Designing a campaign (new race help)

[Reynout]

Hey all,

Long time lurker, first time poster, glad to meet you all .

First, a bit about me: I've been playing WC3 basically since it came out, mostly played a bit with my brother and goofed around with the editor. I was never much of a ladder player. A few days ago, I installed this gem again and have been hooked!

I remembered this site and browsed through a couple of models and some campaigns and WOW, has there been a lot of improvement! I love the whole weapon attachment thing and most of the model work here has been stunning to say the least.

Anyway, I've got a couple ideas buzzing in my head, enough to fill a campaign with and I'd like to but those thoughts into action. And for this, I could use a bit of your help.

I'd want to be a fairly 'simple' campaign, much like the original campaigns included with the game. The maps should be fun, with a bit of a twist now and then and gameplay should be varied. So I was thinking about 10 maps long, with the maps being of "Blizzard" size.

The idea: a campaign centered around an expedition of adventurers and mercenaries. Basically, I will be designing a whole new race, complete with tech tree and everything.

Now, I've got a couple of ideas, but could use a hand fleshing them out.
I was experimenting with the weapon and armor attachments, trying to create a good custom foot soldier for my race when a thought struck me: what if these warriors have the ability to change weapons on the fly?
Every type of weapon could give a certain bonus, or would imply a certain combat style, for example:
Mace+Shield: bonus damage vs undead
Sword+Shield: 'taunt' like ability
Two-handed sword/axe: bonus damage
Spear: bonus vs mounted (if this is even possible)
etc.

However, I'm a little stuck how I should go about doing this, I have a couple of ideas, let me know which idea you like best (or maybe you have an even better idea):
Upgrade system: basically, the unit will have a couple of buttons which it can click to change their weapon style. Maybe each swap costs a bit of gold or something, or it could be an (expensive) upgrade. Simple, effective.
Vendor system: this was my first idea. The unit gets a few inventory slots to equip said weapons with. However, this might become a bit time-consuming if you have lots of troops and there would be the problem of heroes accidentally buying this stuff and looking really ugly and rediculous with it.
"Aura" system: I have been toying with a way to get the pack horse model in my army somewhere and this seems like a good way to go about it. Basically, the pack horse is there to provide the upgrade for the troops. It would have a couple of buttons and when pressed, all soldiers in a radius would get the upgrade.
I think this is the most original idea and would be rather fun to work with. However, it'd probably involve custom scripting.

So, that's my first question down, as for my second:

I've been brainstorming what kind of units would be in a mercenary/adventurer army. While I've got a couple ideas of my own, I'd like your imput on it as well.

It would be even cooler if you could link to models I could use that would fit my concept.

Cheers guys!

 

[Kyrbi0]

It's a real shame; this guy put together a good presentation, was quite friendly about it, and had some good ideas. Yet total silence.

*doffs hat*

 

[Nowow]

Well, for starter s you should look at the enhanced human campaign (The Scourge of Lordaeron - Enhanced), as it utilizes the multiple weapon choice you offer.

Now for your units, when picturing a mercenary/adventurer race I can't avoid picturing a frontier outpost, something scarce and reliant on mobility rather then strength of defence. Here are some ideas:

1. As a small outpost your buildings won't have much armor, but you could add a small evasion percentage to even the scales (or not), if your blacksmith is an open bellows and anvil outside a tent, then missing it a bit is reasonable. Then again I don't know if there are good models for that here.

2. Creating a melee/ranged unit is a very interesting idea as it frees you from using 2 base units for your race (like footman and rifleman). In that case, I'd make my 2 base units available from the start, being: mercenary as a general purpose base unit, and tracker/furtrapper as a quick unit with little to no attack that can mark a unit to be visible for a minute or so (there's an item with that ability, don't remember which though).

3. Instead of using the old guard towers, you could give your race a wall building "palisade" creating your own choke points. It'll be problematic game mechanics-wise, what with the default building facing and all.

And now I see it's a post from 2010
Well OP if you're out there somewhere...

 

[cleavinghammer]

For the mercenary aspect, you can use a wide variety of units (for example, using ogres as heavy melee, murlocs as light ranged, etc.). Possible some from other armies (siege weapons, casters...), cheaper but with lower stats.

You could have a medium unit based on the Bandit / Brigand, able to switch back and forth from melee to ranged to as needed and a different ability in each (Pillage/Poison).

 

[Kyrbi0]

All of you have fallen for the Thread Necromancer yet again... Mwahaha