[Campaign] Highborne Unit Ideas

[SSJ7107]

Sorry if my English is bad its not my native language. I'm making a campaign called The Founding of Quel'thalas in which the story tells about the Highborne Elves being exiled and the creation of Sunwell. I have really no clue about Highborne Elves so it's giving me a hard time thinking for units fitting for the race. My current unit types for Highborne are (not made yet):

Militant (same as footman)
Ranger (Archer)
Ballista (Siege unit)
Conjurer (Main spellcaster)
Cleric (Supporting spellcaster)
Spell Breaker
Pikeman

I need ideas for my units. You can also mention ideas for structures, abilities, upgrades, or just something about Highborne Elves and I will greatly appreciate it. You can also point out if some of these units are unfitting for the Highborne Elf Race. Thanks.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Since this is before the Sunwell is set up, maybe give every unit mana with negative regen (full mana on training) and a mechanic that makes them perform worse when out of mana, and a mass mana-restoration spell.

 

[Trill]

Well, if that's before founding of Quel'thalas, I'd say their culture would still be very similar to Night Elves or WoW's Nightborne.
Also they are elven aristocracy, they would all be elite units and majority of them would be spellcasters.

So I'd suggest this:
1) Golems or constructs as regular footsoldiers. Probably made of wood or stone since they have little metal to spare until they settle well. Could probably start as wood/stone and upgrade into metal.
2) Alternatively, mind-controlled "lesser" creatures, like gnolls or kobolds. Highborne were not above enslaving others I believe.
3) A flying ship could be a high-level unit or second siege weapon, since they have ships that they arrived on, and in their situation it may be easier to make those fly than build new siege weapons.
4) Find Blood/High Elf skins for Night Elf units for actual Highborne. All Highborne would be high-tier units and rather expensive.
5) Give all Highborne mana and at least some simple spells - they need not do much, just for flavour. You might even give them a Dark Ritual like spell that would allow them to sacrifice golems for mana.
6) I'm not sure which building models you gonna use. On one hand, High Elf buildings from WC3C.net might fit very well, because they look like modified Night Elven ones. On the other hand, Ujimasa Hojo has great Highborne models, but then you may want to justify why their style changed so much later.

 

[SSJ7107]

Well, if that's before founding of Quel'thalas, I'd say their culture would still be very similar to Night Elves or WoW's Nightborne.
Also they are elven aristocracy, they would all be elite units and majority of them would be spellcasters.

So I'd suggest this:
1) Golems or constructs as regular footsoldiers. Probably made of wood or stone since they have little metal to spare until they settle well. Could probably start as wood/stone and upgrade into metal.
2) Alternatively, mind-controlled "lesser" creatures, like gnolls or kobolds. Highborne were not above enslaving others I believe.
3) A flying ship could be a high-level unit or second siege weapon, since they have ships that they arrived on, and in their situation it may be easier to make those fly than build new siege weapons.
4) Find Blood/High Elf skins for Night Elf units for actual Highborne. All Highborne would be high-tier units and rather expensive.
5) Give all Highborne mana and at least some simple spells - they need not do much, just for flavour. You might even give them a Dark Ritual like spell that would allow them to sacrifice golems for mana.
6) I'm not sure which building models you gonna use. On one hand, High Elf buildings from WC3C.net might fit very well, because they look like modified Night Elven ones. On the other hand, Ujimasa Hojo has great Highborne models, but then you may want to justify why their style changed so much later.

Hey that's really helpful information there. I liked your idea of golems but I'd rather have them not as regular foot soldiers, they could be a higher level unit or an ultimate unit for the race. Also I want to ask if there are Highborne Archers because Highborne is mainly focused on using Arcane Magic and about the flying ship, I didn't get what you said there but you might be referring to Goblin Zeppelins with attack, yes? I already made skins for Highborne and most of them are just simple recolored textures in order to relate to the Highborne's characteristics (purple/pinkish skin with colored hair). And for High Elf Structures I think they are similar to High Elf Buldings (correct me if I'm wrong).

Since this is before the Sunwell is set up, maybe give every unit mana with negative regen (full mana on training) and a mechanic that makes them perform worse when out of mana, and a mass mana-restoration spell.

I don't get it because that will not be useful in some missions in the campaign as I plan to make the spellcasters of this race to be the one that has great offense capability. But thanks for the suggest anyway.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Well yeah, it'd be for early missions when they're starting to feel the effects of their magic addiction, emphasizing fast attacks and then retreating to some way of regenerating mana. Then in later missions they find a way to stop the magic addiction and so don't have the negative regeneration.

Rangers: some kind of animal taming ability (only works on animals, not gnolls or kobolds).
Cleric: Mending Aura (drains mana while active, turns the caster into a living Healing Ward).
Conjurer: Arcane Conflagration: Does fixed damage plus damage equal to a fraction of caster's remaining mana to targeted unit (e.g. 50 damage + [400]/2 at maximum mana), surrounding units take less damage, sets caster's mana to 0 once cast.

 

[SSJ7107]

Those are really cool ideas man. But I don't know how to trigger the Cleric's ability especially MUI. And if they are gonna have negative mana regeneration, it should be atleast 1 mana reduced per 5 seconds or else most spellcasters will probably useless when they last long.

 

[SSJ7107]

I have actually made spells for my Conjurers and Clerics but they are not permanent and might be changed. Let me know what you think and suggest what I can change.

Conjurer:
Firebolt - Shoots a bolt of fire that deals damage and stuns
Polymorph - Just like the original one
Glaciate - Entraps the target in chilling ice which applies Hypothermia causing them to take damage over time (similar to entangling roots)
Cleric:
Sacred Light: Deals damage when cast on enemy, Restores hp when cast on ally.
Inner Fire: Same with the original
Dispel Magic: Also same with the original

 

[cleavinghammer]

I can't balance my way out of a paper bag, so I leave the actual numbers to more experienced people.

The idea is to have a support unit (for example, a building that functions as a fountain of mana, or a weak unit with Brilliance Aura) that lets them regenerate their mana to avoid running out, but also makes them depend on that unit. You could also have an upgrade that lets units restore mana every time they kill something, every time they hit something, every time they're hit by something, give every unit a weakened Devour Mana, etc.

For the aura, you could make a dummy ward that follows the caster around and dies when he's out of mana.

^ They could use some different spells (I don't know about the history of the Light, but wasn't that mostly a human thing?), the Conjurer should have a positive buff.

 

[SSJ7107]

Yea that aura sounds nice but how about a healing ward that actually regenerates mana instead of health. The spell requires no mana so it only restores very little mana.

 

[noob2]

It is rather simple add the cleric to a cleric group and add an illumination aura to it(it exists under multiple forms you can do it in percentage or in points per seconds(or fractions of a point)) and give it a negative mana regen boost(like one from an item that is modified) possibly in a spellbook for hiding them or use the coordinate trick.
Then periodically check the mana of all the clerics in the cleric group and if one runs out of mana then get it out of the group and remove the illumination aura and the mana degen skill.
It is also advised to have the periodical trigger turn off when the group is empty and on if the group gets a cleric while empty.
of course you can do that with other ways.

 

[Trill]

Hey that's really helpful information there. I liked your idea of golems but I'd rather have them not as regular foot soldiers, they could be a higher level unit or an ultimate unit for the race. Also I want to ask if there are Highborne Archers because Highborne is mainly focused on using Arcane Magic and about the flying ship, I didn't get what you said there but you might be referring to Goblin Zeppelins with attack, yes? I already made skins for Highborne and most of them are just simple recolored textures in order to relate to the Highborne's characteristics (purple/pinkish skin with colored hair). And for High Elf Structures I think they are similar to High Elf Buldings (correct me if I'm wrong).

Point is that they lack manpower to field regular foot soldiers, so they'd need something that isn't an elf to be their "footman". They are a bunch of aristocrats and wizards at that point in history. Its much later that they'll have the numbers to field Swordsmen and such like.
THAT IS, if you're going with regular human/orc/undead set up - i.e. basic units are melee. You could make basic units apprentice mages, throwing weak chain lightning or arcane explosions.
As aristocracy they probably enjoyed hunting, so there totally can be some archers among them, sure.
I mean actual, regular Blood Elven ship, flying in the air with magic.

 

[noob2]

Well since orcs works fine while having no cheap front-liner maybe in the barracks instead of a footman like troop you could have a troop a bit more expensive and tough?

 

[cleavinghammer]

^^ A dual mode ship that consumes mana while flying (thanks, Golden Sun) and regenerates it while sailing. Can land on, er, land, in which case it becomes immobile but can garrison archers for extra attack power (having garrisoned archers while flying or sailing, while awesome, would probably break something).

 

[SSJ7107]

Point is that they lack manpower to field regular foot soldiers, so they'd need something that isn't an elf to be their "footman". They are a bunch of aristocrats and wizards at that point in history. Its much later that they'll have the numbers to field Swordsmen and such like.
THAT IS, if you're going with regular human/orc/undead set up - i.e. basic units are melee. You could make basic units apprentice mages, throwing weak chain lightning or arcane explosions.
As aristocracy they probably enjoyed hunting, so there totally can be some archers among them, sure.
I mean actual, regular Blood Elven ship, flying in the air with magic.

Hey I actually liked those ideas but the main problem here is the models or skins. As I can't create models it will be hard to find something that fits these ideas.

 

[Trill]

Hey I actually liked those ideas but the main problem here is the models or skins. As I can't create models it will be hard to find something that fits these ideas.

Some suggestions:
One of the bloodelven boats from this pack for flying ship Белые кораблики - ТТМФ / WarCraft 3 / Модмейкинг - XGM: eXtreme Gamedev & Modmaking
Footman wizard ElvenArchCleric
If you decide to go the golem route Bloodelfs and Metal - Wc3C.net

 

[SSJ7107]

Holy f*ck those ship models were fantastic! But I don't speak Russian so I don't know where to download it. Also If I'm going to make Wizaards as my foot soldiers I might use golems as a summoned unit by a higher-tier spellcaster. Do you know Russian? I can't seem to understand there and I don't know what to do.

EDIT: Ok, nevermind I downloaded them.

 

[SSJ7107]

I made a screenshot on what I've progressed making my units and most of them are just recolored textures. Let me guys know what you think.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Those look pretty good.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Maybe their basic unit could also be their worker (or be two forms of the same unit to avoid worker behavior), some kind of minor elemental or other summoned creature (not necessarily a wisp, but similar in concept).

Whoops, double post. Thought I was editing the first.

 

[SSJ7107]

I already have worker for Highborne and its similar to High Elf Peasant. I don't know if its suitable for it.

 

[cleavinghammer]

T2 flyer: Maybe have a level where they still ride hippogryphs, but they get eaten or die of a plague, so the elves have to tame dragonhawks instead.

 

[SSJ7107]

T2 flyer: Maybe have a level where they still ride hippogryphs, but they get eaten or die of a plague, so the elves have to tame dragonhawks instead.

Yeah that makes sense since they haven't tamed Dragonhawks when they arrived at Trisfal Glades. But I'm not sure about them being able to ride Hippogryphs. Were they mentioned in lore?

 

[cleavinghammer]

I figure these guys are transitioning from being (magic-using) Night Elves, so no reason they shouldn't.

 

[Momowarlord]

I have an idea for passive spell: mana leech, like lifesteal to steal portion of enemy mana. Mechanism that if they use magic so much that neutral hostile demons will spawn, and building rune stone that will prevent this so you can use magic free in your base.

 

[SSJ7107]

Yeah I already made an ability like that because they drain mana every few seconds. But the thought of demons spawning when using too much magic might be too much since it might does not make sense as they are already cut off from their source of magic.

EDIT: Maybe it will make sense when they have created the Sunwell.

 

[Ether]

You could just forget about gold harvesting. Make a worker or acolytish highborne unit that converts gold mines into arcane wells or source of mana. And by that, you will be only able to produce unit through mana and even sustain them. Usually when their mana reaches to 0, they become husks or lower kinds of creatures, somehow if you use replenish ability, will be able to gain back their normal form.

Also keep N'zoth-related or Sargeras-related upgrades for special upgrades used by the highbourne

 

[SSJ7107]

You could just forget about gold harvesting. Make a worker or acolytish highborne unit that converts gold mines into arcane wells or source of mana. And by that, you will be only able to produce unit through mana and even sustain them. Usually when their mana reaches to 0, they become husks or lower kinds of creatures, somehow if you use replenish ability, will be able to gain back their normal form.

Also keep N'zoth-related or Sargeras-related upgrades for special upgrades used by the highbourne

Correct me if I'm wrong but the one who fall into mindless, lowered state because of starvation to magic are called Withered. And I think it only happened to the Nightborne and Blood Elves according to the Lore. All Highborne that has been starved out of magic died shortly after. I liked the idea thought it would be fun.

 

[Ether]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the one who fall into mindless, lowered state because of starvation to magic are called Withered. And I think it only happened to the Nightborne and Blood Elves according to the Lore. All Highborne that has been starved out of magic died shortly after. I liked the idea thought it would be fun.

You are right. Now kinda omit the withered stuff. Maybe make the mana as the gold and the currency for training troops. You might also like to have to make the player to choose one of the two sides (upgrade-based) to N'zoth or Sargeras, especially when the player has reached the final tier of the main structure you desired to use.

Choosing Sargeras gives you:

• Access to train some demons.
• Some of your highborne units will have chaos attacks.
• Your main hall can cast an 'inferno' spell that spawns an infernal.

But choosing N'zoth gives you:

• Access to train some oldgod minions like faceless ones and naga unit(s), in equivalence to demons.
• Some of your spellcaster highborne will have special abilities like mind warp, corruption, and mutation.
• Your main hall can cast a 'Tentacle' spell in which equivalent to inferno.

 

[Ether]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the one who fall into mindless, lowered state because of starvation to magic are called Withered. And I think it only happened to the Nightborne and Blood Elves according to the Lore. All Highborne that has been starved out of magic died shortly after. I liked the idea thought it would be fun.

You are right. Now kinda omit the withered stuff. Maybe make the mana as the gold and the currency for training troops. You might also like to have to make the player to choose one of the two sides (upgrade-based) to N'zoth or Sargeras, especially when the player has reached the final tier of the main structure you desired to use.

Choosing Sargeras gives you:

• Access to train some demons.
• Some of your highborne units will have chaos attacks.
• Your main hall can cast an 'inferno' spell that spawns an infernal.

But choosing N'zoth gives you:

• Access to train some oldgod minions like faceless ones and naga unit(s), in equivalence to demons.
• Some of your spellcaster highborne will have special abilities like mind warp, corruption, and mutation.
• Your main hall can cast a 'Tentacle' spell in which equivalent to inferno.

 

[SSJ7107]

You are right. Now kinda omit the withered stuff. Maybe make the mana as the gold and the currency for training troops. You might also like to have to make the player to choose one of the two sides (upgrade-based) to N'zoth or Sargeras, especially when the player has reached the final tier of the main structure you desired to use.

Wow I really like this idea! If we go with mana as gold I might make Mana used for training troops, lumber for structures, and replace food with Magic Reserve in order to relate with them needing a new supply of magic.

Choosing Sargeras gives you:

• Access to train some demons.
• Some of your highborne units will have chaos attacks.
• Your main hall can cast an 'inferno' spell that spawns an infernal.

But choosing N'zoth gives you:

• Access to train some oldgod minions like faceless ones and naga unit(s), in equivalence to demons.
• Some of your spellcaster highborne will have special abilities like mind warp, corruption, and mutation.
• Your main hall can cast a 'Tentacle' spell in which equivalent to inferno.

This is the one thing that I really liked about your idea. I think it is very cool to put different paths of upgrades at final tiers so the player can have more gameplay to explore!

 

[cleavinghammer]

Upkeep should be modified as well, maybe with more levels.

Maybe a mechanic where things go better the bigger the gap between your current magic and max magic, with units happier when they don't have to share their mana. Precious, precious mana.

 

[SSJ7107]

And how do I do that?

 

[cleavinghammer]

Well, you could add more upkeep stages, and have a map-wide aura that gives ever-smaller boosts as the gap closes. For example, if the gap is 50+ food, everyone gets a 50% damage bonus; around 30 food, everyone gets a 15% attack bonus; if it's less than 10 food there's no bonus.

 

[SSJ7107]

Yes but the buff shouldn't be too much. Or else missions are just gonna be piece of cake.

 

[cleavinghammer]

The idea is that less overall units do more damage, but need a lot of farms or equivalent buildings, so it wouldn't be available from the start (and wouldn't apply to dungeon missions, unless finding one is a sidequest to help the level).

 

[SSJ7107]

Yes that's what I'm planning because the story starts of the HIghborne Elves landing on Trisfal Glades so they don't need buildings from the start. Now that I got the resources set I now need to focus on buildings and the techtree.

One thing I'm not sure of. Should I make my buildings purple colored or follow the Elven Structures at Suramar City which is the former city to the Highborne Elves.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Depends on the campaign's timescale. If enough time goes by that they go from purple to pink you could also have purple buildings at first and later High Elf.

 

[SSJ7107]

I'm not really sure about this but they already have buildings that are similar to High Elven tower at Warcraft III before the Well of Eternity was destroyed as you can see at Suramar City their buildings with high elves are similar in some ways.

 

[cleavinghammer]

So start with a mix of Night Elf and Suramar that becomes progressively more High Elven.

 

[SSJ7107]

Yes thank you. Now my only problem is the name of the buildings. What I have thought so far are:

Arcane Temple
Highborne Barracks
Sanctorum
Highborne Guard Tower

 

[cleavinghammer]

I dunno about temple, since they don't seem very worship-oriented, and I think Sanctorum is an adjective.

 

[SSJ7107]

I dunno about temple, since they don't seem very worship-oriented, and I think Sanctorum is an adjective.

Oh yea you were right my Latin Vocabulary is long unused. Thinking names is hard for me especially for buildings.

I have given some thought and I changed some
Highborne Barracks = Castra
Sanctorum = Violet Conservatory

I don't know for Arcane Temple.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Arcane Sanctum is still good, especially since it's the elves' building later in the present.

I think you want Castrum for the barracks though, castra is plural.

 

[SSJ7107]

Oh my I was really glad for you for pointing that out! Well do you have ideas for names of the primary structure?

 

[cleavinghammer]

Does it do anything special?

 

[SSJ7107]

If you're referring how it does special on the story and campaign then yes. If you're referring if it does anything special as a building then that is a yes.

 

[Chaosy]

Militant (same as footman)
Ranger (Archer)
Ballista (Siege unit)
Conjurer (Main spellcaster)
Cleric (Supporting spellcaster)
Spell Breaker
Pikeman

I'd remove though as I do not feel like they fit the fantasy for the race, the highborn were primarily magic addicts.


You could do something like a templar/Paladin unit instead of footman but I am unsure if that is lore accurate as I believe the first elven paladins were blood knights which is thousands of years away.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Maybe Palace Guard or something.

Town Hall: Nexus, Settlement, Palace...

 

[SSJ7107]

I will change the militant and make it something that can withstand magic and is good for spell casters as well. For the Pikeman, yeah I know it's a ridiculous name for the race but I will change it to something like a guard which cleavinghammer stated and make it withstand magic as well.

EDIT: I changed Militant to Anti-Magus (Not sure of name) and changed it so it is good for battling spell casters. Also changed Pikeman to Palace Guard (again not sure of name). I made these two to be able to resist some magic damage.