So, I've recently been doing a playthrough of every campaign on hard, but with the twist of not being able to go above no upkeep, or 20/25 supply, if it was one of those missions where you can't build stuff. I've now did this campaign, since I wanted something easier, plus I've heard that this campaign got changed quite a bit over the years, and wanted to see how it is. I might also try doing challenge runs on your other two campaigns eventually as well (maybe an "only Thrall/no extra units or heroes" challenge in LotC or a "no using skill points" challenge in The Last Guardian, though the latter would probably make me go insane due to my OCD), but I'm gonna focus more on the standard RTS style campaigns for now.
Anyhow, this campaign was great. It felt like it had really high quality, and it gives the player a lot of new things to have fun with, which is one of the main things I'm personally looking for in custom campaigns.
The story structure was pretty interesting.
- I haven't really read the book that the campaign was based upon (I probably should, I like dragons xd), so I can't really say how accurately it's presented here. But the idea is great, and it's weird that you're the only custom campaign creator that does this, because I've heard that there are quite a few books about Warcraft (war of the ancients campaign anyone?).
- The way the tone works is the most interesting part, at least for me. It almost starts up like a comedy, but then eventually shifts into a more serious high stake war, which is a pretty neat way to approach a story like this.
The gameplay felt pretty nice. There were some cool changes, most of which I agree with. Though I feel like the quality was mostly perfect even before them.
- The idea behind Rhonin and the good/evil quests are amazing, and they give the campaign a decent amount of replayability value, which is always a plus. Also, it's pretty rare for Warcraft 3 campaigns to have choices, so it makes the ones that do have choices feel even more special for me, especially when it's both for an important hero and for sidequests you'll have on basically every map.
- The overall style for both the micro and the macro missions feels very unique, and it doesn't really remind me of the campaigns from Blizzard or any other mapmaker. The gameplay is very much focused around the player trying to explore the map while killing things to get items and resources that he can spend on the Tavern or for his base, which is what really gives the campaign this adventure RPG feel, even though it's just normal RTS.
- I really liked how you switch around the races and the types of units that the player has access to based on the situation. Like how you get the tuskarr in Northrend, or the night elf creatures in the Emerald Dream, or the dwarves when you're exploring Khaz Modan, and so on. It's nice to focus around one really interesting well developed race, but I'd argue that constantly switching around is even more fun.
I really like the heroes of this campaign, mainly because the great majority of their abilities is a new custom one that feels really good to use.
- I've already mentioned Rhonin, and how I really like your idea with him. The changes on the campaign made him a lot better, as his classes are now more balanced, and he also has 4 instead of 3 classes, and the player also gets one more mission where he can use his abilities. The classes all feel very different from one another, as the Dark Summoner focuses on, well, summons, the Spirit Priest focuses on utility and sustain, the Timewalkerr focuses on crowd control and safety, and the Arcane Master focuses on destroying groups of enemies. I've picked the Arcane Master myself, because Astral Confusion is really fun (especially on units that have poison), his aura allows you to spam non stop, because your spells basically refund themselves as you're killing enemies with them, and the ult allows you to absolutely destroy armies like it's nothing. Overall the changes done to the Arcane Master and the Spirit Priest are great (I really didn't like that old Spirit Priest ult), the Elementalist being swapped for the more interesting Timewalker is probably for the better, and the Dark Summoner is nice, but from the test he felt underwhelming, at least for me (his Q summon should be a little tankier IMO).
- Vereesa's Searing Arrows being swapped for Rapid Fire is great, and Refill Quiver being nerfed is a bummer, but 100% deserved. There's not really much to say about her, her abilities fit her as a damage dealer, and the new voice set is nice.
- Falstad's new voice set is probably even better than Vereesa's. As for his kit, it's pretty much your standard disruptive damage dealing tank but with some cool new custom abilities, and an interesting taunt for once. I kind of miss his old knockback dash attack, as you don't see many spells like that in Warcraft. His ult is pretty weird, and that's precisely why it's so great. I feel like it should allow you to jump over units and obstacles, but I'm not 100% sure if that could even work.
- The new Krasus is miles better than the original. He now actually has an identity, a protective mage that can still do great damage, which fits him quite well. Especially his new E is a great idea for an ability, and seeing Rain of Fire as an ultimate is definitely interesting, to say the least (makes a lot more sense than Dragon Form tbh, as there wasn't much of a reason to ever be in human form, unlike the Tinker who has the downside of being mechanical). It's also nice that he keeps his old voice set in dragon form, it was pretty weird that he didn't before.
- Rom is a pretty good take on an assassin type hero that still has some utility. His E only doing something against air units is not really preferable (maybe a new active on it alongside the passive could work), but this is a campaign about dragons where you don't have a shop with orbs, so yeah, why not? His Transmute apparently works against units like the Monsoon Necrolyte (forgot what he's actually called) and the big Red Dragons, but it still doesn't work against the level 6 Troll Chieftains, so that's probably intentional.
There were also some minor things I really appreciated.
- Having this difficulty selection at the start of each mission is much better than the old one. The old one also works, but it's much more inconsistent and troublesome, and now you don't have to put up a bunch of text to explain it in chapter one. Seeing these always makes me happy.
- The easter eggs. A lot of creators like to put a few into their campaigns (like Tracer in Tomoraider's Curse of the Forsaken) but you really packed this campaign up with them, probably just as much as (if not more than) Blizzard did with theirs. They were pretty easy to find, while still forcing you to go out of your way to search for them, which I think is how they should be. The one easter egg that I didn't really understand was the message in the bottle, I imagine it was probably a reference to something, or maybe a hint for a hidden item.
- The artifact items are pretty nice as well. Their power is in a sweetspot where they're not so overpowered that they change absolutely everything and you must collect them all, but they're still more powerful than regular items, making them worth finding and keeping. And having exactly 1 on every mission but the last means that the player has to consistently keep a lookout, and that he'll be rewarded for doing so.
- The terraining is absolutely rock solid. It's a bit worse than The Last Guardian's, but you definitely capture the essence of all the places the characters go to, and you also made sure to leave enough open space in macro missions so that units don't get stuck often, while not leaving so much that it looks lazy, which is sweetspot that isn't easy to hit. Space is also used pretty efficiently, which I always love to see.
- The "useful advice" about not hiding items in tents... did that item really just say that nobody is looking for items in tents/huts? You really know this community Outsider, you really do.
Though before I head onto the chapters, I would like to mention that the dragon aspects being changed into the regular dragon models is a little weird. They're
the great aspects, they should not look like normal dragons. The custom models didn't even look bad. Though I guess Nozdormu didn't really have a new one, so you probably did this so that he doesn't look out of place. Still a weird change, even though it has basically no effect on anything whatsoever.
Anyhow, here are my random thoughts on each of the chapters:
CHAPTER 1 - This mission is a pretty good way to start out the campaign, as it establishes everything important the player should know, while still offering good gameplay and a unique final quest of trying to save the villagers by killing orcs and keeping the dragon in check (which I found more fun than the "light the fires while the timer is going" thing). For the villager quest, I chose to save them, but due to the taverns selling units, I can definitely see why someone would want the gold instead. I think you should mention what items you get for the wolf quest options though, because right now the quest is pretty much a blind guess, which is a problem that a lot of the quests have in this campaign. Though you don't have to change it if it was an intentional design choice, it's just pretty annoying when you're trying to get the most helpful reward because you're doing a challenge run on hard (which most people will not do ofc). The comedy with the bandits is just perfect though, and I'm glad that you've given them a much more screentime in Lord of the Clans (makes me wonder how they were in the books). The frog of knowledge was probably my favorite easter egg in the entire campaign, it's not easy to spot, yet the way it's placed is still suspicious enough for people to notice. Oh, and it's pretty nice that Rhonin starts from level 2 instead of level 1 like he used to.
CHAPTER 2 - A pretty simple chapter that didn't change much. That whole middle part where you blow up trees was removed along with the damaging runes that the enemies ran into, resulting in them blowing up. I don't think these sections were bad, but they weren't necessary, so I'm ok with them being removed to make the mission shorter. With the dragon quest, I quicksaved and checked what the reward would be if I destroyed them, and since it was a Rune of Food, I've decided that it would be better to keep the eggs, especially because the whelps are permanent now (which makes the quest a lot more balanced imo, cus timed whelps weren't the best). It's possible that the rest of the eggs give something better, but sometimes you'd rather go for something that is guaranteed to be good instead of something that isn't guaranteed. As for the labs, I destroyed them, because vision is nowhere near as valuable as those items, not to mention, we're gonna be fighting goblins in the next mission anyway, so their laboratories can go. I really liked how you made the book part a bit more challenging while also adding in some fun dialogue, I always liked that quest and this is the exact kind of change it needed. Ogres being in a different team than the orcs is also a nice touch.
CHAPTER 3 - Ok, I'm sorry, but the difference between the two rewards on the talisman quest was just too big. The health and mana amount of the good option should probably be doubled, because it isn't even close to what the evil option gives (which is basically a Crown of Kings +5). The fountain quest was cool, though I found the choice more interesting with the original one, where you either took the item and left, or killed some neutrals to restore everyone to full. Here I just picked the health one because dwarves don't exactly need mana, but they very much lack sustain, so having a health fountain near my base was huge. The mission itself was ok. I don't think the original map was bad by any means, but the campaign was definitely lacking in macro maps, even though this is supposed to be the "normal" RTS style campaign of your trio. I'm not exactly sure which version is more accurate to the book, but I guess the general story beats are still the same so it probably doesn't matter.
CHAPTER 4 - Some people might disagree with me here, but I think it's actually a good idea to scrap that concept where you have Dalaran as the main map and then you contact the aspects through artifacts the others give you. It was a cool concept and very similar to something like The Founding of Durotar, but it did come with balancing issues because the mapmaker has no clue on which zone the player enters first, so he has to balance all 3 around a low level Krasus that doesn't have many items, but then the two zones that come after the first ones will be way too easy. But this way, Outsider knows how powerful Krasus will be on each of the maps, so he can balance accordingly. Also, having the wand, the rose and the vial at the same time definitely makes you a tad bit too powerful. This map is a pretty normal micro map that works just fine. The sidequest is neat, and it establishes the blue dragonflight as these magic obsessed people that sometimes go a little too far (I destroyed the generators btw, gimme tomes). Seeing the Undead Scourge and the Naga is interesting, but I can absolutely believe that the former already existed and have started preparing to do all the bad stuff we've seen from them, while the latter were probably just hiding there because Illidan wasn't around to rally them yet (and we know the Highborne really like magic, so it's not far fetched to assume that they would be interested in the blue dragons and Malygos). The Forgotten Ones were also kind of weird since they're supposed to be... well, forgotten, and I assume that was probably the reason why you swapped them (or maybe the book itself, ofc).
CHAPTER 5 - So Goblin Island comes after the Malygos map now. I feel like that messes with the tone a little bit, because this was supposed to be the last funny chapter, while Krasus contacting the dragons was supposed to be the first serious one, but it's not like this ruins the campaign or anything. I think it's really nice that you've made this a more traditional micro map, rather than a pure puzzle solving one. It kind of destroys the peaceful image that these islands used to have, but it was pretty annoying that the player could barely use Rhonin's skills throughout the campaign, so this kind of solves that problem. As for the quests, the murder one is really interesting, and I wish more campaigns or maps would do something like this. Getting Claws of Attack for lying or Medallion of Courage for telling the truth is also a nice touch (took the latter here). And for the ogre quest, I think I killed him for the Unholy Aura item (my second favorite aura after Brilliance). Oh, and the way the player is supposed to reach the artifact is pretty nicely done, and was the only artifact that forced me to reload to look for it (I was expecting that the main quest would send me there like how it used to before, but the mission just ended when I delivered the crystals xd). The only thing I don't get is why you removed a whole island, but it's still a pretty great mission overall.
CHAPTER 6 - Oh my, I can tell that this mission was designed to be one players love to hate. As someone who plays a MOBAs a lot, I know exactly how it feels to have a completely useless teammate that you have to save from his suicides while he's raging at you. I had a few reloads due to miscalculations and lack of awareness, and without Kraus' new Q, I would have struggled immensely. Despite all that, I still think this map is better than the original. The old was kind of like an RPG/MMO quest line on a rather easy map that teases Lord of the Clans (as someone who played Day of the Dragon first, it felt pretty neat to see this mission paying off in the first chapter there). This new one actually has an interesting gameplay dynamic, while also explaining why everyone hated Rhonin at the start, which was completely unexplained back then (other than the council mentioning "his last debacle"). This is also the second mission that got swapped into one where you use a base, further solidifying this campaign as the classic RTS one. As for the sidequest, I think it would be more interesting if the player would have to keep 5 trolls or ogres alive, and then Alurmi takes those 5 units and you get a reward. Or maybe the the trolls or ogres or just the general units of the player could get a buff. Or anything that actually rewards you for completing the quest, other than the units that you'd have either way (went for ogres btw, wanted a strong frontline that gets supported by Krasus and my casters).
CHAPTER 7 - I always really liked this map, and you've only made it better. The acorn system for food is much more unique and interesting than the old "just upgrade your town hall for more". The addition of all the green dragons is nice, and I really like how the rescuable druids and dragons aren't trainable, so the player has to be extra careful in order to not loose them. The furbolg quest is neat. It's a pretty easy one for a pretty small reward, but I really like how both of the rewards are perfectly on-theme with the choices (went for curing here, felt like Pulverize offers more value). I don't really have much else to say here, this is just a short but fun map with an interesting new system for a macro mission. The tech tree is basically just all night elves that aren't watchers or sentinels, which makes sense cus they were the only ones to not enter the Emerald Dream.
CHAPTER 8 - I remember when the player wasn't allowed to build buildings on this map, meaning that they had to be protected much more than usual because if they're gone, they're gone for good. I understand why you scrapped that, since it was very annoying, especially with the layout of the map (it's not of those where doing sidequests and exploring the map will pull you away from the enemy AI, which is even worse when you have 3 bases that all get attacked by a paralleled enemy one), but it gives me some nice nostalgia. The sidequest is really good, and was also the main reason why it didn't make sense for ogres to be allied to the orcs in chapter 2 (chapter 6 is fine, that wasn't happening in Khaz Modan). I've chosen the ogres mainly for Bloodlust and Devotion Aura, both of which are useful for dwarves, but I can see the gnolls being useful too with that Marketplace. The final base was shockingly strong, but having 3 high level heroes certainly helped a lot (not sure if I could have done it with 1 or even 2 tbh). One bug that I've had here was that the mission didn't appear on the campaign screen after I completed chapter 7 and pressed "quit campaign", but I reloaded a save, completed ch7 again, and then pressed "continue" instead, and then ch8 became available (so not a huge issue, but I'll mention it anyway).
CHAPTER 9 - This is a map didn't really need to be changed, but benefitted a lot from it anyway. The rebellious whelps and the prisoner execution are both a nice touch for this map. One funny thing that I noticed is that if you go near the prisoners that are about to be executed, then you actually gain control of them. I'm not sure if it's even possible to save them, and even if it would be, their low health would make them completely useless. I'd probably change them to have a debuff that amplifies damage by like 500%, and then if the player somehow manages to save them, then the debuff goes off and they become actually useful units (I thought about suggesting lowering their health so they're like the tauren in the first level of Invasion of Kalimdor, but Spirit Priest Rhonin is a thing, and it wouldn't make sense for them to be injured since the orcs only start hitting them once the player comes in). Since I was limiting my army anyway, I decided to kill the kobolds, which really makes you feel evil when you hear them begging for their lives as you pull the lever (Deathwing is such a nice guy, isn't he?). The book quest is actually kind of interesting, mainly because artifact items are something you don't want to give up, but here, you actually have a valid reason to, and I did just that (it's not like I need another active item or aoe spell, I'm always happy about tomes though). Swapping that random flesh golem with Kryll is something I absolutely agree with. The spikes were an interesting idea, but they ultimately made the fight laughably easy, and the death of Kryll just didn't feel impactful whatsoever, because he was just a guy, talking constantly until you oneshot him because he has basically no health. Him being a boss solves both of these issues. The Firelord bossfight changes are also nice. Destroying the support columns could have still been a part of it, but eh, it's good enough. I really liked the Jayborino reference with that skeleton btw. Nobody told us there would be skeletons in the orc dungeons!
CHAPTER 10 - Alright, this map was probably the one that improved the most. Back then, this mission was pretty imbalanced, as it would start off being very difficult only to turn very easy after the first caravan, and even easier after the second (once you free Alextrasza it basically became as difficult as chapter 2 from Exodus of the Horde). Now the pressure is much more consistent. There's still the giant caravan wave, but they send parts before it arrives, which makes defending more fun. The game isn't over once you free Alextrasza and get the Demon Soul, as the player can't just find level 10 red dragons as easily anymore, and Nekros keeps coming back, gaining more and more Crowns of Kings over time. Putting altars in all of the bases was pretty clever, since the orcs shouldn't be able to coordinate attacks once their chieftain is gone, and Nekros isn't the kind of guy to just give up attacking you once his base is gone, he'd rush into a full army of dwarves and dragons all by himself to get back the Demon Soul. I also agree with the removal of the Rhonin-Vereesa-Falstad micro section, because it felt like a cheap way to show that "no, these two important heroes that you spent a ton of time with are actually here, Krasus just can't summon them so they won't join", whereas here, they do join, you just need to look for them as they're trying to reach you. The one thing that surprised me was the change on the final battle between the aspects and Deathwing. Sure, there's nothing wrong about cutting out the first part without Alextrasza, but why remove the turn based tactical combat entirely? I do get that there are a lot of other games with that gameplay style, but I still thought it was a cool way to do the final fight. Oh, and I freed Rom with that quest of course, I imagine the other option was just resources and eggs (possibly tomes), which are much less useful than a hero, but I could be wrong ofc.
Holy crap, I ended up rambling about the chapters a lot more than I was originally planning to. I guess it's because there's really just a lot going on in these missions, especially when you add in the 15 choices (yep, I counted) that you have to make with all the sidequests. But yeah, that was my Day of the Dragon review. I know I nitpicked a lot here, but I still wholeheartedly believe that this campaign is a 10/10. It was always great quality wise, but the balance is what the recent updates improved a lot, while also giving players a lot of new and fun spells, units and quests alike. I'd recommend it at anyone who is even remotely interested in Warcraft 3 campaigns, and especially to people that like choice based gameplay.
Thank you for developing and improving this great campaign since -checks changelog- 2010. Wow, that was a while ago, that's some lovely dedication right there. Anyhow, I wish you all a great day and night!