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Northwood Company

This bundle is marked as useful / simple. Simplicity is bliss, low effort and/or may contain minor bugs.
Northwood Company - Test/Demonstration Version

I've decided to quit working on this project, and any project on Warcraft 3. I feel the game is aging a lot, so I am switching my map projects to Starcraft 2. My goal is to eventually make Northwood Company on Starcraft 2, using this version as a starting point. I have already starting playing around with various new ideas in Starcraft 2, and the possibilities are so much more promising. So here is version Test5, and I will be working on a Starcraft 2 version in the meantime. Once its ready to test, I'll be sure to release it.


-==New Stuff==-
- Added the ability to sell any vehicle, gunship, boat, or battle armor for 25% of the unit's buy cost.

-==Changes==-
- Worked on the terrain a bit, its not amazing but its at least more than just sand now.
- The starting island and the island south of it are now connected so ground units can move between them.
- Added some ambient sounds and effects, such as water waves, seagulls, and the music fades at night now.
- Added some critters
- Redistributed some of the Jackal's stats, hopefully making it more balanced
- Changed Mission 6, the Counterattack mission. Made an enemy group drop on the east side of the island, increased the enemy number by 10, and added more variety to their groups.

-==Bug Fixes==-
- Fixed a bug where the Seeker wasn't properly receiving upgrade benefits

-==Notes==-
- What I feel is best about this version so far is the environment. I really wanted to touch on the island theme a lot more, since the versions before really just consisted of sand and the occasional tree. Beaches now have the sound of the ocean waves, and in one area in particular it feels more like a jungle. Now that I feel comfortable with how most of the game works, I can focus on this piece as I expand the game.



-==New Stuff==-
- Footmen can now learn First Aid via the Blacksmith, which allows them to heal themselves and others
- New Engineering Item - Mobile HQ, gives various means of support to nearby units, and can repair friendly units. And yes, it does improve your turrets.

-==Changes==-
- Changed almost every unit attack/armor type in the game
- Attack and armor types will now specify their strengths/weaknesses
- Passenger-Mounted Turrets now deal less damage, but their attack type is Heavy (new type)
- Increased the damage of Missile Towers, but reduced the attack speed a little. Now they are actually a threat.
- Increased the attack speed of Missile Troops
- Reduced the HP of Armed Transports a little
- You can now toggle the locked camera on and off
- The Footman hero icon will now show your footman's health
- Added a tooltip for the Jackal

Gunships
Gunships are getting a serious makeover. The gunship code was the first version of the vehicle code I wrote, and now it is horribly behind in efficiency compared to the newer versions. In short, I'm going to redo gunship triggers, which will cause the following changes.
- You can now own more than one gunship, just like vehicles and boats.
- Gunships can now fire while landed/landing, so long as the driver is inside.
- Adding the ability for gunship pilots to bail out in mid air. Still working on the details, but I'm expecting it to be pretty interesting/funny/dramatic.
- Camera and selection problems should be dramatically reduced with gunships.
- Lastly, these new changes allow me to be significantly more creative with gunship abilities. Expect some more cool things to happen.

Vehicles
- Increased the HP of all Light-Class Vehicles.
- Players can now board and drive their own boats while inside a vehicle.
- The greatly neglected Swiftwind is getting some spice, flaunting the new ability Hack Sentry Gun. Engineers with a Swiftwind will now be able to temporarily control an enemy Sentry Gun for a duration based on their Engineering Skill level.
- Redid the Cobra, removing the Flamethrower and Auto Fire spells and just making its normal attack pretty much the same thing. It has an attack-type of Elemental, no longer has or uses mana, and has the new ability Rapid Fire. Hopefully you'll be giving the Cobra another chance now :).
- The Lancer now can get the Shrapnel Missiles ability, making it deal greater damage to Ranged and Unarmored enemies. Excellent for dealing with those pesky riflemen or missile teams.
- The FRV now has a *very* useful ability, Emergency Revival, which allows it to revive a nearby dead ally. This along with its already existing ability to quickly heal allies inside of it should make this vehicle very useful.
- Greatly improved the Demolisher, giving it a strong splash attack and an auto turret.


-==Bug Fixes==-
- The FRV now correctly has a cost.
- Fixed a bug involving jumping out of a gunship with a Jackal and parachute
- Changed some things so now all auto turrets will fire on landed gunships and docked transport boats
- Fixed a bug where having safety on with a gunship would cause all your units unable to attack


-==Notes==-
- I'm really trying to refine the game up to this point, with emphasis on gunships, and vehicles. Gonna show some love to these branches and try to make them more fun.
- You can now drive a boat with your vehicle, while driving that vehicle with a battle armor, while driving the battle armor with your footman. Its pretty funny but also awesome.
- Lots of people have suggested adding a PvP aspect to the game, and it sounds pretty interesting to me. Let me know your thoughts on this, and if enough people are interested, I may add something.



New Stuff
- A loading screen!
- A minimap image!
- Players will now be able to purchase supply drops, and call them to drop on their position.
- Added new light vehicle: FRV (fast recovery vehicle), light medical vehicle
- Added new heavy vehicle: Razorback
- Added new Engineer-Focus, the Jackal. Ideally, this won't make the engineer a stronger choice than a footman, but will give it a ranged attack.
- Vehicles can now store items
- South-eastern island is now playable. (Somewhat)
- New item - Jumper Cables, dead players can now be revived by other players if done quickly enough, avoiding the death gold loss.

Changes
- Changed some of the mission enemies to incorporate vehicles, rather than turrets.
- Changed the portraits of the Gyrocopter models (i.e. Clanker and Danger Close)
- Repair skill is now enabled and upgraded by defensive engineering
- Reduced the cost of upgrades for all 5 trees.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where vehicle armor upgrades didn't correctly apply.
- Fixed a bug where dropping a wrench while still holding another wrench would disable repair.
- Fixed a bug where dropping a flintlock while still holding another flintlock would disable auto fire.
- Fixed a bug where picking up a flintlock would cause the footman's movement speed to slow.
- Possibly fixed the bug causing some player's screen to go black.

Notes
- The Razorback is in the game, but not acquirable yet. I felt it would be unfair if the vehicles got a heavy before anyone else.
- The Southeast Island is playable but there isn't much to do there yet. Still working on the idea of what I'm going to do.
- Was planning on adding undead enemies this version, but decided to wait. Undead might be on the chopping block.
- The Jackal doesn't have its description yet, but its pretty straight forward.

Known Bugs
- Jumping out of a gunship inside a Jackal with a parachute equipped will cause your guy to be stuck in limbo.



New Stuff
- Added Quest Log with details on controls, and Secondary Objectives.
- To exit a vehicle as a passenger, now you press F3, or click on the Exit Vehicle button in the top-left corner.
- To mount a passenger turret, now you press F2, or click on the Mount Turret button in the top-left corner.



New Stuff
- Added new light vehicle - Lancer, fast anti-air vehicle
- Added new light boat - Seeker, anti-ground boat

Changes
- Removed Medium-Classed Vehicles and Gunships from the base, I'm going to use them at a later point in the game.
- Gave the Longbow's ground attack a small splash effect.
- Increases the damage done by the Flintlock to 75, up from 60.
- Reduced cost of Armed Transport
- Changed the Frigate to a light-class Boat.
- Your footman or vehicle should no longer run away when being shot by something it can't hit.
- Created a boundary so players won't wander around in the unfinished bottom-right area.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug involving the passenger-mounted turrets not working correctly.


About
Northwood Company is a game in which 8 players working for a Mercenary faction will work together to accomplish missions given by the Northwood Company's Command, or from discovering randomly-placed/generated missions throughout the map. Players do NOT have to complete any mission (none will result in a "game over" if failed or ignored), but some missions will make things more difficult for players if not accomplished (i.e. defending a base, results in losing nearby buy options, healing, etc).


--=Chronological Missions=--
Clear the Base Island of Missile Towers (contains random elements)
Destroy Southern Enemy Base
Destroy 3 Hostile Gunships
Defend Allied Base1 from Hostile Counter-attack
Investigate/Repair/Defend Allied Base2



The Highlight
Players will control a single non-hero footman throughout the game, but this footman can be highly customized to suit a wide variety of roles, and can pilot vehicles purchased from the Northwood Company. Roles include Infantry/Paratrooper, Engineering, Armor/Vehicle Pilot, Gunship Pilot, and Naval Captain (boat focus).

The player can choose to improve any of these roles by purchasing upgrades, items, or vehicles, and does NOT have to stick with any single role. The idea is the player can take multiple roles (example, engineer and gunship pilot) but will be not will not be as good as someone who focuses all their resources on a single role.

Gunships, Boats, Vehicles
Any vehicle owned by a player requires they be driven by their footman pilot, but players can also ride passenger in any allied vehicle. Players can use teamwork to drop troops/tanks onto an island using a transport boat, or paratroopers can jump out of another player's gunship. In some cases, passengers can even use weapons on the other player's vehicle to attack (some gunships come with passenger-mounted turrets).


--=Gunships=--

Light Gunships
GS00 "Clanker"
GS02 "Danger Close"
GS03 "Night Shade"
GS04 "Peeper"

Medium Gunships
GS01 "Falcon"
GS05 "Double Thunder"

Heavy Gunships

Assault Gunships


--=Boats=--

Light Boats
Transport Boat
Armed Transport
Seeker
Frigate

Medium Boats
Crusader (in development)
Javelin (in development)

Heavy Boats
Warlord (in development)

Assault Boats


--=Vehicles=--

Light Vehicles
Swiftwind
Cobra
Lancer
Shark (in development, possibly not going to make the cut)
FRV

Medium Vehicles
Demolisher
Longbow
Bulldog (in development)

Heavy Vehicles
Razorback (in development)

Assault Vehicles


--=Battle Armor=--

Light Battle Armor
Jackal



Bonus Objectives
Most of these are randomly spawned. Players can high-jack enemy Supply Ships and bring them back to base for a gold reward to the entire team, or players can destroy Supply Tents also for a team gold reward. Other objectives include finding and destroying hidden enemy bases/airfields, rescuing Northwood Company Pilots stranded in hostile territory, etc.


--=Bonus Objectives=--
Capture Supply Ships
Destroy Supply Tents
Destroy Enemy Scouts (Swiftwind, Peeper)

--=Discoverable Missions=--
Destroy Hostile Airfield
Rescue Pilot1 (contains random elements)
Rescue Pilot2 (contains random elements)



Items, Equipment, Upgrades
Items can be purchased to improve your footman's capabilities, such as a Flintlock Pistol, RPG, Parachute, or Wrench. Upgrades can vastly improve your footman or any vehicle's stats, allowing players to choose what they really want to focus on. Certain items are even improved from certain upgrades (i.e. Gun Turrets improved from Engineering Skill).


Infantry Focus
Bandage
Flintlock
Flintlock Ammo
Small Seaforium Charges
Parachute
Jumper Cables

Engineer Focus
Wrench
Sentry Gun
Mobile HQ
RPG



Thanks To
Right now I don't have any quest log or credits in game at all, but these are the people who's resources I used: Domokun, NatDis, Gyrosphinx, Kurt, Lord_T, anarchianbedlam, Mc !, Ket, JetFangInferno.

If you spot a resource that's yours and I forgot to mention you, please let me know immediately! I promise you this is because I'm an airhead and not because I'm trying to rob you of credit.

Music and Game's Inspiration: MechWarrior 2 Mercenaries, an incredible game, way ahead of its time.

LASTLY
This is a TEST VERSION, the game is NOWHERE NEAR complete, not even 1/3 complete I'd like to say. This map is PROTECTED, and if you have any comments, questions, or reports, feel free to post them on the comments below.

Keywords:
Northwood Company, northwood, company, mercenary, mercenaries, team, action, vehicle, gunship, combat, mission, test
Contents

Northwood Company (Map)

Reviews
19:27, 13th Aug 2010 ap0calypse: Rejected
Level 6
Joined
Jul 2, 2008
Messages
156
So if missions aren't completed, it would make it more difficult to do what?

Missions award gold, which are used to buy improvements, vehicles, weapons, ammo, etc. Areas have gradually tougher enemies than others, and thus the player will want to be stronger to handle the threat.

In comparison, look at it like an RPG-styled game. You can choose not to do any quest, but skipping them won't award you the experience, and thus you might not be able to handle harder enemies.
 
Level 7
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
227
Really fun map! While it lasts... It ends a bit too quickly... Expand the map, and maybe make several things unlock after you've completed a certain quest? Like gunships, vehicles (which are actually never used...), weapons, upgrades, etc...
AND PLEASE, do not make the footman be selected by pressing arrow keys in a gunship...
 
Level 6
Joined
Jul 2, 2008
Messages
156
Really fun map! While it lasts... It ends a bit too quickly... Expand the map, and maybe make several things unlock after you've completed a certain quest? Like gunships, vehicles (which are actually never used...), weapons, upgrades, etc...

I'm still working on boats/vehicles and of course the rest of the map and missions. I don't plan on having everything buyable right off the bat, just having it out there for testing.

Also, I find it interesting you think vehicles are never used. Since I put them in, nobody has touched gunships during my tests on battle.net 0.o. I might have to look more in making both of them seem more appealing.

AND PLEASE, do not make the footman be selected by pressing arrow keys in a gunship...
BTW I forgot the mention this, but pressing the left arrow key (this is what you're referring to I'm guessing) makes a passenger inside a gunship mount a passenger turret if there are any available. Pressing it a second time will make you dismount the turret.

I plan on changing this one when I think of a better way to do this, I was thinking maybe a hero F2 button for the turret or something.
 
Last edited:
Level 2
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
11
There is a problem with entering other peoples vehicles, there seems to be no apparent way to get out of their vehicles. Nice concept for a map but it would be nice to be able to enter other peoples vehicles. It allows the game to have more team play. Since this is a team based game, I think that making upgrades more expensive and affects everyone would make it seem more unified like arming your army with new swords. Or at least shared researches that opens up new individual weapon upgrades for people. Overall I really enjoyed your map. Hoping for lots of improvements.
 
Level 6
Joined
Jul 2, 2008
Messages
156
There is a problem with entering other peoples vehicles, there seems to be no apparent way to get out of their vehicles. Nice concept for a map but it would be nice to be able to enter other peoples vehicles.

I thought I put this on the loading screen, my bad.
Press esc to exit any vehicle as a passenger.

Future versions will have this on the loading screen before I actually add a quest log.
 
Level 6
Joined
Jul 2, 2008
Messages
156
Question: can ground vehicles enter boats?

Yes they can.
My current plan for vehicles and transportation goes as follows:

Right now, vehicles and boats goes:
Light Vehicles -> Light Boats
Medium Vehicles -> Medium Boats
Heavy and Assault Vehicles -> Heavy and Assault Boats

Eventually I'll be adding:
Light Vehicles -> Medium Specialized Transport Gunships
Medium Vehicles -> Heavy Specialized Transport Gunships
Heavy and Assault Vehicles -> Will not be able to enter any Gunship

Thinking about possible parachutes for vehicles as well, possible for specific vehicles or as an item. Still working out the details.


On a side note, it is my plan to add:
More vehicles, gunships, and boats obviously
Passenger Turrets for both Vehicles and Boats
More guns for infantry
More neat stuff for engineers to do
Possibly a sniper class, still working out details
Undead enemies (that's coming up soonest most likely)
Harder missions
More challenging enemies (less standing around)


As I have said before, I love people's ideas, and a lot of the cool stuff I have here is because someone suggested it. So if you got ideas, do tell!
 
Level 2
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
15
I've just played through to the end with three of my friends, and i've got to say: We were all pretty darn impressed. I especially like the SC-style missions, and the gun turrets on the helicopters. I have a few suggestions for how you could improve it, however:
- The Demolisher(I think that is the name), the tank is weaker then the Jackal, and is slower at destroying buildings then just using seaforium charges. I was sort of hoping that the more expensive vehicle would be more effective in a fight :p. Both of the vehicles had the same level of upgrading, by the way.
- I got the feeling that infantry was out and out a weaker choice then engineer or pilot: upgrading infantry weapons costs the same as vehicle arms, and has a smaller effect, and the RPG is far too weak to be really worth it. Hopefully, this will resolve itself as you add more weapons to the map.
- I was a mite put off by the odd combination of technology in the game: helicopters, explosive charges, RPG's, flintlock pistols, sailships, and swords all in the same map. Personally, I would feel happier with a single theme/tech level: having, for instance, a more generic pistol and a rifleman (if no custom skin is viable), would be more... pleasing :p.

Anyway, good work on the map, and I hope that you'll continue the good work!
 
Level 6
Joined
Jul 2, 2008
Messages
156
Here we go again :xxd:

256x256 TGA image file
Name in import manager: war3MapPreview.tga

There is a preview image, and it shows up for me, including right now. If you haven't downloaded the map and checked it in Warcraft 3, then plz don't post insulting comments like this.

- The Demolisher(I think that is the name), the tank is weaker then the Jackal, and is slower at destroying buildings then just using seaforium charges. I was sort of hoping that the more expensive vehicle would be more effective in a fight :p. Both of the vehicles had the same level of upgrading, by the way.
- I got the feeling that infantry was out and out a weaker choice then engineer or pilot: upgrading infantry weapons costs the same as vehicle arms, and has a smaller effect, and the RPG is far too weak to be really worth it. Hopefully, this will resolve itself as you add more weapons to the map.
- I was a mite put off by the odd combination of technology in the game: helicopters, explosive charges, RPG's, flintlock pistols, sailships, and swords all in the same map. Personally, I would feel happier with a single theme/tech level

I'll take a look into the Demolisher, but the Demolisher was meant to be a Tank vs. Tank/Boat option, which isn't exercised much yet since there aren't any tank enemies near the Demolisher.

As for the theme, I was basing it in more of a World of Warcraft tech world, in which all of these items coexist. World of Warcraft goes way too far IMO, but I think where I went is just fine. If anything, the Battle Armor is probably the most out of place, and if it becomes an issue, it can go.


Thanks for your comment General, first real feedback in a while =.=.

Edit: Also, I'm glad you caught the SC feel from the game. Gunship RPG from SC was a huge inspiration for this, and was exactly the feel I was trying to make.
 
Level 3
Joined
Mar 6, 2009
Messages
39
I would just give some feedback as well, I was in the same test as General01 and as far as i can see everything he has said so far is true. I would also like to add some feedback on the difficulty which I felt was a tad easy, I mean we completed the map 100% all discoverable missions and bonus content, with 3 people.

- One in a Frigate (Once I got the medium "Falcon" Gunship the frigate was obsolete due to it only being for the AA role
- One Gunship pilot
- One infantry

- Anyway here are some suggestions to improve the map. Make better use of some of the islands as the terrain isn't well used everywhere.
- Maybe add every 5 mins an attack on the Main base, either Land Sea Air or Combined.
- Change it so the tech level is more consistent, I think the Infantry didn't fit that well. Maybe if you start as admiral proudmore's model, So your more of swashbuckler. Then when you get the flintlock pistol/rifle you change into a riflmen, so its an equipment function.
- Add a Flintlock Rifle.
- Make the RPG more powerful, its quite weak vs Gunships
- Make it so that you can transport vehicle's on a specialist Medium/Heavy transport Gunship

Oh yeah one last thing, when Gen said the demolisher was too weak. It was because he was fighting a Jackal (light Combat Armour) with a Medium Battle Tank and the Combat armour was Winning. To overcome the fight, I had to get out and repair the tank mid fight. (Wasn't able to use gunship due to missile turrets) this is maybe either the Jackal Overpowered or the Demolisher too weak.


---Mission Bugs---

When you discover the base in the bottom right, it announces a major attack. We fortified the south base, then low and behold the attack was at the north base without ANY warning. We assumed either it was an attack that was meant to clear the base so that we swapped bases, or we just misread it. I feel that it wasn't very clear, and the attack was too weak. We immediately got into my Gunship and flew to the island, by the time we arrived. The NPC defenders had beaten of the attack. This kinda defeats the object of us reinforcing the defence surely?


Levithan

PS. I hope thats enough feedback for you :p i will be happy to test future versions, and give more enhanced feedback for you. In the future.
 
Level 1
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
1
bug

i landed with my chopper on a high wall which was only 1 square it bugged so i couldn't get into the chopper so i had to buy a new one!
 
Level 6
Joined
Jul 2, 2008
Messages
156
maybe make it so you can swim, i was trying to get somewhere but didnt have the money to get a boat (just bought a vehicle, finished a mission spent the gold then died)

I don't think this is likely to happen. I understand that people can run into this situation, but honestly this is meant to be played with multiple players, of which one of them could help you out. And I understand it could be frustrating at times, but its going to stay this way most likely.

And if your entire team is put into the situation you were in, and they don't have 100 gold between all of them, then I don't think they should be playing this game, cause you would have to be trying to get that poor.
 
Level 12
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
512
I don't think this is likely to happen. I understand that people can run into this situation, but honestly this is meant to be played with multiple players, of which one of them could help you out. And I understand it could be frustrating at times, but its going to stay this way most likely.

And if your entire team is put into the situation you were in, and they don't have 100 gold between all of them, then I don't think they should be playing this game, cause you would have to be trying to get that poor.

Or you could make a loan system somewhere in base, or you could make it possible to sell vehicles!
I mean you can sell items, sentry gun aswell i guess, even though i didn't try, i think selling vehicles/ships would be an interesting addition. Also, when you have an older tank or boat, what to do with it when you buy a new one? If it is possible (i might have missed it) then nvm this.


This map is great btw, but here are the details:

Terrain: 2/5
Well it is honestly pretty bland, lacks fishes, shells, birds and stuff but i guess this is not your focus, and i personally don't really care about it.

Gameplay: 9.5/10
The concept is pure genius, original, nicely pulled off.
You can do almost anything you'd guess you could do about the vehicle loading/driving system, gunships land, there are passenger-operated turrets, you progressively unload gold cargos from these ship things (took a while to find out though) and more.
The pace is kept throughout the game, there are side quests, upgrades etc.

Balance: 7.5/10
Some odd things here and there, like the overpowered battle armor for engineers (it like disintegrated an enemy frigate, not sure if it even made me lose 1/4 of my hp)

Cosmetics: 6/10
Footman with a gun, parachute and RPG fighting axemen near wooden frigates, while missile infantry... well you got the point.
->Needs imported models and such things, nothing that can't be fixed easily.
Nice color coding makes things highlighted intuitively and easy to read and understand.
Some funny texts.
*Note the custom sounds that give a nice touch to all these quest messages and mssions.

Overall: 25/35 = 3.5/5 rounded up to 4/5 and +REP for originality and quality.
May change as this gets updated.
We have beaten the game with 3 players in about an hour and a half. We didnt really notice since you don't get bored once you got how it works.

I will stay tuned for updates as this has got great potential and is really fun to play.
 
Level 6
Joined
Jul 2, 2008
Messages
156
Or you could make a loan system somewhere in base, or you could make it possible to sell vehicles!
I mean you can sell items, sentry gun aswell i guess, even though i didn't try, i think selling vehicles/ships would be an interesting addition. Also, when you have an older tank or boat, what to do with it when you buy a new one? If it is possible (i might have missed it) then nvm this.


This map is great btw, but here are the details:

Terrain: 2/5
Well it is honestly pretty bland, lacks fishes, shells, birds and stuff but i guess this is not your focus, and i personally don't really care about it.

Gameplay: 9.5/10
The concept is pure genius, original, nicely pulled off.
You can do almost anything you'd guess you could do about the vehicle loading/driving system, gunships land, there are passenger-operated turrets, you progressively unload gold cargos from these ship things (took a while to find out though) and more.
The pace is kept throughout the game, there are side quests, upgrades etc.

Balance: 7.5/10
Some odd things here and there, like the overpowered battle armor for engineers (it like disintegrated an enemy frigate, not sure if it even made me lose 1/4 of my hp)

Cosmetics: 6/10
Footman with a gun, parachute and RPG fighting axemen near wooden frigates, while missile infantry... well you got the point.
->Needs imported models and such things, nothing that can't be fixed easily.
Nice color coding makes things highlighted intuitively and easy to read and understand.
Some funny texts.
*Note the custom sounds that give a nice touch to all these quest messages and mssions.

Overall: 25/35 = 3.5/5 rounded up to 4/5 and +REP for originality and quality.
May change as this gets updated.
We have beaten the game with 3 players in about an hour and a half. We didnt really notice since you don't get bored once you got how it works.

I will stay tuned for updates as this has got great potential and is really fun to play.

Thanks a ton for the detailed review. With reviews like this, I know exactly what needs work. Will use this as a to-do checklist.
 
Level 5
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Messages
144
I love this map, but it's obvious that it still needs a lot of work.
I'm sure you already know, but there're too few quests (The turrets, the enemy outpost, the gunships, the defense and the secondary ones).
You should increase the terrain size and reuse it. For example, there could be a quest where the Southwood tries to rebuild the south-western outpost and the players must return there to fight an even harder defense this time.
Also you should add a respawn system for the enemy camps. You could make southwood transport ships spawn at the map borders and, when reaching the coast, they drop soldiers and workers wich start building a base. The more time that passes, the bigger the base becomes, adding more defenses but also Supply ships and tents.
Still it would be great if you increased the map size and added some difficulty options at the game start. I completed the full map with a friend with just a gunship and an engineer!
 
Level 3
Joined
Mar 6, 2009
Messages
39
Review

I would just give some feedback as well, I was in the same test as General01 and as far as i can see everything he has said so far is true. I would also like to add some feedback on the difficulty which I felt was a tad easy, I mean we completed the map 100% all discoverable missions and bonus content, with 3 people.

- One in a Frigate (Once I got the medium "Falcon" Gunship the frigate was obsolete due to it only being for the AA role
- One Gunship pilot
- One infantry

- Anyway here are some suggestions to improve the map. Make better use of some of the islands as the terrain isn't well used everywhere.
- Maybe add every 5 mins an attack on the Main base, either Land Sea Air or Combined.
- Change it so the tech level is more consistent, I think the Infantry didn't fit that well. Maybe if you start as admiral proudmore's model, So your more of swashbuckler. Then when you get the flintlock pistol/rifle you change into a riflmen, so its an equipment function.
- Add a Flintlock Rifle.
- Make the RPG more powerful, its quite weak vs Gunships
- Make it so that you can transport vehicle's on a specialist Medium/Heavy transport Gunship

Oh yeah one last thing, when Gen said the demolisher was too weak. It was because he was fighting a Jackal (light Combat Armour) with a Medium Battle Tank and the Combat armour was Winning. To overcome the fight, I had to get out and repair the tank mid fight. (Wasn't able to use gunship due to missile turrets) this is maybe either the Jackal Overpowered or the Demolisher too weak.


---Mission Bugs---

When you discover the base in the bottom right, it announces a major attack. We fortified the south base, then low and behold the attack was at the north base without ANY warning. We assumed either it was an attack that was meant to clear the base so that we swapped bases, or we just misread it. I feel that it wasn't very clear, and the attack was too weak. We immediately got into my Gunship and flew to the island, by the time we arrived. The NPC defenders had beaten of the attack. This kinda defeats the object of us reinforcing the defence surely?


Levithan

PS. I hope thats enough feedback for you :p i will be happy to test future versions, and give more enhanced feedback for you. In the future.
 
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In your test update 4 you considered adding a pvp element to the game. f done right it could be great, but i wouldn't suggest it. There are already so many pvp maps on warcraft right now, and i think that adding pvp would take away from the sort of team work feeling you get when you play it. It would more be people fighting to get stronger just to pvp. It would eventualy ruin the game. But thats just my opinion. I would enjoy a teamwork game on wc. Its something new to the pool of sameyness on battle net we have.
BTW I really enjoy this map. I cannot wait for more stuff so that i can play longer! :) I give this map props for its uniqueness and cleverness.
 
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Level 27
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Well firstly, you could use some of new mission ideas. Like this one:
Infiltration
Those Northseas are having a convoy carrying a lot of supplies. Its moving to their secret base which can be got to only trough the water and the gate to it opens to those specified supply ships. You have to destroy the convoy, forcing the supply ships to stop near the shore. Then you use them, when they enter the hostile base, you jump out of the ships and slaughter all the enemy soldiers. After that, you destroy all the anti-air turrets and allow your transports to take all the supplies for your home base. The End.
Or this:
Prisioneer escape
Nortseas have a small prisioneer camp set up on whatever island. Our oficers and whats immportant our scientist with very secret info is there. You destroy all the defences, free all the prisioneers (Notice that scientist will respawn in that camp when he'll die, others won't but they're just bonus money) and go to your base before enemies send their troops to the prison.

Other suggestions:
-Life and mana: have you played Metastasis? Have you seen that there you have a unit character but like in your map there is a hero indicator? Well their one has one more thing: That hero's mana and hp depends from your unit's hp, so you can know your footmens hp even while in vehicle.
-Steroids or something. Temporary buff on your footman, but also gives a side effect, like more damaged recieved or dizzy screen or something...
-What hapens when you get to some island on a ship and then change it for shall we say supply ship there is? You loose that other ship and you can't have any way to return to it without sacrifacing other vehicle to get there. What about some kind of device or something that allows you to recall your ship to base??? Thats really immportant, its saves quite a lot of cash.
-Civilians. There are not oly enemies and you rpeople here, there should also be some kind of villages of locals where you can complete missions, entertain someway or buy items.
 
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-What hapens when you get to some island on a ship and then change it for shall we say supply ship there is? You loose that other ship and you can't have any way to return to it without sacrifacing other vehicle to get there. What about some kind of device or something that allows you to recall your ship to base??? Thats really immportant, its saves quite a lot of cash.
Maybe you could add a tugging system for ships. Also it would be fun that when vehicles are near to be destroyed they stopped working and another vehicle had to tow it to the base or to an engineer. In that case, in behalf of playability I'd make the vehicles stop working only after the player exits the vehicle, so if the vehicle is about to be destroyed and the player can scape death, the vehicle won't stop working, making him lose his precious vehicle.

-Civilians. There are not oly enemies and you rpeople here, there should also be some kind of villages of locals where you can complete missions, entertain someway or buy items.
The villages are a good idea, but I'd recomend using them just as places to be defended in missions, I like the present schematic of just two or three bases where all things are sold, bought, repaired and upgraded. It fits with the role of "Mercenary". You complete the missions that are given to you, then you return to your mercenary camp and upgrade your gear and buy new one.

Also, I think that you should improve somehow the possibility to make the Infantry into a pure soldier, investing money in the armor, attack and regeneration upgrades of the Infantry isn't worth as it is to buy a vehicle and upgrade it. You must take into account that if you're about to lose your vehicle you still can scape it and then you have a fresh Infantry that can still fight, but if you upgrade infantry and you're about to die, you can't scape.
One option for this could be to be able to buy new armors. Not combat armors like the Jackal, but armors for the soldiers that changes the unit's skin and attributes. For example, a Steam Armor, wich is steam-powered, making the soldier move slower doe to the lack of hydraulic technology, but allowing him to carry more armor and land more powerful blows, leaving a swordman with more attack, armor and life but less movement and attack speed. Other option: A sacred armor wich increases life and armor and gives a bit of regeneration.
If you died with these armor you would respawn as a normal Infantry.

Another thing I just thought of: Scraps. When you lose or kill a vehicle, a combat armor, a gunship (or an armor...) it would leave that unit's "Scraps" wich could be sold or, if you collect enough scraps of the same vehicle or vehicles similar to it, used to rebuild the vehicle with two parts of the same vehicle, two parts of the same vehicle type and two parts of whatever vehicle. For example, if you lose your Swiftwind, you take the scraps and keep doing missions. You kill anoter swiftwind, one lancer, one FRV and two gunships. You take the scraps of all of them. You use the swiftwind's scraps as base, then use the lancer and FRV scraps since they're the same vehicle type (land light vehicle) and then the gunship scraps (wich are gunships but have reusable pieces for a land vehicle). Ta-daa, you've got a brand old "Rebuilt Swiftwind", wich would be created with random failures (less attack, less attack speed, less movement speed, less armor, less life, at random) but would be gratuite except for the effort of killing all that and carrying it to base. Ships wouldn't leave scraps.

Also, if you use tleno's idea of the prisoner camp you could make it so every time it's destroyed, the guards respawn and the gates are rebuilt, and when it's fully operational, if the player sees that he's about to die, he can surrender and be transportet to one of these camps where he could be rescued by his companions, scape through a hard minigame or suicide himself. Also, you would go there if your vehicle were to be destroyed with you inside.

About selling vehicles, you could add a circle of power in the bases where you can leave vehicles and then sell all the vehicles in the circle owned by the player by using options of the factory, where gunships and vehicles are upgrades. Also would be there where you can rebuild the vehicles from scraps.
The selling price of the vehicles could vary in the time that you've spend inside them (more you use them, less money if you sell them).

These are all my ideas for the moment...
 
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Well firstly you could recieve some kind of missions related to the villages. Like village is occupied by Northsea mercs and there is your agent there. You can't go to the town with vehicle because there's a fortress with experimental anti-vehicle system located in that village. So you land away from shore, fight with all the enemies, free the village and your spy. Then you evacuate him away from the village, but hostiles already approach to it, so you have to destroy all the incoming enemies, then agent turns into shop that allows you to build special items that makes the anti-vehicle turret not be able to attack your vehicle when you have it in your transport's inventory. Then you destroy that fortress and complete the mission.

Scrap ideas ig good, actually it would be fun to make scrap that can be latter use for different purposes from still working vehicles. Like in team fortress. You destroy an iteam (Vehicle), recieve some scrap that can be used later. Oh, and since you don't use the wood, you can replace it with "scrap" that ca be optained only trough sraping vehicles and collecting junk piles. You can make different items or special vehicles from it that can be recieved only this way. Oh, and what you can make depends from your ability's level.
 
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I also got a few suggestions:

Maybe some kind of rescue system if you get trapped on an island.Thought of a flare or something then a ship comes picks you up and brings you back to base with a 5mins cooldown or something.

I also thought of a few repetable quests wich not contain fighting like go to a certain island pick up a special item bring it to base.Or even jobs you can to in your base to earn some money...if there are 8 people running around and fight, who will keep the base going?

You additionally could add more fighting skills for infantery especially when it comes to fighting vehicles and buildings. Maybe some explosives or lockdown vehicles or infiltrate them. I also never used the headcrack because quickstrike seemed to be more effective, you could think of a longer stun duration but no dmg.

The battleamor seemed a bit too strong for a suportive unit like an engineer.I'd suggest to make it weaker in combat somehow but allowing to use abilities and items maybe.


I hope this helps you to improve your map or just gives you some new great ideas.
 
Level 6
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Thanks guys, these replies are very helpful. I'm getting a real clear picture about what needs work and what doesn't.

I also never used the headcrack because quickstrike seemed to be more effective, you could think of a longer stun duration but no dmg.
The battleamor seemed a bit too strong for a suportive unit like an engineer.I'd suggest to make it weaker in combat somehow but allowing to use abilities and items maybe.
I hope this helps you to improve your map or just gives you some new great ideas.

If you upgrade headcrack, it gets significantly better. I'm hesitant about increasing its stun because the enemy footman use it as well.

The Jackal is getting some of its stats redistributed, and should be much more balanced by the next version!
 
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You could also increase the Stun duration and then remove all the enemy footmen from the first island. By the time the players get to the second island they will already have captured 3 or 4 supply ships, plus the killing and quest rewards, so they will have enough money to buy vehicles or upgrade their infantry or engineering skills enough so the enemy footmen's headcrack wouldn't be too much of a problem.
 
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I was just testing the new version in singleplayer, and may have found a bug. I bought a nightshade, and found that I could neither lift off nor exit the vehicle. I had been toggling the safety on/off before I tried, to see what Night Ops did, which could have caused it: but it refused to launch with it on or off. Needless to say, being unable to move or leave the vehicle would be.. troubling.. in a multiplayer game. Has anyone else encountered something like this, or did I neglect to do something important beforehand?
 
Level 6
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I was just testing the new version in singleplayer, and may have found a bug. I bought a nightshade, and found that I could neither lift off nor exit the vehicle. I had been toggling the safety on/off before I tried, to see what Night Ops did, which could have caused it: but it refused to launch with it on or off. Needless to say, being unable to move or leave the vehicle would be.. troubling.. in a multiplayer game. Has anyone else encountered something like this, or did I neglect to do something important beforehand?

I can't seem to replicate this bug, everything I try works.
 
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Aww c'mon mate... you can't just navigate away from the scene and leave your WC:III maps behind... you gotta go out wit' a bang man! Possibly a test 6? Maxed out to the best of your ability without ruining your Starcraft 2 plans? One last time please!!! :sad: Besides I have no hope in the hope of getting a Starcraft 2 CD key or maybe even the game when it comes out...:cry:
 
Level 6
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Aww c'mon mate... you can't just navigate away from the scene and leave your WC:III maps behind... you gotta go out wit' a bang man! Possibly a test 6? Maxed out to the best of your ability without ruining your Starcraft 2 plans? One last time please!!! :sad: Besides I have no hope in the hope of getting a Starcraft 2 CD key or maybe even the game when it comes out...:cry:

If people care, I can continue working on this map a while longer. I just get pretty discouraged when I test online. It takes me 30-45 minutes to find another 1-2 people willing to stay, and then those people leave mid game anyways usually.
 
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Well, it was in singleplayer and I had been cheating more than a little, which may have had an impact. If it's impossible to replicate, then I guess it isn't much of a concern. If you need some help testing, I should be mostly free this weekend.
Also: Can we have some infantry-love soon? I'm eagerly awaiting my flintlock rifle, and who knows: perhaps even a repeating one! :p
 
Level 12
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512
Northwood Company - Test/Demonstration Version

I've decided to quit working on this project, and any project on Warcraft 3. I feel the game is aging a lot, so I am switching my map projects to Starcraft 2. My goal is to eventually make Northwood Company on Starcraft 2, using this version as a starting point. I have already starting playing around with various new ideas in Starcraft 2, and the possibilities are so much more promising. So here is version Test5, and I will be working on a Starcraft 2 version in the meantime. Once its ready to test, I'll be sure to release it.
Dear god NO :( !
Or maybe i'm saying this because i don't have SC2 yet but hell, for now this is how i feel.

Apart from that i'm glad you made a new version, gonna test it out soon.

If people care, I can continue working on this map a while longer. I just get pretty discouraged when I test online. It takes me 30-45 minutes to find another 1-2 people willing to stay, and then those people leave mid game anyways usually.
Dude this is a common problem for all maker of new/original map concepts, ya know, when there's no "footie" or "Defence" or "War" and stuff in the map's name, know what i mean?

It's not forcefully gonna be better in SC2 imho, not trying to further discourage you there (hell no) but i mean, you need better advertising, get a circle of fans of the map who can host, make a clan for it, epicwar it, whatever.
It's just that hard, that's the way it is, but it's fkin worth it. If i wasn't alrdy too busy with my own maps i'd host this more (atm i just test new versions like ~3 times in a row with the ~4 players i manage to get in).

I guess i can be happy alrdy that you're not simply giving it up, and that anyways you will continue it, be it on w3 or SC2 (oh wait, just noticed you took my selling advice in account, nice ^^ ).

Keep up the good work!
 
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If people care, I can continue working on this map a while longer. I just get pretty discouraged when I test online. It takes me 30-45 minutes to find another 1-2 people willing to stay, and then those people leave mid game anyways usually.

Well, I remember when DotA was known as "that AoS with Undead and Night Elves". You're making a big project, and, until it has more features, terrain and missions you can't expect people to replay it just to do the same missions and get the same vehicles once again. You should also find a way to favor the replayablility of the map. Maybe adding a save/load system when there's more map to play.
To be frank, at this moment, Northwood Company is a map that causes a great impression, it has an original idea behind it and it's simply awesome when you play it, but, once you've tested the different vehicles and done the main quests, it gives little incentive to play it again (even though I played it again ><).
With this I don't want to discourage you, really.
You could also increase the difficulty. I completed the map just with a friend and myself in less than an hour, so playing it with full house must be even easier.
Btw, you should revise the tooltips of the vehicles. In the Jackal it specifies that it can enter in Gunships and pilot its own vehicles, but that isn't clear in the land vehicles.
I would really like to see this map finished, in WC3 or SC II, and if you're going to transfer the project to SC, then, please, keep the "Islands, infantry and vehicles" ambientation.
 
Level 27
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Well, I remember when DotA was known as "that AoS with Undead and Night Elves". You're making a big project, and, until it has more features, terrain and missions you can't expect people to replay it just to do the same missions and get the same vehicles once again. You should also find a way to favor the replayablility of the map. Maybe adding a save/load system when there's more map to play.
To be frank, at this moment, Northwood Company is a map that causes a great impression, it has an original idea behind it and it's simply awesome when you play it, but, once you've tested the different vehicles and done the main quests, it gives little incentive to play it again (even though I played it again ><).
With this I don't want to discourage you, really.
You could also increase the difficulty. I completed the map just with a friend and myself in less than an hour, so playing it with full house must be even easier.
Btw, you should revise the tooltips of the vehicles. In the Jackal it specifies that it can enter in Gunships and pilot its own vehicles, but that isn't clear in the land vehicles.
I would really like to see this map finished, in WC3 or SC II, and if you're going to transfer the project to SC, then, please, keep the "Islands, infantry and vehicles" ambientation.

Actually some missions can be choosed randomly, like you can get a mission to take over an outpost or to do something else. You know, same missions but diferent sequences, chosen randomly.
 
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Seriously though.....Hey...I have a good idea!! Why not turn this entire thing into an entire franchise!!!! Campaign and shi*! Like cinematics for mission briefings! And you can choose to be hired by rich people who need other people assassinated or humiliated! Currency could be rough diamonds! Much like Farcry 2!
 
Level 1
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Jan 22, 2009
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8
Hm... I was playing this map first time with my friends, but at the (last?) mission where u have to repair&defend base2, nothing happens after we repair all damaged stuffs in the base (I think there should be enemies coming right?) Is this a bug? Or is there other requirement to trigger the enemy attack?
 
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