Legend of Maiev

[tulee]

Hi Daffa! Was just curious about Summer Flower's campaign. Not trying to pressure you or anything.

 

[Daffa]

Apologize, it slipped from my mind due to intern. Be on it by weekend!

 

[Daffa]

Chapter Two:
1. Warden Huts can change their facing? Excuse me?
2. Advanced Researches exist, but not upgradeable
3. Light Blue doesn't have an AI despite having a base, or so it seems
4. Again, the extra boss always appear out of nowhere...
Chapter Three:
1. Shadow Orb leaderboard is bugged. No score is shown.
2. Is having undead and naga guarding an orb fragment not fighting intentional?
3. Note: Dread Lord gives me too much painful fear for me. Kinds of reminding me about a story I heard or read with an apocalyptic vibe to it.
Chapter Four:
1. Heal and Entangle uses same hotkey
2. Goes for Healing Wave used by Luen as well
3. What's up with Murgul Resistance Leader? Just curious
4. For the sake of convenience, warn us before boss fights!
5. Fix some units with hero glow by removing the glow, they confuse players
6. Again, with boss fights. I lost at that point since I didn't see it coming at all.
Chapter 5:
1. Force of Nature is not used if cutscene allowed till the end
2. Trees before Malfurion automatically died only if skipped
3. Sound disappear near Frost area, might want to check all sound manipulation triggers
4. Rock and Frost wards trigger wrong circles
5. Druid of the Claw still uses Bear Form despite technically a cat or leopard
Chapter 6:
1. Elune's Mark hotkey is broken
2. Worker doesn't repair the wagon
3. Fiery Arrow's hotkey is broken
4. Kael is just too vulnerable if not controlled on the final attack
Chapter 7:
1. Dread Bringer should use active instead of passive icon
2. Nature Blessing is bugged. Auto finished on start research but not taking effect.
3. Force of Nature level reduced to level 1, World Cage and Thorns as well
4. Those eye and gigantic things are just felt off, very off. Unlike other boss fights, this takes the cake for me
Chapter 8:
1. The song starts mid cinematic, and make the dialogue not completely heard
2. Malfurion is allied to Elite Undead Base, yet some of their forces wander to his base
3. Trivia: it's Faradrella if memory preserves right
4. Mind adding damage information for Light of Dawn?
5. Remember my comment for last chapter? Nevermind. Yogg-saron...
Epilogue:
1. Okay, the information after prologue is not very relevant, but whatever
2. On a more serious note. A glaring bug found is it automatically activates official Curse of the Blood Elves campaign in the main campaign menu

It felt like you tried to shove Old Gods to the story. The problem is the story cohesion sort of break at some points.
Most notable ones would be on the Eyes of Dalaran AND The Brother's Stormrage. I mean, OG support Illidan like yesterday.

AWAITING UPDATE. Can't let those reds slide.

Red are mandatory to fix.
Yellow are minor issues.
Orange are some issues with my personal taste involved. Do as you see fit for it, your pick.

NOTE:
Reviewed late night to early morning. One or two points might felt weird to read so just ask away if you're confused!

 

[knight26]

@Daffa the Mage wow what a detailed review! I wanted to give it a try after a hiatus from War3. But reading your review, I will be waiting an update from the author, so thank you!

Also again, thanks for the author of the campaign for hers/his contribution.

 

[Daffa]

Ah yes, I take another glance at the linking issue. It usually tied to some stupid 'Set Campaign to' action or something in the map code, blizzard leftovers. You need to clean them to have all those linkers erased. My suspicion is the campaign cache is tied to real campaign's cache, and that'll bloody dangerous if they do. I can scan them, but I'd rather not for now.

Bosses are also notably broken for the most part in this campaign and so far, I am forced to cheat out of them sans chapter five last spirit (if only Illidan freaking leave me alone that is). You will have a harsh time, especially on the caravan mission, Eye of Dalaran chapter, and of course, the last one. Good luck with runner mission too. You'll need it. This is why I requested a save note to appear.

Unit balancing is sort of needed, but I haven't really compared them so meh, whatever. I'd take my choices anyway.

@knight26 I really suggest if you want to play it, keep multiple saves ready. Spare you the trouble. I had chapter 4 handed on me cause of the sudden boss fight. Here are mandatory, ridiculous ones:

Spoiler

1. After ship rescue (ch1)
2. After beating naga guard outside temple (ch2)
3. You'll know there's quite a number in the tomb (ch3)
4. The barrier is not weird at all (ch4)
5. Surprise Kazzak'ed, before golems (ch5)
6. The village before the river (ch6)
7. Approaching the eye (ch7)
8. After eye is destroyed (ch7); For the after eye, I suggest waiting in your base for that thing to warp in.
9. After red undead base destroyed (ch8)

It would be wise to wait for an update too.

EDIT:
@tulee might as well lock the chapters like original campaign did, seems unrelated to the official one.

 

[tulee]

Ok I just wanted to check over some of the "reds" that you mentioned to make sure everything is clear on what should be changed.

"General": The mission list is opened regardless of if you have finished the standard blizzard campaign, since Summer Flower unlocked all the missions from the start. You mean they need to be hidden and unlocked in order?

"Chapter Four": What is luen, and do you mean its healing wave is conflicting with another spell's hotkey?

"Chapter Five": Can I ask where the rock ward/frost ward is, and what you mean by triggering the wrong circle?

"Chaper Seven": By Nature blessing, you mean the upgrade?
Also, by reduced to level one, you mean malfurion's spells reduced in level (so game cache problem)?

"Epilogue": That issue is present in both the Archion campaign and the 2p campaign by thespoon's group. It is built into the maps, and I do not think they can be removed. I was lookign through the triggers and there was nothing that could explain it. When playing the 2 player versions of the sentinel campaign online, after finishing the mission it actually takes you straight offline and directly into the campaign screen. So it must be a system structure, since it skips you logging off from online play, and takes you right into the campaign menu. Since there is no triggers in the campaign that cause that, I am not sure how that would be fixable. I doubt the author (Summer Flower) knows either, but I can ask.

 

[Daffa]

Ok I just wanted to check over some of the "reds" that you mentioned to make sure everything is clear on what should be changed.

"General": The mission list is opened regardless of if you have finished the standard blizzard campaign, since Summer Flower unlocked all the missions from the start. You mean they need to be hidden and unlocked in order?

"Chapter Four": What is luen, and do you mean its healing wave is conflicting with another spell's hotkey?

"Chapter Five": Can I ask where the rock ward/frost ward is, and what you mean by triggering the wrong circle?

"Chaper Seven": By Nature blessing, you mean the upgrade?
Also, by reduced to level one, you mean malfurion's spells reduced in level (so game cache problem)?

"Epilogue": That issue is present in both the Archion campaign and the 2p campaign by thespoon's group. It is built into the maps, and I do not think they can be removed. I was lookign through the triggers and there was nothing that could explain it. When playing the 2 player versions of the sentinel campaign online, after finishing the mission it actually takes you straight offline and directly into the campaign screen. So it must be a system structure, since it skips you logging off from online play, and takes you right into the campaign menu. Since there is no triggers in the campaign that cause that, I am not sure how that would be fixable. I doubt the author (Summer Flower) knows either, but I can ask.

General: yes. If it's against the concept for the author, why open all from start?

Chapter Four: the messenger. Yes, hotkey conflicts.

Chapter Five: The second side quest to cleanse the spirit.

Chapter Seven: Yes. It bugs in my run for this chapter.

Epilogue: Interesting. I will check the triggers later.

 

[tulee]

Chapter Seven: Yes. It bugs in my run for this chapter.

Ok. Assuming that the issue with it going to directly to the Blood Elf campaign is not a bug that you require to be fixed for approval (since it is a internal issue with blizzard campaign), the only other "red note" you marked that cannot be completed is the game cache issue. ( "spellbook" type spell game cache problem ).

I talked to the author (summer flower), and she said it is ok to just delete the spellbooks of both Malfurion and Tyrande. Would that be ok for approval Daffa? (assuming all the other "red notes" you mentioned are fixed.

 

[tulee]

Edit: Sorry for Double Post.

Ok. So back to the game cache problem.

The issue with deleting the spells in the "spellbook" for those heroes is that there could very well be bugs in game that come as a result. Multiple cinematics use the spells those heroes have, like Malfurion opening up tree passage with force of nature in chapter 5, and Tyrande using her owl scout in that same mission to see Maiev's base's position.

Then of course there is the fact that those heroes will just not have those spells when ingame.

Furthermore, if there is a game cache issue with those spells, it is possible that the entire game cache is not working, which might mean all the heroes' spells need to be deleted. I know that sounds like a drastic solution, but the fact is I have no idea about game cache, and the author (summer Flower) is busy, so I can only make surface fixes, but I cannot solve the root/core problem that is causing this.

Just to check Daffa-- you only mentioned those spells of Malfurion in your review that had problems. If just his spells that you mentioned were deleted (the ones in the "spellbook"), and you approved the campaign, if in theory in the future someone else played the campaign and had game cache errors with spells for other heroes, would you still allow it to stay in "Approved"?

So what I am asking is, if there is a game cache problem for all heroes spells, but you only saw those 3 related to Malfurion, is it enough to just remove those 3 spells in his "spellbook" and ignore the spells of all the other heroes that could potentially have the same issue but were not seen by you on your review?

Sorry for all the questions, it is just I want to avoid a situation where you approve the campaign, then find out from other players that the core issue has not been fixed (i.e the spells of other heroes are not saved through chapters), and then you remove it from "approved".


Edit 2: Changes Made:

General
If one finishes the original Terror of the Tides campaign, the mission list will be opened instantly

Err, this seems to be the author's (Summer Flower) intention. Perhaps it was all unlocked, since many people have played the blizzard version, so players might only want to play specific missions? I did not ask the author why.

Chapter One

Satyr Mage Breaker has hero glow despite being a unit

Model for this unit changed to blizzard's Satyr Hellcaller (so it is now a unit model.)

Chapter Two:

Advanced Researches exist, but not upgradeable

Set Maximum research of Watcher Training/Druid of Forest Training/Druid of Fang Training to 1 (so the advanced upgrade that requires tree of eternity is not available.)

Chapter Four:

Heal and Entangle uses same hotkey

Goes for Healing Wave used by Luen as well

Hotkey for Heal (both turning off and on) changed to U. Tool-tip also change to show U is new hotkey
(Change to entire campaign Data, not just mission 4, so Forest Druid won't have conflict of hotkeys on other missions.)

Chapter 5:

Rock and Frost wards trigger wrong circles

Swapped Region 206 and 207 (so now rock and frost wards trigger the correct one.)

Chapter 7:

Nature Blessing is bugged. Auto finished on start research but not taking effect.

Force of Nature level reduced to level 1, World Cage and Thorns as well

Delete Nature's Blessing as upgrade from all Tree of Life/Tree of Ages/Tree of Eternity
(Change to entire campaign Data.)

Deleted "Priestess of the Moon" Spellbook, and "Keeper of the Grove" Spellbook from Tyrane/Malfurion respectively.
Added Owl Scout to Tyrande as a non-hero ability, and added Force of Nature to Malfurion as a non-hero ability.
(Change to entire campaign Data.)

Chapter 8:
The song starts mid cinematic, and make the dialogue not completely heard

Malfurion is allied to Elite Undead Base, yet some of their forces wander to his base

Song initial start time is later, so no conflict with cinematic.

Purple (Malfurion) now treats Elite Undead team as an enemy.

Epilogue:

On a more serious note. A glaring bug found is it automatically activates official Curse of the Blood Elves campaign in the main campaign menu.

Cannot fix, it is built into the campaign.

 

[Daffa]

The file given is most recent, right? I'll see if I can help with that epilogue issue. I could also investigate the cache issue, though it seems to be specific to the spellbook, given my Maiev passes all her abilities correctly. I didn't see Tyrande's on chapter six (Starfalling most of the time).

If those issues don't interrupt major aspects of the game and quickly patches, I will not withdraw my verdict quickly. It's not like I'll smash it by the flash But please do try proper fixing when possible, so everyone can enjoy the best of experience.

For general, alright, I'll let that slip since it's tied to the original author.

Chapter Two also happened to the main weapons if my memories are correct.

The Nature Blessing is specific to chapter seven for some reason. It might be ID collision or something else. Though quick fixes are welcomed anyway

 

[tulee]

Map description changed so that all the map descriptions are the same / easier to copy paste the map descriptions from each map to others.

 

[Blasterixx]

- First mission: there is no "wood" item anywhere on the map!
- Too many items, the hero needs an extra backpack.
- I see a lot of Neutral creeps in a lot of the missions that are there and don't do anything.
- A lot of weird bosses on the map in some missions that again, have no purpose, like that "Dread Lord" creature with 15k hp and 200 chaos dmg, took me 15 min to kill it and yep, no drops, no cutscenes, nothing!
- Some of the music didn't match the gameplay, like it was playing some kind of chill flute music while fighting undead waves in the escorting of Kael mission.
- In all the missions where we can play with an elf base, the wisps cannot be targeted with the mouse and they are invisible as well.
- Chapter 7's boss, that eye semigod monster, its just ridiculous, who in their right mind had the briliant idea to put this kind of boss at the end of this mission?!?! Not only this eye monster has op stats and damage spells BUT HE SUMMONS THOSE void skeletons that stun my heroes PERMANENTLY! seriously? fighting vs permanent stun is the worst thing a map maker can do to his maps and the players that want to enjoy playing them, and don't get me started with those spell effects, i couldn't see anything on my screen,all the spells are so bright that might cause epilepsy, this is horrific!
- Haha And thats it i quit, tons of spells that don't even work, and the ones that work deal almost 0 dmg, last time i am playing a campaign from this guy.

 

[Daffa]

Adding Blasterixx recent comment, re-reading my own review, and re-evaluating what deepstrasz reviewed in the past, I find the final conclusion to be Subs. (Self note: never review half asleep again)

This campaign, despite the sheer addition to the content, more on weighing the game as a whole. Most of the addition are some ridiculous HP bosses, new enemy units and new allied units that only add an unnecessary layer of complexity, and doesn't feel like adding many new options to the player either.

To be more specific, chapter one to five are mostly acceptable except the new bosses having ZERO warnings (bosses need to have a warning so player can prepare a save file if they haven't save for some time), six has a glaring issue with Kael dying easily if you don't properly micromanage him or your MG to taunt the new boss hero (IF you even have any at that point) AND how the progress is dragged longer than needed (I mean twice or thrice as long for no real new content, really), and the last two chapters are riddled with lots of issues (both story and gameplay, I'm referring to the new bosses mostly) and bugs that need serious attention.

This needs some serious fixing. I almost forgot to plug my rate, which is the reason why I use 'Awaiting Update' on my previous review. 2/5 Substandard until major improvement and fixes.

 

[tulee]

- First mission: there is no "wood" item anywhere on the map!

I think you need to move next to the boat to get the wood.

last time i am playing a campaign from this guy.

Author= Summer Flower

 

[deepstrasz]

Author= Summer Flower

That still doesn't explain it unless you "know"

 

[tulee]

tons of spells that don't even work, and the ones that work deal almost 0 dmg

@Blasterixx , out of curiosity, can I ask what spells actually do not work/do 0 damage?

 

[Blasterixx]

@Blasterixx , out of curiosity, can I ask what spells actually do not work/do 0 damage?

The mission where we play as the naga, Illidan and Lady Vash are weaker than even their normal melle counterparts somehow from the og campaign,
-First Lady vash: from what i remember she had lvl 10 but her main dps spell was lvl 1 at max, and deals like 50 dmg(imagine me i was playing on insane so 50 dmg aoe vs 2k hp undead mobs is already a joke), her other dps spell was some channeling spell that again dealt almost no damage, and ofcourse her ultimate(which doesn't do dmg to units) dealy 50 dmg per sec to buildings i belive( buildings with over 2khp again(stupid).
-Illidan's spells: oh boi does his spells were useless, first, he had some kind of extra set of mini spells which were like shit unit spells like dispel and control magic(no idea why he had those spells), most of them were passives and of course they didn't work since he has already an orb effect from the "kil'jaiden" orb, so every other passive wouldn't work, other than that he had another set of spells when he was in the metamorphosis, which again not only they did insignificant dmg(next to 0) but they cost lots of mana as well, so in the end His only GOOD spells were the metamorphosis itself and that weird 10000 aoe spell that gives epilepsy and deals dmg per second, basically fuck the og Illidan and give him weird spells to ruin the gameplay even more with more over dramatic spells that blind you, gg.

The hero that had decent spells was Maiev( mainly because her original spells weren't discarded and were kept the same, basically what made me keep playing the campaign untill those demigod monsters were introduced.
The other heroes from what i remember had again weird bad spells, same mission with the naga, the Elf heroes(Malfurion beeing again lvl 10 had lvl 1 spells, his spells were already bad, and now he had them on lvl 1, and the other dryad hero had a blizzard spell from what i remember, and avatar, great dryad spells right there!, might as well change her skin to a human hero at that point.

For this kind of campaigns were the map maker just takes the existent original campaign and "tries" to make it look more beautiful with new skins and such( sometimes it does work, but again the original war3 campaigns are already almost perfect as they are, so changing anything will make it worse no matter what, i guess you could get away with changing the skins of the units/heroes and buildings/nature, BUT there is no way you can get away with changing the original spells of the heroes, if you did that its already over, you might enchance the original spells somehow? maybe,by giving them new improved effects, like for exemple: fan of knives deals poison dmg to the affected targets, but thats it, and NO, giving the spells new vision effects that make the player blind its sure not a good idea and it will never be!

 

[Quick]

are there any more campaigns like this? enhanced versions of the original blizzard campaigns? if so, please upload. this campaign is amazing, and id love to play actual decently hard blizzard campaigns.

 

[cleavinghammer]

So I've been asked to modify this campaign until it gets approved.

@deepstrasz I've reworked only the first level of the campaign (in the attached w3n), is this level of change sufficient/are there still any instant-rejection problems so I can start on the rest of the campaign, or does it still need more updating? I'd rather fix one map at a time instead of having to work on a bunch at once, so if this map passes muster I'll leave it as-is and work on the next one.

-

Changelog

Hidden

Campaign-wide changes:

Archers regenerate 0.5 mana/s (from 0.02).

Translated most remaining Chinese text, updated some item descriptions and unit/ability tooltips.

Owl Protectors now have some use in combat (short-ranged Trueshot Aura).

Bear form renamed to Panther form.

Endboss abilities are now less "instakill lol" than the previous version. The things I've seen in the spell data...
* Furious Strike damage 300->100 (standard is 60)
(Once the whole thing is done, I'll leave the 0.041 version somewhere for the masochists among you).

Removed the UI texture that interfered with the minimap.

Map1:

Secret areas now more obvious. Possibly too obvious?

Warning (and waiting period to allow saving) before the endboss.

The endboss is now somewhat connected to the plot.

Dwarf sidequest:
* Dwarf sidequest should now work properly (showing up with Wood doesn't require going on and off the island).
* Added a new optional fight that drops Wood for the dwarf sidequest if you didn't get it from the normal location after speaking to both (hint should be revealed no matter the order in which you visit them, but just in case...).

Added a tough fight in one of the secret locations.

Replaced Gogonnash's Doom with Infernal.

Left in the Naga's Chinese names for now due to them being used in the item names.

Known remaining issues:

All chapters available from start (for the sake of convenience, will fix this once the campaign is fully redone).

Overlap with standard Night Elf campaign:
* Completing a mission in this campaign will unlock the next mission in the standard Night Elf campaign (if it wasn't unlocked already).
* Quitting in a mission will take you back to the standard Night Elf campaign menu instead of this one.

In the campaign menu, the custom music overlaps with the regular game music.

Extra cinematics are unskippable.

 

[deepstrasz]

So I've been asked to modify this campaign until it gets approved.

@deepstrasz I've reworked only the first level of the campaign (in the attached w3n), is this level of change sufficient/are there still any instant-rejection problems so I can start on the rest of the campaign, or does it still need more updating? I'd rather fix one map at a time instead of having to work on a bunch at once, so if this map passes muster I'll leave it as-is and work on the next one.

I don't think I want to go through this again. Some balance changes won't save the fact that it's mostly a graphics change.

I appreciate the effort really but I'm only doing this as a hobby.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Levels 1-2 finished:


Changelog:

Hidden

Campaign-wide changes:

Wardens renamed to Watchers and have different abilities (unlocked with caster levels):
Ensnare, Drunken Brawler (instead of Evasion and Crit), Frenzy.

Druid of the Fang changed: Now has Rabid (Unholy Frenzy, can target enemies), Warding (AoE spell shield), Panther Form (has Crippling Bite (melee Cripple) in Panther Form). Can use Rabid in Panther Form with Mark of the Fang.

Ghost Wolf now uses upgrades, has Evasion, Blink (with upgrade), and Bleed (melee Shadow Strike).

Huntress now has Ambush (slowing Wind Walk).

Thunder Flames damage reduced.

Thunder Summoner now has a unit model (original model by armel).

Glaive Thrower changed to purple model to fit the icon.

Restored the green and yellow Sunken Ruins tiles.

Fixed the Warden building being able to move and attack (it was apparently based on an uprooted Ancient, made the new one from a fixed building just in case).

Some item and tooltip text fixed.

Tidal Coin combines with Mur'gul Battle Armor to keep the item recipes.

Map 2:

Added more enemies in out-of-the-way locations, including two aquatic bosses and a land-based one.

Minor plot and boss added in Izal-Shurah.

Ships no longer cost food, added Battleships and Fishing Boats (very fragile but high-damage attack and abilities) to the shipyards.

Leiguo's mur'guls join you (if still alive and Maiev has the coin) once he's dead.

Endboss now has a save warning.

Endboss does less damage and has less frustrating spells. Still, bring lots of units along.

Hard Mode: it's possible (even with the AI sending half a dozen roided-out Couatl per wave simultaneously with the other bases sending their attack waves), but you really need to take advantage of the ships and take out the bases as they don't rebuild.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Update: Due to a computer crash that affected my World Editor (among other programs) and made the maps unopenable in the editor on my computer, I am no longer able to work on this campaign.

If anyone is willing to take up the torch, please contact Missing Shadowsong.