Azeroth-Koprulu Hyperwar: Early Research & Development + Feedback Thread

[Musketmarine]

Azeroth-Koprulu Hyperwar is a modification that allows for WarCraft 3, WarCraft 2, and WarCraft: Orcs and Humans factions to be played on StarCraft 2 Maps. It is being developed closely with [Napalm] Hydralisk's SC: Evo + SC2 changes modification, which means that StarCraft: Brood War factions from SC: Evolution Complete will be fully compatible (and in the Hyperwar mod) with the WarCraft Trilogy factions as well. Some new units and additions will be added over time to allow WarCraft factions to stand in parity with StarCraft 2 factions, as well as new mod mechanics such as Naval Warfare.

The factions currently planned for development are:
Human (Playable, In Current Playtesting & Development)
Orcs (Playable, In Current Playtesting & Development)
Night Elf (Playable, Unfinished)
Undead (Playable, In Current Playtesting & Development)
Human (WarCraft 2) (Planned, Early Implementation)
Orc (WarCraft 2) (Planned, Early Implementation)
Human (WarCraft 1) (Planned, No Implementation)
Orc (WarCraft 1) (Planned, Early Implementation)

WarCraft factions use the SC2 Mineral-Vespene system, which, on WarCraft maps, will translate into the proper resources. With Gold Mines functioning as "Vespene Geysers" that can be harvested without a refinery, and Lumber as Minerals. Currently you can see that Carried Minerals and Vespene "barrels" attach to the origin of the Peon's. I have not devised of what I particularly want to do regarding the relationship between that of Minerals and Vespene, as also StarCraft universe factions do not carry Lumber or Gold visually. This is obviously something that needs to be remedied with custom model modification, and re-developed Peasants, Peons, and Ghouls (need to revisit this at a later date, so this will be an issue until the mod gets past Early Development). As Acolytes don't need to carry anything. (They're lazy)

You can imagine that most of the things you would be able to do in the original WarCraft games are going to be possible in StarCraft 2 with this mod. I will be developing dedicated remakes and custom WarCraft 3/2 styled maps for Naval Combat which will be arriving with the Orcs as a faction, when I finally iron them out to consider them "Done".

Who knows Infested Orcs and Humans might be possible. As I have plans for possibly making the Brood War Queen able to infest Town Halls, Keeps, and Castles.

Spoiler: Opening the mod files in the editor

The mod file for the WarCraft portion of the files is called:
WARTRILOGYDATA on the Editor Blizzard Document Search. This will be needed to be saved in your SC2 game or documents folder at Mods/MusketWarCraftEdition.SC2Mod, as a prerequisite for opening the Azeroth-Koprulu Hyperwar mod file in the editor. The Azeroth-Koprulu Hyperwar mod file should be saved as Mods/HydraMusketMoment.SC2Mod

How it is on my harddrive.

Spoiler: Mod Credit Attributions/And Shout-Outs

Blizzard Entertainment for WarCraft 3 Assets in StarCraft 2, and the countless assets from WarCraft 2 and 1 that exist within the mod.
Renee for the data for the WarCraft 3 Data mod that Blizzard put in StarCraft 2
[Napalm] Hydralisk (on SC2) for his original mod.
The StarCraft: Evolution Complete team for the original SC: Evo mod (here)
Zetal for making the original War3Star2 which was the inspiration for this mod.
Xethanth87 for archiving these assets:
Miscellaneous WarCraft 3 Beta Sounds
WarCraft 3 Beta We Need More Pig Farms (Used in WarCraft 2 Orc Implementation)
BaDito2 (on Youtube): WarCraft 2: Human - The Consuming Shadows (An additional track for the WarCraft 2 Human faction)

If you would like to contribute, you may contact me directly. This mod may be as a sub-dependency if you are making a custom race pack or something of the like. But I can't guarantee stability regarding the race selection if you do decide to implement this mod.

Spoiler: Known Issues

Blademaster deletes himself when he uses Mirror Image. (Don't use the Blademaster right now, honestly.)
Most WarCraft 3 units have issues targetting colossi and Vespene Refinery Buildings.
Most Human, Night Elf, and Undead units have a plethora of problems, regarding abilities.
Siege Engines "end the world" upon firing.
Tauren Pulverize may be overtuned in terms of balance, but it is functional.
Night Elf ancients get 'upset' when you unroot them.
Boats and most neutral units (such as Goblin Laboratory units) are way too fast

Battle.Net Link to the Mod:
battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/360040
(Screenshots are all there)

An Orc Transmutation Mine being built to exploit Vespene.

The mod is currently up on Battle.Net, make sure you don't have the AI set to Random, and keep the AI on (Stay Starcraft), I don't have AI made, but AI is planned. (As of current, Orcs are almost finished in terms of bugfixing and implementation. (WarCraft 2 and 1 factions will be implemented fully sometime in the future, alongside the WarCraft 3 bugfixes, so stay tuned.)

Humans, Night Elves, and Undead are also playable in this version, albeit very buggy. This thread will serve as updates, feedback, and general discussion about the project currently.

 

[Musketmarine]

Humans have been getting some development, I've been taking feedback (from one-on-one testing) on what War3 stats should be compared to StarCraft 2 stats. PvP for lack of a better term can be considered a bit horrendous at times. I will be taking any feedback posted in this thread. It will be considered but not guaranteed on a reasonable case-by-case basis.

(Took the above screenshot in the frame my Knight was finished talking, so the portrait lingered while I selected my opponent's Creep Tower.)

 

[Musketmarine]

Undead, Orcs, and Humans are in public playtesting now. I will be working on fixing Night Elves up after I play a few online matches. Charm and Possession are noted to function on allied units. Ghouls have been moved to 1 supply following testing, and an additional 2 ghouls have been added to Undead starting units. Commands to swap factions have been disabled. (Selecting any form of Random will not yield Night Elves as a faction, you have to manually select Night Elf to see how broken they are for yourself. This is to prevent any issues during playtesting.)

Cheat Commands: (don't abuse these please, these are for testing)
putitonmytab - Spawns a Tavern at your start location
ineedasweeper - Spawns a Goblin Laboratory
herebedragons - Spawns a Dragon Roost (Red Dragon Roost)
playthattrack - Plays the WarCraft battlenet playlist (Almost all songs in the mod.)
-workers - spawns all worker units (Recommended for use with Worker Supply Cost set to Free in lobby)

EDIT: Please petition for balance changes in this thread, or privately message me about them. I am focused on implementation of what exists in War3 first and foremost, and tweaking their stats to work versus StarCraft factions.

 

[Musketmarine]

I'm currently investigating issues regarding Carrion Swarm, Impale, and other line-targeting abilities. (Tauren Chieftain's Shockwave is the only one of this classification that functions. (Something I had fixed prior, during the plethora of Orc updates.)

The Blademaster's Mirror Image still is broken, albeit a step less broken this time around. (No longer leaves a model stain, but creates hidden units)

Undead now have a detector upgrade for their Spirit Towers, researched at Tier 2. I will be revising its cost, time, and requirements as the time passes. But Undead sorely needed detection that wasn't the Shade. So now they have two options (Orc Sentry Wards, Human Sentry Wards, and Flying Machines are already good enough detectors as is.)

to function.)

 

[SgtWinter]

Droppin' by to say your mod was pretty fun to play and I'd love to see even more progress.

I recommend considering balancing the mineral economy and costs though as WC3 units are extremely strong and I find myself floating 3k resources on 3 base, while my enemy's army quality is significantly weaker on 4 base. (Spirit Wolves are also way too tanky)

I also suggest adjusting the hp values of heroes a bit as well as nerfing their spell damage, and making them even squishier. A single Thunder Clap can wipe out an entire bio army, and that kinda drops the fun value and counterplay down.

Some melee units seem to retain their default WC3 attack range too, resulting in units like Footmen outranging Zealots and allowing them to kite.

 

[Musketmarine]

Droppin' by to say your mod was pretty fun to play and I'd love to see even more progress.

I recommend considering balancing the mineral economy and costs though as WC3 units are extremely strong and I find myself floating 3k resources on 3 base, while my enemy's army quality is significantly weaker on 4 base. (Spirit Wolves are also way too tanky)

I also suggest adjusting the hp values of heroes a bit as well as nerfing their spell damage, and making them even squishier. A single Thunder Clap can wipe out an entire bio army, and that kinda drops the fun value and counterplay down.

Some melee units seem to retain their default WC3 attack range too, resulting in units like Footmen outranging Zealots and allowing them to kite.

Now this is the type of feedback I love to hear!

I will be looking into revising the health-points (I either need to revise how much health is granted per hero stat-point or lower the overall starting stat points of heroes) Spirit Wolves as a summon ended up getting the larger end of the stick just because of the fact they were in the special tab of the editor, and I had missed them at first glance.

I already was under the impression that War3 costs in minerals/gas were through the roof, but I guess not, but I don't want to get hasty with the nerfs, so we'll be visiting changes to the gathering economy first, in comparison to the SC counterparts. (Humans also receive a resource gathering bonus with the Lumber harvesting upgrade)

Peasant hotkey is getting changed to "E" as well.

Undead Econ is ridiculous at the moment, moreso than Orc/Human, so I need to figure out what I'm going to do about the Ghouls. Gargoyle air-to-air damage is in the 70s right now, which needs to be direly changed. (I am in the process of uploading an emergency hotfix to fix gargs and war3 harvesting rates)

I have also made a discord to discuss development and the like of the mod here: Join the Azeroth-Koprulu Hyperwar Discord Server! (if this link gets flooded with bots, I'm going to terminate the link and generate a new one, for anyone reading the thread any time from now.)

I am going to do some hero stat research when I get a moment.

On another note regarding my irl situation, I have been having an predicament regarding employment, and this may impact my ability to develop the project further.

 

[Musketmarine]

I am in misery chat, what do I do?

(Blademaster Mirror Image is currently on the grindstone for being fixed. Right now the actors really REALLY don't like me.)

 

[Musketmarine]

I'm considering making a separate version of the mod that I will be dubbing the "Director's Cut" which maintains all of Hydralisk's added features to the StarCraft 2 and Brood War factions, while the base mod will lose the added StarCraft features, but maintaining the lobby options. I'd like opinions from the community on this before I move forward with doing such a thing. As many players have voiced concerns over the new upgrades and units available in the StarCraft factions. Although honestly, I'd rather make a competitive toggle in the game settings for this that simply prohibits the production and utilization of the overpowered-esque content.

 

[Musketmarine]

Working on basic implementation of the Knight from WarCraft 2, to get the piercing damage system into SC2, as the formula is (Attack-Armor) + Piercing, and piercing damage in WarCraft 2 always penetrated, so WarCraft 2 units will tend to have a legup on their WarCraft 3 counterparts in some departments. The health values and iconography/wireframes haven't been ironed so, so have a sammy instead.

I have also made a Patreon for the Mod, as I am undergoing financial hardship currently, and wouldn't reasonably be able to afford the acquisition of assets for the mod unless I make them myself (And also that summer electric bill, geez, Texas). (The WarCraft 2 Knight's model is one noticeable change, as I have decided to take matters into my own hands and learn 3D modeling myself. The helmet is an example of me jury-rigging together something that distinguishes the WarCraft 2 Knight from the WarCraft 3 Knight, at base-level. The Paladin is also partially implemented, but as a complete duplicate of the Knight as of current.

 

[Musketmarine]

I am helping Hydralisk put Aberrations into his side of the mod, allowing for the mod as a whole to have Aberrations, thought I would produce this image as a result of that, as they were one of my favorite units in Heart of the Swarm's Campaign. I hope he'll make them producible from larvae, for the Brood War Zerg faction atleast, since Second Great War Zerg are overtuned as it is. There have been talks of the Warhound becoming a duo BW-SC2 unit as well.

 

[Musketmarine]

I ended up making a "Brutalist" edition of the mod, allowing for the feature tweakability of Hydra's changes, also replays work there! Now back to regular mod-stuff:

StarCraft factions have been the focus of development for the brief moment moment, where I had stepped back from WarCraft development and assisted with the porting of some sorely missing units that me and Hydra had agreed.

The Brood War Terrans in Hyperwar represent the various Terran factions from the era of 2499-2500, with some 2504 technology such as the Warhound, and Hercules Lander falling through the cracks. The main notation is that they are primarily representative of the Terran Confederacy.

Current acting lore for the conflict(s) of Hyperwar are that the Terran Confederacy had discovered Azeroth through a gap in both space and time that, like their well-kept secret of the Zerg, would be hidden during the war, only to be rediscovered again by a few Zerg Broods, and Protoss Pursuers, and once again forgotten, until the events of Legacy of the Void, where a dormant "Ancient Zerg" presence would be discovered on Azeroth.

The Terran Confederacy however will be considered: "Confederate Exiles", in the four years between that of Brood War and StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. To only be later forgotten as Tarsonis is integrated into the Terran Dominion.

New Units that will be gracing the BW Era Terran Roster:

Warhound: A 2504 era design, it found its way to New Tarsonis (Azeroth) after a Dominion Battlecruiser carrying frontier counter-rebellion forces. The Confederates shot first and quickly snuffed any recollection of the encounter, with Prisoners of War being neural-ly resocialized and processed in New Tarsonis City. The Warhound's anti-armor prospects upon reverse engineering and the like could not be properly recreated by the Confederacy. However the dirt cheap design and manufacturing made it a sight for sore eyes, and it eventually joined the ranks of the Goliath and Siege Tank in Confederate Mechanized divisions with its current battlefield role. However I will leave that role up to speculation as the Anti-Armor role goes to the Diamondback.

Diamondback: A prototype design that eventually ended up going into production, as a result of various examples of prototype Diamondbacks arriving to New Tarsonis, with the arrival of Confederate Expedition forces. Its anti-armor capabilities have landed it a favorable position amongst Confederate ranks as a Cavalry hover-AFV to both mimic the role of terrestrial Azerothian cavalry, and combat any suspicions of Protoss or Zerg presence on New Tarsonis.

Hercules Lander: A cargo ship characteristic of Terran colonial property in the Koprulu Sector. While not reinforced to the pedigree that Raynor's Raiders would have outfitted it. It would take on an interesting role, as a mobile command station and production outlet, acting as a more mobile Command Center for the Terran Confederacy. As the Confederate High Command had opted for more exploitation of mobility. It is capable of producing SCVs, Barracks, and Factory units as well.

Carrion Swarm now also properly works in the mod! Hooray! Undead players please stop screaming at me now.

An orc screenshot for austerity to show the Orcish naval units in action.