[Altered Melee] Hour of the Scourge - Andorhal

[izaiphovias]

Hour of the Scourge
An Altered Melee map project

So... I was bored, then I thought to myself "well, let's waste some time and create some random heroes in World Editor", I came up with some quite interesting ideas, then I thought to myself "well, this could turn out to be a good campaign start, I have some really fun heroes here", I was then deciding if I wanted another RPG campaign, or something more simple and familiar, then I thought to myself "well, I am already working on a RPG campaign it is quite a lot of work making those, so I better do something that won't be as painful", my final decision... Or what it would be... A macro based campaign to add up to my main campaign story, something short, right to the point and relaxing, using the heroes I've created and factions related to them... Then finally I thought to myself "well, you know what would be cool? If I could play these heroes and their factions in a normal melee map" and that's Hour of the Scourge - Andorhal.

This project is an altered melee map that allows you to play with four different factions from the WoW Wrath of the Lich King lore. You can be the Argent Crusade, the Kirin'tor, the Forsaken or the Scourge itself. Let me try to explain them down below.

The Argent Crusade

Brave warriors of the Light that banded together to fight the darkness of the Scourge. The Argent Crusade (at least here) is composed by Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas survivors that united their forces to fight the Lich King after his arrival in the Plaguelands.

They play mostly like the normal humans from Warcraft 3, the catch is that their units can be boosted bearing overpowerness with quite a few available upgrades, from Holy Weapons that grant additional attack for mana to Guardian of Ancient Kings which grants a chance of a burst heal whenever a unit falls below 10% health.

The Kirin'tor

The wizards of Dalaran were finally able to rebuild their wondrous city after the events of the Burning Crusade, now under the leadership of Rhonin, the Kirin'tor launched and offensive against the Scourge and the Blue Dragonflight, with the help of the Horde and the Alliance, in hope of containing these threats once and for all.

The Kirin'tor is what you would expect from a magocratic faction, pretty much all of their units are mages, from the most basic frontliner to the most advanced tier 3 unit and being mages they are all quite resorceful, being able to empower their forces with arcane enchantments, cripple their enemies with debuffing spells and dealing absurd amounts of damage in exchange of being very fragile.

The Forsaken

Sylvanas Windruner, now Queen of the Forsaken, rules the ruined kingdom of Lordaeron. In an attempt to build a force strong enough to take over the Lich King, she has maintained the Dreadlord Varimathras under her wing, occupied most of the neighbor territories of Lordaeron and allied herself with the Horde, but the Lord of the Dead may show up at her doorstep earlier than what she could have imagined, far earlier than what she needed to prepare.

The Forsaken are very dependent on the late game as their initial tier forces are rather weak compared to the other factions, but the children of Sylvanas can quickly gain the strength to overcome their foes through powerful unit upgrades and the development of the dreaded Grim Plague. As undead, the Forsaken required blight for a passive health regeneration, something that their ordinary built buildings do not provide, they rely on alternative methods to tend to their wounded, such as the usage of Herbalism (an upgrade to the Garden of Sorrows which allows the building to heal), Apothecaries (supportive spellcaster with a powerful healing ability) or the development of the Synthetic Blight, which will grant some buildings Blight Regeneration and multiply all Forsaken organic units health regeneration by 5 while on blighted ground (take this advantage to overcome the Scourge through attrition, using their own blight against them).

The Scourge

At last the Lich King has awakened and the undead legions sails from Northrend back to Lordaeron so the Lord of the Dead may reconquer what used to be his first kingdom, but the Scourge is not exactly what it used to be, the Lich King knew that his enemies would be more than prepared this time and that he needed much more than simple rotting corpses to purge the living. Following his loyal necromancers and brainwashed skeletons and zombies, Arthas brings the mighty Ymirjar, undead half-giants that worship the Lich King as their Death God and were granted tremendous power through undeath, also there are the cunning and deceiving San'layn, once the last survivors of Kael'thas expedition with Illidan to the Frozen Throne, these unlucky elves were turned into vampiric monsters to serve the Scourge, and finally, the full might of the Azjol'Nerub empire, because you just can't have enough undead spiders, you have to bring them all!!!

The Scourge is by far the most complex faction of the four, it is divided into three sub-factions that you must choose from at the start of the game:

Death

Spoiler: Path of Death

You can follow the Path of Death, to train Necromancers and summon a legion of skeletons to overwhelm your enemies, and if normal skeletons were not enough, you can summon giant ones! From the Temple of the Damned, train your mighty and fearsome Ymirjar.

Darkness

Spoiler: Path of Darkness

You can follow the Path of Darkness, if you really like some spiders, spawn a swarm of nerubian units, from Carrion Beetles to Mind Disruptors and freakin' skeletons mounted on Crypt Fiends!

Blood

Spoiler: Path of Blood

You can follow the Path of Blood, if you really like some Castlevania vibe, build tons of tombs and summon the vampiric San'layn, that while fragile, can deal absurd amounts of damage if well managed.

Will of the Lich King

Finally, upon reach tier 3, The Black Citadel, you can research Will of the Lich King, which will allow you to use the whole Scourge techtree in a single army.

One major difference of the Scourge is their supply production, it is not generated by Zigurats anymore, but rather the Graveyards, but since they are not as cheap as a normal supply building, your production can be supported by other means that vary according to the path you've chosen. For Path of Death, since your army is composed by pretty much skeletons, it is only fair that what would produce supply is your Necromancers, they cost supply, but can produce it as well. For Path of Darkness, your Zigurats can be turned into Spirit Towers to produce some additional supply, finally for Path of Blood, the San'layn really like their tombs, so it is exactly that what will generate supply for them, the San'layn Tomb is the same building that is used to train your basic vampiric units.




That's pretty much it, for now, the rest you'll have to play in order to see, as the game has quite some custom spells, upgrades, models and textures, the best way to check those is by playing.

Here's the link: Hour of the Scourge - Andorhal v20170220
If you have issues making the map appear in your WCIII maps section, just rename the file by removing the version info (leaving it simply as "Hour of the Scourge Andorhal")

I appreciate any feedback, as I am still adding stuff to the factions and balancing them out.

Spoiler: CREDITS

**MODELS AND TEXTURES**

110000
-Grendel
~Nightmare
67chrome
acolyteofdoom
Afronight_76
Alpain
AndrewOverload519
armel
assasin_lord
Avsky
BLazeKraze
Boogles
Cavman
Champara Bros
cotd333
crl
Daenar7
Direfury
Edge45
Elenai
exfyre
Fuzzyfury
General Frank
Gottfrei
GreyArchon
grunt
HappyCockroach
Hayate
Hexus
Himperion
horusrogue
IamMclovin
infrenus
JesusHipster
JetFangInferno
Juice_F
Just_Spectating
kangyun
Kino
Kitabatake
Korija2029
Kwaliti
Malvodion
nhocklanhox6
Orc1n
PeeKay
Power
Pyritie
Rao Dao Zao
Reflex
Sellenisko
skrab
sPy
Stefan.K
SuPa-
Sxar
Teldorei
Thrikodius
Tranquil
Ubernator
Ujimasa Hojo
Vitchie08
Wandering Soul
warhog
WILL THE ALMIGHTY

**ICONS**

~Void~
13L4M3
AL0NE
asdasdgfrw
-Berz-
BETABABY
D.ee
Dalharukn
darkdeathknight
Darkfang
DeathKnight
Eagle XI
Golden-Drake
GooS
HappyTauren
Heinvers
Hellx-Magnus
INSEKT
Justicebringer
KaplanHorus
KelThuzad
Kimbo
kola
Legal_Ease
mortal
Mr.Goblin
NFWar
Nudl9
Paladon
PeeKay
San
Sg0D
shiiK
Sin'dorei300
SpasMaster
stein123
The_Silent
TheKaldorei
Trigger.edge
VaLkYroN
Warcrafty
zbc

 

[Cherrymage]

Seems fascinating, homie. Especially the Scourge faction, really interesting concept. I shall try it:

 

[B22]

Looks nice and seems to be interesting. Looking up for this

 

[izaiphovias]

Working on adding AI to the factions now, I'll start with the Argent Crusade as their techtree is pretty much done at this point. I'll still add more stuff to the Kirin'tor and the Scourge first, before creating AI for them.

Edit___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The maps has been updated, I've fixed some bugs and added 3 AI players so you can test the factions. The AI are normal orcs and humans, no custom stuff yet.

 

[Jumbo]

Scarlet Crusade pl0x? Oh wait, just read up on WOTLK lore. Seems like they were a shadow of their former selfs at this point in Wow lore.

Anyway this seems like a solid project; I like the visuals of the Kirin Tor and the scourge especially seems interesting with those elven vampires.

 

[izaiphovias]

Yeah, I would like to add the Scarlet Crusade and implement some kind of internal corruption mechanic for the faction, but as you said, they are quite weak during WotLK. Although I plan on using them as an enemy if the campaign ever ends up being released, so maybe I will need to work on a techtree for them anyway and might add those freaks in this or some other map together with the Forsaken.

I am currently working on expanding the Kirin'tor, as their techtree seems way too simple right now. At the end there might be some additional buildings and units there, I'm working on two new tier 3 units that represent the alliance and the horde within the faction, also I may add a tier 2 building that trains some specialist units that would also represent the two wow factions.

The San'layn are a favorite of mine, I quite enjoyed developing their units and abilities. Specially when I managed to get the Crypt Maiden's transformation working.

 

[Jumbo]

Just an advice on making the Kirin'tor. Don't be afraid to add wizard units that stand out - with wizard hats, without staffs, with different clothing style. As long as it feels consistent: Remember how different the units are on the melee races, and yet we seem to think them coherent.

And Scarlet Crusade is one of my, if not the, favourite faction in (vanilla) Warcraft lore. I think the idea of a puritanical order being founded on the basis of the tragical consequences of the plague is one of the most interesting Blizzard have pulled off. However, I don't like the un-nuanced way in which they made them. I mean, they are just "evil" and "fanatics", which seems too bland in my opinion, but of course they had to fit them into an MMO where you need an excuse to kill whatever it is for the sake of xp and rewards .

 

[izaiphovias]

Alpha build has been updated, with some major changes to the Scourge and mainly the Kirin'tor, with 3 new units and a new tier 2 building.

Council Hall: Trains Silver Chanters, Sunreaver Mana Weavers and Gunships

Silver Chanter: supportive advanced spellcaster, can cast Radiate Mana, Induce Magic and Chant of Etherwalking
Radiate Mana deals low damage in an area, but any enemy unit that casts an spell while inside the affected area will lose 2% of mana and these same 2% will be added to allied units that are close to the Silver Chanter
Induce Magic forces the target to channel a useless spell for a few seconds and this cannot be dispelled, if the target has mana the channel will trigger spells like Mana Flare and Negate
Chant of Etherwalking is basically Banish, but can only be used on friendly units, to protect them from physical damage
I will add another spell to the Chanter, something that would synegise well with Induce Magic

Sunreaver Mana Weaver: anti-spellcaster advanced unit, can cast Negate, Mana Burn, Blink and Control Magic
Negate is basically Mana Flare, nothing has been changed rather than the damage values

Gunship: ultimate flying unit, really expensive, uses a lot of supply, but it is absurdly strong, can cast Deploy Dragonhawk Riders, Cluster Rockets, Arcane Bombarding and Very Big Gun. It has splash chaos attack.
Deploy Dragonhawk Riders will summon 4 permanent Dragonhaw Riders that can cast Aerial Shackles and deal heavy air to air damage, but are weak against ground targets. Each Gunship can only summon 4 Dragonhawks at a time.
Cluster Rockets is the same old, but deals less damage, stuns for longer and have a lower cooldown
Arcane Bombarding is basically Impale, but reaches longer, doesn't stun and deals moderate damage
Very Big Gun is based on Flame Strike, but is very difficult for the enemy to anticipate and deals a lot of damage, have a very long cooldown and costs a lot of mana though.

The download link from the main post has been updated.

 

[MogulKahn]

Really interested in your custom units. Gonna check ot!

 

[izaiphovias]

Alpha build (and the download link in the main post) have been updated again, I've added some researches related to the new Kirin'tor units and added their final unit, the Rune Golem, trained at the Wizard Tower, their techtree can be considered pretty much completed now. The Scourge now have a defensive unit trained at the Necropolis, the Plague Spreader, to counter the fact that they have no defensive buildings. There were also some tooltip fixing here and there.

 

[tyci]

Playing this was really fun and felt different enough from the original Warcraft III races. There are some text issues here and there, but that's to be expected as its still in development. One thing I am truly worried about is the balance. I hope you are playing this with a friend or sth to check if they are similarly matched. Okay so here are my thoughts on each race so far:

Spoiler: Scourge

• The Path of Death
  -this one is so much fun, the number of skeletons is superb
  -the skeleton change to bows doesnt work though
  -this path may be a bit stronger than the others i think
• The Path of Blood
  -These units are just basically normal human units but with vampirics Aura, which isn't bad, but I would suggest more creative units as well
• The Path od Darkness
  -And here on the other hand there are units with only the Slow Poison skill
  -Add more units with abillities here
  -The Varghulf doesnt apply the slow poison

Custom heroes are very nicely done as well and fit their race's skills. Also I really like the Unholy Lab and it's upgrades are really creative.

Spoiler: Kirin Tor

This faction I think would be my favourite, they are the hardest to play but if used correctly they could be really powerful. It's a a very nice idea and fitting the faction that they have no melee units (Except the Rune Golem) and that the basic units have to summon golems. Oh and the Rune Golem can be healed and the others can't.
I would personally give the Serenity Aura (which is also a good idea btw) not to the Altar but to a seperate building maybe? Like a statue or sth, idk.
Sunreaver Mana Weaver and Silver Chanter are not as useful, their spells could deal more damage (not sure here)
They have also 2 upgrades for armor, but its not said which is for which units.

Spoiler: Scarlet Crusade

This faction has only 1 new hero (paladin), as 3 of the others were also in the Kirin Tor. In my opinion no race should share heroes, so be sure to add more to one of them.
Also their Altar also gives the Serenity Aura, which, again in my opinion it shouldn't do. I would make it only in the Kirin Tor.
You accidently put the Plague Spreader in the Barracks.
Great idea with the cleric, how you can buff up before battle with Blessing as Clerics die easily so you shouldnt take them. I love how it is made exactly like Paladins in WoW, who also buff up before battle <3 Well done, sir.
Also I like your idea of how the Scourge and Scarlet Crusade counter each other, with their battle of corpses.
The Blessing of Kings is awesome too and how it recommends for you to buff up with clerics.

 

[izaiphovias]

Playing this was really fun and felt different enough from the original Warcraft III races. There are some text issues here and there, but that's to be expected as its still in development. One thing I am truly worried about is the balance. I hope you are playing this with a friend or sth to check if they are similarly matched.

Yeah, I leave the tooltips reviews for last as I don't want to bother write a bunch of stuff for a spell or research that I am not sure if it is going to stick. So during development, there is a lot of typos, wrong tooltips or missing texts to be expected.

The balance is quite worrying as I don't have anyone with which to test the custom races against each other, I'm always relaying on the normal races AI for that and try to judge the balance on how easy I can defeat a human and/or orc AI player with each custom race.

• The Path of Death
  -this one is so much fun, the number of skeletons is superb
  -the skeleton change to bows doesnt work though
  -this path may be a bit stronger than the others i think
• The Path of Blood
  -These units are just basically normal human units but with vampirics Aura, which isn't bad, but I would suggest more creative units as well
• The Path od Darkness
  -And here on the other hand there are units with only the Slow Poison skill
  -Add more units with abillities here
  -The Varghulf doesnt apply the slow poison

Custom heroes are very nicely done as well and fit their race's skills. Also I really like the Unholy Lab and it's upgrades are really creative.

Path of Death
Thanks! That was the whole idea behind the Path of Death, you simply use a ton of skeletons to overwhelm the opponent.
The equip bow should be working, the skeleton has to be close to a Graveyard in order to change into an archer, otherwise the cooldown will simply be wasted.
It might be overpowered a little bit, because it is really quite difficult to balance the skeleton summoning, but with some numbers rework I think I can give it a fair gameplay without affecting the core mechanic that is to summon your army instead of training it.

Path of Blood
Well, the San'layn are supposed to copy the blood elven techtree, because they are nothing more than undead blood elves, that's why they are so similar to the humans, as they pretty much use the same units you would expect from the Frozen Throne human (blood elf) campaign. I've tried to vary a little bit, by adding the Crypt Maiden with her Varghulf form, the problem is that I'm out of command card slots in all buildings to add more units, what I may try to do is revamping their abilities so they would feel a little bit more unique. I really want to get them right, since the San'layn are my favorite Scourge sub-faction in this map.

Path of Darkness
The nerubians problem is the lack of custom models, I simply could not find anything that would fit so I could add more units, but I do agree that they are lacking abilities, almost all of their units can't do much rather than attacking, I will put some more thought into them.

This faction I think would be my favourite, they are the hardest to play but if used correctly they could be really powerful. It's a a very nice idea and fitting the faction that they have no melee units (Except the Rune Golem) and that the basic units have to summon golems. Oh and the Rune Golem can be healed and the others can't.
I would personally give the Serenity Aura (which is also a good idea btw) not to the Altar but to a seperate building maybe? Like a statue or sth, idk.
Sunreaver Mana Weaver and Silver Chanter are not as useful, their spells could deal more damage (not sure here)
They have also 2 upgrades for armor, but its not said which is for which units.

I really feared about the Kirin'tor as I could not think of enough units to compose a full techtree for them, and thought on removing them at some point, but luckily I've found those awesome custom buildings and couldn't allow myself to not use them.

The rune golems were not supposed to be healed, that's a bug, I'll fix it. Thanks for pointing it out. I think I forgot to set them as mechanical.

The Serenity Aura was supposed to add the mana effect above the altar, that's from back when the Kirin'tor was using normal human buildings and I felt the need to add a magical feeling to the Altar of Kings, when I added the Dalaran Building models, I was way too comfortable with the mana regen it provided that I could not remove it. I kind like the idea of the altar aura as it gives an additional purpose to the building that would otherwise simply summon and revive heroes. I may add a different building for the mana regen and remove it from the altar if I ever find a fitting model for it though.

They were the last units I've added to the faction, as I felt the Kirin'tor didn't have enough micro to do, for a faction of mages, since all the other casters have auto casting abilities. I will rebalance their spells and maybe increase the units cost or their research cost to make things fair.

I got a little bit lazy while writing the tooltips for the armor and weapon upgrades, but I'll fix that later for sure. The Chanter and Mana Weaver uses the normal upgrades from the Ley Forge.

This faction has only 1 new hero (paladin), as 3 of the others were also in the Kirin Tor. In my opinion no race should share heroes, so be sure to add more to one of them.
Also their Altar also gives the Serenity Aura, which, again in my opinion it shouldn't do. I would make it only in the Kirin Tor.
You accidently put the Plague Spreader in the Barracks.
Great idea with the cleric, how you can buff up before battle with Blessing as Clerics die easily so you shouldnt take them. I love how it is made exactly like Paladins in WoW, who also buff up before battle <3 Well done, sir.
Also I like your idea of how the Scourge and Scarlet Crusade counter each other, with their battle of corpses.
The Blessing of Kings is awesome too and how it recommends for you to buff up with clerics.

The Argent Crusade was the first faction I've created for this map, back when the whole idea was simply hero management, that's why I've created the Clerics, as you would not need to worry about healing or buffing your units during combat, it turned out even better after I've changed the gameplay to a more standard RTS.

I was not planning on adding different heroes for the Argent Crusade and the Kirin'tor, they both were supposed to have a single unique hero and the remaining were only generic heroes that fit both factions' theme, but if this turns out to be a bigger problem I may switch things a bit, what I would do is give the Commander and Priest to the Argent Crusade and the Ranger General to the Kirin'tor, then fill in the gap with other heroes for both factions.

I kinda of like the Serenity Aura in their altar, mostly because of the holy effect it adds to the building, what I might do is simply change it's usage, instead of mana regen maybe it could grant something else.

Opps, the Plague Spreader was not supposed to be there, thanks for pointing it out!

Gotta love the Clerics, I really like the idea of a support unit that works only out of combat, also it fits their theme of being what they are, well Clerics, you wouldn't expect to see one in the middle of a field battle, so yeah, they remain in your base.

The Argent Crusade is the greatest counter to the Scourge, as they are in lore, the best way I could find to create this effect is allowing them to deprive the Scourge off their main resource... Corpses. So the Crusade can simply burn corpses or use the Priest to cast Exorcize, the spawned unit effect of this ability does not generate a corpse when the target unit dies, so even less meat for the Scourge to use.

The original idea of the Guardian of Ancient Kings was a simple proc heal, but after developing the other factions I felt that the Argent Crusade was getting a little bit underpowered in late game, so I decided to make them virtually immortal if well managed xD
Since they are the only faction that does not have an absurd ultimate unit as the Scourge has with the Flesh Giants (still in search for a better model for them) and the Kirin'tor with the Gunship and the Rune Golems and I think that adding such a kind of unit to them would remove too much from the faction's identity and fidelity with the lore. So yeah, Guardian of Ancient Kings, gotta make those crusaders immortal, you know.

Thanks for the review! Judging by your comments I think I'm in the right path here and this give me even more enthusiasm to keep developing!

 

[Eagle XI]

Plague Bearer had 'create blight'(or something like that) ability not working, did you fix ? played path of skeleton with custom necromancer hero, tombstone is an awesome skill to have, but perhaps it should require an corpse too, and never got skeleton archers since raise dead produced only one skeleton. Necro hero should not have an duplicate in the spellbook, believe it was the 'kill unit get mana' skill.

 

[izaiphovias]

Yeah, the Disseminate Blight ability has been fixed in the newest build, but i didn't publish that one yet.
Tombstone comes from way back when this was a simple hero management focused game, the stone was your plan B or initial mean to summon an army to support the hero, but now that I've changed it to a more standard RTS map, I may consider adding the corpse cost.
Skeleton archer for Raise Dead was a wrong tooltip, it has been fixed in the latest build. Your mean to get archers is by equipping Skeleton Warriors (only the warriors summoned by Unholy Ritual) with bows when close to a Graveyard.
I don't think I'm sure I get what you mean by duplicate...

 

[Rufus]

Here are the notes I wrote while I played:

• The kirin tor and the argent cusade have three heroes in common.
• The ranger generals barrage ability can be upgraded each level. Not like regular hero abilities.
• Shouldn't the Kirin tor and Argent Crusade work togheter?
• The Paladins Divine storm was a nice ability, but the fire it left could have used another model.
• Cruzader strike was only 25 mana. A bit to ceap, I'd say.
• Tooltips are not alwys very detailed. It can give vague descriptions like "Give extra damage...", but not how much.
• Not all of the new heroes abilities are custom. This could be both good and bad.
• The heroes from the tavern does still have only 4 abilities.
• Enemies have no AI, but it may not be needed if the map is supposed to be played multiplayer.
• Even when all enemies are dead, there is no victory dialogue.
• I couldn't level my heroes beyond level 5, since there was not enough player enemies to kill, but if they can't level beyond level 10, they can't upgrade all of their abilities. Perhaps not needed either.
• The new heroes felt powerful and was fun to play.
• I'm far from a melee game expert, but the techtrees seemed very balanced to me.
• Guardian of the ancient kings was a cool ability, the high cost is fitting too.
• Most other upgradeable abilities was also pretty unique and useful.
• There was still plenty of buildings and abilities that can be found in an ordinairy melee game. This is not all bad htough, as it may allow players to adapt to the race quicker.
• Necrotic Infection is a super strong ability. It basically kills any unit it can latch on. Over time, sure, but still.
• You've found very good-looking maodels and icons, and fitted them well-together.
• I liked that you could choose paths in the scourge. Real nice.
• Flesh giants tooltip: "This is an absurd pile of meat." Haha ...but not very descriptive.
• The plague spreader is awesome. Such a strong unit, but very immobile.

It is clear that a lot of energy have been put down into this proejct already, nad there is more to come!
I'd reccomend you to recreate the melee map, as it is a quite strange one. I'd also like to see the if the factions could work togehter?
And, since you have specified starting lcoations for the races already, why not add ome terrain around it to look more like a headquarters?

This has potential, and has come far already.
Good job!

 

[izaiphovias]

Here are the notes I wrote while I played:

• The kirin tor and the argent cusade have three heroes in common.
• The ranger generals barrage ability can be upgraded each level. Not like regular hero abilities.
• Shouldn't the Kirin tor and Argent Crusade work togheter?
• The Paladins Divine storm was a nice ability, but the fire it left could have used another model.
• Cruzader strike was only 25 mana. A bit to ceap, I'd say.
• Tooltips are not alwys very detailed. It can give vague descriptions like "Give extra damage...", but not how much.
• Not all of the new heroes abilities are custom. This could be both good and bad.
• The heroes from the tavern does still have only 4 abilities.
• Enemies have no AI, but it may not be needed if the map is supposed to be played multiplayer.
• Even when all enemies are dead, there is no victory dialogue.
• I couldn't level my heroes beyond level 5, since there was not enough player enemies to kill, but if they can't level beyond level 10, they can't upgrade all of their abilities. Perhaps not needed either.
• The new heroes felt powerful and was fun to play.
• I'm far from a melee game expert, but the techtrees seemed very balanced to me.
• Guardian of the ancient kings was a cool ability, the high cost is fitting too.
• Most other upgradeable abilities was also pretty unique and useful.
• There was still plenty of buildings and abilities that can be found in an ordinairy melee game. This is not all bad htough, as it may allow players to adapt to the race quicker.
• Necrotic Infection is a super strong ability. It basically kills any unit it can latch on. Over time, sure, but still.
• You've found very good-looking maodels and icons, and fitted them well-together.
• I liked that you could choose paths in the scourge. Real nice.
• Flesh giants tooltip: "This is an absurd pile of meat." Haha ...but not very descriptive.
• The plague spreader is awesome. Such a strong unit, but very immobile.

It is clear that a lot of energy have been put down into this proejct already, nad there is more to come!
I'd reccomend you to recreate the melee map, as it is a quite strange one. I'd also like to see the if the factions could work togehter?
And, since you have specified starting lcoations for the races already, why not add ome terrain around it to look more like a headquarters?

This has potential, and has come far already.
Good job!

Oh well, it seems that I'll really need to create separate heroes for them xD
Problem is, how to create so many and maintain each one's originality.
My idea is to leave the Archmage, Priest and Ranger General for the Kirin'tor, so I'll need to create only one new heroes for them, problem is to think of a Strength based hero for a mage faction. This will leave the Paladin and Commander for the Crusade, I'm thinking about an elven paladin as an agility hero and a healer paladin as intelligence.

Don't know what is causing the Barrage ability to be available every single level, I'll have to look it up.

In lore, they indeed work together, as they will in the campaign, but for multiplayer game health purposes, I decided to leave them as enemies, so you would have the chance to face any faction disregarding the one you're playing as. I might add a custom alliance mechanic that pops up at the start of the game, but that's not a priority.

Divine Storm fire effect updated, it fits the theme way better in the latest build (not uploaded yet).

Crusader Strike's sole purpose is to cause damage and it doesn't even cause that much, above that is the fact that it is a melee range ability, so I thought it would be fair to give it such low cost.

Tooltips are last priority, I always leave them behind to avoid extra work if I end up dumping the spell/research/unit, so I may forget to update or write some of them after moving on. I will review every single tooltip, before the full release.

I'm trying to keep things simple for some heroes, to avoid running out of ideas.

Taverns have been removed in the latest build (not uploaded yet).

The custom factions have no AI yet, as I am still working on a thing here and there for all of them, so to avoid having to recreate and AI every time a faction is updated I will not add them until the final release. There are three (two in the latest build) normal AI races for testing purpose.

I had to remove the melee map victory condition to avoid revealing due to lack of town halls, I got way too lazy to add custom triggers for that considering this is still in alpha. Victory conditions will surely be added for the final release.

The three AI players that can be set for testing should be more than enough to get the heroes past level 5. Max level for heroes is 15 for this map.

Heroes were the main focus for the map when I first begun it's concept, so they were quite overpowered back then. I've nerfed them down a little bit and was even considering setting them to normal hero stats, but I'm really not sure if I should keep them as they are or if I should "normalize" them.

My biggest concern is the balance between the three Scourge sub factions.

Guardian of Ancient Kings was my way to add overpowerness to the Argent Crusade in the late game, since they don't have ultimate units like the Flesh Giant or the Gunship. I quite like the concept, if you manage it properly you can have an almost immortal army.

The idea of having lots of different upgrades for almost all units was taken from tomoraider's Curse of the Forsaken campaign, they have a Lab building that concentrates all sorts of cool upgrades for their units. I fell in love with this concept and had to implement it in some style. Glad you liked them.

The normal abilities and buildings case is the same as the heroes abilities, if I find the unit and/or ability useful and still fitting for the faction theme I will certainly keep it, this helps me to avoid running out of ideas.

I might decrease the Infection damage to balance it out.

I've spent quite a few days searching the Hive for the best models, I'm still sad I could not find too many nerubian stuff =(

The Scourge path idea is to purposefully restrict the faction, it would be way too overwhelming and way too overpowered to allow the player to build every single units, but I just could not let all of those cool units out of the picture, so I decided to create this restriction.

I will update the Flesh Giant's tooltip later, but the joke will remain there lol.

The Plague Spreader is supposed to be the Scourge "tower", since Spirit Towers and Nerubian Towers have a whole different purpose in this map. At first I would leave the faction without any defensive structures, but a few days ago I've seen that Spreader model being updated here in the Hive and had to use it. I'm still thinking of some way to better point out the unit's lore role, but could not think of any fitting ability yet, so for now they will remain as simple towers that can spread blight.

Thanks for the review, Rufus! Really appreciated.

I've spent the new year's eve working on a special thing. I've created the intro cinematic for the campaign that is going to use these custom factions as soon as I'm done with this map. The cinematic recreates the WoW Wrath of the Lich King's intro, it has been uploaded here if anyone wanna check it out: The Awakening

 

[Even]

For the nerubians, can't you use revamped original units? Arachnathids and the Nerubian creeps (sage, queen, etc.) comes to mind, and with addition of custom abilites, can be revitalised to interesting use

 

[MogulKahn]

From top of my mind, I can think of around 10 custom Nerubian models? Isn't that enough?

 

[izaiphovias]

For the nerubians, can't you use revamped original units? Arachnathids and the Nerubian creeps (sage, queen, etc.) comes to mind, and with addition of custom abilites, can be revitalised to interesting use

Arachnathids don't fit the lore, nerubians don't have stings. I thought about using them, but it would simply kill the sub-faction coherence with lore.

The Nerubian creeps are simply reskined crypt fiends, they use the exact same model, it would be over-repetitive. On top of that, their skins are of living nerubians, it doesn't blend well with other undead units.

From top of my mind, I can think of around 10 custom Nerubian models? Isn't that enough?

Thing is, yes, there are a lot of nerubian models here, however, most of them are hero models, that don't have decay animations, rendering them unusable. For units models I've already used most of them and still am lacking a bigger variety.

 

[MogulKahn]

Well, you can ask someone to make them as units. They only need to remove hero glow and add decay animations!

 

[Even]

Arachnathids don't fit the lore, nerubians don't have stings. I thought about using them, but it would simply kill the sub-faction coherence with lore.

The Nerubian creeps are simply reskined crypt fiends, they use the exact same model, it would be over-repetitive. On top of that, their skins are of living nerubians, it doesn't blend well with other undead units.

Arachnathids are associated with nerubians though, so they're not that incoherent

I'd agree with that... How about making a spiderling unit out of the small spider (preferably with an undead/bone reskin), and/or a jormungar (although models are still scarce on that)

 

[MogulKahn]

There is also few skins for nerubians. Like Markura one!

 

[izaiphovias]

Well, you can ask someone to make them as units. They only need to remove hero glow and add decay animations!

Hmm, I may try that

Changing the subject... The main post has been updated with the latest alpha build, some changes have been applied taking into consideration all the feedback so far and the Forsaken faction has been added (as player blue), they are sort of done, I will need to balance them further and work on the heroes' abilities tooltips and triggers (for example, Sylvanas' Haunting Wave should teleport her, but it won't do that yet). but overall they are playable if anyone want to test 'em.

 

[Even]

Review:
- I see that there are still some buildings missing? (one 2nd tier military building and one 3rd tier super unit building)
- Some tooltip errors, especially in the building, heroes, and units from the 2nd tier

Haven't really checked the balance though, but the units do fit the theme

 

[izaiphovias]

Review:
- I see that there are still some buildings missing? (one 2nd tier military building and one 3rd tier super unit building)
- Some tooltip errors, especially in the building, heroes, and units from the 2nd tier

Haven't really checked the balance though, but the units do fit the theme

To which faction are you referring to?

The Argent Crusade have the Chapel and Elven Enclave for 2nd tier, they don't have a 3rd tier building thought (only units)

The Kirin'tor have the Council Hall for 2nd tier and Wizard Tower for 3rd tier

The Scourge have the Crypt and Slaughterhouse for 2nd, Boneyard and Unholy Lab for 3rd (even though the Lb does not train units)

The Forsaken 2nd tier are the Hollow Shrine and the Apothecarium, for 3rd they have the Plagueatorium

 

[Even]

Sorry, I meant that for the Forsaken... The Hollow Shrine, specifically, is missing

 

[KJmaster208]

I have to ask? when i download this map that you put the link on it and when i check in custom games it doesn't appear -_- doesn't mean i have to reinstall the newer version again? i have 1.27.

 

[MogulKahn]

I also got the same problem!

 

[izaiphovias]

Spoiler: Old Posts

Try renaming the map file and remove the version number, also make sure to put it in a recognizable folder inside the Warcraft III directory, like Warcraft III\Maps\Scenario. Or open it in WE, push the test button, quit the game, return to Warcraft III and look for the map inside Maps\Test.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Update

Main post updated with the link to the latest alpha build:
*The Forsaken are supposed to be fully playable now, with all abilities and tooltips implemented as intended
*Models and icons for some heroes have been updated
*Models and icons for the Kirin'tor defensive towers have been updated
*Some units for the humans AI player have been changed (models and names only), to better fit the period in which this is supposed to take place
*Rifleman have been replaced by NE Archer
*Priest have been replaced by NE Druid
*Spell Breaker have been replaced by Dwarven Rune Breaker
*Sorceress have been replaced by Wizard
*Hero Blood Mage have been replaced by Arch Druid
*Spell effects for the human priest (now a ne druid) have been replaced to better fit the theme
*Spell effects for the blood mage (now a ne archdruid) have been replaced to better fir the theme
*Ultimate spell for the blood mage, Phoenix, have been replaced by Call of Ysera (which summons a Green Dragon)
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Update

New alpha build has been uploaded, main post has been updated with updated screenshots and the download link. In this build I've focused on fixing the Hero problem of the human factions. Now the Kirin'tor and the Argent Crusade have their own heroes, finally, also, the Scourge hero Blood Queen went through a major rework on her gameplay.

Argent Crusade:
Highlord (Str): former paladin, now has a new model

Lord Commander (Str): has a new model

Paladin (Int): new support hero
Smite: Ranged stun with moderate damage, also remove buffs from the target
Flash of Light: burst heal followed by a minor heal over time, will heal nearby friendly units if the target has Beacon of Hope
Resurrection: it does what you think it does, but the first levels are weaker, reviving less units than the original spell
Beacon of Hope: places a buff in a friendly target that increases it`s armor, this ability interacts with Flash of Light as described above, has a limited amount of targets, if the limit is exceeded a random unit will lose the buff
Hand of Protection: renders a target invulnerable for a short period, but causes it to be slowed, has a low cooldown
Aura of Divinity (non-heroic): nearby allied units will heal over time

Grand Crusader (Agi): new "A move hero" =P
Grand Crusade: auto-cast, increases attack and move speed
Holy Judgement: passive, attacks have a chance to stun the target
Righteous Fury: passive, attacks deals more damage over time and explode the target if it dies
Blessed Sword: passive, attacks deal area damage in front of the hero
Divine Intervention: passive, resurrects the Grand Crusader if he dies
Blessed Armor (non-heroic): reduces the effect of debuffs and renders the Grand Crusader immune to certain spells

Kirin'tor:
Archmage (Int): has a new model

High Priest (Int): has a new model

Ranger General (Agi): has a new model

Grand Enchanter (Str): new almost melee hero
Chant of Flames: channeled, summons a fire elemental to fight for you, the elemental have additional abilities according to this spell's level
Immolation: what you think it is
Blink: yeah, it's Blink, get over it
Mana Shield: are you getting how this works?
Astral Protection: Renders nearby allied units invulnerable (does not affect the caster)
Invisibility (non-heroic): All of this should make sense now, if not, I'll explain the new heroes below

Here's the thing, I had to split the heroes among the human factions since repeating them kind of bothered a lot of people (including me), but it was quite difficult to create new heroes and maintain diversity. I've tried my best and those were the resulting ideas.

The Paladin has been renamed to Highlord since I had to create a support hero for the Crusade and did not want to simply leave them with the High Priest (that would be way too easy). So I decided to create a Holy Paladin (from wow), but could not name it like that, it would be lame, so yeah, he's the new Paladin and the old one is now Highlord, i hope it makes sense. The new Paladin is all about support, I've taken some inspiration from the WoW Holy Pally to create his spells and came up with things like Beacon of Hope and Hand of Protection as described above.

The Grand Crusader was a quite interesting idea I had, he is that kind of hero that does not worry you, since he has no spells (actually he has one, but it is auto-cast). He is all about massing your army and A clicking the enemy base, all you'll have to worry about then is spellcaster micro, just forget the hero and leave him to do his job.

The Grand Enchanter was a really difficult one to come up with. How in hell would I create a Strength based hero for a mage faction!? The best thing I could think of was some kind of spellsword hero, but even that would take away from the faction's theme. The Grand Enchanter is the closest a mage can get to a spellsword/footman. Most of his spells work around setting the perfect invulnerability for your army, Astral Protection is based on Big Bad Voodoo, it renders all nearby allied units invulnerable, except the hero itself, it's a good spell, but it needs support in order to work properly and the Grand Enchanter has all the support he needs. Use Blink to get into position, Immolation and Mana Shield to protect yourself and then cast Astral Protection, if things goes south, use Invisibility or Blink again to get the hell out of there. Chant of Flames is how the hero compensates the lack of offensive spells, it will create a fire elemental that can cast firebolt and fire wave so you can still cause some damage without having any damage based spells in your hero, it is channeled though, so the Grand Enchanter is rendered inert while you use the elemental, it would just be way too overpowered to allow him to use his abilities while the elemental is up, if he ever stops channeling the elemental dies.

Now the Blood Queen, she simply cannot regenerate mana anymore. I thought it would be cool and also reinforce the fact that she is a vampire, to force her into combat in order to generate mana. Her trait, Soul Vampirism, now regenerates mana for every attack and every time a unit dies close to the hero. All spells had their mana cost increased, except Consume, which has been reworked, it can now be effectively used on friendlies and costs no mana, the cooldown has been significantly increased though, so you can use it to create an acceptable or even full mana pool before engaging. Her ultimate has also been reworked and is more powerful now, it loops 3 times after the first cast, if the original target is still alive.

This should be enough to fix the hero problem the map had. Tooltips for the new heroes are all messed up still, I was too lazy to work on them now. Also it has a new minimap preview image

From now on I will focus on bug fixing, tooltip fixing and units/abilities balancing, the only new stuff that is going to be added is maybe some additional abilities for the nerubians, so they will feel less simplistic compared to the rest.

The last alpha build has been uploaded, the download link in the main post has been updated. All the bugs I could find have been corrected, Victory conditions have been added, some icons were updated, two new researches were added to the Scourge Unholy Lab. I will give it some time so people interested may test this version before I upload it in the maps sections, in the meantime I will work on compiling all the due credits.

 

[MogulKahn]

Gonna check it! Again. Last time I couldn't make a map to appear in the map section.

 

[izaiphovias]

Rename the map file by removing the version info, this should fix this bug

 

[MogulKahn]

Played it. Checked all races. Not going to talk about balance(some things are utterly broken) or bug fixes (there is also a lot of bugs there), only "feel" of the race. First I have to say that I really disliked a lot of models you chose, but that is non of my business. Really liked what you did with Argent Crusade and Kirin Tor. Forsaken are awful. And Scourge is just one big mess. Idea is nice, but execution is poor. You should separate them in 3 different races, or merge them into one race, where every tier have one or more units from each race.

About those sub-races. I liked Cult of the Damned the most. That blight mechanic is really cool. Vampiric elves (can't remember their name, Sha'lain?) were also cool. But I feel like they were missing something, maybe that big, ultimate unit? About Nerubians. Well... awful is nice word for them. Awful models, skins, spells are boring, and I am not even going to talk about that "eye unit". That shouldn't even exist there. I have told you before, you have some really decent looking models on this site for Nerubians, you should use them.

Also not big fan of the map we play on.

I am not trying to sound rude here, I am just saying what I felt after playing these races. If I wasn't this busy as I am right now, I would go with in deep analysis of every race, unit by unit. But sadly, I really can't afford to spend that much time on writing.

Map has potential, but you just need to invest a lot more time in it and be patient! Good luck!

 

[izaiphovias]

I'm not separating the Scourge, by doing this I would simply be creating three new "ordinary" factions, the main thing about them, their main mechanic is the ability to choose between the sub-factions, it is supposed to be a mess.

The Forsaken were a little bit difficult to put together, there aren't many models that would resemble them nicely and that blend well together, except for the buildings, unfortunately

I will try to ask for the creators of those models to add decay animations to them so they may be used as units. I am quite disappointed with the nerubians as well, but I have to keep them (even with awful models) since they are a quite important part of the Scourge. For their abilities, if I manage to get new models I will add some more complexity to it, but for now, with the resources I have at my disposal, they will remain as they are.

After playing some test matches in that map, I got tired of it as well, I'll definitively change it, specially because I want to add more player slots.

On other subject, the main post has been updated with the credits, I hope I didn't miss anyone.

 

[Even]

By the way, the arch-necromancer is unrevivable after using his Soul (..., I forgot) ability (the one that promises to revive it in a phylactery). It revives, but is killed again, and can't be revived in the altar
Also, have the necromancers been deprived of their Unholy Ritual ability? Bummer if they do

I'd agree that the nerubian hero models this site offer (especially the vizier model) would be interesting for the subfaction expansion (we do need a second spellcaster, after all)

Post-playing latest version of Forsaken:
So, the banshee is a special unit acquired by "raising" dead ghosts of Dark Rangers for some time? Why not accentuate the Darkfallen more by i.e. modifying its attack and armor (physical blades/glaives and bloodelven armor is more than ectoplasm, I guess), and change one of the banshee abilities in it? (change the Possession into a big shadow damage dealing ability, maybe?); Btw, the banshee upgrades doesn't link properly to the Darkfallen

 

[izaiphovias]

By the way, the arch-necromancer is unrevivable after using his Soul (..., I forgot) ability (the one that promises to revive it in a phylactery). It revives, but is killed again, and can't be revived in the altar
Also, have the necromancers been deprived of their Unholy Ritual ability? Bummer if they do

I'd agree that the nerubian hero models this site offer (especially the vizier model) would be interesting for the subfaction expansion (we do need a second spellcaster, after all)

Post-playing latest version of Forsaken:
So, the banshee is a special unit acquired by "raising" dead ghosts of Dark Rangers for some time? Why not accentuate the Darkfallen more by i.e. modifying its attack and armor (physical blades/glaives and bloodelven armor is more than ectoplasm, I guess), and change one of the banshee abilities in it? (change the Possession into a big shadow damage dealing ability, maybe?); Btw, the banshee upgrades doesn't link properly to the Darkfallen

Thanks for reporting the Necrolord revival bug, I'll have to redesign that ability, it seems that adding Resurrection as a unit ability causes this glitch.

Scourge Necromancers still have Unholy Ritual, if you did not have the ability you were probably using normal undead Necromancers and were not playing as Scourge at all.

I'm not quite sure about the nerubian models, I'm not getting any reply from the modelers, so it seems that they will remain as they are.

Yes, if you research Curse of the Banshee, whenever a Dark Ranger dies she will spawn a Ghost, if this Ghost survives long enough it will turn into a permanent Banshee, with all expected abilities (curse, anti-magic shell, possession, ethereal form and last song).

Darkfallen is a replacement for the Banshee for the normal (not Scourge) undead AI player, it only has a different name and model, you are not supposed to play with them. If you were able to train this unit I'll have to look it up as it is clearly a bug.

 

[MogulKahn]

I could train Darkfallen. About removing hero glow and adding decay animations, you don't need to ask modelers who made those models to add them. Just make a thread in Requests sub-forum and some kind soul from this site is going to help you, I am 99% sure in that!

 

[izaiphovias]

Hmm, I could not find exactly how you guys were able to train the Darkfallen (Banshee replacement), since the starting acolytes are correct as well as the available for training and the buildings they summon, the custom Temple of the Damned is also properly set to train only Necromancers and Ymirjar ô.õ

Not sure if the original modeler would authorize the edit and since I don't have his permission, I would rather avoid asking other people

 

[Even]

But I'm quite sure that I played with Path of Death researched...

The problem is at the Forsaken's Shadow Temple, or something (the place to train Shadow Priests)

Asking the modellers first is a noble idea, but I don't know how freely users are able to edit custom models, maybe MogulKahn can help with that

 

[izaiphovias]

Oh, How can I be that stupid!? I used the default melee Banshee unit for the Forsaken and when I created a custom one, in order to change the default to the Darkfallen, I forgot to replace it in the Hollow Shrine lol.

Thanks for pointing this out, guys.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ok, this is as far as the Nerubians can go. I could not get my hands on any new models, so I had to use my creativity to make the best of those I have. I've made some significant changes on how the Nerubians play:

Redone Ziggurats available researches:
Tunneling Strain: Allow Weavers and Beetles to move while burrowed
Flying Strain: Allow Weavers to morph into Locust
Corpser Strain: Broodlings spawn from dead nerubian units, allow Nest Guardians to cast Corpse Nest

Redone Path of Darkness Lab researches:
Injected Locuts: Remain the same, spawn Locust Swarms from dead nerubian units
Necrotic Incubation: Zigguras and Spirit Towers spawn corpses and can cast Spawn Eggs, Nest Guardians can cast Pick up Egg
The Underkingdom: Allows Necropolis/Halls of the Dead/Black Citadel to cast Summon Undergate

Now a brief explanation of the new abilities:

Corpse Nest: spawn a Flesh Nest from a corpse, Nests cannot move but hit really hard, they lose health over time but can cast Replicate, which infects an enemy units with parasitic nerubians, upon death the infected unit will spawn another Flesh Nest.

Spawn Egg: spawn a Necrotic Egg from a corpse, eggs are invisible and explode when close to an enemy unit, upon exploding it spawns 4 broodlings, eggs can be carried around by Nest Guardians in order to be relocated

Summon Undergate: summons an Undergate anywhere on the map where you have visibility, the gate periodically spawns broodlings and generates corpses, it can also cast Spawn Egg and Dark Summoning to teleport allied units to its location

That's it, this is what I could come up with to feature the swarm playstyle of the nerubians.

The main post has been updated with the download link for the latest build.

 

[KJmaster208]

Hello izaiphovias!

i would like to report that the paladin Last skills are Cripple are kinda glitch or broken from my opinion *Normally i don't report about broken or glitches cause i don't care at all but for the sake of it i will say it even i hate it*

1: When i play on Argent Crusade faction in 30 minutes etc and use paladin last skills "Cripple" on my enemy Ai and suddenly it do slow the enemy down for a sec but INVULNERABILITY? I CANNOT KILL A ENEMY HERO FOR THAT!

2: When i tested on units using cripple it done the same thing however it only last about 3 or 5 minutes! but HEROES I TESTED ARE 10 OR 15 MINUTES TO LAST FROM WHAT I CAN REMEMBER!

so here's my report of the argent crusader.

 

[izaiphovias]

Hello izaiphovias!

i would like to report that the paladin Last skills are Cripple are kinda glitch or broken from my opinion *Normally i don't report about broken or glitches cause i don't care at all but for the sake of it i will say it even i hate it*

1: When i play on Argent Crusade faction in 30 minutes etc and use paladin last skills "Cripple" on my enemy Ai and suddenly it do slow the enemy down for a sec but INVULNERABILITY? I CANNOT KILL A ENEMY HERO FOR THAT!

2: When i tested on units using cripple it done the same thing however it only last about 3 or 5 minutes! but HEROES I TESTED ARE 10 OR 15 MINUTES TO LAST FROM WHAT I CAN REMEMBER!

so here's my report of the argent crusader.

Hand of Protection (the cripple ability) is supposed to be used on allies to turn them invulnerable. It shouldn't be possible to use it on enemies, I'll have to take a look on that.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Edit:

Since I did not get any more feedback, I guessed the map was ready and it has been officially posted: Hour of the Scourge - Andorhal

 

[Even]

Wait, how do we get the skeletons to be archers again? Don't we need to do the ability near a Graveyard, or what?

 

[Jampion]

I will give some feedback about the Argent Crusade. I have played a bit with them (did not try the other races yet) and think they have some pretty nice units.

I did take a good look at balancing and here is my opinion:

Spoiler: Feedback

Argent Crusade:

For balancing I will compare the units to standard warcraft 3 units.

Units:

Crusader: a bit stronger than footmen, especially with upgrades. I like it, because I think that otherwise footmen/crusader would be useless late game.
However I think that Defend is overpowered like in normal warcraft 3.

Squire: hard to tell, it's a really squishy unit (300 hp) for basically the same price as a rifleman.
Has increased utility though and high damage.
In general I think that this unit is rather weak, similar to troll berserkers.

Rifleman voice sounds weird on him.

Templar: very high hp (similar to tauren), very high armor (similar to knight) with upgraded Kodo aura. Considering all of this the unit might sound too strong, but since the aura gives no benefit once you have more of these units I think it's ok.

Ballista: In general I do not like the idea of giving nuking abilities to units, especially against heroes. I think here it's fine though. The damage is low enough so you need a lot of them to be effective against heroes and the cooldown is high enough that you really need to choose you target wisely.

Hippogryph: same as in normal warcraft

Strider: basically as strong as a night elf archer, but costs 100 gold and 1 supply more

Strider + Hippogryph: 410 gold, more than one frost wyrm, but only 30 damage
Similar problem like Hippogryph riders in normal warcraft 3: very expensive unit with low damage. I think the idea of making a 3 supply unit as rider is very good, because this can increase the damage of the combined unit as well.

Argent Hawk: Probably best against casters, because of damage/attack type and possiblity to get fast to them. The teleport ability is very neat. Definitely a very unique and interesting unit.
The Argent Hawk does not teleport to the target, if the light bolt kills the target. Looking at your triggers I think you can solve it by setting damage to 0 in the spell and dealing the damage in the teleportation trigger.

Cleric: I like the addition of a non-combat unit. The low hp make him really dangerous to use in combat. I think it's just worse compared to priests. With priests' heal you already have a very cost efficient heal. Good to restore mana though.

Priest: I think it would be a good idea to remove the heal from the priest to have a more important role for the cleric (my favourite unit of this race) and to reduce the number of autocast abilties on the priest.

Judicator: With mana shield this unit has up to 1550 hp, but is next useless if using mana only defensively. His abilities are very strong against heroes, because he forces enemy heroes to stay in the back. I think that he is too cheap in supply, because a higher supply cost and his overall weakness in normal combat could compensate for his strength against heroes.
He is very different from other units in warcraft 3, which I like very much.
The description of his holy weapons ability says spear even though he wields a hammer. Also his weapon sound sounds more like a sword.

Heroes:

Some of your heroes are very strong. I don't know, if this is intended, but I often feel like if heroes are to strong units become very weak and close to useless compared to them.

I like the design choice of having stronger roles (strength heroes more hp, intelligence heroes less hp), but I think this needs some tweaks. If strength heroes are far superior in combat and tanking, intelligence heroes should have better abilties.

Paladin:
Smite is very strong. 5 second stun on heroes is devastating.
Resurrection states the hotkey as Q, but is E.
Divinity Aura is very overpowered. It heals more than 20 hit points! on a level 1 highlord per second.
I like the combo of beacon of hope and flash of light.
This is probably my favourite hero, because he is no hero who has brute force, but nice support abilities that can be very useful if used properly.

Lord Commander:
Mighty strike is very strong. It only costs 80 mana deals damage like a coil and is aoe.
Sundering Strike is too strong. It has 5 seconds cooldown, is extremelly mana efficient and it will make enemy ground units useless.
In my opinion his aoe abilties are too strong, which is the reason why I do not like this balancing-wise.
The mighty strike ability is a cool ability though. His two buff abilties are too similar in their purpose. They are great in a fight, but are too easily countere by dispel.

Highlord:
Very high hp even on level one.
Crusader strike lv3 hero duration is 1.5 but should be 0.01.
Crusader strike also gets barely a benefit from leveling up. Maybe have higher cost/cooldown on level 1 but decrease them when you level up.
I rate this hero second from his ability design, but I think he is the most balanced one. He has an interesting mixture of different abilities. And all of them have a different purpose which is nice. The hero can be played many different ways.

Grand Crusader:
He is very weak compared to the three other heroes. I think he has too many passive abilities which makes other heroes to be more fun to play.

What does blessed armor do? I thought resistant skin would make units treated as heroes when under targets allowed and duration.

I like the amount of interesting upgrades, that also affect multiple units (holy weapons, purge soul and guardian of the ancient king)

In warcraft 3 all race have some kind of home advantage (militia, burrows,...). You could add something to the Argent Crusade as well.

I hope this is somewhat comprehensible.

 

[izaiphovias]

Thanks for the feedback, Jampion! I'm glad you liked it.

I've applied some changes to the map, taking into consideration what you said. I do agree about the Priest heal, however I'm struggling to come up with a useful spell to replace it, the same thing for the worker abilities.

For the workers, I am considering on giving Crusade's Conscripts some kind of Militia ability, for the Kirin'tor's Engineers something that would assist them on building with magic, for Forsaken's Damned something to do with the Grim Plague and for the Scourge I am considering spawning zombies from dead Acolytes.


I should release a new version really soon in the map section, however this thread will no longer be updated.
(link to the map page in the maps section in my signature)

 

[KJmaster208]

there's any news for the new AI?

 

[izaiphovias]

Since I'm still tweaking the factions, the AI will have to wait. The map does however allow you to add normal AI (human, night elves, orcs and undead) players for testing.
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Edit:

Version 2.0 under development. The plan is to make all spells vJASS, so I can easily avoid MUI issues and other bugs that are easier to detect when coding in vJASS, also it will help me clear up that absurd amount of UDGs the maps is accumulating. This is due to the fact that I plan on allowing multiple players using the same faction, this is not possible at the moment because some spells do not work as MUI.

Also, I will change the map terrain to a bigger and more concise one that also will allow up to 12 players.

At the moment I have almost all Forsaken spells migrated to vJASS. I'm having issues with a specific one that damages the target whenever the caster is damaged as long as it has the debuff up, I have no idea on how to do that since you can't detect a damage event to all units. If I get no solution I might even replace or remove the spell.