- Joined
- Jul 29, 2011
- Messages
- 90
Hi, everyone! I'm really excited to announce this because it's about 10 months in the making so far and I've put a GREAT deal of effort into it. The project has reached approximately 80% completion, so I've decided to finally announce it to the public. Maybe if I'm lucky, there might be a little public anticipation and I can feel like an egomaniac. B) kekeke
Anyway, the project is called COTC, which stands for Clash of the Critters, or Clash of the Creeps, whichever you prefer - personally, I feel Clash of the Creeps is really the more appropriate title (EDIT: So I don't really know why I put Critters in the thread name - lol. My bad)). I've noticed that more or less all of the maps that people make for WCIII are all somehow special, or different, or in some way trying to not be WCIII. You never really see any custom maps that focus on traditional RTS play - at least I've never found any. So I've endeavoured to create exactly that: a custom map that focuses solely on traditional RTS play; no 'destroy the enemy castle,' no capture the flag, no turret defense or whatever have you. Back to the basics. Though of course, a unique project has to be well... unique, and that's where the main premise comes into play.
The main concept behind WCIII:COTC is that it features low profile races as its playable army types; races that are traditionally used as creeps or NPCs, and often go underlooked and unappreciated in the Warcraft community as well as the Warcraft canon. However, some of the races are arguably a little lower profile than others.
COTC's play-style is the same old traditional Warcraft III play-style that we're all so familiar with, but featuring four entirely different factions. These new factions are not a mere skin graft; each of them will feature new and unique features, as well as unique mechanics, tech trees, abilities, upgrades and unit stats.
I've put an incredible amount of thought into this project, and I've done as much as I can to ensure that COTC remains true to the canon of the Warcraft lore and does not contain any elements such as faction alliances or whatever have you, that might not appear in an actually officially licensed Blizzard product that was set in Azeroth.
The four playable factions in COTC are to be as follows (sorted alphabetically by parent race. Format = ParentRace/AlliedRace/AlliedRace): 1) Gnoll/Kobold/Harpy; 2) Naga/Murloc/Makrura; 3) Quillboar; 4) Satyr/CorruptedFurbolg/Demon.
Like I mentioned earlier, this project has been in the works for nearly a year now, but I believe it should be ready for beta testing within a few weeks. The beta process will begin as a closed beta that will be performed by myself and my friends in RL who I hang out with all the time. After the initial embarrassing kinks have been worked out (things like, "hey, why does this Gnoll's tooltip say 'elven warrior trained to destroy spellcasters'?") in order to ensure that it's actually ready for an open beta, at which point, it will become such.
Now, after all this good stuff, there is two points of unfortunate (though not damning) bad news. The first is that for now, I don't have any screenshots to show you guys (as much as I would like to). See, I lost my computer several months ago in an unfortunate roommate's-mom-mistaking-my-packed-things-for-garbage incident, and that cost me my dual core 3ghz, 3gb ddr2ram, .5tb hdd, 256mb video system (along with a few thousand dollars worth of anything else a nerd's dream could name).
I know that this might seem fully off-topic, but we're getting to the point: this loss of my uber system has resulted in my using a hand-me-down system from my brother over the last several months. This system does not have a video card... at all. I'm using on-board video. This onboard video just so happens to not be powerful enough to run Warcraft III. I can use the Map Editor just fine, but my computer crashes whenever I run the actual game, giving me an error message that tells me my video card is the pitts, and forces me to restart the system. This means that for now, I'm not capable of showing you any screenshots (yes, this also means I'm currently incapable of actually testing the game for now, until I'm able to deal with this). However, I promise you that they are coming, and they'll be here soon!
The second piece of bad news is that I also suffered an Operating System crash only a few days ago. This, along with my loss of my initial system, has cost me my meticulously kept record of credits due for resources which I had gathered for the project (of which there are many). However, I will not let this deter me, and I do fully intend to go back and re-find ALL of the resources that I've collected in order to recollect all of the names that are owed dues. So spritists, don't worry about having your work invalidated through anonymity, 'cause despite all the extra work I'm going to have to do, it's not gonna' go down that way; all bajillion of you will be credited.
SO, in conclusion, I know that this was quite the sizable post, and I hope I didn't make it any longer than it had to be, but now that you've managed to reach through to the end, tell me what you think. By what I've described, would you play this game? I say game because it's really more like a mod or an expansion than a map, especially since I'm going to be exporting all the settings into every map that comes with WCIII:RoC&TFT, so it'll be a little more expansive than a single map. If I don't let you guys down, and I do a good enough job on this project, would you perhaps like to see this made into a campaign? Because I am considering going it that way, if people take to it or if there's some kind of demand for it there. I'm not necessarily looking for ideas, as I've more or less got everything already ironed out as far as creative development, mechanics and unit choices go. Like I said, the project is already nearing completion, so it's not like it's in the early stages of development or anything, but give me your thoughts. I'd very much like to hear what the public thinks about this (especially before the release of any screenshots).
I would just also like to say, before I go and click that Submit New Thread button, that I have been thinking about and wanting to create this project since I was thirteen, back in 2001, ten years ago. I started the project up back then at the time, but was quickly daunted by the leaps and bounds that WCIII's map editor was ahead of SC's or WCII's, and my young mind got lost, confused and ultimately gave up after only a few days of trying to make some Furbolg units work properly. Though I never put the idea out of my mind, and I've always wanted to see it through. Now this childhood dream of mine is finally coming to fruition. So to any of you who do end up participating in this project (as well as all of the people whom I have gathered resources from on this site, regardless of whether or not you participate), I want to thank you right now, in advance, for helping to bring one of my childhood dreams into a tangible reality. Peace. <3
Anyway, the project is called COTC, which stands for Clash of the Critters, or Clash of the Creeps, whichever you prefer - personally, I feel Clash of the Creeps is really the more appropriate title (EDIT: So I don't really know why I put Critters in the thread name - lol. My bad)). I've noticed that more or less all of the maps that people make for WCIII are all somehow special, or different, or in some way trying to not be WCIII. You never really see any custom maps that focus on traditional RTS play - at least I've never found any. So I've endeavoured to create exactly that: a custom map that focuses solely on traditional RTS play; no 'destroy the enemy castle,' no capture the flag, no turret defense or whatever have you. Back to the basics. Though of course, a unique project has to be well... unique, and that's where the main premise comes into play.
The main concept behind WCIII:COTC is that it features low profile races as its playable army types; races that are traditionally used as creeps or NPCs, and often go underlooked and unappreciated in the Warcraft community as well as the Warcraft canon. However, some of the races are arguably a little lower profile than others.
COTC's play-style is the same old traditional Warcraft III play-style that we're all so familiar with, but featuring four entirely different factions. These new factions are not a mere skin graft; each of them will feature new and unique features, as well as unique mechanics, tech trees, abilities, upgrades and unit stats.
I've put an incredible amount of thought into this project, and I've done as much as I can to ensure that COTC remains true to the canon of the Warcraft lore and does not contain any elements such as faction alliances or whatever have you, that might not appear in an actually officially licensed Blizzard product that was set in Azeroth.
The four playable factions in COTC are to be as follows (sorted alphabetically by parent race. Format = ParentRace/AlliedRace/AlliedRace): 1) Gnoll/Kobold/Harpy; 2) Naga/Murloc/Makrura; 3) Quillboar; 4) Satyr/CorruptedFurbolg/Demon.
Like I mentioned earlier, this project has been in the works for nearly a year now, but I believe it should be ready for beta testing within a few weeks. The beta process will begin as a closed beta that will be performed by myself and my friends in RL who I hang out with all the time. After the initial embarrassing kinks have been worked out (things like, "hey, why does this Gnoll's tooltip say 'elven warrior trained to destroy spellcasters'?") in order to ensure that it's actually ready for an open beta, at which point, it will become such.
Now, after all this good stuff, there is two points of unfortunate (though not damning) bad news. The first is that for now, I don't have any screenshots to show you guys (as much as I would like to). See, I lost my computer several months ago in an unfortunate roommate's-mom-mistaking-my-packed-things-for-garbage incident, and that cost me my dual core 3ghz, 3gb ddr2ram, .5tb hdd, 256mb video system (along with a few thousand dollars worth of anything else a nerd's dream could name).
I know that this might seem fully off-topic, but we're getting to the point: this loss of my uber system has resulted in my using a hand-me-down system from my brother over the last several months. This system does not have a video card... at all. I'm using on-board video. This onboard video just so happens to not be powerful enough to run Warcraft III. I can use the Map Editor just fine, but my computer crashes whenever I run the actual game, giving me an error message that tells me my video card is the pitts, and forces me to restart the system. This means that for now, I'm not capable of showing you any screenshots (yes, this also means I'm currently incapable of actually testing the game for now, until I'm able to deal with this). However, I promise you that they are coming, and they'll be here soon!
The second piece of bad news is that I also suffered an Operating System crash only a few days ago. This, along with my loss of my initial system, has cost me my meticulously kept record of credits due for resources which I had gathered for the project (of which there are many). However, I will not let this deter me, and I do fully intend to go back and re-find ALL of the resources that I've collected in order to recollect all of the names that are owed dues. So spritists, don't worry about having your work invalidated through anonymity, 'cause despite all the extra work I'm going to have to do, it's not gonna' go down that way; all bajillion of you will be credited.
SO, in conclusion, I know that this was quite the sizable post, and I hope I didn't make it any longer than it had to be, but now that you've managed to reach through to the end, tell me what you think. By what I've described, would you play this game? I say game because it's really more like a mod or an expansion than a map, especially since I'm going to be exporting all the settings into every map that comes with WCIII:RoC&TFT, so it'll be a little more expansive than a single map. If I don't let you guys down, and I do a good enough job on this project, would you perhaps like to see this made into a campaign? Because I am considering going it that way, if people take to it or if there's some kind of demand for it there. I'm not necessarily looking for ideas, as I've more or less got everything already ironed out as far as creative development, mechanics and unit choices go. Like I said, the project is already nearing completion, so it's not like it's in the early stages of development or anything, but give me your thoughts. I'd very much like to hear what the public thinks about this (especially before the release of any screenshots).
I would just also like to say, before I go and click that Submit New Thread button, that I have been thinking about and wanting to create this project since I was thirteen, back in 2001, ten years ago. I started the project up back then at the time, but was quickly daunted by the leaps and bounds that WCIII's map editor was ahead of SC's or WCII's, and my young mind got lost, confused and ultimately gave up after only a few days of trying to make some Furbolg units work properly. Though I never put the idea out of my mind, and I've always wanted to see it through. Now this childhood dream of mine is finally coming to fruition. So to any of you who do end up participating in this project (as well as all of the people whom I have gathered resources from on this site, regardless of whether or not you participate), I want to thank you right now, in advance, for helping to bring one of my childhood dreams into a tangible reality. Peace. <3
