Ashbringer's Tale Retold

[Med. MapGuy]

Future updates may be shared here!

 

[SalvatorThenorium]

I'm really looking forward to testing this campaign. It looks amazing!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

"Father, forgive me!...
--dies--
...You are forgiven."

Ashbringer story is one of cool examples, especially when they added more detail with recent Scarlet Enclave SoD raid.
Anyway - looking forward to play this campaign, record it probably

 

[shadowhog]

So far I am loving it, I have only encounter one bug so far and it was during the 2nd mission. Saidan seemed to lose exp and he lost his Rally skill after the cutscene with Beltheris. I reloaded my save just to make sure I wasn't going crazy and was able to make it occur again.

Before:

After:

 

[Randombanana]

Why you make Whitemane so hot man? You´ve forced my hand. I´ll play through this campaign and I´m going to enjoy it.

Looking forward to play it. I´ve been a big fan of your previous works they are all masterfully crafted pieces.

 

[Lord_Of_Outland]

I love the Scarlet Crusade, i think warcraft community is lacking Scarlet Crusade campaigns. Btw cool custom campaign with alternate story!

 

[SalvatorThenorium]

Hello! Just a small note... always in Part 4 of this mission (Chapter 4: Rescue of the Elves), the stones blocking the path at the beginning of the scenario are always invulnerable. This forces me to reset the mission. I'm currently on my 2 reset and I don't know how to proceed with the mission. This happens because if your HERO unit dies, the GAME does not trigger a game over and continues as normal, leading to incorrect triggers later on that prevent progress -- I believe there's a bug related to checking whether a hero has died.

 

[SalvatorThenorium]

One of the best experiences I've had with custom campaigns — I encountered almost no bugs, and the terrain and decoration are flawless. In my opinion, this is truly a campaign that deserves a Director's Cut. Do you plan to bring the Undead Campaing side or something similar(Similar to what we experienced in the final chapter) This campaign definitely went beyond my expectations... it's just a shame it's so short..

 

[ilidandin]

There is a problem in the chapter 4 when i reach hearthglen again and saving the elfs, the rock chunks doesn't let me pass and stay there and i can't do anything

 

[Inquisitor]

I got a bug in chapter 4, the stone cannot be attacked, waiting for future updates

Few bugs I encountered =

• The siege engine icon in the workshop is sometimes missing
• Skill Conversion does not trigger health lifesteal, only kills the undead

- One of the hero skills is also missing sometimes, just like the siege engine icon

Overall, this game is excellent, with many new unit models and skills which are very gooooooood

 

[0verlord]

Oh man,i'm gonna try this campaign tonight

 

[Footman16]

I have also fallen a foul of the unbreakable rocks in chapter 4 after the first High Elf group and before the portal defence which is unfortunate as it is a very long chapter which perhaps might have been better split into two; the thought of repeating it is not appealing.

A few thoughts:

• A lot of effort put into presentation from the custom background to the panning images, voice acting, models, doodads etc has all been done really well and is cohesive which is nice so kudos to that.
• In general there's a good degree of polish in terms of quest messages, minimap icons etc, unit comments and dialogue to keep the missions nice and alive.
• Idle worker icon is different to the peasant icon
• No custom Scarlet Crusade UI?
• Most abilities are a little boring imo and there's definitely room to make them more interesting (Alexandro's Q being unusable when he's at full health is a little annoying)
• In Chapter 4 Sally's hero icon was present in Dimburg even though she is not present for that subsection.
• There's a little bit of backtracking in the Hearthglen mission which is a bit boring and could probably be solved with slight tweaks to the layout, especially running back from meeting Illidan to the east gate.
• The use of camera bound adjustments is very inventive and cool.
• I could aggro the sasquatches from beyond the camera bounds in the Hearthglen chapter.
• In the dungeon crawler/no build sections you often get given A LOT of units that tend to block in a lot of the narrow paths and also mean that by the time you get to the build sections you're food locked for ages and can probably just steamroll the rest of the mission with the forces you've been given.
• Mechanostrider's Breath of Fire is OP but I like that, so this isn't a criticism.
• The tech-tree feels a bit... random? Messy? I'm not sure but I think it could use some more polish.
• Not all the WoW models look good or fitting, whilst the artstyle is consistent and I do enjoy parts of it, particularly the environment, there is a loss of visibility and distinction in units and clickability of certain objects making battles sometimes messy, chaotic and hard to micro and hard to identify particular units. To further this point I think there are better more HQ alternatives to these WoW models that could be used such as HotS ports for example, Kael, Saidan, Sally and Arthas' models look really bad imho; there seems to be a visual glitch with capes becoming attached to people. The runner's animations could also use changing since he's holding an invisible gun.
• I loved the interactive map section with Alexandros, gave me strong Kingdom Under Fire vibes and I'd always been curious about such a system in Wc3 for mission selection and overworld army or progression, so kudos. Ravenholdt manor is in the completely wrong location but it's no big deal as we have alternative lore anyway, just thought I'd mention it.
• In general as I said there's a lot of polish and good stuff here, there's fun quests, the unique codex and notes that give a reward for exploration is nice too. Use of neutral camps and buildings too.

 

[deepstrasz]

Approved mostly based on @Footman16's review.

---

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Triggers - Memory Leaks and Custom Scripts

If you're not satisfied with the review and wish another opinion, contact the other reviewers or use the staff contact:
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[w3maniac]

Lot of effort has been put into this & smooth gameplay. Definitely 5/5
Nevertheless, there are some bugs or other issues - I did not encounter anything game-breaking though. (Mind you, I played this on bnet's version 2.0.2)

• Morgraine's Exorcise doesn't heal (and is unusable at full health, so can't be freely used to kill an unit).
• Holy Power description says +20 health, but it actually heals +50.
• Stonemasons look the same when they carry resources.
• Some spells don't trigger any sound effect when cast or do not have any visual effect on an unit (or both) - e.g. Bloodlust, Inner fire, Scarlet fever.
• There is an upgrade for Flying machines in the Workshop, but you can never train them.
• Lilians Voss' Hide icon looks like aura, not a castable spell.
• Morgraine's Cleaving Attack does +25% splash on both levels 1 and 2 (it's NOT just wrong description).
• Anvilmar's Hammerfall spell does less damage than 100 (which is what description says) on rank 1, and ranks 2 and 3 don't do any damage at all.
• Morgraine's Chastise spell is too weak - single target 250 dmg (and nothing else) is very underwhelming for rank 3.
• Morgraine's ulti Blessed Plate's design is somewhat weird as you become immune even to friendly spells - the benefit BY FAR doesn't outweigh the drawback.
• Whitemane's and Tyrosus's spells Rain of Holy Fire and Rain of Fire, respectivelly, are the same spells (well, visual effects and icons are different, however, they do the same thing).
• Bloodgut's attack turns slain enemies into skeletons even without Black bite.
• Visual effect of Weaken spell is too huge.
• Seems like there's no way to max out your heroes; when I finished the campaign, their levels were like 6 or 7. And I did finish all the optional quests/content.
• Mechanostrider's Breath of Fire is kind of too strong.
• The campaign is too easy. Mostly just doing move-attack command and sitting back is enough.
• Shockwave and Fan of Knives have the same icon.
• Tech tree could be improved - it's too simple imho.

In general, lot of the heroes' spells are kind of underwhelming or even useless. Their design is lacking imho (e.g. why Sally Whitemane has mana-burn/dispell AOE, when enemy has barely any spellcasters, who do not pose virtually any threat? Something that sounds really OP on paper is actually pretty useless. Or why Lilian Voss has three castable spells when she's not an intelligence hero? One could be replaced with a passive one or an aura. Or why Kael is just plain old bloodmage (save for ulti)?). Considering how much effort you put into models, terrain, units etc., I'd expect more from you in regards to heroes' design (but maybe that's just because your campaigns are always of very high quality). My five cents are that there are too many playable heroes - I feel like it would be better to have only 3 heroes or so, which would have given you more room for better design thereof.

All in all, this campaign a great experience, but it needs balance changes to feel at least a bit challenging, and some heroes changes (to their spells) to make them a bit more enjoyable to use.

 

[sha]

Not work in version 2 ..why ?

 

[Lightstrider]

So I downloaded the campaign, and I got into a very weird bug on chapter one I could continue leveling Alexandros Morgrain to level 5, but in chapter 2 he got shrunk back to level 2. was the level cap should had been level 2?

So I played chapter 4, and as mentioned by some people, Sally whitemane was not present in Dimport portion of the screen, even though she had lines in that area.. moreover when I tried to save the high elves and successfully does so, I can't proceed the pubbles in Hearthglen and when I tried to reload it, it crashes on me.

 

[Sam002]

Sometimes the save game option is greyed out, meaning you cant save. Also, what's with the invulnerable rocks in chapter 4?

 

[Lord_Of_Outland]

i also stucked with invulnerable rocks in chapter 4 and cant move forward.

 

[deepstrasz]

Sometimes the save game option is greyed out, meaning you cant save.

It's a patch/game issue not related to this campaign in particular.

 

[Med. MapGuy]

Thank you to everyone that's played the campaign thus far!

Apologies for the issue regarding the invulnerable rocks in Chapter 4. I've uploaded a newer version that should hopefully resolve this problem. The rocks should now break as soon as you encounter the enemy in the area. I will work on the other issues if and when more feedback can be collected. Thanks again!

 

[Zakraem]

Hello!

I have been playing your campaigns since I was a young boy and it feels amazing that you are still active. Shards of Resistance is one of my favourites of all time, just behind Black Company and War of Corruption. The original Mathias Chronicles also really impacted me with their great story.
This campaign is as great as any of them, but I want to give you an unfiltered feedback now that I am more seasoned. Feel free to dismiss any of it as you see fit, it is after all your story to tell. I have only played to chapter 4 because of the rocks bug.

Visuals
You have been using the WoW style for some time and this is your best work yet. It is really coming together and looks great, gives me some nostalgic Vanilla vibes which fit the story nicely.
There are some things that could be tweaked though:

• Alexandros is missing a belt and it bothers me more that it should. He is the main character and there are a lot of close ups on him, so this is very visible. I also think that he could be bigger to pop out more, but overall he looks great.
• Saidan Dathroan looks terrible and I don't like it, maybe consider a different model? I understand that you want to show him as more of a warrior thug, but I don't think it fits him when he is a self-proclaimed "Grand Crusader". In my opinion he should look regal, proud and more like a paladin. Your call though, it is not a big issue. Also he should be taller.
• Kael and Arthas have strange lighting issues. From top down their models are great but portraits are scuffed

Gameplay
Before my criticism I want to add that the mission 4 overworld map was an amazing addition. Great idea and execution, I would love it if there were more options to explore some less important points, maybe for a slight stats upgrade for Alexandros, or an unique item.

Tech Tree

• It is a bit chaotic. The Conscript feels like it should just be a militia unit and the Dwarven Shieldbreaker doesn't fit very well. The Enforcer is also a little bit disjointed, maybe make a new building called "The Arena" or something for both of them? The Barracks are a bit too cramped for so many units.
• The Abbot is a great unit and I love it. The Inquisitor less so, I think it should have an autocast ability instead of the Weaken. The dwarven priest unit is too overshadowed by the Abbot I think
• I don't like that the Mortar Team is tier 2 and Catapult tier 3. Mortars are technologically superior, so it feels like a step back. The catapult model is amazing though and I honestly feel like the mortar team could just be removed
• The Inquisitor feels bad to use, I think it should have an autocast ability as a first

Heroes

• Alexandros's Chastise ability is really weak and should be replaced. Three actives feel a bit bad for a warrior hero anyway, so maybe replace it with a passive? Holy Pulverize would fit well, maybe? Or an aura.
• Exorcise doesn't work properly, I also don't like the idea of a "type specific" ability. Since we fight the Syndicate a lot, it feels strange to have one unusuable ability.
• Alexandros has the "Blunt" attack sound. I know that the Ashbringer looks a little bit blunt when you really look at it, but it should be sharp
• The Ultimate Ability is just a debuff. He can't be healed and receive buffs, which far outweighs the protection from spells. I think he should just have a big flashy AoE ability, since he is the Ashbringer and there are tales of him turning entire undead armies to ash.
• I think Saidan could also benefit from a passive or an aura as his third ability instead of the Roar ability. The Rally ability is really awesome though, please keep that. He just doesn't have enough mana for three actives.

Difficulty

• The Campaign is very easy, maybe you could up it a little bit? I know there were some challenging maps in Shards and Chronicles, so you definitely know how to challenge the player!
• A lot of the times you give us too many units. Like you give us 13 units when we can only hold 12 units in a group and moments later there are 3 or 4 full groups. Feels unnecessary.

Story
These are really just personal opinions and you may disagree. It is your story to tell, feel free to dismiss me.
Saidan Dathroan

• I felt a little bit disappointed with him, I love the idea of him not being possessed by Balnazzar, but he seems to act the same as when he was possessed. Original Saidan should have been an honourable paladin, while being a bit stern and driven, but in your retelling he seems more like a thug or a buffoon. His racism only came with Balnazzar, and I don't think he would be so quick to execute innocent people. In lore, he was supposed to embody the ideal of "Holiness", which was only corrupted by Balnazzar. Though I could see him being prideful and boastful, I feel like you might have gone too far.
• I think you could have prevented his death with Issilien, which would also cement their relationship. Issilien could also have been the one to lead him down a more darker path, since he seemed to be a more wicked person even without any dark influence.

Illidan
- It feels a bit too forced and hamfisted. I don't like his addition at all, though the Interlude with Alexstrazsa was fun and interesting. He just didn't fit and I think Alexandros would have actually struck him down without thinking. Since this is a story about the Scarlet Crusade, I think it should stay about the Crusade, without these additions.


I want to add at the end that I really enjoyed the campaign and I really appreciate that you are still active. With some polish, this could be one of your greats right there with your other classics.

 

[Rokoltira]

like campagne to play

 

[mewgon2]

Excellent, thank you for such a well-crafted campaign!

 

[jitao]

chapter 4 is still bugged at hearthglen. The 2nd 3rd demon portals are not reacting to the player's units, no demon spawns and i can't destroy the portals. There's another invulnerable barricade so i am guessing the first 3 portals need to be destroyed to advance.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

"Father, forgive me!...
--dies--
...You are forgiven."

Ashbringer story is one of cool examples, especially when they added more detail with recent Scarlet Enclave SoD raid.
Anyway - looking forward to play this campaign, record it probably

Started walkthrough of it - I like the theme, I like memey Illidan, I like those silly easter eggs towards your Med.MapGuy universe.
For now I'm on Chapter 4, looking forward to see the end of this story

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Demons are in the final part of Chapter 4 (where you need to close 2 portals) - they do not appear. I cannot finish mission.

 

[Med. MapGuy]

Noted. The issue might be with the Trigger Queue. I fixed the triggers for Chapter 4 and it should (hopefully) work now. Thank you again for pointing this out!

 

[El Peluca]

My game crash a lot on missions 2 and 3 :c

 

[Macielos]

I started my playthrough today. Here are my thoughts after mission one:

Spoiler: Mission One

• Terrain and cutscenes are beautiful as in your every campaign
• I'd limit a number of troops we can acquire alongside the no-base part, as well as a number of different unit types. For the most part I commanded three almost full unit groups, so enemies posed absolutely no challenge, however pathing was very annoying as the map was full of narrow paths. 12-20 units in total would be totally enough, especially that it was easily to avoid most losses via dwarven hero's resurrection ability
• I'd make Mograine's charge dash through allies and only stop on enemies or static obstacles. I quickly stopped using this skill at all because 90% times it got stuck on an allied unit and dealt no damage to the enemy.
• I like the gnomish rocket trooper, although the flame thrower's damage, range or angle should be nerfed. Right now 3-4 of these fellas instantly obliterate any army with their 150 dmg on a large area.
• RTS part is, well, very simplistic and linear, with enemies always attacking alongside the same path and with exactly the same attack force. I suppose later RTS missions are more complex, but still, the enemy here could use a real AI that retrains troops, repairs buildings and sends various attack forces rather than just spawning the same attack group all over again.
• Some undead units and some of our buildings lacked portraits

Spoiler: Mission Two

EDIT: Beginning of mission two.
The Grand Crusader lamenting on how they could have been defeated sounded quite funny as he was defending in front of the walls, following the best Game of Thrones S8 traditions .
Minor bug, I think - in the initial "confrontantion" with Balnazzar, our hero had 2 skill points and Earthquake ability available, although he couldn't spend them.

EDIT: Completed mission two. Solid RPG-style first part, than a very climatic final battle, although there were some single lines that felt very unnecessary and out of place, like the dreadlord's "augh it burns", or dreadlord in mission one saying "how could I lose so easily", or something. Like, you're building a very solid desperate and serious atmosphere of crusaders' struggle, then ruining it with these few and minor elements. My advice would be to get rid of these elements to keep the campaign tone more consistent.

I can also repeat my suggestion to reduce a number of troops that join us on our way. Final boss fight was a formality, the only challenge was constant repositioning of my troops so that watchmen and abbots don't get stuck in the rear.

Besides that, pretty cool mission.

Spoiler: Mission Three

• Nice starting section with Grand Crusader's most badass moment so far
• Alterac won't rise again this time
• Something weird happened with our town hall. In the first playthrough my town hall was created very far from the gold mine. But after I loaded a save and finished a starting section again, the town hall was close to the mine this time.
• Again, Syndicate forts could use even a basic AI and send some attacks. After I destroy the orc base (which also just spawns attackers by triggers), there's no pressure to our base and Syndicate just waits to be destroyed
• Okay, in this map I began to appreciate Mograine's charge. As long as there's no allies on his way, it is pretty devastating.
• The autumn trees covering large part of the map are unharvestable. Is it on purpose? They look like they could be harvestable.
• In the workshop we have Bombs upgrade, but we have no Flying Machines
• Just noticed that orcish watch tower looks... pretty small compared to other buildings.

Spoiler: Techtree suggestions

• I'd think of an alternate role for Conscript. Right now, there's no reason to train them at all, as Crusaders are better in every aspect. I'd either make them a Militia-type unit temporarily converted from Stonemasons, or maybe have some other defensive mechanics using them? E.g. give Town Hall an ability to summon temporary four Constripts for defence? Or just have them trained in a Town Hall with quite short training time. You could also give them some Repair-type ability to make them more useful (but I guess they don't have animations for that).

 

[Malmgrev]

Great story, visuals and very entertaining plot twists love alternate story arcs
I attached fixes to the Mograine models as it was unbearable to watch him without a proper portrait animation. I also fixed the Kael'Thas left shoulder pad so he works much better.

 

[Urim03]

Very nice one, I 'vealways enjoyed your campaigns. Considering is just went out, I noticed almost no bugs which is frankly impressive. I noted them by chapter, depending on when I noticed them, but they might impact all chapters.

Chapter 1 :

-Upgrading Barrage removes the ability to construct siege engines
-Q of Alexandros Mograine doesn't heal when killing an undead enemy
-Q of Thargas Anvilmar doesn't do damage
-2nd mission not visible
-Scarlet Habbot heals 50 instead of 20 (also can heal up to 10 units for 25 mana, 500 total heal for 25 mana does seem slightly broken)

Chapter 2 :

-Saidan Dathrohan gets back to lvl 2 when meeting the dreadlord (the first time with cinematic).
-If he was lvl 4, he won't earn xp anymore and be stuck lvl 2

Chapter 3 :

-Rally (W) of Saidan doesn't work on self, it seems to be considered as a debuff by the game considering the red square buff
-Town Hall doesn't appear in the right spot, too far from gold mine
-Alexandros Morgaine's spell that he gained in chapter 2 after completing the side quest disappears (cleaving attack)
-The attack waves stop almost instantly and they started stacking at home. Luckily it seems you made so units automatically dies avec like 5 or 10 minutes, otherwise it would be close to impossible to klill with all the stacking

Interlude with Illidan :

-The dragon at the very top isn't invulnerable, I figured it was probably a mistake since it is the only one... Just in case I killed it, I felt like a monster because of you

Chapter 4 :

-Cleaving attack is back!
-Poor villagers aren’t invulnerable, now they are all dead... (after saving the troops in Dimgarde Gamble quest)
-Cleaving attack lvl 1 = 25% and lvl 2 = 25%, no lvl 3, it hurts me
-If Lilian Voss dies, you don't lose the game (I tested out as a Samaritan, it's not that I failed to keep her alive)

Chapter 5 :

-Kael'thas’ item, xp and spell learnt are all gone

Chapter 6 :

-The skeleton summon of the hound still applies even if you don’t activate
-If you skip the 2nd animation, Sylvanas can't gain xp for some reason
-If you charm the 3 commanding officers, it doesn't count as killing them for the quest. Considering they are like mini-boss for the quest, maybe give them resistant skin (and a spell so they can use their mana)
-Same for Pureheart's troop, charm doesn't count as a kill so you may be stuck if you don't notice this bug


Overall, the only real con is that there is too many bash, I would avoid giving this ability unless it is a hero, the amount of time I got stunlock by a simple unit was honnestly quite high.

Thank you for your work, can't wait for the next campaign !