Progress Reports on Next Version

[Craka_J]

Vexen.X had the clever idea to create a thread similar to this for his project TKoK, so I figured why not make one for Wc3:WoW.

This thread is meant for Wc3:WoW developers to post progress they've made. References are not required - text is fine - but of course images and videos are always great! Anyway, here we'll keep you guys updated on the development of Wc3:WoW. If you want to talk about anything or whatever, I recommend you post in here:
Wc3:WoW Discussions Thread (jump to last page)
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Terrain Progress
Last weekend and this whole week, I've been spending a lot of my time working on Wc3:WoW's terrain - mainly in Southern Durotar and especially in the Valley of Trials of Durotar (starting zone for Orc and Troll characters). This weekend I plan to spend even more time on these areas and hopefully finish at least 70% of Valley of Trials (except for the cave area... still unsure how I'll do that part) so I can progress further into working on Southern and Central Durotar.

A lot has been done with Valley of Trials, though. What's new? Based on what I saw in World of Warcraft in Windowed Mode as I work in the World Editor, I've made several new dunes, hills, mountains, trees, and also finally included water in two small areas of it. I also created the entrance/exit to Valley of Trials, but accidentally built to too far away; I'm going to have to remake it or try to move the entire area over - if I can.


Mulgore Brazier
You know those small totem-looking braizers that are usually sitting beside the path in Mulgore and The Barrens? Shamanyouranus has started and nearly finished it! But unfortunately his texture just doesn't fit Wc3:WoW well enough, so Hawkwing has agreed to improve the texture for us. Hooray! Once I get the braizer, I'll jump back to work on Mulgore - although, I do need a few other models for Mulgore before I can be 'finished' with the first area of Mulgore, Red Cloud Mesa. (Basically the Tauren version of Valley of Trials)


Character Creation
Previously, our Character Creation system really, really sucked! (No offense intended towards the old school developers of course) It used to just allow you to pick either the Horde or Alliance and only Orc or Troll. The choosing of your class was done throughout gameplay - very much not like WoW. Thankfully, we're finally redoing this system completely, including the terrain. What Yixx (Wc3:WoW's awesomely dedicated JASS Expert) has been working on for the past few weeks is the interface for our character creation screen and the system that supports it all. It'll look almost identical to the one in World of Warcraft and will also work somewhat the same as well.

In our Character Creation screen, you can:

• Choose a race and faction easily. (Races on the left are Alliance, races on the right are Horde)
• Choose your character's gender. (Male or Female)
• Choose your character's class.
• Modify skin tone.
• Change hair style.
• Change facial hair style.
• Change horns / tusks.
• Come up with your very own character name. (names like Thrall won't be allowed though since they're already taken)

There you have it! Our first progress report for the Wc3:WoW version 2.0 campaign. Expect many more updates in the future!

 

[Craka_J]

Terrain Progress
No progress since the last report, unfortunately. I've been very busy catching up with school-work and also am being forced to learn a new game engine and editor (Unreal Engine III) for a project I'm working for. Don't ask about it. However, I've also been addicted to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, World of Warcraft, and the Mortal Online Open BETA.
I'll likely try to get myself back into terraining on Mulgore a bit this weekend. Hopefully Durotar too, but not making any promises. The changes I plan on making with Mulgore is pretty much just adding a few new props (Mulgore Braizer) around the area. Whether I continue working on the mountains, hills, and tile placement is not solid yet.


Small Braizer
Yet another WoW replica model of a small iron braizer for Wc3:WoW is being created by Shamanyouranus. It's practically done, it's just needing a few more details and probably some model fixes first before I use it. Hoping I can get my hands on it this weekend!


Character Creation
Not too much has been done here for a while. Just some minor things such as replacing old placeholder (temporary) icons with new icons from World of Warcraft's Character Creation screen. We've also added the sound file that you here when you create a character in World of Warcraft! So we're about half-way done, I'd say. Just a couple more class icons to throw in and then we can get started on the physical features stuff, and then the left side of the interface and its functionality will be completely done... then we need to worry about the right side! Which shouldn't be too hard. Just a couple boxes that contain some information about the race, class, and faction.


Artificial Intelligence
People keep asking me about this. As much as we all would love to throw A.I. into the mod as soon as possible, it's just not possible to do yet. Before we can start implementing something so large and complicated, we need to get more of the basics done. There's even a possibility that 2.0 will not have bots at all! But I'm really hoping that we can get at least a few in... playing Wc3:WoW as the only class character in the world would be extremely boring. With bots, gameplay does get to be more entertaining and enjoyable.


Yixx - The Coder
Yixx's computer has been suffering from hardware problems recently. It doesn't seem to be critical as of yet, but it makes his computer much slower. Yixx and I are unsure of when the issue will be resolved...


New Modelers?
Whether they're new official modelers or just dedicated contributors is unknown, since I did not bother to really ask. Mulgrim and Forgotten_Warlord have offered to make character models and attachment models for Wc3:WoW. Two things we really need! I'll begin pressuring them to help out soon, and will let you guys know of the outcome.

 

[Craka_J]

Terrain Progress
This evening I started terraining Warsong Gulch. So far the layout is nearly complete and I'm focusing the details on the Horde side of the map first. The map dimensions are 480x480 but I may reduce it since it gives me about 15% extra space. And yes, the battleground will feature PVP music as it does in World of Warcraft.


Sounds & Music
Doron sent me every useful sound and music file for Wc3:WoW straight from the World of Warcraft MPQ database. You can say goodbye to most of the WarCraft III sounds and all WarCraft III music!


Icons & Interface
Just about all icons, interface images, and cursor images are now accessible by the Wc3:WoW development team thanks to Doron, yet again, for sending us them straight from the World of Warcraft MPQ database. This will certainly help us make Wc3:WoW look and feel much more like World of Warcraft.