Custom Race: Kingdom of Stromgarde 2.1.1 (Recrafted)

[StormKnight]

Finally got around testing your map more i guess.

I initially thought you accidentally misplaced the position of the Archmages ultimate, but maybe not.
Because Mass Recall can be picked straight up while Mana Shield needs level 6.

Rank icon for Shade (Priest shadow form) is missing.

Warmasters icons are improved, great choices.

I have reasons to believe Arrow Rains AoE circle and the actual damage circle do not match
check if this is a game bug or your own mistake.

Not having an icon distinction between footie defense on/off is bad.

Gunnery Tower has no sound, projectile for it is the rifleman's one which is an instant explosion because riflemen never had a projectile to begin with, their attack type is instant, hence the effect. but either change it to be instant, or grab a gun projectile sfx from Hive. think HerrDave has some.

Executor's Backfire spell should use its shield stand animation in my humble opinion, otherwise it looks abit out of place. unless u make em move.

Okay so, i'm responsible for this so i need to give proper feedback regarding it:

When i stated that Magic Sentry (The ability to detect invisible) feels a bit odd for this faction, you removed it. but this makes the towers usefulness very low.

@Footman16 What do you think ? does Stromgarde having the tower ability of detecting invisible units suit them ? (as in magic sentry)

On the other hand the tower having Magic damage is legit an interesting change, maybe a simple speedbuff to the attack rate can make it so its spammable against enemies who come after you with alot of Heavy Armor units.

This is definitely a topic worth of greater discussion. though i love how you gave an actual purpose to Observation tower with the true sight other then being a simple upgrade proxy.

Though upon further thought, maybe it wouldn't be bad to remove magic tower but make the Gunnery good against heavy armor by using Sunder Blades ability, again, just brainstorming ideas here.
=====================

When you use the word "passes through" makes me think the Markswomans ability is some form of crushing wave or shockwave ability.

Assault Ram has no attack sound.
The Baloons are really lovely, you gave them arrows now.
Boulder Slingers either have an issue with Vorpal Stones research or their default attack, its projectile looks as if its instantly teleported.

I really liked Warmasters original idea that the Knights magically teleported away but it was a hard sell for the ultimate of that specific hero, however what you did with it now is also amazing. it looks like the knights land a strike doing an animation then continue off the field.

Your Cavalry dismount works but 20% as its stated doesn't really feel like its correct ? i sacrificed knights in groups of 12 only to have 1 trigger of this ability, after i finally got hold of a dismounted knight it felt underwhelming, you should atleast remove animal war training on them since it isn't even used. they do have Sundering Blades but that ability by default is meant to have a very niche usage.

I think you should give more of a personality to these dismounted knights. i mean they have less health then a footman.

 

[Footman16]

@Footman16 What do you think ? does Stromgarde having the tower ability of detecting invisible units suit them ? (as in magic sentry)

I suppose it depends from a lore or gameplay perspective. Gameplay wise detection is a must or else your faction/tech-tree would be wayyy too weak against any form invisibility (i.e. Blademaster, Night Elf). Lore wise, I suppose towers would be ideal for "detecting" and looking at things and Magic Sentry suggests just sticking a dude that can detect those things in the tower. However, as a custom tech-tree maybe he could look at making something a bit more original. Like the tower instead has a dust of appearance like ability it can use?

 

[StormKnight]

I suppose it depends from a lore or gameplay perspective. Gameplay wise detection is a must or else your faction/tech-tree would be wayyy too weak against any form invisibility (i.e. Blademaster, Night Elf). Lore wise, I suppose towers would be ideal for "detecting" and looking at things and Magic Sentry suggests just sticking a dude that can detect those things in the tower. However, as a custom tech-tree maybe he could look at making something a bit more original. Like the tower instead has a dust of appearance like ability it can use?

Thanks for the reply.

So, his scout tower (Observation Tower) can detect invisibility, so can another unit i forgot about. i think its the Baloons.

The real question is that, he has a regular tower, gun tower, cannon tower and magic tower. and Magic Tower feels like it can have more character rn.

 

[CollectorofStoriesUntold]

Finally got around testing your map more i guess.

I initially thought you accidentally misplaced the position of the Archmages ultimate, but maybe not.
Because Mass Recall can be picked straight up while Mana Shield needs level 6.

Rank icon for Shade (Priest shadow form) is missing.

Warmasters icons are improved, great choices.

I have reasons to believe Arrow Rains AoE circle and the actual damage circle do not match
check if this is a game bug or your own mistake.

Not having an icon distinction between footie defense on/off is bad.

Gunnery Tower has no sound, projectile for it is the rifleman's one which is an instant explosion because riflemen never had a projectile to begin with, their attack type is instant, hence the effect. but either change it to be instant, or grab a gun projectile sfx from Hive. think HerrDave has some.

Executor's Backfire spell should use its shield stand animation in my humble opinion, otherwise it looks abit out of place. unless u make em move.

Okay so, i'm responsible for this so i need to give proper feedback regarding it:

When i stated that Magic Sentry (The ability to detect invisible) feels a bit odd for this faction, you removed it. but this makes the towers usefulness very low.

@Footman16 What do you think ? does Stromgarde having the tower ability of detecting invisible units suit them ? (as in magic sentry)

On the other hand the tower having Magic damage is legit an interesting change, maybe a simple speedbuff to the attack rate can make it so its spammable against enemies who come after you with alot of Heavy Armor units.

This is definitely a topic worth of greater discussion. though i love how you gave an actual purpose to Observation tower with the true sight other then being a simple upgrade proxy.

Though upon further thought, maybe it wouldn't be bad to remove magic tower but make the Gunnery good against heavy armor by using Sunder Blades ability, again, just brainstorming ideas here.
=====================

When you use the word "passes through" makes me think the Markswomans ability is some form of crushing wave or shockwave ability.

Assault Ram has no attack sound.
The Baloons are really lovely, you gave them arrows now.
Boulder Slingers either have an issue with Vorpal Stones research or their default attack, its projectile looks as if its instantly teleported.

I really liked Warmasters original idea that the Knights magically teleported away but it was a hard sell for the ultimate of that specific hero, however what you did with it now is also amazing. it looks like the knights land a strike doing an animation then continue off the field.

Your Cavalry dismount works but 20% as its stated doesn't really feel like its correct ? i sacrificed knights in groups of 12 only to have 1 trigger of this ability, after i finally got hold of a dismounted knight it felt underwhelming, you should atleast remove animal war training on them since it isn't even used. they do have Sundering Blades but that ability by default is meant to have a very niche usage.

I think you should give more of a personality to these dismounted knights. i mean they have less health then a footman.

Thanks for the feedback. I tend to be impatient, so I Miss things a lot. Doesn't help that I tend to do my editing first thing in the morning when I'm half sleep. Here's an updated version of the map and the changelog. The sites are not letting me update the map page at the moment. so I’ll address a few of the things you mentioned above.

1.3

• Fixed trigger for dismounted chance; All ranks have their chance increased by 5%
• Matched dismounted Cavalryman status to the Cavalryman, reduced his movement speed, and removed War Animal Training
• Fixed Archmage's Recall and Mana Shield Requirements
• Edited Warmaster’s Cavalry charge tooltip
• Edited Markswoman’s Death Arrow tooltip
• Replaced Defensive Stance icon
• Reworked Ballista Tower damage, decreased attack rate,
• Reworked Gunnery Tower damage, reduced its damage against small by 25%, and added Sundering Rounds Ability; Increases damage against large by 50%
• Increased Mortar tower attack range; Has min attacks range, it can not attack units in melee range.
• Removed Magic Tower

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

• I didn't make The Arrow rain spell, it's from Amazon Spellpack v1.5 by Marsal. From how I understand the spell, it doesn't actually have any aoe damage. The targeting aoe is only the area where the fragments randomly fall in. The damage is dealt by the falling fragments hitting units in the target aoe; similarly to how stampede damage is dealt by the lizards. Visual feedback seems to imply otherwise. I've tried missing around the trigger but the newer versions of wc3 have made it somewhat temperamental and buggy when editing it. I'm thinking about replacing it with a reskin of blizzard. (This spell is a pain)
• I can’t get the Backfire spell to use the defend stand animation without a trigger. I’ll look into it.
• I removed The magic tower. I agree that it didn't really fit with the rest of the theme. I'll use the idea for a future custom race.
• The issue with Boulder Slingers attack is actually from the projectile model. I tried messing around with its launch point but it didn't seem to do anything.

This is probably the last time I will update this race for a while. My attention is focused on my Admiralty of Kul Tiras custom race which is almost at the beta phase; I'll be uploading it to the map development section soon. And after that I plan to work a Kingdom of Alterac/Syndicate custom race.

 

[deepstrasz]

Generally feels like the Human faction.

• Could use more custom abilities and a techtree less reflective of the original Human. The shop could use some custom items as well rather than regular Warcraft III and Human ones.
• The Rank icon (Adept and Master) in Shadow Form looks like a green icon. The icon's DISBTN isn't added/properly pathed.
• The Boulder Slinger's projectile is pretty much invisible.
• Rank 4 Hurler's Stance doesn't have a cooldown anymore. Also, seems to last forever.

Approved.

---

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If you're not satisfied with the review and wish another opinion, contact the other reviewers or use the staff contact:
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[Dori900I]

Very cool map and mechanics are impressive keep it up. I hope you will do something similar with the other human kingdoms.

 

[Wa666r]

Tried out the recent update. Definitely has a lot of cool ideas and is more polished than before.
I like the unique mechanic with the veterancy and the building restoration. With all the units and buildings it does feel like a faction fitting Stromgrade.

• With the veterancy, I think it could use some work. I don't think having a negative effect is a great idea (increased mana costs and cooldowns) as it incentivizes not actually upgrading your units. Instead of having a straight up upgrade it acts more of a side-grade and in some cases a downgrade. Id suggest you could make the bonus less intense but remove the negative affects.
• Militia model has a young man model instead of having the old man don a defenders outfit.
• Although, the custom voicelines is cool, I found that most of them just sound too low quality. I get youre going for the wc2 style sounds, but imo that just hurts my ears. Audio has come a long way.
• You're missing UITile05 and 06. Even if youre trying to make it this still, the edges shoulnt just be straight cut off.
• Hotkey for the melee and ranged upgrade is the same.
• Most of the hero abilities have hotkey issues. Some missing the learning hotkey, some having different learning and non-learning hotkeys.
• Wolf Champions W ability grants inner fire. same with the Oblate.
• Oblate loses all mana when switching forms.
• Troll Hunter has no weapon sound.

You have interesting ideas and improve with each iteration. Keep up the good work.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Like @Wa666r, tried your newest update of this custom race. First of all - thank you for using Warcraft 2-inspired voice lines, it really hit and was cool to hear.
In terms of gameplay, I agree with @Wa666r's review, but only want to add that AI is rather janky and maybe it is not related to your custom race, but AI didn't even wanted to push me (only 1 time they did) and my AI ally was a quite coward.

Overall - this custom human is well-grounded and thematically shows that you should derivate them from Lordaeron and Stormwind.
I liked this map and recommend it to all "Stormgarde Enjoyer vs Stormwind Fan" players and other folk too.

 

[CollectorofStoriesUntold]

Updated to 2.1.1
Hot Fix

Troll Hunter now has a weapon sound.
UITile05 and 06 work. However the user needs to turn off side panels in settings.
Hotkeys for the custom race have been set to QWER-ASDF-ZXCV. (To have unit command hotkey match set hotkeys to grid in settings.
Wolf Champion Stand ground now has its own Buff and Effect
Oblate Light’s protection now has its own Buff and Effect
Veterancy Visual effect changed to better match Icon
Impending Victory ability damage multiplier increased from 2.5/5/7.5 to 3/6/9
Accuracy Training ability Activation chance increased from 15% to 20%
Darken the Sky ability damage increased from 30/40/45 to 35/45/55
Herbal Healing ability Duration Reduced from 10/15/20 to 10/13/16
Arcane Will ability Mana Regen factor increased from 1/2/3 to 2/4/6
Capture Net visual effect changed from web to net

Reworked Veterancy bonuses and ability debuffs:
Rank 2 Grants 2 Armor, 1 Hit-point Regeneration and Abilities Ranks to 2
Rank 3 Grants 3 Damage, 10% Attack Rate and Abilities Ranks to 3
Rank 4 Grants 100 Hit-points, 15 Movement speed and Abilities Ranks to 4
Abilities have had their base cooldown and mana cost increased by 5 seconds and are no longer cooldown and mana cost increased by rank ups.

Next Update Plan:

Add Custom Defender model that matches the Worker
Add Custom Ai for Stormguard
Replace some of the customunit voice lines.

Tried out the recent update. Definitely has a lot of cool ideas and is more polished than before.
I like the unique mechanic with the veterancy and the building restoration. With all the units and buildings it does feel like a faction fitting Stromgrade.

• With the veterancy, I think it could use some work. I don't think having a negative effect is a great idea (increased mana costs and cooldowns) as it incentivizes not actually upgrading your units. Instead of having a straight up upgrade it acts more of a side-grade and in some cases a downgrade. Id suggest you could make the bonus less intense but remove the negative affects.
• Militia model has a young man model instead of having the old man don a defenders outfit.
• Although, the custom voicelines is cool, I found that most of them just sound too low quality. I get youre going for the wc2 style sounds, but imo that just hurts my ears. Audio has come a long way.
• You're missing UITile05 and 06. Even if youre trying to make it this still, the edges shoulnt just be straight cut off.
• Hotkey for the melee and ranged upgrade is the same.
• Most of the hero abilities have hotkey issues. Some missing the learning hotkey, some having different learning and non-learning hotkeys.
• Wolf Champions W ability grants inner fire. same with the Oblate.
• Oblate loses all mana when switching forms.
• Troll Hunter has no weapon sound.

You have interesting ideas and improve with each iteration. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the review. Your insight is always help full.

Addressing points:

• Veterancy was set up with the debuffs it counter balance abilities being powerful. However i see your point and made some changes.
• Hotkeys. I swear i had them changed to grid postions. I need to remember to double check. Fixed.
• UITile05 and 06 need side panels disabled in option to work properly
• Troll Hunter was based off Spell breaker which has no sound nativly. Fixed.
• Oblate. Tested it at different Veterancies and seem to function fine. However Changing form when mutipal are selescted seem to cause random bugs from time to time.
• W abilities buff had the wrong icon for their buffs and effects. Fixed
• I look into Militia model better sounds. I need more pratice with Eleven labs.

Like @Wa666r, tried your newest update of this custom race. First of all - thank you for using Warcraft 2-inspired voice lines, it really hit and was cool to hear.
In terms of gameplay, I agree with @Wa666r's review, but only want to add that AI is rather janky and maybe it is not related to your custom race, but AI didn't even wanted to push me (only 1 time they did) and my AI ally was a quite coward.

Overall - this custom human is well-grounded and thematically shows that you should derivate them from Lordaeron and Stormwind.
I liked this map and recommend it to all "Stormgarde Enjoyer vs Stormwind Fan" players and other folk too.

I appreciate the review. Thank you so much for the video. Seeing how other people play the race helps identifying areas for improvement .

Talking about AI. The AI has been acting strangely lately, I've noticed. If evenly matched, it tends to withdraw early and appears to have pathing issues.

The AI tended to mass and tech higher-tier units prior to attacking during 1v1 tests. Additionally, in Free for All, the AI would often defeat each other before attacking the player. I tested only few games with teams.

You are welcome to play on any of my other maps. Although it's a little out of date, here is a link to my project thread if you would like to look it over.
Collector of Stories Untold: Projects Development Thread