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Draenei

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~Download latest version (1.02)~

This race has been in the 'idea' phase of development for the better part of 3 years. Actual editor-work only began from the onset of the advanced techtree contest. Originally, I planned to create 4 updated versions of the races present in one of my oldest maps, Battle for Outland. However, a multitude of factors left this to be a dream that will probably never be fulfilled. More likely than not, this Draenei race will be the last complete piece of Wc3 modding that I'll ever submit.

It sounds absurd, but I spent hours on the theoretical design and balance behind the race - from simple comparisons and calculator work (e.g. how much does it cost in total to reach tier 3?), to brainstorming possible builds against each race. I would have liked more time to playtest and fine-tune the race - after all, the quickest and most surefire way to balance a race is to play it and abuse it as much as possible.

I wanted the race to feel like Blizzard could have made it - uber-polished & unique in identity, with lots of perfectly balanced imbalances. I think I came relatively close to that goal, but I'll let you - the player - decide for yourself.

-GhostThruster

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After Illidan's failed assault on the Frozen Throne, Kael'thas began to realise that the demon hunter's promises of grandeur would not hold. It did not take long for desperation and the need to satiate his people's magical addiction to force Kael's hand. Sensing the arcane energies of Tempest Keep, the Elven prince launched a campaign to seize the dimensional fortress for his own people. Yet he unexpectedly met more than his match from its resilient defenders. The Draenei, under the guidance of Velen, deployed their forces to protect the Naaru inhabiting the keep. It was now that the Draenei would reluctantly enter as a major faction in the wars to come. Though few in numbers, centuries of battle with demonkind and an unyielding devotion to the Light has shaped the Draenei into a battle-hardened and formidable force.

Racial identity:
The Draenei are constantly walking the line between Light and Exile - as such, this divide manifests in the composition and abilities of their army. The Draenei can be highly resilient through either survivability or manouevrability, and are great at supporting one another, be it from healing and defense or encumbering enemy forces.

  • Invoke Naaru: the Naaru is a unique flying unit that repairs mechanical units and provides food for your army. The Naaru can be summoned from your Haven. The Naaru can quickly regenerate the mana of nearby friendly spellcasters once the Grace of A'dal upgrade is researched. Draenic Shrines can harbor Naaru inside them for protection.
  • Aspects of Light and Exile: the Aspects of Light and Exile unlock extra units and researches from your buildings. The Aspects are free to research from Draenic Shrines, but are limited to only one per Shrine at tier 2. At tier 3, a single Shrine can adopt both Aspects.
  • Vindicator versatility: Vindicators can be adapted to many different army compositions. Through Rangari War Training, they can be turned into tough ranged units that can attack air. Vindicators can also ride Elekks and Nether Rays.
  • Channeling spells: some Draenei units cast channeling spells that can be very beneficial and powerful if left uninterrupted. Their effects range from granting an allied unit spell immunity, to turning a target unit ethereal.

Strengths:
  • Most Draenei units are adept at supporting one another, either supplying allies with beneficial buffs or synergising with their combat roles.
  • Naaru are versatile food sources that can be used for scouting, army support, and base repairs.
  • Draenei units have great sustainability, due to an abundance of aura effects and hit point regeneration bonuses.
  • In general, Draenei technology and production buildings are cheaper. This is somewhat offset by the extra costs of building Draenic Shrines to research the Aspects.

Weaknesses:
  • Draenei units trade raw firepower for their supportive capabilities. Most of their damage comes from hero spells and a few key units, such as the Elekk Knight and Skyguard.
  • Naaru are highly susceptible to anti-air units, and this can easily be exploited by the opponent to block your food supply. Naaru also cannot be trained while you are upgrading your Haven or Freehold.
  • Draenei lack a dedicated defensive tower, and rely on an array of base defenses such as Crystal Refuges and Shard Bombs.
  • The Aspects of Light and Exile are crucial to your techtree, hence having your Draenic Shrines destroyed could delay your tech significantly.

ss_base.png ss_airsuperiority.png ss_scout.png ss_t2battle.png ss_t3battle.png ss_invoke.png ss_acoharass.png ss_portalbattle.png ss_retrifury.png ss_elementalfury.png

Models & skins:
  • 67chrome - Soulbinder, Netherwing
  • A.R./Ket - Vindicator
  • abcdefghstuvwxy - Smite
  • Daelin - various FX
  • Darky29 - Twilight Aura
  • Direfury - Litany of Fury Aura
  • dhguardianes - Shard Bomb Explosion
  • dickxunder - Exarch, Paragon
  • Edge45 - Cannon
  • FrIkY - Anchorite
  • General Frank - Venator
  • Hawkwing - Naaru, Elekk
  • JesusHipster - various FX
  • JesusHipster, PROXY - Kurenai Sage
  • JetFangInferno - various FX
  • Ket/Salmon - Broken Seer
  • Mc ! - Arkonite Pillar
  • Misha - Netherwing
  • Pyritie - Divine Advent
  • RightField - Mana Ward
  • Selenisko - Artificer, Aspect of Exile FX
  • Skizzik - Resilience Aura
  • Spellbound - Lightning FX Pack
  • Wandering Soul - Guardian

Icons:

  • PeeKay - caster training upgrades, Tempest
  • 4eNNightmare - Soul Bind
  • APproject - Clairvoyance
  • Darkfang - various
  • Blizzard - various

Systems:
  • Faith - ErrorMsg function
  • Weep - Damage detection
  • Flux - Dummy recycler
  • Nestharus - order IDs Order Ids
  • Archmage Owenalacaster - custom race system
All buildings were made from a combination of edited models made by Nilas_aran39, SinisterX and Ujimasa Hojo.

Special thanks to stein123, who was kind enough to provide me his personal Draenei resource collection.

==v1.02== [2020 06 28]
Bugfixes:
-Rearranged icon positions after map was updated to a newer melee patch
-Fixed an issue which caused Astral Portals to crash the game when summoned in enemy bases

Graphics
-Greatly improved portraits of Nether Ray, Skyguard and Elekk Knight
-Cleaned cape and attack animation of Skyguard
-Added area-of-effect image to Astral Portal when selected, to show the radius of teleportation
-Changed the ubersplats of the Haven, Freehold and Sanctorium

Balance:
-Draenic Shrines can no longer adopt 2 Aspects at Tier 3. Instead, Sanctoriums can adopt a single Aspect.
-Twilight Aeries now also require a Draenic Shrine to be built, while Netherwings do not require both Aspects
-Increased Orb of Radiance's damage reduction effect from 35% to 40%
-Increased the attack damage and hit points of Guardians summoned by the Aldori Exarch
-Reduced adopting time of Aspects from 30 to 25 seconds
-Reduced mana cost of Negation Shield from 150 to 125
-Kindred Spirit now works by distributing a total pool of hit points between the target and the Exarch; however, neither unit can recieve more than 75% of the total
-Reduced Astral Portal duration to 20 seconds, cooldown to 25 seconds

==v1.01== [2020 06 16]
Bugfixes:
-Fixed lag bug due to erroneous code for Divine Word

Graphics
-Animated cape of Elekk Knight

Features:
-Gave Astral Portals the "Astral Recall" ability, which teleports units to the Exarch when cast. Previously, the Portal was based on the Waygate and could teleport enemy units too
-Removed Aegis State ability from Crystal Refuge, and streamlined their design
-Added multiple-attack functionality to Crystal Refuges when Artificers are loaded inside

Balance:
-Increased Ata'mal Cannon's base damage
-Reduced Naaru's base movement speed from 210 to 190
-Reduced Draenic Shrine's pathing size
-Reduced Rangari War Training cost to 35 lumber
-Reduced armor of Crystal Refuge from 5 to 3 and readjusted their attack damage

==v1.00== [2017 06 27]
-Released

  • Wisps can repair Naaru currently being Invoked.
  • Double 'click' sound when using Rangari War Training.
  • Multiplayer latency may affect responsiveness of Rangari.
  • Damage minimum to trigger "Ardent Blades" is 10, to work around Cloak of Flames.
  • Possible to Silence a unit through Solitude, without having the attack go through. To compensate, the buff is removed upon an 'is attacked' event.
  • Some units that can't be targeted by Transpose display the error 'Unable to target Ancients'.

Attached below are all versions of the techtree and a .rar of all the assets I used in making it. I'm sharing these resources with good faith that you'll credit the original authors (which I've done a poor job of documenting, so good luck working them out). It would be nice if you mentioned me too, as I heavily edited many of them, but it's not necessary.

I will more than likely never return to this race again (edit 16/6/2020 - never say never :p), so any known and unknown bugs will remain. That said, I give permission for anyone to continue developing it and/or add it into an altered melee of their own. Enjoy.
 

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Last edited:
Level 6
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
203
I'm kind of a newb whos learning the world editor for a new map project i am working on. If I were to add your Draeni race to my map, what would the easiest way to transfer everything be? I cant import or it will overwrite everything. I tried downloading JNGP because I heard it has an object merger, but it doesnt seem to work for me.

Also, how serious are the glitches? Do they ruin the races balance? Can they be fixed?
 
I'm kind of a newb whos learning the world editor for a new map project i am working on. If I were to add your Draeni race to my map, what would the easiest way to transfer everything be? I cant import or it will overwrite everything. I tried downloading JNGP because I heard it has an object merger, but it doesnt seem to work for me.

Also, how serious are the glitches? Do they ruin the races balance? Can they be fixed?
not too sure mate, i recommend asking the peeps in the world editor help zone. maybe ask the user wa666r for help, since i believe he's done that for his map.

glitches are nowhere near enough to ruin balance, let alone show up noticeably in a game. some of them can be fixed, some can't.
 
A bunch of tiny imperfections always nagged me about this race. While a few are still there, and a few more are unsolveable, I've gotten the race to a state where I'd say it's 99.5% "finished". Of course, there can always be things done; but for the most part, it'd be rebalances or slight graphics updates rather than overhaul the function of a building.


@stein123 I hope some of these assets made it into your Draenei compendium :)


Version v1.01

Bugfixes:
-Fixed lag bug due to erroneous code for Divine Word

Graphics
-Animated cape of Elekk Knight

Features:
-Gave Astral Portals the "Astral Recall" ability, which teleports units to the Exarch when cast. Previously, the Portal was based on the Waygate and could teleport enemy units too
-Removed Aegis State ability from Crystal Refuge, and streamlined their design
-Added multiple-attack functionality to Crystal Refuges when Artificers are loaded inside

Balance:
-Increased Ata'mal Cannon's base damage
-Reduced Naaru's base movement speed from 210 to 190
-Reduced Draenic Shrine's pathing size
-Reduced Rangari War Training cost to 35 lumber
-Reduced armor of Crystal Refuge from 5 to 3 and readjusted their attack damage
 
Version 1.02
Bugfixes:
-Rearranged icon positions after map was updated to a newer melee patch
-Fixed an issue which caused Astral Portals to crash the game when summoned in enemy bases

Graphics:
-Greatly improved portraits of Nether Ray, Skyguard and Elekk Knight
-Cleaned cape and attack animation of Skyguard
-Added area-of-effect image to Astral Portal when selected, to show the radius of teleportation
-Changed the ubersplats of the Haven, Freehold and Sanctorium

Balance:
-Draenic Shrines can no longer adopt 2 Aspects at Tier 3. Instead, Sanctoriums can adopt a single Aspect.
-Twilight Aeries now also require a Draenic Shrine to be built, while Netherwings do not require both Aspects
-Increased Orb of Radiance's damage reduction effect from 35% to 40%
-Increased the attack damage and hit points of Guardians summoned by the Aldori Exarch
-Reduced adopting time of Aspects from 30 to 25 seconds
-Reduced mana cost of Negation Shield from 150 to 125
-Reduced Astral Portal duration to 20 seconds, cooldown to 25 seconds
-Kindred Spirit now works by distributing a total pool of hit points between the target and the Exarch; however, neither unit can recieve more than 75% of the total

Kindred Spirit example - level 1 heals 240 HP amongst the target and Exarch; the maximum one can be healed is 180 HP:
  • If the target and Exarch are both under 120 HP of their maximum HP, they will both be healed 120
  • If one of the targets would be healed less than 120 HP (e.g. 350/420 HP would mean the unit only gets healed 70), any surplus healing gets transferred to the other unit
  • The surplus healing transfer will not lead to more than 180 HP being healed on the other unit
 
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