[Campaign] Call of the Swarm

[The Nightmare Book]

Another week passed - time for weekly Devpost!
Today we will take trip across Trade District (still WIP), general gameplay and speak about features in main storyline:

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• When I imaginated Trade District, I tried to represent feeling of city - it's busy life: here you see statues and fountains, here you see buildings, here you see silithid lairs etc;
• Even whole location is still WIP, I already think that it shouldn't be big - I checked it and whole District was explored for 8-9 minutes of gameplay. Currently I don't that it's an valuable information, but that data helps me to deepen it's "life" inside Trade District by creating special encounters afterwards, not by creating big open yet husk world;
• Trade District is the place where Xorrax began his adventure in Act 2: here he'll meet busy traders, hideous sects, worried silithid hivelords, explore depths one of deadliest bandit lairs or locked Az'Aqir Vault;

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• You may ask - "what about gameplay in Act 2 overall?". Currently I think that it would change alot from previous Act 1, because I want to synthesize monster hunting with exploration, so Xorrax will mostly fight inside dungeons, but mainly will travel & explore Az'Aqir City, unlocking new features, items, quests, spells and so-on;
• In general, I want to re-use my experience from "Pearl of Azshara" project and build main Act 2 maps over it, but with remaining of carapace from Act 1 - if you want to fight, you will; if you want to explore, you will be able to explore!
• You may ask - "Exploring for first time would be interesting, but then it become boring!" - Well, don't worry! I'll add enough rewarding features from exploring, such as automatic completing of some quests, quick teleportation across main city maps & more;

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• What about Main Story, huh? Well, here comes one of features from Act 2: storyline will differ from each Xorrax class. I already know what you will complain - "So I should replay whole Act 2 at least 5 times?" - No, you won't!
• Main plot will be same for each Xorrax class, but methods you'll choose will differ;
• For example I will took "Black Hand" organisation - underground clan, which wants to install Twin Emperors as legitimate monarchs of Kingdom of Az'Aqir. You wouldn't see them in most time, even if you would try to reach them. But main storyline for Rogue will be directly connected to "Black Hands" and you'll found yourself as member of that organisation, otherwise "Black Hand" will complete their covert ops without Xorrax.
• But don't think that only Rogue will see such cool content - it relates to ALL Xorrax classes, so each dungeon in Act 2 & 2.5 will have their class-related bosses, reachable only by specific Xorrax.

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That's all for now, folks - this week wasn't very productive for me, but here we are.
Some screenshots I'll post here, but mainly will post in my "Call of the Swarm v1.5" album in HIVE media.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
See ya next time, cya!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

…Another week has passed, and today, it seems, I finished 2 of 4 Az'Aqir/Ahn'Qiraj city districts: TRADE & OLD TOWN.
However, TEMPLE & SLUM districts remained, also dungeon maps…
It will be content for next weeks, yeah?

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That's all for now! Nothing has changed at the core, no lore for now, so-on.
Screenshots of main map progression I'll post here and in my developing album.

Thanks for reading and have a good day.
See ya next time, cya!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Another week has passed and for now I didn't done too much, but already something.
Today I'll show you a bit of new Ahn'Qiraj/Az'Aqir zone, however not too much - "SLUM". Lore is still WIP, so maybe on next week I'll show you most of zone and it's lore.

Screenshots of main map progression I'll post here and in my developing album.

Thanks for reading and have a good day.
See ya next time, cya!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Another week without any huge progress, but I still have couple of screenshots to share with you!
Maybe I'll try to post those devpost not on each week, but at least 1 time for 2 weeks or so-on. If I'll find anything interesting to share with you - I will.

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Screenshots of main map progression I'll post here and in my developing album.

Thanks for reading and have a good day.
See ya next time, cya!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Warcraft III: Reforged PTR - Version 1.35.0

We’ve opened the PTR for testing the next version – 1.35.0. Patch 1.35.0 features Custom Campaigns, Balance updates, Map Pool Updates, Leaderboard fixes, and additional improvements. Thank you for testing the PTR, and special thanks to all the community content creators who created new and...

us.forums.blizzard.com

Seems from next Reforged update, campaign will became playable on actual version, which is GREAT.

Currently development is paused, but this new will remarke to re-inquish development flames once again.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

With Reforged 1.35 release, I'm looking forward to update my old yet first big project in Warcraft 3: Call of the Swarm.
First of all - it wouldn't include Act 2. Why? Because I decided to re-write my current act story, especially main storyline.

To update current campaign for new story, I think that I should update Act 1 for next reasons:

1. Reforged Compilabilty. With custom campaign release, which exited me so much, I should find & correct all issues to make Call of the Swarm playble and comfortable for player.
   So I'll add some features that were introduced in Reforged like quest marks, damage detection, etc. Also replace current dialog speed system with normal cinematic skip - it's annoying to watch same cinematics for 15+ times.
2. Story Adaptation. As I said before - main story will change, and now all Xorrax classes will see the same story, because fate of our hero isn't depends on his power choice.
   I want to connect Act 1 with Act 2 more than "Now you can go to city as free"-style. Now it will include more characters, more flavor, more dialogs betwheen Xorrax and Hive'Zara inhabitants. More efforts to showing effects of long-going war with Uldum tolvir tribes, regency instability and "Black Hand" organisation.
   Of course Act 2 & 2.5 (which I'll release at the same time) will cover all of these campaign story parts, but I want to show You that even Hive'Zara affected by current Kingdom of Az'Aqir situation.
3. Hero Classes. Most of them are unbalanced and boring. I want to replace classes like Adventurer with some kind of mage, update Crusader to make him more old-god-styled-paladin, make Devourer like Starcraft 2 Primal Zerg leader Dehaka, recreate Necromancer into really master-summoner from Diablo 2 and so-on.
   This includes item changes, of course.
4. Ingame Bosses. If you maybe noticed - I tried to design dungeon bosses like World of Warcraft-ones but for 1 player. This approach will remain, but some currently avaliable bosses like Clutch Father in Flooded Grotto, Pudge in Brume Cavern and Undead Arena in Forgotten Keep are lame.
   I'll try to make bosses more unique betwheen each other, but still predictable for player: when he defeat big scolopendra boss, he should expect some similiar mechanics from next big scolopendra boss, because this will make gameplay more casual and relaxing.
   Also I'll add something like Adventure Guide for each dungeon: each boss will be listed, with his lore text and mechanics.
5. Music & Loading Screens. I'll try to add different music for each gameplay situation. And update submap loading screens of course - currently they all same!

...That's all. All of these I call "Call of the Swarm v1.5", like preparing campaign for Act 2 release.
Even Act 2 wouldn't be playable, campaign will still include data from it, if someone interested about it.

Release date is currently unknown for me, but after finishing all other projects.
Thank you for reading, sorry for being afk for long time here and have a nice day/night.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

...Thus All-Seer sleeps, his Hands guards our Dreams...

There was a long time ago when I posted something here. It has its reasons: no particular news from last year, so nothing to share.
However, I thought - story information could be useful. And some loading screens.

Loading Screens Update

Spoiler: Campaign Main Screen

Yes, I decided to use this official Blizzard artwork as the "Call of the Swarm" campaign main screen.
How it looks in-game:

Spoiler: In-game Campaign Main Screen

From the new 1.5 version, I'll try to use as many custom loading screens for campaign maps as possible. Many of them, however, would be generated with Image Generation technology usage. It decreases my developing time, so I can refocus myself on other things like game design and story plot polishing.
Currently, not so many locations have their unique loading screens, and I can't show them in-game, but I have images that I want to share with you (under spoiler cuts):

Spoiler: Bloomgrove

Spoiler: Stronghold

And those images aren't final versions, but I think that you should see a vector of my current views.
I can tell that in 1.5 some dungeon maps will be remade to correspond to their loading screens...

Story Changes

First of all: today I won't tell you the whole story plot for now. It's still WIP, so it can change dramatically.
For now, we will speak about next: the characters and what will happen next after dealing with Titanforged Resistance in Act 1.

Main Characters:​

As I stated a long time ago, our playable hero - Xorrax - isn't a Mary Sue and isn't the main plot driver of the "Call of the Swarm". Until the middle of Act 2, the main story is driven by 2 secret societies: Black and White Hand.

White Hand

Black Hand

All that you need to know is that those societies were created by C'Thun himself in times of the Second Black Empire fallout: He foresaw future betrayal from his most valuable and sacred servants, so he decided to take a desperate measure - create 2 distinctive fanatical orders, who will have different views on Az'Aqir future, but will work together to restore God of Chaos leadership in times of trouble.

Little is known about their culture, society rules, and membership.
Will they succeed or not? Or their country views will tear their cooperation apart at last?
More information about All-Seer, God of Chaos, and

Spoiler: spoiler

Seven-Head Lamb

I'll share later in the coming weeks.

Act 2: What will happen before​

Before we continue, I should tell you that the ending of Act 1 will be correspondingly updated to create a more linked story and oversee the White and Black Hand "idea struggle" between characters you'll face during the Act walkthrough.

Hive'Zara's main storyline will be reworked: along with the curse of Hivelord Zara's bloodline, Xorrax, and his priest companion will seek for hidden "Ordinarium" - a hidden facility complex stage, which was used to bind and examine God of Chaos by Titanforged. During the Second Empire, this forgotten place miraculously disappeared from the main complex, as some rumored about "awoken Titanforged".

Your companion was tasked to find this place and explore it, details you don't know. And, with light possibility, Hivelord's Bloodline Curse could be connected to this place, and more you'll uncover by your own research.
How are those 2 Secret Societies linked to Ordinarium? Who is "Old One"? And how deep is that rabbit hole?..

I assume that you've understood nothing: societies, Ordinarium, Old Ones...
Trust me - in the coming weeks, I'll uncover more about the kingdom's past, kingdom rulers, whole facility design, and other interesting stuff!

Instead of Ending

"Rage Unbound, he will feast upon our souls! Thus we will find our Salvation, our Future..."
"Behold! As North awakes, dunes will be filled with Blood. You foolishly discard our Last Chance to LIVE!"