iTaLiaN WaRZ v0.98 BETA

[Moderator]

00:53, 27th June 2009, by Linaze
Italian Warz is a strategical campaign about Italy during the 16th century. The campaigns gameplay was rather simple but still entertaining, it was like Blizzard's campaigns, only with new techtrees. The terrain was decent, even though it could be improved easily by working on the tile variation and making smooth rivers instead of using blizzard cliffs. A minor thing that disturbed me was that the preview image was all white, but meh, that's nothing major. Another minor thing I noticed is that the Pikeman unit lacked a portrait (it was all black).

Approved with a 3/5 (useful) rating

 

[a7xpwns3]

You credited, good good.

But you left the author name as "unknown"

EDIT:
Oshi- Mech_Man made this... Heh heh...
Please, forget the comments for noobs
You left it as a mistake

 

[Septimus]

Fix the invalid author name.

 

[sonicstorm]

There're only 4 sub maps!
I'l try this.

 

[Linaze]

Italian Warz is a campaign about Italy during the 16th century and their war against the other nations of Europe, such as France and Switzerland. This campaign has been scanned for viruses, doesn't crash and follows the Hive Workshop rules. The description could be a bit improved, though, by adding screenshots (in hidden tags) and perhaps some more information.

Let's begin with the gameplay of the campaign. It does meet the most important criteria of any map, it's entertaining. The gameplay is like that of Blizzard's own campaigns, you need to construct a base in order to train troops that you need to destroy the enemy bases. There is some new stuff, though, such as the marketplace which is supposed to give you the opportunity to exchange gold for lumber and vice versa, unfortunately, it doesn't work as you need a hero to "buy" the exchange, and you don't have one. I also noticed a rather major bug, when you upgraded your Town Center into a City Hall, upgrades/units that had a City Hall as requirement wasn't available even though you had a City Hall under your control. Apart from those two things, the gameplay works nice and the map is rather balanced.

I find the terrain to be decent, but I think there is much room for improvement, especially when it comes to tile variation since most of the maps are just covered in grass except for some areas that are covered in dirt instead, there are also some lumps of the Crops tile here and there. Another thing that could be improved are the rivers, currently the rivers aren't smooth at all since you are using "blizzard cliffs". I strongly suggest making rivers with the lower tool instead since that makes the rivers look more natural and less sharp. The good parts of the terrain was the doodad placement and the elevation since nearly no areas were too flat or looked too empty.

I also found some minor things that should be looked into/fixed:

• The portrait of the pikeman was all black, and I guess it's because the model lacked a camera.
• The map preview image was all white which looked really ugly.
• The hotkey for the Disciplined Knight training was 'U', but the "N" in "kNight" was the one colored yellow, which is a bit illogical.

To conclude, this campaign was entertaining enough and the terrain wasn't too bad apart from the tile variation and the rivers. The minor things I pointed out above should be fixed, but these are as the name implies, "minor" things. I'll wait with voting and rating until you fix the Marketplace and the City Hall bugs. Please send me PM once you've fixed those bugs and updated the map.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Oh, about marketplace, probably I forgot to tell, that ability is self targeted, so you only target the marketplace itself and you are able to trade. About City Hall requirements, apparently I forgot to set them all, because I was fixing that lately.

Terrain sucks I know, I wasn't able to terrain that good, especially year ago, when the first maps were made. Especially villages are quite crappy. Thats why I'm searching for some better terrainer for the update. But still, lot of open area is necessary.

I know that pikeman has no portrait, I was too lazy to add it Where you saw white preview? I see the map correctly. And yes, there are still plenty of tooltip mistakes.

What do you think about AI and cinematics?

 

[Linaze]

@Marketplace, the player should be told about this, perhaps the first time you select a Marketplace owned by yourself or so.

@City Hall requirements, this really needs to be fixed as certain units are unavailable as of now, making it harder than it should be.

@Pikeman, it's nothing major, but should still be fixed.

@White preview, when you select which campaign to play under Custom Campaign in TFT.

@AI, it was fairly good, didn't take too much look at it, but it looks like it gets the intended job done.

 

[HFR]

Hey, it's finally here, the 4 chapters. I'll test it later.

 

[BuffetKiller]

The City Hall bug is pretty annoying xD

 

[Mechanical Man]

Fixed teh City hall bug

 

[HFR]

Also, as Linaze already noted, the pikemans are missing their portraits (Godfall has the same model and it has a portrait). Also, the terrain is, I must say, pretty lacking.

You need more tile variations, completely remove the blizzard cliffs, more doodads (you can import them). Also, one thing that I liked is that you're using the Village Tileset, good choice on that

And, why not add an batallion system and/or more units?

 

[Mechanical Man]

Nope, Godfall has not the same model. About terrain, I didn't know much about good terraining back in time, although as you may see, there was gradual improvement though maps.

I didn't add batalion system, because there were almost everything done before I started with Godfall (which was actually an experiment at first) and there would be too much to do. Maybe when I rework it, I will add such stuff. (probably also removing base building as I noticed that was pretty fail)

 

[HFR]

Yes, I noticed that the last chapter terrain is much better than the first one, that even uses blizzard cliffs...

Maybe you could rework tthe terrain in chapter 1. Also, remember: tile variation is a must. You should place the tiles in a randomic manner, but always following the theme, like an road.

 

[Mechanical Man]

I'd prefer somebody else to do the terrain for me I'm not really in this kind of thing.

 

[HFR]

Maybe Em?

 

[Mechanical Man]

He's not some high level terrainer

 

[HFR]

So, who you can hire as terrainer?

/me is an amazing terrainer

/ego

 

[Mechanical Man]

Who ever wants. I asked Ham Ham last time.

 

[knight26]

Very good map, especially like the ones that i like. .

[Good points]-
1. I like the way you planned the assaults and giving a small history and all
2. You used custom models for units
3. I like the idea of the campaign
[Neutral points]-
1. you could use more costume models for buildings, but guess this is not bad either.
2. you can make a better terrain
3. No heroes, maybe put some commanders or officers?
[Bad points]-
1. Farms were too big and took a lot of space, and they give too less food.(u should consider make it 15 food per farm).
2. No custom icons

Overall comment: It is nice and enjoyable, you should read my neutral and bad points . well you can do better! . 4/5 and +rep

 

[a7xpwns3]

I be good HD terrainor.

 

[Pyroproctos]

Well, I had a little bug with the church : I was not able to build one, even though I had a Fort. Maybe the last resistance of the City Hall bug ?
Also, on my computer, the map preview is white too...
I have nothing to say about the terrain, but maybe it needs to be improved, I don't really care...
I really loved the gameplay, but I don't know if a battalion system would not spoil it, even though it would fit better to the time where the campaign takes place...
Also, I don't know if there are other people like me, or if I'm just the only War-noob here, but I got defeated at each battle, you should maybe add a difficulty level setting, there is none for now...

 

[Mechanical Man]

About the church, I thought that it will be a buidable structure to train priests and containing several upgrades, but then ditched the idea, actually because I ran out of ideas XD. Dunno why the preview is white for you, You don't see the map of Italy?

But I guess you are a noob at least first 2 missions are farily easy, especially if you follow your allies in first.

 

[Pyroproctos]

Finally, for the 1st mission, I managed to wipe out the French fortress, the French outpost, and the Swiss camp. But I did not win anymore... you should maybe take a look at your triggers, I think there misses something, I was supposed to win by destroying at least one French town center (you forgot the 'e' of "one French Town Center" in the quest text), and I demolished at least four or five, and nothing happened (except there were no French alive on the map).
For the second battle (which, I confess, I had never played), you're supposed to hold on for a while, but were you supposed to crush the big-unbreakable-but-not-so-much French fortress ? Maybe some more towers would be wished, if it is a survival mission...
Also, beware of the players' names ! I guessed the blue player named "Player 2" was the French, and the light-blue one named "Player 10" was the Spanish, but wouldn't it be nice to precise this ?

Edit :
Excuse me, I also forgot to mention it : change the shortkeys ! I think this is because of the French version of the game I have, but there are many problems linked to the French default shortkeys : the T works for the Town Center and the Tower, the S works for the Stables and the Lumbermill ("Scierie" in French), and the C works for the Canon tower and the Barracks ("Caserne").
I think you would be able to avoid this kind of problem by changing ALL the shortkeys of the campaign-Tech-Tree. This is just a suggestion...

 

[Tha Flamestorm]

You need to add more to this!its great!

 

[Mechanical Man]

Add what?

 

[Chaotic]

Its Really Fun

 

[Shadow293903]

Downloading

EDIT:

This may just be me failing, XD, but I haven't gotten through the first map yet. It is fun, but one of my allies got pwnt around 10 minutes into the game while i sat there trying to use the market. I think you should put a tooltip into the market, an unclickable icon, which gives info on how to use it. Basically, a passive ability that doesn't do anything but give information.

Also, i agree with knight26, it would be better with some kind of officer or commander. (hero)

 

[I34w90_238j]

There's a major bug.
At least on the last level I could train Peasants in Fort. That's right.
They could build House (edited), Altar, Arcane Sanctum (unedited), City center (edited), Scout tower (edited), blacksmith (the edited one), Arcane Vault (unedited), Gryphon Aviary (unedited), Workshop (edited), Barracks (edited), Lumber Mill (edited).
So I could make unlimited number of any kind of hero. Got a paladin, archmage, 5 priests upgraded, 2 hawkriders with Cloud and won.

 

[Mechanical Man]

gah seem this campaign is really fubar, more and more bugs are discovered

 

[deepstrasz]

Hey, this is pretty neat. Not amazing but still worth playing it!

lev1:
-guard towers are way too inexpensive
-the Farm is almost as huge as the main building
-the AI does not research upgrades or upgrade towers
-the Fort seems to have the Life Drain ability
-Breeding's description says it increases speed by 0
-Town Center heals without its construction even being finalized
-how do you use the Marketplace? What makes a valid patron to use it?
-the quest specifies to destroy at least one enemy Town Center, well I did even raze a City Hall too and nothing happened. Destroyed all enemy buildings and units and still didn't get the victory message
-it seems that more than 100 food can be available to train unis but is not specified in the upkeep description

lev2:
-seems easy
-maybe increase upkeep from 100 onward? Ok so there's a direct High Upkeep at 100
-well it wasn't French outposts, more like one
-Swashbuckler requires Swashbuckler to be trained!?
-City Hall has the Backpack ability that can't be researched
-Town Halls also heal enemy units and the enemy's will heal the player's units
-Pikeman has the same icon as Swashbuckler

lev3:
-the yellow player, that is orange on the map, is called Neutral
-the Town Center has the same hotkey as the Tower: T
-Mining Carts upgrade says it increases the value of carried gold by 0
-Pikemen have no 3D portrait
-Dragoons are not mentioned in the Black Gunpowder upgrade
-the French are keeping a Knight in the northeast
-the last/second food raising upgrade does nothing. Farms still provide 10 food slots
-upgrading to a Fort does not enable the construction of the Church
-cannons don't have their range increased after their upgrade

lev4:
-they can actually attack the towers through the wall. Move the towers a bit away from the wall
-there are some French troops to the east that do not attack unless provoked. They're there from the beginning of the level
-I get a message "drek" from time to time
-after the defense, the blue and the purple are sending countless battalions... The purple gives breaks after a while
-blue Knights spawn out of nowhere/a road north of the purple AI's second base

It would be awesome if history stuff like this or even detailed campaigns would be made in various eras of peoples.
I suggest reading about the battles on the net. The battle of Pavia seems to be the most interesting of the four.

It's more of a 3.5 but hey, Hive limits.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Good thing that is still playable due to sheer amount of bugs it has. Patron of the market is supposed to be market iself.