Gnoll Campaign (Voice Acted)

[Theoden of KoMe]

A sequel of the Legendary Dwarf Campaign.Gonna check it out !!

 

[Thunder1]

i cant start it ...

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

i cant start it ...

What version of Warcraft III are you playing on and on which Operating System?

 

[Mechanical Man]

doesn't work for me either, despite I moved the cinematic mpq in movies folder

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

doesn't work for me either, despite I moved the cinematic mpq in movies folder

So the problem is with the cinematic only? Does the game work ok?

 

[Master_Cookie]

I can't start the first mission either.. I am playing on windows and my version of Warcraft is: 1.24.1.6374 :I

 

[Stefan.K]

Same here. I'm using Windows 10 and Warcraft 1.26 version. The cinematic starts, I watch it. Then when I click on the chapter to play it the black screen appears and I can only hear some sounds but the screen remains black.

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

We tested it on 1.28 and 1.29. It might not work on 1.26.

 

[Master_Cookie]

Same here. I'm using Windows 10 and Warcraft 1.26 version. The cinematic starts, I watch it. Then when I click on the chapter to play it the black screen appears and I can only hear some sounds but the screen remains black.

Same problem here!

 

[robizeratul]

Windows 10, not running the latest patch( 1.28) same problem.

Double checked everything. Cinematic works but game doesn't. I get a "couldn't load map data" and I hear sound in the backround with a black screen. nothing happens if I wait.

 

[Venkolm]

Doesn't work on 1.26. Which makes no sense for me, if it works on 1.28...
People should not be forced to update to 1.29 for this.

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

If you do not want to update your Warcraft III to the latest patch, we recommend you to download the PTR 1.29.1 version:

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/bnet/topic/20762257334

If you do so, please use the following directories to copy the files:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Warcraft III Public Test\Movies
  
• Documents\Warcraft III Public Test\Campaigns

Let me know if the using the PTR version solves the problem. At least we could run it on 1.29.1 on both Windows 10 and macOS High Sierra. macOS version had some missing textures, though (hope Blizzard fixes them).

I have Warcraft III 1.29.0 on Windows 10 and it works for me. I also tested it on 1.29.0 on macOS High Sierra, and it worked for me, but my brother could not run it on his Mac, but 1.29.1 solved the problem for him.

 

[252542477]

As a fan of dwarf campaign i’m excited to see Gnoll campaign released.i’m playing under 1.29 version,Win7 ,nice game experience so far.now I’m trying to open that door requires combination
minor suggestions:some buildings and gold mine models seem a little big in game,maybe set to default would be better ：）

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

minor suggestions:some buildings and gold mine models seem a little big in game,maybe set to default would be better

We continued Dwarf Campaign's style of having 1.4-1.5 scaling value on buildings. In our view, the default buildings were too small. But I think that is a matter of taste and people are used to buildings being the size that they are in the melee games.

 

[Venkolm]

Seems like i will have to log in Guest mode on my laptop, install WarCraft III PTR 1.29.1 and download this campaign, in order to play it .
Because when we update our Wc3 game, we also update all our maps with it, and our World Editor as well. And when you have an unfinished project at the time... GG.

 

[Stefan.K]

Same thing when I launched it from the PTR version. I get this bug and the black screen remains.

 

[cleavinghammer]

The cinematic played fine at first, then crashed the game (just after the part where the Gnoll Campaign logo shrinks down).

Tried starting the first level, it immediately went to a black screen and said "cannot load map data" and the screen stayed black with meteor sounds.
Credits worked perfectly fine.

On windows and version 1.28.5.7680

 

[nhs325]

So based on the previous comments, the campaign requires the newest patch to actually work huh? That's kind of suck.

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

Same thing when I launched it from the PTR version. I get this bug and the black screen remains.

I also tested it now on 1.28.5 and got the same error message. It seems that something has happened to the campaign when we edited it with 1.29. So it seems to require 1.29 now. I keep on investigating what might be causing the problem with 1.28.5.

Update: I cannot anymore save the chapter 1 file reliably with the 1.28.5 World Editor, so it seems to be stuck to 1.29 now. I guess we have to admit that it requires 1.29 now as we have used that version to make the latest changes to the campaign.

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

So based on the previous comments, the campaign requires the newest patch to actually work huh? That's kind of suck.

The campaign does not actually use any of the new features of 1.29, but it seems that the 1.29 World Editor has done something to the campaign that it does not work on earlier versions anymore. So, it seems that the 1.29 World Editor has some kind of backwards compatibility issues.

 

[nhs325]

I know the current situation that some maps or campaigns made for the newest version doesn't work on the previous versions anymore, but can you have a way to port the campaign to the previous patch World Editor so that we can play it?

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

I know the current situation that some maps or campaigns made for the newest version doesn't work on the previous versions anymore, but can you have a way to port the campaign to the previous patch World Editor so that we can play it?

I do not know. Opening and saving in the 1.28.5 World Editor does not work. It corrupts the campaign file so that it does not work properly anymore.

Update: I guess you need to use the PTR 1.29.1 version to play the campaign.

 

[Deleted member 237964]

Just to see Sequel to one of my most loved custom campaign brings tears to my eyes.

 

[Jayborino]

Really excited to get into this! I haven't updated to 1.29 yet because I'm waiting for them to fix editor issues, but this will be one of the first things I plan to record a playthrough of.

 

[Maltazar]

Just finished. (Version 1.29 here)
Good work, the first mission was great! Albeit to short, but not bad at all! Great even, just as expected!

Short and sweet, lets say. Looking forward for more, that was a good first impression!

 

[Blasterixx]

Finished the campaign(on hard), and oh my, you guys did such a fantistic job with it, i can say you got some talent , everything from the story to the characters and from the visuals to the interesting and challenging puzzles of the game, is just fabulous!(even tho it took me a while to figure the puzzles out , they are't that hard if u apply logic to them).

So now about the things i found that can get better in my opinion:

1. At the start of the campaign(at the beach area) we need to chop the trees so we can pass to the next areas right? well i find it annoying that we can't attack the trees with the gnolls workers(which made the chopping of the wood progress very slow and boring) i suggest to make the gnoll workers able to attack the trees.

2. When i talk to the npc in the troll town i can see a bit of the outskirts of the village, and is just a lot of empty space, for exemple when i talked to the shaman, in the right is a bit of an empty space, i suggest to put some trees and other plats there, so it doesn't look like is nothing there, you know for a better world aesthetic view.

3. At the final stage(in that big arena) in my opinion the space is a bit too small to have a good fight with those bosses, so i suggest to make that space larger maybe, especially the bridges, oh yea and make it in such a way that once you enter the arena you can't get out until you win(because is very easy to just poke at the bosses and run away abusing the war3 engine patthings etc.) and make them attack you as well,this way i would say the fight will feel like a real one(of life and death scenario).

So yea overall i loved the campaign, as i loved the dwarf one as well, and i can't wait for the next update to come! Good luck and i wish you all the best!

Oh and i almost forgot, That theme song for Gnarl Goldmane is just epic, well done with that idea!

 

[DrakPanda]

1.29.0.9905, intro and map load work fine

people just need to update current version of wc3 via Battlenet button at the main menu it will automatically download current patch for game

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

1. At the start of the campaign(at the beach area) we need to chop the trees so we can pass to the next areas right? well i find it annoying that we can't attack the trees with the gnolls workers(which made the chopping of the wood progress very slow and boring) i suggest to make the gnoll workers able to attack the trees.

Gnoll workers should be able to attack trees, but they need a Lumber Yard to return the lumber. There is also another way of clearing up the trees...

2. When i talk to the npc in the troll town i can see a bit of the outskirts of the village, and is just a lot of empty space, for exemple when i talked to the shaman, in the right is a bit of an empty space, i suggest to put some trees and other plats there, so it doesn't look like is nothing there, you know for a better world aesthetic view.

Thanks! We will update that in the next version.

3. At the final stage(in that big arena) in my opinion the space is a bit too small to have a good fight with those bosses, so i suggest to make that space larger maybe, especially the bridges, oh yea and make it in such a way that once you enter the arena you can't get out until you win(because is very easy to just poke at the bosses and run away abusing the war3 engine patthings etc.) and make them attack you as well,this way i would say the fight will feel like a real one(of life and death scenario).

We will also consider this one. So you need more room on the bridges, or more room in the center? Maybe you could split the army in 3 parts in the end game (south, west, east) that you do not get cramped on bridges?

 

[Nigerian NiBBer]

It works for me, I used the latest War3 version and it worked.

 

[Jayborino]

Only tangentially related, but I wanted to mention that your group, Sound Mind Games, has an excellent mission statement.

 

[Blasterixx]

Gnoll workers should be able to attack trees, but they need a Lumber Yard to return the lumber. There is also another way of clearing up the trees...

Yes i know about "the other way" of clearing the trees but i usually pick for my hero an active spell and a passive spell(and in this case i picked healing wave since is such a nice spell and of course the passive which is amazing as well, so thats why i didnt have "Force of nature" spell, and i couldn't clear the trees with it >.<

About the gnolls chopping the trees, the problem is not what building is built or not, the problem is that you can't use them to A + left click the trees(attack the trees), this is a common war3 mechanic for every worker unit in game except of course for wisps
why is this such a big deal? well in my case as i said i didnt have the force of nature spell, and my only way of advancing to the next phase of the game was chopping the trees off, which took me such a long time because as i saw the trees had more health than an usual tree, and the workers lost a lot of time travelling back and forth to return the wood, If i could attack the trees with A + left click i would have cleared the way faster

So you need more room on the bridges, or more room in the center? Maybe you could split the army in 3 parts in the end game (south, west, east) that you do not get cramped on bridges?

Yes i think it would be nice if the bridges were larger, and yea i actually did split my army like that, but since i am not a very good player i ended up losing every unit , and fought using only the heroes in the end, but in my eyes the first part of the battle was pretty bad since all the units(the enemy units as well) were stuck on the first bridge and it looked kind of funny.

What about my other suggestion tho? of making the bosses and their army attacking you as well and chasing you in the arena(in this case the arena should be closed during this "boss battle", i think this would make it a more entertaing way of ending the level. So before entering the arena it would be nice if you will put a Tip on the screen for the player like this: "Tip: The next battle is a boss fight, you can't leave the arena while the battle started so you should assamble your army and be ready before marching any further" something like that, oh well just my thoughts

 

[VadyaQ]

The first mission is amazing! Havent played this quality campaign in a while! Bringing back a good old memories of dwarven campaign. I just want you guys know that this is high quality stuff for good old campaign players like me! Here some thoughts (finished on hard):
1. Hero designs could be better. even though hero upgrade thingy is so good : main hero is just healing machine with 2 completely useless spells (earthquake and FoN). 2 heroes are just casual wc3 heroes (and Keeper feels completely out of place) and troll hero which is too weird - agillity hero with spammable spells(not sure about this, i feel like i didnt use her enough). More custom spells would be nice overall.
2. Unit design is actually good, like rly awesome. Enjoyed Assasin upgrades and brute/overseer balance. I would love to see custom mages, so gnoll shaman wouldn't be just an orc shaman. But the unit designs are still cool.
3. Mini-boss fights could be harder. Take almost no micro to beat them after u got base and huge army.
4. Base sieges are good! Could be a little a hader but still these workers AI is actually good. You probably could make base defence a little harder - it took me 10 twrs to just forget about the base and go around the map.
5. Riddle of the Temple is just too hard,man! I guess it takes 200IQ to solve it. Some hints would be nice i think.
6. Last Boss fight could be more punishing: I suicided 100 food army on mage boss and then easily beat the second with new army. May be he should have a Ressurection abbility.

Great mission overall! Cant wait for the mission 2.

P.S. Sorry for shit grammar, i'm both excited and tired.

 

[Saelendious]

(I initially wrote asking of only one thing but decided to leave a review afterwards)
Its just like good old drarf campaing-styled mission and its amazing, loved the puzzles. Music that plays while Avatar is active is kinda cool.

Have some suggestions:
1) PLEASE, change the red team color to some other, red is so overused. There are 12 new colors in 1.29, eh.
2) How about replacing books of retraining with... idk, fruits of retraining? Having half-the-time useful and convinient books for some heroes is kinda meh.

Spoiler: Gameplay spoilers

3) There should be at least some dialogue with/about Tree of Spirits (and ancient protectors) if you uncorrupt the forest without destroying it (maybe? Also, same thing for Tree of Many Fruits, there should be some dialogue, and by dialogue I dont mean hints, there are sometimes too many hints).
4) Keeper of the Grove should have some diffirent spell in exchange for Force of Nature since Luna already has it. Also, 10 intellegence per one level of her passive is kinda OP, it can be easily cut down in half.
5) Items besides lanterns should have a bit of use too (maybe you can repair spears/robes/etc). I was expecting a mushroom twist, lol.
6) Should Nether Temples have inventory? It was kinda confusing. Maybe it was added by mistake so it should be removed.

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

Thank you for your comments.

Spoiler: Hero Spoiler, Answer to VadyaQ

1. Hero designs could be better. even though hero upgrade thingy is so good : main hero is just healing machine with 2 completely useless spells (earthquake and FoN). 2 heroes are just casual wc3 heroes (and Keeper feels completely out of place) and troll hero which is too weird - agillity hero with spammable spells(not sure about this, i feel like i didnt use her enough). More custom spells would be nice overall.

Well, the Earthquake should not be useless, it's been vastly improved in the campaign. Its area of effect has been doubled, its range increased by 450 (making it a good siege spell) and damage per second increased by 2.5 (from 50 to 125). Our playtesters found it very useful for destroying enemy towers.

As for the troll hero, she has actually spells from two other agility hero: Dark Ranger (Silence and Charm) and Shadow Hunter (Serpent Ward), plus one our own custom spell (Ghoulfiend). Should not that be ok for an agility hero?

Spoiler: Quest Spoiler, Answer to VadyaQ

5. Riddle of the Temple is just too hard,man! I guess it takes 200IQ to solve it. Some hints would be nice i think.

Do you mean the Ancient Chant of Gnarm'r or the Secret of the Temple quest?
We tried to make as many hints as possible for the Ancient Chant.
The Secret of the Temple is not as complicated as the Ancient Chant but has not so many hints.

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

We have now also the macOS version of the intro trailer available. I have updated the installation instructions.

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

Spoiler: Unit Spoiler, Answer to Saelendious

6) Should Nether Temples have inventory? It was kinda confusing. Maybe it was added by mistake so it should be removed.

Oh, that's a bug. They should not have inventories. We will correct that to the next version.

 

[Edson]

Congratulations on your excellent campaign! I played the first mission in normal difficulty and enjoyed the Lovecraftian horror atmosphere, particularly of the fact that there is no evil or right side in history.

Taking into account the previous posts, I would like to add that I have observed the following possible minor improvements:

1. The movement speed of the selected characters decreases when you have the chicken in the group "chicken egg item". I emphasize that I thought a lot about a practical use for this chicken and I did not find :/;
   
2. After completing the "Voodoo Curse" mission the "Kill Great Horned One ..." step is not flagged as complete;
   
3. Sharti-Lar's move is not fluid "it seems like she's walking in slow motion";

As a suggestion, it would be interesting to use a multi-map feature, as seen in Rexar's bonus campaign, to enrich the gameplay.

I'm waiting for mission two .

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

Thanks for your comments, Edson!

Spoiler: Answer to Edson

1. The movement speed of the selected characters decreases when you have the chicken in the group "chicken egg item". I emphasize that I thought a lot about a practical use for this chicken and I did not find :/;
   
2. After completing the "Voodoo Curse" mission the "Kill Great Horned One ..." step is not flagged as complete;
   
3. Sharti-Lar's move is not fluid "it seems like she's walking in slow motion";

1. One of our playtesters used chicken for scouting...
2. We will fix that for the next release.
3. Ok, we need to adjust her Walk and Run speed. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Lethaldiran156]

the campaign works fine on latest version

also when's the new chapter gonna come out

played on hard difficulty and didn't find it that challenging :>

 

[Lethaldiran156]

The first mission is amazing! Havent played this quality campaign in a while! Bringing back a good old memories of dwarven campaign. I just want you guys know that this is high quality stuff for good old campaign players like me! Here some thoughts (finished on hard):
1. Hero designs could be better. even though hero upgrade thingy is so good : main hero is just healing machine with 2 completely useless spells (earthquake and FoN). 2 heroes are just casual wc3 heroes (and Keeper feels completely out of place) and troll hero which is too weird - agillity hero with spammable spells(not sure about this, i feel like i didnt use her enough). More custom spells would be nice overall.
2. Unit design is actually good, like rly awesome. Enjoyed Assasin upgrades and brute/overseer balance. I would love to see custom mages, so gnoll shaman wouldn't be just an orc shaman. But the unit designs are still cool.
3. Mini-boss fights could be harder. Take almost no micro to beat them after u got base and huge army.
4. Base sieges are good! Could be a little a hader but still these workers AI is actually good. You probably could make base defence a little harder - it took me 10 twrs to just forget about the base and go around the map.
5. Riddle of the Temple is just too hard,man! I guess it takes 200IQ to solve it. Some hints would be nice i think.
6. Last Boss fight could be more punishing: I suicided 100 food army on mage boss and then easily beat the second with new army. May be he should have a Ressurection abbility.

Great mission overall! Cant wait for the mission 2.

P.S. Sorry for shit grammar, i'm both excited and tired.

did you do all 4 items? if so can you tell me how, i legit just gave up and completed the mission

 

[tuck3rthegm]

Gonna keep editing this when i found a new bug.

Found bugs:
Jo Jo Headshrinker dialog freezes in cinematic view. (edit: I think it occurs in all of the dialogs. In my testing i found if u change dialog speed when dialog ends it freezes in cinematic view.)

 

[Urim03]

Awesome, I loved it, I enjoyed the first chapter a lot, and I was sad to see it was only one available atm. Nevertheless, I prefer talk about things that could be improved rather than mention what is already good.


---Balance and bugs---

-I feel like custom spells are too powerful. Ghoulfiend simply look like an ultimate, 30 sec immunity, 30 hp regeneration and ability to "stun" anything, including heroes for some time. If you buffed it a bit with longer cd, and put it as ultimate it would be very cool though. Heightened Awareness gives 30 int, that's a lot. I would do +6/lvl maybe ? or lower but with another effect.
(also I find the description weird, I though it was giving 10 basis, and rest was just additional effect being improved. It's true that it's mostly me reading it bad, but I think it could be improved to be clearer)

-I tend to try do campains using heroes only and not units, so it doesn't really affect me. But assassins seems fairly broken compared to other units. Cheap (170 only), use little food (3), very powerful and ability to abuse opponent (1100 range, stealth with bonus damage, trap and fast). I know it's to replace catapults, but atm I feel like spamm them is one of the most worth strategy.
I wouldn't mind if all units were as strong, but atm these are clearly over average.

-Peons can't attack trees, it should be fixed in my opinion, especially since the "Force of Nature" spell isn't interesting enough to be learnt, to go through trees it take fairly long

-On start of the mission, you get control of survivors even if they wake up a miles away from you (from base regeneration). I had to afk like 3 min and when I came back, I went left to save them, but got control of one at right side. Not that much of a big deal but just for coherence I think it should be fixed in some way. (negate their regeneration; can only wake up if Luna is close or w/e)

-If you take control of a troll peon or yeenadorian gnoll peon, you can build whole race, just mentionning in case it's not intented. (Do all trolls mission, then kill them + take control of one their peon to mass build "Wood workshop" in order to buy "Mask of Zul'Megustar" sounds fairly OP. (Yes I'm very patient in some campain I like, testing and stuff))


---some few suggestions---

-Do you think you could use "QWER" as hotkeys for units and heroes' spell ? I find it much more enjoyable, but then everyone might not think same

-I would find it awesome if there was more reworked spell. I very dislike Force of Nature's spell (requires tree), also the clones of cenarius and montain king. Much more enjoyable with custom character in my opinion.

-Is it possible to chose difficulty of the campain on first map, or on begining on each map ? For some reason my wc3 is bugged, and when I put "hard campain", it'll only have this difficulty for one map. It means that if I chose hard difficulty, watch the introduction campain video and go on map, the difficulty will be normal (got tricked because of that). I don't know if I'm the only one having this issue, but it's very bothering.
If it's too complicated leave it like that is just fine, and ima adapt leaving campain to reselect difficulty everytime for future updates.

-Custom voice for each main character is certainly what I want the most, they are usually very fun to listen to, like for the troll girl.
"I feel pretty and pretty... *spits*

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

Thank you for your comments. They are most useful.

• We will surely consider nerfing the custom abilities and the Gnoll Assassin.
• Peons will get an ability to attack trees.
• The difficulty level problem should be absolutely fixed. That seems to be a nasty bug in Warcraft III.
• Character voices will be done when the campaign gets voice actors. But that will be a separate project in the future.

Best regards,
Tommi

 

[GeorThe2nd]

I found the dwarf campaign quite challenging and unique, I expect the same from this one
I'll jump on it right away

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

Found bugs:
Jo Jo Headshrinker dialog freezes in cinematic view. (edit: I think it occurs in all of the dialogs. In my testing i found if u change dialog speed when dialog ends it freezes in cinematic view.)

I could not reproduce this bug. Can you please provide us with a YouTube video of the problem?

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

We have released C1R2 version with the following changes:

Spoiler: Change Log contains spoilers

• Difficulty is now selected in a dialog menu. This fixes broken difficulty behavior of Warcraft III.
• Gnoll Assassin, Ghoulfiend, and Heightened Awareness have been nerfed.
• Some dialogue changes.
• Gnolls regenerate less hit points and wake up later on the shore.
• If trolls become hostile, all trolls owned by the player become hostile as well.
• Bridges in the end fight are wider.
• Added some doodads to the troll village.
• Gnoll workers can now attack trees.
• Gnoll hut is slightly smaller.
• Great Horned One quest requirement is now correctly set as completed.
• Nether Temples no longer have a unit inventory.
• Sharnti-lar's Walk Animation Speed has been adjusted.

Most importantly, the difficulty is now selected in a dialog menu. If you tried to play the campaign before on Easy or Hard, but watched the cinematic trailer first, you ended up in playing in the Normal difficulty. That's why it might have been too easy or hard for you.
This seems to be a bug in Warcraft III. The default Campaign Difficulty picker affects only the first map you choose in the campaign. All other maps will be on the Normal difficulty. Therefore, we created a dialog menu to the start of the Chapter 1 (which is the second map in the campaign file).

Best regards,
Tommi

 

[merlockqueen]

Great campaign misson love it one comment gnoll poachers use melee damage upgrades.

 

[deadmaniac]

Hey there!
I really enjoyed the Gnoll Campaign and I think you had some really to good ideas. The side quests where quite entertaining and useful, the side characters charismatic (although I think that Moonsnout is too stereotypical), and the overall design of the Gnoll race very decent.

Despite its strengths, it has some weaknesses though. One being the skill set of the heroes which is too close to normal Warcraft, I think you gave away much potential here. Don't get me wrong: I think that you did a good job with the models and introduction of the characters, but two using Treants was a bit too much. Also, I had problems with the side quest where you have to overcome the bridge defenses to hire trolls. Although I destroyed every hostile gnoll on the map, I was not able to finish the quest. Maybe because I started with eliminating the Southern defenses? Also the Temple riddle was too hard for me, and I had no clue what to do. I know that buying oil and using it somehow with the lantern could work, but that's about it.

As for the difficulty, you already mentioned that the default difficulty is chosen by the game, so I accidentally played it on normal I suppose. I'll not add much more to the tree cutting critique as you've received enough feedback on that, yet.

Overall, the campaign is very entertaining and interesting, and I'd like to play more of it. Keep up the good work and go on improving it and it might become one of the very big projects of Warcraft modding.

 

[Tommi Gustafsson]

Great campaign misson love it one comment gnoll poachers use melee damage upgrades.

Thanks for pointing that out. It will be fixed in the next patch.