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Balin's Tomb Reforged

The classic map updated for the present decade, while staying true to the layout, abilities, items, dialogue etc. of the original as much as possible.

Gameplay consists of you, and your teammates, who each control one hero of the Fellowship, fighting your way out of the heart of Balin's Tomb, slaying waves upon waves of orcs, trolls, and all sorts of nasty things.

I obtained as pure of a version as I could of the original RoC Balin's Tomb, and it stated it was authored by Darkbringer. If the original maker would like further credits, or for me to take this down, you just have to say.

I have balanced the heroes, added exciting new fights, removed useless or broken things, and overall turned this back into the game my nostalgia glasses thought it originally was.

I have also added a brand new zone, Mordor, to make use of the unused area on the map, and provide a conclusion to the story beyond just killing a random big orc in the forest. I have not changed the existing terrain except for a few touchups here or there.

For Mordor, at least one member of the party from each zone (Battle at the Black Gate, Entmoot to Isengard, and Shelob's Lair) must survive in order for Frodo to finally scale Mt. Doom.

Uses Item Cleanup by Bribe
Contents

Balin's Tomb Reforged 4.0R (Map)

Reviews
eubz
Balin's Tomb Reforged Submitted by Bennoloth - Terrain needs more polishing. There are terrains which are very sharp and needs to be smoothen. - Needs to look into the trigger for too many memory leaks, like location and unit groups: See Basic Memory...
Shar Dundred
Map appears to be functional. Approved!
Hello there, i just viewed the triggers, and there's a lot of memory leaks concerning unit spawn. Also you can use loops to simplify a lot (instead of repeating the same action for player 1, 2, 3, etc...). I think it's the kind of polishing which can decide whenever a map is promising or not. Nothing too hard of course, it's one step further into experience.
 
Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
Hello there, i just viewed the triggers, and there's a lot of memory leaks concerning unit spawn. Also you can use loops to simplify a lot (instead of repeating the same action for player 1, 2, 3, etc...). I think it's the kind of polishing which can decide whenever a map is promising or not. Nothing too hard of course, it's one step further into experience.

I am not sure how to fix these memory leaks or what you're referring to? Every repeated spawn gets turned off eventually by another trigger. If you have any advice I would be grateful.
 
"Create X [unit] at (center of [region])"
Here you are creating a location which is set to the center of a region. Once it's used, the memory keeps that data, and it won't be used again ! So everytime that action will trigger, you put more and more useless memory on the cache. When it bypass a certain limit, everyone will crash because the OS only allocate a certain amount of RAM for each process, and memory leaks can perfectly reach it.

The solution is to use a temporary variable.
"Set loc = center of [region]
create X [unit] at loc
custom script : call RemoveLocation(udg_loc)"

there's a full tutorial here
 
Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
"Create X [unit] at (center of [region])"
Here you are creating a location which is set to the center of a region. Once it's used, the memory keeps that data, and it won't be used again ! So everytime that action will trigger, you put more and more useless memory on the cache. When it bypass a certain limit, everyone will crash because the OS only allocate a certain amount of RAM for each process, and memory leaks can perfectly reach it.

The solution is to use a temporary variable.
"Set loc = center of [region]
create X [unit] at loc
custom script : call RemoveLocation(udg_loc)"

there's a full tutorial here

I appreciate it, will try my best but looks like a very large time investment. I intend to do it at some point but don't think it's necessary for the map to work, considering I have never had complaints of lag (and I have playtested this map on Bnet for months).

Are you saying that the next time a unit spawns in the Center of region X, that it won't use the same point as the previous trigger which spawned at Center of region X? It creates a second point for the same region? Cause if it only does it once, there will only be like, 20 of them. Shouldn't be too bad.
 
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I appreciate it, will try my best but looks like a very large time investment. I intend to do it at some point but don't think it's necessary for the map to work, considering I have never had complaints of lag (and I have playtested this map on Bnet for months).
Don't try, do it. Do or do not there's no try. Having a certain level of polishing is important for your mapping experience, and it would increase a lot the quality you spend in your maps. Also it would reduce the reasons of hazardous behaving from this map (and thus less surprises if you want to expand the complexity)

Are you saying that the next time a unit spawns in the Center of region X, that it won't use the same point as the previous trigger which spawned at Center of region X? It creates a second point for the same region? Cause if it only does it once, there will only be like, 20 of them. Shouldn't be too bad.
It's exactly what's happening indeed.
Single leaks won't affect anything but the dignity of a programer,
but tons of leaks instead will heavily affect the runtime process and may
lead to unsmooth execution, and in extreme cases to unuseability of the application.
This explains my point of view and i strongly suggest you to handle all of these, the goal would be to get a better eye about programming in Warcraft III.
It needed years for me to get into those, and it slowed me down a lot. So when i see enthusiastic newcomers i can't stop myself from keeping them from the errors i did. You will gain a lot of time, i'll guarantee it.
 
Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
Don't try, do it. Do or do not there's no try. Having a certain level of polishing is important for your mapping experience, and it would increase a lot the quality you spend in your maps. Also it would reduce the reasons of hazardous behaving from this map (and thus less surprises if you want to expand the complexity)


It's exactly what's happening indeed.

This explains my point of view and i strongly suggest you to handle all of these, the goal would be to get a better eye about programming in Warcraft III.
It needed years for me to get into those, and it slowed me down a lot. So when i see enthusiastic newcomers i can't stop myself from keeping them from the errors i did. You will gain a lot of time, i'll guarantee it.

Alright man you've inspired me, I have a 2 week old newborn but somehow this weekend I'll do it haha.
 
Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
Is this your map? If not, do you have permission to upload and editing from the author?

The original map was made in 2002 and I gave the creator as much credit as I could. I have no way of contacting him asking for permission to edit. This is an updated version of his map that I made, which from what I can tell falls within the site rules.

I think this might help you.

Thanks man. I posted on the forums about some of the other issues which I have not made significant progress on yet. If you have more time to help out I would be happy to discuss on an instant messenger like Discord.
 
Level 1
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
4
Hello! I'm a translator in China , i'm interested in your map, beceuse i'm fascinated with the polt of The Ring, there is no deny that this map capture my heart, so i want to translate it to Chinese and ask you for the permission.
i won't upload it to any platform unauthorized, and i also wait for your reply. i just hope share it with Chinese WAR3 players. My e-mail is [email protected], please contact me。
I'm looking forward your reply.
 
Balin's Tomb Reforged
Submitted by Bennoloth

- Terrain needs more polishing. There are terrains which are very sharp and needs to be smoothen.
- Needs to look into the trigger for too many memory leaks, like location and unit groups: See Basic Memory Leaks
- Polish the map. This needs to be in AWAITING UPDATE until polished.
 
Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
To: 森林里的小鱼人

As mentioned in email, it's OK with me.

To: GhostOfPast

I have used the Player Group Heroes to do multiple actions quickly (actually would have saved me hours of time to do it this way in the first place). I call that part a success, but not uploading a new map yet just for that.

I tried to fix my location leaks and no luck yet. I get a script error I don't understand at all. I'll continue to work on it.

To: eubz

I don't quite understand what you mean about sharp terrain. Could you please explain further? For the most part I tried not to change the terrain, to maintain the nostalgia of this old RoC map. For memory leaks, as mentioned above, I am having trouble with the "call RemoveLocation" script, but working on it.
 
Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
Hi, I tried to message eubz directly, but for any other curators watching this, here was my message (he did not reply for a few weeks):

1. I wanted to keep the original terrain as it's based on a RoC map and changing the terrain will affect the nostalgia factor. If there is anything in particular you think is very off please let me know.

2. I added the Garbage Collector script and I believe that will fix the memory leaks. There was a long running desync that used to happen which no longer does. No one ever reports slowness. The map feels very non-buggy and ready to go.

3. Please let me know anything else I need to do before this map can be accepted.

End
 
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Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
The suggested changes from @eubz have still not been made.

Moved to Substandard.

Hi please see my reply on this thread. I don't feel this is a fair judgement without replying to my last. Anyway Reforged broke this map so I have to figure how to make it playable at all again before it can be reviewed. I'm not sure if you're basing this on the fact that in Reforged, the lobby doesn't even work. A detailed reply would be appreciated as I've been trying to get this map approved for literally over a year.
 
Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
Please read the review from @eubz.

I replied to him in this thread. This was my reply:

1. I wanted to keep the original terrain as it's based on a RoC map and changing the terrain will affect the nostalgia factor. If there is anything in particular you think is very off please let me know.

2. I added the Garbage Collector script and I believe that will fix the memory leaks. There was a long running desync that used to happen which no longer does. No one ever reports slowness. The map feels very non-buggy and ready to go.

3. Please let me know anything else I need to do before this map can be accepted.

+++

I understand now that the lobby wasn't working in Reforged due to point #2, so I have disabled the Garbage Collector script, and the game can be hosted again. If I either find an updated version of it, or change all of the triggers to avoid memory leak, am I good then?

NB: The map always turns off its spawns, there are no infinite spawns. So at most you're going to have around 30-50 "points" for the whole game. I hardly think it's a real issue and it's never caused issues. The concern is that I am causing the game to generate a "point" for each spawn, but it's never getting to a huge number that would cause a crash or anything.

There are 10 waves in the beginning. Then another area with maybe 5 spawns before it turns off, or 10 if the players REALLY take their time. Then another area with about 10 spawns. So 30 as a conservative number for the majority of the game.

The final area which lasts about 5 minutes does have more spawns, there are spiders which move in circles. It probably generates as many points as the previous 45 minutes. But again, never had a crash there.
 
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Level 5
Joined
Feb 14, 2014
Messages
17
Hey Bennoloth, my friends and I in New Zealand meet up for LAN Parties every few months and Balin's Tomb has been a favorite of ours at these events for years so I was very pleased to see someone else take an interest in this fantastic classic map! Unfortunately, the version of the game that we play at these events is 1.26a, so we will not be able to enjoy your improvements.

However, for years I have wanted to make my own alterations to this map but have not been able to because the map file was protected. I was wondering if you could share with me how you managed to get around this protection to make your improvements, as I would love to be able to optimize this map for my LAN group who use 1.26a, as well as make alterations to models and terrain.
You can reach me on my email at [email protected]

Cheers
 
Level 3
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
32
Hey Bennoloth, my friends and I in New Zealand meet up for LAN Parties every few months and Balin's Tomb has been a favorite of ours at these events for years so I was very pleased to see someone else take an interest in this fantastic classic map! Unfortunately, the version of the game that we play at these events is 1.26a, so we will not be able to enjoy your improvements.

However, for years I have wanted to make my own alterations to this map but have not been able to because the map file was protected. I was wondering if you could share with me how you managed to get around this protection to make your improvements, as I would love to be able to optimize this map for my LAN group who use 1.26a, as well as make alterations to models and terrain.
You can reach me on my email at [email protected]

Cheers
Hiya. Glad to hear it, it's a classic! I don't think there are any protections on the map I put out. Can you not modify it? If not, try one of the many versions on www.epicwar.com

Good luck
 
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