Exodus: The Violet Gate 2.05.1

[Macielos]

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.

Don't forget they can also suck mana from enemies.

A bit of a shame for Discordants to be just mana batteries cause they are meant to be kick-ass mages.

They can be both, depending on your play style. But as I said, the Enclave will soon get something extra to prevent mana shortages.

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.

Alright, I feel convinced, I'll buff it .

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.

Hmm, artillery units are balanced exactly like in vanilla, Pulverizer has slightly higher damage. They simply benefit a lot from upgrades because their base damage and their damage range (min - max) is already high. I may look again at the towers, I guess Cannon Tower is strong from the same reason.

 

[Bogdanov89]

On the Hard "wrath of the dark lady" mission, around 9 or 10 AM game time some heavy stuttering starts.

The game freezes for a moment every two seconds, and continues like that endlessly.

I do not know is there perhaps a problematic script or AI something that is set to trigger/start at around 9am or 10am (first day i think).

I tried restarting the map a few times, lowering graphics (always classic mode) and restarting the whole PC but nothing helped - the stuttering always starts around that time (first day morning).

I am hoping this is not yet another one of those "version 1.36" issues since i am hoping to avoid having multiple war3 versions installed, as almost every custom campaign/map works best with some specific war3 version.

Edit: to add, i had two crashes to desktop on this map, the only one so far from Exodus Violet Gate to cause desktop crashes.

 

[Macielos]

It's an AI issue caused by a lack of goldmine in dark blue Forsaken base, already fixed in an upcoming patch.

 

[shalifar]

Just completed the campaign and I have to say - this is truly a gem. Story is very captivating and the characters are not your standard fantasy heroes. Was genuinely afraid we'll lose Inaylia during chapter 9.

Gameplay wise nothing short of fantastic as well. Liked the variety of tech trees, mission mechanics and attention to details on the maps themselves. You've got yourself a fan, good sirs, waiting for the sequel.

Some minor complaints:
1) Actually was very disappointed that there was no Alteraci mission. You've got the tech tree and it definitely felt like there is a place for such a mission in the plot. Missed some good old Alteraci ass kicking.

2) Also, I may be just bad, but gunships seem useless. During Hammer and Anvil there are just too much undead air units on the map, so the only reliable anti air are either riflemen or rangers. But since you are building ground forces anyway, 2 mortar teams for the same amount of supply do the same job better. And during the mission 11 mobility is everything and gunships are too slow. Dunno, I played on hard difficulty and didn't built single one of them. While in the cutscenes they were presented as something very useful. Damn, I even completed secondary objective to get them...

3) During the Lonely Ridge mission, maybe there would be some sense in introducing a shortcut for the units built at the encampment? Now you have to wait for them to come all the way round.

Anyway, I'm grasping at straws here, because, as I said, everything falls into place so well you have to actually try to find something to complain about.

Thanks you for the awesome experience.

 

[Bogdanov89]

It's an AI issue caused by a lack of goldmine in dark blue Forsaken base, already fixed in an upcoming patch.

Thank you!
I hope you do not mind me asking, is the upcoming patch planned to be out in about a week - or is it gonna be notably longer?

I ask because i would wait for the new patch to release to play through it all if it is gonna come out in a couple of days.
Thanks again!

 

[Macielos]

Thank you!
I hope you do not mind me asking, is the upcoming patch planned to be out in about a week - or is it gonna be notably longer?

I ask because i would wait for the new patch to release to play through it all if it is gonna come out in a couple of days.
Thanks again!

It's gonna be in the nearest days probably.

Some minor complaints:
1) Actually was very disappointed that there was no Alteraci mission. You've got the tech tree and it definitely felt like there is a place for such a mission in the plot. Missed some good old Alteraci ass kicking.

Yeah, I'm being continuously tortured by the thought of making another bonus chapter about the Alteraci, although their techtree is not fully playable, missing some hotkeys, upgrades and flying units. Probably one day... I shall return to that idea, most likely when I need a break from heavy scripting I'm doing right know for the sequel.

2) Also, I may be just bad, but gunships seem useless. During Hammer and Anvil there are just too much undead air units on the map, so the only reliable anti air are either riflemen or rangers. But since you are building ground forces anyway, 2 mortar teams for the same amount of supply do the same job better. And during the mission 11 mobility is everything and gunships are too slow. Dunno, I played on hard difficulty and didn't built single one of them. While in the cutscenes they were presented as something very useful. Damn, I even completed secondary objective to get them...

There are several possible strategies for the two last missions. Gunships is of course just one of them. I think they are useful against enemy bases in M10 as well as against siege camps, trebuchets and attacking waves clustered on narrow bridges (napalm!) in M11, but sure, low mobility is their drawback and they require gyros/ground ranged units' support against enemy flyers.

3) During the Lonely Ridge mission, maybe there would be some sense in introducing a shortcut for the units built at the encampment? Now you have to wait for them to come all the way round.

I had the exact same thought watching Jayborino's playthroght, so yes, some way to recall reinforcements will be added to this map.

 

[kirintor]

please help, i play this patch Patch 1.31.1 Backup Files and in mission chapter eight: wrath of the dark lady i have every second lag

how can fix it ?

 

[Bogdanov89]

please help, i play this patch Patch 1.31.1 Backup Files and in mission chapter eight: wrath of the dark lady i have every second lag

how can fix it ?

It should be fixed in the upcoming update for this campaign.

On a different topic i would love if there was a chat command (or any other method) to freely spawn or apply a Tome of Retraining to a hero (resets all skill points).
Would be fun to experiment with skills (without having to hope that there is a goblin shop on every map).

 

[kirintor]

It should be fixed in the upcoming update for this campaign.

On a different topic i would love if there was a chat command (or any other method) to freely spawn or apply a Tome of Retraining to a hero (resets all skill points).
Would be fun to experiment with skills (without having to hope that there is a goblin shop on every map).

that campaign is really good with very interesting story, i like also new units for human faction Lordaeron such as spearman, arbalist, rider, ranger, there are also new factions - Enclave, Altaric, Forsaken all these stuff could be available also in maps - classic skirmish, it would be perfect

 

[StonemaulMidget]

Oh, boy! If I have Reforged, I will most certainly enjoy this game!
I have a question about the Fein'dorei: what does "fein" mean?

 

[Macielos]

Oh, boy! If I have Reforged, I will most certainly enjoy this game!
I have a question about the Fein'dorei: what does "fein" mean?

After Nyctaeus:
Fein'dorei is a mix of irish/scottish Fein which means ash, with classic thalassian Dorei. Fein'Dorei means Ashen Elves. Eldin, Vespira, Cleansers and Discordants all belong to Fein'dorei sub-species of elves.

that campaign is really good with very interesting story, i like also new units for human faction Lordaeron such as spearman, arbalist, rider, ranger, there are also new factions - Enclave, Altaric, Forsaken all these stuff could be available also in maps - classic skirmish, it would be perfect

They lack lots of stuff to be playable in skirmish, e.g. upgrades or flying units, also there are several units in tree fulfilling similar roles for the purpose of more diverse gameplay, but such approach wouldn't work in skirmish. I have a plan to make them skirmish-compatible one day, but it's probably be after the sequel - we'll have much more factions to use by then, including various subfactions of the Enclave.

 

[StonemaulMidget]

After Nyctaeus:
Fein'dorei is a mix of irish/scottish Fein which means ash, with classic thalassian Dorei. Fein'Dorei means Ashen Elves. Eldin, Vespira, Cleansers and Discordants all belong to Fein'dorei sub-species of elves.

Ohhh...
So essentially, the elves "rose up from the ashes;" but wait a minute, the Blood Elves did the same thing. The latter even used the Phoenix to represent death and rebirth. It burns up and turns into ash, and then it is reborn from those same ashes.
Why do WarCraft's elves rename themselves, despite being biologically the same race? At least what the "Fein'dorei" could have done was simply retained the name "High Elf."
The way modern Quel'dorei name themselves sounds more like they are naming their own nations than inventing their own races--unless they actually have that magical ability to suddenly become from High Elf to Blood Elf, and from either one of those to Void Elf.
New Quel'dorei Racial ability: magically invent your own elf race!!

 

[Macielos]

Ohhh...
So essentially, the elves "rose up from the ashes;" but wait a minute, the Blood Elves did the same thing. The latter even used the Phoenix to represent death and rebirth. It burns up and turns into ash, and then it is reborn from those same ashes.
Why do WarCraft's elves rename themselves, despite being biologically the same race? At least what the "Fein'dorei" could have done was simply retained the name "High Elf."
The way modern Quel'dorei name themselves sounds more like they are naming their own nations than inventing their own races--unless they actually have that magical ability to suddenly become from High Elf to Blood Elf, and from either one of those to Void Elf.
New Quel'dorei Racial ability: magically invent your own elf race!!

Changing a name for the elves usually reflects political, social and cultural change like it did with Blood Elves. It's an already established convention, we just used it. High Elves of Jiluun became Fein'Dorei, because they started using cleansed energy from Jiluun to satisfy their magic hunger and therefore avoid the fate of Blood Elves. Because of their new energy source, they have cyan eyes instead of High Elven blue and Blood Elven green. This is explained briefly by Eldin in "Revelations" interlude and than mentioned in "Torch of a Reason".

 

[StonemaulMidget]

Changing a name for the elves usually reflects political, social and cultural change like it did with Blood Elves. It's an already established convention, we just used it. High Elves of Jiluun became Fein'Dorei, because they started using cleansed energy from Jiluun to satisfy their magic hunger and therefore avoid the fate of Blood Elves. Because of their new energy source, they have cyan eyes instead of High Elven blue and Blood Elven green. This is explained briefly by Eldin in "Revelations" interlude and than mentioned in "Torch of a Reason".

Huh. I noticed the cyan-eyes too. You guys did great work!

 

[Nyctaeus]

I wanted elves who joined Solymus to be distinguishable from Blood Elves, because they were not involved in the very advent of Blood Elves and most of them were not even present on Azeroth when Kael'Thas gathered elves that survived destruction of Quel'Thalas. They are biologically the same as High Elves and Blood Elves, but the way they satisfy their magical addiction influences their mentalities. Fein'Dorei pledge no allegiance to Kael'Thas, they do not know the elven culture that coalesced after the fall of Silvermoon, and most of them are not interested in rebuilding Quel'Thalas. They decided to go their own way, assuming that their past is lost.

By the time of TVG, they just begun establishing their new racial identity, but by time they will develop their own culture, social hierarchy, administration etc. This will be further explored in sequel.

 

[StonemaulMidget]

I wanted elves who joined Solymus to be distinguishable from Blood Elves, because they were not involved in the very advent of Blood Elves and most of them were not even present on Azeroth when Kael'Thas gathered elves that survived destruction of Quel'Thalas. They are biologically the same as High Elves and Blood Elves, but the way they satisfy their magical addiction influences their mentalities. Fein'Dorei pledge no allegiance to Kael'Thas, they do not know the elven culture that coalesced after the fall of Silvermoon, and most of them are not interested in rebuilding Quel'Thalas. They decided to go their own way, assuming that their past is lost.

By the time of TVG, they just begun establishing their new racial identity, but by time they will develop their own culture, social hierarchy, administration etc. This will be further explored in sequel.

I'm not challenging you or anything, but you do realize it was Garithos who used and betrayed the Blood Elves back in Dalaran...?

 

[Macielos]

I'm not challenging you or anything, but you do realize it was Garithos who used and betrayed the Blood Elves back in Dalaran...?

Of course we realize, this distinguishment is meant for lorebuilding reasons, not to cut off from Blood Elves and condemn them or anything.

However, as we mostly present Alliance perspective, you will often find phrases like "betrayal of Blood Elves" in Exodus. It's on purpose for the sake of story. Besides, WoW showed that in fact Garithos was right being suspicious about Kael'thas .

 

[Macielos]

Alright, folks, the new patch is here. Enjoy. Hopefully there will be no hotfixes this time.

 

[duongsodep]

Can I like play the 1.31 on 1.27b? Just to mess around mostly. In truth, I already finish the campaign on 1.31 and I really enjoy the whole way through it. Really refreshing. Now I just want to ask if I can try it on 1.27b mostly for the purity of messing around through CE only. Is it possible?

 

[Bogdanov89]

Thanks for making 2.05 !!!
If i may suggest some feedback as i am going through the campaign from the start (on hard):

- Reynart Q (Powerful Cleave) seems lackluster. Its melee range, targets only ground units and competes for mana & skill points against the powerful Shock Wave and Medical Supplies.
Its also called a Cleave but hits only one target which feels a bit misleading.
And there is just not a lot of good opportunities for its usage, except when there is some lvl 10+ enemy hero that needs to be nuked.
Frankly i would much rather have the usual Mountain King Storm Bolt thanks to its range and Air targeting (vs Frost Wyrms in particular).

- the new Reynart E (medical supplies) are a lot faster now which is great but they are also quite a bit weaker. Previous max level healed for (i think) 700 while this one heals for 520.
Also Reynart seems to still be doing the loooong animation (waving the hands) even after the fourth wave, as if he is still casting the full 7+ waves.

- the radius/AOE on Reynarts R (Fortitude) seems a bit small and its rather mana costly considering his other spells are also really expensive. While his R is powerful i would not mind seeing a bigger radius and perhaps slightly mana cheaper.

- For context about Eldin's Words of Glory (E) spell, i noticed on the first mission that Thardis Villenfall has Devotion Aura which gives 1.5/3/4.5 armor (not 1/2/3).
Considering that the aura is passive, has big AOE, costs no mana and can not be dispelled the Eldin's Words of Glory spell really did need a biiig buff.

- I have seen this in other custom campaigns where a hero can cycle (change on a small cooldown) which aura he is projecting. Perhaps it would be fun if Reynart could choose between different auras to better compliment his current army composition, instead of just the Command (melee damage) aura.

 

[Bogdanov89]

Oh and please, please, please remove ALL Mana Burn enemies spam from the campaign - like the mission 2 fel stalker/hunter spam.

It is so hideously unfun to constantly have all your heroes and your entire army at zero mana because the AI is frantically spamming infinite mana burn units every cooldown it can.

Worst mechanic in Warcraft 3 is mana burn, truly hate it.
Makes the whole game feel like Footman vs Footman.

 

[mashi1994]

hi guys!
I'm loving this campaign is awesome and very funny!
I'm doing chapter 8 but unfortunately anfter 5 minutes the game start lagging so bad, do you have any advice please?
I'm playing on wc3 reforged with classic graphic active.
Thank you in advance.

 

[Macielos]

- Reynart Q (Powerful Cleave) seems lackluster. Its melee range, targets only ground units and competes for mana & skill points against the powerful Shock Wave and Medical Supplies.
Its also called a Cleave but hits only one target which feels a bit misleading.
And there is just not a lot of good opportunities for its usage, except when there is some lvl 10+ enemy hero that needs to be nuked.
Frankly i would much rather have the usual Mountain King Storm Bolt thanks to its range and Air targeting (vs Frost Wyrms in particular).

It's a well aimed cleave . It was called thrust but people also called it unfitting because he uses an axe. Can't satisfy everyone .

There are lots of caster mini-bosses in the campaign - in the first mission only you have ghosts and high necros - so it can be useful, but indeed I rarely spend more than 1 point on it early on.

Also Reynart seems to still be doing the loooong animation (waving the hands) even after the fourth wave, as if he is still casting the full 7+ waves.

This one has always been broken in the original spell unfortunately. No matter how many waves I set, the hero animation is always triggered for 2 more. It's invisible in the original Blizz hero because his throw animation was not adjusted to the spell stats at all.

- the radius/AOE on Reynarts R (Fortitude) seems a bit small and its rather mana costly considering his other spells are also really expensive. While his R is powerful i would not mind seeing a bigger radius and perhaps slightly mana cheaper.

I don't think it's small. It's 650, so more than standard ranged units range. You can fit tons of units in a circle of this radius. I'm trying to design the ults so that they are quite powerful on their own, but the player can also do something to maximize its effectiveness - in this case just bring your army closer together for a moment - which I think is quite realistic. It's like "Gather around, men, and hear my call! Alright, you're here. So now... FUCK THEM UP, BOYS, FOR THE ALLIANCE!"

- For context about Eldin's Words of Glory (E) spell, i noticed on the first mission that Thardis Villenfall has Devotion Aura which gives 1.5/3/4.5 armor (not 1/2/3).

Alright, I must have kept in memory values 1/2/3 from previous patches and never checked them since then.

Considering that the aura is passive, has big AOE, costs no mana and can not be dispelled the Eldin's Words of Glory spell really did need a biiig buff.

Yeah, it's 2/4/6/8 now, so it should make a difference.

- I have seen this in other custom campaigns where a hero can cycle (change on a small cooldown) which aura he is projecting. Perhaps it would be fun if Reynart could choose between different auras to better compliment his current army composition, instead of just the Command (melee damage) aura.

Hmm, that's a neat idea, perhaps to be used in the sequel.

Oh and please, please, please remove ALL Mana Burn enemies spam from the campaign - like the mission 2 fel stalker/hunter spam.

It is so hideously unfun to constantly have all your heroes and your entire army at zero mana because the AI is frantically spamming infinite mana burn units every cooldown it can.

Worst mechanic in Warcraft 3 is mana burn, truly hate it.
Makes the whole game feel like Footman vs Footman.

Well, everything in the game should have a counter, heroes/casters too . In this case, they were guarding an optional back entrance to enemy base, so I think it's okay for them to be challenging. You can easily counter them with ranged units or sneak on them with cloaked Inaylia and silence one of the with Crippling Blow.

hi guys!
I'm loving this campaign is awesome and very funny!
I'm doing chapter 8 but unfortunately anfter 5 minutes the game start lagging so bad, do you have any advice please?
I'm playing on wc3 reforged with classic graphic active.
Thank you in advance.

This issue has just been fixed in yesterday's patch, so just download it. If you don't want to start over, just open the new campaign file in the editor, go to campaign editor -> loading screen and mark a button with a map you're in as visible. Hero items and stats will be kept, unfortunately your previous saves may stop working.

 

[mashi1994]

Wow @Macielos I've just read about the new patch and your fast answer, best support in the game XD.
I can give you my feedback playing this campaign on 1.36.0 classic graphic: The game is great the bugs I can signal are:
- minor bug: chapter 2: "circle of betrayal" When I look the forsaken base some textures are stretched
like this for example:

- IDK if it is a bug or not: bonus chapter: "Torch of a reason": after a while like 30 minutes playing the AI after an attack started sending a lot of units one after another and being more aggressive, seems like the AI recognize his units being attacked in my base like I'm attacking it's base and start sending everything.

 

[Macielos]

I can give you my feedback playing this campaign on 1.36.0 classic graphic: The game is great the bugs I can signal are:
- minor bug: chapter 2: "circle of betrayal" When I look the forsaken base some textures are stretched

Could you post a screenshot which assets have this problem? I only know of similar texture problem with Vulture Rider, but it's not in this map, I didn't notice any problem with Forsaken buildings. Maybe it's something that appears only on Reforged.

- IDK if it is a bug or not: bonus chapter: "Torch of a reason": after a while like 30 minutes playing the AI after an attack started sending a lot of units one after another and being more aggressive, seems like the AI recognize his units being attacked in my base like I'm attacking it's base and start sending everything.

Strange. They should never send everything unless their own base it under attack. Their normal attack waves are quite big in this map because we also have very strong unit rooster and two powerful heroes, but not bigger than in the other late game maps. Also, AI has a dose of randomness in it, so unfortunately I can't guarantee the waves won't at some point be triggered at the similar moment, but still, it should only be a finite number of units of each type.

 

[Bogdanov89]

I think the unique Forsaken Ranger buildings on that mission where Garithos dies are the cause of the textures stretching.

I have always seen them stretching on War3 patch 1.36 but forgot to mention before since it felt like a minor issue.

 

[Bogdanov89]

The mission where you liberate Alterac villagers from the Syndicate felt MUCH easier in 2.05 on hard than in 2.04
I got attacked maybe 3 times (all from north) and they were weak attack waves.
As soon as i killed the "near dam" base the AI simply stopped attacking my base completely.
This is a big difference compared to 2.04 where the AI sent attack waves from start to finish, and both from north and east.
Felt way too easy.

The new Battlemages sound and look cool but they still have that issue where if you attack move they will forever auto-cast Replenish Mana on themselves and completely fall behind your army, standing still at some random spot on the map and spamming Q endlessly.
Undead Obsidian Statues avoid this problem by being unable to target themselves with their version of Replenish Mana (spirit touch?) so perhaps that could help fix Battlemage behavior.

 

[StonemaulMidget]

Of course we realize, this distinguishment is meant for lorebuilding reasons, not to cut off from Blood Elves and condemn them or anything.

However, as we mostly present Alliance perspective, you will often find phrases like "betrayal of Blood Elves" in Exodus. It's on purpose for the sake of story. Besides, WoW showed that in fact Garithos was right being suspicious about Kael'thas .

Kael'thas changing from his ambitious TFT character to that of his arrogant and snide TBC version is clearly Blizzard's invention, and they had to "invent" reasons why; but I will still respect your opinion and your version of the story.

 

[Tuwnew]

Kael'thas changing from his ambitious TFT character to that of his arrogant and snide TBC version is clearly Blizzard's invention, and they had to "invent" reasons why; but I will still respect your opinion and your version of the story.

Garithos did nothing wrong!

 

[Kasrkin]

Garithos did nothing wrong!

Spoiler

 

[Macielos]

Fun fact: the entire "final assault" cutscene in Chapter 02, music included, is inspired by this .

The mission where you liberate Alterac villagers from the Syndicate felt MUCH easier in 2.05 on hard than in 2.04
I got attacked maybe 3 times (all from north) and they were weak attack waves.
As soon as i killed the "near dam" base the AI simply stopped attacking my base completely.
This is a big difference compared to 2.04 where the AI sent attack waves from start to finish, and both from north and east.
Felt way too easy.

Hmm, nothing changed here in terms of enemy AI on this map since several patches. Only intervals of periodic attacks against the villages (orange player, spawned by triggers) changed + villages build more stuff to defend. Will check...

EDIT: I checked and all three bases are sending attack waves on Hard. They are slightly less frequent then in other maps though, because our main challenge here is protecting the villages and attacks against them are spawned twice as often now on Hard.

The new Battlemages sound and look cool but they still have that issue where if you attack move they will forever auto-cast Replenish Mana on themselves and completely fall behind your army, standing still at some random spot on the map and spamming Q endlessly.
Undead Obsidian Statues avoid this problem by being unable to target themselves with their version of Replenish Mana (spirit touch?) so perhaps that could help fix Battlemage behavior.

Right, I gave him original ability's allowed targets + mechanical, but I suppose it worked for Obsidian Statue due to simple fact it is also mechanical...

 

[Bogdanov89]

Thanks for replying and updating the campaign!

Minor suggestion for the awesome new mana building Enclave has - it should probably spawn with the Replenish Mana autocast enabled.

And i do not know would it be possible for stuff like Scroll of Replenishment & Potions of Healing/Mana to be automatically used when bought from the shop by a full inventory hero - instead of having to dump some items onto the floor, reselect shop, buy consumable stuff, use that stuff, then re-pickup dropped items.

EDIT: the Enclave lumber mill has an upgrade that requires a "tavern", which is i think a building they can not make at all.
It is the spyglass upgrade, and the regular humans/rangers can upgrade it without requiring this "tavern" (whatever that is).

Edit2: allied (and perhaps even enemy) heroes do not seem to buy items from their own shops, and they perhaps do not even activate items in their inventory. The Alterac hero is always without any items, for example. And i tried giving garithos some consumables but i dont think he ever used them.

Edit3: the Battlemage fix works as long as you have 1 battle mage. But if you have 2+ Battlemages & attack move then they will again go into their endless Q spam, giving each other mana until the end of time itself (or until they get to 0 mana).

(keep forgetting to mention this, its kinda odd that the big golden DOWNLOAD button on the top-right of this page downloads the bundle of both the latest english version AND the rather outdated chinese version of the campaign. Perhaps the chinese one can be offered just under the Content section and not by the DOWNLOAD golden button)

On that mission with villages i did not bother with the actual villages, since they felt kind of useless & a drain of resources/attention.
I took over western Ogre gold mine, amassed an army of shooter+mortar+priest and then rolled over the existing Syndicate bases in the north, then towards the east and last the undead.
Since every enemy base had a gold mine to offer i was never lacking resources.
If the player is supposed to be focusing on the villages from the start then the map would have to somehow make the player do it, because right now its far more optimal (& fun!) to crush the syndicate while ignoring villages.

 

[Bogdanov89]

So any tips please for the Hammer & Anvil mission on hard (first dwarf/skyship map), aside from the dwarf engineer & skyship in north-west?

All previous missions were rather easy but this one seems flat out impossible on hard.
Both the 3 Scourge factions and the 3 Forsaken factions are focusing their attacks solely on my bases.
I tried keeping the smaller Human army (60pop) on the defense while the bigger (100pop) dwarven army is on offense but its just not possible to keep the bases alive.

The mission dialogue made it sound like the Scourge are fighting the Forsaken but they are all attacking me from the start.
I even used the "iseedeadpeople" cheat to verify and yea, its all against me.
Wave after wave of enemies, be it from the north or east or south - and the APM required to run all the bases & armies rebuilding and repairing is insane.

Does not help that the human/dwarf towers got the awful "heavy" armor, meaning that Frost Wyrms and Destroyers and even Gargoyles eat them for breakfast.
The "sniper" dwarven towers seem almost identical to the guard towers, aside from the passive bash.

That is all without even mentioning any kind of going on the offense against the AI...
The skyships are neat vs buildings but as it is right now i can not even leave the base without some 50+ pop undead army or two charging into my bases.

By far the most infuriating aspect is that the dwarves are treated as a separate player, so controlling & keybinding all their units is an absolute nightmare.
We can not teleport using one scroll of teleport so we can not move as one group to synergize with each races unique units (human casters, dwarven engineering etc).

I even tried playing this map on hard with both "greedisgood" and "iseedeadpeople" cheats but its still an absolute chore to play through.
The premise of the map from NPC dialogue sounded extremely fun, but in actuality its a "you are surrounded" 1vs6 map where you also have to wrestle with the awful "second player" dwarf control.

 

[Macielos]

Well, this difficulty level is not called hard without a reason . I beat this map on Hard some time around 2.01, but I don't think there have been lots of balance changes since then.

What I can definitely advice is:

• keep at least 2-3 control groups with different heroes in them to react to attacks from multiple directions
• build lots of anti-air towers and unlock their upgrades early on (masonry, advanced machinery, gunpowder for sniper towers). Mass sniper towers are totally OP against frost wyrms.
• also support them with troops - mass Rangers with debuffs, mass Hydros with slow/stun/elementals, probably riflemen and gyros too
• get gunships early to get extra 40 food limit for the dwarves
• spyglasses upgrade allows you to detect the enemy several extra precious seconds earlier, particularly ground attacks that have to walk around the mountain to reach you
• Eldin's ult is great against groups of flyers
• don't destroy all bases of one side before weakening the other - if you do that, scripted attacks of the other side will attack you instead

This dude apparently completed 2.02 on Hard, you may watch his playthrough:

Both the 3 Scourge factions and the 3 Forsaken factions are focusing their attacks solely on my bases.

The initial plan was to make those AI attack mostly each other, but it wasn't working properly with standard AI. That's why I added scripted attacks between Scourge and Forsaken bases.

Does not help that the human/dwarf towers got the awful "heavy" armor, meaning that Frost Wyrms and Destroyers and even Gargoyles eat them for breakfast.

That's the vanilla balance. Giving it reinforced armor would make it absolutely OP against flyers. But we've already made towers stronger by having them use weapon upgrades from blacksmith.

By far the most infuriating aspect is that the dwarves are treated as a separate player, so controlling & keybinding all their units is an absolute nightmare.

What do you mean? They have advanced unit control enabled and I'm pretty sure it works fine. You can freely select both players' units and add them to the same control groups. Perhaps it's a Reforged issue, if you play on it?

We can not teleport using one scroll of teleport so we can not move as one group to synergize with each races unique units (human casters, dwarven engineering etc).

Hmm, I have never used portal scroll on this map, but it's a plain item from vanilla, it should work on both players. I'll check it out.

Can I like play the 1.31 on 1.27b? Just to mess around mostly. In truth, I already finish the campaign on 1.31 and I really enjoy the whole way through it. Really refreshing. Now I just want to ask if I can try it on 1.27b mostly for the purity of messing around through CE only. Is it possible?

As far as I know, it won't work on older versions. The campaign file won't be read or parsed at all.

 

[Bogdanov89]

What do you mean? They have advanced unit control enabled and I'm pretty sure it works fine. You can freely select both players' units and add them to the same control groups. Perhaps it's a Reforged issue, if you play on it?

Hmm, I have never used portal scroll on this map, but it's a plain item from vanilla, it should work on both players. I'll check it out.

First thank you for replying and explaining, and i will take a look at the video!
Here is a bit of a long explanation of what i mean, i hope it does not sound bad/confusing:

Even if a second player (dwarf) gives full unit control to the first player (human) the various parts of Warcraft 3 will still treat it as a separate player.

For example if i want to buy items on any hero (including the dwarf hero) i have to pay it out of my "human" gold, which i do not have at the start and i can not trade resources between these two "players" until the human base is up an running (for the caravan mechanic).
And as far as i have noticed the AI aggression seems to greatly increase once the human base is up and running, so that is something that perhaps i want to delay until my dwarf base is stronger - meaning i can not buy any items from shops for quite some time.

But the much much more important problem is the Scroll of Teleport working only on the units that belong to the activating hero/player (dwarf or human).
If i have a force of 12 dwarf rifles & dwarf hero & 6 human priests & 3 human sorcs & 3 human battlemages - the human spellcasters will not be teleported out if the dwarf hero uses a scroll of town portal to retreat or to defend a different location - because they belong to a different "player".

And since my "human player" heroes are at some different location with a different section of the army doing something else that means my human units just got abandoned when the dwarf "player" teleported out.

So i either have to keep all the heroes at the same spot (so that both "players" armies can teleport around as needed) - or i completely split the armies of the two players, meaning no synergy between them.

This campaign mission makes the above problem of teleportation much more pronounced because the AI factions tend to attack from 4+ different sides at unknown intervals, sometimes even aligning so that two attack waves are crashing into different parts of the two bases.

And naturally there is also the slight annoyance of having to keybind twice as many different buildings, since these are two different players and do not share tech nor production.

TL: DR; the entirety of War3 UI and control groups and shop and teleport mechanics has been designed to work for "one player".
I do not know what are the benefits of using a "second player that shares units" (like the dwarves) from a map makers point of view, but it is an absolute nightmare of a headache from the players point of view.

 

[IceAgeAkella]

The campaign is simply excellent! It took place during the week in the evenings. The mission to defend the portal was very difficult for me x) But I did it! I got a lot of cool emotions! The only thing that confused me was that there are 18 mission chapters listed there, but in the game there are only 9-10 of them. Will there be a continuation of this wonderful saga?

 

[Macielos]

Even if a second player (dwarf) gives full unit control to the first player (human) the various parts of Warcraft 3 will still treat it as a separate player.

Well, some issues you mention are just limitations of the engine and thus simply beyond our reach. For that reason the sequel will be much more script-based, so I can design some new mechanics from start to finish.

But the much much more important problem is the Scroll of Teleport working only on the units that belong to the activating hero/player (dwarf or human).
If i have a force of 12 dwarf rifles & dwarf hero & 6 human priests & 3 human sorcs & 3 human battlemages - the human spellcasters will not be teleported out if the dwarf hero uses a scroll of town portal to retreat or to defend a different location - because they belong to a different "player".

Just use dropships. This map is basically designed for them, so I've never even thought of using portal scrolls.

there is also the slight annoyance of having to keybind twice as many different buildings, since these are two different players and do not share tech nor production.

That's not true. The players CAN share both units and structures in the same control groups. At least on 1.31, I didn't check on Reforged.

TL: DR; the entirety of War3 UI and control groups and shop and teleport mechanics has been designed to work for "one player".
I do not know what are the benefits of using a "second player that shares units" (like the dwarves) from a map makers point of view, but it is an absolute nightmare of a headache from the players point of view.

As I said, the only sharing issues on 1.31 are paying for items and (probably, didn't check yet) using portal scrolls. I wouldn't say it makes the game unplayable.

My another advice would be to take it easy and simply enjoy the game. Also, usually it's best to make the first playthrough on normal to identify such limitations and obstacles you may encounter on hard.

The campaign is simply excellent! It took place during the week in the evenings. The mission to defend the portal was very difficult for me x) But I did it! I got a lot of cool emotions!

Congratulations .

The only thing that confused me was that there are 18 mission chapters listed there, but in the game there are only 9-10 of them.

There are 11 chapters + bonus chapter + epilogue + 4 interludes + 1 hidden map which is not available (unless you enabled it manually) and is just a playground for us mapmakers to test stuff.

Will there be a continuation of this wonderful saga?

There will be. So far you can see some early screenshots in the Gallery:

The Exodus Gallery

Obligatory space to present you all the eyecandy the project has to offer :]. SCREENSHOTS The Violet Gate: Exodus 2: Assorted/depreciated/other: [coming soon, maybe] VIDEO PLAYTHROUGHS The Violet Gate: John Maximous, 2.00: [LINK] imMike Gaming, 2.02: [LINK] Daffa Abiyyu Gaming, 2.02...

www.hiveworkshop.com

 

[Bogdanov89]

I retried the Hammer & Anvil map from the start and it was strangely easy this time...
The AI was nowhere near as aggressive, and i tried to be as aggressive as i could.
I mostly relied on human Gryphons and the cool dwarven Skyships.
I did not like using multiple Dropshops because they only hold 8 units while costing 2 population, which is odd because the usual Goblin Zeppelin costs zero population.

I noticed the ultimate of Inaylia Aequath can be cast on spell immune units, but it will do zero damage - which feels unintended.
I believe the same issue exists for the ultimate of Eldin, either for targeting it or for its automatic nearby target selection.
Also Inaylia's passive life steal stops working when she is attacking air units via an orb item - perhaps making it work more like Vampiric aura (just for herself) would make it work on anti air attacks as well.

I suspect that all the AI factions benefit both from "iseedeadpeople" and "greedisgood" cheats, which results in much different gameplay than normal.
In particular i have seen the AI repeatedly approach my dwarven base with an army, only to cancel their attack and return towards their base.
Perhaps the "greedisgood" cheat makes the AI super aggressive since it now has money to create all the units it wants.

Either way i am unsure what caused the more difficult experience i had the previous day i played this mission.
It was a lot easier today and i rather enjoyed using the Skyships, so thank you for making it all!

 

[Seylem]

Game freeze and crash random time on first map.

ver. 1.36 reforge graphic

 

[Macielos]

Game freeze and crash random time on first map.

ver. 1.36 reforge graphic

In any particular moment? Does it happen every time you are in this moment?

You can also check out the logs in Warcraft III/Logs folder.

 

[HuanJuan]

Hello there everyone.

I see, the "last release" is not quiet the last release, because of bugs. Either way, the campaign got better and more enjoyable, sweet details are put there.

... and I'm not here to please anybody or anyone. If I've been summoned, that's mean I enjoy playing the map/campaign, even after that's my fifth playthrough with it. As usual from me, I discovered some... unmatching details....

Is everything allright with Solymus new model? Seems strange to me. It has a weird black line on his face, on the middle of it.

The new zombie type has a strange death/decay animation.

I was suprised to see the new Battlemage. Wonderful! Excellent! The new lines and volume correction also making it even better. But It's spell, the Arcane Shield has the same icon as the Lightning Shield (maybe), and the effect is same on the character, that casted on it: Anti-Magic Shield is in the description. It seems as an Anti Magic Shield, but it's not. It's Arcane Shield, and it function like that. Just how it looks the strange.

On the chapter, "Lonely Ridge", there is a Rock, that we can walk trough.

The Undead can destroy the buildings of the Enclave, even they are on the destroyed bridge.

A Crystal can be purchased, if the Enclave Town Hall can be upgraded for it.

Many new things is implemented. It is possible, that the final release is not gonna be soon?
Keep it up!

 

[Macielos]

You know, we like to keep ourselves busy, so with every new patch we fix a few bugs and we make some new ones .

For now we'll take some break, wait until some more feedback arrives, at least for the end of Jayborino's playthrough. We also have a rework of Reynart and Inaylia's textures in progress by Moy. And then... perhaps a sixth patch will be the final one.

Lots of people are also begging me to make another bonus chapter for the Alteraci, but for now I stand strong and focused on the sequel .

 

[Seylem]

In any particular moment? Does it happen every time you are in this moment?

You can also check out the logs in Warcraft III/Logs folder.

Hi, game freeze and dont make a crash log. i make a video and idk if a can post here. a log folder only have defaut settings on game start and a loadout of all maps i have.


sorry for bad english

 

[Macielos]

Hmm, I see. I don't know if that's the issue, but I recommend switching to SD graphics, as the following maps are very rich in custom SD (or "SD+") assets, so this mix will look very odd. I wonder if this crash will happen on SD too, in theory it could be Reforged engine trying to read some of our custom SD assets.

 

[HuanJuan]

Lots of people are also begging me to make another bonus chapter for the Alteraci, but for now I stand strong and focused on the sequel

Oh yeah, an Alteraci Chapter would be awesome! I hope we can meet the full tech tree of the Alteraci's.

but I recommend switching to SD graphics, as the following maps are very rich in custom SD (or "SD+") assets, so this mix will look very odd.

I think the more simple solution for Reforged players to tell is, that they must switch back to the recommended version 1.31. If they do, sure the bugs & glitches, blue deaths of windows, exploded processors and Videocard chips was not going to happen with them.

For now we'll take some break, wait until some more feedback arrives, at least for the end of Jayborino's playthrough. We also have a rework of Reynart and Inaylia's textures in progress by Moy. And then... perhaps a sixth patch will be the final one.

That's good to read actually. But if improvement, you guys did a lot of things that made the campaign better for sure. Especially in the Wrath of The Dark Lady chapter. No lagg at all. Don't know what you guys did with it, but it's awesome to play now. I also discovered several changes, some of the item drops also removed on the map, and a Goblin shop was added. The bridge to Mug'Tholl is buggy: units can move down from the bridge to the beaches.

I also wanted to share, that I experienced lagg on chapter 2. A little, not too dangerous. In the previous version, there is no lags at all at that chapter.

In the Enclave chapter, the building animation (birth Animation) can be buggy sometimes. Nothing serious, only visual. I did not capture the moment sadly, but it's only a problem with the Enclave. Also in the Enclave Lumbermill the spyglass upgrade needs a Tavern to be available.

 

[Macielos]

Oh yeah, an Alteraci Chapter would be awesome! I hope we can meet the full tech tree of the Alteraci's.

Maybe one day... we shall return to this idea .

I think the more simple solution for Reforged players to tell is, that they must switch back to the recommended version 1.31. If they do, sure the bugs & glitches, blue deaths of windows, exploded processors and Videocard chips was not going to happen with them.

Well, we recommand 1.31 in the release post and with every question about which version to play . I assumed if they decide to play on Reforged anyway, it's because they don't have a legal pre-reforged game key. Of course 1.31 is always the best option.

That's good to read actually. But if improvement, you guys did a lot of things that made the campaign better for sure. Especially in the Wrath of The Dark Lady chapter. No lagg at all. Don't know what you guys did with it, but it's awesome to play now. I also discovered several changes, some of the item drops also removed on the map, and a Goblin shop was added. The bridge to Mug'Tholl is buggy: units can move down from the bridge to the beaches.

There is a saying in IT that if a problem takes you more than 2 hours, the solution is most likely trivial . And that was the case, adding a goldmine for dark blue forsaken solved the issue. But finding the cause of the problem... well, cost lots of testing, debugging and yelling stuff usually only Margoth says...

 

[HuanJuan]

Holding Back the Tide

I encountered 3 crashes since I tried to complete the chapter on this version of the campaign. No clue why it happens. Previously - If my memory serves me well - does not happened in previous version of the campaign.

 

[Seylem]

Hmm, I see. I don't know if that's the issue, but I recommend switching to SD graphics, as the following maps are very rich in custom SD (or "SD+") assets, so this mix will look very odd. I wonder if this crash will happen on SD too, in theory it could be Reforged engine trying to read some of our custom SD assets.

hi, i put on classic graphic and play 10 min on first map and crash, now the normal crash, i send the log.

thx

 

[Macielos]

hi, i put on classic graphic and play 10 min on first map and crash, now the normal crash, i send the log.

thx

Damn, things can never be easy with Refunded... The log doesn't say anything specific unfortunately. I played the first map on Reforged, but got no crash, I only got custom music randomly working or not... An idea: open a campaign file and the first map in Reforged, save them both, play the map again.

Holding Back the Tide

I encountered 3 crashes since I tried to complete the chapter on this version of the campaign. No clue why it happens. Previously - If my memory serves me well - does not happened in previous version of the campaign.

Damn x2. The only change in that map I recall is mana generators for the Enclave... and before, of course, new Enclave techtree.

 

[U-K6]

Finished it today and man this was probably one of the most fun campaigns i ever played, i loved the spell selected for the heroes and tomes as reward for exploration, the terraining was beautiful and set the atmosphere perfectly! and i loved the story as well alongside the caravan mechanics

my only complaints were like the item drops were too repetitive( like i got the same item thrice on mission) and against ch 10
i feel like at least on normal the ai sends attack waves way too frequently forcing me to stay in my base and grind all the upgrades and then push,
and the cap being 60 also hurt as as i needed a lot of workers ( expansion + lumber) and the air transport

but still it is one of the best campaigns i ever played and imo deserved atleast HC!
Thanks for making it!