Techtree Contest #19 - Warcraft Commanders

[Spellbound]

Inspired by StarCraft II's coop commanders, create a custom Warcraft III faction centered around a hero or major character from Warcraft lore. Your design should reflect the theme, personality, and abilities of your chosen character, and the faction’s gameplay should feel true to their identity.

NB: In case you are wondering, this theme has been selected before. This is a revisit of a past theme that was popular enough to win again.

• Submissions must follow the contest theme.
• Submissions may not be started / made before the official launch of the contest.
• Teamwork is not allowed (physically working on someone else's entry).
  • Giving feedback isn't considered teamwork and is always welcome. However, if you feel someone is abusing it, you may appeal to the appointed moderator.
• Post 2 Works-In-Progress (pictures or videos) in the contest thread during the contest process. It must be clear that you are working on the submission.
• Submissions must follow the Map Submission Rules.
• Finding voice actors, or testers to test multiplayer mode isn't considered as teamwork, and is allowed.
• You must download the the provided template map, make the edits, and resubmit it as entry.
• Any map's features except its terrain may be edited. Editing the map's Marketplaces, Item Shops, and Taverns is allowed, too.
• The map must be playable in battle net. (current max map size is 512MB, for example)
• Using imports is allowed as long as it follows Resource Submission Rules (Models, skins, icons, spells).
• All submitted entries must use (4)Tanaris.w3x as the test map (see attachments).
• The submission must be unprotected so that it's openable via the normal WorldEditor.
• The submission must be posted in the Maps section, before the contest ends.
  • The resource description must make it clear it's a submission from the respective contest.
• Post your final entry in the contest thread before contest is over. The post should be a little presentation, having your submission attached.
• Judges may not participate.

Breaking any of these rules may lead to punishment in the judgement score, up to disqualification from the contest, depending on the weight of the issue. In case of doubts towards a certain rule you are very encouraged to discuss it in the contest thread so others and judges may help with sorting it out.

Helpful Links: UI-Custom Race System by MyPad, How to create Full-working custom race, Guide to make a Race. (Provided by VeljkoM)

• 1st place: 2250 experience points
• 2nd place: 1800 experience points
• 3rd place: 1350 experience points
• Entry: 250 experience points
• Judge: 50 experience points per entrant

The three winners will receive an Award Icon representing the winning entry.​

Winning a contest also unlocks Demon Rank icons (at least two wins is required).​

• @SgtWinter
• @Wa666r
• @Spellbound

Theme	How well the various elements of the Faction (including aesthetics, gameplay & design) fit together in a thematic manner such that they feel like they are representative of the given Faction, as well as that of the chosen Contest Theme. Well-fitting & polished aesthetics which complement a cohesive theme will be graded well; poorly-considered or lacking thematic elements will result in a poor score.	/25
Gameplay	How well the various elements of the Faction work together to achieve the tactical synergy & gameplay style the Faction has, as well as how efficiently each element performs its particular function. Strategic systems that endow an identity to the Faction, comprehensive & well-though-out roles which complement a cohesive Faction will be graded well; ill-considered, insufficient or over-compensating roles will lose points.	/30
Creativity	How original the design of the Faction is in terms of innovative ideas, clever implementations, or creative concepts. Innovation and creativity will be rewarded; extensive re-use of existing elements in vanilla factions & poor originality will result in a poor score.	/45
		/100

Results calculation

• Judgement: 70%
• Poll: 30%

FinalScore = (30*Reached_Votes/POSSIBLE_VOTES) + (70*Average_Judge_Score/POSSIBLE_SCORE)​

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The contest shall begin on the 1st of May 2025 and conclude on the 31st of July 2025 GMT (day is included).

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Assigned Staff: < Staff member >

The Poll | Results

 

[Kyrbi0]

Heck yeah.

 

[FlameofChange]

Oh damnit. I don't know much about the expanded collaborative fanfiction which is the Warcraft Universe.
I'm gonna have to cook something else inspired from it. I don't want people to correct me on lore I am not affectionate with.
But tech tree contests are extremely rare these days.
So assume I'm throwing the coherence out of the window and propose an alternate lore.

 

[Spellbound]

Oh damnit. I don't know much about the expanded collaborative fanfiction which is the Warcraft Universe.
I'm gonna have to cook something else inspired from it. I don't want people to correct me on lore I am not affectionate with.
But tech tree contests are extremely rare these days.
So assume I'm throwing the coherence out of the window and propose an alternate lore.

This will likely affect your theme score. You could try to pick a character with little lore, in which case winging it is probably fine for the most part. Alternatively, as an example, let's say someone's making a Tyrande faction; it's not necessary to represent every detail of the character across all Blizzard media she's appeared in. Elune will have to be involved in a prominent way, archers/huntresses are going to be very relevant as well, and based on her kit you might want owls, something to do with arrows on fire, and maybe a falling star or two... maybe something to do with Shadowmeld, based on that one campaign mission and the fact that it's a Night Elf Sentinel ability. That's already plenty to go on.

 

[MyPad]

Woah, how did I miss out on this? I'm in. Just gotta figure out whose faction I'm going to work with.

Edit:
Now I know what I'm going to base my faction on. Expect screams of terror from the enemies as they flee from the hell that is--

 

[Daffa]

I need to figure out any decent ideas for this one. Some ideas I have probably won't be taking the medal at the current rate... probably have to do some winging since my lore knowledge is terrible.

Anyway, summoning @Cherrymage since both of us bailed out from TC#15 back then

 

[deepstrasz]

This will likely affect your theme score. You could try to pick a character with little lore, in which case winging it is probably fine for the most part.

I feel it's interpretable either way. Do all judges know all Warcraft characters lore? Will they study each character before reviewing?

 

[FlameofChange]

I feel it's interpretable either way. Do all judges know all Warcraft characters lore? Will they study each character before reviewing?

My take would be to make it a rounding-up rather than plain points. In other words having something which exploits well the lore could give some extra points from an expert. However of course if you give AK-47 to your human-orc waifu army of the pink spear confederation that would destroy low hanging points.

Back to my faction, I think I'll make something centered around Ragnaros (or the very few I know) ; so other people won't overlap much with me !

 

[MyPad]

Okay. I'm going to work with Grommash Hellscream's faction. I've made the following spell descriptions for Grom's spellkit:

Spoiler: WIP

Culling Blade

Haemophiliac

Bladestorm

Mirror Image

 

[Kyrbi0]

Okay. I'm going to work with Grommash Hellscream's faction. I've made the following spell descriptions for Grom's spellkit:

Spoiler: WIP

Culling Blade

Haemophiliac

Bladestorm

Mirror Image

View attachment 531501

View attachment 531502

View attachment 531503

View attachment 531504

Geez those are some real meat-sandwiches of abilities Impressive, but feels more at home in an AoS, IMO... But still I think the greatest sin is arranging them backwards, my dude. Ultimate goes last! ; )

 

[Spellbound]

Okay. I'm going to work with Grommash Hellscream's faction. I've made the following spell descriptions for Grom's spellkit:

Spoiler: WIP

Culling Blade

Haemophiliac

Bladestorm

Mirror Image

View attachment 531501

View attachment 531502

View attachment 531503

View attachment 531504

I agree with Kyrbi0, those abilities feel a bit more at home in something like a moba. Perhaps it's relevant with how your constructing your faction but consider simplifying some of them, especially that ultimate.

Geez those are some real meat-sandwiches of abilities Impressive, but feels more at home in an AoS, IMO... But still I think the greatest sin is arranging them backwards, my dude. Ultimate goes last! ; )

Based on arrangement and levels, Culling Blade is the Ult.

EDIT: Unless you mean the order in which the tabs were displayed, in which case /shrug

 

[MyPad]

Haha, I had it arranged from last to first because the last image (Culling Blade) was uploaded first.

But yeah, the ultimate is that complex because of what I had planned for the faction. Still, I hope everyone is looking forward to the next WIP.

 

[deepstrasz]

Impressive, but feels more at home in an AoS, IMO...

Perhaps a proper balance for a hero centered faction rather than support/aid/healer/booster what have you?
It's definitely a thin line to cross towards those non-melee/strategy genres but it would be well met if done adequately.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Perhaps a proper balance for a hero centered faction rather than support/aid/healer/booster what have you?
It's definitely a thin line to cross towards those non-melee/strategy genres but it would be well met if done adequately.

I'll agree that, if there's a Contest where such an emphasis on hero complexity would be appropriate, it would be this one (where ostensibly people will be designing a singular Hero for their faction by default).

Doesn't mean I have to like it. ; )

 

[deepstrasz]

I was imagining the hero being more dependent on its troops than them on the character. Like instead of Grom summoning some orc fellows, dealing crow control damage and/or having some ability to strengthen the troops, Grom could just have DPS (more inclined to single target gameplay maybe focused on eliminating enemy faction's heroes) abilities and units like warlocks could instead fill Grom's mana/rage, keep the character alive longer, something like that.