Exodus: The Violet Gate 2.05.1

[emperor_d3st]

Looks pretty damn interesting. If I wasn't working on my own map / systems right now, I would play the shit out of this.

 

[HuanJuan]

I would play the shit out of this.

Oh, you should play the shit out of this, because it's very cool! It's a unique experience, I played it like 4 times from release, sadly I cannot end my 4/5th of my run with this campaign, because the campaign was updated again, and I lost all of my progress. ( I overwritten the previous campaign file with the new one). Definetly an Experience that you shouldn't miss!

 

[Nyctaeus]

Oh, you should play the shit out of this, because it's very cool! It's a unique experience, I played it like 4 times from release, sadly I cannot end my 4/5th of my run with this campaign, because the campaign was updated again, and I lost all of my progress. ( I overwritten the previous campaign file with the new one). Definetly an Experience that you shouldn't miss!

Fortunately so far we plan only one more minor patch for TVG, mostly for updated loading screens. TVG seems to be in good shape and while we will be ready in to provide it with additional maintenance if the need arises, at this point our focus shifted completely to development of sequel.

Also we're pleased to annouce, that Exodus positively passed through evaluation process by the crew of Hiveworkshop, and hosting for it has been granted :]. I suggest to continue all discussions related to the project in the board. This thread already has everything mixed. It was primary reason why we requested hosting. Exodus needs space that can be organized :].

 

[MogulKahn]

Looks promising. Will check

 

[duongsodep]

My God, this campaign is sooo good. Once the story begin, I ride on it for the total of 6 hours of gameplay. Going slow, absorb the Terrains, feel the story, check the units voice lines, digging even the mission objectives in detail. I must say that, again, this campaign is so good. I even reading the in-game conversations out loud in different ways to further immerse in the story.
Btw, forgot to mention; “walk softly and carry a big axe”. Digging the WH40K DoW references. There are also some memes conversations in game to, gotta love that.

 

[The_Messenger]

After finishing the campaign, I've decided to give it a review and an honest opinion on it.

The story starts out simple enough, a humble beginning with the honorable Alinthor for a grand adventure and already you are given insight into a safeguarded Kirin'Tor secret that's been going on for a long time. A good start is when a main character gets galvanized into a purpose that could drive the said character for a long time.
The maps are generously decorated, visually appealing, and feel very immersive. They are also well-complemented with familiar soundtracks. Sadly there are a few bugs where units might fall out of the terrain while walking custom bridges, terrain, and decorum. I've had units pass through sizable boulders, walk up cliffs, and even phase through ruined buildings. This didn't affect the gameplay since fortunately, no units got stuck, lost, or forced me to restart the map altogether if, by some sheer streak of misfortune, I lost units to a cliff or got stuck there permanently thus hampering my assault or marching my army across the map.
As the action moves forward, so does the quality of the maps that were a real joy to explore and just take a moment away from the fighting and admire the scenery for a little bit.
Unfortunately, the optional quest rewards aren't anything worth pursuing for the majority of the story unless you're a completionist. The rewards are hardly worth the distraction and don't benefit that much since they are mostly potions. In fact, you find so many potions throughout the game you could open up your own apothecary at the end of the story if you could hoard them all. There are no runes of healing/mana/ressurection/replenishment; just a staggering amount of potions you don't really need since heroes can take care of themselves and support their armies (like Alinthor that can tank and heal, or Inaylia that can take on many enemies by herself). There's even a very bothersome side quest where during your first encounter and fight with the Syndicate, you are tasked to deal with an Undead base that's harrassing you. It's optional, of course, and can be ignored. But if done, you have nothing to gain for it, except some wood and gold of which you are abundant on that map, instead of good items or tomes.
The last two playable chapters were the peak of difficulty where my skill as a player was found wanting. I've lost many times to the Scourge invasion on the keep, being swarmed on all sides by relentless Undead that was too much to handle. I've made many saves, hired a LOT of Mortar Teams, and built many towers to counter this swarm with some success.

Praising aside... things get a little muddy story-wise. Characters are pretty much the same when it comes to verbal signatures during dialogues; having little to no changes in their lines to make them stand out from other characters during interludes, exchanges, and cutscenes.
Below I've compiled a list of things that stood out to me during the unfolding events and story progress along with its characters.

Spoiler: Inaylia the idiot

Inaylia, leader of a black-ops team from Lordaeron under Grand Marshal Garithos' command, has been a rather bothersome character. She's powerful gameplay-wise, able to take on many elite/heavy units by herself if geared well; but her personality is unclear, to say the least. She reveals early on that she was trained by Sylvanas and that she knows her; after failing to save Garithos, she saves her men and retreats to safety. For the first parts of the story, Inaylia doesn't show a lot of remorse nor is she apparently bothered that much about Garithos' death; a few chapters later she suddenly explodes emotionally, starts cursing and storms off into the woods chasing after Sylvanass to "settle a score" even though she knew Sylvanass was cunning and would likely counter her pursuers, especially Inaylia. After costing herself time, men, and considerable effort, Inaylia has a few more nervous outbursts before finding Sylvanass. Inaylia then corners Sylvanass who tries to run after being bested in a fight, and then lets her go when Kel'thuzad's armies swarmed the swamps. This is... odd to put it mildly, as if all the rage she had suddenly evaporated. What's more odd is that Inaylia then admits that it was a mistake chasing after Sylvanass and that it cost her a lot of good men. Given these events... I'd say Inaylia's a bit of an imbecile, but no one calls her out for it. Eldin sits with his mouth closed mostly, and Reyes actually comforts her and says that she's a good leader.

Spoiler: Alinthor easily persuaded

It was incredibly... odd, that Alinthor, who is rather loyal to his country, had a hard time even leaving Dalaran despite his dwindling forces, and wanted to beat back the Scourge after learning about a possible super-weapon, just accepted on the spot to abandon not just his home country, but his home world based on the promises of someone he doesn't even know even if Inaylia said a few things to back up Eldin. I expected Alinthor to storm off, needed some time to process the news, perhaps steadily come to terms with the inevitability of Lordaeron falling for good under the shadow of the Scourge, and then make such a decision. He didn't even argue that he could just lead his surviving men through Arathi Highlands and march toward Khaz Modan, or even Stormwind, but instead believes he'll live as a beggar in dwarven society if he doesn't leave Azeroth that's bound to implode under the weight of the Scourge's armies and the Lich King.

Overall, the campaign is a great experience despite the lack of the final finishing touches, rare grammar errors, and odd characters. It boasts generous maps and an epic finale that leaves room for a sequel that hopefully will outclass its predecessor.

 

[Macielos]

Well, if you don't mind I'll try to address that the best I can . We're trying to write realistic characters who are mostly skilled and competent, but who also have weaknesses, make mistakes and suffer their consequences, using them to learn and grow. Fully stoic characters are simply boring, but on the other hand, we want to avoid Hollywood's trend of overemotional childish behaviours. It's sometimes difficult to find a perfect balance, but well, we're trying and hopefully - just like our heroes - we'll take the criticism to heart in order to do better with next stories we tell.

Spoiler

Spoiler: Inaylia the idiot

Inaylia, leader of a black-ops team from Lordaeron under Grand Marshal Garithos' command, has been a rather bothersome character. She's powerful gameplay-wise, able to take on many elite/heavy units by herself if geared well; but her personality is unclear, to say the least. She reveals early on that she was trained by Sylvanas and that she knows her; after failing to save Garithos, she saves her men and retreats to safety. For the first parts of the story, Inaylia doesn't show a lot of remorse nor is she apparently bothered that much about Garithos' death; a few chapters later she suddenly explodes emotionally, starts cursing and storms off into the woods chasing after Sylvanass to "settle a score" even though she knew Sylvanass was cunning and would likely counter her pursuers, especially Inaylia. After costing herself time, men, and considerable effort, Inaylia has a few more nervous outbursts before finding Sylvanass. Inaylia then corners Sylvanass who tries to run after being bested in a fight, and then lets her go when Kel'thuzad's armies swarmed the swamps. This is... odd to put it mildly, as if all the rage she had suddenly evaporated. What's more odd is that Inaylia then admits that it was a mistake chasing after Sylvanass and that it cost her a lot of good men. Given these events... I'd say Inaylia's a bit of an imbecile, but no one calls her out for it. Eldin sits with his mouth closed mostly, and Reyes actually comforts her and says that she's a good leader.

Unlike Reynart, Inaylia is not a stoic type of leader, which shouldn't be that surprising given that all her life she's been dealing with loss and abandonment and that was even before she had to command her troops in the face of a world-scale apocalypse. Inaylia's arc has three main points:
1. Lordaeron City - here Inaylia suffers defeat, but it's mostly due to Garithos' arrogance - Inaylia herself actually provides the marshal with good advice how to prepare for the risk of Sylvanas' betrayal. However, as we know from TFT, betrayal is successful and Inaylia does everything that is left to her - saves as many survivors as she can and escapes to fight another day. However she still takes the blame and reproaches herself that she should have somehow prevented what happened.
2. Atravan - here Inaylia makes a mistake and suffers defeat at the hands of Valena. It's not some school error, but rather a complex and unpredictable chain of events during a long guerilla campaign against overwhelming foe, but still a mistake. We did this also to give some victory to Valena and avoid her looking like some stereotypical incompenent antagonist that gets her ass beaten by the player every mission.
3. Alterac City and Sylvanas' return - here Inaylia makes a risky decision to hunt for Sylvanas, which - as Eldin points out - is not fully rational, but driven by Inaylia's main weakness - her old bond with Sylvanas and her being haunted by her betrayal. However, there is also rational reasoning here - preventing Sylvanas from disrupting the evacuation again and reluctance to abandon Margoth and his men. Also, she does her best to carry out the hunt competently and she basically achieves that goal.

Inaylia then corners Sylvanass who tries to run after being bested in a fight, and then lets her go when Kel'thuzad's armies swarmed the swamps. This is... odd to put it mildly, as if all the rage she had suddenly evaporated.

It doesn't evaporate, Sylvanas simply escapes, using the fact that Kel'thuzad's army just appeared on the horizon. Perfectly we would have shown here Sylvanas' banshee transformation, but we didn't have the proper animations, so we just let it happen off-screen. Maybe we'll rework that someday.

Spoiler: Alinthor easily persuaded

It was incredibly... odd, that Alinthor, who is rather loyal to his country, had a hard time even leaving Dalaran despite his dwindling forces, and wanted to beat back the Scourge after learning about a possible super-weapon, just accepted on the spot to abandon not just his home country, but his home world based on the promises of someone he doesn't even know even if Inaylia said a few things to back up Eldin. I expected Alinthor to storm off, needed some time to process the news, perhaps steadily come to terms with the inevitability of Lordaeron falling for good under the shadow of the Scourge, and then make such a decision.

But that's exactly what happened. Reynart refuses to abandon Lordaeron for majority of the campaign, e.g. in "Crossroads" interlude, is still hesitant when Eldin reveals him the truth about Solymus and spents his whole journey to Lonely Ridge coming to terms with his decision.

 

[The_Messenger]

In fact, if it's not an issue, I can point out the mistakes that were made and perhaps shed some light on the subject.

Spoiler: Inaylia character mistakes

As I've seen/experienced, during the evacuation in Alterac Ruins, at the start Inaylia gives a warning that Sylvanass isn't someone to mess with, to which Morgoth gives that rather awkward reply to (half expected her to stab Morgoth in the foot for that). The decision Inaylia makes at the end doesn't feel like it was made for Morgoth and his men because Inaylia's lines are too emotional, too heavy, and like Eldin pointed out (pointing out the obvious more or less) she was just going for vengeance. She had that outburst that telegraphed her intentions far too clearly, not to mention she was dead set on doing it while taking cover behind a flimsy excuse. It could have been interpreted that all those bottled up emotions over the course of the story finally spilled over, but it was just... too sudden. This just leaves the option of her going on a sudden revenge mission... just because, why not. There's not even a brief window in the story where Inaylia and Sylvanass interract, even for a brief moment, that would cement her feelings and her decisions in the future. It didn't have to be long, a simple meeting where they exchange a few words would have been enough and spark Inaylia's hope that her old mentor was back. But the absence of such moments leads Inaylia further down a certain path that gives her a poor image.
In the swamp, she was downright willing to kill people that just wanted to go home or get out of danger (even if it didn't turn out they were mind controled). This sudden appearance of ruthlessness doesn't fit her well since she's never shown such a side before nor at least gave a hint to its existence. These moments downgrade Inaylia into a single-minded vengeance fueled character... ultimately making her look like an idiot.
He confrontation with Sylvanass at the end was what gave the impression that her anger evaporated. The screen directs the player's attention to the incoming Undead army after Sylvanass pauses (even though Inaylia was preparing to give a killing blow perhaps?), says that something's coming, then cuts the whole event short by telling Inaylia that she has to run. This scene could have arguably been better if Inaylia continued to fight Sylvanass with no pause on that vantage point despite her warning that something's coming, have Sylvanass stun/knock back Inaylia using her Banshee abilities (like that scream she does in WoW cinematics), and make her escape while Inaylia was temporarily incapacitated; I believe such a scene would have offered a better result.

Spoiler: Alinthor character mistakes

Alinthor is a better written character than all other character in the story, actually. But he was in fact persuaded the moment Eldin was saved because of his dialogues during that moment. If Alinthor's lines were more cut and dry after his outrage at the thought of abandoning Lordaeron, then ending the discution abruptly and on a sour note, it would have resulted in a much better image of him.
Aditionally, Alinthor could have continued to show a remarkable level of stubbourness on their way to Lonely Ridge, but after his time spent with Eldin on the road debating the current state of Lordaeron, some sage advice, and the risks involving an attempt to travel to Khaz Modan, a spark of doubt would have gradually appeared in his mind. Then he could have reached a final conclusion with Solymus and being allowed to see what lies beyond the portal.
Instead, Alinthor is aparently persuaded shortly after a complete stranger is saved, agrees to travel to Lonely Ridge with said stranger endorsed by Inaylia (who didn't even blink at the thought of leaving Lordaeron), and after he sees the refuge on the other side of the portal he is probably 200% on board with the idea of leaving.

Spoiler: Overabundant information

I would have added this as well on my original post, but I didn't want it to be too wordy.
Over the course of the story there's an overabundance of information with very "matter of fact" explanations even though the subjects being discussed were likely a mistery.
For example, in Cragenwood (I think I spelled it wrong) the Undead ridden village Alinthor needs to clear out out of civic duty more or less, Inaylia says that there's not a lot of information about the village... then begins to go on a highly detailed explanation as to what happened there. Mentioning experiments, Kel'Thuzad's involvement, Abominations being built, the whole nine yards.
Moments like this effectively cut out the possibility of mystery, theories, and forboding feeling of the unknown that are key elements in a story.

 

[Macielos]

Spoiler

The decision Inaylia makes at the end doesn't feel like it was made for Morgoth and his men because Inaylia's lines are too emotional, too heavy, and like Eldin pointed out (pointing out the obvious more or less) she was just going for vengeance.

You are right, her primary motivation was definitely vengeance, but emotional decision doesn't completely rule out rational reasoning. People very often combine both. Sometimes you have several paths to choose and emotion doesn't turn you completely unreasonable, it pushes you in a certain direction, but you still use a certain degree of rationality to figure out the details, reduce the risks and improve the odds and it is moreless what happened here.

There's not even a brief window in the story where Inaylia and Sylvanass interract, even for a brief moment, that would cement her feelings and her decisions in the future. It didn't have to be long, a simple meeting where they exchange a few words would have been enough and spark Inaylia's hope that her old mentor was back. But the absence of such moments leads Inaylia further down a certain path that gives her a poor image.

Actually I had an idea to develop Inaylia/Sylvanas's relationship in a form of short story taking place shortly before TVG... but it somehow didn't materialize. It could have been added somewhere in 02, but on the other hand, I felt it would be a bit too much information for this early stage of the plot. And our cutscenes are already extra ordinarilly long .

In the swamp, she was downright willing to kill people that just wanted to go home or get out of danger (even if it didn't turn out they were mind controled). This sudden appearance of ruthlessness doesn't fit her well since she's never shown such a side before nor at least gave a hint to its existence.

She was attempting to enforce discipline - something you have to be prepared for, being a commander on a hostile territory. It's not like she'd momentarilly start to slaughter them if they refused - she makes several attempts to negotiate with them.

He confrontation with Sylvanass at the end was what gave the impression that her anger evaporated. The screen directs the player's attention to the incoming Undead army after Sylvanass pauses (even though Inaylia was preparing to give a killing blow perhaps?), says that something's coming, then cuts the whole event short by telling Inaylia that she has to run. This scene could have arguably been better if Inaylia continued to fight Sylvanass with no pause on that vantage point despite her warning that something's coming, have Sylvanass stun/knock back Inaylia using her Banshee abilities (like that scream she does in WoW cinematics), and make her escape while Inaylia was temporarily incapacitated; I believe such a scene would have offered a better result.

Yeah, that may actually be a good idea to expand this scene.

Aditionally, Alinthor could have continued to show a remarkable level of stubbourness on their way to Lonely Ridge, but after his time spent with Eldin on the road debating the current state of Lordaeron, some sage advice, and the risks involving an attempt to travel to Khaz Modan, a spark of doubt would have gradually appeared in his mind. Then he could have reached a final conclusion with Solymus and being allowed to see what lies beyond the portal.
Instead, Alinthor is aparently persuaded shortly after a complete stranger is saved, agrees to travel to Lonely Ridge with said stranger endorsed by Inaylia (who didn't even blink at the thought of leaving Lordaeron), and after he sees the refuge on the other side of the portal he is probably 200% on board with the idea of leaving.

Once again - what you think should happen is exactly what happened. Reynart is NOT persuaded to leave in the first conversation with Eldin - at that point he's still looking for weapons against the Scourge and he only agrees to travel to Lonely Ridge to hear Solymus' terms and "to see for himself that coming here was not in vain". Solymus terms could mean also sending Enclave' troops to fight in Lordaeron, accepting only civilians so that the army can fight more freely or just sending supplies or technology. During 07 Eldin tries to persuade him and even subtly manipulate him, but Reynart replies with lines like "I will be the judge of that", and even at the end he says to Valena "I will consider my options very carefully". Then he says to Vespira that he came to "see the Enclave" and "see if it could become a home". First mention that he made his choice is when Margoth asks him in "Revelations" interlude. So this gradual chance of attitude is exactly there.

Over the course of the story there's an overabundance of information with very "matter of fact" explanations even though the subjects being discussed were likely a mistery.
For example, in Cragenwood (I think I spelled it wrong) the Undead ridden village Alinthor needs to clear out out of civic duty more or less, Inaylia says that there's not a lot of information about the village... then begins to go on a highly detailed explanation as to what happened there. Mentioning experiments, Kel'Thuzad's involvement, Abominations being built, the whole nine yards.
Moments like this effectively cut out the possibility of mystery, theories, and forboding feeling of the unknown that are key elements in a story.

Well, this is the only occurence of this place within the story, so I think there was no need for further mystery at the moment we're about to raze everything to the ground. The mystery last for majority of the mission, whenever we encountered these intelligent depressed zombies.

 

[Nyctaeus]

I can say, that decisions/reactions of both Inaylia and Reynart will have their consequences in the story, and some of them will be very impactful in the future. We do not follow "characters do stupid shit to trigger events later" philosophy as plot-devices to drive our story forward. But we do follow philosophy of "actions have consequences" and this is one factor that shape our main chain of events. We strongly dislike direction of empty drama, hollow emotion and overreacting that's plagueing modern entertainment, but it doesn't mean that we want our characters to always act "correctly".

Simply because history of humankind and every individual human being is written by mistakes and their consequences. We're not really leaning towards omnipresent plot of "characters mature as the story progesses", but rather we want our characters to make decisions, face their consequences, and let those consequences change them. Not always in "good" direction, because this is what is not always happening in real life.

Our characters have their main psychological themes, but they deviate from them from time to time as a display of their psychological complexity. Many features of human mind can remain dormant for years, until they are triggered by an external factor. This is supported by the fact, that Exodus is set in harsh, dark and falling world that pushes people towards difficult choices and inflicts a feeling of a deep, emotional burden. This is what happened to Reynart. Months in a dying world, facing death on every step, necessity to take care about thousands of people eventually pushed him into accepting Kangard's offer, but it doesn't mean this decision was narrow and made at a single moment. Despite the fact, that he's emotionally exhausted, he evaluated Kangard's offer as best he could, but he eventually agreed seeing that The Enclave provided not perfect, but satisfying enough alternative. Solymus showed him Enclave's capital off-screen, which also had it's impact. If you feel that this was manipulative move, then you're right. The time will tell, if there was malicious intent behind Kangard's actions.

Decisions of Inaylia are deeply rooted in her psychological background, and while she tends to act more cold and goal-driven then Reynart, those actions are also fueled by her anxieties, biases and beliefs. The shift of her actions in Sylvanas arc are driven by a cognitive bias. She believes, that she's going to deal with very dangerous enemy that must be eliminated, but what her ego hidden from herself, is a very personal sense of grief and betrayal linked to her former tutor she used to share deep bond with. She's acting so, because she's a character of depply traumatic past, and that's what her mind considers to be "normal"... Simply because she was lacking the sense of warm normality of growing in loving and caring family. What you see in Sylvanas arc is the darker, not entirely self-aware side of Inaylia that poured out from her "Jung's Shadow".

And yep, characters who always make right choices are more likeable. But they are not psychologically correct. And they do not contribute to dark, morally-grey world main theme we want to follow. And we definitely want to show such mistakes.

I do feel like like your comments express "I'd do things differently" vibe. Not that the things you're pointing out are wrong, because we - as authors do not support every decision our characters make, but many of them sound like your subjective way of judging actions of people [and our characters in this case]. Many things you judge to be wrong, we consider as "features" of our characters. Their mandatory character flaws compatible with our philosophy of character design. I feel we're talking more about different schools of character design, rather then something we objectively did wrong. Eldin's situation is completely different, as he is underdeveloped compared to Inaylia and Reynart. This is what we consider a design mistake from our side. That's why "Torch of a Reason" map was added in one of the patches, but it does not solve the "underdevelopment" issue of Eldin, but at this point, we decided that there is little we can do to fully adress this issue.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I feel about some of your feedback. We simply make different creative decisions then you do, and it does not make your or our points better or worse. It simply makes them different.

 

[Macielos]

It's happening, guys. Jayborino plays Exodus.

 

[UnknDoomer]

Started recording of this one today as well. From first impression looks interesting, second mission essentially overlaps with other custom campaigns.

In case of difficulty personally can tell that "Normal" here can be count as a "Hard" or ever "Hard+", if count original ROC / TFT, while local "Hard" itself stays way beyond of that. Well, at least in my opinion. So, my playstyle (no hotkeys, etc.) in this specific case will be rather "casual like", no matter of fact that not so far I've completed both WCI on WCIII on "Hard" in compare to...

Anyhow. Here is a first mission:

Also. Mentioned your campaign here Warcraft 3: Reforged / Starcraft: Mass Recall, so some additional players from CIS regions might put in attention on it as well.

 

[Nyctaeus]

Cleaned release post a bit, and added both Jay's and UD's playthrough to our gallery. Thank you both for effort and promo, guys :].

 

[Ceres]

Cleaned release post a bit, and added both Jay's and UD's playthrough to our gallery. Thank you both for effort and promo, guys :].

Could you share with model of golem (one of the guardians in your campain), please?

 

[Nyctaeus]

Could you share with model of golem (one of the guardians in your campain), please?

It's from @Jiok's Alterac pack, reworked into forces of the Enclave. You can find them and tons of other cool assets in his thread.

 

[kristoffer kørvell]

hey, is this campaign playable on the latest reforged patch?

sincerely^

 

[Macielos]

hey, is this campaign playable on the latest reforged patch?

sincerely^

It wasn't entirely tested by us on Reforged. It should be playable, I remember some people earlier in this thread who completed it on Reforged, but they had some issues (e.g. one guy was unable to complete a side quest in chapter 8). 1.31 is still the best option.

 

[kristoffer kørvell]

It wasn't entirely tested by us on Reforged. It should be playable, I remember some people earlier in this thread who completed it on Reforged, but they had some issues (e.g. one guy was unable to complete a side quest in chapter 8). 1.31 is still the best option.

okay, thx for reply

 

[UnknDoomer]

Made my progress up to the mission 9, uploading seven new videos by now. Noticed few misc issues:

1. In mission 3 I've completed the second task and there was a message it was done, but in the tasks list it's still remained unmarked.
2. At the start of mission 4 there was no sound by some reason. After I've reloaded the game it appear. Still, I didn't check the same cutscene once again. Also, perhaps it doesn't matter, but still. You can't see it on the video, it seems, but somewhere in the end of custscene, before mission 4, my screen flickered once and became black, a bit before button to continue campaign appeared. Perhaps this has something to do with it.
3. In mission 4, on north-west, there is a sort sound glitch took a place after one of the necromancer got dead. It's like the rain ability went on a loop or something.
4. During some cutscenes FPS drop down a lot.
5. Got one random crash at the end of mission 7, while reloading from the save slot.
6. Some upgrades has old names, or related to building with old one, like "Castle" in bonus mission 8.
7. Several freezes during save / load at bonus mission 8.

Playing with patch 1.31.1 from WC3 Download Archive (1.00 - 1.31.1 + BETA & DEMO).



8. One note regarding balance. By mission 6 both heroes become strong enough to kill, well, up to the whole army, due to items I've collected around. The main hero has > 2000 HP and overall damage goes beyond 100, not counting powerful abilities - on the first screenshot you can see that 6 auras been applied at once, no enemy can handle such. The enemies heroes in this case, ever with the few items they handle, are kinda weak. Mission 6, I suppose, planned to be hard, and it's probably is on hard difficulty in it's own way, but it's actually wasn't to me on normal, which make stand aside in compare to previous onces, which remain like, as I said before, hard from original game or sort of.

I didn't build a single tower and got just one additional goldmine, while archers is basically is ultimate bet in this campaign (well, until mission 9), in opposite to other units, which are just useless in compare to them. They are like buffed knights, that can attack air units. Less HP, but high defence and damage. So, I more / less easlily cleaned up the whole map under 1 hour.

In opposite to it mission 7 looks different - heroes was comparable in power to the enemy and had a chance to get killed easily at the end. Same as bonus mission 8, which is, well, way different - was actually hard and mess like one to me to complete it, required to make some tricks with towers, cleaning up the north enemy base on the edge of fail with one worker and so on. Enemies heroes is tough here.

 

[Macielos]

Yeah, we'll definitely reduce randomness of item drops in the next campaigns. We did several nerfs of the heroes already, taking some of the strongest items away and reducing life regen per strength point, but on the other hand now that lots of people got used to that, we don't want to completely take the fun away, so consider that a feature of this particular campaign. Like in some RPGs where you can pump up your heroes a lot by grinding and clearing every corner of the maps, but still have a decent difficulty level if you don't have patience for exploration and just stick to main objectives.

Here Reynart's high HP is just due to dropping two Giant's Belts which I think is quite rare at this point of the campaign. Plus lots of tomes probably which is actually a feature - a reward for clearing up the maps. And the damage is due to Reynart's ult that is basically supposed to make his army totally badass for a short time.

 

[UnknDoomer]

Finished the campaign, uploading 3 remaining videos.

9. Got a serious freezes in mission 9, like every 3 seconds or so. Seems to be too much units on the map and game just can't handle it right - after I've destroyed a base or two things became fine. Was hard to control anything, but luckly gryphons were extra powerful here, nobody could stop them.



10. Missions 11 or 12, in opposite works fine, while it too has many units. If not count one fact - I didn't manage to continue to cutscene after it was done, required to go back to missions select screen to proceed instead.
11. Misc. In seems on some victory screens there is no sound.

Yeah, we'll definitely reduce randomness of item drops in the next campaigns.

Like in some RPGs where you can pump up your heroes a lot by grinding and clearing every corner of the maps, but still have a decent difficulty level if you don't have patience for exploration and just stick to main objectives.

8. This can be count, I guess. BTW, speaking of randomness. In mission 10 I've got, but later lost, due to fact I didn't save the progress and load from a save slot, an item, that gives 50% from dealed damage to hero's HP. In case of Inaylia this lead to double stack with her ability, add on top the fact I've managed to find not one, but two medals, that provide + 300 HP each for her and a two rings, that give +7 to armor. Well, in this case she alone could kill the queen of forsaken, I guess. Without this item help of other heroes turned out to be useful.

By other hand they, same as a lot of books I've found, came in pretty handy in mission 12, which I've barely managed to complete by holding the undead waves with heroes only on last few seconds with my "not so well" type of strategy. Well, mission 13 too. Would be way harder without them.



A bit of final statistics heroes got in my case. Speaking in two words at the end - solid campaign. Seems to be Warcraft III modding rising to new heights once more.

 

[yodeller]

I'm at chapter 8 and the campaign is excellently made! There is a real challenge, especially in the quest where we free the Elven messenger. So far it's a blast! Great work!

 

[Kriegschwein]

Completed 4 missions so far.
I like general mission design, as well as terrain work - probably one of the best terrain works I have seen in WC3. Mission 4 was a blast in that regard, with dam and everthing.

Among the things I dislike so far are underwhelming secondary objectives, especially from mission 4. As I understand, secondary objectives don't influence the story/future mission lay out, so their completion is very optional. I have spent a lot of time destroying 3 Syndicate bases + 1 Undead bases, and the fact that I have received zero worthy items/tomes from that, and it seems these actions don't influence future events, the time investvment for demolishing these bases doesn't worth it, especially undead one.

And sometimes wonky hitboxes on custom units - it was noticeable with thing in the forest in Greenwood, it was hard to click on it. But it is a bit inevitable with custom units, so I don't mind it that much.

But main quest interaction are quite good - I liked that in mission 2 you can clean raiders before hand, making the part of the mission after Garithos death far easier. Good moment.

Overall, I have more positive feelings about the campaign, and definitely will finish it.

 

[Crystfall]

Hi guys,

First I would like to both thank you and congratulate you for this project. It was a blast to play and see your version of the story after the Lorderon fall. I had a very enjoyable week playing those 12 maps and I'm happy to see there are still creators who put so much time and dedication into giving us more to do in this game!

Now onto the campaign.
First, I've played this in the latest version of Reforge and I was excited to see that this is not only playable but also that nothing broke. I saw a few people mentioned in previous posts that they've had issues with units dropping from the map or jumping over terrain but nothing of the sort happened to me. The terrain worked perfectly, and the unit collision where spot on. Also I had no issues with the side objectives, everything triggered properly and completed properly. Got 2 random crashes during the entire playthrough but I think this was just Reforge being Reforge as it did not happen twice on the same map. Overall no major bug disrupted my enjoyment while playing this.
Second, I would like to point out that there were a few mission where the game lagged pretty badly due to the weather effects, particularly on the maps that had snow storms or intense raining. I'm not sure if this was from my PC or not but I had no issues with masses of units gathering on the same screen, the snow particles on the other hands made me PC cry sometimes
Third, I loved the balancing of the AI on their attacks and base defense, even though at points on some of the missions they can be a bit annoying and tedious to deal with they are not necessarily overwhelming and with a bit of effort you can overcome them, which is great in my opinion.
Forth, I liked the custom factions and the new models that you've used, I know that those are not easy to make, so great job on those!

Overall, as I stated in my first sentence it was an awesome experience and I do hope that you have plans for a continuation as I cannot wait to see what Solymus has planned for us after the ending scene.

Congratulations again!

 

[Kriegschwein]

It is all ogre now
I was afraid that they wouldn't move out, heh

 

[Macielos]

It is all ogre now
I was afraid that they wouldn't move out, heh

As you can see, it pays off to lift the mind control spell without killing too many ogres. I added unlimited first wave in one of the patches exactly so we could have our own ogre WAAAH. Plus they're red, so they attack faster.

 

[Kriegschwein]

As you can see, it pays off to lift the mind control spell without killing too many ogres.

I so gleefully giggled when I noticed a pile of stone rocks by the shore for stealth infiltration. Managed to mind control the chieftain just with heroes, without army support, and killed only his direct entourage.
Probably one of my favorite little moments so far. I like some stealth from time to time

 

[Gauss]

Is there gonna be a sequel to Violet Gate ?

 

[Macielos]

Is there gonna be a sequel to Violet Gate ?

Yes, it's in the making, you can already see some screenshots from it in the Gallery, but it's surely gonna take a while to finish.

 

[ZSushi]

dunno why, but I keep getting lag spike 2/3 sec in chapter 9/10

 

[Kriegschwein]

So, I finally have beaten the campaign. Oh, what a ride!

Here will be a small, by-the-mission, review (playthrough was done on normal):

1. A solid introductory mission. Good terrain work, fair difficulty, story hooks for rest of the missions. Nothing extraordinary, but there is no such requirement.

2. One of my favorite missions in the campaign. A lot of room for "choose your style", exploration is rewarded, a good implementation of your story into general Warcraft lore (Which even answers the question like "Where survivors of Garithos army went?"), and gives enough time for playing with new hero and adjusting to new Alliance tech tree

3. Probably the best escort missions I have played in the WC3. Ability to control the movement of the caravan is a Godsend, so you play the mission how you want, which is very important. Exploration is, once again, rewarding, interesting terrain work here and there.

4. A mission I have very mixed feelings on. Probably my favorite terrain work in the campaign, with mixed biomes on one map, it was a bit "clunky" to play it. While map is big, it is mostly narrow corridors, while you need rather a big army to successfully assault Syndicate bases + one Undead, not to mention it is a bit awkward to build your own base. And, as I mentioned in one of my previous messages, the time you spent on secondary objectives isn't rewarded. But it is stull a fun mission, plus roster finally comes fully online (Apart just a few extra units later in the campaign), and it is nice to fight an enemy faction which isn't undead.

5. Solid three parts mission. Liked the the final defense, reminded me of 5th Alliance mission from Reign of Chaos, where we too hold off undead onslaught until the knights arrive.

6. Liked this one, first allied action with Alteraci, direct continuation of the previous map. I am weak a bit for maps which are "extensions" for previous ones, so that was nice. Lay out is more direct this time around, being literally three lines between you and enemy. Still good though, your old, "bust enemy fortress" mission.

7. Another bestie mission of the campaign. It rewards you looking into corners for gold for later stage of the mission for extra troops, but it is still mostly hero mission, with the ability to try out Enclave roster. There is a bit of the wonkiness in the middle of the map - when you come out of mines and should proceed through the canyon to the Lonely Ridge fortress, camera acts a bit weird there, and I accidentally clicked on the cliffs instead of the canyon several times, forcing my troops to start to go back from where they came from. But I liked the boss fight - it rewards you for knowing your hero abilities by that point, and overall micro ability, saving your troops for the fight.

7b. Bonus Chapter. Honestly, I didn't like it, mostly because I didn't like the Enclave roster and paths in this map. Enclave roster is a bit weak in my opinion, especially in the spellcaster department - Cleansers are far weaker than Priests imo, bc their healing is manual (So you need to pay extra attention to that), heals not that much, and it takes rather a hefty amount of mana. Inner light is inner light, so nothing to say here, just a very regular buff spell. Discordant, while having great silence ability, require too much babysitting to be effective, and die from a slight breeze to their direction in my experience. The units are expensive, but can't say that they are that effective. Siege weapons are nice, especially pulverizer, but absence of classic splash damage makes it a bit hard to deal with undead hordes (For which I am mortar effeciando in that regard). Mission is plot and lore heavy, which is nice, but yeah, felt a bit underwhelming overall.

8. And this is my number one mission. It is very fun one! And it rewards you for being perceptive, and overperforming. The way how you find a path to ogre chief determines how effective lifting mind control is from him, the way how you can assault Forsaken together with Alteraci, and how by this point both heroes are just mincing machines. And the fact that the final undead base, while unnecessary to beat, gives you Garithos's axe, is very welcome, I liked it a lot. Also Sylvanas' roster is different enough from the Scourge that you feel you are fighting another faction.

9. Favorite hero mission. The fact that you can unmind control enemies is nice (Though I abused it to the point I had 4 pages of units...). Nice terrain work, good story beats, finally we play as Margoth, final confrontation with Sylvanas is excellent for character development of Inaylia.

10. And this is my least favorite mission. For two reasons - double-faction control and island hopping. These two things are pretty wonky on their own, but usually you can bear with them when they are the only wonky element of the mission. When there is two, weeell... It was a bit unpleasant. More so, both factions are nearly identical, and researching Blacksmith upgrades twice isn't a good time, I tell you that. AI went wonky too, when I used flare from mortar teams I saw how their attacks wave weirdly just went around in circles in some places. And this whole process of loading your troops, unloading them, destroying the base, loading again, unloading... A lot of busy work in my opinion, which don't add that much to the experience.

11. A penultimate mission, a defense one at that. Had to retry a few times, and this is important, because on my final try, Undead never built the trebuchet in the south-east base, which you can reach only with airships, so it was much, much easier than previous retries. It is just a bit weird that difficulty can depend so much on random. But overall I liked the mission - while it is a defense, most of the time my main troops were outside the base, hunting enemies and their bases, had to keep eye on static defense and allied overall. Tense and action packed, liked that you start with all research immediately, making you focus on battle from economy.

Oh, and I had crash here, so there is that.

12. Ah, what a thrill. You made me worry that some characters will have to make a heroic sacrifice! But everyone pulled in the end, to my surprise. Especially Margoth, I honestly expected him to die here, but nope, the lad survived the ordeal. Final fight is great, and it felt satisfying that I built heroes as unstoppable force by this point. Great finale, felt rewarding and satisfying.

Overall, great experience with few hiccups there and there, nothing major. Definitely one of the highlights of the year for me. Hope to see your next campaign in that decade at least, heh.

 

[knight85]

is there a version of this new campaign that can be played without reforged?

 

[Macielos]

is there a version of this new campaign that can be played without reforged?

Yes, the official one . It was made for 1.31, so the last official Blizzard patch before Reforged. It won't work on older patches, e.g. 1.29. But if you have an older version of WC3 with a working CD key, you can download 1.31 here: Patch 1.31.1 Backup Files

 

[Bogdanov89]

I just started this campaign, i think im on the 4th mission.
So far its looking really amazing - especially the unit models and the new unit voice acting!

I got two questions if someone can please elaborate:

• are maps supposed to be using the very old unit balance patch/version (game data set) from the release of the Frozen Throne?
• on classic mode graphics Reynart Alinthor has a really weird 3D portrait/dialogue face, he is lacking eyebrows and overall his eyes & expression looks very odd?

 

[Macielos]

• are maps supposed to be using the very old unit balance patch/version (game data set) from the release of the Frozen Throne?

Yes, we're using the default dataset.

• on classic mode graphics Reynart Alinthor has a really weird 3D portrait/dialogue face, he is lacking eyebrows and overall his eyes & expression looks very odd?

Heh, @Nyctaeus promised that he's already found someone to do something with his face.

 

[Jayborino]

Maps look and feel great. Good variety of mechanics, scenarios, and tech trees. Very minor text corrections would help since the narrative is so core to this campaign. Please consider removing Burrow from Crypt Fiends and Beetles, it only exists to be a mild irritation and adds nothing of value in my opinion. Some maps feel a bit too big for me and yet Map 10 took me the longest and was my favorite bigger macro map of the campaign. Terrain of Alterac is excellent along with the otherworldly areas sprinkled in. Well done!

 

[Bogdanov89]

A couple of possible bugs (classic graphics mode, latest official war3 reforged):

• Machinery upgrade seems to only go up to level 2, i never got to upgrade it to level 3 (like the blacksmith weapon/armor upgrades).
• Spearmen are mentioned in both the standard blacksmith weapon upgrade and in the Machinery upgrade, though only Machinery seems to affect them.
• Battlemage unit voice acting is MUCH LOUDER than anything else, to the point where i gotta mute the game.

- Battlemage unit Replenish Mana (Q) seems a bit buggy when auto-cast, he tries to replenish his own mana pool with his own Q spell which usually means he just endlessly casts it and stands still (even when an attack move order is given). If i remember right the vanilla Obsidian Statue can not benefit from its own vanilla version of "replenish mana" so it does not have this problem.

Thank you for making & updating this awesome campaign!

 

[Macielos]

• Machinery upgrade seems to only go up to level 2, i never got to upgrade it to level 3 (like the blacksmith weapon/armor upgrades).

It's a feature. Probably I should have made 3 levels, but it was initially not meant to be exactly like blacksmith upgrades, e.g. it also unlocks Ranger upgrades in the barracks. It always had only two levels, but damage bonus per level is higher.

• Battlemage unit voice acting is MUCH LOUDER than anything else, to the point where i gotta mute the game.

Yeah, will be fixed in 2.05, alongside new asset and unique voicelines for battlemage. I'll take another look at his basic ability too.

Maps look and feel great. Good variety of mechanics, scenarios, and tech trees. Very minor text corrections would help since the narrative is so core to this campaign. Please consider removing Burrow from Crypt Fiends and Beetles, it only exists to be a mild irritation and adds nothing of value in my opinion. Some maps feel a bit too big for me and yet Map 10 took me the longest and was my favorite bigger macro map of the campaign. Terrain of Alterac is excellent along with the otherworldly areas sprinkled in. Well done!

Thanks for the feedback, @Jayborino. A question though - did you already record the following maps and just wait to show their playthrough or was it a "dry" playthrough before you record them? I mean, there are some issues I fixed in the later maps and I wonder if I should rush with the patch so you continue playing on the latest version or is it pointless already? I'm talking especially about Margoth's insults which now have text messages and fixing a serious AI-related lag in chapter 8.

 

[Bogdanov89]

Ok thanks!

If you can please explain, when i am in the map/mission is there a way to see what Difficulty i am on?

I got to mission 6 and just noticed that despite having the "custom campaign menu" difficulty set to Hard (red skull) all the missions i have completed are marked as done on Normal difficulty (orange skull).

Which would make sense since i kinda felt that the missions were not difficult enough - but now i do not know which difficulty indicator to believe?

Also could it be possible that the campaign difficulty mistakenly resets from Hard to Normal if you do a mission restart when in a campaign map?

 

[Jayborino]

A question though - did you already record the following maps and just wait to show their playthrough or was it a "dry" playthrough before you record them? I mean, there are some issues I fixed in the later maps and I wonder if I should rush with the patch so you continue playing on the latest version or is it pointless already? I'm talking especially about Margoth's insults which now have text messages and fixing a serious AI-related lag in chapter 8.

I made videos for the rest of the campaign this past weekend. I don't think I had any lagging issues on Map 8.

Text for Margoth is a good idea because it confused me as you'll see in today's video. I've played other campaigns where voice lines play globally and it's a bug, so I didn't know what to think.

In any case, I'm all wrapped up so don't push anything out on my account.

 

[Macielos]

I made videos for the rest of the campaign this past weekend. I don't think I had any lagging issues on Map 8.

Text for Margoth is a good idea because it confused me as you'll see in today's video. I've played other campaigns where voice lines play globally and it's a bug, so I didn't know what to think.

In any case, I'm all wrapped up so don't push anything out on my account.

Okay, then I'll take my sweet time with the patch and wait until we're ready with some extra assets.

I should have added text msgs for Margoth in the beginning, but I felt it would make too big mess in the mission log. But I see now that lack of them is far worse. BTW, in missions where Margoth is AI-controlled, his taunts have voicelines only if you have a unit nearby to reduce the forementioned mess.

Ok thanks!

If you can please explain, when i am in the map/mission is there a way to see what Difficulty i am on?

You can check it in the options, at least on 1.31.

I got to mission 6 and just noticed that despite having the "custom campaign menu" difficulty set to Hard (red skull) all the missions i have completed are marked as done on Normal difficulty (orange skull).

Which would make sense since i kinda felt that the missions were not difficult enough - but now i do not know which difficulty indicator to believe?

Also could it be possible that the campaign difficulty mistakenly resets from Hard to Normal if you do a mission restart when in a campaign map?

I just checked it and difficulty level indeed resets after every mission. I wonder if it's like this in every campaign. That... is troublesome because I sometimes like playing campaigns on hard, so you just made me realize I in fact was playing them on normal xD.

 

[Bogdanov89]

You can check it in the options, at least on 1.31.

I just checked it and difficulty level indeed resets after every mission. I wonder if it's like this in every campaign. That... is troublesome because I sometimes like playing campaigns on hard, so you just made me realize I in fact was playing them on normal xD.

Thanks for replying.
Unfortunately the latest War3 reforged does not show the Difficulty in the options
I do not know how complicated this would be but perhaps the Exodus maps could somehow/somewhere display what difficulty is truly active upon starting or loading a map (or save game).

As for the difficulty level reset, it could be that it happens both when:

• restarting the current mission from the quit menu
• continuing onto the next mission after winning the current mission

 

[Bogdanov89]

A visual/UI bug that kind of breaks this hero, the Arcane Charge count for Vespira Coldgaze stops displaying.
I think its related to saving in the middle of a mission and quitting War3, then later loading up the save.

Bug encountered in the Torch of a Reason map, and no matter what i tried it refused to show again (tried toggling Q and using all her other spells, and even tried toggling all the UI options reforged has for hero info display).

Perhaps the bug is related to lvl 3 or lvl 4 of the Q spell?

 

[HuanJuan]

A visual/UI bug that kind of breaks this hero, the Arcane Charge count for Vespira Coldgaze stops displaying.
I think its related to saving in the middle of a mission and quitting War3, then later loading up the save.

Bug encountered in the Torch of a Reason map, and no matter what i tried it refused to show again (tried toggling Q and using all her other spells, and even tried toggling all the UI options reforged has for hero info display).

Perhaps the bug is related to lvl 3 or lvl 4 of the Q spell?

 

[Ravager16829]

A visual/UI bug that kind of breaks this hero, the Arcane Charge count for Vespira Coldgaze stops displaying.
I think its related to saving in the middle of a mission and quitting War3, then later loading up the save.

Bug encountered in the Torch of a Reason map, and no matter what i tried it refused to show again (tried toggling Q and using all her other spells, and even tried toggling all the UI options reforged has for hero info display).

Perhaps the bug is related to lvl 3 or lvl 4 of the Q spell?

Probably it's related to the common issues of 1.31.1 from the past:

[1.31.1] Bug: Loading saved game breaks some unit events

Uploading test map for demonstration. Save the game, then load that game, and some specific unit events will not be recognized anymore. For example, these will break: EVENT_UNIT_ISSUED_POINT_ORDER EVENT_UNIT_ISSUED_TARGET_ORDER EVENT_UNIT_ISSUED_ORDER EVENT_UNIT_SPELL_CAST EVENT_UNIT_ATTACKED...

www.hiveworkshop.com

This is quite strange, even though most chapters of this campaign don't rely on specific unit event triggers.
However, if you attempt to restart the campaign progress, it should be fine.

 

[deepstrasz]

I just checked it and difficulty level indeed resets after every mission. I wonder if it's like this in every campaign. That... is troublesome because I sometimes like playing campaigns on hard, so you just made me realize I in fact was playing them on normal xD.

This is a known bug on older patches (1.28-1.31.1). I think they might have fixed it post that.
Basically, you have to start each chapter via the custom campaign menu setting the difficulty to Hard. Some mappers do workarounds detecting the previous chapter difficulty or enable the choosing of the difficulty for each chapter right at the start.

 

[Bogdanov89]

There seems to be an oversight with Ivory Towers (human race shop item).
"Races" like the Enclave (Torch of a Reason map for example) can buy the Ivory Towers but they will spawn the standard human scout tower instead of their special race scout tower.
The end result is that you can not upgrade these standard human scout towers (made from Ivory) because you are missing the standard default tech requirement: Lumber Mill for guard tower and whatever is needed for the Cannon tower variant.

A couple of suggestions:

• Enclave as a whole feels a bit mana starved, since they lack Battlemages Replenish Mana and they lack the very mana-cheap Cleric healing (and no brilliance aura in general).
• Eldin Tharennas E is really lackluster, its a weaker Devotion Aura that costs mana to activate, lasts a short time and the radius is not impressive.
• Eldin Tharennas passive (increased health regen for allies) seems so weak that its completely not noticeable.
• Vespira Coldgaze feels like she needs an AOE taunt (perhaps a new addition to her lackluster W spell in a bigger radius)
• Vespira Coldgaze can go out of mana really fast, would be nice if she got a bit of mana from being hit (like Paladins from old WoW).
• Generally speaking all the Spearmen-type units could use a bit more health, especially if they lack Defend. I love the idea of these Spear units very much!

And a feature i really liked from other maps is an invisible/invulnerable backpack following the hero, basically acting like 6 additional inventory slots that are inactive (a "bank").
It is a lot more modern and QoLife improvement compared to wresling with basic units carrying items via Backpack upgrade.

 

[Macielos]

There seems to be an oversight with Ivory Towers (human race shop item).
"Races" like the Enclave (Torch of a Reason map for example) can buy the Ivory Towers but they will spawn the standard human scout tower instead of their special race scout tower.
The end result is that you can not upgrade these standard human scout towers (made from Ivory) because you are missing the standard default tech requirement: Lumber Mill for guard tower and whatever is needed for the Cannon tower variant.

Noted, I already have a cool idea for a replacement.

There's similar story with the dwarves if we buy the tower as Thamdan, but it's way funnier: you can't upgrade a scout tower built by Thamdan to guard tower, but you can upgrade it to cannon tower. Why? Because dwarves have a Hangar which can be upgraded from both standard and dwarven workshop. Heh...

A couple of suggestions:

• Enclave as a whole feels a bit mana starved, since they lack Battlemages Replenish Mana and they lack the very mana-cheap Cleric healing (and no brilliance aura in general).

Discordant can Transfer Mana, but you are right. They have a remedy for that in the sequel, but I have an idea to give you a glimpse of that in the nearest patch.

• Eldin Tharennas E is really lackluster, its a weaker Devotion Aura that costs mana to activate, lasts a short time and the radius is not impressive.

Well, it has higher bonus than Devotion Aura (2/3/4/5 instead of 1/2/3) and mana cost is neglectible for an intelligence-focused hero who has probably been ripping Tomes of Intelligence for the past few missions .

• Eldin Tharennas passive (increased health regen for allies) seems so weak that its completely not noticeable.

Well, it's not supposed to be super strong, but maybe I'll buff it a bit.

• Vespira Coldgaze feels like she needs an AOE taunt (perhaps a new addition to her lackluster W spell in a bigger radius)

Damn. Please don't make me AI-generate insults for her. Because I won't give anyone taunt without them xD.

• Vespira Coldgaze can go out of mana really fast, would be nice if she got a bit of mana from being hit (like Paladins from old WoW).

Nah, that would be too easy. Mana potions + Discordants with Transfer Mana are the way. Plus something extra you'll get in the next patch.

• Generally speaking all the Spearmen-type units could use a bit more health, especially if they lack Defend. I love the idea of these Spear units very much!

They have a little less HP on purpose. Footmen/Guardians are more tanky and better against structures while Spearmen/Hunters are more DPS specialized against certain enemies + of course they have higher attack range. Besides, Hunters have Evasion.

And a feature i really liked from other maps is an invisible/invulnerable backpack following the hero, basically acting like 6 additional inventory slots that are inactive (a "bank").
It is a lot more modern and QoLife improvement compared to wresling with basic units carrying items via Backpack upgrade.

There will be something like this in the sequel. But for TVG - I think our heroes are OP enough .

 

[Scrungus]

Played through a couple missions and I liked it!

 

[Bogdanov89]

Discordant can Transfer Mana, but you are right. They have a remedy for that in the sequel, but I have an idea to give you a glimpse of that in the nearest patch.

Well, it has higher bonus than Devotion Aura (2/3/4/5 instead of 1/2/3) and mana cost is neglectible for an intelligence-focused hero who has probably been ripping Tomes of Intelligence for the past few missions .

Thanks for replying (and working on this great campaign)!

As far as Discordants go they feel like a very cool attack unit, but if they have to transfer their mana to other allied units then they kinda lose the ability to do that cool attack since its so mana intensive - and their version of Drain Mana is very slow and weak.
A bit of a shame for Discordants to be just mana batteries cause they are meant to be kick-ass mages.

I had no idea the oooold Devotion aura was 1/2/3.
Currently Blizzard is making Devotion aura provide 3/6/9 armor so you can imagine my shock at the triple difference.
But if the ooold balance patch is the reference point then the +5 is a good chunk better than +3, though a longer duration would be neat... or perhaps some spell resistance, because aoe spell nukes hurt fragile humans/elves.

Also i forgot to mention about the artillery units (mortars, pulverizers etc) and the upgrade-able Cannon Towers.
Simply put they are really really really too strong, to the point i am just massing those and having a laugh as the Hard difficulty AI armies are turned into giblets.
Not only is the damage output + long range a crazy combo, but the very generous splash radius completely neutralizes enemy casters, shooters, t1 melee etc.
Combine it with some slow/stun/root and even lvl 9 heroes get blasted to bits in no time, despite Hero armor being good vs Siege damage.
Your amazing & beautiful map designs often also have bridges or other choke points where the artillery splash is even further empowered to blast everything away.
Only scary thing is a Frost Wyrm but heroes and a few riflemen chop those up real fast, or they get ensnared and (again) blasted to pieces.

If gold mines were infinite then i would consider it viable to go with a significantly less cost-efficient army for fun/flavor (like mass knights+spears or mass spellcasters) but since the gold mines are limited then the cost effectiveness/efficiency of massed long range AOE artillery is absolutely too strong.
When i saw Cataphracts (with Trample!!!) i was absolutely thrilled to try them, but at their cost they just have no chance to reliably be cost effective, while the Mortars/Pulverizers are chilling at 1000+ distance getting ultra-kills.