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Book of Rexxar - Drums of War

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Rexxar returns to save the land of Durotar in an explosive new Warcraft III custom campaign, by me, Med. MapGuy! Developed with Frozen Throne 1.36 (1.27b compatible also available for download!), this is a direct sequel to the original Founding of Durotar. Fully voice-acted and set several years after the cataclysmic events in Theramore, Rexxar must team up with allies old and new to confront an evil beyond reckoning!

Features
  • 9 single-player chapters and 5 cinematic interludes
  • Hundreds of custom models, new voice files and music
  • Travel to familiar, fully realized locations
  • Fun custom GUI spells
  • Fully voice-acted
  • Loosely based on the World of Warcraft tie-in novel, Cycle of Hatred by Keith R. A. DeCandido

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FAQ
1) Is this a sequel to Founding of Durotar? Yes, this campaign takes places roughly four years after that campaign.
2) Is this story based on canon lore? Yes, the plot is a loose adaptation of the World of Warcraft tie-in novel, Cycle of Hatred by Keith R. A. DeCandido. The campaign also ties in various questlines and locations from classic WoW.
3) Will Chen Stormstout return as your companion? Sadly no, as he canonically left Kalimdor at the time of these events.
4) Will this campaign feature an open world mechanic like the original? No, this is a linear campaign. I couldn't figure out how to use the Save/Load transition.
5) Can I play this with Warcraft III: Reforged? Yes. This custom campaign was first developed with Frozen Throne 1.27b and is now compatible with 1.35.
6) How long did you take to create this campaign? Roughly four to five months.
7) Does it have voice-acting? Yes, thanks to Elevenlabs' voice cloning technology, but exclusively for the 1.36 version of the campaign.

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Creator's Notes
You can read the brief development thread of of this campaign here. To elevate the classic look and feel of Warcraft III, I utilized Johnwar's excellent suite of Orc, Ogre and Troll models, with some developed exclusively for this campaign! Stefan.K, Retera, Asssssvi, Rhapsodie fantastic models are also featured throughout!

Changelog


  • Released on October 31, 2021


  • Corrected multiple typos in spell description, quest logs
  • Changed "Cage - Custom" to "Cage"
  • Added Neutral Building Icon to Resurrection Stones
  • Added more audible SFX when Huffer bites it
  • Thanks to cleavinghammer, Navy45, Xetanth87
  • Added more mana replenishing items in the Burning Blade coven


  • Swapped Rexxar's face to the original as many have pointed out his eyes were too close together
  • Added missing spell descriptions for Siphon Mana and Earthquake
  • Fixed typos as pointed out by cleavinghammer
  • Changed faction name of "Darkspear Strand" to "Darkspear Captives"
  • Removed Orc Mailbox in Sen'jin Village
  • Vile Imp quest now gets marked as "completed"
  • Corrected "Zalazane" and "Centaur Threat" codex
  • Changed faction of Cougars in Sen'jin Village
  • Changed faction of Resurrection Stone to Neutral
  • Changed "Order Rifleman" to "Flaming Sword Rifleman"
  • Changed Searing Blade Blademaster's Wind Walk spell to Shockwave
  • Removed lumber cost for Darkspear Riders
  • Increased Stash's food for certain levels
  • Tweaked Burx's opening line to Rexxar
  • Added item description to Gazlowe's ingredients
  • Changed Winder Serpent Flayer's spell to Inner Fire
  • Thanks again to cleavinghammer


  • Removed duplicate codex for Bazzalan
  • Made Neeru's taunt an actual transmission
  • Fixed Ragefire Chasm's codex entry
  • Added some fire elementals in Ragefire Chasm
  • Moved Doomguard codex to be more visible
  • Removed Taurens in Brackenwall Village
  • Fixed Ogre Spearthrower's tooltips
  • Corrected Quest to say "Kill 3 Elder Dragons" instead
  • Increased foodcap for Theramore level
  • Fixed Tidesage's tooltip
  • Added correct handicap to Theramore Guard
  • Pained still doesn't show up
  • Fixed Theramore map's name
  • Thanks again to cleavinghammer for finding these, you're the best


  • Fixed the material on Rexxar's cape, which was unfogged and displayed weirdly in places with thicker fog like the cave segments and Ragefire Chasm
  • Fixed the attachment points of the female shaman model, which displayed origin effects like aura buffs above her head instead of at her feet
  • Applied the same fix to the dire troll model
  • Special thanks to Frostwhisper for these wonderful model fixes
  • Found wrongly edited Buff that caused Stunned Units to appear Ensnared
  • Edited Gazlowe's quest so that when you acquire his ingredients, they act as power-ups and disappear and no longer take space in your inventory
  • Fixed description for "Down Below" quest
  • Tried to look into DarkSword123's feedback, added some small fixes
  • Gave "Attribute Bonus" to Gorgotha


  • Special thanks to deepstrasz for his feedback!
  • Added portrait to Slagor the banker, Skeleton Ogres
  • Increased mana cost and cooldown time of Gorgotha's Razor's Edge
  • Corrected Dire Boar's portrait, and changed his Dire Wolf companions to "Raging Boars"
  • Removed Ensnare ability from Gorky
  • Changed Head Hunting's quest icon to that of a scroll
  • Added new Burning Blade enemies as you escape the collapsing Burning Blade mine
  • Changed all enemy Warlock units attack damage to Chaos
  • Increased the life and damage of certain Vile Imps, Bazzalan, Neeru, Taragaman the Hungerer, Zmodlor and Kristoff
  • Changed "Locust" projectile from Rokhan's Voodoo Spirit spell to a spirit projectile model
  • Changed Raptor's icon (Credit to Kimbo)
  • Changed all Stonemaul Ogre's icons (Credit to r.ace613)
  • Made Thrall invulnerable after you liberate the Stonemaul village


  • Removed all player / enemy handicaps (FYI, game difficulty hasn't been fully tested)
  • Added new dialogue for Gorgotha for all levels
  • Updated to work with Warcraft III: Reforged


  • Removed 'The' in 'Terror at Theramore' name in mission loading screen
  • Added Ogre Mound with hirable Ogres in 'Terror at Theramore'
  • Fixed issue where you don't get food in the final level
  • Fixed issue where Gorky follows you even after you rescue him and return him to his dad Goe
  • Added missing pathing blockers to certain stone spires in the first level
  • Replaced Tauren model in the 'Valley of Trials'


  • Minor bug fixes
  • Voice acting added



Known Issues
  • Game may crash in certain levels, so save frequently
  • Enemies have a tendency to flee when attacked
  • Rexxar's Beast Attack has a chance of not working
  • Some models don't have portraits
  • Rexxar's Summon Quilbeast spell description may not reflect accurate damage
  • Resurrection Stones' runes may not light up despite being active

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A massive thanks to Lazarator and johnwar for their excellent feedback and contributions! Also, special thanks to waredcraft for early input. You guys helped make this campaign better!

Credits


Blizzard Entertainment
johnwar
loktar
Rhapsodie
frosthwhisper
Darkfang
BaiyuGalen
Retera
Stefan.K
Sellenisko
Grey Knight
Callahan
Murcologist
HerrDave
Asssssvi
BLazeKraze
Direfury
Deolrin
Just_Spectating
Exploboomb
Mister_Haudrauf
Supertoinkz
BoganKry
Edge45
Hayate
Wandering Soul
Mc !
Kehel
Ujimasa Hojo
Eagle XI
Taur
Evolving
The_Silent
AhhFreshWeeD
xyzier_24
Tranquil
Yours Truly
ratamahatta
bakr
Nasrudin
Chucky
Right Field
Jaccouille
Kuhneghetz
-Grendel
LordGandulfo88
Cavman
stein123
Mythic
Tarrasque
PROXY
Lord_T
Gluma
Veronnis
eubz
Burning_Dragoon5
MatiS
PaulH
Mister_Haudrauf
kangyun
Scias



-Berz-
-BerzekeR-



Filmting



Blizzard Entertainment
World of Warcraft
Heroes of the Storm
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Rome: Total War



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Previews
Contents

Book of Rexxar - Drums of War (Campaign)

Book of Rexxar - Drums of War (Campaign)

Reviews
deepstrasz
A lovely immersive campaign about Rexxar and friends that isn't on par with the Founding of Durotar, not because of the lack of map to map transition but because of linearity and repetitiveness of gameplay. Approved. If you want more reviews, you...
Level 23
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
299
Thanks for the write-up. It's cool you picked up on those little details :infl_thumbs_up:

I'll try to get around to fixing the small bugs you mentioned. Adapting the original novel Cycle of Hatred was an interesting challenge, as I had to cut a lot of stuff that didn't fit... Like Aegwynn appearing in the end. I really enjoyed fleshing out the characters and making the whole thing feel like a proper sequel.

With regards to the Heart of Storms mod, I've thankfully been sharing mapping duties with one of the leads. The prologue campaign is also more or less complete, it just needs a ton of spit and polish.

I hope rejecting the vengeful huntress' offer brings some benefit, otherwise I rejected an extra playable hero for no reason :( .

Oops, I only made her optional for players that want an extra challenge. She does have a fairly OP ability. :witch_doc_sad:
 
Level 10
Joined
Feb 21, 2015
Messages
363
It's a very good campaign, but the difficulty is too much in "hard". It wasn't exactly fun fighting waves of "mana burn" units in chapter 2. Moreover, the dialogue is not that immersive, and it's mostly just go kill this beast and go bring me that. For example, one orc officer told Rexxar to go destroy a human encampment, and Rexxar had no comment about it. He just agreed and attacked with no reflection.
He didn't feel like "Oh, the whole war with Proudmore was caused by a racist human who kept pushing it until we annihilated his army. Maybe I should rationalize the situation here first before I mindlessly cause a war because I slaughtered an encampment."
The story is alright so far and I'll probably revisit this comment when I complete the campaign.
4/5
 
Level 4
Joined
Sep 25, 2021
Messages
16
Quite a good campaign I say. But then I discover many problems, some of them not quite enjoyable (at least for me). I'll list it here:
1. The scaling is not that great at all, the enemy heroes are surprisingly weak while their minions are super strong lol. Auto-attacking a unit for half a day isn't what I have in mind xD. That problem is also connected to problem number 2. :confused:2
2. While the hero's skill and all is perhaps good and strong, there are too many mana burn around (and some stun lock is op as hell). That caused me to just auto-attack the all the time. :ogre_rage:

3. Some of the units don't get aggro, and some just run away when I'm attacking them.
4. There aren't enough "special-item" in the game like in the Founding of Durotar.
5. The Scorpion King and Rokhan Ult have the undead tower model instead of...the original Crypt Lord ult?
6. While the storyline is relevant, almost - canon. Rexxar isn't in character for me :grin: Rokhan should have some dialogue too.
7. Too many Heroes xD I really can't control them all.
8. Even in hard difficulties, our team is invincible cause there is no mana burn in the last chapter ( which is nice), Rokhan heal + Jaina aura make us invulnerable and always at full health lmao xD I can even solo the base with just Cairne, Jaina and Rokhan. The only issue is there are too many heroes to control.
So, there are just my personal opinions (Green is personal favour, Red is what I think u should fix, Yellow isn't a problem either but should be looked into), Great campaign, I really enjoy playing it. It's cool to see custom campaign creator decide to pick the lore in the book and make gameplay out of it. Hopefully, this will get another update and looking forwards to your next project. Regards!
 
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Level 26
Joined
Aug 18, 2022
Messages
637
So it was... When it was released in the good ol' days I tried it out, and turn out to be back than that I'm not like it. I certainly dislike the every spawning enemies of the first map, but after the hassle and fighting, and leveling up and so on are payed off in the end especially. I liked the dialogues, especially the ending one with Misha on the last mission. I played the legacy version, and I discovered several bugs: I don't know if there is going to be improvement on the old 1.27b compatible version, or you are going to focus all of your efforts to Reforged only now? Thank you very much for the campaign, I liked it.
 
Level 4
Joined
Mar 21, 2022
Messages
21
some bugs encountered:
1) Chapter 1 - after leaving the cultist cave, but before delivering "teeth" to Neeru, if some hero dies, there is no "defeat dialog", which is intended, but the resurrection stones no longer work (dead hero remains dead), i hope it will self-fix when i fully complete that quest (deliver item to Neeru).
Maybe some more will add later (gonna update this post, if it will be latest by that time).
2) Chapter 1 - Some resurrection stones work differently and maybe are bugged, in particular, some of them never provide vision, for examble where the chapter begins (first met stone in campaign always provides vision? no matter if it is active or not), there are stones, that do not provide vision:
2.1) South from centaurs (in a corridor, that leads to centaurs)
2.2) At cultist cave (where centaurs reside), but it is different, it always provides vision, but, it either does not work, or just has special effect broken on activation (and glowing effect on active stone never displayed). Bug #1 may be related to these bugged resurrection stones. It was in Reforged 1.35 after loading a saved game.
2.3) Stone at South East horde base in same chapter.
3) I wanted to whine about inadequate difficulty, but after finishing the first chapter (with cheats at some point, because corpse throwing 100 times is not fun and time consuming), i noticed that it was normal difficulty, not even hard, so i report it here as something, that does not feel ok at all. Campaign menu displays first chapter with "normal" difficulty (completed as normal difficulty), but the difficulty selection displayed "story" (easy) highlighted, selecting normal in that menu crashed the game, so im not sure, that difficulties work properly at all, maybe i played as hard?
4) Also, i know, that primary attribute gives rougly 0.3-0.4 damage, but Crown of kings gives one base damage and one "+" (green) damage, so it combines attributes somehow tricky.
5) Quest to hunt that "divine boar", for some reason was not marked as completed in the quest log, but had all objectives done and reward received (all objectives in the quest log marked as done, just the quest itself was not marked as completed).
 
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Level 28
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
1,095
some bugs encountered:
1) Chapter 1 - after leaving the cultist cave, but before delivering "teeth" to Neeru, if some hero dies, there is no "defeat dialog", which is intended, but the resurrection stones no longer work (dead hero remains dead), i hope it will self-fix when i fully complete that quest (deliver item to Neeru).
Maybe some more will add later (gonna update this post, if it will be latest by that time).
2) Chapter 1 - Some resurrection stones work differently and maybe are bugged, in particular, some of them never provide vision, for examble where the chapter begins (first met stone in vampaign always provides vision? no matter if it is active or not), there are stones, that do not provide vision:
2.1) south from centaurs (in a corridor, that leads to centaurs)
2.2) at cultist cave (where centaurs reside), but it is different, it always provides vision, but, it either does not work, or just has special effect broken on activation. Bug #1 may be related to these bugged resurrection stones.
Are you using the Reforged remake (1.35) or the old ones (1.27b)?
 
Level 4
Joined
Mar 21, 2022
Messages
21
some bugs encountered:
1) Chapter 1 - after leaving the cultist cave, but before delivering "teeth" to Neeru, if some hero dies, there is no "defeat dialog", which is intended, but the resurrection stones no longer work (dead hero remains dead), i hope it will self-fix when i fully complete that quest (deliver item to Neeru).
Maybe some more will add later (gonna update this post, if it will be latest by that time).
2) Chapter 1 - Some resurrection stones work differently and maybe are bugged, in particular, some of them never provide vision, for examble where the chapter begins (first met stone in campaign always provides vision? no matter if it is active or not), there are stones, that do not provide vision:
2.1) South from centaurs (in a corridor, that leads to centaurs, in the center of map, not SW)
2.2) At cultist cave (where centaurs reside, same centaur location), but it is different, it always provides vision, but, it either does not work, or just has special effect broken on activation (and glowing effect on active stone never displayed). Bug #1 may be related to these bugged resurrection stones. It was in Reforged 1.35 after loading a saved game.
2.3) Stone at South East horde base in same chapter.
3) I wanted to whine about inadequate difficulty, but after finishing the first chapter (with cheats at some point, because corpse throwing 100 times is not fun and time consuming), i noticed that it was normal difficulty, not even hard, so i report it here as something, that does not feel ok at all. Campaign menu displays first chapter with "normal" difficulty (completed as normal difficulty), but the difficulty selection displayed "story" (easy) highlighted, selecting normal in that menu crashed the game, so im not sure, that difficulties work properly at all, maybe i played as hard?
4) Also, i know, that primary attribute gives roughly 0.3-0.4 damage, but Crown of kings gives one base damage and one "+" (green) damage, so it combines attributes somehow tricky.
5) Quest to hunt that "divine boar", for some reason was not marked as completed in the quest log, but had all objectives done and reward received (all objectives in the quest log marked as done, just the quest itself was not marked as completed).
Tried the 1.27 version on the 1.27 client (just to check/confirm bugs).
#1 same,
#2.1 and #2.2 switched visions (2.1 shows, 2.2 - not), #2.3 same. Keep in mind, all this may be related to permanently dead Rexxar because of bug #1, so maybe these are related to #1 (it should enable stones right after leaving the cave, currently it either enables after turning in the quest, or doesn't enable at all). After i loaded the game from a savegame (to get alive Rexxar and continue) and meeting with Burx in south, all stones became, like in 1.35 version (related to 2.1 and 2.2 vision), not sure if it related to saving & loading or just by updating a different main quest (meeting Burx in south for the first time).
#5 Quest "Head Hunting" - same, its not getting completed (in the QuestLog UI) after all objectives are done.

6) Gorky not inside the cage (he is staying outside should be mentioned by others, i think)

7) When delivering Neeru his second (it is last) quest ("Nothing but the Tooth"), Neeru displays "!" mark above his head, but he does not offer a new quest (noticed same on 1.35 too)

8) Chapter 3 - exp rate is too low, you start with 6, end with 6.8 (or so), next mission starts with level 8 (all player heroes get upped to level 8 from start), so Chapter 3's exp rate should be increased to 3-4x.

9) Gorgotha ultimate rank 2 tooltip displays same bonuses, should be 700 or 750 hp (instead 500), 6 armor (instead 5), ~23 damage (instead 20), tooltip needs to be fixed for both, the learn menu, and the default (extended) tooltip as well.

10) That custom duration texture, which used for exp bar and Gorgotha's avatar duration sometime is stuck, and does not update in realtime, until hero is reselected, to see updated duration.
 
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Level 4
Joined
Mar 21, 2022
Messages
21
This campaign is quite raw, not high quality, it is definitely not playtested by the author himself (especially after difficulty changes from the 1.06+ changelog).

1) Balance needs tuning (nerfing hero stats is bad idea, all it does, just breaks balance on early chapters, better to make custom enemy units and make them stronger (more damage / hp), i dont know, how in this campaign difficulty difference is done, but balancing difficulties by using either handicaps or "damage modificators" is good way to balance (rather than heavily changing unit amounts and/or types per difficulty, so experience and gold rewards are not affected).

2) Itemization (hero items) is at raw alpha or placeholder, rather than at a finished, polished state (other people already mentioned, that custom items are not used in this campaign (actually, 1-2 maybe from Blizz Rexxar campaign, rest is default melee-type items everywhere, and blizz orb-effect items).

3) Hero ability tooltips are currently raw (a lot of text errors, like level 2 of ability has same tooltip, as level 1, or diffrent numbers, but weaker, Jaina's Elemental does zero damage - by ability tooltip).

4) Max level at final chapter is 15 ? (or does the exp gain gets just disabled at that level ?)
Btw, do you know, that you can not fully learn all of the hero abilities, because of not enough spendable points? It lacks 2 or 3 skill points (Rexxar got 1 bonus learned, as on level 1 he got 2 abilities available, so he lacks one point less, than other hearoes, but it is 2 or 3 total. I dont remember, the Attribute bonus has 3 or 4 levels, if 4, then 3A*4+4B+2C=18 (where A - 3 abilities x4 skill points each; B - Bonus Attributes either 3 or 4, C - Ultimate (2, iirc). So Level cap should be level 18, not 15, simply no reason to limit at 15.
Chapter 9 could have doubled exp rates, so new heroes could catch up too, at least to get some more automatic attributes ("attributes per level"), or, better, they should start at higher level (including Cairne from previous chapters). BTW, it is not necessary to modify their abilities (just ensure, that they have Attribute Bonus too), automatic attributes are never enough too, so are always welcome.

Overall, gameplay-wise it is nothing special or unique, dont expect very much from it. It is not the Joe's Quest Remake type of quality.
 
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Level 7
Joined
Oct 12, 2020
Messages
81
Finished it today and man was it amazing, usually i didn't like fully micro campaigns but this was really fun to play and
i loved the lowering of hp of all things which made the combat shorter and more fun
and the way stats worked was pretty good as well as stat building required different strategies

The only issue i had was the fight with searing orcs in the cave where samuro comes to rescue as i worn out after the fight and having to fight a sudden giant attack is annoying as your heroes need to stay alive too , it will be a lot better if only you fought three or four guys there and rest will be waiting at the end of the cave so that the player can wait prepare

Overall, loved the campaign both story and gameplay wise so thank you for creating another wonderful campaign!
 
Level 2
Joined
Feb 21, 2023
Messages
5
I wonder if I can play this campaign with reforged graphics? It seems this customized GUI collide with reforged mode.
 
Level 28
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
1,095
When I'm trying to save, game instantly crashes. I'm playing on 1.35, have no idea what's the problem
Have you encountered an exact error messages when the game crashes after saving? It could be caused by broken imported models or insufficient RAM.
However, if the problem is related to the latter, there is a post already about the solution, which can be found here.
 
Level 19
Joined
Dec 15, 2021
Messages
302
I know how important good feedback is, so I'm trying to give as much as possible (and hopefully useful advices as a fellow mapmaker) :
WALL OF TEXT & MAJOR NICKPICKING INCOMING !

-Played the 1.06 version on normal difficulty on my 1.27 game version-

Any mention of « vanilla » means the Blizzard Rexxar campaign

-first, the presentation is top-notch : loading screens, new models, sounds, music, cutscenes etc. are excellent as always
-I get that it's meant to be like vanilla but I feel it's a missed opportunity to have better quests than « go kill XX of YY » without any real story reason since you're good at storytelling as shown by your other campaigns + giving more personnality to rokhan and the new girl
-it's also a shame that there isn't any deviation from hack'n'slash gameplay like the stealth with samuro, transformation into wyverns, MOBA-like part etc. in vanilla
-in the 1st half of the campaign all hero abilities except serpent wards and summon boar are expensive and mana is scarce so you can't use them much and only autoattacking is not very involving gameplay
-some quests are really just retreading the vanilla campaign with few changes both gameplay and story-wise
-speaking of story Thrall really has lost his mojo : from allying with all those other races to not realizing a warlock! is staging a coup under his nose – thankfully he can still throw rexxar at any problem :gg:
-lots and lots of dispelling enemies that destroy your summons but the player has zero option to dispel before some melee ogre that gets targeted by the AI so they don't last long
-some fast travel means could be useful since most maps are huge and you do a lot of backtracking when you die/ go back to town or fountains, like the item with town portal we get in vanilla (I know you can buy some scrolls but they're too expensive and take up space)
-gorgotha's dash ability looks really janky whenever there are units in the way (so when you want to use it for the AoE)
-the voodoo spirits conjures spirit towers !? If it's intended it's a terrible idea because you can't see a thing once they start flying everywhere
-the 2nd upgrade avatar of gorgotha has the same description as the 1st, and doesn't seem worth it (+150 hp 3 damage and 1 armor more is pretty weak)
-sometimes there are shadows for presumably invisible units/doodads
-the corpses of some black human units makes a strange bug with the rexxar's summoned boar
-there is a 15th map with no button :confused:2
-nice to see the game agreeing with me that regulkut's portrait looks cursed :grin:
-nice to have female centaurs for a change – but not sure about « shaman with boobs » since there is no portrait and the model still looks like a male
-the quests are often about killing wildlife, has the horde changed its whole « respect nature » thing ? I wondered « are we the baddies » more than once and some NPC seem to agree
-the enemy AI for a lot of enemies is strange : sometimes they patrol and ignore you so it's free xp but annoying, sometimes they do hit-and-run, sometimes they just flee and sometimes the ranged ones hide behind trees so only one of your unit can hit them, it's smart of them but infuriating to play – it also makes the AoE ability useless
-it's way harder than vanilla, which is good, but you really need some means of getting back mana and health : at lvl 1 regen is so slow you're always waiting or suiciding the heroes since there isn't any downside from dying – and fleeing to come back later is not really an option with respawning mobs, at least at first
-related : I only got 1 mana rune in all the map, don't know if it's intended or if I was unlucky with RNG
-the first neeru quest has a ton of enemies at once at the end so you just die, cross half the map and die again because the stone is far away and you won't have enough mana to do much more than chip away at the group until most of them died
-at the fast travel points choosing « not interested » shouldn't fadeout + move your units
-gorgotha should probably be in cutscenes where she talks (2nd and 3rd one with ironrager)
-imps are a bit hard to see on the dark background
-neeru still has his exclamation point after you give him the tooth
-the start is very easy compared to the end of map1, while the end of the cave is very hard since your heroes go down very quickly
-spiritwalkers are lvl 1 but still show the spells they can't use
-lots of backtracking for the imp quest
-no warning of game over when you enter the cave, I thought it was a one-off in the 1st map, luckily I saved before otherwise I would have been miffed
-having a group of 4 warlocks that can one-shot a hero when they all throw their fireballs is NOT fun – at least I assume that's what's happening when a hero dies in less than a second
-samuro died in the ambush and was not visible in the cutscene after
-human interlude : the warhammer priest seems to have a seizure towards the end : his head changes direction constantly :gg:
-some tight passages are annoying
-sometimes trees completely hides units in combat
-having dispel options would be good with all the unholy frenzy ruining your day
-your terraining is always on point but I think this jungle is one of your best work :thumbs_up:
-there is a terrible noise when you go near the sea shore on the map : corrupted waves sound ?
-towards the middle of the map you can shortcut through some barriers/ have the AI attack you by going through, not sure if it's intended or not
-the sea giant boss corpse completely obscure the item it drops
-in some places the pathfinding is all wonky because of water level or doodads I guess so your units get killed because they suicide through enemy lines by going around
-the difficulty of encounters doesn't make much sense with some random groups being WAY harder than the last boss or the huge sea giant being a total pushover
-the portal at the end should really be two-ways since you KNOW the player will have to do inventory management and sell the items he won't use in the base – also why not go directly in the base instead of near the stone ?
-human interlude : kristof should talk to an underling instead of talking out loud alone like a lunatic – unless he was talking to the invisible demon ? In that case it's not clear in the cutscene unless you already know the story – also : bad warhammer priest, consorting with demons !
-thrall, give me my items back ! :sad:
-when I came back to gazlowe some wildkins followed me all the way so they were in the cutscene, not moving while rexxar was going to town on them :xxd:
-the map is big and the resurrection stone is so damn far from the mana fountain
-I'm not a fan of huge cliffs because the stretched textures look ugly and they get in the way of the camera sometimes
-same portal problem as your other campaigns but not too annoying here since you don't have as many units
-this marsh is not very swampy like the codex says, it's more like the barrens
-love the new rexxar's look but it comes out of nowhere... it would have been cool if it was after killing a big creature to use its bones, Monster hunter-style
-that's cool that you get a shortcut to the fountain after you meet jaina, I feel that some other maps could use more of that
-Pained ? Really ? And it's cannon WOW : oh, silly Blizzard...
-the fact that the peasants are hostile and that eating the body of « poor poor kristof » is a joke tells me that yes we are indeed the baddies
-having some humans on our side would be better story-wise, maybe after having cleared an objective and Jaina telling them they're manipulated - here it seems all the humans think Jaina is a terrible leader
-I think the vanilla version was more interesting to play with the AI ally & enemy waves and the super-tough towers, here you can attack-move almost everything, and I didn't even use the normal units outside of a couple taurens

This campaign almost feels like a remake of the vanilla Rexxar campaign sometimes since it's very close gameplay and story-wise, but much prettier of course. So if you loved it, this one is must-play. But if you didn't like it, much this plays almost exactly the same, only more difficult, especially at first.

I hope this will be useful to Med. MapGuy.
 
Level 2
Joined
Mar 24, 2023
Messages
2
3.5/5 this one starts slow. way too slow. excellent story.

I have a suggestion. When you kill a group of mobs, they will respawn in another location. it will be better IMO. this also makes later farm faster.
 
Last edited:
Level 11
Joined
Dec 31, 2012
Messages
167
Is it bad to say I liked the first two chapters where you were exploring around and fullfilling some quests, and felt the game started to drag when it turned into a linear brawl with Rexxar and friends? Like, I understand not wanting to code and set up the submaps and transitions for them, but my favorite chapters in this were the ones where you had to explore around an open-ended map and do the various quests. I'm not saying purge the linear dungeon style maps, those can stay, but I would've liked some more open-ended exploratory maps.
 
Level 13
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
194
Book of Rexxar - Drums of War 1.27: You spoiled me with beautiful remakes and nice models now it hurts to look at those triangles. I prefer the campaign to have the look of your previous projects. Even Mathias Chronicles seems light years away and is among the first two projects with the new look.
 
Level 2
Joined
Oct 17, 2023
Messages
2
I really want to like this map but the fact that I have to die in order to heal my characters really makes this map feel super lame. I had to die about half a dozen times just to get to org which made the game extremely frustrating from the start. It felt better once I got to org and recruited a few more heroes and it was nice that one of them had a heal spell, but as soon as I use one ability on a hero they are now oom for 10 minutes or once more until the hero dies. So I find myself running around and just letting my heroes die over and over until I'm just sick of feeling like every character is super weak and squishie to boot. this map really needs a mana fountain at the starting area and a health fountain would be nice too.
 
Level 2
Joined
Apr 14, 2022
Messages
6
Would you be able to release these as individual maps at all?
Just thought itd be cool to be able to edit the map and add a second plauer to co op it
 
Level 23
Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Messages
1,307
Would you be able to release these as individual maps at all?
Just thought itd be cool to be able to edit the map and add a second plauer to co op it
You can use Xetanth87's tool to make campaigns into coop form.
 
Level 7
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
227
The pacing is very slow at the beginning

Would like it if the resurrection stones were turned into healing&mana fountains, or the natural health and mana regeneration would be higher or something, because you can use abilities very very few times. The mana runes worked out somewhat, but then all the enemies started running away from me when fighting.
 
Level 23
Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Messages
1,307
Thought I would add some notes I wrote down from when I finished playing this campaign (continued on from first chapter, though I played most recent version for this time around)




Rexxar campaign picture with Misha on the custom campaign menu looks awesome.
Ai acting voice is great, also allows me to enjoy the scenery during cutscenes.
Ch2
Chapter 2 doesn't appear on the campaign mission list even after we beat Map 1.
Love that bridge leading to the war mill right near where we start on the map (we walk under it).
Forman Thazril ( pick axe quest ) says something without any sound when we come up to him (then it goes into his cinematic which has sound).
Rexxar willing to just destroy the human encampment (north watch) without a seconds thought even though he was there when Jaina and Thrall made an alliance?
Scorpids always run away low hp.
Could state that destroying encampment is killing all units, or the main building. I wasn't sure which was the requirement.
Nice fountain of HP placement in the dungeon.
Hit max lvl 4 too early this mission.
Maybe a reminder that dungeons without reincarnation stones = permanent death/ mission fail.
Why Samuro not have qwerty? His windwalk is W not Q. Also he literally showed up for that 30 second fight then we never see him again :).
What role did Nartok play in this map? He didn't give any quests or anything, he was just sitting there near the pig farms.

Interlude
Really like the scenery of theramore, it looks fantastic.
Ch3
Enjoyed the setting of Senjin's village.

Ch4
Would be nice if voljin could transfer mana to allied units (for Rokhan's heal).
Only first 4 shrines pinging for the quest, though I can see the placement of the remaining 2.
Nice effect using the big bad voodoo invulnerability as an effect on top of stone pillars - looks like a jungle magic setting.
Love stone golem ruins model.
I like how every mission only ends when we move next place, so we have time to buy stuff etc after main quest finished, like tomes, instead of being forced to next mission instantly when we kill the main boss/objective.
I like the codex's a lot, great info provided.

Interlude
I like Kristoff's history with Garithos, and how he sees same mistake being made again-good char development. Makes his decisions more understandable.

Ch5
Lvl 7 harpy queen didnt drop anything, and many other creeps that appear like strong units that should drop something don't end up dropping anything.
Also saving Thrall from that attack wave was rough, forced to reload many times since the enemy wave wants to target him a lot. Same thing happens with Jaina a few missions later.

Ch6
Nice, its still same Orgrimar from Ch1, but now we see the north/ west part.

"You certainly have a way with words burx" line during the Prison escape quest has no audio dialogue.
"Not to mention many of them are filthy ogres" Haha, funny.

Ch7
My heroes were still lvl 8 from last chapter, but in this chapter they started lvl 9 and picked their own 9th skill point. Also no optional quests, just a straight dungeon (quite a few maps have only main quest without side quests).

Ch8
Rexxars model looks different for no reason, like his shoulders have snow on them or something. It is a new outfit.
Why is there a troll chemist siding with the evil ogres?
I like how center barriers (rock piles) keep getting removed as we progress, so the walk time from the ogre base is shorter cause we can run directly down the middle instead of zig zagging left to right.


Ch9
Would been nice if we could have a big fight with all the Allies we made along the way - ogres, trolls, tauren, orcs, etc, like a final MOBA / waves similar to end of Rexxar's blizzard campaign. It feels like we saved all those allies and they didn't really do much at the end to help us.

What was the final scene with an orc looking at a demon near a portal? I'm pretty sure I read the novel but I don't remember anything about that final scene.


General points
I think you did super well with all the doodads and tilesets to make each map feel like a different region. Even though the campaign was based in Durotar/ barrens/ near Theramore, each zone had its own feel to it thanks to your work with the environment in each one.
I wish there were more unique items in each map, since I was basically farming gold to buy tomes for the Heroes the whole time.
Maybe some more mission variety, like having bases send waves at each other (like for the final map), so it doesn't feel like a slog killing every single unit on the maps with your Heroes.
Overall, this was a fantastic campaign, and the voice acting really enhanced it (especially so I can look more at the cinematics and not have my eyes glued to the dialogue the whole time.) The story was also super well made, it made sense and the quality of writing was very high. Thanks for making this!
 
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