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War Craft 3/Frozen Throne Beta

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Hello all. Last night I had discussion long time with azlier about WCIII Beta stuff, we discussed about official pre-release WCIII version which contains of some buildings/units/abilities which were different from final one we have now.
So, I got idea to see for your precious opinions about those stuff, to discuss which units/buildings/abilities and such was better in Beta, which one of them should stay in official Wc3 and Frozen Throne rather than got removed or replaced.
So, here are some of those known beta stuff which got different from final version, replaced or removed in total:

First, everyone could train only one hero from Town Hall and revive it from Altar! heroes could get ultimate ability from level 5

Orcs

In Beta, Orcs had both Lumber Mill and Forge for upgrading stuff, rather than all sticked in Lumber Mill.

lumbermill.gif

lumbermill.jpg

This was Lumber Mill. It could upgrade ranged weapons and Spiked barricades. And used for lumbering storage.

forge.gif

forge.jpg

This was Forge. It upgraded Melle Weapon and shields.

Orcs used Pig Farms instead Burrows for food production buildings. Each farm produces 10 units of food.

Burrows were used only as bunkers, it is said
,,Any unit can be placed in the burrows for them to attack, with each new unit increasing the firing rate of the Orc Burrow. Peons tend to work best as they are the cheapest units. "

Tauren Totem had
,,Research Warstomp - Research Warstomp ability of the Tauren to give him a chance to do double damage when attacking."
And Tauren Totem served as prerequisite for Taurens, because Taurens were trained from barracks

Troll Headhunter had this ability instead of berserk
tracking.gif

,,Tracking - Increases Troll Headhunter sight radius at night."

Troll Witch Doctor had this ability instead of Healing Ward
ancestrialguardian.gif

,,Ancestrial Guardian - Summons an ancient hydra for a short amount of time. The Hydra is immobile, but attacks enemy units with a fire attack."
Well this is kinda like Shadow Hunter Hero's wards.
Icon and model of this Ancestrial Guards are hidden in World Editor.

Kodo beast had this icon instead of War Drums we have
wardrums.gif



Humans

Human's farm could produced 10 food and costed more instead of 6, which is for me much better choice rather than often building farms around base.

Mage Tower
magetower.gif

magetower.jpg

Remember High Elf barracks in campaign? This was designed to be Mage Tower for humans at first place. It trained Priests and Sorceress.

Arcane Sanctum - it is used for upgrades for Priests and Sorceress.

Gryphon Aviary had this upgrade
animal-husbandry.gif

,,Research Animal Husbandry - Increases the Max HP of Gryphon Riders and Knights by +150"


Night Elf

Tree of Ages has this upgrade
heal.gif

,,Research Wisp Healing - Researching healing spell for Wisps."
So, as friendly Spirits, Wisps could be used as Healing units. This was good thing.

Bear Deen
bearden.gif

bearden.jpg

You remember Barrow Deen from Nigh Elf missions? Well this was supposed to be buildable for player as Beer Den and served to upgrade Druid of Claw, Talon and Dryad upgrades.

Chimaera Roost served only to upgrade some upgrades and as prerequisite for Chimaeras, because Chimaeras were trained from Ancient of Wind

Druid of the Claw, had those abilities
barkskin.gif

,,Barkskin - Increases a unit's armor by 2. [autocast]"
Barskin icon is hidden in World Editor

,,Battle Roar - Randomly occurs during attack. Decreases the target's armor by -2. "
Basically Roar served to scare enemies, decreasing their arrmor rather than increasing your damage!



Undead

Death Knight Hero has Death pact little different ability
,,Death Pact - Kills a friendly unit to convert it's HP into a shield for the Death Knight.
(Level 1) - Shield has 50% of targeted unit's HP.
(Level 2) - Shield has 100% of targeted unit's HP.
(Level 3) - Shield has 150% of targeted unit's HP. "
So basically, it did not restore hit points like now, it created additional shield for him which means, that only first shield must be broken, before Hero started to take damage. That shield had also its own visual effect around Hero.

Dread Lord Hero had his Infernal Ultimate ability replaced with Dark Summoning
darksummoning.gif

,,Dark Summoning - The Dread Lord is able to teleport units across the battlefield. 12 units may be summoned to the Dread Lord's side when the spell is used. Must be at level 5 to learn."
That ability still exists in World Editor I think. I prefer more Infernal rather than this one.

Necropolis/Halls of dead/Black Citadel had different and much better for me apperiance.
necropolis.jpg

hallsofthedead.jpg

blackcitadel.jpg

You see, there was green pool is past, where that green water was falling in.
In our versions, it got removed, so necropolis had green water falling down and in air suddenly dissapears! That is stupid.

Graveyard had different appearance too
graveyard.jpg


Gargoyle Spire
gargoylespire.gif

gargoylespire.jpg

,,Once created, the Gargoyle Spire attracts the vicious Gargoyles of Northrend to roost here. These vicious creatures revel in slaughter and mayhem, and gladly join your army once this Spire is summoned. The Gargoyles take refuge inside the Crypt, awating their need in battle. "
Gargoyle Spire's model is hidden in World Editor, but there is no icon for it.
You must use this one.

Sacrificial Pit sacrificed Shades in past, but also used to upgrade upgrades for Banshees and Necromancers.

Crypt Fiend
Remember when Crypt Fiend attacks, it throws some web at enemy, and that web is coming back to him before he can attack again?
I wondered why is that. here is why, because he had this ability
spiderhatchlings.gif

,,Attack (Spiderlings) - Sends out a wave of small spider hatchlings which drain life from the target and return it to the Crypt Fiend. "
I think that was cool ability, they should not remove it.

Necromancer had Cripple ability replaced for this one
corpseexplosion.gif

,,Corpse Explosion - Detonates a corpse causing a large amount of splash damage on surrounding units."
That was cool ability too

Gargoyle had 200 mana, and his Stone Form costed 200 mana which means if he deploys into stone form, he need to take some time until gain full mana to get able to deploy into storm form again. This means that this ability was less used, so I am glad that they removed mana cost from it.


Neutrals

Marketplace
marketplace.jpg

,,Random Item - Sells the hero a random item."
Well this model Marketplace has we know as Fruit Stand from World Editor.
Marketplace was supposed to sell random item for random money to you.
Know as ,,Item luck" ability.

Thieves Guild
Function: Reveals information on other players
models_3049_screenshot.jpg

Spies - Reveals all enemy buildings on the map. The player will be able to see anything other players can see, at a price of 200 gold per building on the map. This ability has a limited duration.

Rumors - Reveal the "scores" of each player."
Well, that building got completely removed from game, I used this screenshot from our model in model section.

Goblin Merchant also contained different items for selling.

Goblin Laboratory did not have Goblin Shredder, he was supposed to be as Neutral Hostile unit fighter.

Mercenary Camp could train only Forest Troll Berserker, Forest Troll Shadow Priest and Ogre Mauler, perhaps not matter of map place you are playing.


FROZEN THRONE

5689_2004-03-22_01.jpg

We see from this screenshot that Blood Mage had Mana Drain ability replaced for this called ,,Blood Elf mana Shield"
Icon for this spell is hidden in World Editor.

5689_2004-03-22_08.jpg

We see from this screenshot that Avatar of Vengeance had different model, which is bad in my opinion, and also had different stats than this one we have now.

120723ss.jpg

Here is even another variation of Blood Mage third ability.

Here, Panderan Hero had different look
panda10.png


Troll Hero Shadow Hunter for Orcs had different look with Mask
shadow10.png
 
Level 28
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  • The Beta Panda and the Shadow Hunter is cooler than the official
  • I love the Beta Necropolis, those water is cool. Anyway I love almost all of the beta buildings than the official one.
  • Thieves guild is kinda OP.
  • Spirit of Vengeance looks ugly on beta so its nice that they change it. But most of the beta spells that got remove are OP.
 
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I quite like the Pandarean Brewmaster in Beta, so they should've stuck with that. But I think it was good that Blizzard changed the beta Shadow Hunter to the current one. The mask looks pretty ugly.

Nothing much to say about Neutrals but I'm quite glad they decided to change the units sold on the mercenary camp. The Marketplace was also a pretty neat idea, but I don't think it would've worked on melee, maybe campaign. Thieves Guild looked quite unnecessary.

That lumber mill looks quite good. But I having a separate building for upgrading and lumber dropoff is pretty bad. Good thing they changed the witch doctor's skill to healing wards, otherwise he'd be pretty useless. And I don't see why they removed tracking. Looks fine to me.

Barkskin and Wisp Healing looks pretty imba to me, IMO. Battle Roar was pretty cool, though. I think they should've implemented the Barrow Den building.

And I agree with you. Necropolis looks pretty damn good in beta. The obelisks surrounding the Graveyard looks pretty awesome as well, but out of place. Spiderlings is quite imba to me and I don't think corpse explosion might've been used a lot since there would be so many units covering the screen.

Avatar of Vengeance looks quite ugly. But I like the frame. Maybe it could be retextured?

Thanks for posting this! :)
 
Mu thinking:

Panda sux
Troll Headhunter awesome (i think to it look like in wow )
Lumber Mill sux - somehow like to it's from wcII ( graphic )
Market Place - I like it, but I would made it for selling Potions
Thieves Guild - I like idea, I would like it in TFT
Tracking - Because He is head Hunter I would make this ability +MS and true sight
Blood Mage - I like his ''Frozen Face'' icon - Really very good details for BETA
Spirit Of Vengeance - Too Sux, reason:............xD

Wheer do u get this informations
 

Vunjo

Hosted Project: SC
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Most of us could say that it looks better than wc3, because we are already addicted to the original, thus we want to see new changes.

-Wisp's healing could have been nice, if balanced.
-Necromancer's AoE sure is op.
-Model of forge looks better imo.
 
Level 15
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Wow, this is interesting. Where did yo uget these things? :D
What i miss the most are the pool of the Necropolis, the barrow den and the barkskin.
The bloodmage's abilities are also cool.
But i am glad that they changed the avatar of vengeance.
I still wonder why blizzard does not change anything in Wc3 now?

I would suggest this for Blizzard: 1. Make 10 food cost for human farms
2. Balance death knight and demon hunter. I am sick of tired that they die of 2-3 melee hits. :D
 
Level 21
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Meh i dont see anything thats better than the fiished game. Now on the other hand, Warcraft 3 ALPHA was something intresting...

I know right?
So much stuff in alspha had a lot of good cliffs and doodads and everything was awesome.
 
Level 16
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  1. Having one hero is pretty cool. I have done it in my map already.
  2. halls of the dead water is also very good, I may even consider putting it in my map.
  3. lumber mill looks good, and spikes are very good placed in lumber mill, but separating the upgrades is not good idea.
  4. Mana shield icon for bloodmage looks awesome, and the ability may be fine, but I think bloodmage must have mana siphon. could be all together is fine. bloodmage last ability function like feiry dragon?
  5. track icon look very cool.
  6. masked shadow hunter looks real terror
 
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Level 5
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I'm not a fan of the portraits but some of these models look great. Would there be any way to extract and import these?
 
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