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Reforged Factions - Chapter 1: After the Third War
In a world left devastated by the war against the Scourge and the Burning Legion, new alliances are forged, and old ones are tempered by the fire of many battles...
This is my first bundle of 6 custom playable factions: Syndicate, New Horde, Barrens Marauders, Dark Horde, Corrupted Ancients and Defenders of Hyjal.
They are all inspired by the original RoC and TFT campaigns and WoW lore, and every faction comprises different races, just like the Horde and the Alliance.
Select Human to be able to play as Syndicate, Undead for the New Horde, Orc for either Barrens Marauders or Dark Horde, and Night Elf for Corrupted Ancients or Defenders of Hyjal. A menu then appears at the start of the game for choosing the specific faction. Custom factions can be selected only by actual players, not computers.
Credits and resources: all the custom factions are created by me (Garbaroz). I used Blizzard's Rock Quarry map as a container, but feel free to export my custom factions to other maps too, just remember to give credit! Despite the tons of awesome models and icons available on the Hive Workshop, I decided to use only in-game resources and model-stacking tricks for this mod. This makes the map lightweight, and it is sufficient to export triggers and object data to add my custom factions to another map.
Eighteen more factions are planned for future release, divided in several chapters following the conceptual order of WoW expansions: Outland, Northrend, and so on.
The factions
Syndicate
The infamous criminal organization from the fallen kingdom of Alterac, encountered by Arthas in the first chapter of the RoC human campaign, and now still fighting against his minions.
Many units can disguise themselves as villagers and Ballistas can be camouflaged to become invisible to enemies
Disguised units can steal items or gold from enemies, with the risk of being detected
Farmers can turn into Bandits at a tier 2 townhall
Farms be converted into Black Markets to buy and sell items
Nags can be used to collect gold faster or as mounts for Enforcers
Sylvanas' Forsaken joined the Horde after breaking free from the Scourge, followed by the Blood Elves at the start of the Burning Crusade, and took control of the northern Eastern Kingdoms.
The Forsaken can regenerate health on blighted terrain, but Blood Elves can not. Blight is spread by Death Towers and Forsaken Hideouts
When dying, units leave behind an Epitaph, which grants an attack damage bonus to nearby units still alive. The bonus increases with subsequent deaths
Holy Light and Death Coil are both available as hero abilities to heal Blood Elves and Forsaken respectively
This faction relies heavily on spellcasters
Heroes: Dark Ranger, Paladin, Blood Mage, Dreadlord
Barrens Marauders
A loose, temporary alliance of Harpies, Centaurs, and Quillboars to oppose the advance of the Horde aided by Rexxar in the Barrens, but each race fights to prevail over the others as well.
Quillboar Thornweavers can create buildings and harvest gold by manipulating giant thorny vines. Make them plant Thorny Vine Roots next to a gold mine to entangle it
Ceantaurs have fast land units and their Drudges can harvest wood
Harpies have flying spellcasters and flying stealth units
The resurrection stone (altar) can be transformed into a throne for one of the race-leader heroes. This gives an attack bonus to all units of the corresponding race
Pack Kodos serve as mobile item shops and drop-off points for lumber
Animal Cages (food production buildings) can trap enemy land units
Heroes: Centaur Khan, Quillboar Chieftain, Harpy Queen, Lightning Revenant
Dark Horde
The Blackrock Orcs, encountered in the Human and Orc RoC campaigns, remain faithful to the old ways of the Horde, along with their Ogre and Forest Troll allies.
Warlocks and upgraded Watch Towers can deal chaos damage
Slave Masters can take enemy units hostage. Hostages can't attack, and provide protection to their captors
Slave Masters can also set hostages free for ransom, or sacrifice them to their demonic masters to gain attack and regeneration bonuses
Pig Farms (food production buildings) can summon Raging Boars
Ogre units can take a nap to recover health
Dominate the skies with mighty Red Dragons
Heroes: Ogre Lord, War Master, Far Seer, Blademaster
Corrupted Ancients
Satyrs have spread their curse across Felwood, and twisted its once-noble inhabitants into fiendish aberrations. They are sworn enemies to the Night Eves, as seen in the RoC campaign.
Corrupted Ancients can take root only on blighted terrain, which is created by building Corrupted Moon Wells and Altars of Sacrifice, or by detonating Corrupted Wisps
Corrupted Moon Wells can be upgraded into Defiled Springs or Polluted Dwellings to access new troops and upgrades
Polluted Dwellings also generate Murloc corpses, which can be collected and transported by Sludge Monsters
Sludge Monsters can destroy enemy lumber gathering buildings to create Treants, and can take possession of basic Night Elf buildings (Ancient Protectors and Ancients of War)
Murloc units can swim
Heroes: Hellcaller, Corrupted Keeper, Dreadlord, Death Revenant
Defenders of Hyjal
Furbolgs and Dark Trolls appeared as recruitable units in the Battle of Mount Hyjal against Archimonde. Aided by the green dragons, they are still healing and protecting their land.
Food is not produced by a specific building. Instead, it can be produced by most buildings with the Food Stash upgrade
Dark Trolls can hide and regenerate their health quickly during the night
The World Tree Sprout can restore cut trees in its surroundings and increase the defenses of units and buildings
Dream Walkers and Green Dragon Whelps can shift in and out of the Emerald Dream, and the High Priest can use it to Banish units
Heroes: High Priest, Shadow Stalker, Elder, Keeper of the Grove
I also applied some purely cosmetic changes to the original Blizzard factions to account for new allegiances. All their game mechanics and AI are unaltered.
As the Blood Elves have joined the Horde, elven units in the Alliance have been replaced by their corresponding Human counterparts
In the Undead Scourge, Banshees and Dreadlords have also been replaced by new equivalent units, reflecting the events of TFT
Thrall and Samuro are used as heroes for the Horde, as the generic Blademaster and Far Seer are used by the Dark Horde
V1.01
-Fixed Corrupted Wisps training from Corrupted Tree of Life
V1.02
-Corrected Corrupted Tree of Life upgrade costs
-Corrected Hellcaller regeneration type to only on blight
V1.03
-Fixed training limit for New Horde Paladin to 1
-Corrected damage bonuses for Roar (War Master)
-Removed shop requirement for Backpack upgrade
-Fixed Tiny Great Hall in Dark Horde Voodoo Lounge
-Changed Red Dragons attack 1 type to magic
-Changed Mauler and Slave Master requirements
-Cosmetic changes: Warlock upgrade icon, Troll Berserkers and Shadow Stalker projectile
V1.04
-Fixed victory/defeat conditions for multiplayer
V1.05
-Set resources cost to 0 for first hero
-Goldmines are now entangled/haunted from the start
-Corrupted Wisps can now generate blighted terrain when exploding
-New ability for New Horde: Avenge the Fallen
-New ability for Syndicate: Pick Pocket
-New Abilities for Dark Horde: Take Hostage, Ransom, Demonic Sacrifice, Cut Down
-New ability for Corrupted Ancients: Seeping Blight
-Death Revenant can now summon more Skeleton Archers
-Reorganized units and upgrades in buildings (Syndicate Ballistas, Dark Horde upgrades)
-Added shop items: World Tree Seed (Hyjal), Orb of Chaos (Dark Horde)
-Fixed item availability bug in Emporium
-Removed lumber cost from Drudges and Marauders Tent
-Dark Horde Fel Infusion renamed Fel-Infused Weapons and limited to ground targets
-Added Resistant Skin to Wildkins and Dreamwalkers
-Updated Anti-magic Shell and Possession to current Blizzard patch
-Reduced Pulverize damage for quillboar Barbarians
V1.06
-Corrected values in caster upgrades of Desecrators and Windhowlers; increased Emerald Fireball power and mana cost
-Corrected tooltips for Impaling Bolt, Dark Horde weapons and armor upgrades, Assassin's Mapping (renamed Reconnaissance)
-Applied weapons and armor upgrade bonuses to all Corrupted Ancients' summoned skeletons
-Halved Impaler's attack damage and cooldown
-Removed unused abilities and upgrades
Generally a mix of the current factions with some neutral hostile spice. Some nice ideas but overall quite basic recycled gameplay mechanics.
Some factions are a bit chaotic in what upgrades and units placement in buildings are concerned.
Borderline...
I feel like HD mapmakers tend to be very simplistic in terms of design when it comes to altered melees, or rather they're uninterested in polish/lack general creativity. This looks to be an awesome exception and sometihng i've been longing for, as it has actually good visual cohesion in terms of faction design and some seemingly cool ideas. I will have to check this out immediately!
For some reason, I couldn't train any wisps when playing the "Corrupted Ancients" faction, thus I can neither build up nor expand.
5 Wisp Meta gameplay?
For some reason, I couldn't train any wisps when playing the "Corrupted Ancients" faction, thus I can neither build up nor expand.
5 Wisp Meta gameplay?
As someone who is also working on a Barrens faction mod, I'm truly delighted to see such an interesting take on the faction. It seems you've squeezed the most out of the limited number of assets available in Reforged, and that creativity is commendable.
I'm surprised to see the Blood Elves not paired with the naga, and the Forsaken not with the ogres. Also, not a fan of using default heroes for factions (I'm looking at you, Dark Horde!). But overall, well executed.
As someone who is also working on a Barrens faction mod, I'm truly delighted to see such an interesting take on the faction. It seems you've squeezed the most out of the limited number of assets available in Reforged, and that creativity is commendable.
I'm surprised to see the Blood Elves not paired with the naga, and the Forsaken not with the ogres. Also, not a fan of using default heroes for factions (I'm looking at you, Dark Horde!). But overall, well executed.
Thanks I put the blood elves with the forsaken also for their geographic proximity in the north of the eastern kingdoms, while the "classic" horde is in Kalimdor... and there are still some unused blood elf models to squeeze for my next chapters
Thank you! It seems something went wrong with the corrupted tree of life when I ported it into the rock quarry map, as it had an issue with the wisps as well, I'll fix it when I'm back from vacation in a few days I'm aware the first hero is not free, that's because spawning starting units by trigger makes the map not being considered melee anymore, but it's the same for the normal factions used by the computer, so at least it's balanced. I might fix it with a zero-cost dummy unit for every hero in the future
sorry I'm a bit confused... I am not using any downloaded material in my map, and I thanked already all those who spotted some issue, so what credit are you referring to? I am still new to the hive workshop, I apologize if I am missing something
I played this map and found it lovely with the limitations that you impose for the development that there are interesting ideas to play with. Barrens and their throne, New Horde tricky blight balancing (but this one is a bit of headache), playing with Chaos in Dark Horde, and so on. My one major nitpick would be the spells are mostly melee or alteration from existing ones, but other than that this is a well-done collection.
I have released some of the videos of each faction and the rest are in progress (as of this writing). Feel free to check them out Reforged HD Factions by garbaroz
I played this map and found it lovely with the limitations that you impose for the development that there are interesting ideas to play with. Barrens and their throne, New Horde tricky blight balancing (but this one is a bit of headache), playing with Chaos in Dark Horde, and so on. My one major nitpick would be the spells are mostly melee or alteration from existing ones, but other than that this is a well-done collection.
I have released some of the videos of each faction and the rest are in progress (as of this writing). Feel free to check them out Reforged HD Factions by garbaroz
Awesome! Thank you for the gameplay videos!
As I am planning to make a total of 20 factions on top of the original 4, I decided to keep the spells familiar for better overall playability... but thanks for the feedback, I'll try to balance this with more variety in the next chapters
Indeed in case you are tired of Rock Quarry and would also like to apply my Reforged Factions mod to another map, remember to set Game data set = Melee (latest patch) in the Scenario > Map options editor menu.
I attached here also the freshly updated V1.03 triggers and objects files to import in other maps
I played some of your "Reforged Factions" on already-becoming-boring Rock Quarry. First of all, I should say thank you for adding a separate altered melee data - looking forward to try your races on different layouts.
While I don't have many questions, all 3 races I had played I liked and don't see plenty of issues, one of commentars under the Satyr Race showcase asked, "why do we need to build corrupted moonwell first, to build corrupted tree of life at expansion?"
So I ask the same question.
Overall, I can say that each race aesthetic looks pretty unusual - combining through attachments, I think?
Race gameplay is close enough to be basic melee, but if you want some inspiration for your future races, I humbly suggest looking at @Wa666r's custom races.
I played some of your "Reforged Factions" on already-becoming-boring Rock Quarry. First of all, I should say thank you for adding a separate altered melee data - looking forward to try your races on different layouts.
While I don't have many questions, all 3 races I had played I liked and don't see plenty of issues, one of commentars under the Satyr Race showcase asked, "why do we need to build corrupted moonwell first, to build corrupted tree of life at expansion?"
So I ask the same question.
Overall, I can say that each race aesthetic looks pretty unusual - combining through attachments, I think?
Race gameplay is close enough to be basic melee, but if you want some inspiration for your future races, I humbly suggest looking at @Wa666r's custom races.
Yay more videos! Thanks The models are combined together using abilities. @Wa666r's custom races are very cool indeed and suggestions are always welcome!
For the satyrs, my logic is that the blighted water from the wells contaminates the soil, so that ancients grow corrupted by feeding on it. It's similar to the necropolis that pours green water on the ground to make it blighted, and that allows you to summon undead buildings on it. Is it just me thinking in this way?
For the satyrs, my logic is that the blighted water from the wells contaminates the soil, so that ancients grow corrupted by feeding on it. It's similar to the necropolis that pours green water on the ground to make it blighted, and that allows you to summon undead buildings on it. Is it just me thinking in this way?
It's kinda flavor in terms of lore, but it reduces the expansion speed of this custom race. Where others like undeads need only to corrupt the mine or build town hall, satyrs need to build 2 buildings at least to startup new expansion.
Maybe I didn't saw and their shop has skull of blight, but buying items for each new goldmine expansion...
Otherwise, it's just my impression - if it contradicts your vision, dont take it
Their shops have the skull, but it is true that satyr expansion is kind of slow, and I prefer to keep using trees for entangling because they have roots... but this gives me an idea: maybe I could give an ability to a unit to create an area of blight, perhaps the murloc plaguebearers or the sludges, they are already spreading sickness with their disease clouds! Thanks for the suggestions
Generally a mix of the current factions with some neutral hostile spice. Some nice ideas but overall quite basic recycled gameplay mechanics.
Some factions are a bit chaotic in what upgrades and units placement in buildings are concerned.
Borderline Approved.
A credits list in the map thread description is required where the names of the resource (models, skins, icons, spells, sound etc.) authors are mentioned along with the specific resource. It would be a luxury to have links leading to the used resources. Credits in the Quest Log would be appreciated too.
A detailed changelog in the first post would be helpful to reviewers and notify fans about the newest implementations to your map.
Map thread tags are important. Please use those that fit and not more or none.
I don't know why, when i play solo it works perfectly and it's a really good map, but when I try with my mate against bot, there is 1sec with the box to choose faction and then it's written "Victory has eluded you"
I don't know why, when i play solo it works perfectly and it's a really good map, but when I try with my mate against bot, there is 1sec with the box to choose faction and then it's written "Victory has eluded you"
Thank you for reporting it, I'll try to fix it but I really have no idea... Does it happen also in other situations, such as when playing against your mate? Did anyone else experience this problem?
And most importantly, does anyone out there know what this could be and how to fix it?
Melee Victory/Defeat condition activated before player finish selection. In singleplayer, nothing happened because dialog freeze gameplay, but during multiplayer the dialog doesn't freeeze gameplay.
I don't know why, when i play solo it works perfectly and it's a really good map, but when I try with my mate against bot, there is 1sec with the box to choose faction and then it's written "Victory has eluded you"
It worked perfectly thank you, I love these faction concepts !
I would like to ask you, is it intentional that corrupted ancient doesn't spawn near enough the gold mine so they have to wait a long to get gold ? (I mean is it for balance ?) Also first hero cost 400 gold and 100 lumber (should be free ?)
Neither is intentional I am planning to fix the hero cost issue in a future update, along with adding some some new abilities as suggested by many. I tried to fix the goldmine distance issue but didn't succeed, my trigger is supposed to spawn units at player's starting location. Again, any useful suggestion would be welcome!
V1.05 is out! With all the the nice things that you guys have been asking and suggesting for a while
I managed to fix the initial entangling of gold mines, removed the cost of the first hero, and gave one more option to satyrs to expand their blighted terrain by detonating wisps.
Also, I finally added some new abilities, but rather than changing every little spell I decided to give to each race at least one big trigger-based and lore-consistent ability that would define their playstyle, just like the throne system of the barrens marauders:
-disguised Syndicate units can steal gold or items from enemies
-New Horde units gain increased attack when fighting next to their fallen comrades
-Dark Horde Slave Masters can take hostages for protection and decide their fate
-Sludge Monsters of the Corrupted Ancients can corrupt basic night elf Ancients or turn enemy lumbering buildings into treants
-Defenders of Hyjal instead got a new purchasable item: a seed to quickly create a World Tree Sprout, so that its Regenerate Trees ability can be used more strategically, for example to trap enemies between growing trees
Have fun!
P.S.: I also reassigned some units and upgrades to different buildings to make them less confusing, and here are the files to import V1.05 to any other map you want
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Approved
I put the blood elves with the forsaken also for their geographic proximity in the north of the eastern kingdoms, while the "classic" horde is in Kalimdor... and there are still some unused blood elf models to squeeze for my next chapters
The models are combined together using abilities.
I am planning to fix the hero cost issue in a future update, along with adding some some new abilities as suggested by many. I tried to fix the goldmine distance issue but didn't succeed, my trigger is supposed to spawn units at player's starting location. Again, any useful suggestion would be welcome!
