[Campaign] The Remnants

[SevenBlood]

A rough beta version of the first map: Failings of a Kingdom is now available to download and play as a singleplayer map. If anyone is interested in testing it out, all critiques, comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated! The Remnants - Chapter One.w3x


The first post I'm making about my custom campaign, The Remnants. The majority of this campaign takes place in the Kingdom of Alterac during the events of Warcraft 2. There are currently eleven maps planned in the main story line, with two bonus missions that can be unlocked at certain points during the campaign. This campaign features a custom tech tree for the Alteraci race, as well as units and abilities for the factions present loosely based off of their original Warcraft 2 counterparts. Currently still in the alpha stages of the campaign's development, my goal is to release a playable beta by the end of June 2019.

None of the custom models used in this campaign were made by me and all credit goes to their original creators on the Hiveworkshop and will have their names mentioned in the campaign credits.

 

[Rhapsodie]

Seems promising !

 

[Heinvers]

Best of luck and have fun.

 

[SevenBlood]

Some gameplay screenshots from the second map: Take Arms when played unnecessarily optimal

 

[noob]

that cleric why is it so odd looking and why does it have the flaming head skill?

 

[SevenBlood]

It's a placeholder icon for a "Holy Aura" ability that increases allied hitpoint regeneration that needs to be researched.

 

[noob]

It's a placeholder icon for a "Holy Aura" ability that increases allied hitpoint regeneration that needs to be researched.

Very much the kind of things humans would do "I am going to set your heads on fire thus healing all of you"(like holy light which is "I am going to heal you by blasting you with an explosion of light").
I would like the graphisms to include fires on the heads of the affected people.

 

[SevenBlood]

Originally planned to only have Stromgarde be a faction available to the AI. Spent yesterday and today making a playable version available to the player in one of the maps. Heavily focusing on frontline infantry, with their units being stronger and more expensive than other factions. Also since it takes place during the events of WC2, elven archers and priests joining their army to provide support and make up for their lack of powerful ranged units and spellcasters.

 

[LISBOAH]

Looks quite fun. Do you need beta-testers, because I would gladly volunteer.

 

[SevenBlood]

Looks quite fun. Do you need beta-testers, because I would gladly volunteer.

Thanks a lot, I'd definitely appreciate some help in testing. The first rough beta of the first playable map is available higher up in the thread if you'd like to take a crack at it.

 

[LISBOAH]

Thanks a lot, I'd definitely appreciate some help in testing. The first rough beta of the first playable map is available higher up in the thread if you'd like to take a crack at it.

I just tested it.

I always found a pity that there aren't many campaigns centered on Alterac, both as a nation and region.

I liked to see the lore notes you putted , though it is a pity that they occupy inventory and are consumable.

-The only grammar mistake I found was in Alteria's special ability when it says 'soliders' instead of 'soldiers'
-One of Alteria's abilities lack tool tips.
-The archers close to the Stromgarde Lieutenant next to the rock slide can see us in the cliff and they start going in our direction. This means that when we cause the rockslide, the archers aren't killed and we have to face them.
-I suggest increasing the number of trees in the area around the encapment. Let me explain. After I caused the rock slide, I wanted my units to go there. Some went through the path we have to go in order to reach the encapment, but others went through the trees.

-I don't like some of the models used, you should check these
Captain, Footman, and Derivatives
Human Archer
FootArcher

 

[SevenBlood]

I just tested it.

I always found a pity that there aren't many campaigns centered on Alterac, both as a nation and region.

I liked to see the lore notes you putted , though it is a pity that they occupy inventory and are consumable.

-The only grammar mistake I found was in Alteria's special ability when it says 'soliders' instead of 'soldiers'
-One of Alteria's abilities lack tool tips.
-The archers close to the Stromgarde Lieutenant next to the rock slide can see us in the cliff and they start going in our direction. This means that when we cause the rockslide, the archers aren't killed and we have to face them.
-I suggest increasing the number of trees in the area around the encapment. Let me explain. After I caused the rock slide, I wanted my units to go there. Some went through the path we have to go in order to reach the encapment, but others went through the trees.

-I don't like some of the models used, you should check these
Captain, Footman, and Derivatives
Human Archer
FootArcher

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it a lot.

-Fixed the spelling of soldiers
-Added a tooltip for Heavy Armor
-Not exactly sure how I'll fix the archer's target acquisition but I'll figure something out
-Fleshed out forests around the camp
-Huge thanks for the footman model link, I didn't even know they existed.
-I thought about using a human archer, but I think the elven archers fit the WC2 time better. (Even though the model is a little....squashed)

And for the lore pages I felt that just having the text pop up seemed kind of intrusive. Also having them as items made for an additional reward for killing an enemy hero or completing a optional quest, earning a lore page for that character/area/event.

 

[LISBOAH]

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it a lot.

No problem.

-Not exactly sure how I'll fix the archer's target acquisition but I'll figure something out

Maybe reduce their range of sight a little bit?

-I thought about using a human archer, but I think the elven archers fit the WC2 time better. (Even though the model is a little....squashed)

Yeah but it doesn't make sense for the armies of Stromgarde to have elves in their ranks. In Wc2 we control the Alliance, which is an amalgamation of all kingdoms, but in this campaign Stromgarde is a single nation.

And for the lore pages I felt that just having the text pop up seemed kind of intrusive. Also having them as items made for an additional reward for killing an enemy hero or completing a optional quest, earning a lore page for that character/area/event.

Good idea.

 

[SevenBlood]

Mission Two: Take Arms is available for play in it's beta state without cinematics/dialogue. Intented as a simple macro map. The Remnants - Chapter Two.w3x

 

[LISBOAH]

My review

Alteria's special ability still says 'soliders'
Agrius' Second Wind: 'The Hero calls upon his stamina..."

-We can rescue Skirmishers but can't train them. Same to Priests and Throwing Axemen
-There is no point in displaying Priests' Holy Aura and Dispel Magic icons if we don't have the researchs necessary. Same to the Shredding Axes ability for Throwing Axemen and the Magic Sentry upgrade for Towers
-Make the Ice Troll Spirit Callers more unique rather than simple stronger versions of Ice Troll Priests. Grant them Blizzard or Frost Nova
-That pack of wolves standing next to my base annoys me. I was facing an attack from Stromgarde while my peasants were building new buildings and the wolves start attacking my builders
-The enemy AI needs to be fixed. All Barracks around the map start training units and they all go straight to my base, meaning that aside from occasional attacks from the main enemy base, I only have to deal with occasional enemy attacks consisting of one or two units
-The creeps around the map kind of help me by attacking the Stromgarde units that approach them

 

[SevenBlood]

My review

Alteria's special ability still says 'soliders'
Agrius' Second Wind: 'The Hero calls upon his stamina..."

-We can rescue Skirmishers but can't train them. Same to Priests and Throwing Axemen
-There is no point in displaying Priests' Holy Aura and Dispel Magic icons if we don't have the researchs necessary. Same to the Shredding Axes ability for Throwing Axemen and the Magic Sentry upgrade for Towers
-Make the Ice Troll Spirit Callers more unique rather than simple stronger versions of Ice Troll Priests. Grant them Blizzard or Frost Nova
-That pack of wolves standing next to my base annoys me. I was facing an attack from Stromgarde while my peasants were building new buildings and the wolves start attacking my builders
-The enemy AI needs to be fixed. All Barracks around the map start training units and they all go straight to my base, meaning that aside from occasional attacks from the main enemy base, I only have to deal with occasional enemy attacks consisting of one or two units
-The creeps around the map kind of help me by attacking the Stromgarde units that approach them

Thanks for the help.

-I'm 90% sure I fixed it but maybe I misspelled it again haha. (100% fixed now)
-Fixed the grammar.


-Skirmishers, Throwing Axemen and Priests become available to train in the next misssion.
-Forgot about hiding their abilities.
-Spirit Callers have Frost Nova and a summoning ability already.

-Not exactly sure what's up with the AI, will probably completely remake it.
-The wolves on way to their base are meant to impede their progress, showing that they're also battling against the elements.

 

[LISBOAH]

Thanks for the help.

No problem.

-Spirit Callers have Frost Nova and a summoning ability already.
View attachment 326499

Ok, but they tended to use mostly Frost Armor. I also had the tendecy to attack them first, so maybe I didn't give them time to show all abilities.

By the way, at least in the wiki, there are no mentions about polar bears living in the Alterac mountains.

There are harpies, kobolds and wendigos though.

 

[SevenBlood]

Some more WIP stuff and finished a complete playable Stromgarde faction.

As well as a teaser for a bonus mission.

 

[LordPerenolde II]

Hey this is really cool(i'm an Alterac fanatic)! Guess what? My plans were to make a bonus campaign featuring a human subfaction for Alterac and stuff they do before and during the 2nd war. Obviously not eleven map, way below that. Looks really cool, again. Keep it up!

 

[OblivionDeadra]

Ummm wow just saw this campaign and gotta say it was good

However i'm kinda not pleased with the no text in the loading screen etc

Still playing the chpater 2

 

[SevenBlood]

Ummm wow just saw this campaign and gotta say it was good

However i'm kinda not pleased with the no text in the loading screen etc

Still playing the chpater 2

Thanks for the feedback, l prefer to add the loading screen text after I feel the mission is at least close to it's final iteration and the majority of the maps are still in alpha and early beta forms. Check back in the full release and I promise all the maps will have their respective texts

 

[SevenBlood]

Sadly also one of the maps closest to completion got corrupted when my laptop crashed and I wasn't able to find make uses of any of the test maps or backups to save it. So final release date should now be out by an additional 19 hours unfortunately.

 

[OblivionDeadra]

Sadly also one of the maps closest to completion got corrupted when my laptop crashed and I wasn't able to find make uses of any of the test maps or backups to save it. So final release date should now be out by an additional 19 hours unfortunately.

Rip

 

[Tuwnew]

Looks promising. Keep it up!

 

[OblivionDeadra]

okay done playing the chapter 2
and gotta say

it's good apart i almost got overwhelm by the enemy when i'm doing farming the resources and defense and have to restart

 

[SevenBlood]

Chapter Three.w3x is now available in beta form! This one has been taking a while after one of the maps got corrupted and slightly affected my drive to work but I'm feeling up to continuing with this project . As always any advice\feedback\critique is very welcome and appreciated!

 

[Heinvers]

@SevenBlood you should add the three chapter to the campaign file for easier play. Looks okay so far.

 

[OblivionDeadra]

Chapter Three.w3x is now available in beta form! This one has been taking a while after one of the maps got corrupted and slightly affected my drive to work but I'm feeling up to continuing with this project . As always any advice\feedback\critique is very welcome and appreciated!
View attachment 330143 View attachment 330144 View attachment 330145

I'll test the campaign yet.

This will give me a bad time

Edit:

Done playing the latest chapter and gotta say

I love the fact the building upgrade just buff the tower over 13k hp XD i could do this to defend myself against incoming invaders. I don't know it was a bug or intended upgrade feature for the towers .

and others? i'll let the others for detail feedback so yeah

 

[LISBOAH]

I played it.

I found no issue in terms of gameplay.

The hardest thing about this mission, to me, is that we have several small bases spreaded across the map that we have to defend against several enemy bases that are also spread across the map. Otherwise it is not very difficult.

 

[MogulKahn]

Just subscribing!

 

[SevenBlood]

I'll test the campaign yet.

This will give me a bad time

Edit:

Done playing the latest chapter and gotta say

I love the fact the building upgrade just buff the tower over 13k hp XD i could do this to defend myself against incoming invaders. I don't know it was a bug or intended upgrade feature for the towers .

and others? i'll let the others for detail feedback so yeah

Just realised that I put the value for the tower upgrade in wrong, normally I never get it myself

Thanks for pointing it out, already fixed it

 

[Linaze]

Just completed chapter one.
Good overall with a lot of potential, just in need of some finer polishing (found one or two typos, some buffs were incorrect, might consider disabling bounty etc.)

Since you've released 3 missions now, maybe you should combine them into one campaign file so we can keep hero data etc.?

 

[Venkolm]

Since you've released 3 missions now, maybe you should combine them into one campaign file so we can keep hero data etc.?

What this guy said. Do it.

 

[The_Messenger]

I've played through all three released maps and I found no issue regarding gameplay. I've always been a fan of the story surrounding Alterac and I've always been saddened by what became of it in the end.
I greatly enjoyed the snowy terrain, the music is fitting and I find the atmosphere of the map to be downright pleasing (it kind of made me want to explore more of the map in an attempt to find secrets). What I like the most about the design are the Lore Pages; I find it a very ingenious way of delivering vital lore to a player or those that are interested in learning more about the story of certain characters or the history of Alterac.

The maps I've enjoyed the most is 1 and 3; these maps had the best atmosphere, I was immersed in them and proved a good challenge because of the spread out enemy bases.
The 2nd map falls behind in comparison with the other two. It felt very rushed as if it was fresh off the printing press and thrown on the forums, it just throws you into the middle of the action with no character introduction (not counting the lore pages). I still enjoyed it, but not as much as the 1 and 3 maps.

Across the maps I found a few typo's, for example in map 1 the ranger that you need to find has a minor typo in one of his lines and in map 3 there are some very odd Dwarf specific speech patterns (they say bastard a lot even if they are brothers which is pretty bad writing-wise).

Here is a small list of things that I believe need further polishing or attention:
- Alteria's Third Ability says tooltip missing in the title on Map 1
- Although you save captured allied forces in Map 2, you don't get to train some of them (axe throwers would have been nice)
- The abilities the Priests have in Map 2 do not match those in Map 3
- Map 3 has a bug or a mistake that gives you Defense Towers with 13K Hp (I never had to worry about being attacked)
- After you upgrade your "Barracks" you lose your chance to research "Defend"
- Map 1 and 2 could use mission or story description
- Minor grammar errors on a few occasions across all three maps
- Compressed Facial graphics on the Strongarde Archer (could use a different unit model)
- I destroyed the gnome workshop in Map 3 to the east and didn't fail the optional mission

For now I grade the maps with a solid 3,8/5 just for the maps, story and the action. I'm looking forward to future content.

 

[HuanJuan]

Another project is hit the bucket I liked the demo chapters of this campaign...