[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.

Current Maps​

• (4) Lost Temple
• (6) Gnoll Wood

Uses the latest version of WC3.
Currently, it's still a work-in-progress.
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.
  • Invulnerable while Bladestorming.
• 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
  • Bloodlust has different effect art.
  • 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, but not attack 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​

• Berserk Rage is auto-researched.
• Orc AI does not load units into Burrows, because they work differently than in retail.
• Orb of Frost tooltip is incorrect.

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...

 

[PiesOfNorth]

I've completed a big update to this project. Haven't implemented other races yet, instead focusing on the foundation, bringing numerous fixes to existing issues and changes to improve authenticity.

Most significantly, you can play against the AI now.

See the OP for the updated maps.

ALPHA 1​

New Map​

- (6)Gnoll Wood

​

New Features​

- Orc AI now available.

Fixes​

• Fixed items being difficult to pick up.
• Fixed ESC key not working for cancelling train/revive/upg.
• Fixed Ancestral Guardian button position.
• Fixed missing Kodo Beast Aura art effects.

Changes​

General​

• Tooltips don't highlight the default hotkey, since the current War3 client adds the hotkey after the tooltip anyway.
• Heroes start with 2 more armor. It was unintentionally low before due to the game constant 'AgiDefenseBase' which doesn't exist in the beta.
• Agility does not increase attack speed.
• Summoned units grant full xp instead of 50%. I don't actually know if this is how it is in the beta, since it is difficult to test. I am assuming this to be right because the game constant 'SummonedKillFactor' does not exist in the beta.
• Reset units' Range Motion Buffer to default (250). It was set too low before due to me not noticing the game constant 'AttackRangeBuffer' which only exists in beta, but not in retail. In the beta, this was 100, but I didn't notice any meaningful difference between 100 and 250, so to save some time I'll just leave it at 250.
• Magic Immunes don't resist Ultimate abilities.
• Items have their beta stats.

Orc​

• Bladestorm makes the Blademaster invulnerable for its duration.
• Wind Walk, Bloodlust, and Repair use their beta icons.
• Earthquake and Bloodlust use their beta art effects.
• Berserker Rage forces the Grunt to play through his "spell" animation before he can continue.
• Purge also reduces attack speed.
• Ancestral Guardian does not give xp.
• Kodo Beasts can only have one aura active at a time.
• Wyvern Envenomed Spears can kill units.
• Orc Burrow can only load Peon, Grunt, and Headhunter.

​

Neutral​

• Mercenaries can be hired.
• Fountain of Life regenerates both life and mana, and uses its beta model.
• Creeps have their beta stats. In general this means they have more dps, but less health and abilities.

I also wanted to bring attention to this fun extra animation that the Goblin Merchant had that has been restored. It's in the Gnoll Wood map, since this version of Lost Temple does not have a merchant.