say, I went for mass Bone Spear and it was an absolute blast. There is a reason why none of the vanilla spellcasters have abilities that deal damage. Mass units with firebolt/blizzard/shockwave and you get an unstoppable force. It was fun, though.

4. Witch-Hag is a unit who can actually heal. I found myself starving for healing because of how lackluster Field Sutures heal is. However, these witches also have the ability to summon a pair of Flameskulls. There is a reason why none of the vanilla spellcasters have any abilities that summon combat units without a prerequisite. 12 Witch-Hags can summon 24 Flameskulls. However, I did not find it to be extremely overpowered because of three reasons: 1) Witch-Hag has the ability to become ethereal. However, upon doing so, their Flameskulls disappear and they lose the ability to summon more. That is a smart way of preventing them from being overpowered. 2) There is a limit of 2 Flameskulls per witch, unlike vanilla Necromancers, who are only limited by the fact that they require corpses to summon more skeletons. 3) Flemskulls have low stats and can be dispelled… Unless their Magic Resistance makes them immune to dispel… In that case, they would be difficult to hard-counter.

I have not tried any of the flying creatures. I have also stopped using Nosferatus after the first crash. Lastly, I have underutilized Corpse Carts and Trebuchets.

One last thing regaring the balance section is that the race severly lacks any meaningful forms of defense. The Malformed summoned by the base building are rarely enough to stop an attack, even on Tier-3. As I mentioned above, Flagellants' Field Sutures ability is weak, and is not enough to really save anyone in case of an attack. The defense tower of the race is literally a copy of Orc Watchtower. However, Orcs also have Borrows, which allow the workers to not only save themselves, but also to fight off the attackers. In your case, the Flagellants are completely helpless against enemy attacks.
I would suggest changing something about the faction's supply building. As of right now, it is literally just a farm that provides a bit more food but lacks Fortified armor, which makes it terrible at even being a mere wall that would block the attackers from your workers.

Tips:

Spoiler

Honestly, I am not the one to speak for balance, because my own project is full of such “overpowered” things, but I want to say that you should find your own definition of balance.
Balance depends on what you are trying to achieve with your race. If it is meant to fit into the vanilla Warcraft 3 environment and be as authentic for the game as possible, then vanilla balance is important.
If you want your custom races to exist in their own environment, and let people play as these factions against each other, then you can somewhat neglect vanilla balance, but you would still need to balance your custom races around each other to keep things fair.
If you want to create your custom races for a PVE environment, such as a custom campaign, then the only thing that should concern you is “how easy is it to stomp the enemy forces?” and "Why would I use unit X when I can just use unit Y?"

The most important things for a custom race, in my opinion, are novelty and fun.
I believe that people usually play custom races to experience the feeling of novelty: New visuals, new mechanics, new themes, new things to play with, etc.
After they get attracted to novelty or uniqueness of your race, the players will focus on how fun and engaging it is to actually play the new race.
The fun aspect, should be something that is defined by you, the author. The best thing about mod-making and game development is that you can get the wildest ideas while playtesting your own projects, and you can implement those ideas right on the spot.
Think something would be cool? Add it. As long as you yourself are enjoying your own projects and are feeling engaged while playtesting them, they will surely turn out to be great.
Take pride in your accomplishment and always strive to imporve.

Regarding the fun aspects of your race, most of their abilites are just edited version of vanilla abilities. They lack unique mechanics. I think the theme of a "Flesh-weaving Cult" could be improved, expanded, and woven into gameplay.
I understand that you might be limited by your current skills in triggers, but the ability to create any spell or mechanic that you can think of is well worth improving in this field. Think of the absolute power and freedom of creativity that you could have once you improve your trigger skills.

Another tip I would like to share is that you should implement as many "natural" synergies between certain types of units as possible.
I will provide a few example of natural synergies:
1. Vanilla Orc Tauren unit has amazing stats and a massive healthpool. Despite being formidable front-liners, they have a severe lack of self-sustain. You can save a low-hp Tauren by leading them back to your base, but it will take an insane amount of time for them to recover. That is why Troll Witch-doctors usually go hand-in-hand with Taurens. They just complement each other so well.
2. In my own project, Spellcasters have amazingly powerful spells that require lots of mana. They also can auto-cast their primary abilities when attacking, but only when their mana is above 50% of its maximum. They are mana-hungry. That is why I added a few units with the ability to replenish mana of other units.
In short, the way you can create natural synergies between units is - Intentionally create a weakness for one unit (low health, low damage, no healing, high mana expenses) and then make some other unit or units compensate that weakness. The player will naturally put the pieces together and come up with a strategy by themself.
The most common natural synergy is "Front-line tanks and back-line dps." Think of other ways to implement similar synergies.
You already have Corpse Carts who can provide corpses for other units to use. That is a good step, but you could certainly take it further.
The thing about units is that they are practically "tools" for the player to use. You shouldn't relegate a feature to only one unit, and make it the only "tool" for the job. When the player has multiple tools to choose from, each providing a solution to the problem, but excelling in different situations, then the player will be more engaged to play.
Looking at the Tauren example, the player has other ways of healing their units, such as Healing Salves or occasional Healing Fountaints on the map.
Similarly, you could add other units who could create corpses for your custom race, for example.

If you need any help, feel free to ask me while I'm still somewhat active. I would be glad.
Also, is there anything in particular that you would like to be tested?

 

[CollectorofStoriesUntold]

Hello!
I gave your map a small playtest, and considering that you wanted someone to "look for exploits", I focused on finding units that would be overpowered. However, from my first experience, the race initially appeared as somewhat underpowered and weak.
I did end up finding some units who could be considered "overpowered" by vanilla WC3 standards.
I have also encountered a number of bugs.

Bugs and inconveniences:

Spoiler

-Well first of all, the map description states “To play as the Flesh Weaver Cult, select Human…”

-I would change the sound set for Flagellants. It is strange to hear a peasant enthusiastically say "Yes, milord!" and then look at his deformed face.
This also applies to a lot of buildings. It is equally as strange to hear vanilla Barracks or Orc Borrow sounds coming from the buildings of this faction.

-Game crashed when I used Nosferatu’s first ability.

-Baroness’s Blood Boil is insanely inconsistent when it comes to applying Blood Plague. Sometimes it applies the debuff to only one unit, sometimes it doesn't debuff anyone at all, and sometimes it affects just 1 or 2 targets.

-Multiple Flagellants cannot be ordered to build the same building to speed up its construction.

-Giant Bats are referred to as “Gaint Bats” in the tooltips of: Ranged attack upgrade, Hermit’s Tent description.

-Some buffs and effects have vanilla SFX: Baroness’s Blood Boil, Witch-Hag’s Concoction, (there might be more that I've missed)

-Victory trigger seems to be missing. Destroying all enemy buildings does not end the game.

-Headless Horseman - You can get multiple copies of the same hero. It still has the maximum limit of 3.

-Witch-Hags’ Summon Flameskull is available without an upgrade.

Balance:

Spoiler

-There are a LOT of smart decisions and methods of preventing the race from being overpowered. However, the race ended up feeling incredibly underpowered at first, but then I discovered some unit compositions that could be considered overpowered by vanilla standards.

-Flagellants’ Field Sutures ability is a nice and creative way of providing healing for the race. However, I think the healing is way too low. To heal 300 health, a worker would need to spend 200 seconds. That is 3 entire minutes. For comparison, Healing Salve heals 400 health over 45 seconds, has 3 charges, and costs only 100 gold. Although Field Sutures is free, it requires a worker, who occupies 1 food supply, and who could be gathering wood or building structures instead.
As an in-combat heal, Field Sutures ability feels a bit irrelevant.
It is honestly better to spend time and resources on a Corpse Silo, and then get one or two Corpse Carts just so your Tier-1 units could use Cannibalize.
I find Butcher to be the best hero because of the healing and regeneration buffs that he provides.


I have playtested only a portion of the units:

1. Wickermen have good stats and are considered mechanical, which renders them immune to certain effects, but makes it impossible to heal them. The fact that they have a self-damaging ability kinda forces you to bring workers along. This serves as a smart way to counterbalance their power, but makes the process of using them a bit troublesome.
Oh, they also have Devour. With appropriate micro, mass Wickermen can be unstoppable against ground units, albeit troublesome to use. There is a reason why vanilla Kodos have terrible stats, and are amassed only against mass Tier-3 ground units. Wickerman, on the other hand, is a Tier-3 melee unit himself, who can devour other ground units. You can see how this could be an issue.

2. Abhorrent is a ranged unit with decent stats and who can be upgraded with a bouncing attack. Mass Abhorrent was the first strategy that I could win with. It was on my second playtest. I wouldn’t say that they are particularly overpowered or underpowered. It’s just that mass ranged units with AoE/Splash damage are usually OP. Vanilla huntresses are balanced by their Unarmored armor type, which is probably the weakest armor type in the game. Abhorrent has low dps, which might somewhat balance their strength.

3. Undertakers are spellcasters whose abilities revolve around using corpses for maximum effect. However, they also have Bone Spear ability on Tier-3, which is a low-range(500) spell that deals 75 damage to all enemies in a line. Needless to say, I went for mass Bone Spear and it was an absolute blast. There is a reason why none of the vanilla spellcasters have abilities that deal damage. Mass units with firebolt/blizzard/shockwave and you get an unstoppable force. It was fun, though.

4. Witch-Hag is a unit who can actually heal. I found myself starving for healing because of how lackluster Field Sutures heal is. However, these witches also have the ability to summon a pair of Flameskulls. There is a reason why none of the vanilla spellcasters have any abilities that summon combat units without a prerequisite. 12 Witch-Hags can summon 24 Flameskulls. However, I did not find it to be extremely overpowered because of three reasons: 1) Witch-Hag has the ability to become ethereal. However, upon doing so, their Flameskulls disappear and they lose the ability to summon more. That is a smart way of preventing them from being overpowered. 2) There is a limit of 2 Flameskulls per witch, unlike vanilla Necromancers, who are only limited by the fact that they require corpses to summon more skeletons. 3) Flemskulls have low stats and can be dispelled… Unless their Magic Resistance makes them immune to dispel… In that case, they would be difficult to hard-counter.

I have not tried any of the flying creatures. I have also stopped using Nosferatus after the first crash. Lastly, I have underutilized Corpse Carts and Trebuchets.

One last thing regaring the balance section is that the race severly lacks any meaningful forms of defense. The Malformed summoned by the base building are rarely enough to stop an attack, even on Tier-3. As I mentioned above, Flagellants' Field Sutures ability is weak, and is not enough to really save anyone in case of an attack. The defense tower of the race is literally a copy of Orc Watchtower. However, Orcs also have Borrows, which allow the workers to not only save themselves, but also to fight off the attackers. In your case, the Flagellants are completely helpless against enemy attacks.
I would suggest changing something about the faction's supply building. As of right now, it is literally just a farm that provides a bit more food but lacks Fortified armor, which makes it terrible at even being a mere wall that would block the attackers from your workers.

Tips:

Spoiler

Honestly, I am not the one to speak for balance, because my own project is full of such “overpowered” things, but I want to say that you should find your own definition of balance.
Balance depends on what you are trying to achieve with your race. If it is meant to fit into the vanilla Warcraft 3 environment and be as authentic for the game as possible, then vanilla balance is important.
If you want your custom races to exist in their own environment, and let people play as these factions against each other, then you can somewhat neglect vanilla balance, but you would still need to balance your custom races around each other to keep things fair.
If you want to create your custom races for a PVE environment, such as a custom campaign, then the only thing that should concern you is “how easy is it to stomp the enemy forces?” and "Why would I use unit X when I can just use unit Y?"

The most important things for a custom race, in my opinion, are novelty and fun.
I believe that people usually play custom races to experience the feeling of novelty: New visuals, new mechanics, new themes, new things to play with, etc.
After they get attracted to novelty or uniqueness of your race, the players will focus on how fun and engaging it is to actually play the new race.
The fun aspect, should be something that is defined by you, the author. The best thing about mod-making and game development is that you can get the wildest ideas while playtesting your own projects, and you can implement those ideas right on the spot.
Think something would be cool? Add it. As long as you yourself are enjoying your own projects and are feeling engaged while playtesting them, they will surely turn out to be great.
Take pride in your accomplishment and always strive to imporve.

Regarding the fun aspects of your race, most of their abilites are just edited version of vanilla abilities. They lack unique mechanics. I think the theme of a "Flesh-weaving Cult" could be improved, expanded, and woven into gameplay.
I understand that you might be limited by your current skills in triggers, but the ability to create any spell or mechanic that you can think of is well worth improving in this field. Think of the absolute power and freedom of creativity that you could have once you improve your trigger skills.

Another tip I would like to share is that you should implement as many "natural" synergies between certain types of units as possible.
I will provide a few example of natural synergies:
1. Vanilla Orc Tauren unit has amazing stats and a massive healthpool. Despite being formidable front-liners, they have a severe lack of self-sustain. You can save a low-hp Tauren by leading them back to your base, but it will take an insane amount of time for them to recover. That is why Troll Witch-doctors usually go hand-in-hand with Taurens. They just complement each other so well.
2. In my own project, Spellcasters have amazingly powerful spells that require lots of mana. They also can auto-cast their primary abilities when attacking, but only when their mana is above 50% of its maximum. They are mana-hungry. That is why I added a few units with the ability to replenish mana of other units.
In short, the way you can create natural synergies between units is - Intentionally create a weakness for one unit (low health, low damage, no healing, high mana expenses) and then make some other unit or units compensate that weakness. The player will naturally put the pieces together and come up with a strategy by themself.
The most common natural synergy is "Front-line tanks and back-line dps." Think of other ways to implement similar synergies.
You already have Corpse Carts who can provide corpses for other units to use. That is a good step, but you could certainly take it further.
The thing about units is that they are practically "tools" for the player to use. You shouldn't relegate a feature to only one unit, and make it the only "tool" for the job. When the player has multiple tools to choose from, each providing a solution to the problem, but excelling in different situations, then the player will be more engaged to play.
Looking at the Tauren example, the player has other ways of healing their units, such as Healing Salves or occasional Healing Fountaints on the map.
Similarly, you could add other units who could create corpses for your custom race, for example.

If you need any help, feel free to ask me while I'm still somewhat active. I would be glad.
Also, is there anything in particular that you would like to be tested?

Thank you for testing and responding thoroughly. I believe I've resolved all of the issues you listed. I've uploaded version 1.1. I have made some balance changes and added a new mechanic; the changes are listed in the change log. I agree with your assessment on the concept of fun verses balance.

There is nothing in particular that I need to be tested at the moment, thank you for offering though.

 

[lichao001486]

Very awesome.