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Undead 8 w/ Controllable Archimonde

This bundle is marked as useful / simple. Simplicity is bliss, low effort and/or may contain minor bugs.
Undead 08 with Controllable Archimonde

Replaces the original campaign map file by Blizzard Entertainment. Can be easily undone. For 1.30+ (Doodad placements borrowed from Zenonoth.)

Map info:

Maintains the original experience and difficulty of Undead 08 ‘Under Burning Skies’, but with the twist that Archimonde spawns as a controllable unit after the 30 minute summoning completes. The player uses Archimonde in his full vanilla glory to wipe out the 3 outlying Wizard bases to achieve victory, allowing him to channel the spell of destruction against Dalaran unmolested. A satisfying coda to the Undead campaign, the way it should have been in 2002.

Showcase Video (newer version has more doodads)



Installation instructions: In your main Warcraft III directory, create the new folders “War3Mod.mpq\Maps\Campaign”. Put the map inside Campaign. Make sure the name is ' Undead08.w3m '. Then simply launch Reign of Chaos and navigate to the 8th mission. To reach it quickly, the cheat 'motherland undead 10' can be used during a reign of chaos mission. You will know it is working if there are 2 main quests, the second starts undiscovered.

Undo the replacement by making any change to the map file name.

Feedback:

If anyone feels I went overboard with doodads let me know. I only used *some* of Zenonoth's that I felt were the best fit and least intrusive to maintain a minimalist approach.

Features:

Archimonde Unit Sound Set, based off his original Warcraft 3 lines.
Doodads that flesh out the map more without going overboard.
Fully functional AI throughout the mission.

Version: 1.0


I may make another version of this after Warcraft: Remastered is released.
Contents

Undead 8 w/ Controllable Archimonde (Map)

Reviews
deepstrasz
You could have written that first post in the map thread description... I'm sorry but the changes are absolutely meager and you've only used original assets. Even Archimonde, the same etc. There have been other edits of this map, much better done...
Level 4
Joined
Oct 9, 2015
Messages
24
Warning: Because Blizzard broke War3Mod.mpq, the instructions to replace the campaign map no longer work as of Patch 1.31.1.12164 June 5 2019. But naturally the map works standalone. I intend to remove this notification when a future patch fixes War3Mod.mpq again.
Approval/Nonapproval:
Based on my reading of submission rules I think approval chances are decent. The map is fully operational in its current state, tested several times. I’m open to making certain changes, such as terrain, adding more doodads and changing the ending cinematic, but I’m not open to fundamentally changing my minimalist vision of the map. Changes I likely couldn’t accept include: even remotely questionable custom models / textures / items / abilities, and changes to the difficulty level of the first 30 minutes. The idea is to keep the normal duration of the mission exactly as it used to be, and after that only controlling Archimonde and logical related changes are made. It’s a bit similar to the ‘reign of chaos archon mode’ coop campaigns, which initially had difficulty getting approved on Hive because few alterations were made to the original campaigns, but were ultimately approved in light of considerable value and trigger changes. If approval ends up requiring alterations I can’t accept, then it will be hosted elsewhere. My first version is already up on EpicWar. Overall I prefer Hive being too strict than too lax since custom map quality is a notorious problem in Warcraft III, even if it means I can’t get approval.


Further detail: I feel my map is what Blizzard should have done originally, as the normal ending is abrupt at a climax and lacks denouement. The player also never gets a chance to use Archimonde and his overpowered abilities. This map is a bucket list item for me, something I’ve thought about for a long time, likely the only Warcraft 3 map I’ll ever make (apart from a version of Illidan’s 11 Elementals (Godlike) many years ago that was fun but more amateur). Where once I dreamed of making entire custom campaigns, over the years I narrowed my interest to changes to the existing campaigns, was gonna turn them into coop until finding a few years back to my joy people had started doing it. Of all the ideas I had, this seemed the most compelling and natural. Zenonoth had a similar idea, except his mission takes place after Archimonde is summoned, mine is part of it. I rarely like custom models in Warcraft III, Zenonoth’s Archimonde was quite good but I still slightly prefer the original, though I would borrow his with permission if people preferred it.

Depending my and others’ interest, I may make another version of this after Warcraft: Reforged redoes the singleplayer missions. I wanted to make this map so much I made a simple version just for personal use, refining it a few days for release wasn’t too much work.



1. Unit Sound Set for Archimonde, based entirely off his Reign of Chaos dialogue lines. I’ve also made this available separately as a resource release in the sound resource section on Hiveworkshop. I also made another video for it.

2. Post 30 minutes, the mission AI is reinitialized, with new AI files based off the originals that add more and more difficult attack waves. This was the trickiest thing to get right. I suspect understanding the mission AI’s function calls requires the source code. In order to stop the suicide rush after 30 minutes, I quietly transfer ownership of each AI’s units and structures to a companion AI which uses the appropriate modified AI file. In testing this has been flawless, though I could maybe add even more waves so if the player for some reason dawdles around for 45+ minutes after Archmimonde spawns, they’ll still get attacked. Just because they are now doomed doesn’t mean the Dalaran Wizards would give up.

3. New Main Quest, ‘Decimation’, for Archimonde destroying the Wizard bases.

4. New doodad placements, RoC compatible for now, borrowed from Zenonoth’s map in the Revenge of Mal’Ganis campaign. I’ve discovered post 1.30 it works to change the map from .w3x to .w3m, and in fact my map does this now, and it worked with a few FT doodads in a test, so I exploit this to add FT doodads in the future.

5. When Archimonde spawns, no cutscene plays and the player keeps camera control. I borrowed some triggers from the victory cutscene, adapted some and added some new ones. For now the actual victory cutscene is still vanilla, changing this is considerable work which I might do if it would lead to approval.

6. A bunch of new triggers related to replacing the AI files, Archimonde spawning, and changing victory conditions. Archimonde also uses grid hotkeys.


Lone occasional bug: sometimes a sound loops past the final cutscene and into the cinematic. Tried moving the camera into the lake at the last moment, still happens sometimes, tried stopping the last played sound at the last moment, hasn’t happened again yet. Might also try lowering the sound level to 0, assuming that affects only this instance of the map and not the overall user sound level.


Thanks for your patience and advice!
 
Last edited:
Level 2
Joined
Aug 23, 2018
Messages
12
Like your idea. Archimonde should be slighly bigger( about 20% maybe).
The ending pretty weird when he have done all works and appear at the circle again? Personally i think give him a custom ablility that nuke all building in 5000 range :D:D, then after complete mission you show the short movie will fit better.
 

deepstrasz

Map Reviewer
Level 68
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
18,706
You could have written that first post in the map thread description...

I'm sorry but the changes are absolutely meager and you've only used original assets. Even Archimonde, the same etc.

There have been other edits of this map, much better done:
Burning Skies 1.2 [1.29+]
and one in this campaign: Revenge of Mal'Ganis (Version 1.1)

Substandard.


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