[Altered Melee] War3 Reign of Chaos Beta Remake

[PiesOfNorth]

The Reign of Chaos Beta has been shrouded in mystery... until now.

The aim is to recreate the gameplay of the of the first release of the Reign of Chaos Beta from 2002-01-25.
As far as I know, that's the earliest build of the game that people outside of Blizzard or game magazines were able to get their hands on.

Download this Map. Use the latest version of WC3.

Currently, it's a proof-of-concept.
Only Orc is playable for now.

Why?​

The Reign of Chaos beta has always been a historical curiosity for me, and I'm sure many others.
Right now even if you somehow get one of the beta builds running in a custom game, you are the only player. There's no AI, and it crashes all the time. Also, as far as I know, the oldest beta you can theoretically get even that far with is the 1.03 build from Feb 2002, which is slightly newer than what I'm looking to recreate here.
I felt it would be best to go as early as possible, since the further you go into the beta, the more familiar it would get. If you somehow have an even earlier build, please share it!

With this project, people will finally have an easy way to play around with the 'Beta' version of Warcraft 3, but with the QOL improvements brought by the modern version of the game.

Gameplay differences​

Orc-specific​

Spoiler: Orc gameplay changes

• Far Seer
  • Does not have Feral Spirit.
• Blademaster
  • Mirror image only creates 1 image, that is more resilient with each level.
  • Critical Strike always does triple damage, but the chance increases with level.
• Tauren Chieftain
  • Does not have War Stomp.
  • Has 'Command Aura' instead of Endurance, which increases damage.
  • Reincarnation has a mana cost. It works the same way as it does in retail, but if his mana is too low when he dies he will not revive.
  • Has different 'Pissed' lines.
• Peon
  • The only unit that has Pillage, which doesn't need to be researched.
• Grunt
  • Has a Berserker Rage ability that increases attack speed.
• Troll Headhunter
  • Has an upgrade that increases night sight range.
• Catapult
  • Splash damage only hits enemies.
• Kodo Beast
  • Requires Fortress.
  • Does not attack.
  • Has a mana pool.
  • Instead of War Drums, has two auras: Healing Drums and Speed Drums. They drain his mana while active.
• Wyvern
  • Requires Wyvern Taming research to unlock.
• Shaman
  • Voiced by Chris Metzen.
• Witch Doctor
  • Instead of Healing Ward, has Ancestral Guardian, which is similar to the Shadow Hunter's Serpent Ward.
• Tauren
  • Instead of Pulverize, has an ability called 'Warstomp', which functions like Critical Strike.
• Orc Burrow
  • Attacks automatically
  • Has a range of 800 (same as Watch Tower).
  • Can still load Peons, but also Grunts and Headhunters. The unit type does not matter, loading units just increases the attack speed.
  • Does not provide food.
• Techtree
  • War Mill is split into two buildings: Lumber Mill and Forge.
  • Pig Farms provide food instead of Orc Burrows.
  • Orc Burrows function as the primary tower. Watch Tower does not exist.

General balance differences​

Spoiler: General gameplay changes

• Attack and Armor Types are different. How they work is hard-coded, not exposed like in the modern version, so I did some comprehensive testing by adding custom units into the beta build to work out what the %s are:
  
  
• Heroes are summoned from your Town Hall.
• Agility increases movement speed.
• Altars are tier-2 buildings whose only purpose is to revive your heroes.
• Max hero level is 15.
• Ultimate abilities are unlocked at level 5.
• Heroes don't start with any skill points, they must level up first.
• Players start with 4 peons. Night Elves still start with 5.
• Workers have more dps.
• Upkeep levels are 30, 60, 90.
• Most units have less health, damage, and movement speed.
• Most units are cheaper, attack faster and see farther.

Known issues​

• AI does not work.
• Creeps have not been given their Beta balance, so they are more difficult than they should be.
• Items are hard to pick up due to different unit collision sizes. It's possible that the old engine calculated things differently, or it really was also a problem in the Beta. But since it's a bit annoying, I plan to address it.
• Some units can be loaded into Burrows that aren't meant to be.
• Berserker Rage does not pause or interrupt the Grunt. In the actual Beta, Berserker Rage forces the Grunt to play his whole Spell animation before he can resume moving/attacking.
• Kodo Beast Speed Drums effect does not visually appear on units, even though it is working.
• Shaman Purge does not reduce the target's attack speed, which it does in the actual Beta.

My plan for this project​

• Implement the other races.
• Have a variety of melee maps available.
• Make an edit of the Reign of Chaos campaign using this gameplay balance. Abilities found in the beta slk files but weren't actually used in the 1.00 beta build may also end up being implemented. Though I know there's already hundreds of variations of the campaign, I feel the changes this brings would make it stand out somewhat. Worth keeping in mind that for most of the campaign's development, the team was building the levels with balance similar to this, then making adjustments later.

Anyway, let me know if you like this idea!

Thanks to​

• Xetanth87 for documenting and uploading different sound files from the beta.
• Ujimasa Hojo for uploading beta buildings.
• Whoever made this tool.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Looks very cool, but bad that AI doesn't work...