General Information
General InformationThis project was originally envisioned as a long cinematic series based around the novel "Beyond the Dark Portal" by Aaron Rosenberg and Christie Golden.
It was later revised to be a single campaign, as I felt no one would be willing to watch a 5 hour + cinematic series.
Finally, it was changed into the format of a 2 player coop campaign with all the maps connected by a save/load code system.
This was done because I felt it was sad that the map development forum on hive overemphasized single player campaigns to the detriment of multiplayer maps---
In my opinion, what made warcraft 3 great was being able to play with your friends, so hopefully this series will give you a chance to play a custom campaign with a buddy.
I understand it is difficult to find someone to play with and would be easier to play it solo, but please make an effort to find a partner to play this with.
I think players will enjoy this series far more if they can share the experience with another person.
Finally, I strongly recommend you read the information sections below to enhance your understanding of the game-play and to avoid people asking the same questions repeatedly.
(Old)Map Development Thread:
[Campaign] - Warcraft II Beyond the Dark Portal (1p/2p)
Mission Guide
This section will provide players with guide on beating missions on insane difficulty, as well as general information useful to all players for each mission Keep in mind that the general rule for casual players is RTS maps should be played on normal difficulty, while RPG maps can be beaten on insane difficulty.
Map03- RTS
This mission is special because it is of the difficulty I originally envisaged for the campaign, but this was wrong since it becomes too hard to beat for players who are not top-notch RTS players. If you are a casual player, you might want to consider easy mode, even though you can destroy bases before they even activate when playing easy mode.
Tips for insane: The mission relies on the interaction of the three optional quests. You must get the Thunderlords on your side first, since that only requires heroes with invisibility potions to run past enemy bases and kill a weak unit. Note, you can avoid fighting even the guards by buying double potions, which will shorten the quest time significantly.
After you have grey on your side, blue will focus him, so you have less pressure on your base. You should then rush the goblin quest. After that, you can decide whether to kill blue for an expansion, or finish the Arakkoa quest before green activates. The choice is yours, just make sure to not lose units against the Draenei or against the boars.
Map04-RPG
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Insane
Insane mode tips: You need to learn Danath's passive, since it will make a huge difference in mission 11. Be careful when you are in the cave, and do not activate the destroyer until you know how to defeat him (he cannot be killed with physical or magical damage.
Map06-RPG
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Insane
Insane mode tips: You need to learn Dentarg's mana drain and heal spell. Keep Teron away from range units due to his low HP.
Map08-RPG
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Insane
Insane mode tips: You need to learn Katrana's lifesteal aura in order to defeat orange. Keep 1 level of windwalk incase you she gets focused Remember it is ok to sometimes fail main quests....
Map010-RTS
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Normal
Insane mode tips: Liquid elemental is one of the most powerful spells when used correctly, so learn it. Make sure to take the expansion guarded by the bandits ASAP.
Map011-RTS/RPG
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Normal
Insane mode tips: You must make sure green does not get out of control, or he will wipe you and grey out through mass numbers. You need to sacrifice one of the food providers eventually so that grey can help in the defence. You must buy orb of fire for Danath.
Map012-RTS
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Normal
Insane mode tips: Use your spells in coordination to achieve victory.
Map013-RPG
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Insane
Insane mode tips: Difficulty makes no difference in this mission, as this tests your intelligence.
Map014-RTS
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Normal
Insane mode tips: You must choose to manually control light blue. Make sure to hunt creeps aggressively or pink/lb will run out of gold and your allies will fail fast.
Map015-RTS
Recommended Difficulty for Casual- Normal
Insane mode tips: Grom's Agile, when combined with Map03's lifesteal item + Map15's critical strike item makes him the most powerful hero physically in this campaign, though Danath comes very close. Aim the human heroes or your base will be lost against the massive spell power of Turalyon/Khadgar/Danath/Kurdran. This is the first mission that requires you to complete a puzzle in order to even play the mission.
Basics
Though the game is designed to be a 2 player coop series, it is designed to support single player, but you must make sure to play as the "core" team if playing single player. For the Old Horde, that is red, and for the Reforged Alliance, that is blue.
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In addition to the game tying all written commands to the core player, it is also the only player that can gain resources, as well as the only player that can skip cinematics.
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For playable missions, the core player has 5 seconds before the start of each cinematic to skip. For pure cinematic missions, the core player can skip the mission at any time (like the regular blizzard campaign).
The second player is designed to be a hero only faction. It is only given one hero, and in RTS missions it is given an invulnerable altar that revives the hero for free (though the revival time is doubled as compensation).
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Hero Set List:
Core- Dentarg, Hero faction- Teron
Core- Turalyon, Hero faction- Khadgar
Core- Rexxar, Hero faction- Grom
Core- Tagar, Hero faction- Fenris
Core- Kurdran, Hero faction- Danath
Core- Katrana, Hero faction- Deathwing
Core- Krasus, Hero faction- Antonidas
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You will note that the hero faction controls the far stronger hero, and can carry the team late game with just that hero alone. For this reason, if you are playing with a friend, it is advised that the person who cannot play RTS well be given the hero faction. However, the hero faction for most of the hero sets are considerably more fun to play, so if possible, try to allow both players to have a chance playing the hero faction for different hero set groups.
I also want to emphasise that players who do not use "vision cheats" will not be at a disadvantage when compared with people who do use "vision cheats". There is no anti cheating system in place, but I have designed the maps so that all the secrets are placed right in front of you--- it is up to you to figure how to use them. You will not miss anything by not revealing the whole map with vision cheats, and there are no secrets hidden in hard to access areas. Many of the heroes you will get have teleportation-type abilities that will allow you sometimes to go to places not designed to be traveled to--- I want to stress that doing this will only increase the chance of a problem occurring by you gaining access to a zone that you should not have gained access to yet. Just to repeat: There are no secrets to find by abusing blink-type abilities to gain access to hard-to-reach areas. Everything is placed right in front of you--- just make sure to explore the map thoroughly and you will be fine. In particular, pay attention to circles of power.
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Warcraft 3 Version
This map series is being made on 1.28, though it works on 1.29+ since I need to test it online. If you are using a version below 1.28, I cannot promise it will work. To repeat what I have said in the first comment in the comment section for this map: The reason I am uploading this now is because I need to know if this works for patch 1.27 and below. The only reason I am still making this on 1.28 is because I do not want to exclude players who do not have 1.29 (which causes incompatibility so people without 1.29 cannot play campaigns on 1.29 from what I understand).
I specifically need feedback from players below 1.28 on any potential crashes that occur when playing with 2 players (there are no crashes on 1.28 +). I cannot test it myself on 1.27 and below since I do not trust the "Patch switcher", and because I have no friends to play it with me on patches below 1.28. So please, if you are playing on 1.27 and below, play with a friend and let me know if any crashes occur. I am willing to spend time fixing any potential errors so players on 1.27 and below can play this map series, but I need to know sooner rather than later, because as more time passes, I become more reluctant to make any changes to the maps because they are all separate and it will take a lot of effort to make changes to each individual map.
If you are playing on a version below 1.28, keep in mind these two things:
A)You must have a "CustomMapData" folder in your warcraft 3 file. I think 1.27 (b) creates it automatically, but the previous versions do not. You will need to manually create it if you do not have one.
B)If you are playing with 2 players, you need to make sure the patch has the extended map size limit for multiplayer. The old limit (8 MB) for multiplayer will not allow you to play these maps since they are all bigger than 8 MB, so either play on 1.27 (b) (I think they introduced the extended multiplayer on that patch) or find a way to extend the maximum file limit for multiplayer.
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Note that if you are using a version older than 1.28, the "CustomMapData" will obviously not be in your "my documents" folder, it will be in your normal warcraft 3 file.
Difficulty
For the RTS missions, insane mode is designed to be really tough, so I strongly caution against playing them on insane difficulty unless you are playing it with a friend + you feel very comfortable with base-building missions. The RPG style missions are far more relaxed, and can be beaten on insane difficulty with less effort.All the artifacts can only be acquired by beating the optional bosses on each map on insane difficulty.Artifacts can now be acquired on any difficulty.
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The artifacts will not significantly affect your game-play, but if you wish to beat future missions on insane + beat the final boss on insane, it is expected that you have collected all the artifact items during the previous missions.
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Additionally, beating the optional bosses/main bosseson insanewill give you a "letter" that forms part of a code that will allow you to access the final 2 missions of the campaign series, so make sure to write down the "letter" you receive from each missionwhen playing on insane difficulty.
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As I mention below in the "save/load system" section, you can use the load system to first beat a mission on easy/normal difficulty, then reload into insane so you can beat it easier.
Save/Load System
At the end of the mission, both players will receive a code that will be automatically saved into their "CustomMapData" folder in their warcraft 3 file.
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You can then copy paste that code into the next mission with that hero set to load your hero's items and abilities.
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The code is not associated with player names, so you can change which heroes you play any time.
It is also worth mentioning that the file that is created in your "CustomMapData" folder is the exact name of the mission you save. This means that it will overwrite any previous save file in your folder with the same name. This means that if you replay a mission, be aware that if you win and allow the game to save, any previous save files associated with that same mission will be deleted.
The save/load system also allows players who are unable to beat the mission on insane to gain the maximum level for the mission, and then reload with their saves on insane difficulty.
With regard to the heroes themselves, each mission will have a level cap for the heroes you are playing. Most hero sets have an average of 3 playable missions each, so most missions will allow cap you after 5-4 hero levels (the maximum hero level for all heroes is 14, with the exception of bonus level missions (deathwing/katrana, antonidas/krasus).
So for example, in the first playable mission (Grom/Rexxar), the level cap is level 5. Once your hero reach this level, you will be unable to gain experience. If you choose to reload your heroes into the same mission (for example if you can only beat a mission on easy mode but you want to beat it on insane difficulty for the artifact items), your heroes will gain experience for the first level, but upon leveling up they will be automatically sent back to the level cap and have experience turned off. So if you were to load level 5 grom/rexxar back into the first mission, you will be able to gain experience up to level six, but as soon as you reach level six you will be sent back to level 5 and have experience turned off.
It is important to note that this is not an attempt to control players---this is just to make sure players do not ruin the fun of the game by accidentally reaching level 14 on the first mission due to trying to reload on insane difficulty for the artifact items.
Once you reach the final mission for a hero set and attain level 14 (maximum level), you can of course reload into any previous mission without worrying about being sent back to the level cap for that mission, since the trigger is based on being able to level up.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that only artifacts + shop items can be saved. All other items will be automatically deleted during the save process, so as to prevent bugs from occurring if you load a save item back into a map when you should not have that item. From this, you can understand that all items acquired in individual maps that are not artifacts/shop items have a purpose in that specific map, so if you find you still have quest items in your inventory when saving, perhaps you should go back and explore the map and find the purpose of those items.
Visual Errors
Since I have been making these maps on 1.28, it is important to know that there will be some visual errors if you play it on 1.29+. It does not affect the game-play, but you will notice it, so I will list the issues you might encounter below so you do not report them as "bugs". These issues will not be changed as long as I am making the maps on 1.28. The first pictures show what 1.28 looks like (and in theory everything below 1.28) while the second pictures show what it looks like on 1.29+.
Stacked Floating Text
Any stacked floating text I made on 1.28 will appear as overlapping on 1.29+. This is most obvious during the introduction missions for the horde/alliance, and I am trying to reduce the amount I use in future missions due to this issue.
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Extended Camera Revealing Unwanted Sights
The extended camera also reveals areas that I did not predict would be seen on the 1.28 camera. It might make some things look silly, but has no effect on anything else.
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Appearing/Disappearing Doodads
Because some of the doodad I use have the wrong base, when making the maps on 1.28 I designed the cinematic scenes so it would not accidentally show the outside parts of such doodads and then move over them. But on 1.29, the camera extension does exactly this, so there will be many instances of doodads appearing/disappearing randomly.
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Playable Characters
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Teron Gorefiend: The central hero for the horde campaign along with Dentarg. An extremely cunning warlock who chose the path of the shadow, Teron was once one of Gul'dan's most promising pupils until his death at the hand's of Orgrim Doomhammer. Resurrected as a death-knight to counter the humans' mages during the second war, he chose to remain loyal to the horde despite Gul'dan's betrayal. Only Ner'zhul himself can rival Teron in power.
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Dentarg: The mortal compass of the horde and the loyal apprentice of Ner'zhul. While many of the horde mock ogres for being incapable of intelligence and compassion, Dentarg lacks neither, and it is his pure spirit that puts him on a collision course with the seemingly maleficent Teron.
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Grom Hellscream: The wild chieftain of the Warsong clan. Grom's resents having been forced to stay back on Draenor during the second war. His initial anger towards Ner'zhul for allowing Gul'dan to take over the horde dulls once he is given the chance to re-invade Azeroth.
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Rexxar: Second-in-command of the Warsong clan, and Grom's most loyal captain. Rexxar answered the call of the horde despite his half-ogre heritage. He is the bond-mate of a beautiful black wolf called Haratha.
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Fenris Wolfbrother: The leader of the Thunderlord clan and one of the main advocates of peace within the horde. Well respected even among the clans that count the Thunderlords as enemies, and able to bring reason and rationality to even the most chaotic of situations.
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Tagar Spinebreaker: The protege of Hurkan Skullsplinter, and one of the most savage warriors of the Bonechewer clan. His barbaric nature is rivaled only by his disdain for those he considers weaker than himself.
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Deathwing: The fallen dragon aspect who instills fear into the hearts of even the most courageous of heroes. His low-key presence in the world of mortals has many concerned that he may be planning something that may shake the very foundations of Azeroth...
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Katrana Prestor: A slender, graceful woman who comes and goes in the circles of the elites of the various human kingdoms. Very little is known about her.
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Khadgar: A powerful mage and the former apprentice of the last guardian Medivh. Thanks to his actions, his former master, who eventually succumbed to the nefarious essence of Sargeras that lurked with him, was finally put to rest. Even since he left Medivh's tower, however, he has been plagued by the dreams of the future he experienced while experimenting with Medivh's various potions of future seeing--- particularly those that concerning him marching under a red sky in a strange world...
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Turalyon: The great paladin who took up Lothar's mantle and led the alliance to victory over the horde at the battle for Blackrock Spire. He struggles with his new role as the command of the alliance, as well as the coldness that has sprung up between him and his former lover, Alleria Windrunner.
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Danath Trollbane: A seasoned veteran who has a low opinion of the contributions of the non-human races towards the alliance's cause. His inner prejudices become a focal point of conflict when he is assigned to a co-commanding role with the dwarven representative, Kurdran Wildhammer.
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Kurdran Wildhammer: The leader of the fabled Wildhammer gyphon riders. After seeing the potential threat the horde posed to Azeroth when the orcs marched north through the Hinterlands, he convinced his clan to solidify their alliance with the humans and work with them to ensure the horde would never be able to create the level of havoc it caused during the second war.
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Antonidas: The leader of the Kirin Tor and one of the wisest mages of Dalaran. He, along with Admiral Proudmoore, is one of the strongest supporters of King Terenas.
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Krasus: One of the council of six of Dalaran, and an expert on dragons.