The Path to Valour

[Macielos]

I was looking forward to it, so I didn't wait long to give it a try as soon as I saw it released. After the first two missions I'm definitely not disappointed. Terrains and assets are top quality, gameplay is enjoyable, voice over adds to the experience.

Some minor complaints below:

Spoiler

M01:
- minimap of the interior segment has the original minimap behind it. I have this in my campaign too, I don't have a solution yet, but I think Re-Reforged and CSW got it handled somehow. I read somewhere they import custom minimap image or something like that.

M02:

• Troll Riders die far too easy. I get it they're lightly armored, but they're main troll melee unit in their attack waves, so they should be tougher. Maybe give them medium armor, or at least light instead of unarmored?
• Pity there's no place to build a townhall at naga base. I built it further away, but gold mining speed was very slow.
• I'd lower the mana cost of Feral Impact. I like that it can be used like Maiev's Blink to reach remote corners of the map, but high cost makes it drain heroine's mana pretty fast. Especially that sometimes you are too far and the jump fails, so you have to spend the mana again. Ideally - you could somehow check if the point is reachable and if not, cancel the jump.
• I see destroying enemy bases also ends the mission. Which is a bit problematic because the player doesn't know it. I specifically left the northern garrison and proceeded to clear the map, and after destroying the troll base I won before I could complete the secondary goal. I'd remove this alternate way to win, or at least clearly specify it in the quest.

 

[ChasingDawn0321]

Different looks and story lines always make campaigns fun to play

 

[Footman16]

I was looking forward to it, so I didn't wait long to give it a try as soon as I saw it released. After the first two missions I'm definitely not disappointed. Terrains and assets are top quality, gameplay is enjoyable, voice over adds to the experience.

Some minor complaints below:

Spoiler

M01:
- minimap of the interior segment has the original minimap behind it. I have this in my campaign too, I don't have a solution yet, but I think Re-Reforged and CSW got it handled somehow. I read somewhere they import custom minimap image or something like that.
View attachment 549203

Yeah I tried the fix of importing the custom minimap with a square resolution (256x256) but it didn't work, so I'm aware of this issue but haven't been able to find a fix.

M02:

• Troll Riders die far too easy. I get it they're lightly armored, but they're main troll melee unit in their attack waves, so they should be tougher. Maybe give them medium armor, or at least light instead of unarmored?

They're actually based off the stats of the huntress. I like having the parallels in terms of units and stats.

• Pity there's no place to build a townhall at naga base. I built it further away, but gold mining speed was very slow.

This is deliberate, you're not meant to have a gold mine on this mission and instead use the other gold mechanics, or find the treasure.

• I'd lower the mana cost of Feral Impact. I like that it can be used like Maiev's Blink to reach remote corners of the map, but high cost makes it drain heroine's mana pretty fast. Especially that sometimes you are too far and the jump fails, so you have to spend the mana again. Ideally - you could somehow check if the point is reachable and if not, cancel the jump.

I could lower the mana cost but I'd then probably need to increase the cooldown and that would make some of the jumps take even longer for secret areas.

• I see destroying enemy bases also ends the mission. Which is a bit problematic because the player doesn't know it. I specifically left the northern garrison and proceeded to clear the map, and after destroying the troll base I won before I could complete the secondary goal. I'd remove this alternate way to win, or at least clearly specify it in the quest.

Well the whole point of the garrisons and getting them is to destroy the base. If the player destroys the base early I see it as a reward instead of an issue. Similar to destroying the enemy bases in defence missions or killing the Blademaster before you build your base in the RoC Human Mission 2

Glad you're enjoying it so far and I'm eager to see more of your feedback!

 

[Macielos]

They're actually based off the stats of the huntress. I like having the parallels in terms of units and stats.

Damn, I completely forgot Huntress is unarmored. Still, Huntress is meant to harass and was nerfed to unarmored due to having ranged bouncing damage while Troll Riders just immediately go into melee and die. And there's no heavier units in the attack waves to tank while riders deal damage. I think medium would be best for him, like Orc Raider.

Well the whole point of the garrisons and getting them is to destroy the base. If the player destroys the base early I see it as a reward instead of an issue. Similar to destroying the enemy bases in defence missions or killing the Blademaster before you build your base in the RoC Human Mission 2

That would be okay if only the player knew beforehand what options he has. A quest requirement and maybe a dialog mention would be sufficient. The map is quite big and full of treasures to uncover, including books and items, so lots of players might want to explore everything first and complete the main objective next. Destroying the base quickly denies the player all those items and books they could find, even if he wanted to explore after destroying that base. It was exactly my case, and I loaded a previous save so that I could do that.

 

[U.05]

Completed the third chapter and i think i am ready to give my initial thoughts. The terrain is very nicely designed and the music use is excellent and i really liked how unique the missions are till now , not just go destroy the base but with additional challnages like gold being less aur race for resources and stuff. I also may have found a bug in chapter 3, the closest resource to take(Farm) is too close to the enemy base i feel as whenever i i am defending it sometimes pulls the defending units from the base too which destroyed my army. I also i think on destroying the naga base in second chapter should maybe increase the gold we get from the villages or give additional gold as if you don't complete the other quest you probably gonna struggle with money in the beginning.

 

[arthas22]

Here we go,i have finally finished it and i LOVED IT! The gameplay was interesting and i have nothing to complain about, with the missions taking some creative paths and hints towards wow. I am very happy to see you have integrated the wow ideas from the battlefields into the game. It was a pleasure to play it and now comes by lore nerd part: I AM IMPRESSED. I tend to look details and lore bits and put them together and i admit you have done an amazing job. The way you brought up Kul tiras in,so that they have a part of the story, without it feeling invasive was really well and made sense storywise. The integration of all the canon characters was also a real nice touch and the personality you gave them. It feels exactly like what the story should have been, considering I even had some ideas myself ( such as the kingdom falling when the Scourge came). The integration of the crown plot is cherry on top as a lore nerd and i am more than satisfied gameplaywise and story wise.
With other words, GOOD JOB FOR THIS MASTERPIECE!

 

[w3maniac]

Very nice custom stuff (items, heroes and their spells, etc., although it would be more enjoyable if the race was not basically plain old human (with a few much appreciated exceptions) with different models), smooth gameplay and terrain, missions and objectives are diverse and creative, there are only few bugs, mostly minor ones (I listed them below). Also it's pretty long, which is nice, since it's enjoyable. Definitely 5/5

I must (and want to) say, re-implementing Arathi Basin BG was an AWESOME idea. That said, it's a shame that it's way too easy* - enemy never really tries to reclaim anything. They only ever attacked the Stables (and with small armies), not even the Farm after I had captured all 5 areas. In fact, their main base never sent any attack wave. Speed of gathering is alright I guess (enemy had something over 5k when I claimed everything (mind you, I also cleared the map during the process, so it could probably be somewhat lower if I focused primarily on that)). So unfortunately it lacks - you don't have to divide your armies, defend and attack at the same time in different areas. You just slowly walk around the map with your entire army, claiming/defeating everything one by one and that's basically it. I feel like this mission could be improved a lot and definitely deserves that, considering that it's a great idea & map/objective design.

* This unfortunately can be said about at least half of the missions, which is the only real downside of this otherwise great campaign. IMHO the only mission that poses somewhat real challenge is the one with killing 2000 undead (and possibly also the blight one and the repairing ships one, because there you don't have much time to spare), because Purple's attack waves are pretty strong (and you often need to help your allies, or they get overrun). It would be great if there was one more difficulty level (challenging, but not frustrating, of course ).

Bugs/issues/notes/etc.

HEROES

• Lady Hoteshem - Feral Impact - does only 75 dmg on all 3 ranks (but description says 125/175/225)
• Lady Hoteshem - Battle Fury - doesn't show up in hero's buffs (but it works)
• Lady Hoteshem - Bonebreaker - in skill selection (upon level-up), description says 150/250/350 dmg, but on the skill itself it says 150/250/310; the actual damage matches the latter
• I don't like meeting a hero for the first time already on 10th level (e.g. Proudmoore in chapter 4), it then lacks feeling of progress. But that's just my opinion.
• Leonas - doesn't have inventory which I suppose is intended, but what's annoying is that he replaces Malin on F2 hotkey, who moves to F3

UNITS

• All units fully recover health and mana after cutscenes
• Tidesage - Ocean Call - imho this spell costs too much mana considering the elemental is so weak and short-lived

CHAPTERS

• Chapter 5 - side quest "Where's my Scouts?" has a weird bug - when you rescue the units, they are now yours, but they don't take up any food; furthermore, when they die, your used food actually lowers, allowing you to have about 25-30 food worth of army over the usual maximum limit
• Chapter 8 - what's the point of repairing the bridge (and killing the enemies across)? - you don't get any reward for that (the hero drops only Restoration rune, which really is not worth it)
• Chapter 9 (another brilliant idea btw) - IMHO it would be better if blight was not dispellable by priests as it kind of takes away your incentive to capture and use Elemental Runestones, should you need to reduce the blight a bit
• Chapter 9 - you can destroy the bases from which Blight Wagons are spawned, but the Wagons keep spawning - I suppose that's intended, but it's kind of awkward that you can destroy the base, yet it is of no use
• Chapter 10 - your allies' shops offer only T1 items (with the exception of Orb of Frost) despite the allies having T3
• Chapter 10 (this one is actually pretty serious) - at some point (about half into the corpse storage, I'd say), Orange enemy got somehow stuck in perpetual attack with their air attack wave, which was really annoying considering they produce units in 2 seconds, so if you kill something, it immediately gets replaced - they eventually retreated, but for solid 5 minutes, there were about 6 wyrms and 10 gargs in Green's base
• Chapter Epilogue - when you lose Melin and get Danath back, items that Melin had don't get transferred & are lost forever (I'm thinking you overlooked this, because in an earlier chapter, when you lose Danath and get Melin, Danath's items get transferred (or rather placed below your main building))

 

[Footman16]

Very nice custom stuff (items, heroes and their spells, etc., although it would be more enjoyable if the race was not basically plain old human (with a few much appreciated exceptions) with different models)

This was intentional, I wanted the familiar Human faction but with further upgrades kind of like Wings of Liberty.

I must (and want to) say, re-implementing Arathi Basin BG was an AWESOME idea. That said, it's a shame that it's way too easy* - enemy never really tries to reclaim anything. They only ever attacked the Stables (and with small armies), not even the Farm after I had captured all 5 areas.

Hmmmm, the Trolls should attempt to retake the Control Points. It seems like it's potluck whether the AI does it or not as I can't find the cause or replicate and they work just fine for me and others.

Bugs/issues/notes/etc.

HEROES

• Lady Hoteshem - Feral Impact - does only 75 dmg on all 3 ranks (but description says 125/175/225)
• Lady Hoteshem - Battle Fury - doesn't show up in hero's buffs (but it works)
• Lady Hoteshem - Bonebreaker - in skill selection (upon level-up), description says 150/250/350 dmg, but on the skill itself it says 150/250/310; the actual damage matches the latter

I'll double check these.

• I don't like meeting a hero for the first time already on 10th level (e.g. Proudmoore in chapter 4), it then lacks feeling of progress. But that's just my opinion.

What Hero in the 10th chapter? If you mean Danath in the epilogue it's separate to the main story. If you mean Vanndar and Proudmoore well they're optional anyway.

• Leonas - doesn't have inventory which I suppose is intended, but what's annoying is that he replaces Malin on F2 hotkey, who moves to F3

I'll double check their priority and see if this can be fixed.

UNITS

• All units fully recover health and mana after cutscenes

Intended.

• Tidesage - Ocean Call - imho this spell costs too much mana considering the elemental is so weak and short-lived

CHAPTERS

• Chapter 5 - side quest "Where's my Scouts?" has a weird bug - when you rescue the units, they are now yours, but they don't take up any food; furthermore, when they die, your used food actually lowers, allowing you to have about 25-30 food worth of army over the usual maximum limit

It's intended that they don't take up food so the Player doesn't screw themselves over accidentally by getting food blocked. I'll double check the food reduction though as that isn't intentional.

• Chapter 8 - what's the point of repairing the bridge (and killing the enemies across)? - you don't get any reward for that (hero drops only Restoration rune)

To get past the gate. Although you technically only need to stun him to break his concentration.

• Chapter 9 (another brilliant idea btw) - IMHO it would be better if blight was not dispellable by priests as it kind of takes away your incentive to capture and use Elemental Runestones

I like giving the player options.

• Chapter 9 - you can destroy the bases from which Blight Wagons are spawned, but the Wagons keep spawning - I suppose that's intended, but it's kind of awkward that you can destroy the base, yet it is of no use

Yep otherwise it would be too easy.

• Chapter 10 - your allies' shops offer only T1 items (with the exception of Orb of Frost) despite the allies having T3
• Chapter 10 (this one is actually pretty serious) - at some point (about half into the corpse storage, I'd say), Orange enemy got somehow stuck in perpetual attack with their air attack wave, which was really annoying considering they produce units in 2 seconds, so if you kill something, it immediately gets replaced - they eventually retreated, but for solid 5 minutes, there were about 6 wyrms and 10 gargs in Green's base
• Chapter Epilogue - when you lose Melin and get Danath back, items that Melin had don't get transferred & are lost forever (I'm thinking you overlooked this, because in an earlier chapter, when you lose Danath and get Melin, Danath's items get transferred (or rather placed below your main building))

I suppose I could transfer Malin's items, he was originally planned to appear in the Epilogue but I scrapped the idea.

 

[w3maniac]

What Hero in the 10th chapter? If you mean Danath in the epilogue it's separate to the main story. If you mean Vanndar and Proudmoore well they're optional anyway.

No, I mean that Proudmoore is already fully exped & on 10th hero level (when you being 4th chapter where he appears for the first time).

To get past the gate. Although you technically only need to stun him to break his concentration.

Right, I didn't even notice that. Now it makes sense

Yep otherwise it would be too easy.

Agreed. But in that case, it would maybe make sense to make the spawn points inaccessible (well, this probably wouldn't work for the spawn point that's at the bottom left near the Green base, since it's on a path that one walks regularly), or maybe change the spawn points into invulnerable buildings.

This was intentional, I wanted the familiar Human faction but with further upgrades kind of like Wings of Liberty.

That's understandable. It's just that I've played so many custom campaigns (with base races), I love seeing new (and creative) race designs utilized in a campaign

Anyways, thank you again for this awesome campaign (and for your reply/explanations)

 

[Ebanu8]

I really love the campaign and its design, you can give other mapmakers a run for their money. I have to ask though, would you be doing an Elven campaign anytime soon? I don't know, I just like to play Elves sometimes.

 

[Footman16]

I really love the campaign and its design, you can give other mapmakers a run for their money. I have to ask though, would you be doing an Elven campaign anytime soon? I don't know, I just like to play Elves sometimes.

So after Path to Valour I had two ideas for campaigns, one following Stormwind in WoW Classic or one following Vereesa and the Silver Covenant. I've decided to go with the Stormwind one for now, but I do have ideas for a High Elf Campaign which I would be keen to do at some point (but that will be far in the future)

 

[StrategySphereGaming]

Just finished your campaign and it was somethign different and i enjoy it (even cryed a little bit at the end) the last two chapters (09-10) were a litte bit hard but worth it. I played on my chanel and thank you for the campaign (Hope Ornn is alive).

 

[Ebanu8]

So after Path to Valour I had two ideas for campaigns, one following Stormwind in WoW Classic or one following Vereesa and the Silver Covenant. I've decided to go with the Stormwind one for now, but I do have ideas for a High Elf Campaign which I would be keen to do at some point (but that will be far in the future)

If possible, could I request for a co-project between us for the High Elf Campaign? I'd like to offer my own ideas, though I will warn that I tend to be quite wacky.

 

[Footman16]

If possible, could I request for a co-project between us for the High Elf Campaign? I'd like to offer my own ideas, though I will warn that I tend to be quite wacky.

I appreciate the offer, but as I said I've already begun a lot of the early work for the Stormwind one so it'll probably be years before I ever get round to another campaign. Path to Valour took a year and 7 months of fairly consistent work in my spare time that I'm not sure I'll be able to replicate again. People are always welcome to offer suggestions but as I tend to prefer working on these things myself since collaborations take time, effort and more importantly expectations from both parties that I'm not sure I could meet. And if I was to be doing the majority of the work I'd probably prefer to do it on my own ideas than someone else's. I hope this all makes sense

 

[wubalubudubdub]

What can I do about the trees being invisible? This seem to always happen when the map textures are only in classic. I have reofrged and tried turning Reforged graphics on and off. Neither seem to fix this.

 

[Macielos]

Okay, I'm six missions into the campaign and I'm enjoying it a lot. There's been a lot of improvements compared to Lordaeron's Destiny in terms of gameplay smoothness and pacing.

Spoiler: Missions 3-6

Mission Three
- No complaints here, everything was cool and smooth

Mission Four

• Kul Tiran missions are a welcome surprise. And the plagued lands definitely have the dark atmospher they should have
• When Daelin totally obliterated this sorry dreadlord and his fellow demons, there was no cannonball effect - they just died to epic Kul Tiran trumpets having no slightest idea what killed them
• After this totally random meeting with this completely unknown captain I have a strange feeling he's gonna find himself a big axe one day. Actually - you could even use Reynart's model . Nyctaeus said he made a kitbash with less fancy texture. Or if it's too high poly, you could use e.g. this one Captain Marwyn

Mission Five

• Fun and casual RTS map, lots of time to casually explore everything. I'd even say enemy attacks could be a little stronger, with two allies they are a formality
• Garithos being Garithos and doing Garithosy stuff in the best sense of the word

Mission Six

• Well, I didn't expect a full fledged RPG map. The city is full of life and tiny details telling their own mini stories, so I spent quite some time exploring it to the fullest. Candor was nice touch, seeing him so broken adds some depth to his story years later once he decides to return. Found some minor glitches, but nothing to spoil the experience.
• The paladin must have been totally hammered (pun intended) to lose all his pages like that. I bet one day they could learn to leave holy books at home while drinking. Or to use some god damn paperclips.
• this fella in the middle here was too far to sell him items. Not a big deal as there are plenty of others, but reporting it nevertheless

- some guards on the walls are on the wrong height

• Thoras' final scene felt a little underwhelming... why did none of the heroes wondered how those trolls got to the keep in the first place? I guess they came through the sewers because there was this guard complaining how stinky they were earlier, but nobody seems concerned about it afterwards, everybody just accepted it happened and moved one. Some more lines could fill in the gap here.
• When the heroes were dueling on the arena, Orman was auto using some precious consumables... it would be cool to lock him that possibility or to give him a predefined equipment for the duel.

 

[Ebanu8]

I appreciate the offer, but as I said I've already begun a lot of the early work for the Stormwind one so it'll probably be years before I ever get round to another campaign. Path to Valour took a year and 7 months of fairly consistent work in my spare time that I'm not sure I'll be able to replicate again. People are always welcome to offer suggestions but as I tend to prefer working on these things myself since collaborations take time, effort and more importantly expectations from both parties that I'm not sure I could meet. And if I was to be doing the majority of the work I'd probably prefer to do it on my own ideas than someone else's. I hope this all makes sense

I gotcha, take your time man. Thanks for telling me, and I wish you good luck for your Stormwind project. Good campaigns often take time to make.

 

[U.05]

Finished it today so here to give my final thoughts. As i said before the terraining and mission design was and is excellent till the end of the campaign. The pacing of the story is excellent as well and really well executed. Here were some things i found kinda annoying:

• In chapter 10 the trebuchet fire ability has no hotkey.
• chapter 9 : i feel it's kinda useless to place defenses in the area where those plague bringers spawn since there is nothing you can do there except maybe clear some blight. I feel it's better that if the player clears an area then the spawning there pauses for some time so as to give the player some breather and make it more interesting.
• chapter8: i think you should mention how the boat repair mechanism works as soon as the cinematic ends as i feel it's not clearly explained in the cinematic. During my first attempt i repaired the boat before the necrlopli even spawned leading to wastage of a boat. The purple undead ai also seems bugged to me as during my first attempt they attacked me like right after the troll attack but during the second attempt they never came.

Overall a wonderful campaign with great gameplay and story. Great job!

 

[cleavinghammer]

Playing on non-reforged graphics:

Voices: Eh, they're not bad, but it's still jarring when they don't use the same emotions or pauses as a human would. Also, redneck dwarf.

Some typos, but not that bad, send the script if you want help with it.


First level:

Some more mana runes/potions would be nice, as 100 mana is steep for a Blink spell.

Terrain is good, although using a "moving water" doodad on sort-of flat ground looks weird.

Redneck dwarf didn't notice the DI dwarves blocking off his base?
The riflemen change model when transferring to player control.

Maybe have her comment on the explosives lining the walls.

 

[Macielos]

Spoiler: Missions 7-9

I'm at the start of chapter ten, which I guess is the grande finale. I like the difficulty curve of the campaign. First missions felt casual, maybe even a bit too casual at times, but gave the new player time to familiarize with heroes and techtree. In time maps definitely grew in difficulty, but still keeping it balanced.

Mission Seven:

• Nothing wrong here, all smooth and enjoyable. The ruined Capital looks great.
• Of course for every mission taking place in the Capital there had to be a parallel of Arthas' march into the king's chambers .
• Levelling up Orman to level 10 this early gave me shivers that something bad is gonna happen to him right at the end of the mission
• That reminds me I haven't used Orman's self heal even once. Maybe he could use a taunt as an additional, non-levelable ability, like Margoth's Torrent of Profanity?

Mission Eight:

• So it's essentially the Gorgon mission from Heart of the Swarm.
• Timing is quite strict and challenging here, but nothing radically out of balance.
• I liked that there were multiple ways to reach the final ship. Particularly just transport peasants with a zeppelin

Mission Nine:

• My favourite map so far, with unique non seen before concept, freedom of exploration, importance of map control, a bunch of high tier units and high level heroes smashing everything that was pissing me off
• Plenty of units, but I didn't notice a hint what was available. At first I didn't notice the aviary
• With Warhawk being a Dragonhawk + a scout and detector, Flying Machine is not that useful. Maybe it could be rebalanced somehow, e.g. increasing its sieging/anti-ground potential?
• Expanding enemy was also a nice touch, rarely seen in RTS maps
• I think the elemental stones' "unblighting" radius could be a bit bigger. It only serves until the next plague spreader arrives, so I'd make it more rewarding
• In the late game I felt a bit supressed with frequently spawning attacks and plague spreaders and my two mines were thin on gold, but that's nothing bad - I just took the macro approach and started mining from all three mines to build up my economy before final push against the enemy base.

Okay, and it's finished.

Spoiler: Mission 10

Mission Ten:

• Ah, yes, a classic. Never be the guy to deliver bad news to the big baddy. Even Russian generals in 2022 knew that.
• 2001 corpses - nice touch
• When a Necropolis is flying, it has an icon on the minimap, but it is barely visible. Maybe make it red?
• Overally, Necropolises are a formality as long as you don't miss them on the minimap. Perhaps there should be more of them, slightly more than we can shoot down with trebs? They could also attack our allies' bases
• Why no Siege Engine? Right, it's a defence mission, but someone could choose to have some of them for their barrage or to have some "clear undead bases" challenge. Also, it was present in mission 9.

Epilogue:

• I'm in the middle of playing WC2: Beyond the Dark Portal Remastered, so Danath's introduction brings nostalgia. Are his voicelines from CSW? They're great, but I miss his legendary "step aside, junior"
• Again, no Siege Engine

It was a great ride. Missions were polished and diverse, terrain was beautiful and detailed, the story was interesting, dark and immersive. Great experience.

I just have one issue bothering me... What exactly happened to Orman? Did he just die offscreen? Or there was some secret chapter or cinematic I somehow missed? Or his fate was just left open to interpretation/next campaigns? Last we saw him, he left with those Lordaeron Footmen who I guess could be possessed Garithos' troops leading him to his death.

 

[wubalubudubdub]

Just finished, this was great. Some feedback I had were already mentioned in the previous posts. Although I did have one item regarding the Epilogue.

The Ally AI only targeted Green's base. They single-handedly destroyed Green's base (could be too overpowered). After they defeated green, they just sat in their base and did nothing, leaving me to beat the Ogre base on my own. Not sure if this was intended.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Second level:

Feral Leap has an annoying tendency to mistarget when used as a transportation spell, it took me three tries to get to the murloc treasure islet because she kept sliding to a different point on the same side of the water.

Garrisons should warn when they send out a wave.

Village priests don't heal your forces.

End cutscene: Captain's line should be at the beginning, or it comes across as her being deliberately ignored.

 

[Footman16]

Voices: Eh, they're not bad, but it's still jarring when they don't use the same emotions or pauses as a human would. Also, redneck dwarf.

I agree, however it's still better than zero VA imho.

Some typos, but not that bad, send the script if you want help with it.

I double checked the first mission there and couldn't find any except a single uncapitalised case of the word "Dwarves". English is my native language, so if you find typos just send them over please.

The riflemen change model when transferring to player control.

Intended.

Maybe have her comment on the explosives lining the walls.

Seems unnecessary.

I just have one issue bothering me... What exactly happened to Orman? Did he just die offscreen? Or there was some secret chapter or cinematic I somehow missed? Or his fate was just left open to interpretation/next campaigns? Last we saw him, he left with those Lordaeron Footmen who I guess could be possessed Garithos' troops leading him to his death.

He goes to join the burgeoning Scarlet Crusade with the reference to Mograine and Abbendis etc. His exact fate is left unknown but he is most certainly dead considering his ghost appears in the final epilogue. This is all intentional.

Feral Leap has an annoying tendency to mistarget when used as a transportation spell, it took me three tries to get to the murloc treasure islet because she kept sliding to a different point on the same side of the water.

I could maybe increase it's range a little.

Garrisons should warn when they send out a wave.

Why?

Village priests don't heal your forces.

Intentional.

End cutscene: Captain's line should be at the beginning, or it comes across as her being deliberately ignored.

Indeed, she is being deliberately ignored.

---

Update 22nd September 2025

• Fixed Hoteshem's AoE and Damage on her Q
• Fixed Description of damage for her W
• Fixed issue with Food Supply from rescued units in Mission 5
• Fixed the wrong Elemental in Mission 9
• Made it so you get Malin's items in the epilogue.
• Increased Spreader delay across all difficulties.
• Added NEW UNIT AVAILABLE hint for Mission 9
• Decreased mana cost of Feral Leap by 10 mana.

• Investigated hotkey for Trebuchets before and it doesn't work, can't figure out a fix.
• Checked Footman flying heights, not sure if it's better or not.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Another for the second level: Once you clear the naga base, you can't build a hall near their mine as the area is in water (unless this too is intended since the point of the level is to have little regular gold income).

Level 3: Interesting concept, and quite fun.

Maybe add some hero comments to warn that you're halfway there/the trolls are halfway there.

What bonuses do the farm and stables give, if any?

Allied Stromgarders don't upgrade their towers, no wonder the trolls invaded so easily.

Slight pathing issue on the islet with the epaulets where Hoteshem kept bouncing in place when trying to leave.


Interlude: ... Orman is one of those people for who "let me do the talking" never sticks, isn't he.


Level 4

Proudmoore's Pieces can be activated manually, not sure why since the spell block works automatically. The cooldown says 40 seconds, not 60.
* edit: Cool mechanic, but does it only get used this once?

Maybe use a different icon for Anchor Clap, I keep thinking it's Crushing Wave.

Crackshot should mention it hits in a cone.

Just a suggestion, but for the various bombardment cutscenes, maybe show the cannonballs falling from the sky instead of just the explosion?

Dreadlord cutscene: If your units are fighting the nearby murlocs when the cutscene is triggered, the Admiral fights them during the cutscene and the demons seem to die for no reason. Maybe have more explosions/make the explosions more visible.

Gargoyle quest:

• Message: if we can find them -> if we can find it
• Log: it's -> its

Footman message: head out the east of -> head out to the east of

Bombardment message: mortar's -> mortars

The Sasquatch caster targets trees right next to the undead ambush, causing the treants to attack them. Thanks, Sasquatch caster.

 

[SENMON]

Hello, Footman16.
I have completed the Chinese translation and have privately sent the file to you. Please check it.
Thanks for your making.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

The Path to Valour

Set during the Third War, The Path to Valour tells the story of the Kingdom of Stromgarde.

youtube.com

This was a wholesome journey. I shed a tear or two at the end of the epilogue, poor Lady Hoteshem...

Honestly, I felt such emotions from the campaign last time when I played the Troll Campaign by @frostwhisper. It really felt like a labor of passion and love, and unlike your previous two campaigns, it had proper casual difficulty for each chapter.
Story hooks from the start. It's fast-paced, with no delay in character development. I can say that in some way it felt too quick.
For example, the fate of Orman isn't known to anyone who didn't play classic World of Warcraft, although you make a nice answer in the epilogue.
Basaleph? Isn't this necromancer from the Icecrown questline about Arthas Frozen Heart?

Game Design, at least on Story difficulty, feels pleasant enough. Arathi Basin mission, destroying flying necropolis (twice in campaign!), using blight as quest mechanic (I saw a similar idea in War of Spiders by @Wa666r campaign, it seems), although normal RPG-styled missions and RTS-ones. Like for experimenting!

Seriously, I cannot find any major flaws. Maybe there were some phrases unvoiced, music disappeared on the Necropolis versus Ship mission, but this is quite a typical bug.

Recommend it to anyone. And I recommend playing it on Story difficulty - it will provide enough challenge and won't frustrate you too much.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Units hits by Cascade don't have the Stun debuff appearing on them (they do get stunned, the blue vortex just doesn't show up). The tooltip also mentions they get thrown in the air.

Orb of Mana doesn't seem to deal mana damage (although the hero also had a critical strike item, maybe it took precedence)


Level 5:

Sailor Call to Arms tooltip still uses Peasants/Militia.

Blood Elves should use elf workers.

There's a red ping that appears near the central refugee camp, but nothing happens if you go there.


Level 6:

Bank ambush: Non-criminal citizens should flee the battle.

No comment on the presence of deserters in the graveyard?

Maybe give the Syndicate's Rifleman a different name.

Why are they burning books?

For the crimesolving one:

• There should be several injured suspects to make it more challenging.
• Guilty party doesn't say anything?

Bucket tooltip: ice, cold water -> ice-cold water

Mage comment: arcane arts is -> arcane arts are

Murloc area has staircase water ramps.

 

[Malmgrev]

Huge Leap forward in quality compared to your other campaigns.
Only a shame that the tech tree is quite uninspiring, pretty much human original.
Incredible work!

 

[cleavinghammer]

Level 7:

Main quest: He must now makes -> He must now make

There was an enemy group with a heavily damaged Meat Wagon and Necromancer (after the Dark Ranger) for some reason.

Got a game crash about corrupt file data.

The final sidequest miniboss doesn't talk?

Pit Lord cutscene: just be -> be just

Pit Lord doesn't even drop an item?

Well that is the danger of so many Arthas-model skins, they tend to look like each other.


Interlude: route -> rout


Level 8:

Sidequest: remains -> retains

Necropolis shadow is too small.

... The hell is that accent on the barges necromancer?

Maybe have a cutscene where the necropolis falls directly on the scourge ne- the dreadnoughts, to explain why they don't stick around to shoot down the other necropoli.

There should be an obstacle (crates, barrels, debris) on the dock containing Nat's Hat, it looks perfectly passable.

There should be a message about the bridge finishing repairs.

Watchers militia unit has no tooltip.

The Watcher ship should leave after you fix it.

How many sky barge waves are there supposed to be? I only had 2.

 

[Kikinsin]

Hello im playing this amazing campaign. Was having alot of fun until level 10 (defend the wall mission). After the cinematic with the gryphons captured by the trolls it insta crash the game. Anyone have the same problem?

 

[cleavinghammer]

(computer being repaired and I won't be able to play for a while, here's what I have for now)

Level 9:

Ironhill should say something about still sending out attack waves, and warn the player when it's happening.

Leonas' book doesn't show its cooldown.
Prayer Armor doesn't have a cooldown.

The sound used for that dwarf buff can be heard from anywhere on the map.

Death Tower healthbar is too high above its model.

So is there any way to actually stop the spreaders apart from tower-spamming their spawn points?

Chain Cleanse should function as a manaburn on enemy casters even with no buffs.

 

[Seeker270]

Great campaign!

 

[QuarantineAbser]

This campaign is AWESOME, DIRECTOR'S CUT MATERIAL !
Actually insanely made, the effort put in this is astonishing, the design, the skins, the maps, the UI, spells, story, nice AI voice, missions, characters, everything is AMAZING. There is no way that this is a sequel to a series, it has nothing close compared to the previous two, it is that much polished and epic.

5 stars definitely, although I have some few very little things and notes to say that I think could be better, or maybe bugs.

* SPOLIERS AHEAD *

• Chapter 1: I did not mind anything in particular, nice introduction and I already knew this is gonna be epic from the quality and visuals.
• Chapter 2: No complaints, I liked the tax system, actually interesting stuff, also made me appreciate how there could be more maps/campaigns without goldmines and scouting for gold like you did in chapter 2, I wish more maps/campaigns would be like that, since it forces the player to actually play, instead of sit in base and mining with towers ( not me tho )
• Chapter 3: Now this is the first time I think something can be improved, and its major thing which I don't know if it is possible with the AI. I see this as the multiplayer mode where u capture points and generate score based on how many are captured, which works fine. It would be epic.. If the AI actually tried to fight for them. I think that was the idea? But it does not work, u just take the point and the huge army bottom right does not even try to take it back, so its easy and just map exploring and taking bases with 0 counter attack from the enemy. Also props for the epic set item that combines, why arent other devs doing this? is it hard? If people just add set items and they combine over number of missions it would be epic, also makes the player explore more and saves space, I would like if maybe a crown of kings +5 and maybe some immolation item that drops would combine into 1 which gives stats + immolation and now u have both items into 1, this saving a spot, why isnt this a thing? maybe its hard to make or just makes the balancing more complicated and heroes OP, idk.
• Chapter 4: This is when I got even more excited to play since I saw there are more factions, more diversity and creativity, amazing designs and all, maybe funny thing was near the end before the Lich fight where u meet up with few more units they just sit there few meters behind undead and they don't attack them, maybe would be more realistic if there was a barricade or something separating them. Also I did find some bugs or features as we in QA say it.

1) The Rune of Mana only restored my Hero's mana, not the units.
2) After the cutscene at the tunnels when the ship fires, the units got healed fully with hp and mana. Maybe intended? idk

• Chapter 5: For the Proudmoore casters it felt like the mana regen was the same even with upgrades, I don't know if its the case though, otherwise it was great
• Chapter 6: Amazing chapter, I like these kinds of maps. I had some healing wards on Orman when the spar started and he wasted them in the fight, but it didn't matter much, just noticed that.
• Chapter 7: One complaint only, too easy.
• Chapter 8: Nothing to say
• Chapter 9: This was the hardest mission so far, I wanted to explore and kill every neutral mob, but it was impossible with the constant waves, in the end I just gave up from chasing the blight and yoloed the green base.
• Chapter 10: Maybe hotkey for the trebuchet attack, I liked the mass teleport to help allies.
• Ending: Absolute CINEMA.

If this is the quality that a campaign can have, I think every future one that I play, I will be harsher, insane quality. Would pay to play this, ill check if u have Patreon or something to be able to play your amazing creations in the future.

DIRECTORS CUT MATERIAL RIGHT HERE !!!

 

[Footman16]

It's a bit disappointing that the AI in chapter 3 seems to not be working for some people, I've tested it extensively and it always works for me as they should attempt to retake the control points. But unfortunately if I can't replicate it I can't fix it.

 

[deepstrasz]

It's a bit disappointing that the AI in chapter 3 seems to not be working for some people, I've tested it extensively and it always works for me as they should attempt to retake the control points. But unfortunately if I can't replicate it I can't fix it.

Sorry for the highly dumb question but have you tried testing the chapter starting it via the campaign menu or even after the previous one ends and starts with it rather than through the editor (test map) alone? Perhaps saving-loading the game/map might have some interference?

 

[Footman16]

Sorry for the highly dumb question but have you tried testing the chapter starting it via the campaign menu or even after the previous one ends and starts with it rather than through the editor (test map) alone?

Test map doesn't work for campaigns, so yes it has to be run through either the campaign menu or from the previous mission

EDIT: If someone is able to find the criteria for the bug, or knows the solution I'm all ears to any suggestions.

 

[deepstrasz]

Test map doesn't work for campaigns, so yes it has to be run through either the campaign menu or from the previous mission

I see. Sorry. I usually test the maps first outside their campaign setting as its easier to save them as a folder for easier resources importing, hence why I asked.

 

[QuarantineAbser]

It's a bit disappointing that the AI in chapter 3 seems to not be working for some people, I've tested it extensively and it always works for me as they should attempt to retake the control points. But unfortunately if I can't replicate it I can't fix it.

I will tell you only what I noticed.

The enemy hero came to the point closest to me at the base when I decided to go out and explore and he went there like with a move command touched it, it did not transfer it to his control and he went away as I hit him and he ran, then I never saw him again.

I will try to reply that chapter and do the same thing and try to break it and will tell you, since it happened in few seconds.

Edit: I tried again few times and I couldn't get the same result, it worked fine this time around, the first time I played I did not get the line that the Trolls are attacking, she just left before attacking and thats why she bugged probably, now she attacks and if I try and block the point by standing close and proxy she just sits there and does not leave. So I don't know why it didnt work the first time.

 

[SAM_PorL]

How are you so good at this?

 

[Footman16]

How are you so good at this?

Time, practice and not so good stuff. Just check out my previous two campaigns to see how long it's taken to learn and develop as a campaign creator. I didn't start out making this level of quality

EDIT: What I'll also say is be open to criticism and critique, its really easy to get defensive of your work and not all criticism is valid, but always be open to listening and learning from what people say. If something feels off to people then it probably is. People's solutions might not always be right but they know how to identify a problem.

Spare no expense, if you think of a cool idea for a scene or a mission then do it, learn how to do it, or make it happen. If it takes a little more effort to do something more then do it and put that effort in, don't be lazy. But on the flip side learn how to constrain ideas and shape them into something workable. My original idea was to have the final mission split into three parts; whilst it might have been cool, it wasn't feasible so I had to adjust and pare down my ideas.

 

[Randombanana]

Footman 16 casually writing better stuff than Blizzard produced in a decade. Love your campaigns you shine with creativity!

 

[FlameofChange]

I put one star because I utterly boycott usage of any kind of generative AI for absolutely obvious reasons. Else I would put 4. 5 if all the problems are fixed.
I successfully did a full playthrough on normal difficulty without using cheats. Which is already a good sign. If there were custom music I played without, so I won't be able to criticize this aspect at all.

Spoiler tag because... many minor spoilers. I might missed some points so take them as a non-exhaustive list.

Spoiler

Strong points
☼ The city missions I found them absolutely adorable and well integrated in the whole narrative, unclenching the ass-tight story to a good degree.
☼ Orman the silly goose Despite the many small and big faults in the narrative design, as well as wanting to have more of it, the few times Orman goofs almost cracked me. And it doesn't stop there since it quickly return to the main course.
☼ Juice There's a lot of gameplay issues, don't get me wrong. However the battles themselves look epic enough with their lot of flashy VFX.

Good points
☼ Environment design We clearly see you spend hours to place every single doodads into a lively ambiance for each themes. I may be more skeptical of using Reforged models, but the few of these were not outside the box. This makes the world more credible even in the most remote places of each map.
☼ Mission designs The effort doesn't stop there, while not ground breaking it gives good depth where it is needed ; and I see the inspirations taken from Starcraft 2. Like for your custom factions not many risks were taken but not in a bad way too. Optional quests are plenty and give some narrative reward. You are not always handheld and that makes decision making or even speedruning a possibility.
☼ Unit and building models Would them be friendly or foes, I see a good use in many aspects ; even if they are mostly disguised vanilla content. If it was made 10 years ago it would be much harder to find such resources.
☼ Cinematics The production is very crude from my taste (see later bellow) but the ideas where there with camera angles, special shots and some clever bits. I definitelly encourage this kind of creativity on the Hive.

Weak points
☼ Too many items for too few heroes We are swamped with items, often custom and with various levels of applications. I would have welcomed a kind of backpack like in Rexxar campaign to ease the corners. You lose too much time choosing which item you would keep while the mission is still rolling... On the other hand increasing inventory size would only fix the symptoms and provoke balance issues (see later bellow)
☼ Level design Some maps are too big and you can't be everywhere all at once in a bad way. You lose your time walking your whole army for minutes and then there's a enemy squad bullying your base while you are away.
☼ Voicelines Those made with AI makes the characters so uncharismatic to a point it becomes silly ; which breaks a lot the immersion. That's quite sad. While the human made ones are much more crude (and I'm also talking about mine) they are fine at your level. AI aside the custom soundsets taken from WoW quickly become annoying as they do not fit RTS much. But it's much less your fault there.
☼ Hero models & portraits Since we see their face all the time we can only glare at their clunky mesh and animations. Shem attacks are dull, Orman spins his hammer like a child in idle animations, that troll chick tusks looks like they are glued on her lips, I'm sorry that also broke my immersion.
☼ Dialogs I don't know how you coded that but the timing is very bad. Why there's like 3-5 seconds between each sentence ? It's like the conversation could stop at any quote. This is not how conversation works. All of that makes the already long cinematics even more boring. This campaign definitely deserves being much more dynamic.
☼ User Experience This is more a consequence of all of the weak points mentioned above. I would add the following points
►► Asking to raze bases with no siege abilities, Tier 1 techs and no ability damaging buildings makes the mission too long for the intent.
►► Her jump ability has a too long reload time. Making it shorter would imply making it cheaper and with less effects. This is a cursed design.
►► Items should have improved description to see the power of their abilities. This is further amplified by the high amount of them.
►► Some abilities should have better feedback signs, for example chain dispel (too little) and Proudmoore Ult (too much).
☼ Dumdum AI I know it's from the engine itself, but they focus on a single puny building and go home to get a snack. This made some missions much too easy.

Nasty points
☼ Balance & power creep I don't know what's gone through your mind, but the power creep is irritating. Not as messed up as Arkain of course, but enough to make my gamedesigner senses going WHYYY ?! WHYYYY ??!! WYYYYYYYY ???!!!. Footies with attack speed bonus ? Riflemen with +40% DPS ? Knights with cleaving attacks ? Gryphons with 100% air stun while you already have a supposed anti-air unit ? Mage on a horse but default 270 movement speed ? Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee That doesn't even stop there. Your heroes have almost only damage dealing abilities, as if Stromguard is allergic to any form of support. The custom paladin you save has a completely broken healing ability. Also when unlocking the gryphons the missions are very trivial. The high leveled special units get pulverized before they can cast their epic spells, which is a swing and miss. Also you can bully the melee only creep/defender camps...
☼ Plot holes Where to start... Why undead don't attack the trolls to get more bodies ? Why you find living troops in undead cages ? Why they haven't just killed them ? Why Kel'Thuzad and the Lich King allowed such invasion in the first place ? Why they just don't import corpses from the north ? Why you find stromgard troops in Lordearon capital but Orman squad are the only troops arriving ? Why the sewers weren't guarded since Azeroth is filled with so many dangerous creatures ? Why the trolls have not used the sewers before ? Why the undead hasn't used the sewers too in any city ? If you need the power of a battleship to bring down a necropolis, why a fuckin trebuchet is also able to ? Why Basaleph is sending necropolis alone on loop as they get destroyed one after another ? Why he also attacks on the front but with his air force can flank them ? Why using trebuchet were we can access to gunpowder ? Why the crown of Terenas was just left where it was ? Why nobody took the crown before ? If spirit echoes exist, were are all the other ones ?

In conclusion I understand and encourage the flex, but not why people get overhyped on this. The terrain is nice but core mechanics would benefit from being modernized. Do not rest on your laurels though. This has the potential to be a very good campaign however this is not polished enough for my standards. You have good layout and environement skills, do not waste them on an AI generated fever dream power creep. It is mostly a matter of experience I'd say.

 

[Footman16]

I put one star because I utterly boycott usage of any kind of generative AI for absolutely obvious reasons.

This is just plain ignorance tbh, if you have such an issue with AI then you shouldn't have played it at all instead of pulling this nonsense.

It's also ignorant for a number of other reasons:
1) I used Replica Studios for some of the voices who pay voice actors to be used to train their voices which imo is ethical in terms of credit and compensation (it's a shame the company shut down imo)
2) For non Replica Studios, I trained it off voices from within Blizzard IPs or Warcraft 3 (The only exception being Orman who was trained off of Star Wars Battlefront II's Anakin Skywalker's voicelines from Youtube which I'd say is probably the only poor choice in terms of AI usage on my part).
3) I paid an artist to create the campaign background image so let's not pretend that I don't support artists here.
4) AI is a tool it can be used unethically or ethically, environmental considerations aside (which I also agree with hence why it's use should be limited) and in this instance for a NON-profit, hobby project for voice acting I think it's acceptable. Feel free to disagree, but don't use it as justification for your performatism.

Else I would put 4. 5 if all the problems are fixed.

Then rate it that.

I successfully did a full playthrough on normal difficulty without using cheats. Which is already a good sign. If there were custom music I played without, so I won't be able to criticize this aspect at all.

I'd say you're missing out if you play without the music and sound design elements, but it's fair that it's not always possible to play with sound on.

☼ Juice There's a lot of gameplay issues, don't get me wrong. However the battles themselves look epic enough with their lot of flashy VFX.

"a lot"

Weak points
☼ Too many items for too few heroes We are swamped with items, often custom and with various levels of applications. I would have welcomed a kind of backpack like in Rexxar campaign to ease the corners. You lose too much time choosing which item you would keep while the mission is still rolling... On the other hand increasing inventory size would only fix the symptoms and provoke balance issues (see later bellow)

Having to make choices is part of being a player, it also enhances replayability with players choosing different item specs. Whilst you might want to have your cake and eat it, you cannot. Being selective in which items to take is all part of that player agency.

☼ Level design Some maps are too big and you can't be everywhere all at once in a bad way. You lose your time walking your whole army for minutes and then there's a enemy squad bullying your base while you are away.

You have two heroes for almost every mission, it does not take that long to traverse most of the missions, you can check their map size against the blizzard campaign maps and you'll see they're roughly comparable with mine only being slightly larger.

☼ Voicelines Those made with AI makes the characters so uncharismatic to a point it becomes silly ; which breaks a lot the immersion. That's quite sad. While the human made ones are much more crude (and I'm also talking about mine) they are fine at your level. AI aside the custom soundsets taken from WoW quickly become annoying as they do not fit RTS much. But it's much less your fault there.

I don't know what you mean by "at your level". I think the campaign is still served better with the voice acting than without, and yes whilst it's not perfect I don't find it "silly" or immersion breaking for the vast majority of instances.

☼ Hero models & portraits Since we see their face all the time we can only glare at their clunky mesh and animations. Shem attacks are dull, Orman spins his hammer like a child in idle animations, that troll chick tusks looks like they are glued on her lips, I'm sorry that also broke my immersion.

Are you new to Warcraft 3? Are you new to seeing Warcraft 3 models? I think this is a little silly; I'm sorry it broke your immersion but I'd say the models in general fit in next to any classic/vanilla Wc3 model.

☼ Dialogs I don't know how you coded that but the timing is very bad. Why there's like 3-5 seconds between each sentence ? It's like the conversation could stop at any quote. This is not how conversation works. All of that makes the already long cinematics even more boring. This campaign definitely deserves being much more dynamic.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, the dialogues are timed to the length of the voiced lines. IF you mean delays between transitions then I disagree, you need to show the player what the character is referring to first before they start talking. Pauses between lines is perfectly acceptable in an RTS cinematic. AFAIK there is no 3-5 second delay between each sentence, I've asked others and they don't seem to share this idea or haven't noticed. I'm happy to adjust timings if given specific examples.

☼ User Experience This is more a consequence of all of the weak points mentioned above. I would add the following points
►► Asking to raze bases with no siege abilities, Tier 1 techs and no ability damaging buildings makes the mission too long for the intent.

I'm sensing a real sense of impatience on your end, if you're unable to take a small amount of time to play a mission or Warcraft 3's gameplay then I'm afraid this seems like an issue on your end. During testing I took a note of the time lengths to complete each mission and asked testers how long certain missions took in order to ensure they weren't too long or too short.

►► Her jump ability has a too long reload time. Making it shorter would imply making it cheaper and with less effects. This is a cursed design.

"Cursed design" the cooldown really isn't that long. I think I even reduced it.

►► Items should have improved description to see the power of their abilities. This is further amplified by the high amount of them.

True they could maybe be more descriptive, I went for just the basic blizzard style of descriptions, but I could add more specific info.

☼ Dumdum AI I know it's from the engine itself, but they focus on a single puny building and go home to get a snack. This made some missions much too easy.

So how do I fix an issue with the built-in blizzard AI?

Nasty points
☼ Balance & power creep I don't know what's gone through your mind, but the power creep is irritating. Not as messed up as Arkain of course, but enough to make my gamedesigner senses going WHYYY ?! WHYYYY ??!! WYYYYYYYY ???!!!. Footies with attack speed bonus ? Riflemen with +40% DPS ? Knights with cleaving attacks ? Gryphons with 100% air stun while you already have a supposed anti-air unit ? Mage on a horse but default 270 movement speed ? Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee That doesn't even stop there. Your heroes have almost only damage dealing abilities, as if Stromguard is allergic to any form of support. The custom paladin you save has a completely broken healing ability. Also when unlocking the gryphons the missions are very trivial. The high leveled special units get pulverized before they can cast their epic spells, which is a swing and miss. Also you can bully the melee only creep/defender camps...

Power Creep? You played on normal, if its so easy for you then play on hard. No offence, but this is a bit of a silly point to make such a big deal over when you played on normal. Yeah your units get more upgrades that make them strong, but there's also a bunch of new enemies who have strong abilities too. If a horse unit having 270 movement speed is that big of an issue for you then no offence but I think you need to re-assess your priorities and perspective.

☼ Plot holes Where to start...

Where to start indeed.

Why undead don't attack the trolls to get more bodies ?

What do you mean? The Trolls are in the Arathi Highlands on the other side of the wall to the Undead.

Why you find living troops in undead cages ?

So many options for you to fill in yourself here, maybe they want to experiment on them? Maybe they want to corrupt them, who knows? Why does this need explaining?

Why they haven't just killed them ?

See above

Why Kel'Thuzad and the Lich King allowed such invasion in the first place ?

Why did Kel'thuzad and the Lich King allow one of their minions to lead an army to spread more undeath and conquer more of Azeroth? Are you serious? Also at this point it's the Dreadlords who control the Scourge.

Why they just don't import corpses from the north ?

What corpses from the North? What are you talking about? You can't invent something to introduce a plot hole in this story, this is just silly.

Why you find stromgard troops in Lordearon capital but Orman squad are the only troops arriving ?

Gameplay/Story Segregation, they are Lordaeronian but for the sake of visual clarity and gameplay consistency they are Stromgarde. I did make it so they spawn as Lordaeron and then switch to Stromgarde, but it might be too quick to notice.

Why the sewers weren't guarded since Azeroth is filled with so many dangerous creatures ?

... seriously? Are sewers guarded in real life? I know that's maybe not the best counter argument, but come on this is silly. Most sewers have Sewer Grates that tend to stop most unwanted things from getting in. Again another silly point, that seriously makes me question your thought process whilst playing.

Why the trolls have not used the sewers before ?

Ah now see this is the nice bit, in WoW lore Galen is responsible for Thoras' death, so I've left it ambiguous so if one likes WoW lore they can believe Galen let them in, but if you're not then you can assume they got in themselves. Also the Trolls haven't been actively aggressive against Stromgarde before now. They're the remnants of the Trolls in the Arathi Highlands, they have been fighting for survival, not looking to bring down the Kingdom until now. Again, this is another silly question that I don't think needs answering.

Why the undead hasn't used the sewers too in any city ?

What do you mean? To use the sewers the Undead would need to get into the Arathi highlands to reach Stromgarde which is the whole point of the campaign/story? Or if you mean the Capital City in Lordaeron, why would the Undead guard the sewers in a land that they control? Besides even if someone did use the sewers what would they care? What could someone do? Orman and his group recover the crown, but what do the Undead/Dreadlords care? They're happy to just sit and wait whilst Archimonde wins in Kalimdor and completes the invasion.

If you need the power of a battleship to bring down a necropolis, why a fuckin trebuchet is also able to ?

Again, this is a silly point, why can't a giant trebuchet bring down a Necropolis? There's also a small element of gameplay/story segregation here, in that in one mission you have battleships to fix, whilst in the other you have trebuchet to manage and the Necropoli are just a tool to pressure the player and to add dynamism to the gameplay.

Why Basaleph is sending necropolis alone on loop as they get destroyed one after another ?

Same reason Warfield only sends one Gorgon at a time. You only send as much as you need to, there's a bunch of reasons why but again this is a silly point that I don't think I need to answer in my campaign or here; you're perfectly capable of coming up with whatever reason you wish.

Why he also attacks on the front but with his air force can flank them ?

You're familiar with attacking from multiple angles right? The whole idea is that the Undead can attack from 3 fronts. Again, you're smart enough to know this isn't an issue.

Why using trebuchet were we can access to gunpowder ?

Come on man, this is just getting ridiculous. Why do the High Elves use ballista? Why does Stormwind use Ballista or Catapults? Why do they use bows and arrows instead of guns? Why is this an issue here when you know it's not an issue in broader lore or context of Warcraft.

In the real world the bow and arrow was used for many, many years after gunpower and the arquebus were introduced into Europe, because they had pros and cons to them. These aren't plot holes, these are you deciding to make an issue where there is none.

Why the crown of Terenas was just left where it was ?

... because it was? Who would pick it up? Arthas? He clearly didn't care about the crown, since he does leave it.

Why nobody took the crown before ?

Again nobody in the Undead/Demon side cares about it for legitimacy, and none of the living were able to reach it. You do understand you just played an entire mission showing the effort of Orman and his party to get it?

If spirit echoes exist, were are all the other ones ?

Probably in places where some equally traumatic event has occurred, did you even watch the cinematic or read the dialogue?

In conclusion I understand and encourage the flex, but not why people get overhyped on this.

Because people have perspective and are able to appreciate and understand what they're playing.

The terrain is nice but core mechanics would benefit from being modernized. Do not rest on your laurels though. This has the potential to be a very good campaign however this is not polished enough for my standards. You have good layout and environement skills, do not waste them on an AI generated fever dream power creep. It is mostly a matter of experience I'd say.

This whole paragraph is some of the most insulting, condescending and pretentious nonsense I've ever read. It is almost not worth engaging with and I was very close to not, however, I felt that it would not be right to let some of your ridiculous points go unaddressed. I'm not sure what game you're playing, what game you think you're playing but it is Warcraft 3 and a Warcraft 3 Custom Campaign that someone has made in their spare time, and with that comes all the issues and jank of Warcraft 3 that I can't fix. Honestly, it sounds like you just want to play a different game on a different engine. Maybe the Starcraft 2 campaign will be more up your alley.

In summary, I am happy to fix issues where they can be fixed and to take onboard feedback when it is genuine, for example if you know how to make the AI behave more consistently and not run back after destroying one building (like it does in the vanilla campaigns) then I'm all ears. If you can point to the dialogues with the weird pauses I can fix those. I fixed all the bugs you reported in the discord. But as for the rest of your feedback, I struggle to find the words to explain how silly, subjective and insulting it is and I'm highly disappointed you've chosen to respond like this especially when you talk about "major plotholes" that are just your own inability to fill in the blanks or do you expect every story to hold your hand and spell out everything for you in big, bold letters?

I'm sorry if I seem harsh, but I think it is only befitting the attitude and language you have shown towards me.

 

[QuarantineAbser]

I put one star because I utterly boycott usage of any kind of generative AI for absolutely obvious reasons. Else I would put 4. 5 if all the problems are fixed.
I successfully did a full playthrough on normal difficulty without using cheats. Which is already a good sign. If there were custom music I played without, so I won't be able to criticize this aspect at all.

Spoiler tag because... many minor spoilers. I might missed some points so take them as a non-exhaustive list.

Spoiler

Strong points
☼ The city missions I found them absolutely adorable and well integrated in the whole narrative, unclenching the ass-tight story to a good degree.
☼ Orman the silly goose Despite the many small and big faults in the narrative design, as well as wanting to have more of it, the few times Orman goofs almost cracked me. And it doesn't stop there since it quickly return to the main course.
☼ Juice There's a lot of gameplay issues, don't get me wrong. However the battles themselves look epic enough with their lot of flashy VFX.

Good points
☼ Environment design We clearly see you spend hours to place every single doodads into a lively ambiance for each themes. I may be more skeptical of using Reforged models, but the few of these were not outside the box. This makes the world more credible even in the most remote places of each map.
☼ Mission designs The effort doesn't stop there, while not ground breaking it gives good depth where it is needed ; and I see the inspirations taken from Starcraft 2. Like for your custom factions not many risks were taken but not in a bad way too. Optional quests are plenty and give some narrative reward. You are not always handheld and that makes decision making or even speedruning a possibility.
☼ Unit and building models Would them be friendly or foes, I see a good use in many aspects ; even if they are mostly disguised vanilla content. If it was made 10 years ago it would be much harder to find such resources.
☼ Cinematics The production is very crude from my taste (see later bellow) but the ideas where there with camera angles, special shots and some clever bits. I definitelly encourage this kind of creativity on the Hive.

Weak points
☼ Too many items for too few heroes We are swamped with items, often custom and with various levels of applications. I would have welcomed a kind of backpack like in Rexxar campaign to ease the corners. You lose too much time choosing which item you would keep while the mission is still rolling... On the other hand increasing inventory size would only fix the symptoms and provoke balance issues (see later bellow)
☼ Level design Some maps are too big and you can't be everywhere all at once in a bad way. You lose your time walking your whole army for minutes and then there's a enemy squad bullying your base while you are away.
☼ Voicelines Those made with AI makes the characters so uncharismatic to a point it becomes silly ; which breaks a lot the immersion. That's quite sad. While the human made ones are much more crude (and I'm also talking about mine) they are fine at your level. AI aside the custom soundsets taken from WoW quickly become annoying as they do not fit RTS much. But it's much less your fault there.
☼ Hero models & portraits Since we see their face all the time we can only glare at their clunky mesh and animations. Shem attacks are dull, Orman spins his hammer like a child in idle animations, that troll chick tusks looks like they are glued on her lips, I'm sorry that also broke my immersion.
☼ Dialogs I don't know how you coded that but the timing is very bad. Why there's like 3-5 seconds between each sentence ? It's like the conversation could stop at any quote. This is not how conversation works. All of that makes the already long cinematics even more boring. This campaign definitely deserves being much more dynamic.
☼ User Experience This is more a consequence of all of the weak points mentioned above. I would add the following points
►► Asking to raze bases with no siege abilities, Tier 1 techs and no ability damaging buildings makes the mission too long for the intent.
►► Her jump ability has a too long reload time. Making it shorter would imply making it cheaper and with less effects. This is a cursed design.
►► Items should have improved description to see the power of their abilities. This is further amplified by the high amount of them.
►► Some abilities should have better feedback signs, for example chain dispel (too little) and Proudmoore Ult (too much).
☼ Dumdum AI I know it's from the engine itself, but they focus on a single puny building and go home to get a snack. This made some missions much too easy.

Nasty points
☼ Balance & power creep I don't know what's gone through your mind, but the power creep is irritating. Not as messed up as Arkain of course, but enough to make my gamedesigner senses going WHYYY ?! WHYYYY ??!! WYYYYYYYY ???!!!. Footies with attack speed bonus ? Riflemen with +40% DPS ? Knights with cleaving attacks ? Gryphons with 100% air stun while you already have a supposed anti-air unit ? Mage on a horse but default 270 movement speed ? Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee That doesn't even stop there. Your heroes have almost only damage dealing abilities, as if Stromguard is allergic to any form of support. The custom paladin you save has a completely broken healing ability. Also when unlocking the gryphons the missions are very trivial. The high leveled special units get pulverized before they can cast their epic spells, which is a swing and miss. Also you can bully the melee only creep/defender camps...
☼ Plot holes Where to start... Why undead don't attack the trolls to get more bodies ? Why you find living troops in undead cages ? Why they haven't just killed them ? Why Kel'Thuzad and the Lich King allowed such invasion in the first place ? Why they just don't import corpses from the north ? Why you find stromgard troops in Lordearon capital but Orman squad are the only troops arriving ? Why the sewers weren't guarded since Azeroth is filled with so many dangerous creatures ? Why the trolls have not used the sewers before ? Why the undead hasn't used the sewers too in any city ? If you need the power of a battleship to bring down a necropolis, why a fuckin trebuchet is also able to ? Why Basaleph is sending necropolis alone on loop as they get destroyed one after another ? Why he also attacks on the front but with his air force can flank them ? Why using trebuchet were we can access to gunpowder ? Why the crown of Terenas was just left where it was ? Why nobody took the crown before ? If spirit echoes exist, were are all the other ones ?

In conclusion I understand and encourage the flex, but not why people get overhyped on this. The terrain is nice but core mechanics would benefit from being modernized. Do not rest on your laurels though. This has the potential to be a very good campaign however this is not polished enough for my standards. You have good layout and environement skills, do not waste them on an AI generated fever dream power creep. It is mostly a matter of experience I'd say.

Found the 80 year old guy that hates usage of AI, when its only voices, which even though they arent great since its AI, and lack some emotion and depth, its still better than unit sitting silent, voices make them more alive and all newer campaigns I played have them, so either accept that nowadays the worlds is going torwards AI usage, or just stop using the internet instead of giving 1 star based on some dumb personal hate for a tool..

Also the other points are plain cringe to read, its like I am reading a review for a Steam game and not a Custom Campaign for Warcraft 3.

To me this sounded like some pretentious guy that thinks he is some high class game critique, Pirate Software "Game Dev" style kinda guy.

 

[FlameofChange]

Thank you for spending your time answering my extensive review.
Thicc wall of text ahead, hence the spoiler tag.

Spoiler

This is just plain ignorance tbh, if you have such an issue with AI then you shouldn't have played it at all instead of pulling this nonsense.

It's also ignorant for a number of other reasons:
1) I used Replica Studios for some of the voices who pay voice actors to be used to train their voices which imo is ethical in terms of credit and compensation (it's a shame the company shut down imo)
2) For non Replica Studios, I trained it off voices from within Blizzard IPs or Warcraft 3 (The only exception being Orman who was trained off of Star Wars Battlefront II's Anakin Skywalker's voicelines from Youtube which I'd say is probably the only poor choice in terms of AI usage on my part).
3) I paid an artist to create the campaign background image so let's not pretend that I don't support artists here.
4) AI is a tool it can be used unethically or ethically, environmental considerations aside (which I also agree with hence why it's use should be limited) and in this instance for a NON-profit, hobby project for voice acting I think it's acceptable. Feel free to disagree, but don't use it as justification for your performatism.

You should have mentioned it earlier and in the credit for the first point (or I completely missed it like a biscuit head, in this case my bad !). While I won't of course bark again about the numerous AI ethical problems I cannot treat you as a thief specifically there. I would on the other hand give much (!) more credit to someone who used real human voice acting. However I don't promote that process.
Then you stole the works of paid voice actors to train your own AI ; I am curious of the exact tool used for this matter. In general we should never feed any kind of AI especially online.
For the third point I find quite hypocritical to support artists and steal the works of others at the same time ; that also apply to your public image as a creator : how much your own work is based on AI ? What are truly made from your own creative process ? You just shot yourself in your foot. To be clear, maybe to a point of stating the obvious, commissioning an artist is a completely normal process and none of my arguments was about this.
Finally for the fourth point. Being a non-profit hobby project doesn't legitimate the use and promotion of tools of massive theft.
In conclusion I would strongly suggest to ask for any voice actors (like me, don't hesitate to hit me for the next one !) to make your works much more genuine. But enough of this. Let's agree to disagree and move on.

I'd say you're missing out if you play without the music and sound design elements, but it's fair that it's not always possible to play with sound on.

I may give if another round with music enabled if my schedule allows it to be sure.

Having to make choices is part of being a player, it also enhances replayability with players choosing different item specs. Whilst you might want to have your cake and eat it, you cannot. Being selective in which items to take is all part of that player agency.

I do not completely understand yet your intent there. This campaign has RPG inspired elements which I cannot blame, but they happen sometimes on timed missions and this makes the user experience more chaotic on the very first run. I agree on the replayability aspect which eluded me before (I can concede that). Still I fail to put a finger on the exact issue there. On a longer campaign (or multiple linked campaigns) that would be less of a problem. You throw the player amid many custom items used on some missions. Furthermore your heroes are strength based so their mana cannot fully allow the usage of spell based items. My current hypothesis is you heavily inspired yourself from WoW (o rly flame ?) on the item/shop system, but it doesn't fit the scale of Warcraft 3. I haven't tested your other campaigns yet so having a zone with many item shops could be a recurring element, but I'm getting lost in my thoughts. On summary the "greedy" kind of player may get punished a bit more on his first runs instead of being rewarded.

You have two heroes for almost every mission, it does not take that long to traverse most of the missions, you can check their map size against the blizzard campaign maps and you'll see they're roughly comparable with mine only being slightly larger.

Size matters indeed (dirty joke aside), but rhythm too. If you ask the player to be everywhere all at once on many creep camps and secondary targets this transforms into a hurried hassle. There's numerous paths and sometimes multiple different enemy bases attacking you. The time you go back to your base and defeat them another base has the time to prepare and launch another. I found the portal idea neat to alleviate that on the battleship and last mission. On the control point mission the map would greatly benefit from being a bit smaller since you don't have speed boosts nor effective use of scrolls (the time you build a town hall the enemy is there). My suggestion is to make the control points able to be teleport points so you can at least use scrolls to quickly defend (at the price of a scroll, which is a good strategical implication with the capture of the goldmine point). On the other hand I may have instinctively chosen the most unoptimal route taken so that could have biased me a lot.

I don't know what you mean by "at your level". I think the campaign is still served better with the voice acting than without, and yes whilst it's not perfect I don't find it "silly" or immersion breaking for the vast majority of instances.

By this I meant I'm judging you like if you are a high-end hobbyist level campaign maker. AI voice cannot have the depth of an actor, even an amateur one. It's like using synthetic voice, it doesn't fit the mostly serious narrative.

Are you new to Warcraft 3? Are you new to seeing Warcraft 3 models? I think this is a little silly; I'm sorry it broke your immersion but I'd say the models in general fit in next to any classic/vanilla Wc3 model.

I disagree on the animations. The hero models deserved to have much more juice and impact for that level of quality. I would definitely showed you my point of view by editing the animations, alas that would be for much later once I learn the tools properly. In the meantime I may do some kind of animation if I don't get distracted.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, the dialogues are timed to the length of the voiced lines. IF you mean delays between transitions then I disagree, you need to show the player what the character is referring to first before they start talking. Pauses between lines is perfectly acceptable in an RTS cinematic. AFAIK there is no 3-5 second delay between each sentence, I've asked others and they don't seem to share this idea or haven't noticed. I'm happy to adjust timings if given specific examples.

If you give me permission, I would take one mission and edit the cinematic timings and send you in private. If my vision is in practice not better I would concede that too.

I'm sensing a real sense of impatience on your end, if you're unable to take a small amount of time to play a mission or Warcraft 3's gameplay then I'm afraid this seems like an issue on your end. During testing I took a note of the time lengths to complete each mission and asked testers how long certain missions took in order to ensure they weren't too long or too short.

There's a difference between having a long mission due to the multiple layers of obstacles and having a long mission because of a trivial step being too long. Raising a full 5 armor fortified base with 1-1 footies and rifles is very long, and in that second mission you get 2 of them (more like 1.66 but you see the point). If siege units are out of the question, at least replace razing the base by destroying the main building, and justify this in the narrative as "their command structure is now destroyed, they are fleeing in disarray !" for example. Or destroying enough buildings to make them retreat.

So how do I fix an issue with the built-in blizzard AI?

I don't know either. I might have rambled like a old man again.

Power Creep? You played on normal, if its so easy for you then play on hard. No offence, but this is a bit of a silly point to make such a big deal over when you played on normal. Yeah your units get more upgrades that make them strong, but there's also a bunch of new enemies who have strong abilities too. If a horse unit having 270 movement speed is that big of an issue for you then no offence but I think you need to re-assess your priorities and perspective.

That is by definition a power creep, or an inflation of stats. You are stronger and the enemy is stronger. The altered units are fine enough by my standards (unless another nuts like me wall texts the both of us) ; however the base units got stronger and their price doesn't change. This is shaky grounds as a fellow designer to another. Are the new enemies higher scaled or artificially stronger ? Furthermore the bonii you get add a serious power spike to your units instead of making them more rounded. Again I might do a second run on hard mode and see if my points clearly stand or not.
For the foot horseman it is a point to polish like another. If you truly want to have a high quality campaign details like them should be taken care of.

What do you mean? The Trolls are in the Arathi Highlands on the other side of the wall to the Undead.

I find it strange you meet both the undead and the trolls on the same missions. That is not explicit enough and confused me.

So many options for you to fill in yourself here, maybe they want to experiment on them? Maybe they want to corrupt them, who knows? Why does this need explaining?

The diegesis should be reinforced there, we don't have much interaction about it. A simple "Fools ! Do not take away our new fresh toys !" quote should have sufficed, and then one of your hero says "If they do indeed keep their prisoners alive, I cannot imagine what gruesome fate awaits our fellow armsmen". Imagination should work on a coherent base. You can't just lay something randomly and expect the player to assemble the puzzle. Not all players are accustomed to the overextended WoW lore. Furthermore that improvement would trivialy fix that plothole.

Why did Kel'thuzad and the Lich King allow one of their minions to lead an army to spread more undeath and conquer more of Azeroth? Are you serious? Also at this point it's the Dreadlords who control the Scourge.

A frontal assault is risky against the southern and resourceful kingdoms of the south. Dreadlords should have first infiltrated their ranks and destroyed them from the inside. Their priority is the destruction of the world tree so they would not spread their line thin while most of their forces are on the other side of the world (your characters also mentioned this fact in the narrative). Lordearon fell after transforming most of it into the undead. Then why the dreadlords would attack them in the first place ? That doesn't make sense in a strategical point of view. Most players won't see that but I hoped it had some kind of justification behind it, and it could have several other of them.

You're familiar with attacking from multiple angles right? The whole idea is that the Undead can attack from 3 fronts. Again, you're smart enough to know this isn't an issue.

Just make a bridgehead elsewhere with their necropoli instead of throwing them into the fortified positions, spread blight and generate corpses. When the humans arrive to defend start another bridgehead elsewhere etc. Keep them busy in their fortified position thinking undead would breach there. Use infiltrators to sabotage the anti-air abilities to let the necropoli pass. Use airforce to strike supply nodes and routes. Unless the undead and dreadlords absolutely suck at strategy ; but that is not specified in the narrative.

Same reason Warfield only sends one Gorgon at a time. You only send as much as you need to, there's a bunch of reasons why but again this is a silly point that I don't think I need to answer in my campaign or here; you're perfectly capable of coming up with whatever reason you wish.

What are the reasons then ? Do they make any effort on attacking the trebuchets directly ? No character mentions the Necropoli can only be sent one by one, and nothing about how defended are the Trebuchets. Again it's not up to the player to find their own reason. You bring something in the middle of the narration and that hurts the comprehension. In this case to be put very bluntly you don't even care which questions a player would ask about the story elements ; you had the right tools in the hand but the execution left me hungry for more justifications. The undead looks very dumb, not the ruthless sly manipulators we got on other campaigns. This storytelling part should definitely deserve to be reworked even if I don't have much to say about the gameplay.

Come on man, this is just getting ridiculous. Why do the High Elves use ballista? Why does Stormwind use Ballista or Catapults? Why do they use bows and arrows instead of guns? Why is this an issue here when you know it's not an issue in broader lore or context of Warcraft.

Like I said before, people might experience the campaign as an almost standalone piece. On a mission you had access to siege tanks and mortars - dwarven technology. It could have been altered by using the trebuchet as a support anti-ground fire, and having the dwarves coming with heavy gunpowder artillery pieces to support the anti-air defense (or maybe call their flying machines we saw in the cinematic !). Another way would be to specify in the narrative that the necropoli fly low to support the ground forces, and they underestimate the anti-air abilities of the enemy. Or just say after destroying the necropoli the living gained experience on how to destroy them, and created specific projectiles to bring them down with the help of dwarves. Trebuchets could also be used to fire in a salvo to bring them down ; however that idea brings other plotholes... In any case we had many ways to consolidate that aspect.

In the real world the bow and arrow was used for many, many years after gunpower and the arquebus were introduced into Europe, because they had pros and cons to them. These aren't plot holes, these are you deciding to make an issue where there is none.

You are maybe referring to the pike and shot era (great video by Alternate History Hub), or earlier than that. Firearms were not advanced enough to be reliably used on the battlefield, and they were mostly small to medium sized. In the Warcraft lore they are much more reliable, refined and spread ; benefiting from magic and enchantments. We even have repeating weapons and modern explosive shells. I think I understand your point but comparing it to real world history is not a good reference. I will stop there since it looks like a rabbit hole in itself, and going outside the subject of this topic.

... because it was? Who would pick it up? Arthas? He clearly didn't care about the crown, since he does leave it.

You nailed the cinematic effect on that, I do not point this at all. However anyone could have sneaked through the chaos and stole the crown. Or anyone with some kind of greed. If a big goofball like Orman managed to get through all of it, many could too. Like an onion if we seek to justify it, it reveals another layer of plothole. It's a crown, a very important cultural symbol, not a simple artifact or jewelry. Some nuts necromancer or something could have picked it and gloated "uhuh am da king of loldearon" before tossing it elsewhere after his joke (or attempt of spite).

Again nobody in the Undead/Demon side cares about it for legitimacy, and none of the living were able to reach it. You do understand you just played an entire mission showing the effort of Orman and his party to get it?

And how would they be sure the crown would be still there and not stolen nor broken ? What were their sources ? I don't understand.

Probably in places where some equally traumatic event has occurred, did you even watch the cinematic or read the dialogue?

Following your logic, being killed by frostmourne would be counted as traumatic ; thus much more spirits could exist like these anywhere.

This whole paragraph is some of the most insulting, condescending and pretentious nonsense I've ever read.

Where is the pretention on complimenting your skills and praising the potential of your campaign ? I am saddened about the AI slope (slop ?) you are taking and hoped you could reconsider its use ; from a creator to another. In your shoes I would be glad to have my creative process challenged and my blind spots covered (like you did with your extensive response). I saw discrepancy between the intent and the output ; hence my numerous design concerns so you would have another point of view. All of that to show how far your story could be experienced, or at least points which could improve it further.
If I truly wanted to insult or being condescending, I would completely hurt myself and lie to you by saying something like "Your campaign is a teenager ego trip made in 2011 when you first discovered the World Editor" or "I can do better WoW stuff than your AI prompt" or "You are trash, your campaign is trash" or even "Return fornicate the boiled arse of thou mother while I printeth yet another textual castle of glorious opinions". See the difference ? Never I had the intent to insult you in any way. I saw good and bad points, I analyze them, I ask precisions, I propose suggestions to reinforce your intent, all of that sometimes with a pinch of humor and bulldozer (I'm working on it). I just think about the creation as itself. About AI it was a required passage as I am a full pledged defender of artists and authors (and not just about AI ; but that's another story).

I'm sorry if I seem harsh, but I think it is only befitting the attitude and language you have shown towards me.

Do not ever be sorry of being harsh to be. If I missed anything obvious I don't mind people lecturing me as I could then learn something new.
While we have obvious disagreements on design and technology choices I do not find ill intent from you.

Then, completely unrelated to above.

Found the 80 year old guy that hates usage of AI, when its only voices, which even though they arent great since its AI, and lack some emotion and depth, its still better than unit sitting silent, voices make them more alive and all newer campaigns I played have them, so either accept that nowadays the worlds is going torwards AI usage, or just stop using the internet instead of giving 1 star based on some dumb personal hate for a tool..

Oh stop it, I'm not that young. Back in my days we blamed newspaper and novels, but at least they do not work on stealing millions of artists every single day. Next time I'll complain about AI directly in your mailbox by hand-writen quill ink letter. Damn those zoomers and their inter net !

Also the other points are plain cringe to read, its like I am reading a review for a Steam game and not a Custom Campaign for Warcraft 3.

Because... I do ? Game reviews are game reviews no matter the platform ; with technical context taken in account of course.

o me this sounded like some pretentious guy that thinks he is some high class game critique, Pirate Software "Game Dev" style kinda guy.

Because... I am a gamedev ? Am I not allowed to review a Warcraft 3 map/campaign with the broader vision of a gamedev ? I do not advance myself as a senior ; but from my experience I saw elements deserving to be reinforced and then shared them.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

 

[Footman16]

---

I'm sorry but these points are ridiculous, they're not plot holes, they are you inventing plot holes where there are none. It's not my job as a storyteller to create explanations for things you have created in your head and think are plot holes but are really just minor questions or things that are implied that you can easily as a player fill in yourself. I do not need to handhold players and spell everything out for them, or else we devolve into Netflix level's of exposition with every character saying anything and everything and having to explain everything that you can see. You're trying to impose your own vision of what you want the story to be rather than taking in and enjoying what the story is. The story is not beyond criticism, for example Orman and Galen could be better explained and are probably left too ambiguous, but talking about Dreadlord infiltration and other nonsense is not.

I have no desire to engage with these points further, you might see this as me conceding to them, but it's not. Instead it's me recognising that they are not worth the effort or my limited time.

If you fail to see the insult, condescension and pretension in your comment then that's not something I can help you with. Calling me a thief does not endear me to you any further either.

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[BaiyuGalan]

Excellent campaign! Just for a 5-star review.

 

[SuBTeRFuGio]

First of all, I loved your campaign a lot. I am rating this campaign as an almost perfect.

Your layout customization is simply amazing. Skippeable intros. Customized campaign screen. Customized loading screens.

What I am about to say, is simply a matter of taste:

• If you have two main heroes, it is kind of strange that both of them are strenght based, more heroes would have been more than appreciated, when it comes to skills, i think girl´s passive is not working, or its not relevant enough and it does not have its buff label.
• You kept some basic game items/units/characters, meaning that non-english native players see his native language in the game mixed with the english stuff you made
• I missed some more music variety
• Gameplay: there is a part in the campaign where you have too many stages hero-based in a row, (non-construction rts, If i explain myself, like the rpg stuff)

SUMM UP: super customized campaign, low hero depth, VERY ENJOYABLE, HARD WORK, HIGH RATING