First War Memorium

[Moderator]

[TD]

Moderator: StoPCampinGn00b version 1.0 First War Memorium by Drogenhoernchen RATINGS [COLOR=white [COLOR=white Scores[/COLOR]] Gameplay: 27/30 Terrain & Scenery: 18/20 Total Score: 46/50 Explanation[/COLOR]]5 Stars: 47+ 4 Stars: 40-47 3 Stars: 25-39 2 Stars: 10-24 1 Stars: 1-9 CRITIQUE Gameplay: The gameplay is lovable for any RTS player and easy to learn. The map features a well made squad system, balance of factions and units within each faction, and a very strategic experience making you feel like a general. Though the slow movement speed of the units, it does not make the map slow and boring. This puts emphasis on strategic positioning. The abilities of the units are absolutely lovable, creative, and helpful to succeeding, for both squads and single units. Great job on differentiating the factions to give them their own gameplay and unique features. The AI? They were pretty damn good on Insane, and beatable on easy and normal. They actually play the objectives (control points)! I've had few problems with the map, I've had some lag late game. I also notice the control points favor the western side significantly more as they are closer. You should move them more to the right, or edit the pathing to make the time. This is more of an annoyance issue, but please make it so special units stick to the back line when moving instead of the front. AI That's all the faults I can see! 27/30 ​ Terrain & Aesthetics: This map has great terrain tile usage. All of the tiles compliment each other and it's surroundings and they aren't randomly spammed. Height leveling was also executed greatly as it wasn't overdone. I do have a question mark though, why does part of the bottom right have 85% dirt? Doodad placement wasn't extreme but it was plenty. It looks like you've decorated little by little, consistently. Other than that, the only thing left I have to say about the aesthetics in the custom models and icons look nice. 18/20 ​ VERDICT The only way a map can be approved is if it follows the map submission rules that apply to the map type. - All rules followed, map approved! ​ NOTES Overall it's a great map, but it still can be improved for a 5 star rating! Feel free to contact me about this review on this map page OR message me about anything. (+2) reputation points for taking your time to upload this map to Hive. One more thing, the map isn't at all an Altered Melee, it features no creeps or gold mines. I've set it to Strategy and Risk due to the control points, large scale battles, and significant difference from melee gameplay. (See my guide: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/tutorial-submission-283/map-category-guide-254995/)

[/TD] [/TD][/tr]

 

[Tigrick]

AI personalities - Intel

Human
Easy: Mountain Passage Guard (Northern Enclave of the Old Kingdom)
behavior: holding territory/Control Points, guard duty, Catapults used in low numbers and defensively

Medium: Capital City Garrison, City-Guard of Morinbourg (led by Paladins and knights)
behavior: emphasis on Paladins and Knights, uses Knights to make a sortie when under Siege by Catapults

Hard: Defenders of the Tower of the Magicians
behavior: emphasis on Conjurers, uses elite Crusaders to make a sortie when under Siege by Catapults


Dwarf
Easy: Hunter Squads of the Ironforge Hinterlands
bahavior: emphasis on Gunners

Medium: Ironforge-Defence-Force
bahavior: emphasis on mortars, regular, traditional army (= more Axe Throwers than Gunners), defensive, Cannon Towers + Mortars for defence

Hard: Tech Squad/ Elite Demo Squad (Engineering Guilds)
behavior: emphasis on explosives, tanks, aggressive early use of Mortars (no defensive use like with medium difficulty)


High Elf
Easy: Borderland Patrol
behavior: emphasis on Outriders and Rangers, fast moving, fast striking

Medium: Mage Expeditionary Force / Fugitive, resistance magicians (anti-highborn)
bahavior: emphasis on casters, only difficulty that uses fugitive mages (=arcane mages with teleport), siege via fire mages, but uses no mana store, balanced core army (Swordsman Squads + Fire Mages)

Hard: Highborn Caste / Noble Lords (arrogant, decadent, traditional, hidebound)
bahavior: emphasis on highborn units (lancers + mages, no fugitive mages (= arcane mages) due to aversion, use of magic technology, many crystals, generators, shields (= highborn technology), large melee force (equipped with powerful armor, NO Rangers and Outriders (=low caste)


Orc
Easy: Raiding Troops
behavior: early raids/rushs

Medium: Siege-Troops (Siege of Ironforge)
behavior: big sieges, good vs buildings (uses good, upgraded Catapults), many Warlords

Hard: Dragonmaw-Clan
behavior: fire theme, calls in Off-map Dragonriders near your base, focus on Dragonriders and Warlocks (Warlocks, as highranking horde commanders, seek the proximity of the Dragonmaw-Clans reborn capabilities, plus they help control the beasts)


Undead
Easy: Village Plague/ Hidden (rural) Necrolyte Cult
behavior: Troops composed of various types of skeletons, often led by a single Necrolyte

Medium: Plague Squads of the Pest Doctors
behavior: emphasis on Pestilants, focus on Pestilant creatures: Zombies and Destroyers

Hard: Undead High Command
behavior: emphasis on Demonic Ties: Heavy use of Death Knights, Dread Lords and Necrolytes, led by Demon Lord


Demon
Easy: Rural Demoic Cult
behavior: Small groups of demons, often single Daemons roaming the wild woodlands, leaves one Daemon at the ritual site where the Dark Portal is located, uses many Cultists

Medium: Dark Citadel Garrison
behavior: focus on infernal machinery like hell cannoneers and infernal tanks, good at sieges, leaves infernal tanks at the base to guard it (citadel guard)

Hard: Apocalyptic Invasion Force
behavior: Many heavy and ultimate units. Uses the steadfast Daemons in vast numbers as backbone of the army (the strong Daemons being nothing but rank-and-file footfolk to the Demonic Invasion Force). Amasses Hellhounds as cannonfodder. Opens portals to emphasize the 'Portal Storm' idea of an apocalyptic invasion

Changelog

29.09.2014
- Fixed some leak in AI ordering triggers. They mainly concerend the orcish faction, and caused Memory Leaks (sometimes crashes due to that) when there was orcish hard AI opponents in the game
- Special effects stored in hastables now use ''1'' as the first key insted of the coresponding unit's custom value. The second key remains unchanged
- Dragon Rider call-in of orcish hard AI is not triggered by the Event ''receives an item'' anymore. Instead, a Periodic Time Event is used. There is no visible ingame effect of this change whatsoever
- ''Summon: Light (Highelf)'' now has a 10 second cooldown
- Hover-over tooltip of the ''Quests'' UI-Button changed
- Crusader model updated


29.09.2014 (2)
- When Human Spear Thrower Squads switch to an axe (or from axe to spears) the squad members will properly keep selection circles now.
- Removed base towers (which were placed for testing purposes, and accidently were left there with the last version of the map)


24.10.2014
- New Crypt Stalker model, portraying a walking War3 Gargoyle
- Crypt Stalker renamed to Gargoyle
- Changed the tooltip headline of the train button of Crypt Stalker Squads, replacing the word ''Crypt Stalker'' by ''Gargoyle''
- Changed the tooltip headline of doctrinal Crypt Stalker research, replacing the word ''Crypt Stalker'' by ''Gargoyle''
- Changed the description text of doctrinal Crypt Stalker research, replacing the word ''Crypt Stalker'' by ''Land Gargoyle''
- Changed the credit text refering to the land gargoyle model, matching the new model, now including credit to Oinkerwinkle, whose Animtransfer program was used in composing the new land gargoyle model
- Changed tooltip headline of the train button of Archer Squads, replacing the word ''Train'' by ''Wake''
- Corrected a typo in the map preview's description text (''Controll Points'' changed to ''Control Points'')


09.11.2014
- Some units were missing group selection circles since the last version. Now all units in a selected group will have selection cirlces again!
- Replaced the word ''Train'' with the word ''Wake'' in the training tooltip's headline of the Skeleton Worker unit in order to make it coherent with other skeletal units' tooltips


09.11.2014 (2)
- Leak which was caused by the AI train triggers when actions were skipped and the following desturcion of unit groups thus was left out, too. Now, the unit groups are always destroyed properly, decreasing memory leak induced lag
- The orcish doctrinal ''Raiding Troops'' upgrade now only grants a 5x damage multiplier instead of a 10x, which felt too powerfull in rushes and base raids
- Highborn Lancers' attacks now deal damage in the percentages that are stated in the description of their unique attack type (when hovering over the symbol of the attack type)
- Adjusted Highborn Lancers' description to describe their increased resistance to spells and removed the part that stated that they dealt increased damage against rider units (which they don't. They did in earlier versions (being armed with lances and all) but the role of anti-rider units is filled by Rangers AND Outriders and the melee Highborn Lancers would hardly ever get close to enemy rider units anyways, being slow infantry and all )


11.11.2014
- Undead medium and hard AI did not follow the intended build order and spammed Skeleton Archers. It now works as intended, giving medium AI a focus on pest doctors and hard AI a focus on high-ranking demonic units
- Deleted the unused old trigger associated with the high elven light summoning spell (=Magic Flare)


12.11.2014
- Bug hotfix: Undead summonings of Skeleton Warriors (ability of Necrolytes and Death Knights) cost more than the interface said. It functions as intended now.
- Bug fix: Orcish Warlord squadmembers dealt 1 damage once the doctrinal upgrade ''Raiding Troops'' was obtained (granting them siege damage). They now keep a damage of 6.


16.11.2014
- Bug hotfix: Dying caster missiles don't create zombies on blight anymore when ''Dead Land'' is researched
- Orc Warriors (after purchasing the ''Raiding Troops'' doctrinal upgrade) now use the correct type of Siege Damage, resulting in a 5x bonus against buildings (streamlining them with other orc melee units)
- Object Editor: High Elf Healers' color set to black (trained Healers had black team color already, this only affects pre-placed units and has no effect on the current multiplayer)


17.11.2014
- The direction of caster units' missile creating spells can now be selected. This increases controlability a lot and is supposed to decrease player frustration
- Removed the random spread of firebolts making them more accurate
- The new firebolt and chaos missiles now cost 2 mana (instead of 1) to balance the increased controlability of these spells
- Increased the damage interval of firebolts and chaos missiles from 0.10 to 0.12 to decrease the chance of 'double hits' of 1 target resulting in double damage
- Mage units' passive ''Spell Protection'' now reduces spell damage taken by 75% (instead of 50%). This is supposed to increase mages' survivability against basic attack spells (firebolts etc.) since these have become more precise and easier to control
- Deleted several old unused spells in OE (old missile spells and an unused version of Chaos Missiles)
- Deleted many now unused triggers in the trigger category of missile spells (Firebolt, Chaos Missiles etc)
- The High Elf Healers' ''Summon: Light'' spell works as intended now
- Removed faulty text from the tooltip text of the ''Keep in Formation'' option


20.11.2014
- Changed custom minimap image from .tga to .blp format, saving disc space requirements (and aiming to have the custom minimap display in the hive workshop's map preview)
- Corrected a typo in the questlog, under the category 'Features': 'Controll' changed to 'Control'
- The dwarven doctrinal upgrade 'Close Combat Training' now shows the correct name in the upgrade message and in the requirements fields of other upgrades (it previously said 'Iron Guard Training')
- Added a new smiley to my collection: ¦)


27.11.2014
- Human Knight Model modified to represent a riding City-Guard. This makes the human rider unit coherent with other riders. All factions have rider squads that look like mounted versions of an infantry unit.
- Outrider life from 5 to 10. This brings it in line with all rider units. It also balances the fact that Outriders (other than Rangers) are hard-countered by ranged units due to being mounted.
- A unit group in a trigger in the category of the 'Terror' spells is now properly destroyed
- Constructors trained from Human towers now have a training time of 7 (instead of 1) to bring them in line with the Conustructors trained from the Fort
- The Battering Ram can no longer attack units, leaving only structures as viable targets as intended
- Targeting certain unit types with Firebolt, Chaos Missiles and Acid Bombs will no longer result in the spell not casting. These spells can now be ordered on ground or any unit.
- Demon Lords are no longer effected by force-retreat ('Terror' spell)
- Removed the possibility of forcing retreat on Magic Flares ('Terror' spell)
- Interface message ''The target must be a building'' changed to ''cannot be aquired'' streamlining it with other aquisition messages in-game. This message is seen when Battering Rams attack anything that is not a structure.
- Launching sound re-added to the new versions (17.11) of Firebolt, Chaos Missiles and Acid Bombs
- Knights added to Unit Spotlight 3 of the description


29.11.2014
- Mac compatibility test: All buttons have been reworked to have a Mipmap count of 7.
- Removed unused buttons (BTNThrowing Axe, BTNSpell_Shadow_BlackPlague, BTNSpell-Shadow_RainOfFire, BTNAdvStucture [=BTNHumanBuild])
- Income can now be received by HQ buildings while they train units
- Adjusted walk speed animation of Guard Squads' leaders to the animation speed of Guard Squad members
- The deactivation of dwarven Defenders' Defensive Stance ability will no longer have a delay. Defenders now instantly regain their movement speed upon deactivation, resulting in greater controlability and responsiveness.
- Human elite Guards now deal area damage to make them able to face off against more massed, cheaper melee units. Attack speed has been set from 1.00 to 1.50.


29.11.2014 (2)
- Buffs are remove via trigger when Defensive Stance is turned on and off (removes 'Sprint' when turned on and 'Defensive Stance' when turned off). This prevents sprinting Defenders from continuing to move when entering defensive stance.
- Squad orders with no target now check if the unit is alive. This prevents dying Defenders that are in defensive stance to cause their entire squad to 'undefend'
- Defensive Stance is now based in 'Defend' rather than on 'Magic Defense'. This lets it react to triggers that order units to use the ability.
- When a Defender squad leader dies and another unit in the squad becomes the new leader (via 'replace unit' action), this new unit will now immediately be ordered to use 'Defensive Stance' if the squad currently has that ability activated.


01.12.2014
- Undead Land Gargoyles from the Creature Support Doctrine now can fly short distances to overcome obstacles, flee engagements or surprise enemies. The unit now has a much clearer role as a harassment squad. The increased unit value also helps justify the high tech cost required to make the unit available.
- Land Gargoyle model modified to have a 'stand lumber' animation hiding the entire unit - this is used in context with the new 'Fly' ability of Gargoyle Squads.
- Dwarven Defenders' 'Defensive Stance' now does not remove Sprint anymore as the re-addition via trigger resulted in the vanquishing of the sprint cooldown.
- Dwarven Defenders' 'Defensive Stance' now reduces movement speed by 10000% (instead of 100%) in order to be able to also contain the speed increase of 'Sprint'.
- Building orc Outposts now costs 30 lumber as indicated (instead of 40). Canceling the build still gives back 30 lumber, as it did before.
- removed 3 double passive icons (Prefix ''PAS'') left over from before the button replacement of the 29.11 patch


03.12.2014
- 'Defensive Stance' was available without the doctrinal 'Close Combat Training' upgrade since the 29.11 update. It is now tied to tech again, as intended.
- Customized Build Icon re-imported ('BTNHumanBuild')
- Human Forward HQs now do not receive income while under construction
- Corrected faulty path of re-imported ''PAS''-Buttons. The path was faulty since the last update.
- Buttons starting with ''DISBTN'' and ''AAT'' have been re-imported with a Mipmap Count of 7 (see Mac compatibility test)


07.12.2014
POLISH:
- Improvements to the animation coherence of Land Gargoyle Squads' ''Fly'' ability. The Gargoyle model no longer slightly jumps to the side when the unit lands again
- Gargoyle Squads' ''Fly'' ability now uses a new dummy spell based on ''Carrion Swarm'' (deleted old ''Blink'' based spell)
- Squad Orders now ignore the order string ''carrionswarm'' instead of ''blink'' (see above)
- Adjusted the coloring of Gargoyle dummy units used when ''Fly'' is used. The color values are now 210/210/210 to suit the original unit.
- Unit collision of the ground version of the Gargoyle ''Fly'' Dummy is now set to 0.00
- Deleted old ''Fly'' related triggers in the ''Abilities'' trigger category
- Added new triggers beyond the ''Orders'' category. These triggers handle the usage of ''Fly'' by Gargoyle Squads now.
- Old trigger in the ''Orders'' category removed. This trigger formerly was responsible for the group order of the old ''Fly'' ability.
- Deleted unused trigger in the ''Ressources'' category.
- Tooltip adjusted: ''Wake: Skelteon Warrior Squad'' changed to ''Wake: Skeleton Swordsman Squad'' in the tooltip text of the train button of skeleton swordsmen
- Added a limit of AI summonings (Undead summoning abilities + High Elf 'Magic Flare'), checking the number of existing units of the summoned unit's type
- Cooldown of summonig abilities re-added (it was removed to hotfix a bug that had it cost too much, this bug has been fixed). This also helps contain the potency of summoner units (especially Death Kinght, who are a cheap and fast summoning plattform).
- Only one unit will commence a summoning if several units with summoning capabilities are selected

FIXES:
- AI Lag decrease: When easy orc AI was ordered to train warrior squads, a unit group would not be destroyed properly. It now is destroyed each time, resulting in better performance.
- AI Lag decrease: The point used to give orders to freshly trained AI units is now set to a variable and destroyed after the action, resulting in less point leak.
- AI Lag decrease: When the AI received orders for units around flag points, the center point of the according calculation was not set to a variable, and thus never cleared, resulting in decreased performance. It is now properly destroyed each time. (trigger ''KI Flaggen'')

BALANCE:
- Gargoyle movement speed from 200 to 300
- Gargoyle armor from 30 to 25


12.04.2015
- New unit model: Dwarven Siege Tanks now use the Beta Model which sports a Wrecking Ball/Mace instead of a Cannon.
- Object Editor: Dwarven Siege Tanks are now melee attackers and use a new model (see note above)
- Siege Tanks added to Unit Spotlight 3 of the description
- Unused animations removed from the following own model customizations: Crusader, Wolfrider, BatteringRam, LandGargoyle
- Import editor: restored old Buttons from before the Mac Compability Test (as of the 29.11.2014 update) as the change showed no practical effect from my perspective, whilst the potential risks would be unkown
- Wall Hub System Bug fix: When Wall Pieces are placed and instantly removed via trigger again due to blocked pathing (with ressource refund, as is intended), their pathing blockers would be created nonetheless. This bug has been fixed (special thanks to Chizume for the bug report) (The trigger 'Mauern Verlauf' has been removed and was integrated into the trigger 'Mauern')
- Wall Hub System Bug Fix: When Wall Pieces used 'Tear Down', this sometimes also removed the pathing blockers of very close Wall Pieces. This bug has been fixed (The Trigger 'Mauern Verluaf Tod' has been altered)
- Bug Fix: When the leader unit of a Fel Orc Wolfrider Squad was killed, the new leader unit would have the ability to sell Death Knights. This was due to the 'Sold units' field being automatically filled in the Object Editor. The Bug is now fixed (special thakns to Ivanez for the bug report)
- Credits: Ivanez moved to 'Finders of major bugs'; Chizume added to the credits for the bug reporting mentioned above
- Bug Fix: The cooldown of HQ abilities is no longer reset when switching to the Doctrine Menu and leaving it again
- removed the trigger that used to activate the Carrion Birds ability upon research as it is now integrated in the new Trigger responsible for (de)activating HQ abilities upon entering/leaving the Doctrine Menu (while remembering the cooldown)
- import Editor: unused Button removed --> ''BTNSpell_Shadown_RainOfFire''
- Balance: Battering Ram cost form 40 to 30 lumber. This adjusts the cost of this unit in the face of the performance of the new dwarven Siege Tank, which also functions as a melee siege weapon. Part of the still higher pricing (30 lumber equals a value of 150 gold, Siege Tanks now only cost 125 gold) is justified by the fact that the Battering Ram can be build in the field. The pricing of 30 was also chosen to further associate the Battering Ram with Catapults which now cost the same.


14.10.2016 (DEMON ADDON)
FACTIONS
- Demons added

UNIQUE SYSTEMS
- Demonic Corruption added. Adds a second type of blight into the game, used by the demon faction. Seemlessly spreads and functions like normal undead Blight.

BUGFIXES
- The Summoning Ability of orc Necrolytes now displays and requires 4 free food („unit capacity“), which ist he food used by the summoned orc skeleton squad. Before the fix, the food capacity could be exceeded.
- Bugfix: Expanding Walls to the direction North-East collapsed the original Wallhub; this was due to a overlap with one of the tunnel system triggers. A condition has been added to this trigger in order to fix the bug.
- Dwarven Smithys that currently research now receive income as they should
- Dwarven Defenders using 'Defensive Stance' no longer can slide very slowly. The responsible trigger now sets their prop window angle to 0 when they enter 'Defensive Stance' to restrict any movement while preserving their ability to turn their facing angle.
- Siege Tank (Beta-alike) origin and overhead attachment points scaled to 100 (=same size as with the normal Wc3 RoC Siege Tank) to scale down the 'Crew Repairs' effect
- Bug Fix: Land Gargoyles' ability 'Fly' was not properly animated (the dummy AND the original unit stayed visible) since the last update. This was due to the Animation Clearance Process of the last update, where the needed 'stand lumber' animation was accidently removed. Now works as intended.
- The right top corner was isolated through shadow border. Dragon Riders called to the very top right of the map would be stuck. The border was a relic of a pre-release version and not needed. It was removed.
- Tunnel Networks that originally loaded a unit and were destroyed with that unit still in transport would then release the unit with scale 0%. This has been fixed.
- When a tunnel loads a unit it gets the classification „mechanical“ until it is unloaded for trigger-reasons. The classification was not removed when the tunnel that held the unit was destroyed. The unit could not be loaded anymore. This has been fixed.
- When Undead Blight of two players who both had 'Dead Land' unlocked overlapped, a Zombie would be spawned for both (or more) players when an enemy unit died in that area. Now only one player who has blighted the area will receive a blight-spawned unit.
- Triggers for undead blight spawns have been combined with the new functions for spawning demon corpse tentacles (which works in a similar way, but on demonic corruption instead of undead blight)

- GROUP COOLDOWN IS NO LONGER LOST WHEN THE LEADER DIES AND ANOTHER SQUAD MEMBER BECOMES THE LEADER UNIT; EXPLICIT CHANGES:
- the group order for orders with no target now ignores orders with the string 'spellshield' instead of those with 'berserk'
- the old triggering dummy spell of Ranger Squads' 'Stealth' ability was removed. New ability based on 'spellshield' added to make group cooldown work as intended (and be inherited upon promotion)

POLISH
- Alpha-like shield added to Crusader model (Alpha Shield from the WC3Legends Project)
- Minor change: Crystal Lamps now always display the ''detector'' status in the UI when selected; this was previously handled by a unnecessarily complicated trigger that involved switching between two versions of the Crystal Lamp; there is now only one version.
- The UI text of the classification ''Giant'' has been changed to the yellow text ''Detector'', accompanying the Crystal Lamp change in this patch (as Crystal Lamps now have that classification)
- Demon Lord no longer has the 'Portal' ability. The ability has been reworked in a more complex and decision-heavy way. It has moved to the Caster unit of the new demon race.
- Summoned units and squads now don’t freeze if they stand still after their initial birth animation
- Questlog Faction Wiki: Typo in Human info text corrected.
- Faction picking button order changed (due tot he new demon button and a number of 6 instead of 5)
- Consistency: Sight Range of Gargoyle Fly Animation Dummies adjusted to the sight range values of the original Land Gargoyle unit

MANAGEMENT / LEAK
- Unit groups in the Group Teleportation Trigger are now destroyed to avoid memory leaks/lag.
- The Summoning Triggers that keeps multiple selected summoner units from summoning at the same time when such an ability is fired have been modified. Instead of assigning and checking Custom Values, a Dummy Ability is now used to designate all selected units who are prevented from summoning.
- Management: Group selection circle trigger revised: Combined into one trigger. Too many 'and' conditions caused the old trigger to not fire anymore at one point (as I added new units that are not yet usable ingame).
- Management (minor): Unused (=deactivated) Triggers about 'Totems' and 'Snake Guards' removed
- Managment (minior): Trigger for training of constructors from human guard towers now sets the temporary point variable correctly (the offest is now stored in the variable and not set in the following unit creation action)
- Management: Modified portrait cameras of in-game rider units (Wolfriders, Huntress) are now achieved by replacing the portrait files only (instead of importing an entirely new unit with all normal animations, just for the addition of a portrait camera)
- The "Light" spy unit used a wisp model with a modified portrait as basis. Map Size is reduced by only importing the modified portrait and giving it a path to overwrite the portrait of the default wisp. Model oft he unit set to "Wisp" in Object editor. No change to ingame appearance of the unit.
- Management / Polish: The dummy items of High Elf Ranger Stealth now have an invisibility spell as effect. This object editor solution saves some trigger space. Polish sideeffect: buff display duration of Stealth now correct (20sec); Blink Stealth Effect now on entire squad
- unused ability 'Wuchtvoller Axtwurf' removed
- unused imported Button BTNThrowingAxe removed
- unnecessary conditions removed from a flight related trigger ('TruppenFlucht Befehl Fliehend')
- deleted 2 now-unused triggers of the old orc build system (see changes above)
- the trigger responsible for always selecting the leader of a squad has new conditions excluding the new portal units. This prevents a bug with their selection.
- Group Teleport Trigger now uses temporary unit groups to prevent leak
- Spreading Blight Abilty is now trigger-bound due to the new pathing system of the demon faction (spreading corruption as 'second type of blight in game'); Blight banishes demonic Corruption.
- The trigger preventing all selected units of the same to cast metamorphosis based abilities with a cost now also incluedes the new „Corruption“ ability.
- Tunnel Netwok Triggers hold a new trigger that addresses unit scaling for some unit types seperately. This ist o assure that units unloaded from the new demon Rifts (which function like the dwarven tunnels) are scaled correctly when being unloaded.

FUNCTIONALITY
- Functionality: Beer ability adjusted to the new sprint ability (because of the fix that lets memebers of the same squad share cooldown of sprint etc., read below)

EASE OF USE
- Ease of use: Missile spells (firebolt, chaos missiles, acid bombs) now always select the target of their 'movement' precisely. Previously, the facing of the caster was used to calculate the target of their movement. To avoid inaccuacies, the angle between the caster and the an offset point towards the target point of the ability is now used.

CONTENT UPDATE PREPARATION
- Night Elven Object Editor Data and Triggers added (models removed until release of the Night Elven faction)

BALANCE TEST (may be reverted)
Elite Units (Human Royal Unit Support)
- all human elite units:
+5 hp
- 10 armor
- guard squad cost: 60 --> 100
- paladin cost: 60 --> 100
- guard squad:
attack speed: 1.5 --> 1
no more area damage

Rider units:
- all regular riders (knights, crusaders, outriders, wolfriders, death knights):
+5 hp
- wolfrider squad cost: 90 --> 100
- death knight cost: 50 --> 70

Magicians:
- all caster units with 5 hp (including arcanists) (elementalist, arcanist, healer,
fire mage, arcane mage, necrolyte (o), warlock, pestilant, necrolyte (u), void walker):
+ 5 hp
magic protection ability adjusted so that ranged attacks and magic deal double damage
(0.10 --> 0.20; 0.25 --> 0.5; results in old kill time by ranged attacks and magic)
- pestilant cost from 100 to 70.

Dwarves:
- Demolition Team and Mortar Team:
hp from 10 to 15 (5x2 for each model, +5 for "elite" status and taking the "mage" slot)
- Demolition Team:
Mine Cooldown from 1 to 10


07.03.2020 (MAJOR UPDATE OF ALL FACTIONS)
- New Ranged Combat System:
- ranged units have a certain accuracy value
- the accuaracy value determines the change of an assured hit
- when a ranged unit fires, there is 2 possibilities:
- assured hit: the missile will hit the target, no matter what
- deviating missile: a random location in the proximity of the target is hit; if there is a unit, it will be damaged, but the missile can also hit empty groud

--> for deviating shots, an attack of the type "artillery" is used (area damage that can miss, like e.g. mortars in the Warcraft III base game)
--> for "assured hit" shots, an attack of the standard "missile" type is used (projectiles will follow the target if necessary)

--> the so-called "accuarcy" value of a ranged unit determines the change of scoring an assured hit vs the chance of scoring a deviating shot

--> Object Editor: accuracy (chance for assured hit) is saved as "turn rate" value of the corresponding attack dummy unit of a ranged unit
--> Object Editor: shot deviation area (in case of a deviating shot, see above) is saved as "level" value of the corresponding attack dummy unit of a ranged unit

- Catapult's "Artillery" Area Damage now affects Ballistas (Ballistas still cannot be directly targeted though)
- Unit tooltips of ranged units that use the new projectile system have been adjusted (no more accuracy bonus vs. rider units)

- New Ranged Combat System (Flaming Arrows):
- The "Flaming Arrows" ability is now trigger-bound to allow the flame buff to be applied to enemies hit by a ranged attack of the "artillery" type ("artillery" type is used for deviating shots, see above)
- "Flaming Arrows" buff is now also added to a hit target via trigger when a "normal" "assured hit" missile hits a target; the trigger uses a calculation to know how long it will take the projectile of a "normal" ranged attack to hit the target once the attack has been initiated

--> Now truly only wooden units can be set afire by Rangers' Flaming arrows
--> Previoulsy, this was handled by using unit classifications in the Object Editor, and some compromises had to made (e.g. Siege Tanks could be set afire, despite being rather metal looking; the new system no longer allows this to happen)
--> The new triggers mentioned above allowed to set targets that could be set afire by more precisely. A unit list in the corresponing 2 new triggers contains all units that can be set afire.

- Wall Construction System:
- Wall build-time added (expanidng walls now results in both the wall and the wallhub being built; they are built seemlessly, like all other strcutures, but without a worker unit)
- Wall pieces used the wrong explosion graphic, which could resulting in a blood splat when their construction is canceled or they are hit by "artillery" area attacks (both things weren't possible before the changes of this version)

- New Wall Models:
- Orc Walls: muroorcoH (=Orc Wall) by facelessuniverse (from moddb.com war3 addons, pack "Orcishdoorsandwalls") (I made them unshaded, added a portrait camera, and seperated them into wall sections and wall hubs for the wall system)
- Human Walls (after upgrade): AltarWall (=Golden Wall) by ILH (from wall pack) (I seperated Wall and Wall Hubs into 2 models for functionality and closed the open sides of the walls in case there is no wall hub next to them)
- Dwarven Walls: IronWall (=Dwarven Wall) by ILH (from wall pack) (I seperated Wall and Wall Hubs into 2 models for functionality and closed the open sides of the walls in case there is no wall hub next to them)

- Doctrine Reworks:
- ALL 6 factions' doctrinal tech trees were changed/reworked; not all changes are listed here in detail
- Dwarven Doctrines reworked (Gryphon Rider added as ultimate unit)
- Undead Doctrines reworked (Flying Necropolis added as ultimate unit)
- "Gryphon Rider" (doctrinal upgrade) researched by default for AI players
- "Ale" (doctirnal upgrade) researched by default for AI players
- "Plague Catapult Missile" (doctirnal upgrade) researched by default for AI players
- AI adjusted to call Gryphon Riders from Off-Map (only hard dwarven AI)
- Imported modified version of Storm Bolt Missile which always has blue team color (used as missile of new dwarven Gryphon Rider)
- Human Fortification Doctine reworked:
- Slot 1: Garrison (unlocks HQ's auto attack; was previously on by default; now gives more tactical decision making to player when investing in doctrine upgrades, wether or not to invest into defense against early rushes)
- Slot 2: Golden Walls (upgrades wall HP, changes model, see 'New Wall Models')
- Demon Doctrines reworked
- High Elf Doctrines reworked (upgrade for increasing ranger squad size from 3 to 4 now replaces the rather useless upgrade that used to unlock Crystal Lamps)

- New Human Unit: Archer (Bow)
- Archer Squads (4-man) now replace Spear Throwers in the human army roster (upgradeable with crossbows through doctrinal tech)
- used model: merge of WanderingSoul's 'FootArcher' (body) and Asssssvi's 'Archer Lordaeron_Light' (head)
- used icon: from Assssssvi's 'Archer Lordaeron' pack (resized, auto contrast enhance, slight sharpen)

- New Human Unit: Crossbow Archer
- Archer Squads (4-man) now replace Spear Throwers in the human army roster (upgradeable with crossbows through doctrinal tech)
- used model: merge of Kitabatake's'Crossbowman' (body) and Asssssvi's 'Archer Lordaeron_Light' (head); portrait head+animations from Asssssvi's 'Archer Lordaeron_Light', camera angle towards portrait from WanderingSoul's 'FootArcher'
- used icon: from Assssssvi's 'Archer Lordaeron' pack (resized, auto contrast enhance, slight sharpen)

- New Human Knight Model added:
- created and imported new model uses mesh of loktar's 'FootmanWC1' as rider; texture 'wc1knight' from the 'Heart of Storms' project on the horse; animation from HerrDave's RohanRider; flail from wojia10502's wc1knight (='knight(changed)'); base model is Blizzard's OrcWarlord)
- old Model removed (merge of Wandering Soul's MountedFootman and loktar's WC1Footman

- New Icons:
- New Icon for Pestilant (Undead Apothecary) created and imported
- New Icon for Norinrad's DwarvenLaborer created and imported
- New Icon for Catapult created and imported (style inspired by Blizzard's Ballista icon, based on Kitabatake's 'CatapultV1' model)
- Paladin Portrait now has black hair (btn by Hermit)
- Changed icon of dwarven Ale ability; icon: INV_Misc_Ale_01 by Blizzard Entertainment
- Icon for High Elf Lancer's anti-cavalry damge bonus ability: BTNAdvancedLance by GooS
- New icon for Demon Fire Golem's 'Demon Fire' ability: BTNSpell_fire_felimmolation by Blizzard Entertainment
- New imported repair icon: ATCAbility_rogue_reinforcedleather by Blizzard Entertainment (I made it an ATC Button)

- Worker Models and Building Options Reworked:
- Orc Builder Unit added (Peon, uses War2-alike Peon model from project)
- New Orc Building Options: Furnace (produces income, uses War3legends model), Outpost (no longer produces income, now trains Hunters), Catapult (no longer built from HQ)
- New Dwarf Builder Unit (Laborer) (replaces Crane, uses Laborer model by Norinrad, from The Great Troll War project)
- New Human Builder Model ('GondorWorker' by HerrDave (from pack 'Gondorians (War of the Ring)') (I added the Villager Work Anim as 'Channel' using Retera's Matrix Eater))
- Dwarfs and Orcs now can build walls (new models imported, new icons created)
- Human walls don't need to be unlocked via doctrine upgrade anymore; doctrine slot changed to upgrade normal walls into golden walls
- Battering ram (dwarfs and orcs) removed
- Human Constructor renamed to Peasant
- Skeleton Worker repair sound added
- Skeleton Worker repair animation speed increased (via trigger)

- Model Detail Fixes:
- Dwarf Demo Squad Portrait created and added (based on model by AndrewOverload513 and animations of Blizzard's Mortar Team)
- Vertex Coloring of Ballista changed to 255,255,255, it had a blue-ish tilt before
- Credits for Demon Felgunner model changed to fuzzyfury (information about author received from Wazzz)
- Selection Box of wojia10502's "guard" model was too big when drag selecting units; changed bound radius of each sequence to 100 in magos' model editor to fix the issue
- Outrider model's attack animation: arrows would fly away as part of the model itsself; they are now hidden the moment the arrow leaves the bow
- Outrider death animation fixed (buggy frames at end removed since they made the decay animation buggy)
- Fire Sound and effect of burning buildings/units removed (only for human units, made orcish catapults "human" in Object Editor)

- Squad Transport System:
- Squad Order Triggers for Orders targetng units (or destructibles) were handled by 3 Triggers, instead of 1, like the other 2 types of orders are (point orders and no-target orders)
--> Group Orders targeting units are now handled by 1 Trigger; it detects the 3 seperate cases: normal order, follow unit, load unit
--> depending which case it is, differnt actions take place to assure that squads react as intended in these situations (for example, to make all squad members move to a transporter when ordered to board it)
- "Trigger tidiness": Conditions of Squad Order Triggers now check if a unit is a transporter not through a (long) list of unit types that are transparts, but more elegantly and universal by checking if a unit has a 'Cargo' ability

- When a transporter is ordered to move while a unit that was ordered to board it is moving towards it, the unit stops --> integrated trigger to make entire squads stop like this in such situations
- Negative Custom Values now used to save which squad is currently ordered to be loaded into a transporter (positive value = squad custom value, negative value = saved for transporter, negative of custom value of the squad ordered to be loaded into the transporter)
- The following triggers that used negative custom values no longer do so (it was a untidy solution anyways):
- Marking of farms that currently upgrading (to make them able to still receive income-dummy-items which generate the floating gold/lumber numbers even when they are currently upgrading)
- Marking of AI-controlled HQs for some time to assure delay before using call-in abilities again (Dragon Rider, Gryphon Rider, Necropolis)
- AI Trigger for making AI generate demon corruption (=2nd type of blight) around its HQ only once; trigger needlessly used a custom value check when it could just be deactivated after the first time it fired to assure one-time use

--> negative custom values are not exclusively for marking transporters as described above

- fixed a bug where killing transporters that carried a unit squad resulted in only the leader unit of the squad "leaving" the destoryed vehicle; all squad members now reappear when a transporter dies (thanks to Xeryxoz for the bug report!)
- Xeryxoz added to Credits under "finders of major bugs"

- Undead Destroyers (Abomination):
- Pink Hero Glow added to Undead Destroyers (reference to beta abominations)
- Warcraft 3 Beta Sounds for Abimonation Attacks added (bound to newly created triggers)
- Undead Destoryer Damage from 14 to 16
- Undead Destoryer Cost from 75 to 100 gold
- Health Regeneration on top of base health regeneration is now received when the unit is on blight (to bring it in line with the blight healing all most other undead unit types)
- Undead Destroyers now autocast 'Explode' when they die

- Zombie Rework (New Model):
- uses new model based on 'Villager Man - Zombie Animations' by Fingolfin and the skin 'BloodyZombie' by ana (aka Antsu) (portrait newly created)
- Fallen One (Zombies) Leaders and Squad members now have the same selection circle size (Squad circle from 0.5 to 0.58)
- Zombie attack Range from 52 to 46
- Random idle sound for Zombies added
- Resitance to magic added (50% damage reduction)

- Pestilant:
- Acid Bombs can be set to autocast (Pestilant will automatically use Acid Bombs against nearby enemies when ordered to attack)
- Acid Bomb mana cost set from 1 to 2
- new icon (see section "New Icons")
- Attack added; 2 reasons for that: I had planned this anyways, as it seemed only logical that a unit with a scythe could attack (unlike casters with harmless staffs) & it helps with the auto-casting of the newly modified acid bomb spell, when being able to use the 'attack move' order, which only units with an attack have

- Ballistas:
- now use the new ranged combat system (see above)
- Cooldown is increased when attacking smaller targets (e.g. squads)
--> this change was made due to the constant low-damage, high-range shooting off AI-controlled Ballistas vs. regular Squad units; it made an obnoxious sound)
--> the inaccuracy of shots due to the new ranged combat system also reduces Ballista obnixiousness vs. infantry squads (Ballista Arrows barely ever hit infantry they aim at, but if a deviating missile actually hits an infantry model, it usually dies)
- Hit Sound added to Ballista Attacks in Object Editor (when one of the rather inaccurate ballista missiles actually hits a target, this generates an apporpiately strong hit sound as feedback)
- Damage from 15 to 16
- Minimum Range from 500 to 375

- Meteor Effect changed:
- New Meteor model (taken from Dwarven Monster Slayers)
- Wave Effects now properly centered (had slight randomization previously due to being based on the Blizzard spell's waves

NOTES
- The new effect illustrates the destructive power of meteors against structures more clearly; readablity is important to me and I want things to behave the way the user would expect them to
- The effect now is more consistent with the spell's icon
- All these changes were already in my mind before release, so they should be consistent with the rest of the map

- New Spell: Rain Of Fire
- visuals inspired by WarCraft 1's conjurer spell "Rain of Fire"
- hits random points in the target area, like WarCraft 1's "Rain of Fire"
- Human Elementalists now use this spell instead of the "Ice Storm" spell they previously had; since Elemtentalists look like WarCraft 1's Human Conjurers, which also had "Rain Of Fire", this is a reference to WarCraft 1's design
- Orc Warlocks now use "Rain of Fire" insead of Meteor, making Meteor exclusive to the High Elves' Fire Mages

- New Effect Model: Orc Unholy Armor
- now uses 'Inferno Armor' graphic by Power (aka Henry) (I changed the attached ingame sounds)
- this effect is also used for other invulnerability spells (of the demon faction)

- Resistances:
- passive abilities that reduce damage taken now protect against all attackers, even allies (the 'allowed tagets' field was changed to 'vunerable, invulnerable')
- examples of units with such abilities: undead Fallen One's and Dread Lords have such abilities
- The change was mostly necessary because the attack dummies of the new ranged attack system (see above) are invulnerable and their attacks were not reduced as intended during testing

- Orc Unholy Armor:
--> now protects against spell damage, too (previously against attacks only)

- Undead Zombies:
-->Resitance to magic added (50% damage reduction)

- Carrion Bird Scouting (Undead HQ ability):
- now can target areas occupied by impassable doodads as well (based on 'flare' instead of 'dark portal' now)
- 'VultureWhat1' sound that plays when using the ability now only can be heard near the target of the spell, not everywhere on the map (sound changed to '3D sound' in World Editor's Sound Editor)

- Demon Faction Music:
- Demon Faction Music changed

- Greater Daemon
- now serves as primary unit of the Demon faction; Minion Squads removed from the Demon faction
- renamed to "Daemon" in reference to the WarCraft 1 unit
- stats changed to be on par with basic 6 unit squads of other factions
- cost reduced from 100 to 50 gold
- priority from 0 to 1 so that when a group of different unit types is selected, it is by default highlighted in the selected units' panel (except when spellcaster are also selected, which have priority 2)
- (^^ this brings the unit in line with basic infantry squads of other factions; these basic squads have sprint or fly abilities, making it logical to have them highlighted above ranged units etc.)
- 2 abilities added (one doctrinal unlock): 'Fly' and 'Daemonic Shield'
- 'Fly' allows to quickly close the distance to ranged units, and thus fills a similar role as the 'Sprint' ability of other factions' basic squads
- Greater Demon Anti-Air Attack is now activated (it wasn't previously despite the unit tooltip mentioning it)

- Demon Hell Cannoneer
- now uses new ranged combat system (missiles can randomly deviate, see above under 'New Ranged Combat System')
- new animation for melee combat added (Felguard Attack 2 animation, fits with other Felguard animations of the Hell Cannoneer's 'Felgunner' model)
- now uses melee attack at low range (results in bash sound as with 'normal' melee attacks)
- no more minimum range
- Attack sound of Infernal Juggernaut now plays when Hell Cannoneers fire their weapon (makes the attack feel more heavy)
- Attack rate reduced from 4.00 to 3.20
- Sight range from 1800 to 1200 (now uses standard value of most regular units in the map - no idea why it was 1800 anyways )
- Used Food increased from 2 to 3
- Hell Cannoneer are no longer doctrinal and are unlocked right away

- Demon Void Walker: Arcane Missile Spell
- Arcane Missile Spell reworked
- it is now an autocast ability
- when active, it gives a ranged attack to the Void Walker
- each shot costs 1 mana
- the shots use the new missile deviation system (see above) like most normal ranged units do now
- special triggers for unit behavior when running out of mana or activating/deactivating autocast have been introduced (trigger category 'Faeh_Neu')

- Demon Infernal Tank
- now always has an attack
- cannot load units anymore
- always uses the model without a top-mounted cannon
- the new attack uses the new missile deviation system (see above)
- the new attack uses the model Missile_DIM_Alpha ('InfernalBullet') by CreatorD3292
- unit role: the unit fires slowly and inaccurately, but with high range and it is hard to destroy; it is weak against massed units and good agains big, slow, or immobile targets

- Demon "Blight"
- Demon Terrain Corruption now heals demon units standing on it after a demon doctrinal upgrade (basically like undead blight, but requires special trigger)
- the healing was tied to an upgrade for 2 reasons:
- 1) It is more powerful than undead blight healing because of higher hitpoints of demon units
- 2) The need to consciously click an upgrade highlights this healing function of the custom made corrupted terrain tile to the player
- Tooltip of Cultists' Corruption ability changed
- Demons now start with a circle of Corrupted Terrain around their HQ
- ^^ this was previously tied to a doctrinal upgrade

- Seamless Build Menue without Submenue
- A system to make buildings buildable without having to open a build menu has been implemented
- it is currently used for demons, because they only have 1 building, and a build menu would be futile
- The system is seemless:
- the building icon is OUTSIDE the build menu
- it has normal UI display of building cost
- when clicked the building preview appears under the Cursor like when normally building from the build menue

- "AI" Improvements:
- Area healing spells (Human Paladin's 'Holy Light' and Undead Pestilant's 'Pest Healing') are no longer used against accumulations of enemy units (made no sense!)
- There is now special triggers to see to it these spell targets allied units
- 'Destroy Undead' is no longer used when facing non-undead enemies
- Orc Necrolytes' 'Unholy Armor' is now used on allied units by the AI (AI behavior based on healing ward behavior of Warcraft 3's default AI)
- Orc and Undead 'Pest Cloud' now based on Blizzard for more logical use of spell by the AI; the spell itsself hasn't changed through this
- Most abilities are now activated for AI players by default (many abilities were unintentionally deactivated for AI players; the corresponding triggers now only affect non-AI players)

- AI Wall building: added AI Triggers for building walls in a certain shape around the HQ

- Fixed: AI of the 3 difficutlies for each of the 6 races used to build 1 more of all non-squad unit types as intended ("less or euqal" conditions changed to "less than" in AI Train Triggers)
- Fixed: Orc Dragon Riders called in by an AI controlled player would not move in to the target point, but stay at the egde of the map where it appears first; reason was the 'guard position' trigger that can deactivate certain trigger orders to AI-controlled units; it thus no longer affects Dragon Riders

- "AI" buildorders:
- Undead medium and hard AI now builds Destroyers
- Undead hard AI no longer builds Demon Lords (Demon Lords removed from Undead faction)
- Demon AI builds Daemons as mainline units (because Minion Squads were removed from the Demon faction)
- all Demon buildorders reworked

- Presentation: Loading Screen
- new loading screen that gives new players hints how to play the game/map
- 'Blank' Loading screen (looks like default loading screen but without drawing) kindly shared by Cokemonkey11 (seen in his map 'microrunnertd', but with text)
- I added 4 tooltips to the loading screen: each tooltip is an ATC icon with some text, explaining a basic concept of the game/map
- the Warcraft-like font 'LifeCraft_Font.ttf' used in the loading screen title is by Eliot Truelove from dafont.com

- Presentation: Map Preview Image
- the Warcraft-like font 'LifeCraft_Font.ttf' used in the preview screen title is by Eliot Truelove from dafont.com
- The background image is taken from 'Warcraft 1: Orcs and Humans' by Blizzard Entertainment (1994); it was extracted/provided by Hallfiry

- Selection Presentation:
- Symbol of Human faction changed to new human archer icon
- Time of day now paused during initial faction selection
- Faction tooltips updated; added easily comprehensible list of unique systems each faction showcases

- General Presentation:
- rooster and wolf sound when day/night switches removed

- Flag Points
- model of flag and base (abandoned fireplace doodad) merged into one so that all parts of it are visible through the fog of war and to change it so that the flag part no longer always faces the player camera
- now have pathing texture (and buildings can no longer be placed on top of flag points)

- Corpse Duration:
- Corpses of most units now despawn after 240 seconds instead of 20 seconds (for atmospheric reasons, littering the battlefield with remains of fallen soldiers and destroyed cataputs...)

- Corpse Tentacles on Corrutpion (Demon) and Zombie Revival on Blight (Undead):
- Bug Fix: Flying units dying above Corruption or Blight no longer result in a spawned unit

- HQ Rally Point ability added
- Rally Point no longer deactivated
- the rally point ability doesn't show an icon
- trained units will always spawn at the regular location, and will not 'leave' the building at the point closest to the rally point of that building (special triggers introduced for that system)

- Human Forward HQ
- The Fort that Humans can built is now correctly limited to 1, whereas previously the limit disappeared as soon as the first Forward HQ's construction was finished
- When a forward HQ was finished it could "jump" and slightly change its position when units were nearby...
- this is due to a unit replacement that is necessary so that the buildable HQ has a different tooltip in the build menue, but when its finished, it is replaced so that it is the same as the "normal" HQ and both can be selected correctly by double-click
- The jump no longer happens, because the build dummy HQ now uses a "Chaos" based ability that replaces it when its construction is finished; previously a trigger replaced the unit

- Terrain Variations Preparation:
- Original Terrain Reworked
- Player related triggers adjusted to handle up to 6 players (for new 6 player map variant "Pinewood Peak")
- The trigger that makes all squad members follow targeted attack orders together has been modified to also make them attack destructible doodads together (this is only necessary because of the upcoming dungeon map with destructible wooden wall sections)

- Balance:
- Human Paladin attack cooldown from 2.5 to 1.6 seconds (except when using the special attack against undead, which retains a 2.5 cooldown)
- Human Paladin hitpoints from 10 to 15
- Human Knight now has the 'Break Morale' ability of the now-removed 'Crusader' unit
- Human Knight turn rate from 0.1 to 0.15
- Dwarven Defender Squad cost from 50 to 40 gold
- Dwarven Siege Tank build time from 20 to 15 seconds
- Orc Necrolyte cost from 50 to 60 gold
- Void Walker hitpoints from 10 to 15
- Catapult Range from 1600 to 1400 (due to the new missile deviation system (see top of the list), the catapult shots can land up to 225 range further from the target point, so it somewhat balances out)

- AI Player Dummy Units Fix:
- AI controlled dummies that had the 'locust' ability caused strange bugs when they were given an expiration timer via trigger:
--> the dummy for the undead 'carrion bird scouting' ability is supposed to use a 'locust swarm'-based ability; when owned by an AI player, it didn't
--> the dummies for the new 'Rain of Fire' spell didn't attack the ground below it like it should when owned by an AI player
--> dummy for 'swarm rockets' based area attack of orcish dragon riders did not work for ai players, resulting in no damage dealt
--> dummies with 'locust' build the wall hubs when expanding walls with the new wall build system which added build time to walls; when AI explanded walls, wall hubs were not built by the dummies during testing
- ^^ the expiration timer is no longer given to most of the dummy units that have 'locust'; instead, negative hitpoint regeneration is used for these units (Object Editor)

- Anti-Lag: Ignoring units with 'locust'
- Triggers for Group Orders now ignore units with 'locust' (for instance ranged combat attack dummies, see new missile deviation system)
- Triggers for 'promotion' of a squad member when the leader of a squad dies now ignore units with 'locust' (otherwise, these 'promotion' triggers would cause stutter when the new ranged combat system is used, whenever a ranged unit with missile deviation attacks)

- Anti-Stutter: Rearanged triggers to avoid unit groups
- Basic Idea: When "normal" unit groups are used, EVERY unit in the map is checked (for wether or not its unit type is "flagpoint")
- ^^ many old triggers were changed to avoid unit groups, greatly reducing moments of stutter
- ^^ moments of stutter mostly occured when playing with AI players, because these triggers occur frequently and used unit groups

- Triggers that handle AI unit training no longer use unit groups to count how many units of certain unit types an AI player has; instead, a long string is used, in which 1 or 2 positions hold a number that counts a certain unit type, e.g the positions 2-3 are always the basic unit of the faction; when such a unit is trained or dies, the counter is increased or decreased
- Triggers that order AI builders to build no longer pick a random unit from a unit group of builders; instead, builders are stored in an array variable, 10 numbers are reserved for each player, e.g. 0-9 for builders of player 1 (red), only used by AI
- Triggers that order AI units to go to flagpoints no longer pick a random unit from a unit group of all flags; instead, all flags are stored in an array variable:
- ... in triggers that need to pick one random one of these, and a loop goes over every value of the array (each value is one flag) and adds it to that group
- ... then a random one of these is picked for the necessary actions
- ... then, the unit group is destoryed again (as usual)
- The number of flags held by a team containing an AI player is no longer counted through unit groups; instead, it is stored in an integer variable (one array per player) and increased/decreased whenever flags are captured

- Triggers that create units from dying units on blighted or corrupted terrain no longer use unit groups; for this, the dummy units that check to which player a blight/corruption "belongs" are stored in arrays:
- ... when necessary, empty groups are created and filled as described above with the flagpoints!

--> Playing with AI players is a lot less stuttery now! It never had noteable memory leak, I think, because I always deleted unit groups, regions, points, etc...
BUT it had STUTTER due to many actions that use unit groups taking place in quick succession; unit group creations check ALL units in the map for certain properties, and there can be hundreds of unit objects in the map;
using the array system described above, this stutter is now avoided.

- Deleted unused triggers:
- in doctrine and selection categories; some were managing a scrapped rune stone ressource system
- "Orc Baubutton Trick" (trigger from pre-release version)
- removed trigger that made health bar of selector unit invisible (works without triggers by now)
- unused triggers in categories "abilities" and "AI" deleted
- Triggers for Tunneler unit with tunneling ability (never added into the game)
- unused trigger for death animation of cut unit "Battering Ram" deleted
- unused triggers related to troll (= unfinished faction) doctrinal researches removed
- unused triggers for Gargoyle Flight ability (unit scrapped)
- unused triggers for squad training of squads not used in the game
- many more...

- Deleted unused Object Editor Data:
- removed item in Object Editor that was used to hide the health bar of the selector unit (works without triggers by now)
- deleted unused ability of the aforementioned item
- deleted unused and unfinshed demon building (called "Rift", another used "Rift" still exists)
- deleted unused items that were once intended for faction selection (1 item per race)
- unused object data (research and abilities) related to troll (= unfinished faction) doctrinal researches removed
- object data of unused unit 'Traitor' was removed (demon 'promotion' trigger was adjusted because of deletion of unused object data of 'Traitor' unit)
- many more...

- Minor Polish:
- Demon Gate Occulsion Height from 200 to 0 (= height bonus of flying units that move over it removed)
- Tooltip of Black Hole ability corrected: it said that only enemies could be targeted, which is not true
- Polish Selection: When a squad member was selected before the leader of the squad was selected, the selection circle would be set to default size for a short moment before the leader was automatically selected; this only affected squads with an irregular selection circle size; to resolve this, the trigger responsible for adjusting squad selection circle sizes now accounts for squad members as well
- When Bloodlust was researched, Orc Warlord Squad Members had a slightly smaller selection circle than in their un-upgraded form; this has been adjusted
- The High Elf Outrider model's quiver arrows had the wrong texture; this has been fixed
- Construction Sound of Demon Rift changed (all other structures still use the same sound as before; changes to the construction sound default in game interface settings and changes to race settings of buildable structures were necessary to achieve this)
- Unused Animations removed from the High Elf Outrider model
- Custom Pathing Map for Demon Gate added
- Demon Portal's summoning sound no longer plays when selecting the demon faction for an AI player slot in the selection menu
- deleted unused animations and blitz nodes of the portrait overwrite that is used for the "Light" unit
- sound distance cutoff of some combat warcries did not work (campaign lines of footmen and knight); their settings in the sound editor were adjusted so that it works now
- sound distance cutoff of dwarven "MuradinTaunt1" did not work; now works like other warcries, but utilizes a special trigger setup
- Optimization: Removed unused imported model and icon data
- WILHELMMMMMMM!!!!!! (uaaaarggghh)
- The trigger that creates pathing during initialization (needed for Demon "Blight", also know as "Corruption") no longer creates minimap pings (they are a relic of the testic phase; on bigger maps, these would very briefly show up at the start of the game)


27.03.2020 (IRON GUARD + DWARF GAMEPLAY POLISH)
Dwarves:
- New unit added: Iron Guard
--> elite melee squad (4 units)
--> higher hp unit (similar to the upgraded 10hp version of human guards)

--> trivia: a dwarven elite unit named Iron Guard and wearing heavy armor was already planned when I released the map, so it should not feel like an out-of-place later addition.

Bugfixes:
- fixed a bug where sometimes trained units would not appear
--> Explanation:
--> the new triggers that allow rally points where trained units will NOT spawn closest to the rally point, but at the standard location next to the building, were causing a bug:
--> ... since a unit is trained, instantly removed, then instantly sold by an invisible dummy, and then send to the rally point, for a very, very short moment (not even visible for the player), the trained unit and the sold unit exist at once and cost double the population
--> ... ^^ when training units while the remaining population was only enough for the trained unit, but not for the unit sold by tigger, the sold unit would not appear, resulting in no unit at all

Bugfixes (Minor):
- Dwarven 'Ale' ability still had the effect of reseting all ability cooldowns of the caster (from previous versions)

Combat Cries & Idle Chatter:
- Combat cry triggers adjusted so that the new dwarven Iron Guard triggers battle and idle chatter as well

Faction Descriptions:
--> Dwarves:
--> faction description updated to describe the dwarven faction as "slow but powerful" (this theme now finally is working thanks to the new Iron Guard unit and the reworked "Defensive Stance" ability of dwarven Defenders)

Balance:
- Dwarves:
--> 'Defensive Stance' ability:
--> Defenders can now still move at 50% speed while 'Defensive Stance' is activated (they would become immoble previously, making the ability quite useless)
--> Some triggers were adjusted so that the entire squad would not stop moving when 'Defensive Stance' is activated or deactivated while the squad currently has an order to move somewhere (trigger for the ability can now be found in the "Order" category instead of in the "Faehigkeiten" category)
--> 'Ale' ability:
--> Heal reate from 0.21 to 0.33
--> Defender Squad cost back to 50 (from 40 in previous patch)

- Undead:
--> Dread Lord:
--> cost from 325 to 225 gold
--> reason: each race has a way of dealing with units that camp its main training HQ; in such situations, where units that are not dangerous to the HQ and structures, but are numerous, hang out in front of an HQ, each race can react in a relatively cheap, or even free way (Human HQ attack upgrade, dwarven HQ's flying machine ability, higelf HQ's shield sphere ability); I felt the undead way was too pricey. The Dread Lord unit, as a final defence unit, is seldomly seen anyways.

Dwarven Smithy Upgrades:
- Dwarven Smithys no longer hold the 2 stat-improving upgrades from basic infantry (Defenders and Axe Throwers)
- ^^ these upgrades felt a little odd, anyways, being the only non-doctrinal upgrades of any faction
- ^^ with the presence of the new, more durable Iron Guard, and with Defensive Stance being better at making Defenders more durable now (see above), an armor upgrade for them seemed no longer necessary.

Map Description on Hive:
- "Iron Guard" Description added to the Dwarven Unit Sportlight.


10.04.2020
New Icons:
- Humans:
--> Peasant Icon "BTNPeasantWC1" by loktar (reason: suits model, looks more like Peasant from WarCraft I)

- Orcs:
--> Icon for the Doctrinal Upgrade 'Raiding Troops' (=orcish infantry deals siege damage vs structures) changed from default 'Pillage' button to BTNAbility_Warrior_OffensiveStance by Blizzard Entertainment
--> IDEA: The new icon looks similar in style (two crossed weapons), but less gold-like, and more redish and aggressive (=orc style); the new icon was also introduced in anticipation of a future Ogre faction (WIP) that will probablly use the standard 'Pillage' icon for one of its doctrinal upgrades.

Flag Points & Resource System Rework:
- captured flag points now produce income like farm buildings of the races (same visual floating numbers feedback)
- HQ now produces 15 instead of 25 gold each interval
- farms now produce 3 instead of 5 gold each interval
- Pick-up crates now give 3 instead of 5 gold
- flag points procue 3 gold and 1 lumber each interval
- starting resources changed to 50 gold and 15 lumber (from 50 and 10 respectively)

--> IDEA: it should now be easier to more quickly build a base; previously, there was more incentive to just spam economic buildings (e.g. human farms) instead of also building walls and towers (like the AI already does); Player-built bases should not look more akin to those of the AI, and more in line with intended gameplay

- flag points can now be "decaptured" into belonging to the neutral player (black):
--> after half the capture time an enemy flag becomes neutral
--> then, after the same amount of time, it goes to the capturing player
--> overall, capturing now costs 1.5x the time

--> IDEA: It is incentivized to commit to the capture process: Commiting a bit of time will reduce the enemy's income, and commiting a bit more time will give the capturing player more income

--> when a flagpoint is decaptured, a red ping is created on the map for the enemy team, and a green ping for the capturing player and allies of the capturing player
--> the same happens when a flag is not just decaptured, but captured by a player - only that the red ping for enemies of the capturing player will only appear to them, if the flag being captured is visible to them (otherwise, it would be possible for a red indicator of enemy flag capturing appearing in the Fog Of War).

Terrain Variants Preparation:
- Skybox seen as the abyss in the map "Pinewood Peak" imported
- partial transparency of Cliff1 import for the edges of the abyss in the map variant "Pinewood Peak" fixed (the cliff texture is based on the default northrend tileset's icy cliff, but it fades into transparency towards the lower end; this is used in combination with the new skybox model to create an abyss)

Terrain Details:
- Area west of the muddy northern middle field with a flagpoint has been reworked so that the transition into the grasy area to the northwest is more seamless
- ^^ the transition of that muddy northern middle field into the cobbled way to the west has also been reworked slightly by changing the treeline a bit
- The more northern one of the two cobbled paths to the west of the tower ruins in the center of the map has been reworked a bit, mostly in terms of tile placement, giving the cobbled path a more gras-overgrown look, while avoiding sharp contrast between the gras texture and the cobbled path texture, as was previously the case in the part of the terrain; the path has also been move a bit to the south, so that it doesn't border the treeline quite so sharply.

Tooltips:
- Dwarves:
--> Defender description now mentions their "defensive stance' ability and what it does
--> IDEA: Since the rediesign of the ability in the last patch, it is actually useful and one of the defining characteristics of Defenders, that makes the unit much more useful; as such, players are made aware of it by the tooltip now.

- Humans:
--> Faction description updated to mention how well-rounded the human army is
--> IDEA: Humans are a good beginner's faction, and the mention of a well-rounded army roster in conjunction with their definition as a 'defensive faction' could help pull newer players towards this faction choice.

--> Faction description no longer metions upgradable walls, since it is just one doctrinal upgrade and doesn't define the faction playstyle too much
- Demons:
--> Faction description changed to classify Demons as a "Scheming faction" that slowly gains power and carefully prepares the battleground for the endgame with terrain corruption and Daemons that slowly gain more power through upgrades as the game progresses

Dwarven 'Defensive Stance':
- Defender's 'Defensive Stance' now disables the Sprint abilty
--> when 'Defensive Stance' is on, thie icon of the 'Sprint' ability become greyed out
--> ^^ to achieve this, a dummy unit is created that casts a 'Drunken Haze'-based ability on the casting Defender; the ability was changed in Object Editor to disable spells
--> ^^ it will grey out 'Sprint', but not 'Defensive Stance'
--> the buff icon for 'Defensive Stance' is now given through this 'Drunken Haze'-based ability
--> ^^ due to this, it is no longer to use a 'Tornado-Slow-Aura'-based ability for the movement speed reduction, which also allowed adding a buff icon; instead, the movement speed is now reduced through the 'Drunken Haze'-based ability

Bug Fixes:
- Dwarves:
--> Defender's 'Defensive Stance' ability caused dead squad members of a Defender squad that turns the ability on/off to play their death animation. This has been fixed and is no longer the case.

Missile Deviation System:
- ranged units using the Missile Deviation System mustn't deal damage themselves, yet they must have an attack for attack orders as well as damage, so that UI damage is displayed
- up until now, some War3 attack types ('hero' and 'chaos') were used as non-damage dealing doubles of the normal attack types in this map; 'chaos' had the same icon and text as siege attacks in this map, and hero appeared like ranged attacks.
- These two visually identical attack types, however, were made to deal 0% damage to all armor types (can be set in 'Gameplay Constants' window of the Editor)

--> this approach used up two attack types

- Ranged attackers using the Missile Deviation System now have a (hidden) ability based on the passive 'Demolish' ability of the Tinker hero from standard WarCraft 3. It modifies atack damage in all situations to 0%. The effect of this approach is the same as with the old approach, but two attack types are freed up for use.
- ^^ this 'Demolish' based ability has a hidden icon so that the UI of units remains the same as before
- ^^ the ability is also 'inherited' properly when a unit is changed to another unit (e.g. through a 'Chaos'-based ability, as is the case for human archers when the crossbow upgrade is researched); a special trigger called 'Make ability permanent' in the Category 'Faehigkeiten' assures that 'inheritance'.

Balance:
- Walls:
- Wall expansion cost for all factions set to 5 lumber (affects Humans, Dwarves, High Elves, whose cost was 10 lumber previously)
- Dwarven Laborer:
- armor from 0 to 10
- Dwarven Iron Guard:
- Damage multiplier against structures reduced from 10x to 5x (uses new variant of 'Siege' attack type, specifically for infantry)
- Orc 'Raiding Troops':
- Damage multiplier of orcish melee units against structures (when 'Raiding Troops' is researched) reduced from 10x to 5x
- New attack type introduced for this purpose, meaning orcish melee units don't use the 'Siege' attach type anymore, but a slightly modified version (based on War3 default 'Chaos' attack type)
- Orc 'Rage' (attack and movement speed aura of Warlords)
- attack speed mulitplier from 0.5 to 0.33
- Orc Furnace:
- cost from 10 to 15 lumber
--> IDEA: weaken economy of Orcs, who are an aggressive powerhouse and will capture flags quickly (which now increases income) while forcing the enemy to spend resources through early pressure

Minor Polish:
- Undead Doctrines:
--> Plague Doctrine renamed to Dark Alchemy Doctrine
--> Blight Doctrine renamed to Plaguelands Doctrine
- Dwarven Defenders:
--> Squad member selection circle size now in line with size of selection circles of squad leaders
- Highelf 'Ranger Stealth':
--> suspected grammar error in tooltip of 'Ranger Stealth' upgrade fixed (to get invisible --> changed to: to become invisible)

Minor Managment:
- Unused dwarven Crane model removed from Import Editor
- Unused dwarven Crane icon removed from Import Editor
- Unused 'Cleric' unit deleted in Object Editor
- Unused trigger for the older version of the 'Ale' ability removed (when it recharged cooldowns instead of healing)
- Trigger that makes flagponts visible in the fog of war right from the start was optimized to only create a temporary region spanning the entire map once and then creating a visibility modifier for ALL player slots before destroying the temporary rect again; previously, the rect was created and deleted for each player seperately.
- Unused Orb Of Fire-based ability deleted in Objec Editor (was used for intitial experimentation with the ranged Missile Deviation System, wherein it is necessary to make the ranged units themselves be able to attack without dealing damage themselves! (a dummy does that, see big update two version before this update)
- Human Catapults had their damage point in Object Editor set to 0.0 instead of 0.1, like Orc and Undead Catapults; because Catapults use triggers when attacking (for the Missile Deviation System), it made no real difference at all
- Unused trigger for a cut invulnerability spell of a demon caster unit that isn't currently integrated into the game deleted
- Object Editor data of the now-cut Demon Lord of the undead faction removed
- Object Editor data of unused 'Hellhound' varaints (including 'Mana Stalker') deleted
- Squad train dummy for unused Gargoyle Squads and Melee Hellhound Squads deleted
- Cut Human Spearthrower unit (and melee Axe Fighter variant) removed from unit color triggers
- Cut Human Spearthrower unit removed from Missile Deviation triggers

Map Description on Hive:
- "Fallen Ones" Description added to the Undead Unit Sportlight.
- Dwarven Laborer Description's last paragraph now appears in the correct textbox


15.04.2020
BUGFIX:
- Rain Of Fire missiles dealt damage twice since last update. This has been fixed
- ^^the reason was the rework of damage types wherein making ranged units with missile deviatio system deal no damage themselves was moved to a "Demolish"-based ability, rather than a special damage type that dealt 0% damage to all armor types -- the same attack type was used by the attacker dummies of the rain of fire ability that spawn the raining fire missiles; those aren't supposed to deal damage, instead, they spawn another explosion unit at the point of impact of their ranged AoE attack (through the use of an ability based on the undead meatwagon's disease cloud ability), and that new dummy is the one that deals damage when it instantly dies thereafter, through an ability based on the goblin sappers' suicidal damage ability.
- ^^the mentioned ability based on the war3 Goblin Tinker's "Demolish" ability, however, is NOT used to make the dummies that create the raining missiles for Rain Of Fire deal no damage, because it has an artillery-type attack, and in combination with "Demolish", this caused a CRASH!
- ^^... instead, the target types of the artillery attack of that dummy were just changed to nothing (both splash targets and normal targets)

BALANCE:
- Demon Void Walker food cost from 2 to 3

FACTION DESCRIPTION:
- Orc description text changed back to text previous to last update
- Demon faction description changed

POLISH:
- High Elf Arcane Mages' unit description classified them as "Mage", whereas all other casters are classified as "Caster" in their descriptions. Arcane Mages are now also classified as "Caster".

MANAGMENT:
- Unused Object Editor Data deleted (Abilities: Haste, Curse, Old Firebolt spell, Old Chaos Missiles spell)

 

[Mech_Warrior]

Hey Drogenhoernchen,

Wow, great game! This is very original and fun, exactly the kind of map that gets me pumped up to review it.

It took me 3 times to get what to do. I feel like the gameplay could be explained more thoroughly. Particularly the "control point" system, while well made, should be explained to new players. It is so crucial in this version of the game that people will easily find themselves being slaughtered in 5 minutes if they don't understand it. I know I did.

Another comment is that the higher tiered units felt... kind of weak. For instance, I had my town guards, and the elite guards. But the town guards honestly were doing the job just fine, if not better (because you get more of them). I honestly won the game with Spear Throwers, Towers, Ballistae, and Catapults. The mages are worth getting too, at times, but other than that, the knights seemed to suck (even the supposedly advanced ones that it took a lot to unlock). This is feedback for Humans (the only race that I myself played).

I also feel like perhaps the control points should give different amounts of income depending on location. For instance, make the ones in the middle worth the least, maybe 2/3 the value of the ones near each base. The reason is, it felt like the game was actually decided in the first 5-10 minutes, but it took us 25 minutes to actually win.

What I mean specifically is that once we had assumed control of the middle points, they stood no chance of ever coming back, unless we really really fucked up. At least that's how it seemed to me. This might have also been because of race choices; I'm not entirely sure which ones are the best late-game for making comebacks. There may already be systems in the game to account for this; if so, I didn't get a chance to see them.

Overall, great game, 4/5 from me.

Keep up the good work,
Mech

 

[Deleted member 237964]

It's 4/5 for me.I like this a lot and enjoed every single minute of playing this map.

Only three suggestions from me.Could Catapults move just a bit faster? I know that it's a siege weapon but still.Could it be a bit faster?

The second is...is mounted footman best idea one? The model is okey but there are many better cavalary models in here.

And the last.Maybe some more upgrades? It's kinda okey for me and i liked current upgrades and other like this but maybe thre could be some weapon or shield upgrades? ))

 

[Tigrick]

It's 4/5 for me.I like this a lot and enjoed every single minute of playing this map.Could Catapults move just a bit faster? I know that it's a siege weapon but still.Could it be a bit faster?

I have though about that many times. I think Normal and hard AI actually ''cheats'' atm and has faster catapults

The second is...is mounted footman best idea one? The model is okey but there are many better cavalary models in here.

I know, it felt misfitting to me, too. You always have the same thoughts as me

It's a good model, it suited the faction well once, but the human faction has changed a lot. I have often thought about changing it. Then again, it helps emphasize the ''elite'' riders of the Human faction (Crusaders) even more.


Thank you for your feedback (both of you) ツ

 

[kakuzu]

Interesting map , good gameplay !

 

[Lenura]

this map is great.
I want to assume that we will see more maps in the future as in terrain?
Possibly more races?

 

[Tigrick]

@Lenura:

I thought about different terrains. Depends how popular it gets
Also, if you check it out in OE, you can see, that 3 more races are currently laid out, but not fully polished (demon, troll, nightelf)
But I am not sure if I'd like them all in the game. Especially trolls give me headaches. There is very few inspiration for trolls, because they do not exist in other franchises (e.g. BfME) and they were only 1 unit in Warcraft 1 and 2.

Problem with adding Nightelves is, that they always rival with the High Elves. So, there'd be a risk of the 2 factions to be too equal.

Demons were nice, I liked the concept I had for them, but they seemed outta place. Too different, and too outta-space-overly-powerful. They would seem like a TOO potent force compared to the other playable factions. It kills the immersion because they seem exaggerated.


Uhhmm, did I answer your question?

 

[Lenura]

sure did, gnolls then.

 

[Arrr]

I really like the map and the idea
Some quick notes:
Sometimes forts will train units going over the food cap
ranged units feel a bit "too strong" imo
it starts lagging after a while, even in singleplayer
undead regeneration on blight is a bit too strong
something feels wrong to the orders given to a group of units, when leader dies

I really enjoy the map, these were some of my impressions
Hope to see more of this

 

[Tigrick]

@AYF: The latest update should reduce the lag caused by AI players.

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

Map approved using this review below

[TD]

Moderator: StoPCampinGn00b version 1.0 First War Memorium by Drogenhoernchen RATINGS Scores Explanation Gameplay: 27/30 Terrain & Scenery: 18/20 Total Score: 46/50 5 Stars: 47+ 4 Stars: 40-47 3 Stars: 25-39 2 Stars: 10-24 1 Stars: 1-9 CRITIQUE Gameplay: The gameplay is lovable for any RTS player and easy to learn. The map features a well made squad system, balance of factions and units within each faction, and a very strategic experience making you feel like a general. Though the slow movement speed of the units, it does not make the map slow and boring. This puts emphasis on strategic positioning. The abilities of the units are absolutely lovable, creative, and helpful to succeeding, for both squads and single units. Great job on differentiating the factions to give them their own gameplay and unique features. The AI? They were pretty damn good on Insane, and beatable on easy and normal. They actually play the objectives (control points)! I've had few problems with the map, I've had some lag late game. I also notice the control points favor the western side significantly more as they are closer. You should move them more to the right, or edit the pathing to make the time. This is more of an annoyance issue, but please make it so special units stick to the back line when moving instead of the front. AI That's all the faults I can see! 27/30 ​ Terrain & Aesthetics: This map has great terrain tile usage. All of the tiles compliment each other and it's surroundings and they aren't randomly spammed. Height leveling was also executed greatly as it wasn't overdone. I do have a question mark though, why does part of the bottom right have 85% dirt? Doodad placement wasn't extreme but it was plenty. It looks like you've decorated little by little, consistently. Other than that, the only thing left I have to say about the aesthetics in the custom models and icons look nice. 18/20 ​ VERDICT The only way a map can be approved is if it follows the map submission rules that apply to the map type. - All rules followed, map approved! ​ NOTES Overall it's a great map, but it still can be improved for a 5 star rating! Feel free to contact me about this review on this map page OR message me about anything. (+2) reputation points for taking your time to upload this map to Hive. One more thing, the map isn't at all an Altered Melee, it features no creeps or gold mines. I've set it to Strategy and Risk due to the control points, large scale battles, and significant difference from melee gameplay. (See my guide: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/tutorial-submission-283/map-category-guide-254995/)

[/TD] [/TD][/tr]

 

[Eagle XI]

Hooooly shit.
Dat systems, hnnngghhhh.

EDIT: On my second test run against the AI game suddenly became unplayably laggy, with sounds choppedly repeating, the only difference i could spot is the fog and it took the game a few seconds to respond again after opening Menu.
On my first run i was human, with ally elf against an orc and undead. The undead was getting free blighted ground everywhere on the map and healing troops blitz. Is that normal ?
Ranged units often fired sniper range but seem to always ever miss. The elf priest was healing across half the map.

 

[Wazzz]

map has a few game changing bugs, such as summoning costing waaaay more than it should (sort of cripples the undead)
i'm not sure if the casters are supposed to use their 1 mana point attack by default like in warcraft 2, but for me, they don't seem to do that
i'm a bit iffy on the map myself - it has great themes but i'm not so sure i agree with the execution

 

[kakuzu]

Great work of the new moderator , the map deserved to be aproved

 

[Tigrick]

@Wazzz: Hotfixed ツ +rep

 

[Wazzz]

@Wazzz: Hotfixed ツ +rep

awesome stuff, i'll check it out ^_^

i'll also try and keep you posted on any other glitches i come across

 

[Fingolfin]

Alright, so i tried this, and i am quite impressed! The unit design and overall simplicity of the gameplay works great. Systems were implemented in a nice way, although i never quite felt the effect of the doctrine choices, and as elves i never ended up using the detection structure (because i never encountered invisible units). A few things that bothered me though:

• Units died a bit too quickly. This made the game a lot about spamming or making small but desicive choices, such as using AoE abilities at the right timing to wipe out the enemy army. I think you could benefit a lot from giving all units slightly more hit points, as it is quite frustrating to play right now.
• Towers are very powerful, and putting down two of them will effectively secure your base until the endgame.
• The learning curve is a bit steep. You should add some ingame hints to inform players of the strengths of certain units.
• The roles of some units are a bit unclear. It would, for instance, be good if the tooltips specified what high elf lancers are good against, that regular swordsmen aren't.
• I noticed that the High Elf sorceress does not properly blink if you tell her to move a long distance. You have to blink her in steps. Overall i did not end up using her, since she mostly just slowed the enemy. Overall i wish there were mechanics in this game to let you more easily cast spells without too much hazzle.
• I would appreciate if it was possible to specify the direction in which the Fire Mage shoots his flame spell. Since he has no other attack, he is not automatically turned towards the enemy and requires a lot of extra micro (even though the Fire Mage + the magic cart thingy was an awesome combo vs most units).

Overall great work! Keep working on this, if you make the gameplay less spammy i will totally be playing this on b-net.

 

[Eagle XI]

Units died a bit too quickly

I agree, basic melee troops should have more HP per figure.
'Squadleader's that are more durable (like Sergeants in Dawn of War. Could be Captains for Footmen and Champions for Grunt) as an tech-tree feature (that gets automatically and globally added as you put a point into, for all future trained squads of affected type from that point on) would be nice too.

 

[Fingolfin]

Alright, so i tried the Dwarven race now, here are my thoughts so far:

• My greatest issue was that the Mortar Team, labled as an "early siege unit", was actually the best siege unit you would have during the entire game. It could fire from half the map and take out the entire enemy base, as long as it was protected. This is a very stark contrast to both the crappy Siege Tank and Battering Ram, both of which are usually killed by the towers right after they reached them (and since they have to be on the front lines, they are the first targets for enemy infantry). Sending in escort infantry is a no-go, since towers obliterate your soldiers in seconds.
• The Demolition teams could plant an infinite number of mines. Yeah, that's right, there is only a 1 second cooldown and infinite charges. I never really got to see how powerful the mines were, but if they do any damage at all i cannot imagine how that will be balanced. Either limit them to 1-3 or give the mines timed life.
• I think one of the doctrines promised me something like an "iron guard" unit, but i never got it. The number of unit types is fine right now though.
• I am not sure, but i think the splash from the cannon tower once killed an entire squad of mine. If they deal damage to friendlies, i am not sure if that is the best way to balance them.

Other than that, it was really fun. The Heavy tank was perfectly balanced - it decimated infantry, but was really weak to both towers and siege weapons. The mine shaft network was also a super cool mechanic, but as soon as you were able to produce units off the towers it became a bit obsolete. Placing a tower in the bottleneck towards their base would effectively lock the game down and prevent the enemy from passing, while at the same time it lets you reinforce your units really quick. Perhaps you should reconsider the idea of training units from towers, or at least limit it to a single tier-1 melee unit type.

 

[Tigrick]

@Eagle XI
yes, Fingolfin left tremendously great feedback, but the hitpoint change is tricky. I'd have to overthrow a lot.
Know that basic infantry had their armor reduced by 10 prior to release. I will review this again and might undo the change. The 10 armor points can greatly increase their durability against other basic troops, but most spells would still be devastating against massed units (as they should be to make caster units worth the price)

Just know I am aware and testing

Anyways, thanks to both of you for commenting ツ

 

[Fingolfin]

Another amazing bug i noticed: the Pestilants acid bomb ability, when used on blight ground, spawns MORE ZOMBIES!! It must be due to the acid dummy unit dying. This is a terrible/awesome hack (depending on how you see it lol) that lets you get infinitely large armies of zombies in no time. I think the Pestilants have 10 mana, with the acid bomb ability costing 1. It spawns about 5-6 missiles. That means 10*6 = 60 ZOMBIES!

 

[A]mun]

Well Fingolfin said it all.

Your project has some interesting ideas. The main issue for me is the zerg-like approach, since units die so quickly.

 

[Wazzz]

I agree with Fingolfin's notes. I found the same to be true of the Dwarves - also loved using the Riflemen, as I found I don't like frequently missing with vanilla ranged units.

Try Undead next, spam Zombies

 

[Tigrick]

Another amazing bug i noticed: the Pestilants acid bomb ability, when used on blight ground, spawns MORE ZOMBIES!! It must be due to the acid dummy unit dying. This is a terrible/awesome hack (depending on how you see it lol) that lets you get infinitely large armies of zombies in no time. I think the Pestilants have 10 mana, with the acid bomb ability costing 1. It spawns about 5-6 missiles. That means 10*6 = 60 ZOMBIES!

lol what the f*ck??! I'm gonna hotfix that. Be right back


Edit: Done. Thanks a bunch, Fingolfin. Can't +rep u right now :/ I will remember, though

 

[Fang]

Great Work! I like it

 

[YingMM]

It's an amazing map that expressing some same idea for me.
After played it 5 times, please forgive me fait accompli, I spent one night to translate it with Chinese.
During it, I found that 3 more races were currently laid out (demon, troll, nightelf), so I made this post to urge you to quickly update the map.
I'm so fucking want to play new races!

Keep up the good work！

by a WEer from China

 

[Tigrick]

@YingMM:
Thank you for your nice comment. I will only add new factions when I am totally happy with them. That's why demons, trolls and nightelves were not in the initial release. I am, however, always looking for opportunities to make them work.

Also, I sent you a Private Message.

 

[Fingolfin]

If you need any kind of triggering help, feel free to ask. You seem to be doing excellent on your own though.

 

[MogulKahn]

I must admit that I am utterly impressed whit this map ! Great job mate ! Only thing that I am not big fan of is lack of abilities on some units...

 

[Fingolfin]

The amount of abilities is fine, adding more would require more micro from the player. Spellcasters have 3 abilities as standard, infantry have sprint, which is enough. Personally, i was really, really pleased with how well designed the units were on this point, lots of mapmakers like to overdo it with active spells on low-tier units.

 

[Lord_Disasthorm]

This is awesome and amazing map!
P. S: i prefer undeads, men, and elven races.

 

[RandomPogi]

It crashes for Mac users, upon the map's start. Immediately after the loading finishes and the fogged map is shown, the map freezes. I'd like to play this map as it interests me, so please try considering this:

http://www.thehelper.net/threads/mac-certain-map-crash-on-selection.130633/

 

[Tigrick]

It crashes for Mac users, upon the map's start. Immediately after the loading finishes and the fogged map is shown, the map freezes. I'd like to play this map as it interests me, so please try considering this:

http://www.thehelper.net/threads/mac-certain-map-crash-on-selection.130633/

I will try to solve this when I have time for the next update.

 

[Lord_Disasthorm]

If I may ask, is the map is protected?

 

[Ivanez]

Well, I must say that this is the best map I played recently. Both simple and interesting, both rush and calm, this took a long time of mine. And I'm not regreting it. By the way, I saw one bug with Defenders: if they were used sprint, and then used defensive stance, and then cancel defensive stance, their sprint gets refreshed and they can do this endlessly many times, and for some reason this bug caused ale to not work on defenders (i played 2 times, at first one I didn't notice bug so I didn't use it and ale was working normally, but in second game happened what I was talking about previously), looks interesting when those warriors RUN RUN RUN, stand resiliently, RUN RUN RUN and so on. Fix plz.

By the way, about races which are not in the game, you may be right about actual thought of demon's power, and there are already some of them at the pest's cult, and night elves, to make them look not so like high ones, there is need for some tanky bears, channeling aoe healing (aka Tranquility) and...I think you have ideas about it already. But trolls are difinitely the ones who should be in game because they were known well at the times of First War.

 

[Tigrick]

@Ivanez:

Requirements for a new race to be added:


- Inspiration (=ideas for units and abilities):
Trolls in the warcraft-form are unique to Warcraft so there is few sources of ideas other than War2+3; same applies for Night Elves. On the other hand, with the Dwarven faction I could draw inspiration form BfME2, for example (see Mine Shafts).

- Time span:
As the title suggests, I'm going for a War1-alike feeling and vibe. This is a problem with Night Elves mainly. But Trolls also, only ever first appeared in War2.

- Feeling of equality:
The current races are all more or less on an equal level concerning the political and military power they represent. I aim at the feeling of an equal fight beyond which there stands a uncertain political conflict. This is one of the main problems with demons. How to add them in a way that does justice to the incredible power of the void, yet does not break the feeling of equal (and thus more interesting) struggle amongst nations.

- Political intrigue:
Each faction has a background story, and they all include some kind of twisted ideals or political intrigue. This is supposed to make the experience more entangling and realistic. However, this is hard to implement with demons. I though about giving them the feeling of a very hierarchic, gigantic army. You know, an army that ate worlds. Driven by massive amounts of slaves, with a few iconic leading figures (like Demon Lords, Infernals and Demonic Tanks). However, I am still experimenting with that approach, and am not yet satisfied with it, as currently, it does not offer enough variety.

- Overlaps:
Night Elves have a tendency to overlap with High Elves both design-wise and gameplay-wise. I try to find workaround, but it's hard. Trolls, too, have a tendency to be too equal to Orcs. And Demons, like the Undead, would take the position of dark-ish, occult evil. So they would overlap again.

- Rarity:
As you said, the Undead do have a few demonic units currently. And I don't really want to remove those from the undead faction. Right now, Demons are a rare phenomenon, as they should, and as they always were in early Warcraft lore.

- European Mythology:
The current factions, Humans, Dwarfs, High Elves, Orcs and Undead all are deeply rooted in culture. Be it literature (for example LotR) or old tales, there's plenty of stories that have them occur in similar forms. Thus, it feels like they deserve their place. Their role has grown. The factions that are exclusive to Blizzard in their design, like the Warcraft Trolls or Night Elves, just seem a bit too random to me. No insult intended

Despite all this, as I was saying, I'm always looking for ways to make the potential new factions (Demons, Night Elves, Trolls) work. We'll see what the future holds... Hope this gave you some insights. When I add a faction I want it to feel right. As soon as it suits the atmosphere I want to create, I can add it.

 

[Ivanez]

Hello again. I found another bug: Fel Wolf Riders are able to spawn Death Knights which after that suddenly spawn Skeleton Warriors. Need2Fix

 

[Tigrick]

Hello again. I found another bug: Fel Wolf Riders are able to spawn Death Knights which after that suddenly spawn Skeleton Warriors. Need2Fix

I am not able to reproduce this bug, it must be something seldom.

It would be great if you could explain a little further what exactly happend. Did they have an ability icon or did they automatically do that?


We best solve this via PM.

 

[Tigrick]

@Ivanez
@everyone who asked for new races

forget what I said! If everything works out, I'll be able to add Night Elves somewhere around ~March. The concept stands and I'm quite happy with how they fit in. Turns out, landscape is one important factor I forgot to mention when it comes to integrating a new faction.

Due to the new landscape, the Nightelf Addon will be a seperate release, I suppose. I tried to make the new terrain type similar to Wc3 Alpha Felwood terrain.

 

[Chizume]

You have something nice going on here!

Wanted to make you aware of a bug I noticed with the wall hub system. When expanding walls in rapid succession a wall is sometimes not created but the pathing blocker is. I have managed to replicate this bug by spamming the hotkey for the wall expansion skill while simultaneously left clicking close to the wall.

Cheers!

 

[MogulKahn]

Any progress?

 

[Tigrick]

You have something nice going on here!

Wanted to make you aware of a bug I noticed with the wall hub system. When expanding walls in rapid succession a wall is sometimes not created but the pathing blocker is. I have managed to replicate this bug by spamming the hotkey for the wall expansion skill while simultaneously left clicking close to the wall.

Cheers!

Hey, thanks! +rep

Any progress?

Nah. I was considering deleting post #40 again. I had a good start for a Night Elf faction, but after some time, when I came back, I didn't like the new terrain anymore. Sometimes some time must pass to see things more clearly... in this case, the problem is, that the original terrain suits the 5 current factions, but it DOESN'T suit the Night Elves. The new terrain I had suits the Night Elves, but not the original factions (except for the undead, maybe).
As you see, the main problem is not so much the faction, but the lack of a suiting battleground that would justify the presence of all 5+1 factions.

Anyways, thanks for asking ツ

 

[Fingolfin]

YAAY UPDATE!

What is new in this version? Why is there no changelog?

 

[Tanasren]

5 HP units army ??
I need to play this !!!!!!!

 

[Tigrick]

YAAY UPDATE!

What is new in this version? Why is there no changelog?

Don't get too excited, it's mainly bug fixes The changelog is attached in post #1.

Siege Tanks now use the Beta-Model and are melee units. Usually, I don't like to do such fundamental changes to the design, but this is sth I wanted to do from the start.
Balance-wise I only touched upon Battering Rams and Siege Tanks which I recall to be called 'useless' by you once (in which you were right the way I see it )



@EVERYONE:
I got very, very, very good feedback so far. I just want everyone who commented to know that I always keep all the feedback you gave in mind.
I am a bit slow with balance-adjustments. I have seen games patched to death.
All the points mentioned by you folks are good points, and many of them I myself had noticed before. Examples are the low catapult speed (mentioned by Admiral Proudmoore) or the general survivability of basic infantry (mentioned by Fingolfin). I want you to know that these doubts you mentioned, I had them too. But there is thoughts behind the current desgin.

EXAMPLES:

Catapults are very slow, yes. But this also serves as an incentive to build them in the field (and closer to the enemy castle) with your worker unit. Orc build them from the HQ, but the Warlords with their leader bonus make them faster.
That aside, I was consicering setting their speed from 40 to 50 or maybe 60. On the other hand, that would mean I'd also have to adjust the speed of Battering Rams for consistency reasons.

Basic melee units die fast, yes. I could revert their armor decrease (-10) from pre-release. Yet, this would make elite units like Human Guards less viable compared to their non-elite counterparts. I fear that such a change would actually encourage just spamming the basic unit type. Basic units can always be boosted in their performance for every faction. Humans get bonuses near walls and get better elite units to replace them; Elves have effective Healers that keep them alive; Undead use blight to heal their infantry; Orcs have leader bonuses for nearby units and Dwarves have upgrades for their basic footfolk.
However, I am looking for solutions to make everyone happy. Just understand that this is a long thought process. It's easier to experiment with more specialized units like Siege Tanks or Battering Rams. But when I change the core basic unit squads, the flow of the game will probablly be drastically changed. So I am carefull atm. But the point has been noted and I will be looking for solutions.

P.S. I often prefer to create new content instead of balancing, e.g. currently I often work on the Night Elf Faction I want to add one day ツ

 

[Tanasren]

hmmm it's very annoying to have no rally points
makes it hard to play

also it looked like killing the AI's base was very very tedious

and AI kept targeting the immune Eredar for Undeads (it was useless)

 

[WerBackIII]

Okay, I'm really not sure what's going on, but the map is not working for me. It's not showing in my Maps folder, and when I try to test it, the game crashes. I run the latest patch, and I also tried to run it with Administrator rights.

 

[YingMM]

Hi, dear Drogenhoernchen, do u remeber me?

Found this update is the happiest thing for me in this week.

I'm too excited to give you a message to play the new game.

I'm going to play now！