Heaven's Fall: Melee Gameplay Mod

[Silverfox]

Trying to join the Hamachi network, but what's the password?

 

[Retera]

Password should be wc3Modz, but I wasn't able to bind Hamachi to the battlenet game, so I think we have to do one or the other. (You can still give it a shot, though; I have 2 PCs hosting on both)

 

[Silverfox]

Nope, wrong password. Error says "Password rejected". Are you sure it's wc3Modz?

 

[Retera]

Yeah I think so, and name "TheHeavensFallNetwork"?

 

[Silverfox]

The name is right, the password still gets rejected. Try changing the password, maybe?

 

[Retera]

Can't seem to find how to change the password in the utility.
I was able to join the network from my laptop about half an hour ago, though, and it worked using that password. Not sure what's up.

Edit: If I can't change passwords maybe I could just make a new network thing.

Edit: created a new one:

Name: HFMod
Password: good_password

-Just joined it on my laptop, so that password seems to be working.

(Edit: I see you on the network. Any luck seeing the game I was hosting in LAN?)

 

[leonidas555551]

oh shit, just wait, Its late over hear too so Ill be able to play in da morning, but ill try the hamachi and the battle.net

allright I might be called equity 2014 or something on the hamachi
I couldnt get the battle.net to work, but If i can find out how to change my gate way it might work then.

 

[leonidas555551]

just keeping this page up and running, Hi there All!

 

[Spellbound]

Helloooo *waves*

 

[Retera]

I'm going to have 1 week between finals week and starting at my first job -- maybe I could make some significant progress (like maybe the Risen into something finished and playable) in that time. Dunno, we'll see!

 

[leonidas555551]

Awesome!

Edit: PAGECLAIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ZeroGo]

so will you continue on this mod? (better sayed DLC

 

[Retera]

I absolutely am continuing Heaven's Fall, progress has just been a bit slow.

Is anybody using that battlenet version? I found some critical bugs in it and need to release a fixed version if anyone would like it. (i.e. random race gave your units a 6% handicap due to a script error, which basically meant instant loss).

 

[Hantoo]

how to uninstall it?

 

[fr14nd1]

Heloooo
Any progress with The Risen?

 

[Retera]

Well, I got two new pieces of news!

@Hayate
Nobody has ever asked to uninstall it before, so I had to write an uninstaller just for you. I have attached it to this post.

@fr14nd1
Work has continued on The Risen, albeit a bit slowly. As I continue work on this project, would you guys be interested in an interactive techtree browser application to view the Heaven's Fall techtree? I have attached a picture of my working mock-up for the Final Alliance, but the point of this application was to load the actual game files and mod and use them to provide you with unit stats and information out-of-game that was accurate, even if I updated the mod in the future -- all of the data was pulled from the game archives. On the downside, this application was super buggy if you didn't have your file permissions set up right, because you had to have both the mod and the game and then the version of JStormLib I had while developing would always right-lock the data.

I had stopped working on it many months ago because it was going too slow and I wanted to return to actual mod development. But, it was something that was asked of me when I inquired about trying to get hosted status sometime last year, and I was curious whether you guys thought it was a worthwhile project to continue.
It was in my code editor for uninstalling that I came across that project, so I figured I'd link it as something interesting.

(The uninstaller I made late last night seems to not be working anymore when I test it. I believe I broke the code at the last second without realizing it, and after I tested the program. I will release an updated version soon.)

Update: Download removed. Uninstaller in later post.

 

[Daffa]

Retera, how does the auto update works? And how big is the file actually pulled to our computers from the server? (HF Mod actual file size)

 

[Retera]

The auto update works like this:

There is a dropbox "share link" option thing, so I got this link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92572084/hfmod/install/hfmod.dll

Which downloads one of about 10 mod files. Anybody can use it, even if they don't have dropbox. So, the updater uses it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92572084/hfmod/install/HFModVersion.hfm
There is another download on dropbox that downloads code information about which files in the mod have been updated and which haven't. The updater downloads that file, looks which other files to download, and downloads them. Or doesn't, if you are at the highest version ID when it matches the number in the download to the number in your mod files that are installed.

The total mod size, as a rough estimation, is about 100 MB.

Edit:

Extra Note: How the launcher REALLY works...

00011014
UserInterface/1.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/2.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/3.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/4.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/5.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/6.mpq,00011012
HeavensFall.exe,00011014
HeavensFallReadme.rtf,00011012
hfmd.exe,00011013
hfmod.dll,00011006
hfmod_pkg.dll,00011006
hfmod_pkg.exe,00011014

That stuff above is super-simple code. The number at the top is the Heaven's Fall code version number. Sometimes I'll say "This is version 1.06C guys!" but in the technical download it knows that it is version 11014, which is basically a random number I made up.
Say I wanted to make an update. I would change this text file to have "11015", so that your computer (which has 11014 stored in the "hfmod_launcher.profile" thing) will download the text doc to RAM when the launcher starts up, and say that 11015 > 11014. Because of that, it says "An update is available... do you wish to upgrade?"
Then it will look in that file, and download files marked with a number bigger than your version number.

So say you didn't play the mod for a year, and I upgraded to version 11026. There might be 3 completely new files added in 11019, and two of them updated for version 11022, and then another file added in 11026, but the launcher will only redownload those four new/updated files if they are the only files marked with a number bigger than 11014, which was your original version number.

Example update file:
00011026
UserInterface/1.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/2.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/3.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/4.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/5.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/6.mpq,00011012
UserInterface/7.mpq,00011022 (This might be the Risen interface files MPQ. Even if it was added for version 11019, and updated in 11022, your computer doesn't care because 11022 is still a bigger number than your number, so you'll still download the whole thing.)
HeavensFall.exe,00011014
HeavensFallReadme.rtf,00011012
hfmd.exe,00011013
hfmod.dll,00011006
hfmod_pkg.dll,00011006
hfmod_pkg.exe,00011014
risen_powers.dll,00011019
extra_stuff.mpq,00011022
god_mode_cheats.mpq,00011026

The four files above would be newer than your version 11014:
UserInterface/7.mpq,00011022
risen_powers.dll,00011019
extra_stuff.mpq,00011022
god_mode_cheats.mpq,00011026

So, the launcher requests stats on those files, finds how big they are, then downloads them and shows you its progress bar based on size of stuff you downloaded / known size of files needed.

This is how the Heaven's Fall launcher really works. It downloads text documents from dropbox. This is because I'm a guy who developed the mod in his parents' basement growing up, not a company with a server.
Having a dropbox account is completely free and maintained theoretically indefinitely, so the "heaven's fall download" should continue to exist forever.

 

[Hantoo]

lol there is a undead like race (forgot the name) is that race not complete yet?
it looks undone

edit: is this possible to play in garena? i tried and it say its a hack (i know it doesnt but because i think this is the way mod act)
is it possible to contact garena to let us play HF on garena? i really need it

 

[Daffa]

Ain't Garena stripped away LAN games? Correct me if I'm wrong.

EDIT :
That explains it, now I know why the first update was ridiculously long.
The rest of the updates are far lesser time consuming.

Thanks for the detail.

 

[Hantoo]

Ain't Garena stripped away LAN games? Correct me if I'm wrong.

EDIT :
That explains it, now I know why the first update was ridiculously long.
The rest of the updates are far lesser time consuming.

Thanks for the detail.

i still can play warcraft on garena.
what do you mean stripped away LAN games? not really understand...

then what's other alternative to play LAN online (like garena) other than garena and hamachi?
on warcraft

 

[Daffa]

Game Ranger is another alternative.

 

[fr14nd1]

Uh, do anyone knows how to play it online? Garena doesn't works for me x_x

 

[Heinvers]

Game Ranger is another alternative.

That^

 

[fr14nd1]

Can I get the link?

 

[Retera]

If you're still having any trouble with HF and multiplayer compatibility, you could try the alternative version I posted a few pages back, here's a link:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/2513791-post187.html

The mod posted there has a bug where if you play random you lose, but other than that should [mostly] work effectively. I played it on Battle.net and was able to do Battle.net with HF, I think Garena and the others should probably work with that edition as well?

Edit: I compiled one of those 6 listed downloads with the aforementioned bug fixed in it a few weeks ago. It only has the final alliance theme, but would let you play non-bugged Heaven's Fall on any of those multiplayer systems:

(Found this one on my dropbox, not in a place right now where I could give it to you otherwise)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92572084/hfmod/battlenet/update/HFModFallyTheme.exe
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92572084/hfmod/battlenet/update/HFModVoidTheme_BattleNet.exe
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92572084/hfmod/battlenet/update/HFModZearTheme_BattleNet.exe

Edit: Uploaded 2 other compiled versions of bug-fixed battle.net version, and uploaded fixed Mod Uninstaller.
(Links for 2 other compiled versions to be posted on upload finish, 60 MB zip is not allowed on hive)

 

[Kyrbi0]

Posting to help this thread get attention.

I really need to play Heaven's Fall someday. :<

Help -Grendel!

 

[Daffa]

Can I get the link?

http://www.gameranger.com/

 

[Hantoo]

http://www.gameranger.com/

gameranger.. i don't know it can be used to play warcraft xd
i used it bfore to play Command and conquer though thx alot...

 

[Heinvers]

Yes, you can play Warcraft with it. I played on there a couple of times.

 

[Hantoo]

Yes, you can play Warcraft with it. I played on there a couple of times.

downloading...

anyway has heaven fall any new progress/upgrade?

the undead-like race doesn't look quite done...

 

[fr14nd1]

I don't think The Risen will be done in a short time. It still need a lot of changing on the skills and description. Let's just hope Retera can finish it quickly

 

[leonidas555551]

hey ret, long time no see, in a week and a few days are my school holidays, and I'd definitely be up for a match of HF

 

[Daffa]

Anyone here uses Hamachi? I would prefer Hamachi instead of classic GameRanger since I got Symmetric NAT Router + I can't modify it (it doesn't support Asymmetric I guess).

 

[Hantoo]

hamachi messed up my computer and i will never use it again
i can't uninstall it, and can't install it... and whatever

 

[leonidas555551]

you guys realise there is a battle.net enabled version, right, just pm retera or go through these comment posts until you find it, unless you already have it

there seems to be a bug so i cant see all the new messages, but hey retera I'd like to play a match with u over battle.net in a week, got a new internet and a new comp, so I will probly need the latest HF download, but then I should be good to go and be better than last time XD

 

[Retera]

Okay, sounds like fun! I've been busy a lot with my internship and spending the weekend trying to make progress on stuff like the Risen, but I'll probably be free in the evening most days.

 

[leonidas555551]

Okay, sounds like fun! I've been busy a lot with my internship and spending the weekend trying to make progress on stuff like the Risen, but I'll probably be free in the evening most days.

Sweet, but I sent you a pm with even better details (I think) so go check it out!


umm...

 

[fr14nd1]

*bump*
How's the progress, Retera?

EDIT:
LOL, 100th post XD

 

[Retera]

The Heaven's Fall Progress Report, July 23rd, 2014
It's been about a year since the official Heaven's Fall Launcher project was created, and the mod was enhanced through great updates like the custom UI and MultiRace Template. As such, I decided it was time for an update about what's going on behind the scenes for the Heaven's Fall Development team.

3D Artwork Team

3D Artwork Report

As always, Heaven's Fall aspires to have a unique set of art assets to enhance the experience of the mod, while keeping it true to the style of the Warcraft 3 Engine. We've sought to continue this effort over the past year, creating various assortments of new and updated creatures.

Zear Fallen: Revisited
As progress continues on the Risen, the decision was made to make a few of the Zear Fallen units a little more unique to the Zear Theme -- such as the Sky Cannon, which was getting to look too much like the Rotsteel themed units of the Risen.

Sky Cannon

This new epic-looking Sky Cannon lends itself a little more towards the Orc feel. It has a cannon mounted on the front with unique and interesting animations specific to its Attack One and Attack Two, the siege missiles and the energy blasts.

Spell Shifter (WIP)

Although this picture only represents a concept art model that is not yet polished, it is an attempt to research into what the Zear Spell Shifter might look like with a bit more unique island-tribal flare to his design. If, or when, this model is implemented, the core function of the Spell Shifter caster will probably remain the same.

Encampment (WIP)

Efforts were made here to make the Zear Encampment look a little more homely and solid. The Zear Fallen are nomadic people, prone to moving their civilization in search of their goals, but this doesn't stop them from building a decent looking home for themselves.
This artwork was made to maintain the "we live in tents, we're nomads!" feel while adding in a little more of the orc-base style to make the artwork a little more native to Warcraft 3 and suitable for the planned upgrading animations.

Freezing Legion: Revisited
The unit balance team, busily at work with the Risen, hasn't yet caught up to some of the aspirations for improving the Freezing Legion experience both as a player using the race, and fighting against it. However, it's been a known fact that the Icelord and Legion Grandmaster can be like a twin pair of badly-modeled, overpowered nuisances from the mod's older days.

Legion Grandmaster

This model's been revealed once before, but the Balance Team has yet to fully complete his hero data. Nevertheless, a flashy new Legion Grandmaster is in store for the future Freezing Legion.

Frostwolf

These friendly 1st-tier wolves have gotten a visual upgrade, mostly because ideas were thrown around in the Creative Design Team about making a beast hero that unified the themes of the Polar Bears and Frostwolves even further, and who could replace a hero slot from the Icelord and Legion Grandmaster as they are blended into one new epic hero. The beast hero has yet to leave the think tank and become a reality, but the new and exciting Frostwolf art is a part of that process.

Contributions to the Neutral Hero Team:
While the progress on the Risen continues, efforts have also been made to try to help the Neutral Hero Team fulfill the vision for the new neutral hero system in Heaven's Fall. With that, new neutral heroes are always being added to match the interests and ideas of various designers.

Tauren Juggernaught

The Tauren Juggernaught is a proud and capable fellow, who wears a dauntingly powerful set of armor but also is without a decent weapon. His abilities, the Neutral Hero Team tells us, are already mostly implemented, and consist of things like Taunt, a Defensive Stance, and the power to regenerate health while in combat.

Wurmcrusher's Hovel

A proposed new source of neutral heroes, this model recycles the existing to-be-replaced Zear Fallen Encampment model into a new and differently designed setup that could serve as a training camp for future neutral heroes.

The Risen
To be sure, the team is well aware that what you've all really been waiting for is the true, completed implementation of the Risen. Here on the 3D Artwork Team, we'd like to unveil some of our creations towards that end!

Plague Doctor

This epic-looking hero has a model that speaks for itself. Naturally, he is a champion of the plague-based units, and he walks the earth carrying his plague-seeping golden chalice as it dangles back and forth in fully-animated glory that we here at the 3D Artwork Team are proud to present. As is evident, this hero is one of the true champions of the Risen.

The Annihilator

The rotsteel Annihilator is a mighty air-siege unit capable of decimating enemies with the powers of rotsteel, bones, and plague combined. Upgrades from the Reanimation Facility and Cauldron of Contagion will allow this magnificent machination of destruction to fight by either dropping plague barrels or bone barrels upon enemies.

Risen Zombie

The Risen stand apart and unique from the undead Scourge and Forsaken. This is a picture of what a zombie in the Risen's ranks will look like.

Skeletal Crawler

The Skeletal Crawler is getting a visual upgrade from the WIP included in the current build of the mod, and you all are in for a treat! This new crawler comes complete with burrowing animations, and will have the ability to tunnel beneath the ground to become a trap-ward type unit. The burrowed crawler then will release a series of creepy crawler claws from beneath the ground, grabbing at surprised enemies in the area who step in the trap.

Invasion Skeleton

With the ever-increasing population of Undead in the Risen, it was right and necessary that more variations of skeletons be present to allow players to differentiate by eye which of their forces have which stats and abilities.

Huntsman's Trap

The Rotsteel Hunstman's single-target aimed shot was deemed by the balance team to be a little too strong, and in the battle for better stats and abilities the idea was had to give the Rotsteel Hunstman his own trap ability, which leaves behind the trap shown above. The trap model is fully modeled to actuate, clamping upon enemies as they tread unknowingly across the land.

An Investigation: Race 8
A member of the 3D Artwork Team thought it would be fun to doodle for an evening to investigate possibilities for future races. Although these are just WIP ideas that do not necessarily actually reflect future Heaven's Fall content, here are some more concept drawings:

Furbolg Tribe: Perhaps Timbermaw?

These friendly and intelligent furbolgs have a catapult made from a mushroom stalk and some tree limbs. As you can see, they mine their gold with big-headed Furbolg Pups. You know those pups are too cute to die!

The Titanweld

This race of mechanized beings, created by the Titans before time itself, could play an intrinsic part in the Heaven's Fall campaign storyline and the tale of why the ancient relics created by the titans have finally fallen to the surface of the world.

Mod Logistics Team

Logistics Report

Thoughts on new launcher...

Heaven's Fall is a mod deployed by an installer and updater, and recently has suffered due to the confusion of the "Battle.net versions". Some thought has been done about whether a new solution for deploying the mod should be made -- perhaps an even better, improved installer.

This image was tossed around between some Heaven's Fall contributors last week, after an interface programmer created a functioning prototype application that had these buttons but in which the buttons did not actually perform any actions. The unique part about this example was both the customized interface appearance and the fact that the program was written in native Windows .NET code, so that theoretically a future installer for the mod might be built that did not require Java. Java is a rather arbitrary requirement for a mod that otherwise does not use it.

To be sure, the picture shown here is one that might not be approved by the creative design team -- any color of buttons or backdrop image could be used.

Techtree Browser

This year, a mod techtree browser was also created. The application allows for dynamic viewing of the mod units' stats out-of-game, and the stats will update with mod patches because they are read directly from same the Warcraft 3 unit data files that are used to facilitate the mod.

The techtree browser operates off of a simple list of Unit IDs, and so theoretically a custom browser application could be offered through this system to other mods, as long as mod contributors for those mods would be willing to encode their units in a simple grid like this one:

none, none, none, none, h012, none, none
h02G, h02I, none, none, none, u01S, h02H
none, none, h02E, n02X, none, u00W, none
none, none, none, none, h02F, none, none
none, n02Z, h02Q, h02V, none, none, none
none, none, none, none, R030, none, none

No code is necessary for the lines connecting units -- those are drawn by the Techtree generator system that reads the interactions between units from the internal database of the Warcraft 3 game.

Balance Team

Report

Progressing on the Risen has been a constant battle, and other updates have been made at the same time.

A notable recent update was the development of a corpse-based "food" system for the Risen, so that their food supply meter is instead used to show corpses in use / corpses collected. When a unit is completed training, their cost is deducted from the number of corpses collected, so there is no effective maximum food limit for the Risen under this system but in order to continue production of units they must consume corpses using an Aged Hearse.

Progress has also been made in miscellaneous areas in everything, such as the neutral hero work on the recent Tauren Juggernaught.

Also, one of these days we're going to get those LVL4+ disappearing Maw of Oblivion tentacles fixed, I swear!

It's coming, guys! I gotta get everything wrapped together one of these days, but I keep thinking it would be neat to have the Risen finished and loaded in the Techtree browser before I get to that point.

PS: Reports were finally finished at 4:00 AM tonight. I may coordinate with the various sub-teams and improve their reports as time goes on, and when enough sleep is had by all to remember what all else has actually been accomplished.

Edit: If it is not apparent, there are not actually really the above listed teams on this project. It has been maintained mostly all by me, and I was just having fun with the work in progress content to showcase it in an organized way.

 

[fr14nd1]

And finally the big update comes!
If I could vote on the next race, it would be the Timbermaw

 

[Kam]

Looking good!

 

[Spellbound]

Titanweld all the way. It would be a great way to created even more diversity IMO. + i miiiiight make a UI for it

 

[Retera]

IT has spoken. IT told me I needed to make Heaven's Fall 2.

HEAVENS FALL 2

This is the exact date at which Heaven's Fall 2 must be completed:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92572084/hfmod/clock/ModClockSimple.html

I have begun with the Freezing Legion:

Heaven's Fall 2 - DAY 3

 

[Spellbound]

OH SNAP
*nosebleed*

Does HF2 include the Titanweld as well?

 

[Kam]

What's the big difference between HF and HF2?

 

[Retera]

Some more progress on HF2 freezing legion:

Image

What's the big difference between HF and HF2?

- A completion date.

Edit: Another day's come and gone! Here's some new screenshots:

Igloo Revealed

Icons WIP

Screenshots

(Obviously*, Demon Hunter names like Shadowsong won't be used on the final Iceclan Mountaineer)
(Note: after these screenshots were taken, a transparency issue was fixed so that the rope on the igloo model displays from a farther distance, and is visible from the game camera.)

* fixed typo

Edit: Wednesday, spent time in Matrix Eater code to have a better functioning model development engine for mod making, and the rest of the time developing a preliminary Titanweld techtree so that Spellbound might have enough to go off of to get a start on some UI work.

 

[MogulKahn]

How are you dealing whit map space problems? Max 8.2mb? And are you going to upload your models/skins/icon once you are finished? Great job, and keep it up ! =D

 

[leonidas555551]

holy shit, I've always meant to say, maybe you should restart heavens fall, you know, with all this experience, you would be making double sure you wouldnt make the same bugs and mistakes with heavens fall one, buit now I've come back here to see if theres anything new, and HOLY SHIT!!! this is gonna be BIG, lets hope u can pull it off retera, I believe in you!!!!

and honestly, GO ALL OUT WITH THE NEW RACES!!!! just make sure that they are balanced. like the timbermaw, they might be teamable as a subtype race to the lost tribe, the zear fallen, freezing legion as frost versions, or the final alliance as pets to the humans, dwarves and elves and gnome. Retera. you. are. a. god. an. epic. god.

How are you dealing whit map space problems? Max 8.2mb? And are you going to upload your models/skins/icon once you are finished? Great job, and keep it up ! =D

its not actual custom maps, basically from what i understand, the program he uses to load the games files temporarily replaces the mpq file for the normal warcraft 3 units and recources (textrues models icons data) with multiple different mpqs for his modded version. yes, I say multiple because of how much data is loaded, but it still works, sort of. just imagine, redifiing everything of the original warcraft 3 and expansion, and you've got the nutshell version of what retera is actually doing and accomplishing. might i add, hes doing so procedures, LIKE A BOSS.

 

[Retera]

Indeed, the best answer I could give about how I face the map size limit is that I do not face the map size limit.

I have heard it said before, and I well understand it, that the choice to make it a mod imposes limitations in that it cannot be a map on Bnet. But, that's how it's always been.

As a note, I have been advised by some of my contacts to alter the name "Heaven's Fall 2" to "Heaven's Fall v2", capitalizing on the fact that efforts are not being made to create something entirely different, but to create an entirely better version of what already exists.