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The Guardian

This bundle is marked as high quality. It exceeds standards and is highly desirable.
Map made for the Mini Mapping Contest #16 - Mini RPG

Important

- The map requires patch 1.32+ in order to play.
- Enable sound effects and music before playing.
- The map is locked into SD (classic) graphics option.
- If possible, play in offline-mode to remove input lag.
- Saving and loading this map will most likely break it as there are several known problems with the Warcraft 3 save system; try to complete it in one sitting (~45 minutes + a couple of minutes for cinematics).

Map Description

An ancient foe has arisen and threatens to unleash shadow and corruption upon the world, ending all living things.

It's time for the Guardian to be awakened.

Map Features & Gameplay

- Embark on a quest to save the Ancient Lands from a long forgotten threat that has arisen.
- Several cinematics in for both lore and conversations.
- Action-RPG movement and ability useage, with a modified User Interface.
- Use Mana for spells and gain Rage to transform into a powerful Bear with new abilities.
- Discover and explore four visually unique areas.
- Encounter four bosses with different mechanics.
- Find resources that allows you to craft different equipment to alter your gameplay.
- A Wisp side-kick that will light your path and heal you in combat.

Credits

SYSTEMS/SCRIPTS
Bribe@hiveworkshop
Rising_Dusk@hiveworkshop
Maker@hiveworkshop
Tasyen@hiveworkshop
Maker@hiveworkshop

MODELS
Mythic@hiveworkshop
Em!@hiveworkshop
neogaidenx@hiveworkshop

ICONS
-Berz-@hiveworkshop

SOUNDS/MUSIC
Blizzard Entertainment
Contents

The Guardian (Map)

Reviews
FeelsGoodMan
Awesome map! Here are some immediate things I noticed; I can't see how much lumber I have for crafting anywhere? EDIT: I see now that it's the fragments of nature that's required to craft. Sometimes my vision is blocked by giant roots, rendering me...
Shar Dundred
Map appears to be functional & doesn't break any rules. Approved.
Hello. Please update map info with approximate playtime if we are to complete it in one sitting
There's a rule in the contest that the map needs to be shorter than 50 minutes of game play time, not including cinematics.

@lolreported also says around 45 minutes for new players here.
 
Awesome map!

Here are some immediate things I noticed;
  • I can't see how much lumber I have for crafting anywhere? EDIT: I see now that it's the fragments of nature that's required to craft.
  • Sometimes my vision is blocked by giant roots, rendering me unable to see where the enemies are. There is a World tree model here with an alpha layer that you can make transparent when units walks behind it.
  • I wish I could see enemy health bars.
  • I also wish I had a minimap so I could easily find back to where I died.
  • I leave combat quite quickly, so I can teleport while still having enemies that are pursuing me.
  • There's a typo in the crafting system. It should say Equipped with two 'p's.
  • Infused polearm description is cut off at "and generates 3---". I am guessing it's supposed to say rage?
  • When I shapeshift into the bear I am stunned for a couple of seconds, rendering me vulnerable to attacks.
  • When I'm in bear form it's always in combat, which makes me unable to thoroughly read what the bear form spells does (else I will die) so when I am actually in bear form it feels kind of chaotic as I find myself kinda just button mashing.
  • The first boss managed to hit me even though I moved out of its hit marker (the purple circle on the ground). I got stunned, and then stunned again, and then stunned a third time with no time to do anything. I died from one single hit as the stun made me take 3-4 other hits too.
  • The boss didn't regen HP after I died, so I could just go in, fight, die, return then keep hitting down his HP and eventually win.
  • I just entered the poison/blue/white area with snow tiles and there's a trap behind some roots that keeps killing me? My vision is blocked due to the roots so I'm not sure exactly what's going on. EDIT: Just realized it's the edges that keeps damaging me. I was behind roots and stuff when I hit the edges so I didn't understand a thing at first.
  • I keep getting stuck in doodads :p
  • Just met second boss, and he keeps doing a move that pushes me towards the edges, and I have no way of escaping it? I tried charging while in bear mode but that didn't work.
  • Same thing happened where the boss didn't regen HP after it died.
  • The transition between regions feels so hard with the fog, filter and music instantly changing. A smooth, fading transition would be nice.
  • The hydralisks and units in general in the last area are extremely easy to kill. I can stand still and spam my Q ability while my HP regens automatically.
  • I'm not really sure what to do with the boss in the third tree. He keeps spawning boxes, and I keep breaking them but nothing happens. He spawns invulnerable ghosts that shoots projectiles, and they keep stacking up. I have damaged him for what feels like an eternity, but he won't die.
  • Ok finally got the last boss, and I gotta say. He's super easy compared to the other bosses. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not, but I kept getting healed 7-8k every 3-4 seconds, the hydralisks did close to no damage, and my Q spell got super OP after I got the 1000% damage increase thing. The only thing was that the bear form is completely useless in the last boss fight as the damage is so incredibly much weaker than the spell damage, so I ended up just running around, waiting for the bear for to end. Slightly annoying with the bear form morph stun, but oh well. Uploading a video of the boss fight soon.


Overall it was a very enjoyable experience. The music, atmosphere, terrain and general feel of the map is very well done. I like how you managed to make it feel like a completely different game while sticking almost entirely to default Warcraft 3 models. The movement system feels smooth, and I love the UI. I missed maybe a little more fast paced combat as I felt the combat was often quite slow paced, but that's totally a matter of preference of course.

Other than the things I pointed out, job well done!


EDIT: Here's the final bossfight;
 
Last edited:
Level 19
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
881
Awesome map!

Here are some immediate things I noticed;
  • I can't see how much lumber I have for crafting anywhere? EDIT: I see now that it's the fragments of nature that's required to craft.
  • Sometimes my vision is blocked by giant roots, rendering me unable to see where the enemies are. There is a World tree model here with an alpha layer that you can make transparent when units walks behind it.
  • I wish I could see enemy health bars.
  • I also wish I had a minimap so I could easily find back to where I died.
  • I leave combat quite quickly, so I can teleport while still having enemies that are pursuing me.
  • There's a typo in the crafting system. It should say Equipped with two 'p's.
  • Infused polearm description is cut off at "and generates 3---". I am guessing it's supposed to say rage?
  • When I shapeshift into the bear I am stunned for a couple of seconds, rendering me vulnerable to attacks.
  • When I'm in bear form it's always in combat, which makes me unable to thoroughly read what the bear form spells does (else I will die) so when I am actually in bear form it feels kind of chaotic as I find myself kinda just button mashing.
  • The first boss managed to hit me even though I moved out of its hit marker (the purple circle on the ground). I got stunned, and then stunned again, and then stunned a third time with no time to do anything. I died from one single hit as the stun made me take 3-4 other hits too.
  • The boss didn't regen HP after I died, so I could just go in, fight, die, return then keep hitting down his HP and eventually win.
  • I just entered the poison/blue/white area with snow tiles and there's a trap behind some roots that keeps killing me? My vision is blocked due to the roots so I'm not sure exactly what's going on. EDIT: Just realized it's the edges that keeps damaging me. I was behind roots and stuff when I hit the edges so I didn't understand a thing at first.
  • I keep getting stuck in doodads :p
  • Just met second boss, and he keeps doing a move that pushes me towards the edges, and I have no way of escaping it? I tried charging while in bear mode but that didn't work.
  • Same thing happened where the boss didn't regen HP after it died.
  • The transition between regions feels so hard with the fog, filter and music instantly changing. A smooth, fading transition would be nice.
  • The hydralisks and units in general in the last area are extremely easy to kill. I can stand still and spam my Q ability while my HP regens automatically.
  • I'm not really sure what to do with the boss in the third tree. He keeps spawning boxes, and I keep breaking them but nothing happens. He spawns invulnerable ghosts that shoots projectiles, and they keep stacking up. I have damaged him for what feels like an eternity, but he won't die.
  • Ok finally got the last boss, and I gotta say. He's super easy compared to the other bosses. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not, but I kept getting healed 7-8k every 3-4 seconds, the hydralisks did close to no damage, and my Q spell got super OP after I got the 1000% damage increase thing. The only thing was that the bear form is completely useless in the last boss fight as the damage is so incredibly much weaker than the spell damage, so I ended up just running around, waiting for the bear for to end. Slightly annoying with the bear form morph stun, but oh well. Uploading a video of the boss fight soon.


Overall it was a very enjoyable experience. The music, atmosphere, terrain and general feel of the map is very well done. I like how you managed to make it feel like a completely different game while sticking almost entirely to default Warcraft 3 models. The movement system feels smooth, and I love the UI. I missed maybe a little more fast paced combat as I felt the combat was often quite slow paced, but that's totally a matter of preference of course.

Other than the things I pointed out, job well done!


EDIT: Here's the final bossfight;
Thanks! I'll make sure to play your map as well when I have time.

I can't see how much lumber I have for crafting anywhere? EDIT: I see now that it's the fragments of nature that's required to craft.
The crafting tree tells you it's the Fragments of Nature that's required to craft; but I should've included a text somewhere in the UI for how many resources you have.

Sometimes my vision is blocked by giant roots, rendering me unable to see where the enemies are. There is a World tree model here with an alpha layer that you can make transparent when units walks behind it.
This was intentional; the terrain should feel overwhelming and frightening, not knowing what lies ahead.

I wish I could see enemy health bars.
Agree, didn't have time to implement this and the normal Warcraft 3 health bars didn't look good with the map.

I also wish I had a minimap so I could easily find back to where I died.
I can understand, but that would also ruin the exploration and not sure how it would've looked like with the UI; the map is rather small and should be easy to memorize.

I leave combat quite quickly, so I can teleport while still having enemies that are pursuing me.
Yeah, didn't have the time to tweak this.

Infused polearm description is cut off at "and generates 3---". I am guessing it's supposed to say rage?
That's odd, I've had no issues and even have a screenshot attached above with that specific item. It's 3 Mana.

When I shapeshift into the bear I am stunned for a couple of seconds, rendering me vulnerable to attacks.
This would also improve slightly if I had the time, but it's also intentional to uncontrollably unleash the rage and transform. A player just have to be careful with positioning before transforming, keeping an eye on the rage bar.

When I'm in bear form it's always in combat, which makes me unable to thoroughly read what the bear form spells does (else I will die) so when I am actually in bear form it feels kind of chaotic as I find myself kinda just button mashing.
Agree, I had plans for some kind of "training dummy", but scrapped it as time ran out.

The first boss managed to hit me even though I moved out of its hit marker (the purple circle on the ground). I got stunned, and then stunned again, and then stunned a third time with no time to do anything. I died from one single hit as the stun made me take 3-4 other hits too.
Not sure I follow, but the circles he spawns randomly around him stuns you briefly. The area effect could probably been tweaked a little.

The boss didn't regen HP after I died, so I could just go in, fight, die, return then keep hitting down his HP and eventually win.
I didn't have time to balance the bosses, so with unlimited attempts and no health reset a player could finish the boss easily with time if they had major problems defeating it.

I just entered the poison/blue/white area with snow tiles and there's a trap behind some roots that keeps killing me? My vision is blocked due to the roots so I'm not sure exactly what's going on. EDIT: Just realized it's the edges that keeps damaging me. I was behind roots and stuff when I hit the edges so I didn't understand a thing at first.
Yeah, the first tree after you cleanse him tells you to "keep on the path" as a warning.

I keep getting stuck in doodads :p
I've used infinite Pathing Blockers it feels like and I just got lazy at the end and spammed them; so they may not be properly aligned with all doodads.

Just met second boss, and he keeps doing a move that pushes me towards the edges, and I have no way of escaping it? I tried charging while in bear mode but that didn't work.
You're supposed to run towards him; if you're in Bear Form, using Charge is very helpful. Had no issues myself when I tested.

The transition between regions feels so hard with the fog, filter and music instantly changing. A smooth, fading transition would be nice.
Agreed, a smoother transition would've been nice.

The hydralisks and units in general in the last area are extremely easy to kill. I can stand still and spam my Q ability while my HP regens automatically.
Yeah, this is where it shows I ran out of time; made one quick unit without testing really and just put it out.
Also, if you defeated the final tree and got the buff, you're supposed to obliterate them.

I'm not really sure what to do with the boss in the third tree. He keeps spawning boxes, and I keep breaking them but nothing happens. He spawns invulnerable ghosts that shoots projectiles, and they keep stacking up. I have damaged him for what feels like an eternity, but he won't die.
The boxes heals him unless killed after a set duration, that's probably why it felt like an eternity lol.

Ok finally got the last boss, and I gotta say. He's super easy compared to the other bosses. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not, but I kept getting healed 7-8k every 3-4 seconds, the hydralisks did close to no damage, and my Q spell got super OP after I got the 1000% damage increase thing. The only thing was that the bear form is completely useless in the last boss fight as the damage is so incredibly much weaker than the spell damage, so I ended up just running around, waiting for the bear for to end. Slightly annoying with the bear form morph stun, but oh well. Uploading a video of the boss fight soon.
This boss is supposed to be super easy, as you have the Spirit of Nature cleansed and it fights with you. It's the Spirit of Nature that heals you and it will instantly revive you upon death until the boss is dead. Yeah, whatever Blessing you choose from the third boss, one form will feel very lackluster. This is also something I didn't have time to balance properly.

Thanks for the review!
 
Level 21
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
1,473
Well chosen music, quite enchanting!
It's quite dark, very hard to see paths.
The interaction with the trees is well made sire!

some impressions:
WC3ScrnShot_030320_114159_001.png WC3ScrnShot_030320_121945_001.png

At first i thought a minimap would be necessary, but the areas are small enough to remember everything.
Combat felt a bit too tedious against the last two bosses, their healthpool is just very high and the player's options are fairly limited.

It's not so much the gameplay that was important, but the atmosphere you created.

Well done
 
Last edited:
Level 19
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
881
Well chosen music, quite enchanting!
It's quite dark, very hard to see paths.
The interaction with the trees is well made sire!

some impressions:

At first i thought a minimap would be necessary, but the areas are small enough to remember everything.
Combat felt a bit too tedious against the last two bosses, their healthpool is just very high and the player's options are fairly limited.

It's not so much the gameplay that was important, but the atmosphere you created.

Well done
Thanks! I'm vey happy with how the terrain turned out, especially in the first and second area. The gameplay could use many improvements indeed.
 
Level 19
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
881
Level 1
Joined
Aug 13, 2017
Messages
3
@lolreported

How did you make the UI disappear and how did you make your custom UI. Is it possible to do the same when new graphics are enabled? I am also working on a map with a team and we want to make a character selection screen which is done already with the functionalites, but we want to make the looks better and hide everything except two buttons.

Thank you
 
Level 19
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
881
@lolreported

How did you make the UI disappear and how did you make your custom UI. Is it possible to do the same when new graphics are enabled? I am also working on a map with a team and we want to make a character selection screen which is done already with the functionalites, but we want to make the looks better and hide everything except two buttons.

Thank you
Hey,

Yes, it works both with classic and reforged graphics.

The most recent Warcraft 3 patches added many natives to alter the in-game interface; it's not very beginner friendly though and requires JASS (or LUA) in order to use them. No support for GUI as of yet.

I'd recommend checking out the tutorials made by Tasyen in order to get started:
Tutorial Submission
JASS/AI Scripts Tutorials
 
Level 1
Joined
Jul 22, 2020
Messages
2
Joined Hive just to say thank you for creating this map! Really nice casual RPG.

I especially like the atmosphere. Would be really nice to see a longer map with similar environments.
Story: Perhaps some humnas are inviding the woods to chop down lumber, which yet again awakens The Guardian? :peasant-victory:
 
Level 19
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
881
Joined Hive just to say thank you for creating this map! Really nice casual RPG.

I especially like the atmosphere. Would be really nice to see a longer map with similar environments.
Story: Perhaps some humnas are inviding the woods to chop down lumber, which yet again awakens The Guardian? :peasant-victory:
Hi, glad you liked the map! I've no plans currently to continue this project, but who knows, I might revisit it in the future.
 

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 68
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,706
  1. "You dare start affection?" -(!?) well, it's mind jabbing. Too much of it.
  2. Eyes hurt from all that darkness.
  3. You can spam Lunar Flare on the Obsidian Statues from afar and they can't do anything about it.
  4. That acolyte boss is undying...
  5. And it crashed while loading... I guess you have to finish it in one playthrough.

World of Warcraft meets The Legend of Zelda?
 
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