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Against the Darkness: 3.1.3

This bundle is marked as director's cut. It exceeds all expectations and excels in every regard.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Patch 1.31 has introduced an issue where the game will desync randomly. I am currently researching a fix for this. In the meantime, it appears AtD is not consistently playable.

Against the Darkness 3.0 has been released! This is by far the biggest, baddest, and most exciting version ever released and contains Death Knight AI, multiple new and reworked abilities, and over 30 additional updates. Check out the AtD forums for more information.



Version 3.1.3 (08/28/2016)
1. Fix: "Feast" ability cancellation exploit patched
2. Fix: Item bonuses removed after an Elite item is removed due to item restrictions
3. Fix: Death Knight will show up in all victory cinematics
4. Fix: Orc Death Knight should face correct direction in victory cinematics
5. Balancing: Cost of all Elite items set to 850 gold
6. Balancing: Frost Guard Evasion reduced from 25% to 20%
7. Balancing: Storm Guard Critical Strike bonus reduced from 4x to 3x.
8. General: Elite Items can now be dropped after they are purchased.


Version 3.1.2 (01/09/2016)
1. Fix: Can no longer spam cast Frozen Blast
2. Fix: Village Porter will no longer run through trees, out of bounds, and into water.
3. Fix: Nature's Protection tree orb effect granting true sight has been restored.
4. Fix: Swift Shot will not trigger additional damage when Iced Arrow is cast.
5. Items: Staff of Silence cost increased to 60 gold (from 40)
6. Items: Crumbling Figurine cost reduced to 50 gold (from 85), Agility boost increased by 1, and armor boost increased by 2.

Version 3.1.1 (05/11/2015)
1.Bug fixes for bugs introduced in 3.1.0

Version 3.1.0 (04/27/2015)
1. Code: Replaced all "wait actions" with Vexorians "TimerUtils" handles and structs. This results in exceptionally accurate delays/waits, smoother-looking spells, less lag, and also decreases the chance of desyncs. You will notice the difference.
2. Ability Buff: Warden Sorceress "Incarcerate" duration increased to 10.0 seconds, mana cost reduced to 120, cooldown reduced to 60.0 seconds.
3. Ability Nerf: Nature Mage "Nature's Protection" duration changed to 6.0 seconds at every level, healing percentage now scales to 30/40/50/60% of intelligence every 0.5 seconds.
5. Quests: Lost Beetles Quest: Staff of Location hint changed to be more helpful.
6. Quests: New Quest, Zombie Exorcist. Help the Village Hero save the souls of those who have returned from the dead. Requires 1,000 AtD points.
7. Units: Militiaman lumber cost increased to 25, gold cost to 10
8. Units: Rifleman lumber cost increased to 50, gold cost to 15
9. Units: Catapult Defense lumber cost increased to 10
10. Units: Hover-Gunner Defense lumber cost increased to 25
11. Units: White Magic Defense lumber cost increased to 40
12. Fix: AI Death Knight should no longer randomly attack The Seafarer
13. Fix: AI Death Knight will now seek out Death Hunters when there are no more creeps left on the map
14. Fix: Medicine Doctor: Aura of Regeneration Icon corrected
15. Fix: Medicine Doctor: Lunar Owls tooltip title corrected
16. Fix: AI Death Knight occasionally becoming permanently invisible after casting Ghost Walk has been fixed.
17. Balancing: XP is no longer given for critter kills

Version 3.0.32 (12/30/2014)

1. Removed some AI debug messages that escaped my attention in 3.0.31
2. Fixed bug where a second victory cinematic when the Doom Timer ended and victory had already occurred
3. Minor changes to AI Death Knight flee behavior

Version 3.0.31 (12/21/2014)

-New Ability: Architect's Bravery Aura replaced with Leadership
-Units: Wheat Storage is now Wheat Farm with new model. Hitpoints increased from 100 to 125. Collision and pathing size increased.
-Units: House of Knowledge now requires a Trading Outpost instead of a Recruitment Lodge
-Units: Catapult Defense System now only requires a Harvesting Center
-Units: Hover-Gunner Defense System now requires a Harvesting Center, College of Research, and Trading Outpost.
-Units: White Magic Defense System now requires a House of Knowledge instead of a Recruitment Lodge
-Items: All Gold Coins removed from map
-Item Nerf: Staff of Nature's Might damage bonus decreased from 30 to 25.
-Item Nerf: Sacred Force Blade damage bonus decreased from 45 to 40.
-Items: Tiny White Magic Defense System added to creep drop and now purchasable by the Death Knight
-Gameplay: Normal Mode Hero Respawn extended to cover the duration of game time until Doom initiates.
-Gameplay: Hints have been shortened to be less distracting.
-Fix: Infernal Strike tooltip fixed
-Fix: AI Death Knight will use all healing items more intelligently
-Fix: Fixed/Updated Architect's tooltip when clicked for information during Hero Selection
-Code: Minor improvements to conditional logic for several spells (replaced == false with return not)


Version 3.0.2c (09/25/2014)

1. Bug Fix: AI Death Knight should no longer stall for long periods of time. This bug was due to the Hero attempting to attack invisible units under the shadow meld affect.
2. Bug Fix: Great Cleave will no longer trigger for units out of melee range. This prevents the spell proceeding for units that are spirit-linked or hit by Arcane Thunder Clash
3. Bug Fix: DK should now always be visible in his winning cinematic
4. Bug Fix: AI Doom Reinforcements will no longer stall out
5. Balancing: Fisher's Net ability duration reduced from 4.0 to 3.0 seconds.
6. Balancing: Immolation removed from Fyre-Storm's blade.
7. Balancing: Shared Vision no longer given to Death Knight in Doom
8. Terrain: Modified terrain in Forest of Deception
9. Units: Changed model of Deceiver Shop of Goods

Version 3.0.2b

1. Bug Fix: Remedied massive lag spikes when a Hero with the Sacred Force Blade attacks Necrofiends that are under the effect of Spirit Link.
2. Fix: Updated text that is displayed when the incorrect answer is chosen during the Game Keeper's Challenge.

Version 3.0.2

1. Fix: AI Death Knight will now use healing wards more intelligently
2. Fix: AI Death Knight will no longer travel further than 1500.0 to pick up a dropped item
3. Fix: AI Death Knight will now always attempt to shop when in range of a shop
4. Fix: AI Fenris Killgore will once again utilize Selectable Teleport to escape battle
5. Fix: Blue Albatross will no longer drop key after quest is complete.
6. Balancing: AI Fenris Killgore base armor increased to 4 from 2
7. Balancing: Fenris Killgore base armor increased to 2 from 0


Version 3.0.1d

1. Fixed condition that was preventing the AI Death Knight from fleeing effectively.

Version 3.0.1c

1. Fixed a critical bug that caused Player 11 to desync whenever the Drunken Rocket ability was cast.

Version 3.0.1

1. Updated the Death Knight flee system to take into account multiple nearby Heroes, available resources, flee destinations, and many other conditions. Basically, the Death Knight AI works whole lot better now!


Version 3.0
1. AI: Added Death Knight AI. Now you can play alone offline or with a small group of friends against an
intelligent, CPU controlled Death Knight!
2. Victory conditions changed slightly. If time expires in Doom, the Death Knight now wins the game.
3. Balancing: Nether Spire hit points reduced from 1000 to 650.
4. Balancing: Nether Portal hit points reduced from 5000 to 4500.
5. Balancing: Taunt removed from Frost Wolf and Forest Wolf, replaced with Frost Claws and Envenomed Claws.
6. New Quest: Game Keeper's Challenge
7. Reworked Quest: Ancient Mariner's Stolen Key
8. Reworked Quest: Farseer's Lost Wolf
9. Reworked Quest: Sickly Pig Farmer's Cure
10. New Ability: Incarcerate, Warden Sorceress. Replaces Justice.
11. New Ability: Infernal Strike, Tauren (Ancestral Call). Replaces Pulverize and Bash.
12. New Ability: Wrath of Midas, Architect. Replaces Archichaos.
13. Ability Rebuild: Elune's Pact, Warden Sorceress. Previously 'Betray'.
14. Ability Rebuild: Nether Prison, Death Knight Level 13 Ultimate.
15. Ability Buff: Assassin's Strike minimum range reduced to 50.0 from 200.0
16. Ability Buff: Leech now damages for 2.5/3/3.5/4 times Intelligence. Self heal reduced from 100% to 75% of total damage.
17. Ability Buff: Lunar Owls now has a 5% chance to heal the damage dealt from an owl back to the Nature Mage.
18. Ability Buff: Storm Ward lightning damage increased to 20/30/40/50 per level.
19. Abiliy Buff: Vampire Bat cooldown reduced to 180 seconds from 220.
20. Ability Buff: Echo Location recoded and text warning to Death Hunters removed
21. Ability Nerf: Iced Arrow freeze duration reduced from 1/2/3/4s to 0.5/1.0/1.5/2.0s and removed temporary invulnerability.
22. Ability Nerf: Nature's Protection duration reduced by 5 seconds at all levels to 5/10/15/20 and cooldown decreased from 120s to 70s.
23. Ability Nerf: Ghost Walk level 4 duruation reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
24. Item Nerf: Sacred Force Blade "Energy Pulse" chance reduced from 20% to 15%.
25. Item Nerf: Glaive Shard hitpoint regeneration reduced from 6 to 4.
26. Item Nerf: Glaive Shard heal reduced from 50% to 33% of damage dealt.
27. Item Nerf: Sacred Force Blade Energy Pulse range reduced from 850 to 650.
28. Icon Change: Swift Shot
29. Icon Change: Vanish
30. Icon Change: Cursed Tonic
31. Unit Change: Nether Walker changed to Nether Demon to save map kb space
32. Alternate entrance created to the Forest of Deception
33. Fix: Elixer of the Mountain Giant tooltip corrected
34. Fix: Swift Shot tooltip corrected
35. Fix: Ghost Tauren hit point regeneration removed and tooltip corrected
36. Fix: Lunar Owls will no longer trigger unit replacement from forbidden areas


Report any bugs to 1)ark_NiTe@USEast or to the Against the Darkness forums at www.hiveworkshop.com.

Check out the Bug Report Thread for found bugs, or if you have one to report yourself.

Contents:

I.About the Game
II. Doom
III. Influences
IV. Game Systems
V. Heroes
VI. Shops
VII. Quests
VIII. Game Modes
IX. Items

Against the Darkness is a Hunter vs. Hunted Survival game. A Player may choose to be part of a team of Death Hunters or play alone as the Death Knight. The primary goal of the hunters is to defeat the Death Knight before he is able to reign Doom upon Azeroth. This can only be achieved by working together to quest, creep, and limit the knight's opportunities until the team is strong enough to destroy him. The Death Knight need only survive until the Nether Portal is secured and Doom is completed to win the game. However, his survival can only be guaranteed with a swift eradication of those who have been sent to stop him.


Doom will initiate at the end of the 23 minutes standard game time if the Death Knight is still alive and has not yet killed all of the Death Hunters. This phase of the game provides the Death Knight several regiments of Necrofiends led by Nether Demons. Each regiment is strategically spread throughout the map, allowing the Death Knight to cordon off specific areas to trap and finally defeat the Hunters once and for all. Although this will give the Death Knight a heavy advantage, it does not guarantee victory.

Doom is a challenge that can be overcome by a strong group of allied Death Hunters. Hunters that have leveled sufficiently and collected powerful items to aid them in battle will find this to be true. If the Death Knight outlasts the additional 7 minutes of Doom or defeats all of the Death Hunters, that Player wins the game. At any time in the game the Death Knight is killed or if the Nether Portal is destroyed, the entire force of Death Hunters wins the game.


The game is influenced by several styles of maps, one being the RPG. There are a few areas of the map where your Hero must be a certain level to enter. These areas have higher level creeps that drop better treasures and give more expensive bounties but in turn are very powerful. One of these areas is the Forest of Deception which requires your hero to be at least level 4 and another is the Sunchief's Camp which includes the heaviest creep camp in the game. You must be level 7 or higher to enter here, but the reward beyond this Razormane creep camp is far beyond worth the risk of getting there. These level-specific areas are intended to serve as bonus area that still present a challenge to experienced players.

AtD also draws influence from the Hunter vs. Hunted genre, including maps like Vampirism and Island Defense. Whereas the 'Vampire' or the 'Titan' are the ultimate evil force in these two types of maps, the Death Knight is the antagonist that players battle in Against the Darkness. He is very powerful and can withstand prolonged attacks from ill-equipped or low-level Death Hunters. The Death Hunters are a team devoted to stopping this ultimate evil Hero from his destiny. The Hunters have been dispatched to a small village to prevent the Death Knight from opening a demonic portal and will do so at any cost, even if it means sacrificing themselves to ensure their victory.


Introduced in Version 2.67 is a Spectator System that allows for players who's Hero has been defeated in Death Match mode to continue to watch the rest of the game. The system does not allow the Observer to type, but does allow them to scroll through living Heroes by pressing the right arrow key. This system was designed to provide a way for defeated Players to be able to view the game without cheating through whispers or chat messages while waiting for a remake.

Respawn System: If you are killed by Neutral Hostile creeps any time before Doom arrives, you will respawn at 3/4 health after a 30 second wait. This applies for both the Death Knight and Death Hunters. If you die to your opposing team, however, you are dead for the entire game.

Creep Respawning: An older system that has been around for a while in Against the Darkness is a creep respawn system, which respawns creeps across the map at pre-determined time intervals. This system is 100% leakless and lagless, efficiently redistributing creeps into the game without causing any disruptions to the gameplay.


At the beginning of the game, the Death Hunters are able to choose from 8 Heroes, while the Death Knight is, by default, given to the Death Knight. The Death Hunter Heroes include an Architect, Nature Mage, Frozen Archer, Scientist, Medicine Doctor, Battle Mage, Hunter, and Warden Sorceress, each having their own set of specific abilities and traits. The maximum level for Heroes in the game is level 13, and only the Death Knight has 2 Ultimate Abilities. Each Player controls one (1) Hero for the entire game, but is also able to buy mercenaries and Architects can even train units to fight for them. If the Player's Hero is killed outside of the 8 minute respawn time window, or by the opposing team, the game is over for them and they are only able to stay and watch the rest of the game. Death Hunter Heroes and Death Knight Heroes


There are various shops for the Death Hunters in different locations around the map, one being the Dragon Merchant in the swamps, and another is the Totem of Riches which also regenerates mana. A Mercenary Chapel can be found in the middle of the town center which can be used by both sides, and also gives off a healing aura. The Death Knight's shop is the Obelisk of the Damned at the top left of the town center, and is invisible to all but the Death Knight. There are also two other shops located in other positions in the map that can be used by both sides as well--the Deceiver Shop of Goods and the Merchant Ship of Treasures (Ultimate and Elite items only.)


There are several quests to be explored in Against the Darkness. Each is unique and challenging in its own way, requiring a different set of skills to complete. Quests can be discovered by walking up to NPC units with exclamation units over their head. Upon completion, each Quest will reward the Player with experience and gold. These rewards may often by very advantageous to the Player, particularly in tightly contested games when little creeps remain available. Go talk to the Elder Farseer or Ancient Mariner to get started!


In Version 2.5, Against the Darkness branched out and implemented two new types of game modes, All Random (AR) and Death Match (DM), on top of the already popular Players Choose Heroes (PCH) mode. In All Random mode, the gameplay is exactly the same as in PCH spare the fact that Death Hunters will not get to choose their Heroes but instead will be randomly assigned them.

In DM mode, the Death Hunters have been lured to the village under false pretenses. Rather than a Death Knight, they soon find that the other Hunters are the true enemy. No one can be trusted. Death Hunters have to fight in a Free For All battle against one another for 27 minutes of game play, being able to choose to have either a Half-Game or Full-Game respawn time for dying to another Death Hunter. At the end of the 27 minutes game time, the Death Hunters are all transported into a Battle Arena where they must fight each other to the death. There can be only one victor.


IX. Items Click the Items link to be redirected to the Complete Against the Darkness Item List.

More video previews:

[This Map is Optimized (Protected)]

Keywords:
Against the Darkness, AtD, Against, Darkness, Hunter vs. Hunted, Evil, Death Match, Death Knight, DM, All Random, Points, Hero Survival
Contents

Against the Darkness: 3.1.3 (Map)

Reviews
21:45, 4th May 2008 Dr Super Good: One of our very good hosted projects. This map is sure to keep you entertained for atleast a few games if not more.
Level 18
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
1,612
Almost 10 years and is still alive, may I ask how to get to the Eastern side though

Yeah, it's pretty amazing that it's nearly been a decade since I first released this game. It's come a very long way since then too!

The Eastern side of the map is only open for Team Death Match Mode. Recently I had considered opening it for all game modes though. The plan was to make some changes to the terrain there as well, increasing the number of entrances and exits. What do you think?
 

Deleted member 247165

D

Deleted member 247165

I've been playing this awesome games for years and I always been entertained by it. It is purely extraordinary. Normally I should write a feedback here, but I can't find any bad things in your game. So, I'll simply support you with a 5/5 rating. :)
 
Level 18
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
1,612
I've been playing this awesome games for years and I always been entertained by it. It is purely extraordinary.

Wow! Thank you for the kind review Alxen! It makes me very happy to know you are still enjoying the game. I'd love to know your thoughts on the Death Knight AI if you play against it often. If you care to let me know, feel free to post them here.
 

Deleted member 247165

D

Deleted member 247165

He is aggressive enough and smart enough to offer a good match :)
 
Level 18
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
1,612
Just to update everyone... I am actively working on AtD 3.2.0 and have been since February 2017. Things are progressing fairly quickly now and I'm very happy with how my AI rewrite is turning out. Outside of the AI, there will be several additional updates to gameplay in an attempt to bring this game up to an even higher standard. Keep an eye open for a new version sometime in the Summer! If you have suggestions, please post them in the forums or in this thread. Thanks!
 
Level 3
Joined
Mar 1, 2014
Messages
41
Thanks Andres! What do you like about it? What do you think could be improved? Not sure if you read about it above but I'm in the middle of writing a big 10 year anniversary update so now's the time to tell me about anything you might want to see :)

Will test it and play it more and will let you know about a complete opinion on this!

But so far the map is real nice, DK's AI is great too.

I would enlarge the gameplaying I suppose, as killing it once ends the game. Maybe if you kill him more than once with some "special DK stuff" that let him came back from death. Then certainly fun would be great.

Either way, will play more and let you know my opinion. But, don't expect much! The map is pretty cool already :)
 
Level 18
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
1,612
I appreciate the compliment on the AI. It's by far the biggest feature that I am focusing on improving but it's nice to know that you appreciate it as is. How many people do you normally play with? Do you usually play against the AI Death Knight?

Interesting thought about the DK having multiple lives. I will consider if there's any way to introduce that concept in any format. I know that for both sides, the inability to resurrect if killed by your enemy can be a drag. In some ways though it's sort of essential to this game type.

I will think about it though. I could potentially see a game mode where victory requires killing X number of Hunters (as DK) and killing the DK Y number of times (as DH's). In that type of mode you would respawn after death, perhaps at the cost of a Hero level or something.
 
Level 4
Joined
Jul 31, 2013
Messages
50
I love this. It takes many elements from other games and puts them together in an unexpectedly funny match.
It's a race against time for both the Death Knight and the Hunters. Every hero and Death Knight feels truly unique
and there's a point save feature for unlocking skins. I love the melee agility hero and the Architect.
I only played it alone and the AI is pretty challenging. I guess it can't be defeated by just one hero.
So, yeah, that's amazing. Five stars!
 
Level 18
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
1,612
So, yeah, that's amazing. Five stars!

Thanks LordVandor! I'm glad you're enjoying the game. I have long term plans to improve the AI with a fairly large update but that's on hold at the moment. If you have any suggestions, feedback, or ideas after playing some more please bring them to me. Perhaps they'll be implemented in future versions.
 
Level 4
Joined
Jul 31, 2013
Messages
50
Thanks LordVandor! I'm glad you're enjoying the game. I have long term plans to improve the AI with a fairly large update but that's on hold at the moment. If you have any suggestions, feedback, or ideas after playing some more please bring them to me. Perhaps they'll be implemented in future versions.

No, thank YOU! It's truly amazing.
Well, I'd love veterancy for units (I love that in every game). Actually units are good against normal enemies, but useless against the Death Knight.
So more than veterancy, I suppose a "terror indicator" would be cool. Normal men cower in front of the Death Knight and Demons, while someone who has
encountered it before would be able to deal more damage to them.

Also the Architect seem pretty op, because it can build a base but has very effective skills like any other hero, so I'd suggest to either buff other heroes or
make the Architect more fragile.
 
Level 2
Joined
Aug 24, 2018
Messages
8
Greatly enjoy the map so far (been doing solo against AI).

The only big issue that pops up is when I do normal where I can choose my hero, the game crashes every time I try to choose the frozen archer.
 
Level 2
Joined
Aug 27, 2012
Messages
11
I've submitted this as a bug, but I'll write it here too - game causes desyncs on latest wc3 version, and a weird glitch (caused by them) that triggers the trigger about saving your character with -save, and that the game will close in 2 minutes.
 
Level 1
Joined
Dec 19, 2020
Messages
1
Can I get the unencrypted version? I want to translate this interesting map into Chinese.At present, I have finished the items and some skills in the editor, but there is no trigger function.
 
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Level 7
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
227
Fun map, I love the competitive creeping aspect of it & the push and pull of hunter power vs DK power.

I'm not sure if the DC issue still persists, but ~2 people do seem to leave very soon around hero select, but as Blizz has disabled whispers to strangers & I'm not playing with a full house of friends I can't find out yet whether they left voluntarily 🤷
 
Last edited:

Ardenaso

HD Model Reviewer
Level 32
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
1,804
Fun map, I love the competitive creeping aspect of it & the push and pull of hunter power vs DK power.

I'm not sure if the DC issue still persists, but ~2 people do seem to leave very soon around hero select, but as Blizz has disabled whispers to strangers & I'm not playing with a full house of friends I can't find out yet whether they left voluntarily 🤷
still works in latest WC3 version?
 
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