The Search for Ancient Heritage

[deepstrasz]

"I decided to make a small addition to the old inspired campaign "Dwarf Campaign (Warcraft 3 Campaign)"

What does that mean? Did you use characters, places, names etc. from @Tommi Gustafsson's work? If yes, please seek permission.

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

"I decided to make a small addition to the old inspired campaign "Dwarf Campaign (Warcraft 3 Campaign)"

What does that mean? Did you use characters, places, names etc. from @Tommi Gustafsson's work? If yes, please seek permission.

I didn't use any names from there, I decided to create a campaign of similar theme, with a different plot and setting.

 

[deepstrasz]

I didn't use any names from there, I decided to create a campaign of similar theme, with a different plot and setting.

Alright, make sure it's not a ripoff or too similar.

 

[muaddib]

tested it, no bugs and went smoothe as butter. enjoyble challenges and story telling. are you planning to release more chapters?

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

tested it, no bugs and went smoothe as butter. enjoyble challenges and story telling. are you planning to release more chapters?

Thank you for your appreciation, glad you liked it. As for additional chapters, they weren't planned because, in my opinion, there's no storyline hook for continuation, as the main task has been completed

 

[AkarinKana]

I saw SanyaBelotsky, I clicked
Haven't played it yet, but your maps are fun, so I'm looking forward to it! >w</

 

[AkarinKana]

Hello there!
Have finished the map, and wow, this is another fun map with good balancing!
I was wondering what should I do when SPOILER I have to fight huge mobs with only basic melee and ranged units, but when the golems come, it makes things easier and I can even progress through the map. Overall, a nice map with good lore. Oh, and no bugs also! >w<b

RECOMMENDED!

 

[deepstrasz]

Spoiler: lousy comments

1. Very short intro without proper setting (custom universe, where exactly is this happening, when, why?) of who the characters are (background) and generally, pretty much two people talking.
2. Loading screen text is hard to read because of the image being all over the place and detailed.
3. In the next map it says something about faceless, so it's Warcraft? OK, nerubians too.
4. Why was the drunkard dwarf lord trying to keep what they found until then secret from the king but then in the next chapter the latter is met by a nice and talkative dwarf?
5. Gameplay mechanics are just Warcraft III. I think we all played the Mountain King hero at least 1000 times.
6. How can a person be Grand Stone Throne?
7. Crushing Hammer of War's description says it combines with the hero's Strong Strike. Maybe, Slam? There's no ability named like what the hammer says.
8. Morgan has no hero glow. It could be simply added: How to add Hero Glow without Modeling Killing four legged turtles is OK, bipedal ones, no way.
9. Funny thing seems to be is that the enemy has two types of silithid units as the player has two types of dwarves.
10. Units selected during the gnoll cinematic.
11. Nice stuff with combining items. One good point besides the really cool atmospheric terrain. One more for some good scenes and secrets.
12. Runed Braces' description is incomplete, only numbers.
13. The golems look alike.
14. How to open this though?
    
15. What does Axe Madness do?
16. So apparently the king knows a lot about the forgotten city. I thought the idea was to discover things about it.
17. "There it is. A legendary, endangered species of giant creatures. Let's kill!"
18. Keys could be variables so not to occupy inventory space. But since there's no active enemy who can take your items, the gates could open by themselves after bosses die or levers are pulled without need of keys.
19. Units selected when meeting the forgotten one.
20. Female (weird boss name) silithid has no hero glow and has the same model as the ranged silithid troop.
21. Azarnak has no hero glow and Seekers use hero models with glow.
22. Amulet of Spellshield's description is broken.
23. Intelligence on Shroud of the Faceless is named Mind.
24. Ha-ha, all for the money in the end.

Generally, a neat map which can benefit from more custom material in regards to abilities and techtree. A promising start for a campaign too.

Approved.

---

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[SanyaBelotsky]

deepstrasz​

Thank you for the review. I'll address the questions of interest in order.
1. It turned out that I first created a chapter, and then an interlude. I had various ideas, but I decided to simplify it with some decoration and a time gap. The motivation was that the Lord of the fortress didn't want to let the king into the excavations because it belonged to him, and he didn't want to share, but I didn't fully implement it.
2. Regarding the gnoll sanctuary, the door there cannot be opened. I considered giving the player a gnoll hero, but it would be strange to make them allies since they are considered enemies, so I decided to isolate them there. They were needed mainly for the cinematic, like marauders in this underground city.

3. The Felblade Axe increases some hero stats, except for strength (it's negative), and grants the ability "Madness".
4. As for the hero glow, it didn't occur to me, although in the Scarlet Crusade campaign, I added this effect to Mirak, but now I've added passive icons instead of active ones.

 

[deepstrasz]

3. The Felblade Axe increases some hero stats, except for strength (it's negative), and grants the ability "Madness".

Sure but the item should say what Madness does since it's a custom ability not a known Warcraft III one, even if it kind of seems to be Berserk.

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

Sure but the item should say what Madness does since it's a custom ability not a known Warcraft III one, even if it kind of seems to be Berserk.

Yes, I remembered why the description isn't complete. It's because of the line breaks, like (strength on one line, agility on another), and because of that, the full ability description didn't fit. I've already fixed the descriptions in the items you mentioned, as well as added glows for all heroes.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

Played & finished it, but sometimes got lost, The ending is... Golden in some way
Will share a video walkthrough here in the future

UPD:
Here comes the first part of the walkthrough!

UPD:
Here comes final part of this small campaign:

 

[VanAndro]

Nice game! Although I tried to reveal as much of the map as possible, there were still some doors left closed. North of the first base, there is a wooden barrier. Can one go beyond it? Unfortunately, I failed, and the northwest part of the map remained undiscovered.

What I liked the most were the special effects of the Dwarf's spells and the sound effects in general, as well as the interesting items. In many places in the item descriptions where it is about dealing damage or increasing the character's stats by several units, you could omit the word "units". For example, "Ax - deal 25 damage" or "Damage - 25, Intelligence - 14" instead of "Damage - 25 units, Intelligence - 14 units". It is implied that there is a damage increase of 25 or a specific stat increase of 14. You could also clean up the semicolons in the item titles and generally fix the text in their descriptions, as well as the text on the characters' abilities.

The role of the rock breaker is quite limited. It would be nice to have more parts of the map where it can be utilized.

Overall, it's a game that can be enjoyed by anyone. I didn't notice any issues with 1.27.

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

VanAndro​

Glad you enjoyed it. No, where the wooden barrier is, you can't pass through, and the same with the gnolls. I reviewed the items and removed "units" in some of them, which indeed looks better. I also reviewed the text with the character abilities and made corrections.

 

[Xmachina]

Thanks for your work ! Very fun and polished campaign, good immersion in the Dwarven realm. I like the reference to deep rock galactic with the driller escort mission. Anyway, puzzles are fun ! 5/5

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

Update - see the "changes" spoiler.

 

[RavenBlack]

This is a nice campaign and i'm having fun but why is the hotkey for both Defenders and Shooters set to "R"?

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

This is a nice campaign and i'm having fun but why is the hotkey for both Defenders and Shooters set to "R"?

Changed it to Q, W

 

[nv4]

Simple yet enjoyable campaign. Definitely gives the vibe of Dwarf Campaign. Nice work with the terain and neat ambient sounds - greatly improves immersiveness.
1) The interlude is rather confusing and doesn't really add anything story-wise since it's hard to understand what it's supposed to tell. Like, you could just omit it, instead write a couple sentences at the chapter start how some dwarven king gathered an expedition into some deep forgotten kingdom to uncover its riches - and nothing would've changed from story perspective.
2) At first I was a bit disappointed with the way Morgan was introduced - we just meet him and he agrees to help us, no questions asked by anyone whatsoever, no any interesting backstory for Morgan or something like that. But then I heard Torgrim talk with Rick Sanchez's voice, so I guess Morgan just likes 20 minute adventures.
3) Rock Hawk - summoned goblin mechanic can only repair stuff, so would be nice to have Repair autocast turned on by default.
4) Funny how there's a hint that losing Rock Hawk doesn't lead to defeat, when even losing both heroes doesn't lead to defeat.
5) Faceless that summons 2 hounds with mana burn is pure cancer.
Also a couple bugs.
1) Giant Turtles summoned by Morgan (ability lvl 3) have their Spiked Shell skill greyed out as if it's not learned yet, but the skill actually works.
2) Defender has no hotkey for Dense Rations.

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

nv4​

Thank you for the feedback, glad you enjoyed it. I've already added a hotkey for the ability for the Defender, as well as improved the contrast of the passive icone for the turtles. As for the automatic application of autocast for workers, I'm not sure yet how to solve that.

 

[Nobelian]

Are there any more updates from this campaign? stuff the void or faceless one is really interesting.

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

Are there any more updates from this campaign? stuff the void or faceless one is really interesting.

I will post updates soon; they are not significant, just some adjustments and additions of new items... In general, I will post a list of updates in a spoiler by date. Currently, I am making corrections in my old projects, which is why it is taking so long.

 

[The_Messenger]

It was a fun experience with a cliffhanger ending. I've played it on 1.36 of the game with no issues as long as you don't forget to switch to the classic engine.

The map features clever use of items that turn to gold such as chests filled to the brim with gold, valuable gold goblets, hidden stashes of gold underneath rubble, and smashable chests to loot their contents.
You can encounter some challenging "hidden" bosses for extra resources and items, but it's nothing a stun-locking Mountain King can't handle and a firing line of Sharpshooters to back him up.
I couldn't find all of the secrets on the map, there was one set of gates I couldn't open to see what was behind, but I guess that's the explorer in me talking.
One thing the map could have done well was item combination. There was a ring you could combine with a gear to improve it, and you have this abundance of items you stumble over as you fight your way across the desolate city that don't combine into superior versions. But the Mountain King is already a strong classic hero who can handle most problems without using powerful custom items, yet I feel this was something that could have been further used in the map.

The audio is a lot better compared to other maps from the author. It even has a very clever use of Skyrim audio when you approach your final main objective that works to add good tension to the atmosphere.

Dialogues are simple and could use polishing since they feel rather stiff.
I'll also admit that it was funny hearing a dwarf use a nearly Texan accent while speaking in English. Perhaps that's my fault since I got used to the more "traditional" fantasy dwarves using a somewhat Irish accent in their speech.

I expected at least one more chapter since the action leaves room for a continuation of the story without the need to drag it out for too long.

Overall, a solid 4.5/5. A good experience in a foreboding underground dwarven city long abandoned to the Faceless.

 

[Armelior_is_back]

I know how important good feedback is, so I'm trying to give as much as possible (and hopefully useful advice as a fellow mapmaker) :
WALL OF TEXT & MAJOR NITPICKING INCOMING !

-Played the version downloaded in 10/2024 on normal difficulty on my 1.27 game version-

Spoiler: details

-in the intro, it's pretty weird to have a king walking alone without any guards
-the AI voice acting sounds very unnatural, but at least the king of dwarves having a cowboy accent is unexpected
-are silithids and nerubians the same thing ? They don't look the same except for being bugs - and does it mean this is in the Warcraft world ?
-the dwarven defenders are called « gnome defenders » in an upgrade, and in some dialogue the king talks about « gnomes of dwarves »
-the rocks getting destroyed all at once is appreciated, not all campaigns do that
- the golden goblet item leaves some « fireflies » effect on the ground after you pick it up
-having a turtle hero is pretty original and semi-new abilities are cool, a shame the dwarf is the usual mountain king
-before you get the 2nd base, you can build other sawmills closer to the mushrooms further in the map after your base runs out... but only in the middle of the passage so your reinforcements get stuck and you have to destroy it → either make all the terrain unbuildable, pick some spots where we can build or make it impossible to make new sawmills
-the workshop has all the icons moving around whenever you research and units & upgrades are mixed → set the position of each custom unit/upgrade yourself so they don't interfere
-are we supposed to be able to reach the gnolls ?
-the English is good or at least easy to understand except for the items : damage is called « units » which can be confusing, also « command aura » is called « fighting spirit » or something like that
-where is the 3rd map ? If it was just to test, delete it from final release

Overall : great improvement in gameplay from your previous maps

in short :
(+) terraining, both visually and level design (shortcuts)
(+) a nice dungeon crawl with some secrets and well balanced fights
(+) good items, powerful but not too much

(-) story is very limited and too much like Dwarf campaign

I hope this will be useful to SanyaBelotsky

 

[SanyaBelotsky]

The_Messenger,​

Armelior_is_back​

Thank you for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Let me address your questions:
1. Regarding the AI voice acting, I’ve received comments about it before, and I understand it sounds too unnatural. I was expecting a different result, but that’s okay. I’m currently working on a small campaign and will try a different AI. Hopefully, the result will be better.

2. As for the glowing effect of the golden goblet after picking it up, I'm not sure if it's possible to fix it through triggers. I think it might require editing in MDLVis, which I’ve only used a few times (about 5) without much experience while trying to tweak some models.

3. Regarding the gnolls, no, you can’t reach them. They were meant for the introductory cinematic of the underground city and are marked as marauders.

4. About the third map, over the past 3–4 months, I’ve redesigned it a few times, but in the end, I wasn’t satisfied with the result, so I decided to leave it for later...

Thank you for your remarks. I’ll fix the research icons and go over the texts once more.

 

[Armelior_is_back]

I hope we'll get the next part one of these days

 

[Karak]

I completed the game v.1.36. It was working.
The AI voice acting was a bit weird, but overall the game was good.