Mathias Part II - Return of the King

[Moderator]

VGsatomi: Approved. Part of the lengthly mathias campaign.

 

[PrinceOfThaWest]

why nobody comments this? this is really good campaign indeed

 

[gagis20]

Awsome

 

[Arthas_the_Mad]

great campaign. 9/10. foud a bug in chap 11. you should fix it.

 

[Savage Potato]

I have contacted the site and claimed the moral right under copyright law to be recognised as the original creator of this campaign. To substantiate my claim, I refer to this link
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/map-development-202/mathias-chronicles-redux-30883/ . Whilst I am happy for the campaign to be distributed, I am not aware of any material difference between or modification to the campaign I created and that presently uploaded by Scott Fravell "Frostmourn". (actually for this one there was one modification - I simply called it Mathias Part II - 'Return of the King' is stupid name as it has nothing to do with LOTR). I have no connection whatsoever with Scott Fravell "Frostmourn" I have not authorised Scott Fravell "Frostmourn" to use my intellectual property. I reside in New Zealand and many of the place and character names used in the campaign are based on actual New Zealand locations.I retired from Warcraft III modding and campaign development some years ago and am not active in the community. However simply because I am not active doesn't mean it is ok for peple to rip off my work!

 

[deepstrasz]

This one has even more bugs than the previous chapter. The story is still similar Warcraft quality though. The last three levels on the other hand are... strange.

chap9:
-well, I still don't know how Mathias was captured by the orcs...
-quests updates should appear on the screen so the player would know the objective changes...
-well Arthas seems to be Arthas, not prince Arthas
-it seems orc troops are somewhat stranded because of Gnolls
-if the Goblins are reached via Wind Walk, they say or think the Golems were beaten
-G'Thall says he saw the undead talk to demons. The cinematic scene did not show that
-the warlock doesn't have a glow
-the funny part, I think, is that the green AI actually plays melee (with a Crypt Lord) while the purple sends a waves of 2-3 Gargoyles at the player
-it seems demons (Doomguard) take commands from undead necromancers
-What would make the undead not send Gargoyles after that Zeppelin?

chap10:
-they flew right over an undead base...
-the player does not gain anything apart from some useless information when meeting Eridu
-Entangling Roots and Sleep have the same hotkey (Warlock hero)
-the green AI is melee-ing again from the start...
-a troll I sent to the south attacked a Spirit Tower while meeting the Nezatch scene. It seems the tower paused but the troll did not
-the War Drums upgrade can be researched but there are no Kodo Beast Riders to train
-Warlocks do not have a proper description
-Nezatch looks like a Fel Orc
-it seems nobody cares about Eridu. He's just there all the time
-why would the orcs do what the necromancer told them to after what happened to them at the Demonic Gate?

chap11:
-Yvros looks exactly like a Warlock... even the icons look alike
-Nezatch's movement speed is average while the other two heroes' is fast...
-I guess this should be a timed mission as the undead are supposed to be following? Or they're not supposed to because the green one led by Kel'Zarach doesn't care? It didn't in the previous level
-the training for Shamans can be researched but there are none to train
-the humans are grey but on the mini-map they're teal. At least the troops attacking the player's base are
-alright! The humans are beaten in a haste by destroying their Castle not Town Hall. Then the orcs somehow magically build a base on the site of that of the humans (in their haste they seem to have forgotten to build some buildings like the Spirit Lodge). The undead, actually the legion, only arrive after the base is built...
-there's also an undiscovered optional quest that might have something to do with the purple shrine in the northwest
-sometimes when ESC is pressed the cinematic mode starts and ends, quickly
-the legion seems keen on destroying the first of the player's base and then, stands there for a picnic. No-no. Actually they're not there at all, nowhere to be found
-they've released the human heroes from the cages but we didn't see them being put there in the first place.
-moreover that cinematic scene started again with the cages being already destroyed. The scene cannot be skipped... It does not end the second time..
-units selected during cinematic mode

chap12:
-it's a miracle Ice Trolls still live
-the map does not have black mask enabled
-Seledius and Larissa are carbon copies... Well actually the mounted one moves faster
-Larissa was level 5 in the previous level
-Peasants can't be trained...
-the trolls don't want to side with the humans... and become hostile towards them. South of their base there's a Spirit Lodge and a Witch Doctor marked as enemy
-there's only one Zeppelin but the quest suggests there should be more
-when Seledius is killed a message saying: "Ushgar was killed" pops up
-units can go through the Ancient Boneyard
-I've got mixed feeling about the heroes being left there like that

chap13:
-Dwarven Footmen look exactly like Mountai Kings. They even have the glow
-Lord Steven has a horse. Average is not a fit speed for traveling on a horse
-two heroes with Trueshot Aura...
-if the cinematic when Duncan comes is skipped, the transmissions still continue thus ending in two reinforcements timers
-Ok, heroes just explode in some places near their bases... Actually in many places..
-the player is forced to hold the eastern base in order to be able to train Knights and other units...
-the dwarven Gold Mine can be attacked
-Lumber is scarce for a survival level

chap14:
-he just went from behind and saved him like that without anyone seeing...
-pressing ESC after the starting scene leads to a clone of both heroes...
-on this map when the player discovers a part of uncharted land, it stays discovered
-Skull of Yvros Blackhand means he's dead or that it was manipulated by him?
-funny thing is, I killed the ogre warlord before the cinematic scene where he says he's going to do something somewhere
-how did the Warlock know it was Archimonde?
-the computer plays like a melee AI, like always

chap15:
-the elves left without Kyreen's consent?
-the battle is very disorganized. Everybody attacks randomly at some point
-Lord Duncan and some of his troops are blocked in a yard surrounded by fences...
-the Mountain King and that Steven sided with Mathias and some undead over the others who fought against the undead and the actual danger: the legion!?
-where's Kyreen? She's not on the optional kills list

chap16:
-corpses are not considered corpses!? The Necromancers and Animate Dead don't work because there are supposedly no corpses
-I don't know man... Divine armour and spells that don't require mana...
-the blue undead act like nothing's happening

-Liche King, huh? Sounds like Leash King to me

Anyways, if anyone feels like playing it, they could, at least for the story. It would be nice if the creator or somebody could make time to update it properly.

 

[Savage Potato]

First of all, I, Savage Potato am the creator of this work, not that piece of $#%& plagiarist Fravell. I have asserted my copyright in the past and the Hive has recognised this. The kiwi place names and butchered Te Reo Maori are significant to me which is why they have been used for character and place names. Secondly, things have moved a long way since the early patches when I created this way back in the day. Blizzard updating patches has caused most of the bugs and as I gave up maintaining the campaign back around 2006 it probably runs pretty messily now.

I'm thrilled that people are still interested in playing and reviewing this, but please be aware that it is an artifact of its time. My personal favourite campaign was Kel'Zarach's Tale.

Another author Med.mapguy has (with my permission) updated some of my works. If you enjoyed this campaign you might want to try his updated maps.

In hindsight, I probably should have used "orcish" rather than "orcen". I am spending my mapmaking retirement playing WoW.

 

[Anaxie]

Hi savage
I'm Scott and I was 16 when I compiled all your loose single maps that didn't even form a campaign.

Stop getting so butt hurt over half a decade later I never claimed it. I was 16 and just made them into campaigns and uploaded them.

Thanks. Mystery solved. You're welcome your maps would be extinct had I never made them campaigns in 2005

 

[Abishkar]

there's a Spirit Lodge and a Witch Doctor marked as enemy

@deepstrasz Well, I played this campaign (Mathias II) just today and some things you mentioned are not right.
Well, only if you reach the Witch Doctor before talking to the Ice Troll Hero will he be hostile. And you have to have all three heroes if you want to finish the optional quest.

Peasants can't be trained...

Maybe it was intentional!

there's only one Zeppelin but the quest suggests there should be more

Again, you missed a part I think. With that zeppelin travel south and you will find the orcish hero with his raiders and more zeppelins. Yeah, I admit the creator (whoever it is) should have been more specific.

heroes just explode in some places near their bases... Actually in many places..

Lol right. When I played this, I literally lost 4 out of 5 heroes, a farm and the altar of kings when that happened, and I had quit that map. Hero's ability has AOE damage upon death (Big Mine)

pressing ESC after the starting scene leads to a clone of both heroes...

Right, I actually enjoyed that! I used two Mathias' and two Kel'Zarachs and wrecked the base in front of the cage!

the computer plays like a melee AI, like always

Okay! Is that so? Cause I could not tell why they were creeping and looking for Expansions like Custom Games.

I am playing a lot of custom campaigns now and am loving it. I download each and every custom campaigns I see in Hive Workshop, be it Substandard or Approved because this just depends on opinions.

 

[Shar Dundred]

Map: Mathias Part II - Return of the King
Version: 1.00
WarCraft III Version used to play: 1.30.1

Review
by Shar Dundred

Story

Despite the title, this campaign is still part of the Mathias series and got nothing to do with LOTR. With that out of the way, let's get starting with the story. It begins not with Mathias or his nemesis Malakai, instead you start in a scenario you may remember from the original Reign of Chaos Undead campaign: The Blackrock Clan being under attack by the Undead! After Mathias had been captured, the forces of the Blackrock Clan clash with the Undead and lose, however, one blademaster named G'Thall manages to escape. You then follow him as he meets with others of his clan, mostly "exiles" who do not worship the Demons anymore but still consider themselves part of the Blackrock Clan led by the warlord Nezatch who is an ally of Malakai. Being hunted by the Scourge and later even the Demons, the Orcs meet with the former allies of Mathias, Duncan and his forces, and they form an alliance of convenience to fight the common enemy (yeah, like they did on Kalimdor, though neither of the Lordaeron groups is connected to the Kalimdor refugees). Meanwhile, Kel'Zarach, marching with the Cult of the Damned during this time, seeks to free Mathias and to free the cult of the Undead and the Demons who considered the human elements of the cult nothing but cannon fodder. He succeeds in locating and freeing Mathias and tells him about his plans regarding the Cult of the Damned. Mathias agrees to help him freeing the Cult of the Scourge if Kel'Zarach helped him gain his crown. Kel'Zarach helps Mathias to return to his own troops, leading them both against the Scourge and the Orcs - and the traitors who allied with them. Malakai, Duncan and their combined force of Orcs, Trolls, Ogres and Humans face the Undead in battle. They manage to defeat most of the leaders (due to the Scourge now being controlled by the Legion, all Nathrezim), but are then overrun by Mathias only shortly after having killed the demon in charge. Malakai is then trapped in a Soul Gem by Mathias, a little gift of Kel'Zarach, and the Orcs flee. After the battle, Kel'Zarach and the Cult of the Damned rise up against their demonic overlords and slay them. By doing so, they seperated themselves of both the now defeated Legion (Archimonde died during the latest events) and the Scourge, well, mostly, since the events had been kind of "allowed to happen" by the Lich King (don't ask me why he is called LichE King or why the Orcish Horde is the Orcen Horde here) in the first place as a part of the plan to get rid of the Burning Legion. Mathias is crowned king. I already found Kel'Zarach interesting in the first campaign, in this one, he and the other main characters are given more personality than before. Still not perfect, but better than in the first campaign. Personally, I liked the story. I think that the author has clearly improved it after the first part.

Terrain

The terrain is still... simple, but more refined than it was before, in my opinion. You always have to keep in mind how old this campaign is, so of course it does not meet today's standards terrain-wise - spoiler alert: I think the terrain experts will not like ANY of the terrain of ANY of the Mathias campaigns.

Gameplay

Like the first Mathias campaign, this campaign is very RTS heavy, however, the author has this time tried to make it more diversified than last time. There are more spawned attacks in combination with normal AI attacks, and in one particular case the melee AI is being applied in a mission where you have an army, but no base or workers yourself and therefore are more limited than the AI. I will be honest, I personally wasn't too fond of combining that particular mission with an AI that sets up its base, but I can understand the decision behind it since the AI only sets in after you have defeated about half of the enemy forces in the area, so it keeps you from just sitting around doing nothing - unless of course you snipe the enemy bases. The missions with large armies that had no base building were interesting and I personally liked those missions, though they tended to be relatively short and could be easily won by simply letting the AI attack you until they ran out of forces. Then you would gather all survivors and attack yourself when most enemy forces are gone. I would still say that the last three missions, with two of them being like what I just mentioned, are my favorite missions of this campaign. Sadly, the melee AI once again faces the issue with Frozen Throne units and buildings not being disabled when they clearly should be. Again, you, as player, can ignore that, but the melee AI won't. I can't help but feel the irony of seeing a crypt lord after just having watched a cinematic where Kel'Zarach and a lich talk about how "limited nerubian forces" now are.

Overall

This campaign is, in my opinion, better than its precessor. I am not saying that Mathias I is bad, I just found the way the story and the gameplay were more interesting than it was the case in Mathias I. It does have its issues, but they are far less annoying this time around. 4/5

Suggestions/Bugs

Most bugs have already been mentioned by @deepstrasz in his post. When it comes to bugs, this campaign fares much better than its predecessor in my opinion. Yet it is still not perfect and has its own problems. I too think that the entire Mathias campaign series could use a rework, or just simple bug fixes. I considered doing that myself once.

 

[Shellshock]

Mission 3:
Looks like i defended my base a little to heavily lol. They take too long to come in waves tbh. Also isn't dreadlords entire thing trying to mess with people? Why did he kill that dude.

Mission 5:
This one was good. Hard was actually difficult. A bonus if you can see a chance to destory the necropolis and haunted goldmine in the old base they don't seem to remake it. Doug has chaos damage whilst cameron greyforge seems to have piercing damage. Once again in this same map. Some of heroes just spontaneously died. Including my troops. No idea what the fuck happened man. If this is a feature do tell. Also Doug who is a hero costs Food. Whats the point for waiting for reinforcements if they don't ever come?? Ok i think i figured out why everyone dies. Doug when killed releases an explosion which kills everyone. I do recall him saying something like that..... Maybe its cuz they died when letheras dies but they aren't there in the cinematic.

Mission 6:
how did they immediately know that Archimonde died? Overall good mission. AI was a bit odd? But yeah overall good.

Mission 7:
Great mission loved it. What does tactical mission achieved mean? Also i wonder if anything happens if Mathais shows up?

Mission 8:
Well figured that out. I think Malakai shouldn't be able to escape. Its a more fun mission taking our time destroying everything.

Mission 9:
A bit odd. But i guess i killed a divine hero. The way to do this is animate dead and hope you get hte doom guards which will then attack the divine enemy. I wished that you create skeletons from zombie corpses but i guess you can't.

Mission Finale:
Pretty much a cinematic with some control

Overall:
I actually really enjoyed this campaign. The most surprising part was that i really liked the story. It still has the issues the old series but you also improved like it was a true sequel. Its sad that the techinical issues are bringing the series down. Overall though better than the first one. Really enjoyed this but just too many small issues that adds up. 3/5

 

[xcube.pm]

why people don't comment here? this is good campaign
One of the best cmapaign, actually, not just good